At the end of the 17th century a charge of plagiarism was raised by fray Agustín de Vetancur who claimed that Torquemada had published under his own name the "Historia eclesiástica indiana", a history written by Jerónimo de Mendieta which had never been published, but the manuscript of which had been entrusted by Mendieta to Juan Bautista and by him to Torquemada. The accusation was rejected by Rodrígues Franco in his "Proemio" to the second edition of "Monarquía indiana", but it was taken up by the famous Mexican historian Joaquín García Icazbalceta in the 19th century after acquiring the manuscript of Mendieta's work which he published in 1870, pointing out the areas of exact correspondence between both works. One 20th century scholar considered the charge to be:-. . not completely justified in view of the fact that Torquemada was ordered by his superiors to use all historical works available and that politically speaking it was desirable that the "Monarquía indiana" should not be too closely identified with the "Historia eclesiástica indiana", lest the oblivion of the latter overtake the former.