Normal i/o required on portc , pin6, 7 18f27k40

[tumbleweed]

FWIW, the chip I ran that simple example on was rev A2 silicon.

   FLASH1_CE     con 19'= LATC.3  ' Chip select FLASH chip ( low) 
   LATA.0[FLASH1_CE] = 1      ' Active Low so set High to start

This isn't your problem here, but I'd be careful using that syntax to access a bit in LATC.
I've seen chips where the LATx (and other port related regs) aren't contiguous in memory so that would fail.

[towlerg]

FWIW Microchip have changed the format of device/siliocon rev for 10F2xK40/42, so watch out for that. These devices are quite new so the errata may not be complete, I see no downside in setting up the PPS of all the pins you are going to use, whether it's necessay or not.