In the name of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and in honor of Mary ever-virgin, who, under the advocacy[1] of her most holy rosary, is proposed and accepted as patroness of the work which will be declared below, inasmuch as she is also patroness of the Order of Preachers of the patriarch St. Dominic, established in these Filipinas Islands and the kingdom of China; and to his honor and glory and that of the consecrated doctor[2] of the holy Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas, by whose intercessions, protection, and aid the work described in this writing will have a good beginning and means, and proceed from good to better forever without end: by virtue of which, I, father Fray Bernardo de Santa Catalina,[3] religious of the said order, and commissary-general of the Holy Office in these islands, as executor of the most illustrious and reverend archbishop of this city of Manila in the islands, Don Fray Miguel de Benavides, now defunct, and [as the one] to whom his Lordship communicated the application of the remainder of his properties for the work and foundation which will be hereunder declared—as appears from his last will and testament, which he signed in this said city of Manila before Francisco de Alanis, former notary-public in this city, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of July of the former year one thousand six hundred and five; and the clause treating of this matter, copied, corrected and collated with the said will signed by the said notary, is of the following tenor:

Item: His most reverend Lordship said and declared that he made—and he did so make—while still in life, a complete and irrevocable gift of all the remainder of his properties for a pious enterprise. He has conferred and communicated in regard to the same with the said fathers—namely, the prior of Santo Domingo, Fray Domingo de Nieva,[4] and Fray Bernardo de Santa Catalina, commissary of the Holy Office. In this charitable work all his properties remaining are to be applied and distributed, in what manner and form they ordain and consider advisable, in accordance with his communication and resolution in regard to it. For this work he said that he gave—and he did so give—all the remainder of his properties gratuitously; and the institution was immediately and henceforth to be constituted the holder and possessor of them. He transferred to them [i.e., the above fathers] his rights and power of disposal [in the property]. This is the work of which mention was made above.

And I, the said father commissary as executor of another bequest of properties, which Pablo Rodríguez de Araujo and Andrés de Hermosa, defunct, left to my distribution and discretion, in accordance with the terms of their wills—that of the said Pablo Rodríguez de Araujo appears to have been signed in this city before Francisco de Valencia, notary-public, on the sixteenth day of the month of February, of the former year six hundred and six; and that of the said Hermosa before Francisco de Alanís, notary-public, on the fourth day of the month of May of the former year six hundred and four—[declare that] the tenor of the said clauses, one after the other, according to their copies corrected by the wills signed by the said notaries, is as follows: “And in order to fulfil this my will and that herein contained, I leave and appoint as my executors and administrators father Fray Bernardo de Santa Catalina, commissary of the Holy Inquisition of these islands, Captain Fructuoso de Araujo, and Francisco de Alanís, notary-public. To all three of them, and to each one of them singly, in solidum, I delegate power sufficient to adjust and inventory my properties, and to sell and fulfil that herein contained. And for its fulfilment, I give, lengthen, and concede to them all the time and limit that they declare to be necessary. And no ecclesiastical or secular judge shall meddle with them to make them give account of the said executorship, because of the confidence that I have in the above-named persons. For this is my wish, and if such judge should undertake to demand from them the said account, in that said event I constitute them my heirs. And when this my will is fulfilled and observed, and that herein contained, to that part of my properties remaining and its rights and disposal, inasmuch as I have no obligatory heir, either forbears or descendants, I establish and appoint my soul as heir of the said remainder of my properties, its rights and disposal, so that what pertains to that inheritance, shall be given into the power of the said father commissary, who shall distribute it in doing good for my soul in pious works, alms, and other works of charity, as shall seem best to him.

“And after this my will and that herein contained is fulfilled and observed, I assign as my only heir to all the remainder of my properties, the said Inés de Sequera, my wife. However, she shall bind herself, before all else, to the sum of two thousand pesos net, which sum shall be employed after the fulfilment of the said my will. With this condition, it is my will that she have all the remainder for herself after the legacies are completed, and the other contents of the said will, and after fulfilment, but in no other manner. This she shall enjoy, and shall take also that portion that pertains to her from all the said properties, as they were all acquired during our marriage. And after having made the reckoning and division in due form, should she refuse to accept the said inheritance with the said condition, I leave my soul as my heir to the whole of the said remainder. My executors shall do with it as they deem best for the good of my soul, in accordance with what I have contracted and agreed with the said father commissary. And if the said my wife shall accept the said inheritance, and shall bind herself to the sum of the two thousand pesos, they shall be employed as is stated, and they shall be distributed; for this is my intention, and as such I remit it.”

In accordance with the clause of the will of the said archbishop, I, the said father commissary, Fray Bernardo de Santa Catalina, inasmuch as the said father Fray Domingo de Nieva is dead, declare that what his Lordship communicated to us (to myself and to him) was, that the said remainder of his properties be spent in aiding the foundation and endowment of a college-seminary, where the religious of this said convent may pursue the study of the arts and of theology; and where the religious may instruct the novices and other religious who wish to avail themselves of their aid, others who are sons of inhabitants of this city and the islands, and any other persons. It is to be under the name and devotion of Nuestra Señora del Rosario [i.e., Our Lady of the Rosary]; and to be established in this city, or where the religious of this said order should assign it, inasmuch as his Lordship and some of the first founders were of this city. And inasmuch as there are but one thousand five hundred pesos left of the properties of the said archbishop, it has been and is necessary, in order that a work so important for the welfare of this kingdom, and one that sheds so much luster on communities and people and directs them so greatly to the service of our God and Lord, may not be without effect (I declare likewise that there have remained and are left three thousand seven hundred and forty pesos from the properties of the said Pablo Rodríguez de Araujo; and that from the properties of the said Andrés de Hermosa, six hundred and thirty-seven pesos of the two thousand pesos left at my disposition, have been collected): I establish, apply, unite, and set aside all the aforesaid two thousand pesos—that collected and to be collected of them—and the three thousand seven hundred and forty pesos from the properties of the said Pablo Rodríguez de Araujo, together with the sum remaining from the properties of the said archbishop, for the endowment and foundation of the said college. In their names, I declare that I have bought two houses and their grounds, which are located near the principal chapel of this convent, on a street half-way to the corner of the street that runs from the said principal chapel to the square and cathedral church of this said city, contiguous to the street running to the river gate; and on the one side, the houses of Antonio de Espejo, and on the other those of Alonso Gómez—the place where the building of the said college-seminary must be located, and the instruction in the said branches take place, and where must live and remain the students and other things and persons pertaining to the said college and the use of it. And in case it is necessary, I, as such executor and administrator, delegate authority, cession, and transfer to the part of the said college, so that it may collect the one thousand three hundred and sixty-three pesos thus owing from the properties of the said Andrés de Hermosa; and they shall give receipts and take what steps are necessary for the collection until the money is obtained. And although I, the said father commissary, might make this foundation and endowment alone—by virtue of my authority granted me by the said clauses, and that authority given me by my superiors for the exercise of the said executorship—for its greater stability, and so that it may be firm and valid forever, since the very reverend father Fray Baltasar Fort, provincial of the said province of Nuestra Señora del Rosario, is present, I beg the latter, in addition to the permission and license that I have had and have, for new permission and license to make and execute this foundation and endowment, and its articles and conditions.

I, the said father provincial, grant, give, and concede everything necessary for the above. Exercising such permission and license, the said father commissary requested the said father provincial and father Fray Francisco Minayo, prior of this said convent, to accompany him and assist him in sketching the plan and method which ought to be followed in the said foundation, both in appointing at present a patron and administrator of the said college, and in making arrangements for the future in what they see makes for its profit and growth. For that purpose he places in the hands of the said provincial and prior, from this moment, the said alms and the properties above stated and declared, in order that so holy and profitable a work may be begun with them. That work will, I trust, through the intercession of its principal patron, the holy rosary of our Lady, and the said St. Dominic and St. Thomas, its advocates, be of much service to our Lord, and to the growth of learning and wisdom in these kingdoms, so that it will be a much greater institution in future times. Therefore, I, the said father provincial, exercising the power vested in me in accordance with the statutes and privileges of the said province and order, and especially of that granted me by the provincial chapter in the name of the entire province, accept this endowment and foundation, as is and will be contained in this writ. And consequently, in the most sufficient form and greatest stability that we can employ, all we three—the said father provincial, the prior, and the commissary father Fray Bernardo de Santa Catalina, in behalf of the said deceased, decide and acknowledge that we are making a foundation of the said college-seminary in the form and under the conditions and articles following.

First, in respect to the application made by the said father commissary of the said properties, we apply them, according as they are assigned and declared, for the particular properties of the said college of Nuestra Señora del Rosario—which is to be its title and advocation—so that a beginning may be made with them in its foundation. [This we do] with hopes that others of the faithful, after seeing its good effects in these kingdoms, will augment those properties with much more, that will help in attaining the great fruit that will result from the foundation. Consequently from now and henceforth forever, we erect and constitute the said house and lands, and their accessions and improvements, and all other properties, which are at present to be applied to the said college, and those which shall be applied to it in the future, and what it may have in ecclesiastical and spiritual properties. And they shall be used as such for the benefit of the said college, and for the good of the souls of the said archbishop, Pablo Rodríguez de Araujo, Andrés de Hermosa, and the other benefactors of the college.

Item: That the said house and college with all the incomes and profits pertaining to it at present, and that shall pertain to it in the future in any time or manner, shall be under the charge and administration of the father provincial, and other prelates of the said order and province. But they shall be unable through that authority to dispose of anything in the general or special benefit of the order; but all must be used, spent, and consumed for the good and welfare of the said college and for its greater utility, adornment, and growth. All ways and methods shall be tried for the advancement of this work, as it is just that this work, so urgently commended by the laws and holy councils, which has so ennobled the cities that enjoy such houses and colleges, should make progress. And inasmuch as this province of Nuestra Señora del Rosario has an ordinance ruling that the properties of the convents be at the disposal of the father provincial, and that he may distribute them and give them to the house that he thinks has need of them: since these properties of this said foundation do not belong to the said convents, or any one of them, but are to be applied to this one purpose; and since the said college is not a monastery, and only in its administration is under the patronage of the said father provincial and it being necessary, under that of the prior, the father provincial promises and binds himself, for himself and for the other provincials succeeding him, to observe this article, and not dispose of the properties of the said college or any part of them, in any other thing than the benefit, growth and permanence of the college; and he renounces any ordinance, statute, or privilege concerning it which authorizes him in any way whatever to make the said distribution. And for a more binding pledge, I thus swear, with my hand on my breast, in verbo sacerdotis.[5]

Item: Inasmuch as the aforesaid convent of Santo Domingo of this city, is the chief one of this province, both in antiquity and in all other things, which makes it the most prominent of them all; and since it is a convent that receives no chaplaincies or other funds as memorials of the deceased, but is sustained only by ordinary alms (as is notorious); and it has been built and rebuilt after the fires that have happened in this city, by means of those alms, through the exceeding devotion with which the faithful citizens of the city assist the welfare of the said convent; and since the convent has been, after the said archbishop, the first contriver and author of such a work as this, and founds it, and intends to preserve and increase it; and consequently, it is just that the prior of the said convent have some prerogatives over the other priors of this province in the said college: it is an express statute and condition of this foundation, that he who is, or shall be, now and henceforth, forever, prior of this said college [sic; sc. convent] of Manila, shall have in his charge the government, discipline, and teaching of the said college, and that he cannot be removed, suspended, or dismissed from the said administration, unless dismissed from the priorship of the said convent.

Item: As such founders of the said charitable work and college, we desire, and it is our will, that the said province of Nuestra Señora del Rosario be its patroness. The provincial of the province shall have the prerogative and privilege of appointing the lecturers necessary for the efficient teaching of the branches that may be studied and taught in the said college, and the officers and assistants advisable for its efficient administration and temporal government—both within the said house and outside it—and in all the other things advisable for the growth and care of the properties, causes, and affairs of the said college. However, if at any time any ecclesiastical or secular person shall desire to endow the said college copiously for the increase of the work and teaching for which it is founded, such person shall be given the right of patronage whenever he shall have made a considerable endowment to the satisfaction of the definitors of the provincial chapter, together with four fathers of the province, those of longest standing who may be present. Such person shall be admitted as patron, and shall be given the right of patronage; and this said province and provincial shall desist from exercising that right—provided that such patron be not permitted to enact any statute or ordinance, or to change any of the conditions of that foundation contrary to the authority of the said father provincial, in regard to the provision of lecturers; or withdraw the said college from the said order and province; or remove the said prior from its administration. For it is advisable that there be no change from the aforesaid for its good management. [This shall be done] provided that the endowment thus made for the right of patronage be without any injury to this work and beginning; for we must always bear in mind and remember to look after the welfare of the souls of the said archbishop and other persons, with whose alms this holy work and foundation is begun; whether the said province, or any other individual patron of the same, whoever he be, shall exercise the right of patronage, and enjoy the favors, exemptions, prerogatives, and privileges, which are conceded by all law to such patrons.