I The King
By order of the king our sovereign:
Don Juan Ruiz de Contreras”
And now Don Juan Çevicos, treasurer of the metropolitan church of the city of Manila of the said Philipinas Islands, has informed me in the name of the archbishop of the city that, petition having been made in behalf of Licentiate Don Diego Barquez de Mercado, while archbishop of the said church, and of the suffragan bishops, in my royal Audiencia of the said city, for the execution of the said decree, because it was not observed by the religious of the Order of St. Francis, and an edict to that effect having been despatched, the provincial of the said order was notified. He—under pretext of two other decrees of the sixteenth of March of the said year six hundred and fourteen, despatched at the petition of the said religious because they had represented that the said archbishop had tried to make innovations in the missions by appointing fiscals in them (as in fact he did do, so that information should be made of what had been done in this), and that in the meanwhile no innovation or change should be made in what had been the usual practice at the time when he entered the said archbishopric—opposed the said edict, and petitioned that the said decree of the sixteenth of March, six hundred and fourteen, be observed. The same was done by the other orders in the said islands. After the cause had been prosecuted in the said Audiencia, after some questions and answers, it was ordered by an act lately issued, on the first of August the past year, six hundred and twenty-two, that the said decrees be observed and obeyed, and that notice be given to the president, governor and captain-general of the said islands and to the said archbishop, as was done, so that they might investigate on what was ordered and charged to them. The determination in the said cause was sent to my royal Council of the Indias. Until other provision should be made, there was to be no innovation and the execution of the said edict was to be suspended, as was evident and appeared by the testimony of the records, which was, in accordance with the above said, presented and examined in the said my Council. I was petitioned to order that the commands of the said decree of June eleven, five hundred and ninety-four, and its reissue of May six, six hundred and fourteen, above inserted, be executed; and that, in accordance with them, the said archbishop and bishops should appoint and name the said fiscals—as pertains to them, in accordance with law—and try judicially the crimes and causes of the said Indians; and that the said religious, who arrest and punish them, as appears, [should not do this]. Having been examined by the members of the said my Council of the Indias, it was agreed that I ought to order this my decree to be given. Therefore I desire, and it is my will, that the above decrees, above inserted (of June eleven of the said year five hundred and ninety-four, and May six, six hundred and fourteen), be observed, obeyed, and executed exactly according to their contents and declarations, notwithstanding the contents of the said decrees of March sixteen of the said year six hundred and fourteen, ordering that the said archbishop make no change in the usual practice in the appointment of fiscals, and that the said governor investigate. And, since this is necessary, I render those decrees to be null and void, and without effect. I order the president and auditors of my royal Audiencia of the said islands not to violate or exceed the contents of this my decree, or consent that they be violated or exceeded, now or henceforth, and in no manner. On the contrary, they shall give the protection and aid that may be necessary for its execution and observance. This I shall regard with approbation. Given in Madrid, August thirty, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four.
I The King
By order of the king our sovereign:
Juan Ruiz de Contreras
Signed by the members of the Council.
[Endorsed: “In order that the decrees above inserted, ordering that the missionaries of the Filipinas Islands have no prisons or jails; that they may not condemn, except those who have commission from the archbishop; and that they appoint no other fiscals than those whom he shall assign them; notwithstanding the decrees that were given ordering no innovation in the former practice, be followed in the appointment of the said fiscals.”]
Letter to the archbishop
The King. Very reverend father in Christ, archbishop of the metropolitan church of the city of Manila in the Filipinas Islands. The letter which you wrote me on the thirteenth of August of last year, 1623, has been received and considered in my royal Council of the Indias. In regard to your statement that, on account of the haste in which were sent from Mexico the ships which arrived that year at those islands with assistance, the archbishop did not send you the papers for convening the council, and that you therefore did not carry out your plan for doing so, but that the necessary measures for it would be taken this year: I command you, on receiving the despatches, to execute the orders contained therein with the care and punctuality that is desirable, and that I expect from you.
I appreciate the diligence which you exerted in preventing the attempt to nominate for provincial of the Order of St. Augustine a person who did not possess the qualifications which are necessary and requisite. You should always be on your guard against such things, and attempt to preserve the desirable peace and concord among the orders.
You advised us that it was necessary to have some ecclesiastical person to be charged with the guardianship and the mode of governing the seminary of Santa Potenciana, and to examine the persons who are to live there. It was resolved to order the president of the Audiencia, jointly with you, to inform us of what takes place, and that in the meantime you were both to join in providing the most effective way of administering the said seminary, with regard to both the persons who enter it and those who leave it, with this justification, that it be necessary. Accordingly, you will endeavor, for your own part, to have these orders executed.
Your statements regarding the foundation that was being established so that the youths of those islands might be graduated without going to the university—which foundations were to be under the patronage of the most pure conception of Mary most holy, our Lady—have been considered, and you may proceed.
As to your proposition that my royal exchequer in those islands should be inspected, the necessary provisions have already been made.