“This city of Manila has informed your Majesty on various occasions of the great importance to these islands of the order of the discalced Recollects of the Order of St. Augustine; of the apostolic men in it; of the great harvest that they are gathering by the preaching of the holy gospel; of the excellent example which they have always given, and are giving, with their strict and religious life, and their so close observance of their rules; and of the so considerable results that have been achieved by them in the service of our Lord and in that of your Majesty, with the aid of your royal arms, in the great number of infidels who have been converted to our holy Catholic faith, and have been subdued so that they render your Majesty due homage and tribute. Those people have generally paid that tribute and pay it every year. [We have written you] that those religious have exercised and exercise with especial care in all things the spiritual earnestness that concerns their profession, both in the maintenance or their work and in their continual desire, notwithstanding the innumerable annoyances which they endure, to carry this work onward. They are ever converting new souls to the service of our Lord and the obedience of your Majesty, while they preserve great harmony and concord among themselves. Consequently, that order has always been and is one of the most acceptable orders and one of the most welcome in these islands. They are the poorest of all, as all their ministries are in remote regions very distant from this city, and among the most warlike people in all the provinces of these islands, as they have been but lately reduced. [We have told you] of the risk of their lives on account of this, because it has happened at times that those who seemed to be pacified have rebelled; while at other times the religious have fallen into the hands of those who were not pacified, when preaching to them the holy gospel. There have been many others also who have suffered martyrdom in the kingdom of Japon, thus enriching the church of God with such noble actions, as well as the crown of your Majesty. Above all, they have no income except the alms given them by the faithful. There is no fleet in which they do not sail for the consolation of the infantry, etc. This city petitions your Majesty to be pleased to concede permission to the said order, so that religious may pass from those kingdoms to these islands to the number that your Majesty may decree, in consideration of the fact that the need for them, in ministries so distant as theirs, is very great. In those ministries, through the little nourishment of the food which they use for the sustenance of human life, for they live as those who are truly poor, and with great abstinence, which they observe, without reserving any time because of discomforts, whether of sun or shower, going through dense forests and inaccessible mountains in order to reduce the many millions of souls of those districts to our holy Catholic faith, not one of whom has any light, etc.”
Don Joan Niño de Tavora, governor and captain-general of the above-named islands, and president of the royal Chancillería of Manila, says in another letter to the same king:
“The Recollect Augustinian fathers who reside in these islands, inasmuch as they arrived last, have taken the districts most distant from this city. They are extending their labors into the district of Caràgha, and Calamiànes, with success among those Indians, etc. During the last four years, more than four thousand persons have been baptized by that order alone. I petition your Majesty to be pleased to order that their procurators be despatched with the greatest number of religious possible, etc.”
Lastly, Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, who exercised the aforesaid office, concludes in another letter, in which he affirms the proposition:
“The order of discalced Recollects of St. Augustine who reside in these islands and the districts of them, preserves in its members, with all virtue and exemplary life, its obligations for the service of God, in the protection and instruction of their parishioners, the Indian natives; and in what regards the service of your Majesty, they show the efficacious zeal of good vassals. For during the time of my government they have not at all embarrassed me in any way. On the contrary, as I recognize their good conduct, I am obliged to represent it to your Majesty; and will your Majesty be pleased to show them every favor and grace, in whatever opportunity may occur to your Majesty.”
A letter came with those that are here given as addressed to the sacred Congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith, who ordered the two following letters to be written, which we place at the end, in order to qualify better the labor of Ours, and to conquer the calumny of those who attempted to obscure and stifle the fervor with which the Reform commenced the reduction of the barbarous infidels.
To the vicar-general of the discalced Augustinians
“Very reverend father:
“Your Paternity will have learned that a letter was presented and read in the assembly of the sacred Congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith, received from the bishop of Zibù, etc. The most illustrious lord cardinals have received most special pleasure in learning from it the great number of convents that the religious of your order have built in the Philippinas, and also the great harvest that they are gathering in the conversion of those heathen by their example and their good and holy customs. Inasmuch as the said bishop lives with steadfast hopes of greater progress and advancement if he were again aided and reënforced with other laborers of their order, such as they, and resembling them, the sacred Congregation, attentive to this, petitions your Paternity, with the affection and earnestness that the salvation of so many souls merits, to effect and strive anew, with all the earnestness and care possible, to provide new religious and workers for those so remote and needy regions. We assure your Paternity that it will be a great service to God and to the holy apostolic see. And also that act will be one of great pleasure to their Excellencies the cardinals. The latter advise you that, in the missions conducted by your Paternity, the contents of the decree enclosed herewith should be observed and obeyed. Besides this, the sacred Congregation, in consideration of the services that your Paternity’s order has rendered to the holy apostolic see, has thought best to protect that order with great pleasure and good-will, etc.
Cardinal Ludovisi
Francisco Ingoli, secretary.”