I am not ignorant that the approval of ecclesiastical persons is reserved to the prelates in order that they may administer the sacraments; but the appointing of them belongs to the government by virtue of the royal patrimony, just as his Majesty appointed your Lordship bishop and archbishop, and as his Holiness approved and confirmed it. Consequently, I cannot, even though your Lordship orders it, abstain from appointing curas and vicars, choosing from three whom your Lordship ought to nominate, the person whom I shall consider most suitable. In the case of canons and dignidades of this holy church, governors of vacant bishoprics, and chaplains, superior and subordinate, of the soldiers, presidios, and galleons of his Majesty, I need no nomination by your Lordship, although they need your approval. If your Lordship writes me thus ‘at the advice of the bishop of Zebu and of the orders, so that I may see that your Lordship is not moved by passion, but by reason and justice,’ I am moved by passion in ordering that all who came to these islands at the king’s cost or in his galleons, and who are his vassals, whatever be their rank and degree, shall serve him. And when I say that this is fitting for his royal service, only his Majesty can call me to account for it.
I value the advice given me by your Lordship that, when I make decisions, I take counsel with persons who are free to speak their mind to me. When I take counsel for the better service of God and the king, I look for the most learned men of good reputation, and many disinterested persons, so that they may not confuse me with so many different opinions. To them I do not declare my intention or determination, as is the general custom, until all have spoken; and then I conform to the opinion of those which I deem best.
May your Lordship understand this truth, and that I fear God more than the king and his vassals. May His Divine Majesty preserve your Lordship for many happy years. The palace; October nine, six hundred and thirty-five.
Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera”
The archbishop and the orders seeing that the members of the Society were not disturbed (which seems to have been their intention, to judge by the resolution of the assembly), the archbishop sent a notary, a few days afterward, to notify the superiors of the Society of an act, which I shall place here together with the reply of the father rector, Luis de Pedraza.
“We, Don Fray Hernando Guerrero, by the grace of God and the holy apostolic see archbishop of these Philipinas Islands, member of his Majesty’s Council, etc. Inasmuch as we ordered for just reasons that moved us thereto, in harmony with the rules of the holy Council of Trent (in chapter four, De reformatione, session twenty-four), that the religious fathers of the Society of Jesus be notified—the father-provincial, Joan de Bueras, the rector, Luis de Pedraza, and the other superiors of the said order who live in this city—not to preach outside of their convents in any part of all this archbishopric, or in camps, or guardhouses, by any manner of talk or preaching, or in any other manner: that order they shall observe to the letter, under penalty of major excommunication, late sentencie, ipso facto incurenda una protina canonica monitione premisa,[13] and a fine of four thousand Castilian ducados for the Holy Crusade, to which we hold them immediately condemned if they do the contrary. Given in our archiepiscopal palace, in the city of Manila, October twenty-six, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five.
Fray Hernando, archbishop.
By order of his Lordship: Diego Bernal
“At the residence of the Society of Jesus in Manila, on the twenty-ninth day of the month of November [sc., October], one thousand six hundred and thirty-five, I read and announced the act contained in the other part [of this document], exactly as is therein contained, to the father rector, Luis de Pedraza, in the presence of the witness Diego de Rueda, royal clerk, and the fathers Pedro de Prado, procurator-general, and Gregorio Bellin. In their presence, he desired me to give him an attested copy of the act, as a protection of his right, and they were witnesses of the entire proceeding. I attest this.
Juan de la Cueva Moran, notary-public.