Law XXVI
Our viceroys of Nueva España shall protect the religious who go to the Filipinas Islands by our order and at our account; and the officials of our royal estate and all our other employees shall give them speedy despatch and shall treat them well. They shall collect no duty for their persons, their books, and the warrants which are given them on which to collect the cost of the voyage. [Felipe III—Madrid, September 18, 1609.]
Law XXXII
His Holiness, Paul V, promulgated a brief at our request, dated Roma, June eleven, one thousand six hundred and eight, in order that the religious of the orders of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Augustine may go to Japon to preach the holy gospel, not only by way of the kingdom of Portugal, but by way of any other country; and it is advisable for the service of God our Lord that that brief be duly fulfilled. We order our viceroy of Nueva España and the governor of the Filipinas Islands, and charge the prelates of the islands, to cause it to be obeyed and fulfilled, with the conditions and licenses ordained by the laws of this título. [Felipe III—Madrid, February 8, 1610; Felipe IV—in the Recopilación.]
Law XXVIII
We order our governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands that if there are any religious there who live in great scandal, and not according to their rules, habit, and profession, and others who have been expelled from their orders, whom the provincials cannot drive from that province because of the difficulty of embarking them for Mégico, that he hasten to remedy this, as is necessary and as is most fitting to the service of God, our Lord, so that such religious may not remain in those parts.[2] [Felipe III—San Lorenzo, September 17, 1616.]
Law LII
Inasmuch as briefs have been despatched by his Holiness, ordering the religious of the Order of St. Augustine in some of the provinces of Nueva España to elect in one chapter some of the Spanish religious who reside there, and in the next chapter religious born in the Indias, we ask and charge the superiors and chapters of the said order to observe the said briefs and cause them to be observed, in the form ordered by his Holiness—both in the provinces of Nueva España and in the Filipinas—since they have passed before our royal Council, and testimony has been given of their presentation. The same is to be understood in regard to the other orders and provinces of the Indias, which shall possess briefs for the alternativa, and under the same conditions. [Felipe IV—Madrid, September 28, 1629; August 1, 1633; and in the Recopilación.]
Law XXXIII
Although it was determined that no religious except those of the Society of Jesus should go to Japon to preach the holy gospel for the space of fifteen years, and that the others who should try to go to those parts through the rules of their order or their particular devotion should be assigned the district to which they were to go, not permitting them to pursue their voyage by way of Filipinas or any other part of the Western Indias, but by way of Eastern India—notwithstanding that the precept for the propagation and preaching of the gospel is common to all the faithful, and especially charged upon the religious—we consider it fitting that the missions and entrances of Japon be not limited to only the religious of the Society of Jesus; but that the religious go and enter from all the orders as best they can, and especially from the orders that possess convents and have been permitted to go to and settle in our Western Indias. There shall be no innovation in regard to the orders that are prohibited by laws and ordinances of the Indias. Those laws are made not only for Eastern India but also for the Western Indias, in whose demarcation fall Japon and the Filipinas. It is easier and better for the religious of our crown of Castilla to make their entrances by way of the Western Indias. We straitly charge those who thus enter, from either direction, to maintain the greatest harmony and concord with one another, and to regulate the catechism and method of teaching—so that, since the faith and religion that they preach is one and the same thing, their teaching, zeal, and purpose may be so likewise. They shall aid one another in so holy and praiseworthy an object, as if all lived under and professed the same rule and observance. If the nature of the country and the progress in the conversion of its natives permit, the orders shall be divided into provinces, making the assignment of those provinces as shall appear best, so that, if possible, the religious of the various orders shall not mingle. If any of those religious who shall have been chosen are removed, others shall be assigned in their place, so that, as workers of the holy gospel, they shall labor in this work which is so to the service of God our Lord, each order separately. They shall not engage in quarrels or disputes, shall furnish a thoroughly good example, and shall avoid strictly all manner of trade, business, and commerce, and all else that shows or discloses a taint or appearance of greed for temporal goods. And since it will be necessary, in the further establishment and increase of the conversion in those provinces, to have therein three or four bishops, or more, from all the orders—in order that they may confirm, preach, ordain priests, meet whenever advisable, and discuss and enact what they think will be necessary to facilitate, augment, and secure for the conversion—they shall be suffragan, in so far as it concerns them, to the archbishopric of Manila, because of the nearness and authority of that church. That division of districts and dioceses shall be made by our Council of the Indias. [Felipe IV—Madrid, February 22, 1632.]