I the King
By order of the king our sovereign:
Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon
Appointment of secular priests to missions
The King. To Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Filipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia therein: in one of the sections of a letter which that city [of Manila] wrote to me on June 27 of 636, it is stated that there are two colleges in that city—one that of Santo Tomas, with religious of the Order of St. Dominic; and the other that of San Josef, with religious of the Society of Jesus—both of which have possessed, for several years past, authority to confer degrees in all the sciences. It is also declared that, with this opportunity, many students have excelled in those studies, and especially various sons of poor citizens, who have graduated in all the degrees; but that, since they have no beneficed curacies on which they can depend for support, their studies bring them no advantage. It is said that this is caused by certain religious orders, who have acquired from the archbishop, bishops, and governors the aggrandizement of their orders with many benefices which formerly were administered by secular priests; and that this might be remedied if I would decree that all the benefices which have been annexed to the religious orders during the last twenty years should be restored to the [secular] clergy, and that edicts should be issued in the form which I have ordained. This matter having been considered in my royal Council of the Indias, I have thought it best to issue the present, by which I command you that in the new missions that shall be established, you shall—except when they are in a territory assigned to the religious—it being understood that there are virtuous secular priests, take pains to appoint them to such missions; for such is my will. [Madrid, October 2, 1638.]
I the King
By command of the king our sovereign:
Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon