By command of our sovereign: Juan Bautista Saenz Nav[arrete]
[Endorsed: “To the viceroy of Nueva España, regarding aid to Filipinas.”]
[1] That is, assigning to each province its quota of men to be levied for this purpose.
ERECTION OF COLLEGE OF SANTO TOMAS INTO A UNIVERSITY
Letter from Felipe IV to Innocent X
Very Holy Father:
I am writing to the Count of Sirvela,[1] my ambassador at that court, to supplicate your Holiness, in my name, to concede a bull, so that a college of the Order of Preachers in the city of Manila of the Filipinas Islands, located in my West Indias, may become a university, with the same qualifications and perpetuity as [are possessed by] the other universities of this order in Avila and Pamplona, in these my kingdoms, and those of Lima and Méjico; and that, since they wish to found a separate university in the said city of Manila, it may be done, because that city is more than three thousand leguas distant from the nearest universities—namely, those of Lima and Méjico. I supplicate your Holiness to hear him and give entire credit to what he shall say and represent about this matter in my behalf, and to have his business despatched with all promptness and thoroughness. I shall thereby receive a special favor from your Holiness, whose very sacred person may our Lord preserve; and may He lengthen your days for the good and prosperous administration of His universal Church. Madrid, December 20, 1644. Your Holiness’s very humble and devout son, Don Felipe, by the grace of God, etc., who kisses your holy feet and hands.