Baptisms: For the baptisms the cura shall demand the candle or candles which those who can give them may furnish, not obliging them to pay a fee [capillo], or to give an offering of money or other things; but, if they voluntarily give any free offering,[20] the cura is authorized to take it.
Marriages: For publishing the banns, the fiscal shall ask for each one real, and he may not demand anything because the parties do not rise to their feet at the time when the banns are published. As for the natives and Morenos[21] who marry without receiving the nuptial benedictions, and shall come to the church or to the cura’s house, he shall not ask anything from them; but if the cura shall go, or send, or give permission for the marriage to be solemnized at their own homes, or in some other place, he shall ask three tostones for the effort and time spent in going to marry them in a place to which he is not obliged to go. If the cura shall go to their house, or to some other place where he is not under obligation to go, in order to marry any Japanese or Sangley, he shall ask two pesos, and, if it shall be outside of the parish, he shall ask three pesos.
Nuptial benedictions: He [i.e., the cura] shall ask thirteen reals from the dowry;[22] but if the parties are poor, they may commute this for four reals—and [the same] if the woman is a widow and has no dowry, provided she received the nuptial benedictions from the Church in the first marriage; but if she did not [thus] receive them, and have a dowry [she shall pay thirteen]. If several persons receive the benedictions at one mass, the cura shall ask from those who are blessed a peso from every one of them; and he shall be under obligation to say as many masses as there were persons blessed, during the following days, for their intention, because this [obligation to say mass] for two, or three, or more married pairs who receive the benedictions cannot be fulfilled by one mass.
Burials: For burials of children, with prayers read, when the cura goes to the house for this purpose he shall ask one peso and four tomins; but if the corpse is carried to the door of the church he shall ask only one peso. For every burial of children with prayers chanted, when the cura goes to the house for this purpose he shall ask only three pesos; and if the corpse be received with prayers chanted at the door of the church[23]—whether it be an Indian chief, a timagua, a Sangley, a Japanese, or a free negro, whom his friends desire to be interred with pomp and escort—and the cura shall go for the corpse to the house, he shall ask ten pesos; but if he shall receive it at the door of the church, and prayers be chanted, he shall ask two pesos. For every burial accompanied with prayers, of an Indian chief, a timagua, a Sangley, a Japanese, or a free negro, if the cura goes for it to the house he shall ask one peso and four tomins; and if he receives it at the door of the church he shall ask one peso. If the deceased were a slave to Spaniards, the cura shall ask one peso for his fee, and exactly six reals as a voluntary offering [limosna] for a mass; but if he were a slave to an Indian, the cura shall ask six reals as a fee, and four reals for the said offering. We charge it upon the consciences of the curas to say these masses for the slaves, and thus acquit our own conscience. For the cope which the cura may wear at burials he may receive one peso as an offering; but he shall not wear the cope when the parties do not ask for it. And for the halts[24] the cura, if he shall have chanted the prayers, shall ask a toston for each one, if the relatives of the deceased ask for them; but in no other way shall he obtain these fees. Item, for the mass sung on the day of the funeral, or funeral honors with responses, the cura may ask two and one-half pesos; and for chanting the office for the dead, two pesos and two reals. And for the novenary masses[25] which are said, with a response in each one, on account of the burial of the deceased, the cura may receive for each one a peso as offering; and the wax candles which remain at the end of the novenary for the burial belong to the cura. For masses provided for by will [missas de testamento], the cura may receive six reals each, and for those which are ordered to be said outside of the testamentary provision four reals each, as offerings. The curas must not consent to accept the candles that are carried by the persons who accompany the funeral, unless these persons leave the candles of their own accord, and present them as an offering; and if they do not thus give them up, the curas shall not ask anything from them. To each one of those who may assist the cura at any burial shall be given, if he is in holy orders, six reals and a candle; if he is not yet ordained, four reals and a candle. For any peal of the bells [repique] at the burials of children, or the tolling of the passing bell [doble], the cura shall ask four reals for the eighths [de octava], for the sacristy or the church.
Fees of the sacristans: For aiding at nuptial masses and the benediction,[26] the sacristan shall ask for each two reals. The sacristan may ask for carrying the processional cross with its veil,[27] for any burial, ten reals; and if afterward solemn mass be sung, he shall ask eighteen reals for the burial, and a peso for assisting at the mass; and if the cross be placed on the grave on the day of the funeral, he shall ask a peso. For the small cross carried, without its casing, and made of silver, he shall ask six reals; and for the ordinary cross of wood he shall ask two; and, if the deceased were the slave of an Indian, he shall ask one real. For burning incense at the funerals, when the parties ask for it, the sacristan shall ask two reals; and at the solemn masses he shall ask another two reals. For assisting at each anniversary mass founded in this church, which the cura says, the sacristan shall ask one peso. The sacristan is under obligation to assist the cura in the administration of the holy sacraments, and in the other matters pertaining to the ministry, as being his assistant; and if he fail in rendering such aid he shall ask only the half [of the usual fees], and the other half the cura shall divide between the person who shall assist in the sacristan’s place and the church fund for its sacristy. Either the sacristan or in his place some person not yet ordained, is under obligation to carry the cross at burials.
Singers: When the entire choir shall be summoned to any burial, they shall ask ten pesos for attending it; and if all the said choir assist at mass and the office for the dead [vigilia], they shall ask another ten pesos. When the [individual] singers shall go on call to any funeral, no more of them shall go than those who are asked for by the parties; and each singer shall ask one real. This is understood when they go not as a full choir, but in a group of three; and they shall not oblige the parties to give them candles, but may take these when the parties choose to give them. If only three singers assist at mass and the office for the dead, they shall ask three pesos for the mass, but not for the office.
We command that all these tariffs and statutes shall be observed and fulfilled to the letter by the said our curas for natives, in this city and in the rest of the parishes that are outside its walls, and by their sacristans, without transgressing them in any way—under penalty of four times the amount involved, incurred for every infraction, and of being punished in accordance with the law. And no other person, whatever his rank may be, shall dare to transgress these our mandates, under penalty of legal proceedings against him, under the penalties due to those who are disobedient. We command that the curas shall keep these said tariffs displayed and posted in some public place, where they can be read and understood by all persons. And that this may be evident for all time, we command to be issued and we do issue the present, signed with our name, and countersigned by our secretary, as undersigned. In our archiepiscopal palace at Manila, on the fifth day of the month of November in the year one thousand, six hundred and ninety-eight.
Diego, archbishop of Manila.
By command of his most illustrious Lordship the archbishop, my master:
Francisco Sanctos de Oliveros, secretary.