to blame if they do not profit by the instruction placed before them.  Where justice is administered, without instruction, the tributes should be collected, after deducting the amount needed for the support of religion.] The fundamental reason why your Lordship and we cannot agree in this matter is, that your Lordship measures it by standards of sustenance, and we by those of income and just and due tributes; for since there are so many Christians here, there is no doubt that the king holds these lands by just title, nor can he in conscience abandon them. [In regard to making restitution to the Indians for tributes unjustly collected, the Jesuits would exempt from this the governors and royal officials; but it should be required from the encomenderos.  If in these matters, however, the bishop and governor do not agree with them, the fathers will support the position taken by those authorities.  They desire that the latter shall make definite decision on such points as can be settled, without unnecessary delay.  They oppose the bishop’s desire to permit the collection of a larger part of the tributes from small encomiendas than from large ones, because this would be not only unjust, but a dangerous precedent and a source of intolerable confusion and uncertainty.  The tributes should be considered not as the means of support for the encomendero, but as the right and revenue of the king—­a consideration which must shape all conclusions reached upon this subject.  The Indians are not bound to support the encomendero; that is due him for his services to the king, who gives him the encomienda for this purpose, and for means to carry out the obligations of the king to the Indians.  If from this some encomenderos grow rich, that concerns only the king; it is well that he should have in his colonies powerful men, “who are the bone and sinew of commonwealths.”  Besides, the labors and responsibilities of these men increase in proportion to the size of their encomiendas; accordingly, they should be duly recompensed.  The services rendered to the natives by the king and the encomenderos are enumerated; even those which are secular help to maintain religious instruction, and are also more costly than that; they should then be well recompensed.  The restitution to be made by the encomenderos is a matter to be decided by the secular rather than the religious authorities; and such restitution need be only one-fourth of previous collections.  A curious piece of information is here furnished:  “It is known that a priest’s district, even if it is not very large, yields him eight hundred to one thousand pesos; and besides this he has fees for burials, marriages, etc.  There are reports, and even numerous complaints, from both secular and religious sources, that for lack of means to pay the fees, many persons do not marry, but live in concubinage.”  The Jesuits think that this fee-system is wrong, and that the priest should be content with his stipend, at least among the poor, whether Indians or Spaniards; this applies both to regular clergy and to friars.  The bishop is urged to remedy this abuse.]