They tell me that on this coast is father Fray Miguel de Venavides, [22] of the order of St. Dominic, by whom your Majesty can be very well informed of all these matters, because he has dealt with some Japanese, and has gone through Great China.

Pedro Gonzalez de Carbajal

Formation of New Dioceses

The King:  To my cousin, the Duke.  My zeal and desire have always been, and are, to procure and provide throughout all the provinces, divisions, and localities of the Western Indias, whether already discovered or to be discovered hereafter, the propagation and extension of our holy Catholic faith and Christian religion; and for that purpose I endeavor to provide the necessary prelates and ministers, through whose agency the natives of those parts, blinded by their hideous idolatry, may come into knowledge of the true faith; and, together with those already converted, may be enlightened and instructed so that they may enjoy salvation, partaking of the copious fruit of our redemption.  Hence at my supplication, archbishoprics have been established in those districts and places where it seemed necessary.  For, in spite of the fact that a bishopric was founded in the city of Manila in the island of Luzon in the Philipinas, situated in the great archipelago of China, very near the mainland of that country—­yet, inasmuch as that district is very large, and contains numerous islands with a large native population—­a single prelate cannot easily and under ordinary circumstances visit his diocese as he should, fulfil the pontifical decrees, and provide for spiritual affairs with the necessary despatch.  It has been shown by those who have had experience that many inconveniences result; and after this was investigated by the members of my royal Council of the Indias, and counsel taken upon it, with the object of correcting these evils, it has seemed to me both fitting and necessary for the fulfilment of the obligation that I am under of procuring the salvation of the souls of those my subjects—­according as I am enjoined by the holy apostolic see and bidden by my conscience—­that the cathedral church of the said city of Manila be elevated into a metropolitan see and its territory into an archbishopric; and that three new bishoprics be created and established suffragan to it, so that they may hold their synods according to the orders of the holy Council of Trent, and without coming to Nueva Espana, as the bishop of Manila, who was the suffragan to the archbishop of Mexico, was compelled to do.  From one region to the other, the journey is more than three thousand leguas; and, besides, it is evident that those islands could thus be better and more fittingly governed in spiritual affairs.