[20] In the official transcript of this document furnished us from the Sevilla archives, this word is written teatinos ("Theatins")—­apparently the copyist’s conjecture for an illegible or badly-written word in the original MS. But the Theatins had no establishments in the Philippines; and the mention of Chirino in the second of these letters (next following this one) of Benavides proves that he referred to the Jesuits (Spanish iesuitas), not to the Theatins.

[21] “The see being vacant”—­for Benavides had but just arrived at Manila, and an interregnum of nearly five years had elapsed since the death of his predecessor, Santibanez.

[22] Referring to a ceremony performed at mass, also known as the “kiss of peace.”  This was given at mass from the earliest times, in the various Catholic branches of the Church.  In the Western churches, “it was only at the end of the thirteenth century that it gave way to the use of the ’osculatorium’—­called also ‘instrumentum’ or ‘tabella pacis,’ ‘pax,’ etc.—­a plate with a figure of Christ on the cross stamped upon it, kissed first by the priest, then by the clerics and congregation.  Usually now the pax is not given at all in low masses, and in high mass an embrace is substituted for the old kiss, and given only to those in the sanctuary” (Addis and Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary, p. 497).

[23] Perez (p. 63) gives but little information regarding this friar.  He seems to have been in the islands as early as 1591, and from 1594 to 1603, engaged in various official duties.  In the last-named year he went to Spain and Rome, afterward going to Mexico, where he acted as procurator in 1608.

[24] In this paragraph, as in one in the preceding letter of Benavides, the official transcription of the text has teatinos, where “Jesuits” occurs in the translation; but the mention of Chirinos shows that the latter reading is correct.  See note 20, ante, on p. 109.

[25] Spanish hermita (sometimes meaning “hermitage"); a reference to what is now a suburb of Manila, situated on the shore of the bay, and called Hermita or Ermita.  “In its parish church is venerated, with great devotion, the image of its tutelar saint, Our Lady of Guidance—­to which holy image were especially commended, in former days, the ships from Nueva Espana” (Buzeta and Bravo’s Diccionario, ii, p. 77).

[26] This was the eldest daughter of Felipe III—­Anna Maria, generally known as Anne of Austria.  Born in 1601, she was married at the age of fourteen to Louis XIII of France; and after his death was regent during the minority of her son, Louis XIV.  She died on January 20, 1666.

[27] Diego de Guevara, belonging to a noble family in Spain, entered in early youth the Augustinian order, at Salamanca.  In 1593 he came to the Philippines with a company of twenty-four missionaries, and held various official positions in his order.  In 1602 he founded a convent in Bungo, in Japan.  Sent to Spain in 1603, with news of the Chinese insurrection, he did not reach the court until three years later; he remained there until 1610, when he returned to the Philippines as visitor for his order.  From 1616 until his death in 1621, he was bishop of Nueva Caceres.