office of cura without having obtained beforehand the consent and examination of the bishop or his vicar, etc., [4] which is ordered to be strictly observed and obeyed, both by the bishops and the superiors of the religious, and by the religious themselves, by the twenty-second chapter following, notwithstanding any privileges, constitutions, rules, customs, rights, and others non obstantibus, etc.; besides which, his Holiness Gregory Fourteenth, by his brief which was obtained at the instance of his Majesty, under date of Roma, April 18, one thousand five hundred and ninety-one, charges and orders the archbishop of these islands to visit the missions and the religious in them. [5]

All of the above is ordered to be observed and obeyed in these islands by decrees of his Majesty, under date of June first, five hundred and eighty-five; December twenty-one, five hundred and ninety-five; and November fourteen, one thousand six hundred and three. [6] In conformity with these decrees, his most illustrious Lordship, wishing to observe what his Holiness and his Majesty have ordered, as it is a matter very advisable and necessary for the service of God our Lord and that of his Majesty, and the welfare and increase of the conversion, teaching, and instruction of the natives of these islands, notified the very reverend fathers-provincial in Christ of the sacred orders of St. Dominic and St. Augustine, and the commissaries of that of St. Francis, of these islands, by means of an order signed by his most illustrious Lordship, which was given to them in the first part of April of this current year, so that, understanding it, the matter might be facilitated and observed on the part of the said orders, with the good-will and exactness that is proper, and which they have always had in obeying and observing the orders of the holy apostolic see, and those of his Majesty.  And inasmuch as it is advisable that there be no more delay in the above, his most illustrious Lordship intends to go to visit the mission of the natives of the village of Dilao, outside the walls of the city of Manila, which is in charge of the Order of St. Francis, on the day of St. John the Baptist.  He has advised the father guardian of the said convent thereof, in order that the Indians of the said convent may be assembled in the church at the hour of high mass, and so that all other necessary arrangements be made for making the said visit.  His Lordship ordered the above to be set down as an act, together with the copy of the brief of his Holiness Gregory Fourteenth, and of his Majesty’s decrees, of which mention is made above; and he signed the same.

Fray Miguel, archbishop.

Before me: 

Licentiate Alonso Ramirez