I The King

By order of the king our sovereign: 

Juan de Ybarra.”

[16] The following decree was given by the king prohibiting certain practices of the regulars: 

“The King.  To the president and auditors of my royal Audiencia of the city of Manila of the Philipinas Islands:  I have been informed that the religious who reside in those regions have the custom of assigning at times Indian villages for the celebration of their chapter meetings, from which, besides the annoyances and wrongs that the Indians receive, it happens that the audiencias and governors are unable to apply the remedy for certain things that occur in the said chapter meetings, and that require despatch.  And inasmuch as it has been considered that that is a cause for trouble, it has been deemed advisable to prevent it by ordering—­as I do order and command by this present—­that now and henceforth, chapter meetings of the religious be not celebrated in Indian villages; and that if there be reasons obliging the meeting to be celebrated at any time in any such village, those reasons be communicated to you, both the president and the Audiencia, and that your order and permission be obtained.  Such is my will.  Given in Valladolid, June thirteen, one thousand six hundred and fifteen.

I The King

By order of the king our sovereign: 

Juan Ruiz de Contreras”

This decree is translated from Pastells’s Colin, ut supra, p. 685; its original is conserved in the Archivo general of Sevilla, its pressmark, “Registros de oficio; reales ordenes dirigidos a las autoridades del distrito de la Audiencia; anos 1597-1804; est. 105, caj. 2, leg. 1, lib. 1, vol. 64.”

[17] The passage of the brief referred to above, is as follows: 

“We, therefore, who gladly favor the increase of Divine worship and the salvation of souls, especially since we have been petitioned by each of the Catholic kings, giving assent to them petitioning after this manner, do, by virtue of our apostolic authority, concede and grant license and authority, by the tenor of these presents, to all and singular, the religious of any, even the mendicant orders, living in monasteries of their orders in the said regions of the Indias (of the Ocean Sea), or outside of them, by the consent of their superiors, so that they may freely and legally use the license obtained from their superiors, as is declared in their provincial chapters, to exercise the office of parish priest in the villages of those regions, such office having been and being assigned to them by a similar license, in the celebration of marriages and in the administration of the ecclesiastical sacraments, as has been their wont hitherto (provided that they observe the form of the said council in other ceremonies); and to preach the word of God and hear confessions, as is declared, so long as those religious know the languages of those districts; and no other