That royal decree is in the book of advice to confessors of Indians which father Fray Juan Baptista, of the Order of St. Francis, published in Mexico, in the year six hundred; it is on folio 380.  On folio 259, it contains what the provincials of the orders of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Augustine, of the province of Mexico, answered to it on the twenty-eighth of November, of the said year, 585.  That answer was to accept the said missions non ex votis charitatis, but with the obligation of in se et justitia; and in regard to being visited, they say that, inasmuch as the obstacles of their disturbance and relaxation of discipline were always to be found, which induced the apostolic see to exempt them from the visits of the ordinaries—­which obstacles would be more and greater in the Yndias, if authority were given for it—­they would not refuse the reverence, respect, and submission due to the bishops, as prelates and shepherds of the Church of God.  They said that they were under greater obligations to them than to any one else, and would respect them and receive them into their convents with proper reverence, as they had always done; and that, obeying what his Majesty ordered, they would be very glad to have them visit in their churches the most holy sacrament, the baptismal font, and what concerns it; but in all matters outside the above-mentioned, they petitioned his Majesty not to give the bishops authority or entrance, for that would mean the perpetual disquiet and ruin of their order.

But as for that which the said orders of Nueva Espana declared in that reply, namely, that the obstacles of disturbance and relaxed discipline were bound to follow the visits of the bishops, for which the apostolic see was induced to exempt them from their jurisdiction; nevertheless, it will be considered that a very different reason will be found to prevail in this case in respect to which, as regards religious from whom visits are exempted, they have their special rules and regulations, which are peculiar to each order.  Both for that reason, and because their institute, life, and government is of the cloister, and they have no administration, dominion, and jurisdiction over persons of the world, it was most advisable to give them superiors who had been reared in the same life, customs, and rules of religion, since, moreover, their profession was simply that of religious.

But the ministry of the care of souls that the religious exercise is not of the cloister, nor does it depend on their special rule or institute; nor in regard to such are they at all different from the secular curas, both touching the religious ministers themselves, and touching the persons who are ministered to, whose spiritual government is in charge of the bishops.