provisor, in order to avoid that scandal, was obliged to order the said minister to leave the procession, and not to furnish the bad example that he was setting by showing contempt for ecclesiastical censures.  As he refused to leave, the provisor removed him from the procession, ordering the fiscal of this archbishopric to follow him until he ejected him from the procession.  As it was a matter that concerns, and is dependent on, the visit, all the orders were so angry over it that, speaking through the mouth of the Order of St. Francis, they elected as judge conservator a friar of St. Dominic, the rector of this college of Manila, in order to avoid any further attempts in the said visit to the ministries of the orders.  The judge conservator, without informing me of any apostolic letter or brief of his Holiness pertaining to the said conservatorship, posted decrees next day in the churches and public places, declaring the said provisor as excommunicated and as fallen into the penalties of the clause si quis suadente Diabolo ...  I continued to prosecute the cause of the visit, and, having found the said minister guilty, I requested aid in order to proceed against him, and, until he should become obedient, to keep him confined in one of these convents of Manila.

The royal Audiencia voted that there was at present no occasion for the said aid.  Thereupon I issued an act, in which I abandoned the visit until I could give an account to your Majesty—­to whom I enclose a testimony of everything with this letter, and with it another testimony of the act of the royal Audiencia in regard to the case against my provisor, whom the judge conservator tried to arrest, and for which he requested aid, which the auditors refused him.

I have written your Majesty this relation in order to comply with your orders to inform you of what should be done in this, and so that you may see the freedom with which the religious proceed in this country, confident that they are the greatest part of the community; and that having, as they do, so great influence in all these provinces which they administer, they must succeed with whatever they undertake, even creating a judge conservator, contrary to the ruling of the holy council and the royal will of your Majesty.  That is so true that they proclaimed in Manila that if the archbishop proceeded with the visit, they would place him on the list as excommunicated, and would not absolve him until he should go to their convent of St. Dominic to beg absolution.  I might easily have proceeded with the visit, Sire, but I preferred to be chidden as remiss, than not to have those great scandals muzzled which were represented to me to be inevitable if I went to law with these religious.  And speaking with all truth, it seems to them a case of less value than that any Indian or Spaniard should imagine that there is any power in these kingdoms greater than their own.  May God preserve the very Catholic person of your Majesty, with the increase of new kingdoms and the happiness of those that you possess, as Christendom has need, and as we your Majesty’s humble vassals and chaplains desire.