“The King.  To Don Juan de Silva, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands and president of my royal Audiencia of them, or the person or persons in whose charge may be their government:  The king my sovereign and father, who is in heaven, ordered to be issued and gave the decree of the following tenor: 

“’The King.  To Gomez Perez das Marinas, my governor and captain-general in the Philippinas Islands, or the person in whose charge may be the government of them:  Inasmuch as I have been informed that the religious who reside in those islands, busied in the instruction and conversion of the Indians, meddle in matters that do not concern them, I order you not to allow them to have prisons or jails, or to arrest or condemn, unless they be those who have commission from the bishop for those things in which he can give commission in accordance with law; that they do not appoint or have other fiscals than those assigned them by the said bishop; and that they take no fees for burials, marriages, or baptisms, other than according to the appraisement and declaration of the said bishop.  And inasmuch as I have been informed that they have proceeded in the exercise of their privileges, with an excess prejudicial to the suitable progress of the instruction, and that it would be advisable to declare what privileges be conserved and what revoked, in order to remove confusions and doubts—­for they confess the Indians without the bishop’s authorization, and, although not curas, perform marriages, which is in direct violation of the ordinance in the holy council of Trent, incurring risk that the confessions and marriages are invalid:  I order you likewise that you shall communicate with the superiors of the orders, and command them to examine the said privileges; and, unless they have such privileges, not to proceed in the matters here specified, because of the doubts and scandals that may result.  Given in Madrid, June eleven, one thousand five hundred and ninety-four.

I The King By order of the king our sovereign:  Juan de Ibarra’

“And now it has been represented to me on the part of the archbishop of that city that none of the contents of the said decree are observed or obeyed with the exactness that would be fitting and expedient to the service of God and to my service.  He petitioned me to order that it be strictly observed, as a remedy for the troubles that arise from it.  Inasmuch as it is my will that this be done, I order you to observe, and to cause the said decree above inserted of the king my sovereign and father to be obeyed and observed, exactly according to its contents and declarations, without violating or exceeding in any part of it.  This I shall regard with approbation; but by the contrary I shall consider myself as disserved.  Given in Madrid, May six, one thousand six hundred and fourteen.

I The King By order of the king our sovereign:  Don Juan Ruiz de Contreras”