religious and workers for those so remote and needy regions.  We assure your Paternity that it will be a great service to God and to the holy apostolic see.  And also that act will be one of great pleasure to their Excellencies the cardinals.  The latter advise you that, in the missions conducted by your Paternity, the contents of the decree enclosed herewith should be observed and obeyed.  Besides this, the sacred Congregation, in consideration of the services that your Paternity’s order has rendered to the holy apostolic see, has thought best to protect that order with great pleasure and good-will, etc.

Cardinal Ludovisi Francisco Ingoli, secretary.”

To the very reverend fathers the father provincial and the definitors of the discalced Augustinians in the Philippinas Islands

“Very reverend fathers: 

“The relation of the progress that your Reverences have made in those districts in the conversion of the heathen, and of the efforts put forth and the hardships suffered for the said object, having been referred to this sacred Congregation of the Propaganda of the Faith, his Holiness and these my most illustrious Lordships, after having received most special consolation from so good news, have praised not a little the zeal and piety of your Reverences.  They also exhort you to continue in the future with the same fervor, especially in the care of the mission destined for Japon.  In the same manner they have ordered that an urgent message be sent to the papal legate [nuncio] of Espana to try to procure prompt despatches for the multiplication of the ecclesiastical workers in those regions.  His Holiness, in particular, has willingly offered them his consolation with eight thousand benedictions, etc.

Cardinal Borxa Francisco Ingoli, secretary.”

In order to conclude all this with the destruction of the calumny that their opponents invented, in regard to the presence of Ours in Philippinas being without fruit, we might quote certain authors who have spoken in no uncertain voice in their praise.  But we forbear, except in the case of master Fray Thomas de Herrera, whom, as he is worth a thousand men, it will be well to cite.  In regard to the aforesaid, he speaks in the following manner in his Alphabeto: 

“These fathers, who were not slothful laborers, kindled with zeal for the Catholic faith, and desirous for the salvation of souls, crossed the seas in the year 1605, to remote regions of this world, although at the eleventh hour.” (Folio 181, volume i.)

“The discalced fathers of Hispania crossed the seas in the year 1605, kindled by their zeal for the salvation of souls (and at times by the shedding of their blood in the kingdoms of Japonia) to those remote islands, as planters of the Church or as spreaders of its tents.” (Folio 127, volume ii.)

“The congregation of the discalced of Hispania, which extends its vineyards even to the seas and to the Philippinas Islands, sent laborers about the year 1588 to remote colonies, who preached the gospel to the Japanese; and with their own blood, shed most profusely, they either planted or watered the Church in various kingdoms, and illumined the Augustinian order with a great number of glorious martyrs.” (Folio 485, ibidem.)