and ordinances, not to permit or allow any religious to enter upon or exercise the duties of the office of priest in the missions in charge of the religious in the district of that archbishopric, unless he first be examined and approved by you or the person whom you shall appoint therefor, in order to satisfy yourself that he has the necessary competency, and that he knows the language of the Indians whom he is to instruct.  In the visitations that you shall make you shall remove those whom you shall find to be incompetent, or lacking in the ability and good morals that are requisite, and those who do not know sufficiently the language of the Indians whom they instruct; and you shall advise their superiors of it, so that they may appoint others who shall have the requisite qualifications, in which they are also to be examined.  You shall advise me of whatever is done in the matter.  Given in San Lorenzo, November fourteen, one thousand six hundred and three.

I The King

By order of the king, our sovereign: 
Juan de Ybarra.”

And inasmuch as my intention and will is that the orders and commands on the said subject be obeyed and executed exactly, I request and charge you to examine the said decree, above inserted, and to observe and obey it in toto, exactly as is contained and declared therein.  Such is my will, notwithstanding that, in the course of time and with the claims of the prelates, any other custom may have been tolerated or introduced.  That shall not be allowed, under any consideration whatever.  In order that the above order may have more complete effect, I am having the Audiencia there ordered, by another decree of the same date with this, to give you the necessary protection and aid for it.  You shall advise me of all that is done in this matter.  Given at Madrid, December thirty-one, one thousand six hundred and twenty-two.

I The King

By order of the king, our sovereign: 
Juan Ruiz de Contreras
Signed by the Council.

[Endorsed:  “To the archbishop of Manila, that he observe the decree above inserted, so that the religious of the missions shall be examined in the language of the Indians.”]

[Endorsed:  “Id. To the bishop of Nueva Segovia in Philipinas.” “Id. To the bishop of Nueva Caceres.” “Id. To the bishop of the city of Santisimo Nombre de Jesus.”]

DOCUMENTS OF 1623-1624

        Letter to Fajardo.  Felipe IV; October 9, 1623. 
        Royal permission for the Dominican college in Manila.  Felipe
        IV; November 27, 1623. 
        Expedition to the mines of the Igorrotes.  Alonso Martin
        Quirante; June 5, 1624.

Sources:  The first of these documents is obtained from the “Cedulario Indico” in the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid; the second, from Algunos documentos relat.  Univ. de Manila, p. 21, and Pastells’s edition of Colin’s Labor evangelica, iii, p. 565; the third, from a MS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla.