Doctor Don Albaro de Mesa y Lugo, and Doctor Don Antonio Rodriguez de Villegas, auditors of your royal Audiencia of these islands, by reason of their having granted your royal aid to Fray Francisco Ximenez, an Observantine religious.  The latter came to this province with a commission granted by the father commissary-general of our order in Nueva Espana, ordering us to receive him—­although he ought not to be received, as it was in violation of the general rule of government in our order; and in violation of a brief of his Holiness, Gregory Thirteenth.  Moreover, such action tends to the destruction of the discalced religious, and of the reform and common welfare of this province, and of the conversions in these new kingdoms of your Majesty—­especially when the said auditors compel this province to receive him in your royal name, making an ill use of your name and of the royal authority, and insulting it—­and he does that, who, under pretext of such name, practices injustices and extortions, and who does not observe the terms of laws and ordinances; and much more, when they are practiced against an order and province that your Majesty has always esteemed and esteems so highly.  Thus, nominally by your royal authority, we have suffered great violence and scandals, and it is certain that had this occurred nearer to your Majesty’s pious eyes, a most signal and exemplary chastisement would have followed.  But in these so remote regions, where redress arrives late, it is usual, and almost necessary for us chaplains of your Majesty and the orders to suffer these extortions; and if they did not result in detriment to virtue and to the public welfare, by bearing them patiently we would not lose, but rather gain much.

Therefore we petition and supplicate your Majesty to examine this cause with your own eyes, and provide redress for the injuries received—­annulling these acts of violence and rebuking your said auditors, so that it may serve them as a correction, and others as an example and warning; and so that the ministers of the gospel and the orders in these islands may not be annoyed or injured by the evil example furnished to the newly converted, whereby they would esteem the ecclesiastical estate and divine worship less.  For such is not the will of your Majesty.  In this respect, there is in these regions a great deficiency in all your officials; consequently the ecclesiastical class need to have your Majesty renew your decrees that give injunctions to your agents.  By so doing your Majesty will render a great service to His Divine Majesty, favor to all of us, and good to these new plants.  May God our Lord preserve your Majesty for years, as we desire, and augment your happy state, as we your least and unworthy chaplains desire, etc.  Given in this convent of your Majesty, Nuestra Senora de los Angeles, Manila, in 1621.

Fray Pedro de San Pablo, minister provincial. Fray Agustin de Tordesillas, [MS. uncertain] [19] and definitor. Fray Andres del Sacremento, definitor. Fray Antonio de Nombela, definitor. Fray Christoval de Santa Ana, [20] definitor.