discovered or to be discovered hereafter, the propagation and
extension of our holy Catholic faith and Christian religion; and
for that purpose I endeavor to provide the necessary prelates and
ministers, through whose agency the natives of those parts, blinded
by their hideous idolatry, may come into knowledge of the true faith;
and, together with those already converted, may be enlightened and
instructed so that they may enjoy salvation, partaking of the copious
fruit of our redemption. Hence at my supplication, archbishoprics
have been established in those districts and places where it seemed
necessary. For, in spite of the fact that a bishopric was founded in
the city of Manila in the island of Luzon in the Philipinas, situated
in the great archipelago of China, very near the mainland of that
country--yet, inasmuch as that district is very large, and contains
numerous islands with a large native population--a single prelate
cannot easily and under ordinary circumstances visit his diocese as
he should, fulfil the pontifical decrees, and provide for spiritual
affairs with the necessary despatch. It has been shown by those who
have had experience that many inconveniences result; and after this
was investigated by the members of my royal Council of the Indias,
and counsel taken upon it, with the object of correcting these evils,
it has seemed to me both fitting and necessary for the fulfilment
of the obligation that I am under of procuring the salvation of the
souls of those my subjects--according as I am enjoined by the holy
apostolic see and bidden by my conscience--that the cathedral church
of the said city of Manila be elevated into a metropolitan see and
its territory into an archbishopric; and that three new bishoprics
be created and established suffragan to it, so that they may hold
their synods according to the orders of the holy Council of Trent, and
without coming to Nueva España, as the bishop of Manila, who was the
suffragan to the archbishop of Mexico, was compelled to do. From one