Affairs_


The King. To Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, my governor and captain-general
of the Philipinas Islands, or the person or persons in charge of
their government: I ordered a decree of various articles to be given
to my viceroy of Nueva España, in regard to what was to be done and
observed in that country for the preservation of my patronage, as is
contained at length in the said decree, whose tenor is as follows:

"The King. To our viceroy of Nueva España, or the person or persons
who shall, for the time being, be exercising the government of that
country: As you know, the right of the ecclesiastical patronage belongs
to us throughout the realm of the Yndias--both because of having
discovered and acquired that new world, and erected there and endowed
the churches and monasteries at our own cost, or at the cost of our
ancestors, the Catholic Sovereigns; and because it was conceded to us
by bulls of the most holy pontiffs, conceded of their own accord. For
its conservation, and that of the right that we have to it, we order
and command that the said right of patronage be always preserved for
us and our royal crown, singly and _in solidum_, throughout all the
realm of the Yndias, without any derogation therefrom, either in whole
or in part; and that we shall not concede the right of patronage by
any favor or reward that we or the kings our successors may confer.

"Further, no person or persons, or ecclesiastical or secular
communities, or church or monastery, shall be able to exercise the
right of patronage by custom privilege, or any other title, unless it
be the person who shall exercise it in our name, and with our authority
and power; and no person, whether secular or ecclesiastical, and no