As your Paternities know, chapter 11 of the 25th session of the holy
council of Trent, _De regularibus et monialibus_, rules and orders
that the religious who exercise the duties of curas of souls be
immediately subject as regards such duties, and in everything that
pertains to the administration of sacraments, to the jurisdiction,
visit, and correction of the bishop in whose diocese they administer;
and that no one, though he be _amovilibis ad nutum_, may exercise
the said duty of cura without first having obtained the consent of,
and been examined by, the bishop or his vicar, etc. Both the bishops
and the superiors of the religious, and the religious themselves,
are strictly ordered to observe and fulfil the above, as ordered by
article 22 following, notwithstanding any privileges, regulations,
rules, customs, and rights, and others _non obstantibus_, etc.

This decree then, of the holy council of Trent, has two parts--one in
which it is ordered that the said religious be immediately subject
in regard to curas, and in all that pertains to the administration
of sacraments, to the jurisdiction, visit, and correction of the
bishops; and the other that, before being admitted to the said duty,
they must obtain the consent of, and be examined by, the bishops or
their vicars. There has never been any innovation in the first; for,
although the second part had the innovation that appears in two briefs
issued by his Holiness Pius V--one in general for all Christendom,
which he conceded at the instance of the mendicant orders, under date
of Roma, July 17, 1567, in the second year of his pontificate, whose
beginning is, _Etsi mendicantium ordines_; and the other a special
one for the Yndias, at the instance of his Majesty, under date of
Roma, of March 26, of the same year--in those briefs there was no
innovation in regard to the first part. On the contrary, in the brief