they administer, they must succeed with whatever they undertake,
even creating a judge conservator, contrary to the ruling of the holy
council and the royal will of your Majesty. That is so true that they
proclaimed in Manila that if the archbishop proceeded with the visit,
they would place him on the list as excommunicated, and would not
absolve him until he should go to their convent of St. Dominic to
beg absolution. I might easily have proceeded with the visit, Sire,
but I preferred to be chidden as remiss, than not to have those great
scandals muzzled which were represented to me to be inevitable if
I went to law with these religious. And speaking with all truth, it
seems to them a case of less value than that any Indian or Spaniard
should imagine that there is any power in these kingdoms greater than
their own. May God preserve the very Catholic person of your Majesty,
with the increase of new kingdoms and the happiness of those that
you possess, as Christendom has need, and as we your Majesty's humble
vassals and chaplains desire.

Manila, August first, one thousand six hundred and twenty-two. [20]


_Fray Miguel Garcia Serrano_, archbishop of Manila.


_Regulations concerning the visits of religious_

The King. Inasmuch as I have considered it advisable to order to be
given, and gave, one of my decrees of the following tenor:

"The King. Inasmuch as there have been many differences in regard
to the manner in which the religious of the mendicant orders who