Since the discovery of the two Americas, the king has been seignior
of them in temporal matters, and in spiritual, royal patron and
pope, and as such has made appointments to all the secular and
ecclesiastical employments of the cathedrals, with the advice of
the auditors; and the curacies are filled by the vice-patrons,
with preceding examination and proposal by the ordinary. In this
matter there is seen the monstrosity in Filipinas that, excepting
the prebends of the cathedral, all the curacies are given by the
provincials to their subjects without examination, proposal by,
or notice to, the ordinaries or the vice-patrons, with absolute
despotism and independence, despoiling the king and ordinaries of
the so well-known right that belongs to them.