Gregory XIII, Pope. Beloved son, health and apostolic blessing.
Not long ago you acquainted us with the fact that, some time before,
Paul Conestabile, master-general of the entire order of Friars
Preachers, gave you leave--with thirty or forty professed members of
the said order, to be gathered by you from the provinces of Spain,
Aragon and Andalusia, and ten from the province of Mexico and from
Chiappa, [22] to go to the Philippine Islands and to the kingdom
of China. Moreover, appointing you his vicar-general in the said
Philippine Islands and kingdom of China, etc., he granted to you,
all and singular, the privileges which had been granted by former
generals to the province of Santiago of Mexico--to the end that you
might there establish a rule of life in accordance with the same,
and found provinces, etc.
But since, as you also told us, the said General Paul is dead, and
there are some who are doubtful of your power in the premises, and
therefore you have humbly petitioned us to determine what through our
apostolic bounty you should do in the premises: therefore, holding
that you are free from any sort of excommunication, etc., and by
these presents decreeing that the tenor of the said letters is to be
considered as if herein expressed; moreover, being not unwilling to
hearken to your petition, we by our apostolic authority, in virtue
of these presents, approve and confirm the things contained therein,
all and singular; and, as far as needs be, do again depute you to
the aforesaid charge, [23] etc.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, under the seal of the Fisherman,
on the twentieth day of October in the year 1582, the eleventh of
our pontificate.