Royal decree ordering that pupils, students, and members of the
universities, seminaries, and colleges for the Indians, subject
to the royal patronage and protection, may not contract betrothal
without the permission expressed.
The King. Inasmuch as I was informed by my royal Audiencia of the
city of Méjico, in a letter of May twenty-seven, one thousand seven
hundred and eighty-eight, that the bachelor, Don Manuel Esteban Sanchez
de Tagle, collegiate in the royal college of San Ildefonso of that
city, having attempted to contract betrothal with Doña María Josefa
Barrera y Andonaegui, and his father, Captain Don Manuel Esteban
Sanchez de Tagle, having opposed it, it would be advisable for me
to deign to extend to those dominions the resolutions for these
dominions, ordering that collegiates who are pursuing their studies
may not marry without my royal permission, as their extravagance is
regarded as prejudicial to the state; and inasmuch as the same reason
militates there so that they may not take place without the permission
of the viceroy as vice-patron: I have resolved, after consulting my
full Council of the Indias of the three halls, on November six, one
thousand seven hundred and ninety, executed in view of that set forth
in the matter by my two fiscals, that law vii, título viii, book i,
[108] extended in the board of the new code be observed in those
dominions. The exact tenor of that law is as follows: "Since the
universities, conciliar seminaries, and other colleges of teaching,
erected with public authority in our Indias, are under our royal
patronage and protection; and since their students and pupils merit
the most careful attention, so that they may not disgrace themselves
in their courses and studies with prejudice to the state and their
own families: we order and command such pupils, students, and members
of said universities, conciliar seminaries, and other colleges and
houses, not to contract espousals without, in addition to the paternal
consent, or the consent of the person who ought to give it. According
to the first law of this título, they have the license, those of the
conciliar seminaries, of the archbishops and bishops and vice-patrons,
and those of the universities and other colleges, of our viceroys or
presidents of the respective audiencias, to whom they shall send their
petitions or requests by the hand of the rectors, with report of the
latter, since for this matter we delegate our royal authority to the
abovesaid. All of the abovesaid shall be understood as well in the
houses and colleges for women, which are under our royal protection
and patronage. We declare null and void of all value or effect,
betrothals which are contracted without this requirement, and no
judgment or suit can be admitted in regard to their non-fulfilment
in the manner and form prescribed by the preceding law." Therefore,
I order and command my viceroys, presidents, royal audiencias, and
the governors of my kingdoms of the Indias, Filipinas Islands, and
Windward Islands, and ask and request the right reverend archbishops
and reverend bishops of them, and their provisors and vicars-general,
to observe, perform, and execute, and cause to be observed, performed,
and executed exactly, the contents of the above-inserted law of the
new code, in so far as it concerns each one. Such is my will. Given
in Aranjuez, June eleven, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two.