The King. To the illustrious Marques de Castel Rodrigo, my cousin,
member of my Council, and ambassador in Roma: the bearer, Fray Mateo
de Villa, of the Order of Preachers, procurator of the province of
Santo Rosario of the Filipinas Islands in my Western Yndias, has
informed me that his province has a college called Santo Tomas in
the city of Manila, of which I am the patron, where there are thirty
secular collegiates; that for some years past that college has been
a university through royal permission; that bulls have been conceded
twice for its conservation; and that grammar, rhetoric, the arts,
and moral and scholastic theology are studied there, with especial
profit to the children of that community. He petitions me to issue
a royal decree authorizing the said college to become a university,
with the same qualifications and [right of] perpetuity as the others
of his order in the convents of Santo Tomas in Avila and Santiago at
Pamplona, in these same kingdoms. The matter having been examined
by the members of my royal Council of the Yndias, in consideration
that the city of Manila of the Filipinas Islands is more than three
thousand leguas from the nearest universities--namely, those of Lima
and Megico--and that the said university suffers some restriction,
I have considered it fitting to lend my royal consent for this case;
and this concession shall continue, for the present. Consequently,
if in the future there should be a disposition to found a separate
university, it may be done, as in the cities of Lima and Megico,
so that it may be a general university, in order that students may
be graduated from it in all branches, and that its degrees may be
recognized everywhere. Accordingly, I charge and order you in my name,
and in virtue of the letter of credit that I am writing, to supplicate
his Holiness to be pleased to concede a bull, so that the said college
may be a university with the same qualifications and [right of]
perpetuity as those of Avila, Santiago, Lima, and Megico; for there
is not a university of that rank in those islands and provinces, and
this is therefore expedient for my service and the general welfare of
those regions. You shall give the matter the care that I expect from
you, so that the said bull may be immediately drawn up; and therein
you will render me a service. Madrid, November nine, 1639.