Letter from Felipe III to the Archbishop of Manila

The King: To the very reverend father in Christ, the archbishop of the

city of Manila, of the Philipinas Islands, a member of my Council. As

the information of which a copy is sent you with this has been examined

in my Council of the Indias, which inquiry was made by the order of

the governor of that archbishopric, concerning certain excesses of

the teaching religious of the Order of St. Augustine in those islands,

I have decided to send it to you; so that, in so far as concerns your

jurisdiction over the occupations of the priests in the missions,

you may correct the excesses mentioned in the said information,

and whatever others there may be. You will remedy them in the form

which most furthers the service of God our Lord, and myself. As to

the other matters contained in the said information concerning the

said religious--that it is understood that they are in league with

the governor of those islands and the provincial of the said Order

of St. Augustine, or he who may be in his place--you will discuss the

remedy which is made necessary by events, as well in this particular

as in general. Accordingly I charge and command you to do this,

and to advise me of what you shall have done therein. Valencia,

on the first of March, of 1599.

_I The King_

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 10 of 55 1597-1599 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century · 第 26 / 55 题