een shown by those who
have had experience that many inconveniences result; and after this
was investigated by the members of my royal Council of the Indias,
and counsel taken upon it, with the object of correcting these evils,
it has seemed to me both fitting and necessary for the fulfilment
of the obligation that I am under of procuring the salvation of the
souls of those my subjects--according as I am enjoined by the holy
apostolic see and bidden by my conscience--that the cathedral church
of the said city of Manila be elevated into a metropolitan see and
its territory into an archbishopric; and that three new bishoprics
be created and established suffragan to it, so that they may hold
their synods according to the orders of the holy Council of Trent, and
without coming to Nueva Espana, as the bishop of Manila, who was the
suffragan to the archbishop of Mexico, was compelled to do. From one
region to the other, the journey is more than three thousand leguas;
and, besides, it is evident that those islands could thus be better
and more fittingly governed in spiritual affairs.

Therefore I command you upon receipt of this despatch, to propose to
his Holiness, and supplicate him, in my name, that he may be pleased to
elevate into a metropolitan see the said cathedral church of Manila,
and to create the three bishoprics aforesaid--one in the church of
the city of Nueva-Segovia in the province of Cagayan in the island
of Luzon, under the protection of the Conception of Our Lady; one in
the city of Caceres in the territory of Camarines, in the same island,
under the protection of St. John the Evangelist; and the other in the
aforesaid city of Santisimo Nombre de Xesus, in the island of Cebu,
of that archipelago, under the protection of the guardian angel. In
this way each one may exercise in his diocese the pastoral office; and
the metropolitan archbishop, together with the bishops, may labor with
jurisdiction, authority, and power in the conversion and instruction
of the said natives; and he and they may provide for other spiritual
matters which may seem desirable for the maintenance of divine worship
and the salvation of souls. But for the present, and until affairs
be more settled in those regions and tithes established, no cathedral
churches shall be erected, or dignitaries or canonries provided for,
except that the bishops shall dwell privately in the monasteries of
their order which are situated in the aforesaid citie