been experienced in the
provinces where the orders have bowed to that subjection, paying heed
perchance rather to not leaving the comforts of the fatherland than
to the observance of their rules. But since the religious in the
Filipinas Islands are not rooted in their fatherlands, but on the
contrary regard themselves as exiled therefrom, it is impossible for
them to return thither. Subject there to hardships and sickness (for
the climate of Filipinas is less favorable and healthful to Europeans),
they will not have the difficulty in quitting their ministries that
has been experienced in America--where, in order not to leave their
ministries, they have become subject, thus losing their positions;
and they will not be willing that the most religious and those most
zealous for their rules should at least keep away from the missions and
ministries of the Indians through the imposition of that burden, and
that no others should be found. Consequently, with that subjection they
desire again to journey to parts so remote; so that in such case, in
those provinces which are today so religious, their courage would grow
less and that not without danger to those ministries, which by their
very nature demand zealous persons and those of a very superior virtue.

For it is sufficient to consider that, if serious men of learning
and virtue subject themselves to the ordinary in order to minister
in a doctrina, it may happen that they will be punished for a slight
omission or neglect, perhaps one that they could not avoid--such as not
being able to arrive in time to hear the confession of a dying person
or to give him the holy oil; or to baptize a new-born infant. It is
possible that this fear alone would make some refuse the ministries
of the islands with such a risk. For although the ordinary cannot
punish them as religious, he can punish them as curas; and in such
a case it is difficult to proceed between cura and religious.

In the first place the religious's definitorio may assign him also to
a house with a vote, all of which have ministries in the Filipinas;
and an ambitious man may by the exercise of skill, and by influence,
intercessions, and presents deprive him of the place, and perhaps
may impute to him faults and defects that he does not possess in
order to attain his purpose better and to justify his action. That
can not fail to be a cause for sorrow, and more so to one who has
no foundation in the islands, but who is rathe