the said convents, or any one of
them, but are to be applied to this one purpose; and since the said
college is not a monastery, and only in its administration is under
the patronage of the said father provincial and it being necessary,
under that of the prior, the father provincial promises and binds
himself, for himself and for the other provincials succeeding him,
to observe this article, and not dispose of the properties of the
said college or any part of them, in any other thing than the benefit,
growth and permanence of the college; and he renounces any ordinance,
statute, or privilege concerning it which authorizes him in any way
whatever to make the said distribution. And for a more binding pledge,
I thus swear, with my hand on my breast, _in verbo sacerdotis_. [49]

_Item_: Inasmuch as the aforesaid convent of Santo Domingo of this
city, is the chief one of this province, both in antiquity and in
all other things, which makes it the most prominent of them all; and
since it is a convent that receives no chaplaincies or other funds
as memorials of the deceased, but is sustained only by ordinary alms
(as is notorious); and it has been built and rebuilt after the fires
that have happened in this city, by means of those alms, through the
exceeding devotion with which the faithful citizens of the city assist
the welfare of the said convent; and since the convent has been,
after the said archbishop, the first contriver and author of such a
work as this, and founds it, and intends to preserve and increase it;
and consequently, it is just that the prior of the said convent have
some prerogatives over the other priors of this province in the said
college: it is an express statute and condition of this foundation,
that he who is, or shall be, now and henceforth, forever, prior
of this said college [_sic_; _sc_. convent] of Manila, shall have
in his charge the government, discipline, and teaching of the said
college, and that he cannot be removed, suspended, or dismissed from
the said administration, unless dismissed from the priorship of the
said convent.

_Item_: As such founders of the said charitable work and college, we
desire, and it is our will, that the said province of Nuestra Senora
del Rosario be its patroness. The provincial of the province shall have
the prerogative and privilege of appointing the lecturers necessary for
the efficient teaching of the branches that may be studied and taught
in the said colle