leges, not to proceed in
the matters here specified, because of the doubts and scandals that
may result. Given in Madrid, June eleven, one thousand five hundred
and ninety-four.

_I The King_
By order of the king our sovereign:
_Juan de Ibarra_'

"And now it has been represented to me on the part of the archbishop
of that city that none of the contents of the said decree are observed
or obeyed with the exactness that would be fitting and expedient to
the service of God and to my service. He petitioned me to order that
it be strictly observed, as a remedy for the troubles that arise
from it. Inasmuch as it is my will that this be done, I order you
to observe, and to cause the said decree above inserted of the king
my sovereign and father to be obeyed and observed, exactly according
to its contents and declarations, without violating or exceeding in
any part of it. This I shall regard with approbation; but by the
contrary I shall consider myself as disserved. Given in Madrid,
May six, one thousand six hundred and fourteen.

_I The King_
By order of the king our sovereign:
_Don Juan Ruiz de Contreras_"

And now Don Juan Cevicos, treasurer of the metropolitan church of
the city of Manila of the said Philipinas Islands, has informed me
in the name of the archbishop of the city that, petition having
been made in behalf of Licentiate Don Diego Barquez de Mercado,
while archbishop of the said church, and of the suffragan bishops,
in my royal Audiencia of the said city, for the execution of the said
decree, because it was not observed by the religious of the Order
of St. Francis, and an edict to that effect having been despatched,
the provincial of the said order was notified. He--under pretext
of two other decrees of the sixteenth of March of the said year
six hundred and fourteen, despatched at the petition of the said
religious because they had represented that the said archbishop had
tried to make innovations in the missions by appointing fiscals in
them (as in fact he did do, so that information should be made of
what had been done in this), and that in the meanwhile no innovation
or change should be made in what had been the usual practice at the
time when he entered the said archbishopric--opposed the said edict,
and petitioned that the said decree of the sixteenth of March, six
hundred and fourteen, be observed. The same was done by the other
orders in the said islands. After the cause had been prosecuted