ring the said provisor
as excommunicated and as fallen into the penalties of the clause _si
quis suadente Diabolo_ ... I continued to prosecute the cause of the
visit, and, having found the said minister guilty, I requested aid in
order to proceed against him, and, until he should become obedient,
to keep him confined in one of these convents of Manila.

The royal Audiencia voted that there was at present no occasion
for the said aid. Thereupon I issued an act, in which I abandoned
the visit until I could give an account to your Majesty--to whom
I enclose a testimony of everything with this letter, and with it
another testimony of the act of the royal Audiencia in regard to the
case against my provisor, whom the judge conservator tried to arrest,
and for which he requested aid, which the auditors refused him.

I have written your Majesty this relation in order to comply with your
orders to inform you of what should be done in this, and so that you
may see the freedom with which the religious proceed in this country,
confident that they are the greatest part of the community; and that
having, as they do, so great influence in all these provinces which
they administer, they must succeed with whatever they undertake,
even creating a judge conservator, contrary to the ruling of the holy
council and the royal will of your Majesty. That is so true that they
proclaimed in Manila that if the archbishop proceeded with the visit,
they would place him on the list as excommunicated, and would not
absolve him until he should go to their convent of St. Dominic to
beg absolution. I might easily have proceeded with the visit, Sire,
but I preferred to be chidden as remiss, than not to have those great
scandals muzzled which were represented to me to be inevitable if
I went to law with these religious. And speaking with all truth, it
seems to them a case of less value than that any Indian or Spaniard
should imagine that there is any power in these kingdoms greater than
their own. May God preserve the very Catholic person of your Majesty,
with the increase of new kingdoms and the happiness of those that
you possess, as Christendom has need, and as we your Majesty's humble
vassals and chaplains desire.

Manila, August first, one thousand six hundred and twenty-two. [20]

_Fray Miguel Garcia Serrano_, archbishop of Manila.

_Regulations concerning the visits of religious_

The King. Inasmuch as I have considered it advisable to or