nable to
attain his purpose, for God cut short the thread of his life. They
have their own chaplain, their rectoress, and their portress; and
they live safely retired and with holy mode of life.

Royal brotherhood of the Santa Misericordia

553. The royal brotherhood of the Santa Misericordia of the city of
Manila is composed of the members of the most prominent families of
Manila. They have their overseer, twelve deputies, and a secretary,
who form their executive board, besides other officers for their
necessary transaction of business. They were established in imitation
of the one which was erected in Lisboa, in the year 1498, by the most
serene queen of Portugal--Dona Leonor, at that time the widow of Don
Juan the Second, who had died in the year 1495 as appears in all the
Portuguese histories. Their founder was a Trinitarian religious of
praiseworthy life, one Fray Miguel de Contreras. The Misericordia
of Manila is due to the pious and fervent efforts of that venerable
servant of God. Father Juan Fernandez de Leon, a secular priest,
a native of Gibra-Leon, in the county of Niebla in Andalucia, at the
time when this archbishopric was governed by the very reverend father
Fray Christoval de Salvatierra, [59] of the Order of Preachers, and
the Philipinas Islands by Don Luis Gomez [_sic_: error for _Perez_]
Dasmarinas. This holy brotherhood was established April 16, 1594, with
the liberal alms of all the nobility of Manila, and the above-named
governor was appointed its first overseer. The three who cooperated
for its establishment and the formation of its constitution, were
Father Pereyra, of the holy Society of Jesus, father Fray Marcos de
Lisboa, a Franciscan, and Don Christoval Giral, all three of them
Portuguese. In the church of the Society of Jesus at Manila met the
most reverend father Fray Christoval de Salvatierra, the venerable dean
Don Diego Basquez de Mercado, and the said venerable Juan Fernandez
de Leon; the venerable fathers Antonio Sedeno and Raymundo de Prado,
of the holy Society of Jesus; the venerable fathers Fray Agustin
de Tordesillas, Fray Marcos de Lisboa, Fray Alonso Munoz, and Fray
Juan Bautista, of this seraphic [_i.e._, Franciscan] province;
together with the magistrates, regidors, and superior officers of
the army of the city, and other persons of education and talents,
both ecclesiastics and laymen.

554. Thus erected, and in accordance with its erection, the Santa
Misericordia rema