islands.

The stipends given by his Majesty to the archbishops and suffragan
bishops, the dignitaries of the holy church, and other ministers
are in the following form. Pope Gregory XIII, by his bull given at
Roma in the seventh year of his pontificate (which was the year 1587
[_i.e._, 1578]), at the petition of the Catholic king of the Espanas,
Don Felipe Second, erected the first parish church of Manila, and
assigned twenty-seven prebends to it, of which those that are suitable
and necessary were accepted. They consist of five dignidades--namely,
a dean, an archdeacon, a precentor, a schoolmaster, and a treasurer;
three canons, the fourth having been suppressed for the inquisitors,
according to custom in the Indias; two whole and two half racions,
established by royal decree given at Valladolid, June 2, 1604, and
countersigned by Juan Ibarra, his Majesty's secretary. Besides that,
there are in the cathedral two curas, two sacristans, one master of
ceremonies, one verger, and other officers; so that that holy church
is well established and the choir crowded, and their functions and
feasts are most splendid.

The salaries given by his Majesty to those who fill those offices are
as follows. To the archbishops of Manila, five thousand pesos of eight
Castilian reals per year, conceded by decree of his Majesty given in
Madrid, May 28, 1680. By virtue of the royal presentations, the dean
enjoys six hundred pesos; the four dignidades, namely, archdeacon,
precentor, schoolmaster, and treasurer, each five hundred pesos;
the three canons, namely, the doctoral, the magistral, and that of
grace, four hundred pesos apiece; the two racioneros, three hundred
apiece, and the two medio-racioneros, two hundred apiece; the master of
ceremonies, two hundred pesos, conceded by royal decree of February 22,
1724; the two curas, one for the Spaniards, and one for the natives,
each one hundred and eighty-three pesos, six tomins, seven granos,
besides their altar-fees, which are sufficiently generous.

The bishop of Cebu--whose extensive jurisdiction includes the islands
of Cebu, Leyte, Samar, and Ibabao; the provinces of Dapitan and Caraga
in Mindanao; the island of Panay, with its two provinces of Oton and
Capiz; with the other adjacent islands even as far as Calamianes,
Paragua, and the Marianas--enjoy four thousand pesos per year, by
virtue of a royal decree of May 28, 1680; the cura of the sacristy
of that holy church one hundred and e