n, have proceeded against the brethren similarly
resident in the same province, who were received into the order in
the Indias. As filed in my office, etc.

"To the petition in the memorial and brief as presented, the
reverend father Master Peter Ribadeneira, [7] assistant [general]
for the Spains and procurator for the Indias [or Philippines],
made answer as follows: That his clients were not bound thereto,
inasmuch as the said ordinances could not be carried into effect by
reason of impossibility, since the brethren who were given the habit
[of the order] in the Indias are fewer in number than the offices
[_or_ positions] to be filled [by the same]; wherefore the decree _de
alternativa_ [8] cannot be complied with in the conferral of the said
offices. Moreover, that the said brief was obtained without a hearing
of his clients, and therefore is surreptitious, besides being contrary
to truth in that the charge was made therein that a sedition had taken
place among the [brethren]. Wherefore protest has been entered that
no further steps be taken unless by [due process of law], etc.

"Whereupon I the undersigned, a notary-public, have been requested
to have made and drawn up one or more public instruments in reference
to all and singular the above, according as may be needed or demanded.

"Done at Rome in my office, etc., of the Rione del Ponte, [9] in the
presence and hearing and cognizance of Don Bernardino Pacheto [10] and
Don Jacobo Francisco Belgio, fellow-notaries and witnesses, especially
called, requested, and summoned to all and singular the above."

We also present an original letter from the general of our order, and
another from the father assistant of the province of Espana, in which
they tell us how his Holiness had already revoked the said brief;
also another letter, from the procurator of this province at that
court [_i.e._, Madrid], in which he notified us that he had presented
the brief of revocation in the royal Council of the Indias. But,
notwithstanding these letters, the religious who had taken the
habit in the Indias persisted all the more in persuading their judge
to hurry forward the legal proceedings and to urge on the acts of
violence which he was executing against us; and in this importunity,
and in the opposition which the said religious made to the letters and
advices of the general and of the assistant in the Spanish provinces,
was admirably displayed the obedience and respect that th