ted until your Majesty
shall fill the places. For if it proves that the person is incapable or
unworthy--either because of any secret reason known to the archbishop,
or for any suit that he has pending or for any other reason--the
remedy is more easy in its beginning, by first conferring together
about the case. Your Majesty seems to have so ordered, as appears from
the presentations made by Governors Don Pedro de Acuna and Don Juan de
Silba, which read as follows: "Having communicated with the archbishop,
and having observed the order and decree of his Majesty, I present
So-and-so," etc. There it appears that your Majesty has ordered in
this matter that consultation be held thereon. It would be well to
order this again; for the governor says that he has not seen such a
decree, nor do I find it in the book of decrees. [_Marginal note_:
"Have this decree found and brought. Let them observe the decrees
regarding this. Let the governor report on what the archbishop asks."]

Two appointments from your Majesty came last year to this metropolitan
church of Manila. One was to the deanship, of Santiago de Castro,
a sick man who has not left his house for more than three years. He
is sick and old, and so deaf that he can hold no intercourse or
communication with men. Consequently, he is expecting death daily,
and he may therefore be numbered among the dead, as far as human
intercourse is concerned. This alone could hinder the execution of
his appointment, for in other things he has excellent qualifications
for the dignity. Since his condition renders him unfit for service,
and since the dean must necessarily take upon himself the management
and headship of the cabildo, much consideration should be given to
this appointment--especially as another appointment (as archdean)
came for Canon Thomas de Guimarano, an unlettered man, to whom some
years ago they did not dare to grant permission to hear confessions
on the galleys, where he was chaplain. Therefore, Archbishop Don
Fray Miguel de Benavides wrote these words to your Majesty in the
year 604, the copy of which is in my possession. "Don Pedro de Acuna
gave a chaplaincy in the seminary of Santa Potenciana to one of his
followers, who lives in his palace, one Thomas de Guimarano--a man
of so little capacity that the said archdean and commissary of the
Holy Office examined him at my order, in order that he might hear
confessions in the galley, whose chaplain he was, and did not find