s, it was discovered that the archbishop and some of the three
said orders of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Augustine, had held
a conference, and had drawn up a defamatory libel under the title
of a protest. They had included in it, according to public report,
not only those of the Society, but also the judge-conservator himself,
and the royal Audiencia, because they had passed judgment contrary to
their will. That protest or libel was authenticated by a royal notary
named Diego de Rueda, who is also a familiar of the Holy Office. The
judge-conservator arrested him, and with the aid that he requested,
the commissary of the Holy Office--who here is a Dominican father,
named Fray Francisco de Herrera--went to ask the said judge-conservator
for his familiar, the said notary. The judge-conservator answered that
he had already taken his deposition, and had no further need of him;
but that they should demand him from me, for he had been arrested by my
order. I answered that he had been delinquent in the exercise of his
duty, for having authenticated, as royal notary, a defamatory libel;
and that the punishment therefor pertained to the royal jurisdiction.

The father commissary sent two young and impudent friars to me, to
notify me of the act which I enclose herewith for your Majesty, and
laid his orders on me as imperiously as if he were the supreme tribunal
of the Inquisition. I, on the contrary, before the completion of the
notification, took the act from the hands of his agent with mildness,
and sent him to the port of Cavite, charging his superior there to
keep him in that place and treat him well. This I did purposely,
because it is not proper for a youthful friar to talk with so great
freedom to the representative of your Majesty--especially in a cause
which is so peculiar to the royal jurisdiction as is this offense,
which concerns the office of a notary.

On that account, the fathers of St. Domingo took occasion to utter
blasphemies against me. They declared that I was excommunicated
for hindering the service of the Inquisition; that I was deposed,
that I was not governor; that I could not act as governor; that
the senior auditor was to assume the government immediately; that
he was to imprison me and lock me up in a fort. In confirmation of
what they were saying throughout the city, they brought a friar from
Cavite, named Fray Francisco Pinelo, whom, being bold, eloquent,
and satirical in the pulpit (as is well