himself with courage to meet the hostilities which he will
encounter; for abuses which have already become inveterate, and
scandals favored by indulgence, cannot be overcome without strenuous
efforts and repeated conflicts. Such was the case of a certain prebend
whom the predecessor of his illustrious Lordship had tried to correct,
but had never been able to do so on account of the support that the
delinquent received from a certain potent personage; accordingly the
archbishop's zeal contented itself with giving information of the
whole matter to the king our sovereign--who issued on this matter a
royal decree commanding the said archbishop to correct the scandalous
acts of that prebend, without fear or regard for any power. As
this royal decree arrived at Manila when the said archbishop was
already dead, the king our sovereign despatched another decree to our
archbishop-elect, Don Fray Felipe Pardo, very earnestly recommending
to him the correction of the transgressions of the said prebend. [149]
Notwithstanding the activity of our archbishop, he could not end the
proceedings in this case for eight years, on account of the evasions
of the culprit, and the protection that he found in the officials of
the royal Audiencia, who at every step forbade our archbishop to take
any further steps in the prosecution of the suits, thus preventing
his holy zeal from successfully checking abuses and scandals.

This was made more plainly evident in the suit regarding another
ecclesiastic, the cura of Bigan, against whom the provisor appointed
by his illustrious Lordship (since the government of that bishopric
pertained to him) began to institute proceedings in a criminal suit,
in consequence of various denunciations and accusations. As the
culprit was on intimate terms with one of the auditors, the latter
managed the affair so dexterously that he caused the issue of a
royal decree in which the royal Audiencia commanded the archbishop
to remove thence [i.e., from Vigan] the said provisor and oblige
him to reside in the city of Lalo all to the end that he should not
proceed in the suit. This measure was ineffectual, on account of
the reply and representations made by the archbishop; the provisor
therefore proceeded in his suit. The delinquent, finding himself
in a tight place, fled from Bigan and came to Manila; and, when he
was arrested by the archbishop for this flight, he demanded to be
released on bail--which his illustrious Lordsh