e heathen, but that they could not keep
the parochial administration of those who were converted, without
the enjoyment of all their privileges. Therefore, his Excellency
was forced to desist from his attempt, as he had no seculars to
whom to entrust that administration. In 1654, the attempt was made
to establish in Philipinas the practice recently adopted in the
kingdoms of Peru and Nueva Espana by petition of the fiscal of the
royal Audiencia. That body ordered that plan to be carried out, by
a decree of October 22; and since the chapters of the two provinces
of the order, the calced and discalced, were to be held in April of
55, that decree was communicated to them, with the warning that if
they were not obedient they would be deprived of their missions, and
the missionaries of the emoluments which had been assigned them for
their suitable support. All the orders opposed that change, following
logical methods in their defense, and averse to seeing the necessity
of abandoning their missions. But at last, as there was no other way,
the venerable fathers-provincial were reduced to handing over to the
governor and bishops all the ministries in their charge, so that,
as the former was the vice-patron and the latter were the ordinaries,
they might appoint whomever they wished to the curacies.

722. That resignation was handed to the fiscal, and in view of
it, in order that the most suitable provision might be made, with
full knowledge, he asked that writs be made out--first, to show how
many secular clergy were in the four bishoprics; second, so that the
officials of the royal treasury might attest the amount of the stipends
paid to the religious employed in the missions, and third, so that
the provincials might send the names of their subordinates employed in
the missions. That was ordered by a decree of May 10 in the said year
1655. It resulted that, in all, 254 religious were occupied in 252
missions; that the royal treasury only paid stipends corresponding to
141 missionaries; and that there were only 59 suitable secular priests
in all the islands. The fiscal, seeing that according to the report
the procedure that had been taken could not be maintained, in order
to obviate the inconveniences that would ensue to the natives and
inhabitants of those dominions if the religious were withdrawn from
the villages, petitioned on January 4, 1656, that without innovation
the orders be maintained in the missions, until it should