ed
of him [_i.e._, the provisor]. The governor should know that it was
beyond the power of secular judges to appoint ecclesiastical vicars
and to confer spiritual jurisdiction. Consequently, he petitioned
the governor in his own name, that of the bishop of Cebu, and those
of the orders, to refrain from such appointment; and counseled him
that he should consult with learned persons who feared God, since
there were so many in the body of secular priests and in the orders,
in such determinations. The religious of the Society, angered at the
act of the archbishop, after various demands and replies on both sides
(which I shall not set down here, as it is not my intention to stir up
so delicate matters--in which it must be believed that each one would
strive according to the dictates of his conscience, for one cannot
imagine the opposite of either side, rather believing that the common
enemy was preparing his weapons in order to occasion the misfortunes
that followed afterward), appointed the schoolmaster, Don Fabian
de Santillan y Gabilanes, judge-conservator (because they declared
that they were prevented from the exercise of their privileges). He
accepted the appointment, and immediately erected a tribunal against
the archbishop, issuing acts against him and fulminating censures in
case he should again oppose the proceedings that had been commenced.

Who could now look for less lamentable issues than those that were
seen in these islands from so wretched beginnings, as are those
that we have seen even to our days? The archbishop was very much
grieved over this determination, for he saw arrayed against himself,
on one side, the tyrannical governor (for Don Sebastian Hurtado de
Corcuera was domineering), and on the other an order so great as the
Society. Notwithstanding he determined to present himself in the royal
Audiencia by way of [pleading] fuerza, although he recognized the
little that he could accomplish by that means. But he was unwilling
to incur the fault of having failed to take this precaution, as was
determined by the orders of these islands--who firmly and steadfastly
assisted the archbishop, aiding him to maintain the ecclesiastical
immunity, which was running so great danger. The archbishop presented
himself in the royal Audiencia, where his arguments were examined in
two meetings; and a disagreement [in the Audiencia] having resulted,
the fiscal, who was the third, undertook to discuss the question. He
decl