r jails,
or to make arrests or condemn, unless they have commission from the
bishop for the things in which he can give it in accordance with law;
or not to appoint as fiscals others than those whom the bishop might
assign them, together with other declarations contained in the said
decree. Afterward the king my sovereign and father, who is in glory,
by another decree dated May six, six hundred and fourteen, ordered
the aforesaid to be obeyed and observed, according to its contents,
without violating or exceeding its tenor and form, as is contained
more at length in the said decree and its reissue, which are of the
following tenor:

"The King. To Don Juan de Silva, my governor and captain-general of
the Philipinas Islands and president of my royal Audiencia of them,
or the person or persons in whose charge may be their government:
The king my sovereign and father, who is in heaven, ordered to be
issued and gave the decree of the following tenor:

"'The King. To Gomez Perez das Marinas, my governor and captain-general
in the Philippinas Islands, or the person in whose charge may be the
government of them: Inasmuch as I have been informed that the religious
who reside in those islands, busied in the instruction and conversion
of the Indians, meddle in matters that do not concern them, I order you
not to allow them to have prisons or jails, or to arrest or condemn,
unless they be those who have commission from the bishop for those
things in which he can give commission in accordance with law; that
they do not appoint or have other fiscals than those assigned them by
the said bishop; and that they take no fees for burials, marriages,
or baptisms, other than according to the appraisement and declaration
of the said bishop. And inasmuch as I have been informed that they
have proceeded in the exercise of their privileges, with an excess
prejudicial to the suitable progress of the instruction, and that it
would be advisable to declare what privileges be conserved and what
revoked, in order to remove confusions and doubts--for they confess the
Indians without the bishop's authorization, and, although not curas,
perform marriages, which is in direct violation of the ordinance in
the holy council of Trent, incurring risk that the confessions and
marriages are invalid: I order you likewise that you shall communicate
with the superiors of the orders, and command them to examine the said
privileges; and, unless they have such privi