mulating from
vacancies in the bishoprics of these islands, and from the tithes;
and, if necessary, from the funds of the royal treasury. All was to
be done with the advice of the archbishop of Manila, and his Majesty
was to be informed of all that was done. Everything was carried out
by the governor and master-of-camp, Don Domingo de Zabalburu; and,
with the approval of his Excellency the archbishop, Don Diego Camacho
y Avila, the plans for the building of the seminary were begun with
all possible energy. By a general meeting of the treasury tribunal,
held May 22, 1705, four thousand pesos were appropriated to General
Don Miguel de Elorriaga for the encouragement of this enterprise.

546. With the arrival at these islands of the patriarch of Antiochia,
Cardinal Don Carlos Thomas Millard de Tournon, [56] in the year
1704, and with the stay of the abbot Don Juan Baptista Sidoti [57]
in the islands, until he went to Japon, that work was strengthened
by various alms, which the said Sidoti went about collecting for it,
until he succeeded in giving it a stone foundation one vara high. The
seminary was called San Clemente, in honor of the pope. [58] Then
writing to Madrid and to Roma the progress that had been made--namely,
that the seminary was already in operation, and that the number
of the seminarists exceeded twenty, and attributing that glory to
the said gentlemen and to their efforts, it was advised that the
said cardinal should select those persons whom he thought proper
for master and rector. Pontifical commission was assigned him for
that, and in fact, in the year 1707, the licentiate Don Gabriel de
Isturis was appointed rector, and the bachelor Don Hypolito del Rio
as master of the seminarists. On November 28 of that year, the first
eight seminarists were received by the governor of these islands, Don
Domingo de Zabalburu. The archbishop and governor of these islands
helped in all these plans, and, in addition to the above alms,
contributions were made from the revenues of the royal treasury.

547. Having been informed of all this news, the apostolic nuncio at
the court of Espana presented himself before the Catholic Majesty
in the name of the pope (who had been informed by the archbishop
and the governor of Manila), asking that his Majesty would deign to
consider as valid the said foundation in the aforesaid form in the
city of Manila--since it meant glory to his crown to have a seminary
in these islands, from w