that important matter. But Arandia died before
his arrival, and it is claimed that he was helped to die. However
that may be, Archbishop Roxo, having lost his support, could not,
although he became governor and captain-general of the islands, make
the friars submissive. He wrote to the king that the briefs of the
pope and the decrees of his Majesty would always be without force and
validity; and that the one and only way of succeeding in regulating
that matter was to issue imperative commands to the general of each
order in Europe to direct their friars at Manila to receive the visit
of the archbishop. In the meantime, the war comes--Manila is captured;
Roxo dies, and all is as before.

Roxo was replaced only in 1767. That year the court of Espana sent an
archbishop. [89] I saw him, and even went to make him several visits
when he had made his [public] entrance. He wrote to all the communities
that he was preparing to visit his diocese. He had, so it was said,
left Europe with the fullest authority for that purpose. He had bulls,
briefs from the pope, and orders from the court. He thought that he
would succeed with all these arms, but he did not know that there
would be an answer for everything at Manila. The friars answered then
that they could not allow him to visit them; and such is their answer
[to their superior]. They went, say they, first to the Philippines;
they have received the care of souls, under certain conditions and
certain charges that cannot be set aside; [and they said] that the
archbishop might, if he wished, take away all the livings in their
charge and provide the same with secular priests. I have said that
the archbishopric of Manila contains more than two hundred livings,
of which only thirteen are in charge of secular priests. Consequently,
there are about two hundred still occupied by the friars. Now the
case was very embarrassing for the archbishop, who did not then
have two hundred priests at his disposal. As to the briefs, bulls,
etc., consider the pleasant response that they made, and which their
partisans scattered abroad in public; they said, then, that his
Excellency had not brought any new rulings with him from the courts
of Rome and Madrid. It was very true that there existed a bull of
the pope in regard to that matter, but it would have to be looked
for in the books. In order that it might, on the other hand, become a
law, it was necessary for the archbishop to give notification of it