d by the provisor, who is at the same
time vicar-general and judge of the chaplains. He is charged with
the performance of judicial acts in ecclesiastical matters, and is
accompanied by notaries. This unctionary did not formerly have the
investiture as licentiate of laws, and was assisted by a matriculated
lawyer of the royal Audiencia. The creation of the ecclesiastical
fiscal was posterior to that of the ecclesiastical courts; and
his institution is due to the authority of the pontiffs, who have
especially charged said functionaries with the defense of the integrity
of marriages, and other duties peculiar to their employments. The
charge of provisor was at first exercised constantly by the Augustinian
fathers, by virtue of the _amnimodo_ authority granted by the popes;
later, their attributes passed to the Franciscan fathers, by agreement
with them. But the archbishop of Mejico, considering himself empowered
to appoint ecclesiastical judges (who were to be the vicars and
provisors of these dominions), sent two clerics with authorization to
exercise the said offices. The governor, [113] however, with his rank
as royal vice-patron, protected the regulars in their privileges, and
ordered Father Alfaro to exercise the said office alone. Afterward,
when the suffragan bishoprics were created, and that of Manila was
erected to the dignity of a metropolitan, with the archiepiscopal
hierarchy, the appointment of provisors was regulated.

The spiritual administration of any of the bishoprics that fall
vacant devolves upon the metropolitan archbishop, and the latter is
the one empowered to appoint a provisor or capitular vicar. In case
that the archiepiscopal metropolitan see should become vacant also,
the government devolves upon the nearest bishop; and if there be two
bishops at equal distances, it devolves upon the senior of these. In
accordance with the terms of a royal decree dated April 22, 1705,
it is ordered that the expenses incurred by the prelates on their
episcopal visits are to be met by the royal treasury. The manner in
which the _espolios_, [114] are collected was determined by a royal
decree, dated June 24, 1821.

The secular clergy is divided into parochial and non-parochial. In the
latter class are included the persons employed in the metropolitan
cathedral; to the same class belong the four provisors of the other
dioceses.

The provisor or vicar-general of this diocese holds the title of
judge of chaplains