emedy this, as is necessary and as is most fitting
to the service of God, our Lord, so that such religious may not remain
in those parts. [28] [Felipe III--San Lorenzo, September 17, 1616.]

LAW LII

Inasmuch as briefs have been despatched by his Holiness, ordering the
religious of the Order of St. Augustine in some of the provinces of
Nueva Espana to elect in one chapter some of the Spanish religious who
reside there, and in the next chapter religious born in the Indias,
we ask and charge the superiors and chapters of the said order to
observe the said briefs and cause them to be observed, in the form
ordered by his Holiness--both in the provinces of Nueva Espana and
in the Filipinas--since they have passed before our royal Council,
and testimony has been given of their presentation. The same is to be
understood in regard to the other orders and provinces of the Indias,
which shall possess briefs for the _alternativa_, and under the same
conditions. [Felipe IV--Madrid, September 28, 1629; August 1, 1633;
and in the _Recopilacion_.]

LAW XXXIII

Although it was determined that no religious except those of the
Society of Jesus should go to Japon to preach the holy gospel for
the space of fifteen years, and that the others who should try to go
to those parts through the rules of their order or their particular
devotion should be assigned the district to which they were to go,
not permitting them to pursue their voyage by way of Filipinas
or any other part of the Western Indias, but by way of Eastern
India--notwithstanding that the precept for the propagation and
preaching of the gospel is common to all the faithful, and especially
charged upon the religious--we consider it fitting that the missions
and entrances of Japon be not limited to only the religious of the
Society of Jesus; but that the religious go and enter from all the
orders as best they can, and especially from the orders that possess
convents and have been permitted to go to and settle in our Western
Indias. There shall be no innovation in regard to the orders that are
prohibited by laws and ordinances of the Indias. Those laws are made
not only for Eastern India but also for the Western Indias, in whose
demarcation fall Japon and the Filipinas. It is easier and better for
the religious of our crown of Castilla to make their entrances by way
of the Western Indias. We straitly charge those who thus enter, from
either direction, to maintain the gr