e that I am very much opposed to discussing such matter
especially when a man has to say something which may seem praise or
esteem of himself, which is a thing very unfit for those who try to
serve God. But when this is not done arrogantly, or in vanity, but
to defend the necessary truth, it is done as St. Gregory the Pope
did against the emperor Maurice, and Gelasius the Pope against the
emperor Anastasius. Even Moses and St. Paul, although they were so
humble, when it was necessary to defend their authority said things
of themselves which, said in any other connection, would seem wrong;
but, spoken for the purpose for which they said them, were rightly
spoken. As I think that what I have said is enough to satisfy your
Lordship's letter (and, if anything remains to be set right, time
will not be lacking in which it can be discussed), for the present let
this be sufficient. May our Lord give your Lordship the light of His
grace, that you may follow His holy will in everything. From Quiapo,
March twenty-first, one thousand five hundred and ninety-one.

_Fray Domingo_, Bishop of the Filipinas.

Liberty if the Indians in the Philippines

Gregory XIV, Pope: In perpetual remembrance of the affair.

Since, as we have recently learned, in the first attempts to
christianize the Indians of the Philippine Islands, so many dangers
of life had to be undergone, on account of the savageness of these
Indians, that many were constrained to take up arms against those
Indians, and even to ravage their property; while subsequently, after
the conversion of these Indians--who, abandoning their worship of
false gods, now acknowledge the true God and profess the Catholic
faith--those who formerly had ravaged their property now wish to
make good what they destroyed, but are without the means of so doing:
with the desire to provide for the peacefulness of conscience of the
said persons, and thus to guard against all dangers and discomforts
therein, by these presents, with our authority, we charge and command
our venerable brother the bishop of Manila to have the above-named
persons and the parties to whom restitution is to be made come to an
agreement thereon among themselves, with satisfaction to be made to
the owners wherever these are known. But where they are not known, then
the same compensation is to be made through the bishop in benefit and
aid of Indians in distress, should they who are bound to restitution
be able convenien