_Fray Agustin de Tordesilla_, [18] definitor.
_Fray Christoval de Santa Ana_, definitor.
_Fray Antonio de Nombela_, definitor.

[_Notes at beginning_: "The minister provincial and the definitors
of the province of San Gregorio in Manila, of the Order of St. Francis.

"They mention the extortions committed on that province by some
auditors of the Audiencia, which compelled them to receive father
Fray Francisco Ximinez in your Majesty's name, although in violation
of a brief of his Holiness. It is petitioned that a remonstrance be
sent to them, so that they may not exercise similar violence on any
other occasion."]

Sire:

We, the provincial and definitors of the province of Sant Gregorio
of the Philipinas Islands of the order of the discalced religious
of our seraphic Father St. Francis, your Majesty's loyal vassals
and humble chaplains, declare that this province has been signally
injured and aggrieved, with great detriment to its general credit and
good name, and the opinion of all our order, and in particular that
of the said province, by Licentiate Hieronimo del Gaspi Chabarria,
Doctor Don Albaro de Mesa y Lugo, and Doctor Don Antonio Rodriguez
de Villegas, auditors of your royal Audiencia of these islands,
by reason of their having granted your royal aid to Fray Francisco
Ximenez, an Observantine religious. The latter came to this province
with a commission granted by the father commissary-general of our
order in Nueva Espana, ordering us to receive him--although he ought
not to be received, as it was in violation of the general rule of
government in our order; and in violation of a brief of his Holiness,
Gregory Thirteenth. Moreover, such action tends to the destruction
of the discalced religious, and of the reform and common welfare of
this province, and of the conversions in these new kingdoms of your
Majesty--especially when the said auditors compel this province to
receive him in your royal name, making an ill use of your name and
of the royal authority, and insulting it--and he does that, who,
under pretext of such name, practices injustices and extortions,
and who does not observe the terms of laws and ordinances; and much
more, when they are practiced against an order and province that your
Majesty has always esteemed and esteems so highly. Thus, nominally by
your royal authority, we have suffered great violence and scandals,
and it is certain that had this occurred nearer to your Majesty's pious
eye