frequent fasts, midnight prayers, wearing beards, and
going with uncovered heads. In 1588. at a chapter of these brethren
held at Toledo (the general of the order presiding), Luis de Leon,
the famed scholar and poet, was commissioned to draw up constitutions
for the observants, and these were approved by Rome. In 1614, the new
branch known now (as then) as "discalced" were freed from dependence
on the general of the order; and in 1622 Pope Gregory XV approved
their constitutions. In 1589, the reform movement (as above) spread
to some of our nunneries; these sisters were, like their brethren,
established as _Descalzas_, with their first house at Madrid under
Madre Maria de Jesus (or Covarubias) as Superioress--the first house
of the Recoletos being at Tatavera de la Reyna. In 1606, the Recoletos
entered the Philippines, where their first house was at Bagungbayan,
with the title of S. Juan. In 1602, by decree of November 16, the
general of the Augustinians, Fulvius of Ascoli, sanctioned the division
of the Philippine fathers of the order into two provinces--those who
held with the old rule to be known as Augustinians of the province of
Santisimo Nombre de Jesus; the Discalced, or Recoletos, as those of
the province of San Nicolas de Tolentino; so when the Recoletos went
to the Philippines they bore the name of their home province with
them to Malaysia. In Manila the famous Puente de Espana ("Bridge of
Spain") was projected and built under the superintendence of a Recoleto
father. (Thus Zamora, in _Las Corporaciones en Filipinas_, p, 358.) In
1726, the Discalced were dispensed from wearing beards; in 1746, from
going barefooted. Their earliest form of dress resembled the Capuchin
habit, except that its color was black. In 1736, the _beaterio_ of
S. Sebastian at Calumpang, in Luzon--which seventeen years previous had
been established by four Indian maidens, who were devout to Nuestra
Senora de Carmel--was handed over to the care of Recoleta sisters;
it is not known when these first came to the islands. The province
of the Recoletos in the Philippines bears the title of San Nicolas
de Tolentino. In Spain the Recoleto study-houses of their Philippine
missionaries are (or were in 1897), at Alfaro, Monteagudo, Marcilla,
and San Millan de la Cogolla.--_Rev. T.C. Middleton, O.S.A._

[33] Cf. the document in _Vol_. XI, "Grant to Jesuit school in Cebu,"
dated December 11, 1601. See note thereon regarding translation
of _colegio_.