ich their province of New Spain was
established--who there may found a new province of their order.

We, on whom through appointment of the Lord it is incumbent to
foster the spread of the gospel, desirous of taking part in this
duty of preaching the gospel in kingdoms wherein Christ is unknown,
desirous moreover to aid, in as faras we can, the pious and religious
endeavors of the Friars Preachers--who, with their abandonment
of fatherland and their self-denial of comforts, are now exposing
themselves to dangers of land and sea for the sake of spreading the
name of Christ--therefore, trusting in the mercy of almighty God
and the authority of His blessed apostles Peter and Paul, we by our
apostolic authority, in virtue of these presents do grant, etc., a
plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins to the professed
members of the said Order, all and singular, if really penitent and
confessed, who by leave or order or mandate of their afore-named
master-general shall go to the Philippine Islands.

Given at Rome, at St. Mark's, under the seal of the Fisherman, on
the fifteenth day of September, in the year 1582, the eleventh of
our pontificate.

Foundation of the Province of the Dominicans in the Philippines

Gregory XIII, Pope. Beloved son, health and apostolic blessing.

Not long ago you acquainted us with the fact that, some time before,
Paul Conestabile, master-general of the entire order of Friars
Preachers, gave you leave--with thirty or forty professed members of
the said order, to be gathered by you from the provinces of Spain,
Aragon and Andalusia, and ten from the province of Mexico and from
Chiappa, [22] to go to the Philippine Islands and to the kingdom
of China. Moreover, appointing you his vicar-general in the said
Philippine Islands and kingdom of China, etc., he granted to you,
all and singular, the privileges which had been granted by former
generals to the province of Santiago of Mexico--to the end that you
might there establish a rule of life in accordance with the same,
and found provinces, etc.

But since, as you also told us, the said General Paul is dead, and
there are some who are doubtful of your power in the premises, and
therefore you have humbly petitioned us to determine what through our
apostolic bounty you should do in the premises: therefore, holding
that you are free from any sort of excommunication, etc., and by
these presents decreeing that the tenor of the said lette