have but little to say at present, not because the affair is free from very great difficulties, in undertaking to accomplish his Majesty's orders as contained in the aforesaid clause; but because there is no present occasion for anxiety regarding the establishment of this instruction, inasmuch as there are no ministers to undertake the work. I will only say that, if his Majesty does not decree that the small encomiendas be made into a few large ones, it will be most difficult (and indeed almost impossible) to establish therein religious instruction.
In conformity with this, your Lordship will see how you are to give permission to the encomenderos who do not maintain instruction, so that they may collect from their encomiendas, if your Lordship wishes to make secure your own encomienda[1] which I, by this statement, have enabled you to do.
May Jesus Christ, our Lord, bestow upon your Lordship the light of His grace, so that in all matters you may be enabled to accomplish His holy will, and secure the welfare and protection of these natives, which they so sorely need. From our house, on the twelfth of January of the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-one.
Fray Domingo, Bishop of the Filipinas.
SUMMARY OF THE DECISION REACHED BY THE
BISHOP OF THESE PHILIPINAS ISLANDS, AND
THE OTHER THEOLOGIANS OF THIS BISH-
OPRIC, CONCERNING THE COLLECTION
OF THE TRIBUTES THEREIN
Jesus
The first conclusion: From the encomiendas
- ↑ Apparently a metaphorical use of the word, a religious double entendre.
