Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/552

 decided to increase the number of bishops. He therefore elevated the Church in Manila to the dignity of an Archi- episcopate, making the Bishops of the three new dioceses he created,Cebu,Caceres, and Nueva Segovia, suffragans to it. To these was added later, in the year 1865, the Episcopal See of Jaro.

Now these dioceses are so vast that, owing to the dis- tance by which the settlements are separated and the difficulties of travel, the bishops can scarcely visit them thoroughly without extreme labor. Wherefore it is necessary to avail Ourselves of the present opportunity to reduce the dioceses alread}^ established to narrower limits, and to form new ones. Hence, keeping the Archiepiscopal See of Manila, and the dioceses of Cebu,Caceres, Nueva Segovia, and Jaro, We add to them and create four new dioceses: Lipa, Tuguegarao, Capiz, and Zamboanga, all, like the others, suffragan to the Manilan Metropolis. Moreover, in the Marian Islands, We create a Prefecture Apostolic subject, without any intermediate authority, to Ourselves and to Our successors.

The Archbishop of Manila is the one who will bear the title of "Metropolitan" in the Philippine Islands; and all the other bishops, those who fill the old as well as those who are to occupy the newly created sees, will be subject to him, as suffragans both in rank and in name. The rights and the functions of the Metropolitan are laid down by the ecclesiastical laws already extant. As We wish that these laws be inviolably observed, so also do We wish that the bonds of holy friendship and charity be- tween the Metropolitan and his suffragans be ever unim- paired, and grow always closer and more binding by mu- tual services, exchange of counsel, and especially by fre- quent episcopal conventions, so far as distance may per- mit. Concord is the mother and guardian of the greatest benefits.

The dignity and precedence of the Metropolitan Church require that it should be honored by a College