Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 04).djvu/308



The king. To our governor of the Filipinas islands. When we heard that there were not sufficient tithes for the support of four prebendaries in the cathedral church which is to be erected in those islands, we ordered you in our decree of the thirteenth day of July of the past year 1579, to give them from our treasury a competent stipend, which was to be in proportion to the amount yielded by the said tithes. Now the said bishop has reported that, in case the said prebends or other benefices which were to be established in the said church become vacant, it would be necessary to defer the appointment of other persons thereto until orders could be despatched from here; and thus the said church would remain without the divine service. In view of this inconvenience, he petitions us to give orders that, whenever dignities, canonries, and other benefices of the said church become vacant, they shall immediately be filled by other worthy persons, with the same stipends as those received by their predecessors; or to order what else