Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 05).djvu/261

 provision, that whenever any person who shall incur excommunication for having disclosed a secret shall come, of his own free will, to ask for absolution, therefore with the confession of his guilt the commissary shall absolve him, and impose upon him some secret spiritual penance, such as will entail no stigma or infamy. The commissary shall submit his own denunciation to the Holy Office, without making further investigations concerning the matter except in serious cases. But should the disclosure of a secret result in any marked injury or bring dishonor to a person, in such an event further information is required, in order that in either case the Holy Office may, after due examination, justly dispose of the matter as is fitting, although no change will result for the absolved person.

4. Special care must be taken to warn bishops, vicars-general [provisores], visitors, and vicars, that they are not allowed to mention crimes of heresy or the like in their public letters and proclamations during visit; for his Holiness has referred and submitted such cases to the most illustrious inquisitor-general and the inquisitors appointed by him in all the kingdoms and seigniories of his Majesty. Therefore they shall try these cases privatim, which other judges can neither try, nor undertake to investigate, nor otherwise handle. Since in visitations crimes often come to light which must be tried by the Holy Office, warning must be given that these should be submitted to the Inquisition, with all secrecy and without the knowledge of the guilty party. The same must be done in suppressing the titles of vicars, in annulling the head of processes and charges made by the bishops, and in suppressing the title of inquisitor-in