move them. But when the said province considered how inadequately it could govern the custodia, the brief was renounced in the session of the chapter which was held in this year 85 at the town of Cadahalso, and that custodia has been assigned to me; and henceforth whatever may be necessary can be supplied for the said province,[1] by order of the council.
As for sending friars to the said custodia, I have information that a religious of the same descalced order, who comes from that country to discuss this matter, went direct to Monzon without going to Madrid to report the needs of his custodia to his Majesty. Therefore it appears to me that the sending of religious, and other matters, might be suspended until his arrival.
Fray Geronimo de Guzman
That which the order of our glorious father St. Augustine, resident in the Philipinas and the lands of China, humbly asks from his Majesty and from his royal Council of the Indias is the following:
First, that his Majesty cause to be sent to those realms the greatest number of religious who can possibly go, in response to the very pressing need (which is felt now more than ever) for preachers of the gospel of God. They ask this not only for the lands held by his Majesty which are now at peace (where there is much need), but also for the great kingdom of Cochin China, for that of Sian, and for other foreign lands—to which those who lack so great a bless-
- ↑ The term "province" is here used by anticipation, as the Franciscan custodia of San Gregorio was not actually erected into a province until the following year (see brief to this effect by Sixtus V, post). A custodia is a group of religious houses not large enough to form a province.
