to comply with our mandates—yet now in virtue of the Holy Ghost we command you, the above-named brethren, to set out in this first voyage with the fleet which the illustrious and well-born knight Miguel López de Legazpi, governor and commander of the fleet, whom ours[1] style captain-general, is to conduct to the aforesaid lands. We exhort and pray you earnestly, as far as we may in the Lord, to be in all things as the good actor of God, as becometh the holy ones and ministers of God, in all virtues—especially humility, patience, and discipline.
Chiefly, however, we desire to have shine forth in your deeds that singular and renowned token of Christians which our Savior Christ, when on the point of offering up his most innocent life and his most holy blood—that thereby, in rescuing us from the deadliest of fates, he might ensure the freedom of mortals—commended repeatedly to his followers as a countersign, in these words: "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another." This is that priceless boon of charity which Paul styles "the bond of perfection," which we trust may not only shine forth from your midst—whereby you should cling to Christ as a companion, and seek the possession of his spirit—but that the same affection of peace and love flow thence from you to all other men as from a clear fountain, to the end that those who have made profession of this soldiership in Christ may cling to one another in the mutual bond of charity, to the maintenance amidst the clash of arms of that "grace which," the Apostle affirms, "is above all sense." For peace, be it known, dwells
- ↑ Ours: a familiar term in use by members of a religious order, referring to their fellows therein.
