"To the petition in the memorial and brief as presented, the reverend father Master Peter Ribadeneira, [7] assistant [general] for the Spains and procurator for the Indias [or Philippines], made answer as follows: That his clients were not bound thereto, inasmuch as the said ordinances could not be carried into effect by reason of impossibility, since the brethren who were given the habit [of the order] in the Indias are fewer in number than the offices [_or_ positions] to be filled [by the same]; wherefore the decree _de alternativa_ [8] cannot be complied with in the conferral of the said offices. Moreover, that the said brief was obtained without a hearing of his clients, and therefore is surreptitious, besides being contrary to truth in that the charge was made therein that a sedition had taken place among the [brethren]. Wherefore protest has been entered that no further steps be taken unless by [due process of law], etc. "Whereupon I the undersigned, a notary-public, have been requested to have made and drawn up one or more public instruments in reference to all and singular the above, according as may be needed or demanded. "Done at Rome in my office, etc., of the Rione del Ponte, [9] in the presence and hearing and cognizance of Don Bernardino Pacheto [10] and Don Jacobo Francisco Belgio, fellow-notaries and witnesses, especially called, requested, and summoned to all and singular the above." We also present an original letter from the general of our order, and another from the father assistant of the province of Espana, in which they tell us how his Holiness had already revoked the said brief; also another letter, from the procurator of this province at that court [_i.e._, Madrid], in which he notified us that he had presented the brief of revocation in the royal Council of the Indias. But, notwithstanding these letters, the religious who had taken the habit in the Indias persisted all the more in persuading their judge to hurry forward the legal proceedings and to urge on the acts of violence which he was executing against us; and in this importunity, and in the opposition which the said religious made to the letters and advices of the general and of the assistant in the Spanish provinces, was admirably displayed the obedience and respect that they have for their superior. At this juncture also arose disturbances made by the relatives of the said religious, occasioning many scandals; and the friars, encouraged by the support which these people gave them, could not be corrected within the convent, and disturbed it to the utmost. They made promises to the lay brethren to ordain them as priests in order to draw these into their following; and _so_ far did they go that all of them together sallied out from the convent one morning--the second day of August in last year--more than two hours before daylight, and carried with them the doorkeeper and three lay brethren, leaving the gates of the convent open. Roaming through