Coming now to the seminarists, their number cannot be determined, for it varies every year. But by adopting an average for the students in the conciliar seminary of Manila in 1842 and 48 [_sic_; 43?]--namely, some twenty-five, counting priests, deacons, subdeacons, those who have taken the lesser orders, and those who have taken the tonsure--one may calculate that the four seminaries will contain about one hundred students; so that, adding these to the ninety-three preceding, belonging also to the secular clergy, the number increases to one hundred and ninety-three. There are also in each one of the bishoprics some secular ecclesiastics employed under the immediate orders of the diocesans, who bear the name of pages, cross-bearers, etc., whose number cannot be determined. One is also unable to calculate the number of those who have been ordained under the title of patrimony, [115] and chaplaincies [116] of blood or of class, etc. By a royal decree of June 1, 1799, order was given for the curas to pay the three per cent for the sustenance of the seminaries. Before concluding this review, we must also show that there are some arrangements that are common to both secular and regular clergy--those which make it indifferent, for the discharge of certain duties or commissions, whether they are secular or regular priests. Such are outside vicariates, and the chaplaincies of presidios, fortresses, etc. From the founding of Manila until it obtained its first bishop there was a space of ten years. Its first prelate was suffragan to the metropolitan see of Mejico. But seventeen years after, and twenty-seven from the foundation of the city, in the year 1596, and by means of the bull of Clement VIII, despatched at the proposal of King Don Felipe II, it was separated from that see, and was erected into a metropolitan, with the three suffragan sees which it has at present. Bishopric of Cebu Cebu, formerly called Sogbu, is a suffragan bishopric of the archbishopric of Manila, which bounds it on the north. This diocese was created in 1595, at the same time as those of Nueva Segovia and Nueva Caceres, at the request of the monarch, Felipe II, by brief of his Holiness Clement VIII. Its first bishop was Don Fray Pedro de Agurto, who took possession of this bishopric on October 14, 1598. He who at present occupies the see is his Excellency Don Romualdo Gimeno, who is governing the diocese worthily to the honor and glory of God, and the gain of the metropolitan see, having begun his office February 27, 1847. This diocese includes at present the civil provinces of Cebu, Negros, Leyte, Samar, Capiz, Antique, Misamis, Caraga, Nueva-Guipuzcoa, Zamboanga, Calamianes, and the Marianas. Among those provinces are counted one hundred and seventy-nine curacies, of which one hundred and twelve are held by regular missionaries, and fifty-five by seculars (either Indian or mestizo clergy), as will be seen from chart number 6. [117]