The French scientist Le Gentil describes (from observations made during 1766-68) the religious conditions in the islands. He enumerates the benefices connected with Manila cathedral, and the salaries and duties of their incumbents; and the ecclesiastical tribunals in that city--those of the archbishop, the Inquisition, and the Crusade. Then he relates interesting details about the churches, convents, schools, and other institutions. Among these are the royal chapel, the seminary of San Felipe, the seminary of Santa Isabela, the confraternity of La Misericordia, the universities, and the hospitals. Le Gentil describes the ecclesiastical machinery of the suffragan dioceses, and the convents therein--all more extensive and costly than the population and wealth of the country justify. The rest of his account is devoted to "the power and influence enjoyed by the religious in the Philippines." He says: "Masters of the provinces, they govern there, as one might say, as sovereigns; they are so absolute that no Spaniard dares go to establish himself there.... They are more absolute in the Philippines than is the king himself." They ignore the royal decrees that the Indian children must be taught the Castilian language; thus the friars keep the Indians in bondage, and prevent the Spaniards from knowing the real state of affairs in the provinces. They have refused to allow the visitations of the archbishops--a matter explained at considerable length by the writer. The natives sometimes revolt, and then the friars cannot influence them, but troops must be sent to punish the rebels. Le Gentil also relates the manner in which the friars punish the natives for not attending mass, by flogging them--not only men, but women, and that in public.