35. At Lent in 1685, the archbishop suspended three fathers of the Society, to whom the cabildo while it governed had given permission to preach and hear confessions; he did this not only because of the aversion which he had taken for the cabildo, but on account of the enmity which he had always felt toward the Society. The governor compelled two foreign ships to pay very exorbitant imposts, at which they were greatly dissatisfied. 36. Don Juan de Vargas was not ready for absolution. The archbishop called together the theologians, to tell him whether the absolution should be given privately; this was decided in the affirmative by the majority of votes, but the Dominicans opposed it. The archbishop, in order to defeat the resolution, decreed that Vargas must first perform the following penance: During an entire month, he must be present in the cathedral, from morning until high mass, clothed in sackcloth and in the garb of a penitent, with a halter round his neck; and for another month he must, in the same manner, attend the church of Santo Domingo; another, the hospital of San Gabriel; and another, the church of Binondoc. Then, the said penance being accomplished, he would be absolved by Domingo Diaz, a mestizo of infamous character. The said Don Juan de Vargas appealed, but the appeal was not allowed him, and he remains in the same condition up to the present time. Paragraphs of a letter written from Manila, June 15, 1685, by Auditor Don Pedro Sebastian de Bolivar y Mena to his agent at Madrid, Don Diego Ortiz de Valdes.