the bishop of Troya, is absent on official duties in the bishopric of Nueva Segovia. He had "issued a decree of excommunication against the alcaldes-mayor of Cagayán, Ilocos, and Pangasinán, prohibiting to them trade and traffic in those provinces, in virtue of the oath which those officials take in the royal Audiencia when they go to exercise their offices. This excommunication was the cause of many lawsuits, for Captain Don Francisco de Alzaga Voitia, alcalde-mayor of Pangasinán, defended them all, and appeared before the royal Audiencia with a plea of fuerza, complaining that the bishop of Troya was usurping the royal jurisdiction by taking cognizance of the oath taken in that court.... On this question royal decrees were issued, and the controversy lasted a long time, but the excommunication then laid has remained until this day; and the alcaldes-mayor continue with their trade and traffic as before, without the least scruple." Returning to Manila, Barrientos declines the bishopric of Nueva Segovia, to which he is entitled as Pardo's assistant; the archbishop therefore despatches to take charge of that diocese Doctor Nicolás de la Vega Caballero, then cura of Cavite.] This province assumed charge of the ministry in the territory of Mariquina and Jesús de la Peña, which in times past was a dependency of the mission station of Pasig. It had been administered by the religious of the Society, by commission of Don Fray Pedro Arce, bishop of Cebú and ruler of the archbishopric of Manila, and by approval of Governor Don Juan Niño de Tabora, since the year 1630; and now it was restored to the ministry of Pasig by sentence of the archbishop, May 16, 1687, and this province added to that territory the convent of San Mateo--establishing the headquarters and residence of the minister at Mariquina, whose titular saint is our Lady of Protection; its first minister was father Fray Simón Martínez. The aforesaid archbishop also added to the said village of Pasig the mission village of San Andrés Apóstol de Cainta, also administered by the said religious of the Society, by decree of March 16, 1688--with the approbation, not only of this, but of the separation of Mariquina, by the vice-patron, Governor Don Gabriel de Curucelaegui. Its first minister was father Fray José del Valle, and it was preserved as a separate convent with the title of vicariate. [113]