All this is avoided when the regulars serve as parish priests in the same manner as they do now in the Filipinas; for they are wholly dependent on their superiors, and cannot dispose of anything without their permission. If it be expedient for them to go to some other place, there is no difficulty in changing their residence; and as they have not that security of perpetual tenure, their only care is for their ministries, the door being closed to unworthy measures and claims. Hence it follows that this mode of holding curacies is more in accordance with the three vows and the other statutes that aim at the perfection that is proper for the regulars, and consequently at the salvation of the souls [31] for whom they care. The seventh and last reason--omitting others, either because they are included in those already mentioned, or because they may readily be deduced from those--is supported by authority. Let the histories of the Indias be read, and the laymen and ecclesiastics who have written about them; all agree in raising very serious doubts whether the regulars should be parish priests or not, and much more whether they should be so with title. [These writers] noted many decisions, in which entire provinces--composed of religious who were influential, experienced, learned, and zealous--resolved in their chapter-meetings that the mission curacies should be given up; many [opinions by] generals of those same orders, who approved that proceeding; and others, by various distinguished men, who expostulated against the acceptance of such an encumbrance by their religious order. [They have also noted] faults which they contemplated with tears--interminable discords, which banished all tranquillity and peace; and innumerable other damages, which, even the secular writers on the Indias admit, have made the regulars tremble. If he who sees from [a safe place on] land a fierce hurricane on the sea, and that in it are wrecked galleons of great size--some of the men on board being drowned, others crying for help, and those who by swimming have emerged on the shore taking warning [from this misfortune], and causing great fear in those who hear them--trembles at [the thought of] venturing upon the sea: what marvel is it that the regulars of Filipinas, who have not thus far been inducted into this new form of parish tenure which the archbishop is attempting [to establish], seeing as if from the solid land so much tempest and shipwreck which are occasioned by that form, and which the histories, like accurate charts, place before them, tremble, and refuse to embark on that sea? When the witnesses are so truthful, and the experiences so injurious, it would be a mistake of the utmost importance not to believe them, or to expect that [in] trouble one may remedy it by regret, or not to avoid it beforehand by prudent measures.