But if the religious, invaded in so many ways, look after their defense, how will they be to blame in this? And if, in order to defend themselves, they so dispose matters that they can have recourse and appeal to the delegate, and if the latter ordain something and the reverend archbishop will not conform to it, and on both sides censures are launched forth--as occurred in the case of the lands--who will have been the mover of all this [trouble]? For the religious to abandon their reputation wholly is not safe; to defend themselves there occasions inconvenience; to let the matter take its course, notwithstanding this behavior of the reverend archbishop, is an intolerable yoke; and for the regulars to be curas subject to him all that is here alleged will not permit. These are the afflictions that are now being suffered in Filipinas. The religious there are summoned to be mocked; those here, aware of what is going on, are reluctant [to take their places]. And since the whole matter takes its rise from the curacies and mission villages, and the foregoing decrees are rendered null, and our expectations from others in the future are dashed: for these reasons and the others here adduced, and insisting upon the said order from the provincials to renounce the mission curacies, the petitioners, prostrate at the royal feet of your Majesty, ask in the name of the said five provinces that you will be pleased to consider them as free and exonerated from the charge which hitherto they have held in serving as parish priests the mission villages that they hold in Filipinas; and for this purpose they renounce absolutely the allotment of territories which your Majesty had committed to them, in order that others may from this time forth administer them, with secure peace and stable tranquillity, which they expect from your Majesty's magnificence. [38] Royal decree, May 20, 1700