The King. Inasmuch as Fray Sebastián de Valverde, of the Order of Preachers, and procurator-general of the province of Santísimo Rosario of Filipinas, has represented to me, among other matters, that since the establishment of the college of Santo Tomás in the city of Manila, and especially since, at the instance of Felipe IV, a public academy or university was erected in it by his Holiness, Innocent X, in the year one thousand six hundred and forty-five, [75] in behalf of his order, not only has it redeemed its obligation in the public instruction with well-known benefit to those vassals, in which the religious have filled the chairs at the expense of the private property of the above-mentioned college, but also, at the same time, in order to inspire in the minds of its pupils the illumination of the holy doctrine of the angelic doctor St. Thomas, which some factional spirits in that capital, in whom still lives the seed of the suppressed doctrine, [76] are attempting to confuse with useless projects, have endeavored likewise to infuse into their hearts the fidelity, loyalty, and love due my royal person--and one of the most signal and noble proofs that attest this truth is the promptness, with which the present rector, Fray Domingo Collantes, in this last war, in observance of the suggestion of that governor, raised four companies of fifty soldiers apiece among the collegiates and students, on whose clothing and support he spent some thousands of pesos from the beginning of the war until the peace was made, and at the same time placing at the disposition of the same government all the grain of the harvest and the cattle of its estates--and inasmuch as he has petitioned me that, in order that this signal example of the fidelity and generosity with which the above-named college served me and continues to serve me, may be remembered by the inhabitants of those islands, I deign to signify to it my royal pleasure and kindness by admitting it under my sovereign protection and patronage, and by granting to it the title of "very loyal;" therefore, my Council of the Indias having examined the above petition, together with the information given in regard to it by the general accountant's office, and the explanation of my fiscal, I have resolved in the conference of the tenth of January of this year, to concede, among other things, and as I concede by this my royal decree, the sole name of "royal" to the above-named college of Santo Tomás of the city of Manila, with the distinct condition and declaration, that it shall never have the right of petitioning assistance from my royal treasury. Therefore, by this present, I order and command my governor and captain-general of the above-mentioned islands, the regent and auditors of my royal Audiencia in the islands, and all other ministers, judges, and justices of those provinces, and I request and charge the very reverend bishop of that metropolitan