"The archbishop Santa Justa, a man of unparalleled firmness and energetic character, from the first moment assailed the new governor of Filipinas on the question of the diocesan visitation, to which the friars continued their opposition, and demanded his support in order to make it effectual. Anda, who regarded obedience to the laws as a rule of conduct, and who brought orders from the court to subject the regulars to the royal patronage, addressed an explicit communication to the superiors of all the religious institutes, requiring their obedience to the mandate of the sovereign, and assigning a definite term, which could not be prolonged, for the presentation of their lists of appointees, in order that the curacies might be filled in this manner. All the orders of regulars openly refused to yield obedience of this sort, excepting the Dominicans--who, more circumspect, and endeavoring to avoid the dangers which they foresaw in resistance, agreed to submit to this command--although many of the parish priests of the order soon were disobedient to this decision of their superiors." The archbishop convened a provincial council at Manila, which held six sessions during the period May 19-November 24, 1771; various matters of ecclesiastical administration came before it, the chief of which was the diocesan visit. In the fifth session, the subjection of the parish priests to the diocesan visitation and the royal patronage was ordained; and at the final one it was ordered that the decrees of the council should immediately be promulgated, declaring that those of the council of Mexico (which Urban VIII had ordered to be observed in Filipinas) were not now binding. In the first session the bishop of Nueva Cáceres, Fray Antonio de Luna (a Franciscan), became involved in disputes over the appointment of secretaries, and was expelled from the assembly; he then retired to his diocese, and during the entire period of the council opposed its proceedings, with protests, legal formalities, and official edicts. Bishop Ezpeleta of Cebú died soon after the opening of the council, and the government of that diocese devolved upon Luna, but, it seems, not its representation in the council. A secretary of that body, Father Joaquín Traggia, was sent to Madrid as its agent and bearer of its despatches; but the king refused to accept his credentials, and ordered him to go to his convent at Zaragoza, forbidding him to return to Filipinas. (Toward the end of this council, the archbishop, in concert with his suffragans, drew up a tariff for the parochial fees to be collected by the curas.) The religious orders finally secured, through influence at the court, the revocation of the order given to Anda in regard to the regular curas, which had resulted in many of them being removed from the Indian villages and replaced by native priests; but no change was made in regard to the diocesan visitation. The bishop of Nueva Segovia, Fray Miguel Garcia, [18]