"You shall have special care in all the negotiations that you shall have with the natives of those districts to have with you some of the religious, both in order to make use of their good counsel, and so that the natives may recognize and understand the great consideration in which you hold them; for seeing that and the great reverence given them by the soldiers, they will also come to respect them. That will be very important, so that, when the religious impart to them the matters pertaining to our holy Catholic faith, they may give them full credit; since you know that his Majesty's chiefest end is the salvation of the souls of those infidels. For that purpose, in whatever district, you shall take particular care to aid the said religious ... so that, having learned the language, they may labor to bring the natives to the knowledge of our holy Catholic faith, convert them to it, and reduce them to the obedience and friendship of his Majesty." (Colec. de Doc. Inéd. de Ultramar, ii, p. 188.) [212] That is the genuinely Spanish spirit, the glory of the human race, and especially of Christianity, which caused our legislators to write in the Partidas (Partida i, tít. vi, law lxii, and tít. xi): "Laymen must honor and regard the clergy greatly, each one according to his rank and his dignity: firstly, because they are mediators between God and them; secondly, because by honoring them, they honor Holy Church, whose servants they are, and honor the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is their head, for they are called Christians. And this honor and this regard must be shown in three ways; in speech; in deed; and in counsel." "The churches of the emperors, kings, and other seigniors of the countries, have great privileges and liberties; and these were very rightfully [given them], for the things of God should have greater honor than those of men." That is the spirit that was expressed by the mouth of Felipe II when he answered those who proposed to him the abandonment of these islands, in consideration of the few resources that the public treasury derived from them: "For the conversion of only one soul of those there, I would give all the treasures of the Indias, and were they not sufficient I would give most willingly whatever España yields. Under no consideration shall I abandon or discontinue to send preachers and ministers to give the light of the holy gospel to all and whatever provinces may be discovered, however poor, rude, and barren they may be, for the holy apostolic see has given to us and to our heirs the duty possessed by the apostles of publishing and preaching the gospel, which must be spread there and into an infinite number of kingdoms, taking them from the power of devils and giving them to know the true God, without any hope of temporal blessings."