Note 98 — The Printing of the Books

In 1580 the Dominicans of Mexico had begun plans for the establishment of a province in the Orient, and sent Juan Chrisóstomo to Europe to obtain the necessary permission from lay and ecclesiastical authorities. The Jesuit Alonso Sanchez, who had been sent to Spain to explain the situation in the Philippines, was at court, and told the King and Council of the Indies—quite subverting his mission—that there was no need for more priests and particularly no need for a new order there. Chrisóstomo was discouraged, but the scheme was revivified by Juan de Castro who finally secured a letter from Philip II on September 20, 1585 endorsing the plan. Twenty-two volunteers sailed from Spain on July 17, 1586. In Mexico the Dominicans again found Sanchez propagandizing against the mission and also encountered the efforts of the Viceroy to persuade the friars to remain there. Notwithstanding, twenty friars subscribed to a set of ordinances at the Convent of Santo Domingo in Mexico on December 17, 1586. Of the twenty, fifteen went to the Philippines, three went directly to China, and Juan Chrisóstomo, who was ill and weak, and Juan Cobo, who had business there, stayed behind in Mexico.