Volume 5 — Indulgence Granted to the Dominicans on Their Setting Out for the Philippines
Reading edition
Gregory, Bishop, servant of the servants of God: In perpetual remembrance of the affair.
We, on whom through appointment of the Lord it [193] is incumbent to foster the spread of the gospel, desirous of taking part in this duty of preaching the gospel in kingdoms wherein Christ is unknown, desirous moreover to aid, in as faras we can, the pious and religious endeavors of the Friars Preachers—who, with their abandonment of fatherland and their self-denial of comforts, are now exposing themselves to dangers of land and sea for the sake of spreading the name of Christ—therefore, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and the authority of His blessed apostles Peter and Paul, we by our apostolic authority, in virtue of these presents do grant, etc., a plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins to the professed members of the said Order, all and singular, if really penitent and confessed, who by leave or order or mandate of their afore-named master-general shall go to the Philippine Islands.
Given at Rome, at St. Mark’s, under the seal of the Fisherman, on the fifteenth day of September, in the year 1582, the eleventh of our pontificate.