Note 8 — Chapter V

When the sad news of the death of the provincial was learned, the electors assembled at Binalatongan, a village of Pangasinan, on the fifteenth of April, 1617, and elected as head and superior of the province father Fray Melchior de Mançano,8 who was at that time vicar of the convent of the city of Nueva Segovia. He was a very prudent and devout character, a professed son of the convent of the order in Ocaña; and had been made, on account of his great ability and his successful studies, a theologue at the college of Sancto Thomas at Alcala. In this province he had governed many of the best convents with great approbation; and his term as provincial was very useful to the province, augmenting it greatly, as will be narrated.