Note 3 — ROYAL PATRONAGE EXTENDED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS
Reading edition
In the city of Manila, August 21, 1681. The president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancillería of these Filipinas Islands, while in royal Council, after having examined the petition of father Fray Juan de Santa María3 of the Order of Preachers, and rector of the university of Santo Tomás de Aquino, together with his Majesty’s royal decree which is mentioned therein, in which his Majesty receives his university under his royal protection and declares it to be under his royal patronage; and that due execution and fulfilment be given thereto in this royal Audiencia, together with the petition for the fiscal in the examination given it: the aforesaid took the decree in their hands, kissed it, and placed it upon their heads, as a decree of their king and legitimate sovereign (whom may the divine Majesty preserve, with increase of new kingdoms and seigniories); and in obedience thereto declared that they would observe, fulfil, and execute it, in accordance with, and as his Majesty ordains and commands, and—leaving a certified copy of it in the record books—that the original would be returned. Thus they voted and decreed and signed it with their rubrics before the fiscal.