For
the same reason, the military force there would be strengthened,
and the royal incomes of Nueva Espana, or those of any other of his
kingdoms, would be expended for that purpose, for all the treasures,
and those still to be discovered in the bosom of the mines, must be
applied to the propagation of the gospel. For what, he asked, would
the enemies of the gospel say, if they should see that the Filipinas
were deprived of the light, and of the ministers who preach it,
because they did not produce metals and wealth as did other rich
islands in Assia and America? He said that the entire power of the
sovereigns must minister to this superior end, as sons of the Church
and assistants of the apostolic voice, which is being continued in
the successes of the first preaching. If he had refused to yield
one jot in his severity to his northern vassals, [273] or to grant
them liberty for their consciences, why should he relent toward the
pagans and Mahometans, who are the harvest that God has assigned him,
in order to enrich the Church with those so remote children? By this
wise he enjoined silence on the discussion, and with this glorious
aim the decision has ever been made when zeal or human convenience
has discussed the abandonment of those states.
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