The King. Inasmuch as I was informed by my royal Audiencia of the city of MÉjico, in a letter of May twenty-seven, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, that the bachelor, Don Manuel Esteban Sanchez de Tagle, collegiate in the royal college of San Ildefonso of that city, having attempted to contract betrothal with DoÑa MarÍa Josefa Barrera y Andonaegui, and his father, Captain Don Manuel Esteban Sanchez de Tagle, having opposed it, it would be advisable for me to deign to extend to those dominions the resolutions for these dominions, ordering that collegiates who are pursuing their studies may not marry without my royal permission, as their extravagance is regarded as prejudicial to the state; and inasmuch as the same reason militates there so that they may not take place without the permission of the viceroy as vice-patron: I have resolved, after consulting my full Council of the Indias of the three halls, on November six, one thousand seven hundred and ninety, executed in view of that set forth in the matter by my two fiscals, that law vii, tÍtulo viii, book i,1 extended in the board of the new code be observed in those dominions. The exact tenor of that law is as follows: “Since the universities, conciliar seminaries, and other colleges of teaching, erected with public authority in our Indias, are under our royal patronage and protection; and since their students and pupils merit the most careful attention, so that they may not disgrace themselves in their courses and studies with prejudice to the state and their own families: we order and command such pupils, students, and members of said universities, conciliar seminaries, and other colleges and houses, not to contract espousals without, in addition to the paternal consent, or the consent of the person who ought to give it. According to the first law of this tÍtulo, they have the license, those of the conciliar seminaries, of the archbishops and bishops and vice-patrons, and those of the universities and other colleges, of our viceroys or presidents of the respective audiencias, to whom they shall send their petitions or requests by the hand of the rectors, with report of the latter, since for this matter we delegate our royal authority to the abovesaid. All of the abovesaid shall be understood as well in the houses and colleges for women, which are under our royal protection and patronage. We declare null and void of all value or effect, betrothals which are contracted without this requirement, and no judgment or suit can be admitted in regard to their non-fulfilment in the manner and form prescribed by the preceding law.” Therefore, I order and command my viceroys, presidents, royal audiencias, and the governors of my kingdoms of the Indias, Filipinas Islands, and Windward Islands, and ask and request the right reverend archbishops and reverend bishops of them, and their provisors and vicars-general, to observe, perform, and execute, and cause to be observed, performed, and executed exactly, the contents of the above-inserted law of the new code, in so far as it concerns each one. Such is my will. Given in Aranjuez, June eleven, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two.

I the King

By command of the king our sovereign:

Antonio Ventura de Taranco

Three rubrics follow.