Chapter XIX

Satisfaction given by the Board of the Santa Misericordia to all this city, in answer to certain words of the opposing manifesto, which charge it with omission; proving that it could not, or ought not, immediately upon the death of Captain Manuel Lobo, fulfil the terms of his will, or distribute his wealth in accordance with his last wishes, until the time that it did do so by the direction of the learned opinion of the professors of the royal university of this city.

[The faithful administration of wills has ever been one of the chief glories of the brotherhood. The above-mentioned captain dies in the Marianas, September 8, 1709, leaving the board as his executor, and his mother as his heir. In this chapter the words of the manifesto charging the brotherhood with neglect in not settling up the will above mentioned in more than fifteen years, are cited; and then by means of arguments, letters and the opinion of the professors of the university, full answer is made to the charge, and the action of the brotherhood justified.]