Part 18
_College of the Society of Jesus, called San Joseph_. There are two colleges for students. One was founded by Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, and is named San Joseph. It is in charge of the Society of Jesus, and the collegiates go to attend lectures at the residence [_colegio_] of the same Society (which is close by) in grammar, philosophy, and ecclesiastical and moral theology. At present it has twenty collegiates who wear the _beca_. [48] Some of them pay their tuition, but others are aided by the Confraternity of La Misericordia; for the income of the founder falls somewhat short now of sustaining the college, because of expenses in erecting the buildings of the said college.
_College of Santo Thomas, which is in charge of the Order of St. Dominic._ The college is called Santo Thomas de Aquino. It is in charge of the Order of St. Dominic, and is very near their convent. For two years it has had collegiates. It was founded by the alms of deceased persons and by other contributions from the living, which the fathers have procured and collected. It has some income and is continuing to increase. At present it also has twenty collegiates who wear the beca, some of whom also pay their tuition, and others are supported by the Confraternity of La Misericordia and certain persons. They take lectures in grammar, philosophy, and theology in the same college, where they have a rector and masters belonging to the Order of St. Dominic.
These two colleges aggrandize the city greatly and the sons of the inhabitants of these islands are being reared in them in culture, virtue, and learning. It will be of the utmost importance to the city's progress for your Majesty to honor them by granting them authority to give degrees in the branches that they teach.
_Seminary of Santa Potenciana._ Many years ago the seminary of Santa Potenciana was founded in this city at your Majesty's command, in order to maintain in it poor girls, both Spaniards and mestizas, who being reared there in a safe retreat and under good teaching might leave it virtuous, and as such be sought as wives. It has been supported hitherto by an income of one thousand pesos that it possesses, and with eight hundred pesos which is about the value of an encomienda granted it by your Majesty, besides three toneladas of the cargo given it annually by allotment in the ships despatched hence to Nueva España, and certain alms bequeathed to it by certain dying persons. For some few years past the seminary has been greatly in debt, both because of increasing the number of their girls, and because the toneladas of the cargo have had no value, and on account of the greatly increased cost of living; and it is suffering so great need that it has not enough for the ordinary maintenance of the fifty girls who are there at present, some of whom are aided by the Confraternity of La Misericordia. It will be advisable, since the work is so consecrated to the service of God and so suitable to that of your Majesty, whose royal person is patron of that seminary, for you to order the governor to aid it from the royal treasury, or--and this would be more secure--apportion to it more Indians, so that a work so holy and necessary in this community may continue to advance, since it is served by slave women and has never been served by Spanish women. It is certain that if this retreat, from which the girls go out married, were to fail, they would perish and be lost.
_How the Indians are treated by the curates and ministers._ The Indians, Sire, of this archbishopric are generally treated with mildness, love, and zeal for their salvation, by the priests and ministers who instruct them. Whenever the contrary is heard from anyone, he is corrected, admonished, and punished--by myself if he is a secular. If he is a religious, his superior does it, when he deems it best; for I (even though the case be one of the ministry and care of souls) alone have power to warn and ask his superior to remedy it. In regard to that, it would be greatly advisable that the bishops of the Philipinas have more power over the ministers of souls in their charge, and that the latter be obliged to give account. But, however this may be, it is not a matter from which results any considerable annoyance or harm to the Indians, except that of the bad example which they might derive from it, if they saw their priest and teacher do the contrary of what he teaches them and censures them for by word of mouth. The most powerful cause, then, that destroys and consumes the Indians of Philipinas is the same one that has destroyed and consumed the Spaniards. All have been ruined by the continual and large fleets with which the Dutch enemy persecute us, and because our forces are so few to oppose them, as I have represented in other letters that I am writing to your Majesty. It is impossible to prevent us all from suffering, and even perishing very speedily, if your Majesty's most powerful hand does not help and defend us. Consequently, Sire, I consider as inexcusable the vexations that have come and are coming upon the Indians in the building of ships and the making of other preparations to defend us; for these would be very much less if the Indians were paid for their work as your Majesty orders, if they were placed in charge of disinterested persons, and if compassion were shown them.
_Preachers for the Indian natives._ There are as many preachers for the Indians as there are priests who minister to them; for although the chief and most important instruction which can be preached to them is to make the Indians understand the ministers of our holy religion, and for the minister that he know the language thoroughly, there is no difficulty in preaching to them, if one does it (and thus it is advisable) simply and plainly.
_Preachers for Spaniards._ There is not any lack of preachers for the Spaniards either, for generally each of the convents of St Augustine, St. Francis, St. Dominic, the Society of Jesus, and the Augustinian Recollects of this city have two preachers, who are erudite fathers and of exemplary life. Besides, there are certain others, who by reason of living in the convents and surrounding missions attend to the preaching of several sermons during the year. These with holy zeal reprehend vices with thorough modesty and prudence, and tell us what is suitable for our salvation. But your Majesty is assured that the chief preacher and teaching for the inhabitants of Manila, and the best method of banishing public sins from it, is the good example and life of the governors. With that, and with the affability and love that they would exercise toward the virtuous, and with the displeasure and asperity with which they would treat the vicious, there would result, at least in the exterior court, the good or evil conduct of the inhabitants of this community. Inasmuch as the community is small, and all its inhabitants need the governor and are watching him, they will try to imitate him.
_In regard to sending a relation of the persons worthy and capable of being appointed prelates._ Your Majesty ordered me in the said royal decree to send a separate and very secret relation of those persons most worthy and capable in this archbishopric of being appointed to prelacies--recounting their virtue, morals, and example, character, prudence, age, and modesty; and of the intellect, learning, degrees, and governing ability of such persons, besides other circumstances. Obeying the commands of your Majesty, I report all that in a separate letter, and I shall continue to do so in the form and manner in which your Majesty may advise me.
_Whether there are vacant prebends or benefices._ At present, Sire, there is no vacant prebend in the cathedral of this city, although some are being filled by appointments by the governor until your Majesty shall confirm them or shall appoint to these posts persons who are pleasing to you. In regard to that, I refer to what I am writing to your Majesty in a separate letter. The benefices are appointed by competition as soon as they become vacant, in the manner prescribed by the holy council of Trent, in accordance with the royal patronage and last royal decree of your Majesty that treats of this matter. Consequently, throughout this diocese there is no vacant prebend or benefice. As soon as any become vacant, I shall take care to provide for them as speedily as possible, as your Majesty so piously orders me.
_Regarding the number of curacies and missions, and of the persons who administer them._ In regard to the relation and report that your Majesty orders me to make of the curacies and missions of this diocese (both of Spaniards and of Indians); of the persons who serve them, and the manner of their presentation, whether of seculars or of friars, and of what orders; the age of each, and his length of service in those curacies and missions; and whether he serves with the good-will, humility, unworldliness, and good example to which he is bound; as well as of other things contained in the section that treats of this. I refer to what I have said in my letter, without going into particulars regarding the names and ages of the ministers; for that appears to be less necessary, since the benefices at present held by seculars in these islands are so limited in stipends and obventions that nearly all of them are compelled to beg for these, in order not to desert their benefices. In the missions in charge of the religious, the same persons do not live continuously, for their provincials remove and change them from one to another, according as they deem most advisable.
_That this relation shall be continued on all occasions._ I shall have the care that your Majesty orders, in sending duplicates of this relation until I am advised that your Majesty has received it, and I shall add to it whatever occurs later. When I learn that your Majesty has received it, I shall observe the order given me, to refer to what I shall have written in what may not be new matter, increased and corrected by the past relations as far as may be advisable. I shall continue to do that without awaiting any new order for it from your Majesty, whose very Catholic person may our Lord preserve for the increase of new kingdoms and the prosperity of those which you possess, as is necessary to Christendom, and as we your Majesty's humble chaplains desire. Manila, August, 1621.
This, Sire, is the relation of that I wrote to your Majesty in the past year of 1621. I found nothing to correct except the section treating of the number of the convents in charge of the Order of St. Dominic, which is amended in its place in the margin. Manila, July last, 1622.
_Fray Miguel Garcia Serrano_, archbishop of Manila.
Royal Decrees Regarding the Religious
Ordering the Dominicans Not To Meddle in Government Affairs
The King. Venerable and devout father provincial of the Order of St. Dominic of the Philipinas Islands: I have been informed that the religious of your order are living with great lack of restraint, and are meddling in the government of those islands, from which have resulted and are resulting very great difficulties. Moreover, the honor and procedure of those who have been men of those islands have suffered; for, both in the pulpit and in other ways, the religious are trying to sully the reputation of those persons when they are not acceptable to them. Now inasmuch as that is unworthy of any person whatever, and more so of religious who have to furnish an example to all by their retirement from the world and their method of procedure; and inasmuch as it is very advisable to reform that efficaciously: therefore after examination of the matter by my Council of the Indias, it has been deemed best to charge and order you, as I do, to summon immediately all the religious of your order. By the best method that you shall deem advisable you shall censure them for their irregularities, and represent these to them; and warn them to engage only in their devotions and the conversion of souls according to their obligations--which is the main purpose for which they went there--and that they shall not meddle in government matters, or in any other matter that does not concern their order. You shall advise me of what you shall do in this matter. Given at Madrid, December thirty-one, one thousand six hundred and twenty-two. [49]
_I The King_
By order of the king, our sovereign: _Juan Ruiz de Contreras_ Signed by the Council.
[_Endorsed_: "To the provincial of the Order of St. Dominic of the Philipinias Islands, ordering him to summon the religious of his order, and censure them for their irregularities, warning them to engage only in their devotions and conversion of souls, without meddling in government matters or in any other matter that does not concern their order."]
Ordering the Archbishop of Manila To Examine Religious
The King. Very reverend father in Christ, the archbishop of the metropolitan church of the city of Manila of the Philipinas Islands, and member of my Council: The king, my sovereign and father--may he rest in peace--by his decree dated November fourteen of the past year, six hundred and three, charged the archbishop then governing that church [_i.e._, Benavides], that in accordance with the rules and ordinances he should not permit or allow any religious in the missions in charge of the orders to enter upon or exercise the duties of a priest [_cura_] unless he had first been examined and approved by the said archbishop or by the person appointed for that purpose, so that such religious should have the necessary competency, and know the language of the Indians whom he should have to instruct--as is contained more minutely in the said cedula, which is of the following tenor.
"The King. Very reverend in Christ, the father archbishop of the metropolitan church of the city of Manila of the Philippinas Islands and member of my Council: Although it has been stringently ordered that the ministers appointed to the missions of the Indians, both seculars and friars, must know the language of the Indians whom they are to instruct and teach; that they be possessed of the qualities required for the office of priest [_cura_] which they are to exercise; and that the teachers among the religious, in so far as they are priests [_curas_] be visited by the secular prelates: I have been informed that those orders have not been observed as is needful; that you prelates do not exercise the fitting care in examining the said religious teachers in order to be assured of their competency and thorough knowledge of the language of those whom they are going to instruct; and that in the visitations many of their omissions and irregular acts in the administration of the sacraments and in the exercise of their duties as priest are not remedied. That is a matter of considerable annoyance. And because the Indians suffer greatly, in the spiritual and temporal, from those appointed by their superiors, both in this and in the choice of persons less careful than they should be; and because it is advisable for the service of God our Lord, and for our service, and for the welfare of the Indians, that the ministers of instruction be such as are required for that ministry, and that they know the language of the Indians: therefore I charge you straitly, in accordance with the rules and ordinances, not to permit or allow any religious to enter upon or exercise the duties of the office of priest in the missions in charge of the religious in the district of that archbishopric, unless he first be examined and approved by you or the person whom you shall appoint therefor, in order to satisfy yourself that he has the necessary competency, and that he knows the language of the Indians whom he is to instruct. In the visitations that you shall make you shall remove those whom you shall find to be incompetent, or lacking in the ability and good morals that are requisite, and those who do not know sufficiently the language of the Indians whom they instruct; and you shall advise their superiors of it, so that they may appoint others who shall have the requisite qualifications, in which they are also to be examined. You shall advise me of whatever is done in the matter. Given in San Lorenzo, November fourteen, one thousand six hundred and three.
_I The King_
By order of the king, our sovereign: _Juan de Ybarra_."
And inasmuch as my intention and will is that the orders and commands on the said subject be obeyed and executed exactly, I request and charge you to examine the said decree, above inserted, and to observe and obey it _in toto_, exactly as is contained and declared therein. Such is my will, notwithstanding that, in the course of time and with the claims of the prelates, any other custom may have been tolerated or introduced. That shall not be allowed, under any consideration whatever. In order that the above order may have more complete effect, I am having the Audiencia there ordered, by another decree of the same date with this, to give you the necessary protection and aid for it. You shall advise me of all that is done in this matter. Given at Madrid, December thirty-one, one thousand six hundred and twenty-two.
_I The King_
By order of the king, our sovereign: _Juan Ruiz de Contreras_ Signed by the Council.
[_Endorsed_: "To the archbishop of Manila, that he observe the decree above inserted, so that the religious of the missions shall be examined in the language of the Indians."]
[_Endorsed_: "_Id._ To the bishop of Nueva Segovia in Philipinas." "_Id._ To the bishop of Nueva Cáceres." "_Id._ To the bishop of the city of Santisimo Nombre de Jesús."]
DOCUMENTS OF 1623-1624
Letter to Fajardo. Felipe IV; October 9, 1623. Royal permission for the Dominican college in Manila. Felipe IV; November 27, 1623. Expedition to the mines of the Igorrotes. Alonso Martin Quirante; June 5, 1624.
_Sources_: The first of these documents is obtained from the "Cedulario Indico" in the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid; the second, from _Algunos documentos relat. Univ. de Manila_, p. 21, and Pastells's edition of Colin's _Labor evangélica_, iii, p. 565; the third, from a MS. in the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla.
_Translations_: All these are made by James A. Robertson.
Letter from Felipe IV to Fajardo
The King. Don Alonso de Tenza, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia thereof: The letter which you wrote me on August 20, 1622, containing information regarding the state of those islands, has been received; and in my royal Council of the Indias the points that belong to their province have been considered, and you will be furnished with the resolutions adopted thereon.
You mention the revolt and retreat to the hills of certain natives of the provinces of Pintados, Nueva Segovia, and Cambales, and the reason which you think they had for it. I appreciate the care which you have exercised in that matter, since on other occasions when you have been directed to see that the Indians be treated as well as possible, you have endeavored to have my orders carried out, for in this way they will be preserved as we desire. Again I charge you that you inform the superiors of the convents, and religious who are busied in the conversion and teaching of the Indians, how important it is to treat them well.
Since you were unable to attend to the mines of the province of Pangasinan, in the mountains and the lands of the Ygolotes, on account of the press of business which you have had, you will now carry on their exploration, since you see that it is desirable to accomplish this enterprise. [50] As for the efforts that you have made to discover certain fruits of the land, and your assertion that a considerable quantity of nutmeg [51] has been discovered similar to that from the Malucas Islands, you will make the necessary investigations to ascertain this accurately. I also charge you to continue what you have begun, and to send a quantity of the said nutmeg to the officers of my royal exchequer in the City of Mexico in Nueva España, so that they may send it to these kingdoms; and there also shall the investigation be made, according to the orders sent in my decree.
As regards your remarks concerning the Licentiate Geronimo de Legaspi, auditor of that Audiencia, you will execute your orders in the matter, and I shall await the result. What you write in response to my decree, which was sent you on June 8, 1621, that you should investigate the mode of life of the wives of the auditors and other officials therein mentioned, is noted; and all this is placed in your charge and on your conscience. You are to correct the abuses which you find existing, no matter whom they concern, and shall read this section in the Audiencia, so that they may know my will.
I am advised of what you say, and have often represented, as to the necessity that the persons who are appointed to that Audiencia shall be well-known and approved. I am also advised as to what you say of the person of Don Geronimo de Silva, and the assistance which you have had from him. The embassy for Japan--with a gift, which shall not seem an acknowledgment--you say, could not be sent off last year, which is well. In the future, you will execute your orders in this matter.
All the other sections which your letter contains have been considered, and now nothing remains but to make suitable provisions regarding them. [Madrid, October 9, 1623.]
_I The King_
By order of the king, our lord: _Juan Ruiz de Contreras_
Royal Permission for the Dominican College in Manila
By license of the ordinary and the governor of the Filipinas Islands, and the consent of our royal Audiencia therein, the religious of the Order of St. Dominic in the city of Manila founded a college, where grammar, the arts, and theology, are taught. In it they established two religious for each subject, and they have twenty secular collegiates. From this has resulted and now is resulting a great advantage to the youth, to the preaching of the holy gospel, and to the instruction of the sons of the inhabitants. We order that now, and until we order otherwise, the said religious make use of the said license given them by the governor to found the college, and to study the said branches. This is and shall be understood to be without derogation or prejudice to any decrees concerning like foundations, in order that they may not be established and begun without our express permission, which must be observed throughout our Indias, without any exception. [Given in Madrid, November 27, 1623, by Felipe IV.]