“ For one who is not a parish priest by title to become one is a change of no less importance than for a bachelor to marry, or a layman to become a religious; and for the reverend archbishop to claim that, where others are free, the religious should be forced into a mode of life full of risk, and for an object which can be secured without that compulsion, is to extend his claims further than perhaps he is aware, and to accumulate more material for the account that he so greatly fears. ”

“ At this time, in the year 1675, Governor Don Manuel de León was in great danger of dying, on account of having placed himself under medical treatment, without being actually sick, solely for the sake of improving his health—a proof that it might have cost him his life. Don Manuel was a corpulent man, and had grown so fleshy that he was almost unable to move about without aid, at which he grieved much because he could not attend to many functions which belonged to the obligations of his office. ”

“ If it be answered that by keeping the case entirely secret the provincial becomes a sharer in the guilt of his subordinate, he and the superiors of the religious orders declare, with all submission and humility, that they refuse to put in practice such a form of theology. Can the ordinary acting alone, can the governor, the father, and the master, each alone, punish and correct the fault—of a priest, of a citizen or a soldier, of children, of servants—without the least injury to the culprit’s honor ”

“ Herein, which side proceeded most comformably to reason? the religious who peaceably leave the curacies, in order to avoid disputes; or the reverend archbishop who causes these contentions, and who sends to Madrid and Roma in order to obtain that the regulars shall be by force and violence parish priests subject to his own jurisdiction? In view, then, of disadvantages so serious, what religious is there, devoted to his profession, who will consent to be a parish priest in Filipinas? ”

“ I also inform your Holiness that from the day when the said very reverend archbishop set foot in these islands—that is, from last September to the present time—this entire commonwealth has been a perplexing labyrinth of contentions and acts of violence which he has performed against the holy religious orders of these islands. For his disposition and nature is very hasty, quarrelsome, and bold; and he is, finally, a man who does not care for or defend the ecclesiastical immunity—as appears from the authentic copy of the acts which I send. May God our Lord grant him better judgment ”

“ Don Manuel de León was a man of very good intentions, and had the excellent virtue of being very disinterested—which is very important in these regions, where the vice opposite to that has temptations so ready to make one fall headlong into the abyss of greed, which causes so many wrecks, as the root of all evils. ”

“ If a religious who is a minister commit a transgression, and his offense apparently belongs on the one side to morals and life, and on the other to the office of cura, the poor minister remains in the condition of those goods which we call mostrencos, on account of their belonging to the first person who takes possession of them—and even in a much worse condition, on account of the controversies which must naturally ensue. ”

“ Not his least care was that he had found the common property of not only the province but the convent of Manila greatly diminished, and everything reduced to the utmost necessity of restoration; for this is usually the greatest hindrance and impediment to the superiors in promoting with energy the regular observance, which requires many means for its preservation. But all was supplied by the diligence of that discreet prelate, making easier the removal of the most serious hindrances. ”

“ As the religious hold the Indian villages not as proprietaries, but removable ad nutum, other persons could, for no better reason than their own wishes, deprive the religious of those ministries, even though the latter live therein with the sanctity of their holy founders; and is it possible that, when only the will of another person is sufficient to prevent them from being curas, the divine inspiration and their own self-reproach will not be sufficient for them? ”

“ It is certain that, according to the apostle, power and jurisdiction is not for destruction but for edification.
The reverend archbishop is not ignorant of the necessity for baptism; nevertheless, no adult can be forced to receive it. The profession of a religious is null, if any notable force intervened to bring it about; and marriage is of no validity if a person wholly free were in like manner compelled to marry. ”

“ Finally, one cannot imagine any exquisite article for the equipment of a house which does not come from China, both cheap and excellent—especially the wares that come from Japón, with which country the Chinese have free commerce, just as it is totally prohibited [150] to us. In some of the years of that fortunate governor thirty champans would land at Manila, and many from the province of Cantón, where is the city of Macán, a Portuguese colony—which is so rich in silks that it has enough of that noble commodity to supply nearly all of the whole world ”

“ And, finally, the religious do not, by assuming the habit as such, strip themselves of the passions of men. There might be one or more for whom the subjection and mode of life in a religious community becomes wearisome; and such men, knowing that a cura cannot be removed from the mission parish without the agreement of the ordinary and the vice-patron, undertake to gain the good-will of those authorities by letters and other means, and for the same object to win the friendship of officials and dependents, so that these may exert influence in order to preserve them in the curacies. ”

“ And since the lands of the nuns of Santa Clara retain their immunity and are ranked as spiritual goods, on account of the extreme poverty of those servants of God, does the reverend archbishop regard that only as a physical lack of riches on their part, and no more? or as evangelical poverty which springs from the vow, institute, and profession of the life which they have chosen for Christ, and which the Apostolic See has approved? If the former, the religious frankly state that it is very alien to the ecclesiastical rules, by which the exemption and immunity ought to be measured. ”

“ His government begins well, but after a time he tires of its burdens, and falls under the sway of a relative, Francisco Guerrero, who is crafty and selfish, and gains an influence over the governor which enables him to turn everything to his own advantage, and to be “the power behind the throne;” [16] afterward, in time of need, he escapes to Nueva España, and leaves Vargas to bear the penalties for both of them. During Vargas’s term of office the rich trade with India and other foreign lands is well maintained, and the prosperity and wealth of Manila are greatly increased. ”

“ They add that, if in America and Filipinas a religious order is one and the same, likewise throughout the world the faith and the church of Jesus Christ is one and the same; and nevertheless, if a Catholic, simply because he had chosen an estate of life, should exhort all others to embrace the same, it would not be judicious counsel, or in conformity to the spirit of God; for that Spirit inspires, influences, and calls whomsoever He will, choosing some for an occupation, and dissuading others from that same employ. ”

“ The year of 1685 was a hard one on account of the general epidemic of smallpox which raged, not only in these islands but in all the kingdoms of China and Eastern India—especially on the Coromandel coast, where many millions of Malabàrs died. In Filipinas the ravages of the epidemic were great, principally among the infants; but the place where, it is affirmed, the pest caused incredible loss was in the mountains of Manila where the insurgent blacks [i.e., Negritos] dwell, so many dying that those mountain districts were left almost uninhabited. ”

“ The religious also consider that although the virtue of justice is one for all, and alike for all, and the efficacy of canonical institution is also one for persons who are qualified for the same office, to the secular cleric with the onerous duty of parish priest [75] is given all that can favor him; but to the religious, while the entire burden is laid upon him, all his energy is checked on account of not giving him all which can relieve that burden. ”

“ But the latter come every year to Manila with one or two shiploads of goods, which is the most profitable trade that they have, on account of its nearness and of their securing in barter the silver that is so esteemed by the Chinese. But as the Portuguese are so courtly and liberal a people, and inclined to boast of the obligations of nobility, some Portuguese gentlemen usually return quite destitute of funds—as occurred this year to Juan Tabora, a cavalier of the Order of Christ. He spent the wealth which he brought here, which was much, in elegant gallantries and in bull-fights ”

“ Yet the preaching of the word of God, the instruction in Christian doctrine, the administration of the sacraments of penance and communion, the consolation [of the faithful] with the mass, the visiting of the sick and dying, the ministrations in jails and hospitals, in order that no one may die without the sacraments: these and other spiritual works, which the holy religious orders of the city of Manila habitually perform with all classes of people, are not sufficient [in the archbishop’s opinion] to exempt their lands from being profane. ”

“ And it is no wonder that laymen say this when the reverend archbishop himself writes (as it were, praising himself) that the regulars are almost exhausted and beside themselves at seeing how in so short a time he has, if not conquered them all, at least broken their courage to a great extent. But the religious orders desire for this prelate in the remembrance of posterity more praiseworthy sayings than this one which calls them exhausted by such means. ”

“ From that time, troubles continued to crowd together until in all those islands the Catholic faith, as concerns God, and the vassalage of the Indians to your Majesty, were at the point of destruction; for in that country all the villages are inhabited by Indians alone, nor is there in them any Spaniard except the religious who is their minister—except here and there a village where resides some secular priest and the alcaldes-mayor of the provinces. ”

“ The islands of Timor and Solor abound with gold, and in them alone grows the sandalwood, a very fragrant and esteemed wood, and a great article of trade for China—although the transportation of it is very unbecoming for Christians, because it is the incense and timiama which the Chinese use most in the sacrifices to their idols; and therefore the Portuguese have found by experience that wealth gained by this wretched traffic never is profitable. ”

“ If this regular who acts as parish priest were administering his functions without canonical institution or subjection to the ordinary, as is done in the Filipinas Islands, the provincial could with the greatest ease settle the whole matter, and justice and charity be satisfied, without disgrace to the delinquent and without a stigma on the religious order. But when the regular who is a parish priest is subject to the ordinary, the provincial cannot remove him by his own authority alone ”