CHAPTER XLII
Of the intermediary junta of the year sixty-seven; and of other news of this period of our history.
On April thirty of the year 1667 was held and celebrated the intermediary junta [in the term] of the father commissary Fray Juan de los Angeles, in our convent of Santo Domingo in Manila—and with new vigor because of the fervor imparted to the province by the fresh nourishment received from its late reënforcement. They proceeded to arrange the ministries, and one more which it seemed advisable to separate, namely, San Miguel at Orion, in the district of Bataan. After knowing the new soldiers for a year, the old and new stones were assigned to their places in order to render this spiritual edifice firm and beautiful. The new rules made were but few, but they were very carefully thought out. The first was that no inferior or subordinate official of the order should visit or write to the alcaldes and superiors of the provinces, and least of all to the governor, without first making known his intention and explaining it to the father provincial—or, in his absence, to the vicars-provincial—respectively. That was and ought to be a necessary measure; and the attempt to carry out the decisions that each minister reaches in his seclusion may be the cause of greater troubles. We must not make a passion of our zeal for defending the Indians, for that is a virtue that essentially demands to be moderated by prudence. An angry letter, or (what is worse) a visit, founded perhaps on a misrepresentation, generally disquiets a superior. He, in his own opinion offended, is vexed; and the Indians themselves, and the rest of the religious, are wont to pay doubly [for the intrusion]. Consequently, it is proper that such matters be managed with much caution and in accordance with obedience, and in the council [of the order], keeping in view the object, which must be the first aim of every good intention. Everyone does what he is able in his ministry and profession, and the apostle says that we should give offense to no one. The heads of the province, being in an exalted position, discover many things and efficient remedies for all troubles; and hence it is necessary to place such affairs in their hands. For the same reason and one greater, that junta repeats the order that no one should preach against the government and the persons busied in it without consulting with the same superiors. For that means consultation with God, because words are very important in that most lofty and consecrated place—where by favor of the sovereign principles of a wisdom whose master is the fear of God, and general doctrines, one may say whatever there is to say. Our father San Vicente Ferrer did not preach more than the judgment, but he reformed the world, kings, and chiefs. And only a St. John the Baptist, who by credit of his virtue pointed out with his finger a divine Person, could point out from the pulpit a person so wicked and scandalous as a Herod; for the latter was, in fine, king, and his dignity protected him. God placed our superiors in their positions (and kings rule through God) and gave that honor to their councils and magistracies; and consequently it is proper for ministers to honor them without flattery (which is another and worse extreme) without curing them with salt, and with respect where the community does not feel it—so that by preaching to the people at large, they will know where their pain is. We have already touched on this point in another place; but, since our province repeats it so often in its ordinances, the historian is also permitted to repeat it, since it is advice so important. A petition was addressed to our most reverend father not to allow dispensations to be introduced into our provinces, nor anything that savored of [differences between] individuals or degrees. For since it had seemed to his paternal piety that the procurators-general who went from this province to those of Europa had immense work therein, he planned to grant to them officially some sort of reward, by conferring on them the rank of the more recent fathers of the province. Receiving this favor with submission and gratitude, they nevertheless protested in this junta against it. At the same time Don Fray Juan de Polanco made a humble resistance in Roma, as he knew that the order had already been sent. But he obtained that new favor from our most reverend father; and, before our petition arrived, the said grace was revoked.
In the following year of 1668 two relief ships reached these islands, which came from Nueva España. In one of them came father Fray Antonio Calderon, who had obtained permission to return to España the preceding year, because of illness. But later, as he regained strength in Nueva España, and as he knew the lack that one religious makes here, and the need of the province, he was filled with no small doubt, seeing that this was coming to be a second vocation. Therefore, he determined to return, and did so; and entered the province for the second time with great courage and went to his ministries in Nueva Segovia, where he is and was an excellent linguist. The devil is very subtile, and, because he sees the evil that is caused him by this province, he causes sickness, and makes sufferings greater than what they are in themselves. Since also the magnanimous nature of man falls short, and he takes it ill to see himself set in a land like this—as shut out from intercourse and repose as contrary to the liberty of our España—with the little attention given to him, he imagines insuperable hardships in the rules, aggravates his sickness in so great retirement; and by a door that is lawful, he disturbs the common cause and even endangers that of the individual. The said father now found himself strong, and consequently chose to return, to exercise his strength in this his province. In the other ship came father Fray Arcadio del Rosario, who had, as we have remarked above, remained in Mexico sick, and was now coming very strong and well—to a place where the only consolations and pleasures that went out to meet him were a peril and sudden catastrophe, which would have been the last had not God aided him almost miraculously. Because of the difficulty that the ship had in entering the strait or Embocadero of San Bernardino—and those difficulties are very great and usual in those seas in that season—the father took a small boat called a caracoa; and, embarking in it with a father visitor-commissary of our father St. Francis, who was coming as visitor, and another, his associate, with rowers and other Spanish passengers, they tried to cross the strait, in order to continue their course to Manila more quickly than they could by the ship, if they waited for it. Those boats are not only swift but weak, and, in order to give them greater safety, some long timbers are crossed at intervals over the sides; at the ends of these they suitably place some bamboo sails called cates, so that, by thus making the vessel wider, they may better resist the waves and sustain them. They were beginning their crossing, which is a distance of about six leguas, and in the very middle of it so strong a gust of wind struck them, as well as so opposing currents—which, in those regions, are such that they will turn a ship of high free-board clear around, with or without favorable winds, moving it from side to side and disarranging the [trim of the] sails, with the accompanying horror that only sailors can imagine—that that boat (for it was not even a patache, but a very weak vessel) capsized, because of the currents and the violent wind that they encountered in the midst of the open expanse, after a few contrary blasts, and filled with water. It was the Lord’s will that the buffeting of the sea should soon strip it of weight, carrying away whatever it contained. Thereupon the men in it remained astride of the said timbers and cates, and many of them were up to their breasts in water, rigging it. In such wise they allowed themselves to drift along with the said current, wherever it chose to take them, sustained only on those timbers poorly fastened together with rattan. Night came; day followed; and in all that time they were unable to make the land—on the contrary, the currents carried them away from it. When they got out of one current they were seized by one opposed to it, so that they were continually going, round and round in those waters. Father Fray Arcadio, who was still convalescent, suffered the most; and doubtless would soon have given up, had it not been for the said father commissary. A bamboo enclosure was made as well as possible on those timbers and there the father found some retreat from the water, mainly in the arms of the said father commissary. The latter’s name was Fray Antonio Godinez, son of the religious province of San Diego in Mexico. With the same suffering did they pass the following night—without water to drink in the midst of so much water, nor more food than a few grains of rice, which the wrath of so rigorous a fortune that assailed those miserable beings had forgotten. At last, on the third day, the Lord, as a Father of mercy, listened to them and they reached the land; where, more beaten by the waves of the sea than assisted by what the rowers could do, they reached the sacred sand in a stripped condition. Three men were drowned, who tried to quit the boat too soon, and the sea made them pay for their ingratitude with their lives; for their weakness had already forbidden them [from reaching land]. It is always a rule of sailors that only wood can swim on such occasions. All is as God ordains; but already deposit was made of life, and a good account, by means of his Majesty, must be given. Our religious landed, or rather those who shared his fortunes drew him ashore half dead. But the land performed its miracles, and they hastened to the first village, where they all recovered and were despatched to Manila. The pious commissary lost there all the papers of his commission, so that, when he reached the province, great difficulties were raised, and he returned without making his visit. Father Fray Arcadio reached this our province, where he was gladly received, and the prelate assigned him to the study of the Chinese language, in which he took the courses that will be related at the end of this chapter.
[The provincial receives a letter dated Roma, February 19, 1668, from the father-general of the order, Juan Bautista de Marinis, in which concessions to the order by Pope Clement IX are related. The beatified Luis Beltran and Mother Rosa de Santa Maria have been canonized; universal prayer ad libitum to San Vicente Ferrer has been conceded; and other concessions of general importance to the order are granted. August 1, 1673, four religious embark for the Chinese missions—namely, Arcadio del Rosario, Pedro de Alcala, Pedro de Alarcon, and Alonso de Cordova. The rough weather experienced causes the superstitious Chinese crew to imagine that it is caused by the fathers; but after many hardships China is finally reached in twenty-four days. After various adventures they return to Manila, May 4, 1674. Two Dominican religious, namely, Arcadio del Rosario and Francisco Lujan, and two Franciscans, namely, Miguel Flores and Pedro de Piñuelo, sail for China on Corpus Christi day, 1676.]
At the same time, religious are being occupied in two glorious missions in this same island of Manila. One near the city, to the north, is to the Zambals, whom we have not yet been able to subdue. Now two of our religious are there, and are bringing in those of the mountains to form villages. They possess churches and many of the people are converted. The religious write that they have been received very well, and it is hoped that this will be a grand work for the service of God and for these islands, for those people are very courageous and bloodthirsty, and have always done great harm to those who go to other provinces and to the villages near them; and, if the faith of Christ once subjects them, great advantages present themselves for all. The other mission is located in the same region, in the province of Nueva Segovia, in the district of the mountains called Irraya, of which this history has already given repeated notices. Most of those people are heathen, although there are many Christians among them who have fled from our villages. They have been subdued at times, but their misfortune has immediately roused them to rebellion. Now we are considering how to attract them by love, and with security; and our religious are moving alone in this matter, with none of the horrors that soldiers bring. Consequently, we trust that they too will be subdued. Such is our special vocation in this holy province, where we profess especially to fight the wars of God. And thus as the good soldier loses spirit when peace is declared, and is inspirited at the rumor of a battle, It is an evident fact that these spiritual soldiers are aroused to unusual ardor when the arms of the missions are in use, just as the silence of these voices depresses them. And, if their sufferings and efforts reached at least half as far as do their desires, there would be no province in Asia now which had not yielded to God and to His holy faith in accordance with the honorable designs with which the beautiful sky of these islands inspires them.
This news has been anticipated, because it is so recent; but the history only relates matters to 1669, so that the third part[11] will begin with the provincial chapter celebrated on May 11 of the said year, when the reverend father Fray Juan Camacho was elected provincial.
[The chapter ends with the recital of certain benefits that have been received by the order at large, in canonizations, beatifications, etc.]
Map of the Philippine Islands, showing province of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine; photographic facsimile of engraving in Lubin’s Orbis Augustinianus ... ordinis eremitarum Sancti Augustini (Paris, 1639)
[From copy in Library of Congress]
[1] Thus in the text; but the list counts but thirty-six names, including the four who remained in Mexico. See biographical sketches of all in Reseña biográfica, ii, pp. 1–17. [↑]
[2] Referring to Fray Vittorio Ricci, the Dominican missionary who carried to Manila the message of Kue-sing, the Chinese corsair. [↑]
[3] Salcedo is commended for having despatched the Acapulco galleons so promptly, and so well equipped, that during his term of office they made the voyage every year, without being driven back by storms or compelled to winter at Acapulco; and the voyage to that port—formerly eight or nine months, often with shipwreck and great loss of life and property—was reduced to four or five months. (Ventura del Arco MSS., ii, p. 507.) [↑]
[4] That is, of the posts filled in the islands by religious, in which they act as parish priests; the presentation of these lists to the royal patron practically reduces the aforesaid religious to employees of the government, and subjects them to episcopal visitation—a procedure which the orders always strenuously opposed. This subject is fully discussed by Santa Theresa, ante. [↑]
[5] Biographical sketches of all these may be found in Reseña biográfica, ii,pp. 17–100. [↑]
[6] A port and village on the northern coast of Sámar—that is, south of the Embocadero. [↑]
[7] Alluding to the process of canonization for the Japanese martyrs, then before the proper authorities at Rome. For description of this process, see Addis and Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary, pp. 113, 114. [↑]
[8] Spanish, jura publicada. Felipe IV had died on September 17, 1665; and he was succeeded by the infant Cárlos II, who reigned (under the regency of his mother, Mariana of Austria, until his fifteenth year) until the end of the seventeenth century. [↑]
[9] Spanish, amantisimo por extremo. Dominguez says (Diccionario nacional) that amantisimo is used, in mystical and erotic language, in the sense of muy amado (“greatly beloved”); our text here implies that Poblete was very dear, on account of his purity, to God and the Virgin Mary. [↑]
[10] The palm was a symbol of victory and triumph—in religious language, especially of triumph over the infernal powers; and, by extension, of virginity. [↑]
[11] i.e., the third part of the Dominican history, written by father Fray Vicente de Salazar, O.P. (Manila, 1742), and treating of events from 1661 to 1690. [↑]