CHAPTER XXXV
Of the second election to the provincialate of father Fray Gerónimo Medrano,and the life and death of Archbishop Don Hernando Guerrero.
As there are no events worth mentioning in the year 1640, outside of what we have noticed in the prosecution of the war with the Sangleys, let us pass to the year 1641. On the nineteenth of April of that year was celebrated the provincial chapter, which was presided over by father Fray Juan de Trejo,[1] the senior definitor of the former chapter. Father Fray Gerónimo de Medrano was elected for the second time as provincial. The definitors elected were father Fray Juan Gallegos, Fray Pedro Mexia,[2] Fray Diego de Ordás, and Fray Diego Tamayo.[3] The visitors were fathers Fray Felipe Tallada and Fray Cristóbal Enríquez.[4] Very suitable ministers were stationed in all the villages of this province, as it had then a great plenty of religious.
[Here follow accounts of the wars in Mindanao and Joló, and the founding of the royal College of San Felipe by Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, both of which are treated elsewhere.]
After the archbishop, Don Fray Hernando, had governed his church of Manila during his time with the troubles and anxiety that have been mentioned in their proper place, and many others which afterward continued to exercise his patience and tolerance (which, to one of his many years, were a great weight to place on him at the end of his life), he fell sick from various accidents, which prostrated him in a short time and reduced him to his last illness. This occurred during his visitation of the village of Balayán, where he had remained a long time busied in the confirmations of that entire province. The vigilant prelate was unwilling to lay aside his bodily labors, as he was by nature very active. He celebrated mass every day, until his attendant, recognizing that his illness was becoming aggravated, induced him to retire to Manila in order to take better care of his health. He reached the city in the middle of May, where he was shortly prostrated by his illness which made the physicians think that he was going to end his days very soon. All the remaining days left to him, he busied himself fervently in preparing for his last hour, abstracting himself in religious thought during all the time that either the care of his medicine or the compliance of his attendants permitted. But, coming to the last pass, he ordered that all the holy sacraments be given to him. He received them in public with great fervor, and to the edification of all the people. The people were very sorry to lose a shepherd so zealous for the welfare of souls, who had suffered so much to defend the immunity of the Church. Day and night was his archiepiscopal palace never free from the religious, who loved him dearly as the defender and protector of them all. Not less was the sorrow of the cabildo, who loved him as a true father; for although he had had various conflicts with them, he was their consolation and defense as well as that of the clergy, among whom he performed all the offices of love and piety possible. He succored the poor and sheltered the needy clerics, for he was very zealous for the honor of the ecclesiastics. Finally, laden with merits and years, he rendered up his soul to his Creator, July 1, 1641, at one o’clock at night, at the age of more than seventy. His death caused general sorrow to all, especially to those who had borne most part in the sorrow that that great prelate had experienced.
Don Fray Hernando Guerrero was a native of the town of Alcaraz, although Doctor Juan Pérez de Montalbán represents him as born in Madrid. He was the legitimate son of Don Fernando Guerrero and of Doña Isabel de la Barreta, both of noble blood. He received the habit of our holy religion in the convent of San Felipe in Madrid, where he professed July 26, 1588, during the priorship of father Fray Antonio de Velasco. Later he came to these islands in the year 1595 with the mission that was sent from España by father Fray Francisco de Ortega—who died afterward in Mexico, when returning as the ambassador of King Don Felipe II to the emperor of China. He was minister of the provinces of Tagalos, where he built the convent of Tagui; it was a magnificent work before it suffered ruin in the earthquakes of 1645, which overthrew the most sumptuous edifices. He obtained the most honorable posts in the order next to the provincialate, as a reward for his great merits; and, had he not been presented by his Majesty as bishop of Nueva Segovia, he would also have filled the post of provincial. That was due to his many services to this province; for he went to España twice and brought over two excellent missions of religious. Special mention is made of this archbishop by the father master Fray Tomás de Herrera, on folio 243 of the first part of his Alfabeta Agustiniano [i.e., “Augustinian Alphabet”]; and on folio 297 of chapter 43 of the first part of the history of our convent of Salamanca. He is said to have received despatches to act as governor of these islands, although that is not clear to me. It may be true that he had a decree to act as governor ad interim; but as there was no vacancy in the government of these islands, he never had occasion to use that favor. In a rare book preserved in manuscript in the treasury of the holy cathedral church of Manila, on the lives and deeds of the archbishops of the city, there is a very long relation of the government of Don Fray Hernando Guerrero and of his great sufferings in defense of the ecclesiastical immunity. Speaking of his death, the following is added:
“His death was greatly regretted, for the poor loved him dearly for the many great alms that he gave them both publicly and in secret. The rich esteemed him, for, besides his being very courteous and kind, they never gave him anything, however little, that was not recompensed with something greater. The orders venerated him, because the delicacy with which he gained the good-will of all was extreme; and he obtained that by his paternal affection and affability. Although his cabildo showed him little kindness, he did not for that reason cease to esteem them. He succored the poor presbyters and the clergy by giving them alms sufficient to clothe themselves; for he sorrowed excessively at seeing that they did not have the proper vestments. He bought them bits of silk and chanlés for cassocks and cloaks, so that they might appear properly. He bought some houses, very elegant in their time, on the square of this city, and fitted them up for the archiepiscopal palace; but, as his debts were so heavy that he could not pay for them, they were bought after his death by Manuel Estacio Venegas,[5] who made them into a palace, in which the governors and captains-general now live.[6] That prelate was an excellent man in all ways; and his disgrace resulted from the adverse fortune that he experienced—although he well merited the crown with which God must have rewarded him, because of the great prudence and patience with which he bore himself, while he was never heard to utter a harsh or hasty word. The cause of that was, that it fell to his lot to rule [the church] during the government of Governor Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, a gentleman well known to be capricious and hard to deal with—who by his natural severity and harshness greatly harassed that prelate. But his greatest glory (worthy of all applause) was the fact that he suffered in defense of the immunity of his church; so that we may properly and with acclamation give him the aureole of martyrdom, and chant a song of victory for that holy warrior,[7] the defense of the Manila church. His funeral was celebrated with due ceremony and he was buried amid tears and grief in the convent of his great father St. Augustine in this city of Manila; and his body was placed in the presbytery of the high altar at the gospel side. He ruled that archbishopric for five years, eleven months, and nine days. He was grave of aspect and spare in figure, of good proportion and stature, somewhat bald and hair somewhat curly. He was temperate in his eating, indeed eating very little. He spent much time in vigils. In his conversation he was very affable. He slept on the ground, the bed that he had—well furnished with handsome coverlets, on account of his dignity—remaining untouched. In short, he was in all things a perfect prelate.”...
[1] Juan de Trezo (so called by Pérez) was a native of Extremadura, and became prior of the convents of Santo Niño de Cebú (1620) and of Otón (1623). He ministered in the villages of Taal (1631), Sala (1633), Taguig (1635), and Malolos (1636); and was definitor (1638), president of the capitular province (1641), and minister of Otón and Caruyan (1644–45). He died in 1650. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 91. [↑]
[2] Pedro Mejia was a native of La Mancha, and professed in the convent of Valladolid. He became prior of Guadalupe in 1621 and was later definitor and visitor. He was also minister of Narvacan in 1611, and of the Tagálog villages of Calumpit, Bauan and Guiguinto until his death in 1659. See Pérez’s Catálogo, pp. 94, 95. [↑]
[3] Diego Tamayo was a native of La Mancha, and professed in Andalucia. He was subprior of the convent of Manila in 1635, procurator-general in 1636, minister of Bacolor in 1638, prior of Manila in 1647, and definitor in 1650. Pérez says that he was again incorporated with his province in 1682. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 109. [↑]
[4] Cristóbal Enríquez, a native of Cáceres, was minister in the villages of Dumalag (1620) and San Pedro (Antique; 1627)—being later transferred to the province of Tagálos, where he ministered in Batangas, Tanaoan, and Baoan (1635, 1639, 1645, and 1648), passing thence to Tambobong, Sala, Bigaá, and lastly to Malolos (1650). He acted as definitor, assistant counselor (discreto) of the province, and commissary-procurator in Madrid; and died in Trujillo in 1659. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 94. [↑]
[5] Manuel Estacio Venegas had been regidor of Manila, and became later master-of-camp (see Pastells’s Colin, pp. 487, 493). He became the favorite of Governor Diego Fajardo y Chacón, who allowed him to exercise great power, in which he proved himself to be an arbitrary and cruel man. Finally the eyes of the governor were opened to his character; and he was arrested September 16, 1651, and died in prison. See Montero y Vidal’s Hist. de Filipinas, i, pp. 266, 290, 291. See also Concepción’s Hist. de Philipinas, vi, pp. 195, 297–301, where a dark picture is drawn of Venegas’s venality. [↑]
[6] Buzeta and Bravo say (Diccionario, ii, p. 219) that this edifice was reconstructed about 1690, being greatly enlarged. [↑]
[7] Spanish, Guerrero—a play upon his name, which signifies “warrior.” [↑]
Third book of the second part of the “Conquests of the Filipinas Islands and chronicle of the religious of our father St. Augustine.”