II
SUMMARY OF HISTORY
[The following is condensed from annotations of Rev. Pablo Pastells, S.J., in his edition of Colin’s Labor evangélica.]
The college of San Felipe de Austria was founded by Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, at the instance of the ayuntamiento of Manila, and was annexed to the college of San José of Manila. The cabildo proposed to Corcuera, December 15, 1640, that eighteen royal fellowships and two college servants be assigned in the college of San José or Santo Tomás, which were to be given as a reward to those possessing greatest merit and highest rank, because of the great poverty of many of the children and descendants of those who had performed the greatest services for the crown in Filipinas. In view of the fact that there are two universities in Manila, Corcuera is asked to confer in regard to the matter, “so that in the college which his Lordship shall assign, of the two above-mentioned, there be eighteen fellowships, and two college servants—twenty in all—and that to them be appointed those who shall deserve it most and those of the highest rank, with the beca and gown that shall be regarded as fitting, in order that they may be recognized as such, and which shall be different from those worn by the other students. For their support and clothing, a sum of three thousand pesos shall be set aside annually.” The graduates were to succeed, after passing competitive examination, to the canonries of the Manila cathedral.
Corcuera signed the decree founding the college, December 23, 1640, and the direction of the same was given to the Jesuits. By that decree, twenty fellowships were created, and six Pampango college servants provided for. The turn of four thousand pesos was assigned for their support, 3,000 being for the twenty fellowships, and the remaining 1,000 for one master and the six servants. Provision was made for this sum from four hundred of the general licenses which were issued to the Sangleys, granting them permission to remain in Manila.
January 19, 1641, Corcuera issued the rules and regulations for the new college—thirty-three in number—after having conferred with Doctor Diego de Rivera Maldonado; auditor of the royal Audiencia. These rules and regulations provide as follows:[6]
1. There shall be twenty collegiates, “who must be the sons, grandsons, or descendants of deserving persons who have served his Majesty in these islands. The sons of the auditors of this royal Audiencia, living or dead, and those of the royal official judges, and those of all the war officers, great and small, shall always have the preference; and in default of them, any others of these islands, who possess the necessary qualifications. Said collegiates shall be in the charge and under the care of the father rector, present or future, of the said college; and no one shall enter the college or be received therein unless he shall have presented a government provision therefor to the said father rector.”
2. The college servants shall be of influential Pampango families, and they shall be taught “to read and write, and the Spanish language,” and shall be given clerkships if they show aptitude therefor.
3. The collegiates must be of pure race and have no mixture of Moorish or Jewish blood, to the fourth degree, and shall have no negro or Bengal blood, or that of any similar nation, in their veins, or a fourth part of Filipino blood.
4. The royal arms shall be placed above the principal door of the college, and surrounding those arms the Latin words: Collegium regale divi Philippi [Royal college of San Felipe].
5. The outside clothing worn by the collegiates shall be a gown of blue and black silk, and a beca of purple velvet, and on the left side an escutcheon with the arms of Castilla and Leon with the royal crown above, and below, the fleece whence protrudes the cross of Alcantara, edged at the points with gold. The sleeves and bonnet shall be black. In the house they shall wear a garment of the same silk and color in place of the gown. The college servants shall wear a semi-cassock of the same silk material, with hat and girdle, with the royal arms on the left side of the breast.
6. All that is necessary for the support and clothing of the collegiates shall be given them, being paid for from the 150 pesos assigned for each one. They shall each be provided with one silken gown, one beca of purple velvet, one silken garment, one bonnet, four pairs of sleeves of black taffeta, six shirts and six pairs of linen breeches, twelve pairs of shoes, four pairs of cotton socks, two pairs of breeches and two doublets, and one dozen linen collars.
7. Twelve of the collegiates shall be art students [pasantes de facultad], and the other eight, grammar, but the governors may vary the number of those in each branch at their pleasure.
8. The course shall take eight years, and shall comprise three in arts and four in theology; and no collegiate may be more than seven years in the said college and one year as a lodger, unless elected as a conciliar the last year, after which he shall then be a lodger. Those studying grammar shall remain nine years.
9. When there is a sufficient number who wish to be given a fellowship, a competitive examination shall be held.
10. Until there are those who can compete for the fellowships, they shall be appointed after taking an examination given by the three fathers named by the rector.
11. All collegiates must take an oath of mutual defense in and out of the college, and must defend the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin.
12. The collegiates must be given sufficient food, and on certain feast days, viz., of Sts. Philip and James, St. Sebastian, and the day of the Immaculate Conception, something extra.
13. The hours shall correspond to those of the university of San José.
14. The collegiates shall confess and take communion at least five times per year, viz., on the three feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, and the days of Sts. Sebastian and Philip, under penalty of a fortnight’s seclusion every time they fail to observe it, and loss of their college portion for that time.
15. The students of San José shall be preferred to all others in competition for fellowships.
16. These shall be defended every Saturday when no legal obstacle presents itself.
17. All the collegiates shall be obliged to attend vespers and mass in the royal chapel on St. Sebastian’s day, and on the feast of the most holy sacrament held at the same place, and they shall have to take part in the procession of the latter day as well as on the day of Sts. Philip and James (May 2).
18. Gambling with cards, dice, or in other manner is forbidden, the penalties being for the first time, seclusion for a fortnight and deprivation of the college portion for that time; for the second, that penalty doubled, and for the third, dismissal from the college.
19. The college shall be locked after the evening prayer, after time has been allowed for the collegiates to arrive from the farthest part of the city. The third time that any collegiate is late, he shall be dismissed from the college. No collegiate may go into the city without his gown and beca.
20. The library shall be open two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon, but no book shall be taken from it, “under penalty that the collegiate so doing, shall not enter the library for six months, and shall pay the college for the book, unless he return it. The librarian or attendant shall be the senior collegiate, and he shall be present in the said library one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon.”
21. Corcuera prescribes that he be advised of any case for expulsion in order that he may give permission for such expulsion. Expulsion shall take place if it is proved that any collegiate has obtained the beca for sinister reasons, or is not of the proper purity of blood.
22. The collegiates shall live a good moral life under penalty of expulsion.
23. Collegiates shall be preferred in all appointments to the beneficed curacies and in the church dignities.
24. Every day the collegiates shall recite a prayer for the king, besides a responsary for the deceased sovereigns. They shall assemble (as is the custom at San José) twice in the chapel, once on rising in the morning, and the second time at night, at which times the said prayers shall be repeated.
25. The auditor Diego de Rivera shall be the protector of the college, and in his absence, the one who shall be appointed by the government. The governor shall inspect the college annually without the intervention of any ecclesiastic, but he may delegate it to the father provincial of the Society.
26. On the day of the patron saint of the college, the collegiates shall assemble and three of the most capable shall be chosen as assistants to the rector in matters of importance.
27 and 28. The college shall contain archives for the conservation of important papers, and records.
29. The rector shall have especial care of the money assigned for the support of the collegiates.
30. One of the art or theological collegiates shall be elected annually as conciliar, when the number is sufficient to warrant it.
31. If the expenses of the degree of doctor or licentiate in any course reach 400 pesos, counting the fees, theaters, gloves, collations, and other things, the royal collegiates shall pay only half the fees to the doctors and teachers.
32. The senior collegiate in any course shall be graduated before the other students in that course.
33. The college is entrusted to the Jesuits as Corcuera has full confidence in them.
The Dominicans asked that the twenty fellowships founded by Corcuera be adjudged to their college, without any gratification or income. Their request was made by the rector of that college, Fray Domingo Goncales, and the other religious of the same, and they offered to take the twenty students free of all charge to the king, as an appreciation of the latter’s many favors to their college. Corcuera answered the request by a decree, November 23, 1640, in which he suggested that the Dominicans might use the 3,000 pesos which they offered for the support of the fellowships, for bringing over missionaries of their order from Spain, thus relieving the king of that expense. But it is not in accord with the greatness of the king to listen to such a proposal. On August 8, 1641, Corcuera wrote to Felipe IV, stating the reason which induced him to found the college. He cites therein the request made him by the Manila cabildo, encloses the Dominican’s petition, and gives his reasons for refusing it. He also asks that the college be exempted from the payment of the half-annats, as it is a royal institution.
When Diego Fajardo took possession of the government, August 11, 1644, he ordered the assignments for the fellowships, amounting now to 12,000 pesos, belonging to the college of San Felipe, now received by the college of San José, to be returned, in accordance with a royal decree dated June 16, 1643, ordering the former college discontinued. The Jesuits urged against the measure “that his Majesty did not order that the Society should pay the said sum, but that there be given to the royal treasury what the Society had received, leaving it to the decision of the royal official judges how it was to be paid and by whom; that the seminary of San José was a distinct college, and had made no use of what had been spent in the support of the royal college; that it was only interested because it had given them a house in which to live: consequently it was not right that it should pay from the income which its founder had instituted, what they had not eaten and drunk. As regards the embargo of property, we alleged immunity, for it was proved that the incomes of the college of San José were ecclesiastical.” The sentence was given in favor of the Society by the royal officials, but the governor would not listen. The Society were ordered to pay the 12,000 within three days. The governor refused to discount 8,000 pesos owed the Society by the treasury, and to take 4,000 pesos in cash, and hence, it became necessary for the Society to seek a loan. The king on fuller information, ordered the Society to be reimbursed to the amount of the 12,000 pesos, if it had been collected from them, by a royal decree dated March 17, 1647.[7]
[1] The original is asi bonetes como capillas. Bonetes refers to the secular priest who wears a bonnet, in contradistinction to the regular, who wears a hood or cowl, capilla. See Appleton’s New Velázquez Dictionary. [↑]
[2] Concepción says (vi, pp. 190, 191) that a house was bought for the new college next to the college of San José; and January 20, 1641, the first becas were given. Some of the Jesuits did not approve the new college, and sighted the fatal results from afar, “from taking so great a sum from the royal treasury, without sufficient authorization.” “But the fathers in power trampled everything under foot, for they were quite confident in its introduction, and thought that if those powers had no effect, no harm would come from its results, while the present gain was very great and constant.” [↑]
[3] “The Society alleged that the decree was obtained on false representation and contained falsehoods in its narration; that its execution should be suspended, until truer reports were given to the sovereign; that, even laying aside this vice, the Society, against whom the execution was to be made, was not a party; that the royal decree did not order it, nor did law declare it, because neither the Society nor the college of San Joseph was interested in such sum, which at best ought to be collected from the collegiates, for whose use it had been spent, or from the governor, at whose order the money had been paid out; and that the embargo was an excess on laymen, since it was in ecclesiastical incomes.” On this account the royal officials decreed in favor of the Society. See Concepción’s Historia, vi, pp. 191, 192. [↑]
[4] “The Society continued its demands at court, and gained their plea, and the governor was ordered, in case that sum had been collected, to restore it to the Society. If that sum had not been paid, no further effort was to be made to collect it. Seemingly this order had no effect, for the king gave them as recompense an encomienda, in which the Society were to make good their losses.” Concepción’s Historia, vi, p. 193. [↑]
[5] See post, pp. 187–192. [↑]
[6] We present these regulations for the most part only in abstract. [↑]
[7] This decree is given by Fray Bernardino Nozaleda de Villa, the last Spanish archbishop of Manila, in his Colegio de S. José, (appendix, document no. 5, pp. x, xi), a pamphlet presenting the Church side in the recent controversy of San José College, argued before the Philippine Commission; and also by Pastells, in his edition of Colin, ii, pp. 493, 494. See also various documents treating of this college presented by Pastells, ut supra, iii, pp. 763–781. [↑]