The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 50 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

by Unknown

SEVENTH ABUSE

Just as the bishops who live within their dioceses are bishops in partibus, the king is that in the Filipinas Islands. His Majesty resides in them by the authority communicated to his president and Audiencia, and to the alcaldes, governors, and corregidors of the provinces, in which the president, Audiencia, and other ministers do not command, but only the religious father.

The king is named as such, and is called upon as king, only in order that he may pay the stipends; beyond that his royal name is abhorred and persecuted.

It causes horror to see a religious, paid and maintained by his Majesty, with the character of apostolic missionary, no sooner arrived at Manila from these kingdoms than he immediately publishes and defends the assertion that the king is not master of the islands, but only they who have conquered them; that the Indian ought not to pay tribute; and that no bull [i.e., of the Crusade] is needed. It is for this very reason that there are so many difficulties in collecting the tribute, and that the bull is not purchased excepting in Manila and its environs.

With these opinions, and their extolling, some the pontifical grants to their girdle, others those of the scapulary of Carmel,[16] and others their exercises, they obtain vast contributions which they call alms; and the king is left with the bulls, for the religious assert and proclaim that they are not necessary.

In regard to jurisdiction, it is a well-known fact that no gobernadorcillo of Indians carries out any mandate of the president, Audiencia, or alcalde without the permission of the religious father—under penalty of one hundred lashes, which are given to him instantly if he obeys the royal magistrates and justices.

With these and other pernicious ideas in which the fathers abound, they surprise the poor Indian, strike him with terror, and make him believe that they are all-powerful, can do everything, and that the authority of the king is worth nothing. Thus the king becomes, like the bishops, a monarch in partibus, in name alone, and only in order to maintain certain persons who style themselves apostolic missionaries.

A few days after I had arrived at Manila, the archbishop-governor [i.e., Rojo] despatched an order to the province of Pampanga; it fell into the hands of a father, and he tore it to bits with great calmness, the archbishop overlooking that act of disrespect. Hence, even in case that one obey any mandate of the royal jurisdiction, so many are the obstacles and difficulties that the fathers find for its execution, that they absolutely do not have any other endeavor or desire than to cause the Indian not to recognize any other sovereign than themselves. The worst is, that this idea has existed since the conquest of the two Americas, whence it passed to Filipinas, with the utter detriment and ruin of king, state, and religion. Hence the king is called king, and the president, Audiencia, and alcaldes by their own names; but, in reality, the fathers exercise these functions.[17]

Remedy for this evil

To order with the utmost strictness that the regulars restrain themselves within their limits as parish priests, under penalty of expulsion if they meddle with or embarrass the royal jurisdiction.