LETTER FROM PABLO DE JESUS TO GREGORY XIII
Account of the journey to the Philippine Islands of Brother Paul de Jesus of the congregation of the discalced [Franciscans].
To the most blessed father Gregory XIII, chief pontiff, the humble congregation of discalced brethren resident in the Philippine Islands offer homage.
Since in the midst of such weighty, such burdensome labors and sorrows—the while everywhere the mighty forces of so many and such various heresies are raising up storms against the Church, and threatening it as it were with sword and flame, nay, even utter destruction, there is no doubt that with the same charity wherewith, as the true father of all, thou dost embrace all, thou deplorest this most grievous loss of souls; nor can that benignity and clemency of thy spirit, which is from on high, bear without grieving, nor grieve without ceasing, for this most direful plague that is daily spreading apace in the sight of all men, with the havoc of towns, cities, provinces, even kingdoms that at one time were the flourishing abodes of Catholic faith and piety. Therefore, most blessed Father, it has seemed worth our while, as well as our duty, as thy most loyal children, to strengthen thy Blessedness as it were with fresh pleasure and fresh joy, through the recountal of those things which the most merciful God is working in these far away seas and countries. Nor do we think thy spirit, thirsty as it is for the safety of souls, will be refreshed with merely ordinary joy at the news that in these islands of the Indias holy Mother Church has brought forth without number as it were new offspring and new children of the faith. For inasmuch as by order of thy Holiness we have come to these shores, we deem it our duty to relate the whole course of our journey and of our wanderings. From the place where Brother Pedro Alfaro, at the time guardian of our congregation, sent letters to thy Blessedness, we encountered a difficult voyage, all of us nearly having been stricken down with illness, wherefrom six of the brethren our companions died. At length we reached Nova Hispania, whence after a sojourn of six months in order to recover our strength and former good health, we set sail on the Ides of March in the year 1578,[1] and after a very long voyage of two thousand one hundred leagues, we fifteen brethren landed at the islands known as the Philippines. While on our voyage thither we touched at a certain island three hundred leagues distant from the Philippines, very fruitful in rice, and cocoanut-bearing palms. This island is inhabited by men who are savages going utterly stark, with no covering at all, the women, however, concealing their private parts with the leaf of a tree. The people are large of frame, robust, and given to pilfering, whence the name of the island Ladrones. The natives brought us fruits, fish, rice, and other eatables, which they bartered for iron, which they value more than gold. Some of our companions through pity for those islanders wished to remain with them, in order to bring them to the light of the faith. But we did not think it wise to leave them alone and without arms among such a multitude of barbarians. Sailing thence we soon reached the Philippine Islands, where we found the fathers of the Augustinian order, who, fairly worn out with their unspeakable hardships, toils, dangers, and sufferings for the last twelve years, gave us the heartiest of welcomes. In the beginning they seemed to be without any hope that we ever could bring those Indians to the light of the Christian faith; all their labors, they said, had been fruitless, their efforts in vain, their toil for the benefit of those people without result. For twelve years they had employed every endeavor, nor left anything undone whereby they might induce them to forswear their idols and embrace the true Catholic religion, but all to no purpose. Wherefore, they had it in mind to prepare for baptism only those whose tender and youthful age gave promise of success. But happily by divine bounty, before long, after hope had given out, after we had been stationed in different parts of the islands, so great a multitude of men, women, and children flocked to us for instruction and baptism, that we were unable to cope with their numbers—a matter that was the more wonderful since this wild and savage race of men had never displayed the slightest trace of religion, and had neither places of worship, nor sacrifices. Very many of them practiced circumcision and many other similar vanities from their relationships with the Mahometans of Burneo, an island three hundred leagues distant. Thus they would not eat swine-meat, nor that of animals that had been strangled, besides other such practices. Some of them, who practiced circumcision, traced its origin not to the Mahometans, with whom they had no acquaintance, but to their own very remote ancestors. Some of them worshiped a certain bird, others the crocodile; for holding the same fancy regarding the transmigration of souls as was held by Pythagoras in his palingenesis, they believed that, after certain cycles of years, the souls of their forefathers were turned into crocodiles. To their parents and children after death, they erected statues rudely hewn of wood, in the belief that the souls of the deceased found lodging in such images. They celebrated Bacchanalian feasts with drinking-bouts and barbarous outcries, with offerings of food and garments made to the idols themselves, from which they sought health and riches. They worshiped the moon, with sacrificial offerings to it in many places at the time of the new moon. Priapus[2] after a similar fashion of the Romans they revered as the guardian of their fields. Among these Indians were priests known as catolonas, who were held in such respect that, if they prophesied of a person ill of any disease that he would die of that disease, forthwith the poor patient refusing all food would soon end his life through starvation. Among them are no real rulers and no form of administrative government. Whoever among them is mightiest in strength and riches, whether by force or strategy, reduces all others to bondage to himself. As among them there is constant recourse to bloodshed, robbery, and plundering, so nothing is ever settled by agreement or law. With regard to marriage the same custom does not hold everywhere. For some, the far greater majority, even recognize no real marriage bonds, as for the most trivial reasons they divorce their wives, take up with other women, some of them, the chieftains especially, whom they style maguinoos, having two wives at one time. We have been told that among some Indian tribes the laws of marriage are held in much higher regard. For after the marriage rite has been performed, prayers are offered to the gods to endow the spouses with fruitfulness, nor ever let them be sundered save by death; otherwise, should they be parted, they are cursed and the wrath of the gods called down upon them. Should any person be guilty of securing a divorce, the culprit is punished, the wife with the loss of her dowry, the husband with the payment of gold. Whoever violated these ancestral rites and customs forfeited the respect of the people. By nature these barbarians are sharp-witted beyond belief, and gifted with such tenacity of memory that whatever they once have been taught, for they are wonderfully quick in learning, they rarely if ever forget. Therefore, they easily yield to truth, and when shown what is wrong, quickly detest it, treating the brethren who go among them preaching with courtesy and kindness. Nay, not infrequently, they themselves seek out a brother, to whom as they hearken with readiness they let him depart with tears in their eyes. If we only had enough missionaries, there would be nowhere in the Philippine Islands unbelief of any sort. Very many of the natives confess their sins with sorrow and faith. They believe in the many and very frequent miracles which Almighty God works among them through blessed water, the sacred holy gospels, and the relics of the saints.
Bearing in mind that mandate of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord, “Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature” [Mark xvi, 15], we were fired more and more every day with the desire of preaching the gospel in the mighty kingdom of China. Wherefore, four brethren of our congregation with three soldiers sailed in a small vessel to Quanton [i.e., Canton] the richest city of China, where during their six months’ sojourn, by means of interpreters they preached the gospel of the heavenly kingdom assiduously in the presence of viceroys and governors. But the interpreters, through fear of losing their heads should they speak in disfavor of idols, deceived our brethren by giving their words a far different meaning than uttered. The Chinese marveled indeed at the poorness of the clothing worn by our brethren and their spare diet; while especially did they wonder at our contempt of money when they offered us gold. For this people are lovers of money beyond belief, wherefore they styled our brethren good men who had fallen from the skies. Yet with all their pleadings could Ours not get leave to remain any longer, since the laws forbade strangers from taking up their abode in that kingdom. They accorded them leave, however, to stay in the city of Machán [i.e., Macao], a place inhabited by Portuguese, and distant from Quanton on the mainland twenty leagues away, where two of our priests to the great delight of the patriarch and the Portuguese found a home in the monastery which they built.[3] Therein the fathers hoped that with the defeat of the demon’s sway a vast field would be opened to the preaching of the gospel. The kingdom of China is immense, being even a thousand leagues in extent, with such a multitude of inhabitants that the whole kingdom seems one mighty city. The Chinese are fair of color, with small eyes, much given to trafficking, sharp-witted, and masters at trade, though in matters that concern the safety of soul exceedingly dull and senseless. Though fond of letters they yet are as babes in science, with naught of artistic polish. Among them he is held as the greatest scholar who is the quickest to read and write, and from such as these are chosen governors, judges, viceroys, whom the people revere as gods. Above all other nations they are given to sorcery, superstition, and idol-worship. The sky they style the father of the gods, while to the moon to whom they pay their vows, they offer a sheep, pig, goat, and bull. To such men as they judge are superior to others in bravery and probity of life they rear statues. They have too their own monks and hermits, who living in out-of-the-way places feed on herbs and fruits of trees under the belief that after death they will be summoned by the moon to a residence in the sky. Among them reigns a great concern for the observance of equity, along with great skill in the management of the state. In their women so high is their regard for modesty, even in the largest and wealthiest cities, that barely one ever was seen by Ours. The men are most unchaste, utter slaves to sodomy, and so vain as to think themselves the wisest of men.
Inasmuch, most blessed Father, as we were in doubt what course to follow with regard to men, who having set aside their first wife had married another, from whom no separation seemed feasible—a stumbling-block too of no little importance in the way of their conversion, we read the letters of the predecessor of thy Holiness, Pius the Fifth of happy memory, which we have taken care shall accompany this letter to thy Blessedness:
Inasmuch as we foresaw that many of these [heathen], if bound to return to their first wives, would refuse baptism, after reading those letters we allowed them, after baptism, to live with the wives they then were mated with, although their former wives were still living, whom they had divorced too for the most trivial of reasons. We were blamed by some who held that the privilege of Pope Pius the Fifth of happy memory was to be understood as applying to those who no longer remembered which of their wives had been married first. But this does not seem reasonable if the ground alleged in this privilege be well considered; moreover, prior to this privilege is another granted by Paul the Third of blessed memory, wherein this very case of one’s separation from his first wife is recognized, should he fail to know which of them really was first. But the second privilege, it seems, ought to have a broader application than the former. Tell us now, most blessed Father, we humbly implore thee, what we are to do—what course to take as to the past, what provision for the future—whether in the case of wives who have been set aside for the flimsiest of reasons, nay, for none save sheer lust of passion, the [second] marriages are to be recognized when made in pursuance of common custom and as it were by force of law. For thus we shall be relieved of the chief part of our burden not only here, but in the kingdom of China. Let thy Blessedness also give instructions to the end that we be not hindered in any way by the Spaniards when traveling to heathen countries, no matter where they be, but on the contrary that we be aided in every manner with due help and favor. Let thy Blessedness also impart from the treasures of holy Church a share of indulgences to this new plantation and to us, the most unworthy servants of thy Blessedness, especially that, whenever mass be said at any altar in the Philippines and at any in the kingdom of China, through the mercy of God a soul be freed from the pains of purgatory. God grant, most blessed Pontiff, especially through thy prayers and aid, that the intestine storms and havoc of heresy be quelled, the pride of the Turks laid low, that with all peoples brought to the light of Catholic faith in this thy age, with thee reigning as pontiff, be fulfilled to thy supreme praise that prediction of our Savior: “There shall be one fold and one shepherd” [John x, 16]. Manila 14 Kalends of July, 1580.
The most obedient son of thy Holiness,
Brother Pablo de Jesus, and all our congregation