[5] See VOL. XXIII, p. 224, note 76. [↑]
[6] See VOL. VII, p. 137, note 9. He was born at Mondejar in 1547, and entered the Jesuit novitiate at Alcalá, June 18, 1565. He went to Mexico in 1579, going thence immediately to the Philippines. He was twice in China. On his memorable journey to Spain in 1586, he also went to Rome. He died at Alcalá, May 27 1593. See Colin’s Labor evangélica, pp. 167–317 (a portion of which consists of documents by Sanchez), and Sommervogel’s Bibliothèque. [↑]
[7] Cristóbal de Salvatierra was a native of Salvatierra in Extremadura, and professed in the Dominican convent at Salamanca, August 27, 1571. He accompanied Bishop Salazar to the Philippines. He became provisor, and was inexorable in his denunciations of all immorality; but notwithstanding his duties in that office had time to minister to the natives. He died early in 1595, deeply regretted. See Reseña biog., i, pp. 50–52. [↑]
[8] See VOL. VII, p. 185, note 21. [↑]
[9] Alonso de Castro was born in Mejialburgis, and took the Augustinian habit at Salamanca in 1559. He went to the Philippines in 1577, where he became proficient in the Tagálog and Visayan languages. In 1578 he labored in Calumpit; in 1581 in Tigbauan; in Tondo in 1583, and in Otón in 1587. He was elected prior of Manila in 1589, and presided at the provincial chapter of 1593 as senior definitor. Felipe II proposed him as bishop of Nueva Cáceres but he died (1597) before he could assume the office. He wrote three volumes of certain “moral happenings” that occurred during his stay in the Visayas. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 18. [↑]
[10] Juan Pimentel was born at Alba de Tormes, and professed at the Valiadolid convent. He reached the Philippines, by way of Mexico, with a mission of twenty religious in 1581. Having accompanied Father Andrés Aguirre to Spain on an important mission in 1582, he died at the Burgos convent in 1586. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 22. [↑]
ERECTION OF THE MANILA CATHEDRAL[1]
Brother Domingo de Salazar, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of the Philippines, to all the inhabitants thereof, of either sex, faithful of Christ, health in Him, who is health indeed.
The providence of our Almighty God is such as it always has been and will be for all time, that as ages roll by He reserves the doing of certain wonders, whereby those things which happened to early generations are more readily believed by their posterity, while their descendants are led through the novelty of those wonders to a knowledge of Him. Thus wonderful formerly was it that God led the children of Israel, whom He had brought forth from Egypt, on dry land across the Red Sea. While after the death of those who had been eyewitnesses of this marvel it was believed by their children, just as it was believed that God had the river bed of the Jordan made dry in order that He might lead them into the Land of Promise. But not to delay in recalling the marvels that as we read took place in the days of our early fathers, let us pass to those that are nearer our times. Accordingly, with the fulfilment of our redemption, our Redeemer being seated at the right hand of His Father, what could have been greater, more wonderful, not to say wholly unbelievable, than that a few men, and they of the lowliest, as we read, should, with no human aid whatever, have persuaded the men of their days, given over as they were to crimes and lusts, and all of them thirsty for honors and the minions of riches, to feel repentance for their sins and contempt for the world, besides their belief in the Crucified? Yet in view of what we have witnessed especially in our own days, this wonderful and almost unbelievable fact ceases to be wonderful, or at the most is easy enough for belief. That the Roman people proud in their conquests, haughty with their trophies, and masterful through their spoils of a conquered world, should have been brought to a belief in Christ, which demands that all these things be despised, is a marvel that cannot be denied. But what surpassed the power of Peter in the city of Rome, by whose [shadow] along the way the ill were made well and set whole on their feet? or what could not Paul attain at Antioch or Athens, whose girdle put evil spirits to flight? or, in fine, what were the apostles not enabled to do in the whole world, who, filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke in the tongues of those to whom they were preaching the faith, who healed the ailing, and raised the dead? Yet in the things that we have seen happen in our own times, still mightier is shown the power of God, and more wonderful His providence. Who, I ask, unless he wish to keep his eyes closed, but can in an instant acknowledge that it has been even greater and more wonderful that barbarous and unbelieving men, given over wholly to vices of the flesh, sodden with the rites of their forefathers, with barely other concern than that of bodily sense, should without miracles, with no display of signs, but only through the preaching of the word of God, have been converted to faith in Christ and bowed their necks to the Christian religion, when in their conversion of the Romans, haughty as these were through their conquests, or the Greeks filled with their pride of letters, the apostles gave many signs, and before their very eyes wrought so many and such stupendous miracles, that for men, through the employment of sense alone, not to be converted, would have been far stranger than their conversion after seeing so many marvels.