Most illustrious Sir:
Following are the reasons advanced by brother Master Thomas Marquez, procurator-general of the province of the most holy Name of Jesus, of the Order of St. Augustine of the Philippine Islands, in the interest and name of the said province, wherefore he seeks to be released from the authority and jurisdiction of the provincials of Castile (who under the claim of being vicars-general seek to govern it), and be subject only to the most reverend general, as the true sole head and father of the whole order, the same as do the other provinces of the West Indies.
The first reason is the avoidance of great confusion and chaos which we have because of a plurality of rulers; inasmuch as being subject to two rulers, namely, the most reverend father general, our true and worthy superior, as well as to the provincial of Castile, who styles himself vicar-general, we thus would receive diverse orders from the two whence confusion would arise. For as we would be in doubt which one to obey, our province would therefore be in grave peril.
1st.[4] Because the provinces of the Indies with their numerous religious men of learning and virtue, who through their discretion and wisdom are experts in the government of those countries, are troubled with the orders, mandates, and censures of the provincials of Castile, who to the grave injury and disgrace of the said provinces, being concerned only about their own interests and not those of the community, aim to govern them, now by issuing contrary ordinances that are hurtful to the common good, and again by their unjust mandates that are at variance with our constitutions and laws. For example, they forbid those provinces to send to general chapter as definitor or procurator any one who is prior, and should such a one be chosen, they require him first to resign all his dignities so that should he go he appears merely as one of the brethren. Whereas, they send to general chapter their own brothers and friends, men laden with honors and titles. Should any of Ours appear therein, they are referred to as so many young men with no responsibility, who are wholly unfit to hold office. Such grievance, so dishonoring to the brethren, is not only very aggravating and harmful to all those provinces, but to the whole order itself.
First. Because our constitutions require that every province send to general chapter its own definitor and discreet,[5] in order that these report to the chapter fathers relative to the state of their province, the character of their brethren, etc.—a report that as things are now managed is made through trickery, not by the expert representatives of the provinces themselves, but by strangers, chosen in Spain to take their place in the said chapters.
Secondly. Because although the said provinces commission their procurators to go to general chapter, they do not attain the end in view, for the reason that the said provincials of Castile, in concert with the priors of that province, not content with charging the said procurators two silver pieces [numis argentiis] and the remuneration for the mass, which are also two other pieces, given to them for their daily board by those procurators, from day to day, and being suborned with money and gilts which the procurators give unwillingly to them (but which they receive willingly) in order that they may be permitted to carry on the things charged to them and be given associates, they [i.e., the provincials and priors] as abovesaid not content with the above charges, and imagining that the procurators are carrying with them large amounts of money which they are greedy to get into their own hands, worry and harry them by annulling their powers of procuratorship, by forcing them to reveal all their affairs, which thereupon they are inhibited from using, and by forbidding them under censures from applying to the Roman curia or to the most reverend general. Moreover, they are assigned by the provincials for residence certain set convents, wherein, as happened to me, they have to lodge, although I showed them an order from the most reverend general forbidding the provincial of Castile from making any change in this regard, such being the order and sentence of general chapter, confirmed by his Holiness Clement the Eighth. But that was of no avail, for, as appears from the letters and patent of the provincial of Castile, which I have handed over to the reverend father, Brother John Baptist of Piombino,[6] procurator-general [of the order], and which are now in his keeping, I have been forced to flee hither.
Third reason. That authority of vicar-general which they arrogate to themselves, serves them only for despoiling all the Indies, and transferring the funds of the convents of the Indies to Spain; for by that authority they send brethren to seek alms in those convents under the title of alms-seeker, supporting their greed [cuditias] and sowing (so that the convents might give readily and they receive) news to the effect that they are about to send visitors to them and that they are already appointed. Under that title they obtained twelve thousand gold escudos from the province of Peru for the Salamanca house.
Lastly. This authority over those provinces is coveted by them in order that thereby their own province may be relieved of restless characters. For whenever the procurators of those countries reach Spain in their search for ministers of the gospel to aid them in their ministry, they are given the scourings of the province—unruly and ill-disciplined brethren—instead of upright and learned persons, such as have been picked out for their need, who, moreover, are not allowed to go thither—a practice most hurtful to the preaching of the gospel, which calls for learned and religious men.
For these and other reasons herein omitted for the sake of brevity, the province of the [Philippine] Islands, whose procurator I am, is grievously distressed; wherefore, in the hope of securing a remedy for such evils, it has been moved to send me as its procurator, with power to act as such in Spain and before this curia, as an expert in matters appertaining to those countries for twenty years and upwards. In consideration then of all these plaints, I pray your most illustrious Lordship, in the name of my province, to deign to remedy these grievances, by enjoining the said provincials of Castile from further use of their authority; moreover, in accordance with the mandate of the most reverend father-general, to command them to restore to me all the things they have taken away, besides what I myself left in the convent at Madrid; and again by enjoining them, even under censures, from in any manner hindering the procurators of the said province of the Philippines in their business, which they are to be allowed to carry on freely, or from hindering the brethren of any province whatever of Spain, who may wish to go to the said islands in order to engage in the most holy work of preaching the gospel, whom they are besides, under no matter what pretense, neither to impede, nor harass, nor dissuade from going thither. The execution whereof may be left to the most illustrious nuncio of Spain.
[Addressed: “To the most illustrious lord by brother Master Thomas Marquez, procurator-general of the Order of St. Augustine of the province of the Philippines in the name of the said province.”]