There were priests in missions and newly-formed parishes where the domiciled inhabitants were so few that the Sanctorum tax on the aggregate of the Cédulas was insufficient for their support. These missionaries were allowed salaries, and parish priests were permitted to appropriate from their revenues, as annual stipend, amounts ranging from 500 to 800 pesos, as a rule, with a few exceptions (such as Binondo parish and others), rated at 1,200 pesos, whilst one, at least (the parish priest, or missionary of Vergara, Davao Province), received 2,200 pesos a year. In practice, however, a great many parish priests spent far more than their allotted stipends.
A project was under consideration to value the incumbencies, and classify them, like the Courts of Justice (vide p. [234]), with the view of apportioning to each a fixed income payable by the Treasury in lieu of accounting to the Church for the exact amount of the Sanctorum.
By decree of Gov.-General Terrero, dated November 23,1885, the State furnished free labour (by natives who did not pay poll-tax) for Church architectural works, provided it was made clear that the cost of such labour could not be covered by the surplus funds of the Sanctorum. The chief items of Church expenditure were as follows, viz.:—
State outlay for Church.
| P. cts. | |
| Archbishopʼs salary | 12,000 00 |
| Other salaries (Cathedral) | 40,300 00 |
| Other expenses (Cathedral) | 3,000 00 |
| Four Bishops, each with a salary of ₱6,000 | 24,000 00 |
| Court of Arches (amount contributed by the State[8]) | 5,000 00 |
| Chaplain of Los Baños | 120 00 |
| Sulu Mission | 1,000 00 |
| Mission House in Manila for Capuchin friars | 1,700 00 |
| 12 Capuchins (State paid) for the Caroline and Pelew Islands—6 at ₱300 and 6 at ₱500 each per annum | 4,800 00 |
| Transport of Missionaries estimated at about, per annum | 10,000 00 |
| The anticipated total State outlay for the support of the Church, Missions, Monasteries, Convents, etc., including the above and all other items for the financial year of 1888 was | ₱724,634 50 |
Moreover, the religious Corporations possessed large private revenues. The Dominicansʼ investments in Hong-Kong, derived from capitalized income, are still considerable. The Austin, Recoleto, and Dominican friars held very valuable real estate in the provinces, which was rented to the native agriculturists on conditions which the tenants considered onerous. The native planters were discontented with the treatment they received from these landowners, and their numerous complaints formed part of the general outcry against the regular clergy. The bailiffs of these corporation lands were unordained brothers of the Order. They resided in the Estate Houses, and by courtesy were styled “fathers” by the natives. They were under certain religious vows, but not being entitled to say Mass, they were termed “legos,” or ignorant men, by their own Order.
The clergy also derived a very large portion of their incomes from commissions on the sale of cédulas, sales of Papal Bulls, masses, pictures, books, chaplets and indulgences, marriage, burial and baptismal fees, benedictions, donations touted for after the crops were raised, legacies to be paid for in masses, remains of wax candles left in the church by the faithful, fees for getting souls out of purgatory, alms, etc. The surplus revenues over and above parochial requirements were supposed to augment the common Church funds in Manila. The Corporations were consequently immensely wealthy, and their power and influence were in consonance with that wealth.
Each Order had its procurator in Madrid, who took up the cudgels in defence of his Corporationʼs interest in the Philippines whenever this was menaced. On the other hand, the Church, as a body politic, dispensed no charity, but received all. It was always begging; always above civil laws and taxes; claimed immunity, proclaimed poverty, and inculcated in others charity to itself.
Most of the parish priests—Spanish or native—were very hospitable to travellers, and treated them with great kindness. Amongst them there were some few misanthropes and churlish characters who did not care to be troubled by anything outside the region of their vocation, but on the whole I found them remarkably complaisant.
In Spain there were training colleges of the three Communities, in Valladolid, Ocaña, and Monte Agudo respectively, for young novices intended to be sent to the Philippines, the last Spanish Colony where friars held vicarages.