[97] By a bull of October 20, 1582 Pope Gregory XIII confirmed the appointment already obtained from Pablo Constable de Ferrara, General of the Dominican Order, making Juan Chrisóstomo vicar-general of the Philippine Islands and China, and giving him authority to establish a province there, B. & R., V, pp. 199—200, translated from Hernaez, Coleccion de bulas, Brussels, 1879, I, p. 527, where it is printed from the original MS. in the Vatican, Bular. Dom., t. 15, p. 412.
[98] In 1580 the Dominicans of Mexico had begun plans for the establishment of a province in the Orient, and sent Juan Chrisóstomo to Europe to obtain the necessary permission from lay and ecclesiastical authorities. The Jesuit Alonso Sanchez, who had been sent to Spain to explain the situation in the Philippines, was at court, and told the King and Council of the Indies—quite subverting his mission—that there was no need for more priests and particularly no need for a new order there. Chrisóstomo was discouraged, but the scheme was revivified by Juan de Castro who finally secured a letter from Philip II on September 20, 1585 endorsing the plan. Twenty-two volunteers sailed from Spain on July 17, 1586. In Mexico the Dominicans again found Sanchez propagandizing against the mission and also encountered the efforts of the Viceroy to persuade the friars to remain there. Notwithstanding, twenty friars subscribed to a set of ordinances at the Convent of Santo Domingo in Mexico on December 17, 1586. Of the twenty, fifteen went to the Philippines, three went directly to China, and Juan Chrisóstomo, who was ill and weak, and Juan Cobo, who had business there, stayed behind in Mexico.
[99] Aduarte, I, p. 9.
[100] Aduarte, I, p. 70.
[101] Juan Cobo had stayed behind in Mexico on business, and during his stay had been so moved by the scandals of the government there that he preached publicly against them, as a result of which he was banished by the Viceroy. He brought with him from Mexico a fellow-reformer and exile, Luis Gandullo, and four other recruits for the Philippine mission.
[102] These are printed in the Ordinationes of 1604, see note 127, and by Remesal, pp. 677—8, who says that “these ordinances were printed in as fine characters and as correctly as if in Rome or Lyon, by Francisco de Vera, a Chinese Christian, in the town of Binondo in the year 1604 through the diligence of Fr. Miguel Martin.”
[103] Sangley, a term used by the natives to designate Chinese, was derived from the Cantonese hiang (or xiang) and ley meaning a “travelling merchant.” It was adopted by the Spaniards and in most instances used interchangeably with Chinese. If any distinction existed it was that a Sangley was a permanent resident of the Philippines—quite contrary to the derivation of the word—or a Chinese of partially native blood. See San Agustin, p. 253.
[104] Particularly the Memorial to the Council of the Indies sent with Sanchez, April 20, 1586, translated in B. & R., VI, pp. 167–8, from the original MS. in the A. of I. (1–1–2/24), Torres, II, no. 3289, p. 159.
[105] B. & R., VII, pp. 130–1, translated from the original MS. in the A. of I. (67–6–18), Torres, III, no. 3556, pp. 15–6. See the statement of San Agustin quoted on p. 22, which gives the irreconciled Augustinian view. Most of the contemporary witnesses, however, seem to agree with the Dominicans.
[106] B. & R., VII, pp. 220–3, translated from Retana, Archivo, III, pp. 47–80, and there printed from the original MS. in the A. of I. (68–1–32), Torres, III, no. 3698, p. 32.