About seven months ago the governor presented Juan de Miranda for a ración that was vacant. He is a good ecclesiastic and necessary for that ministry; for setting aside his virtue, example, and good life, he is an excellent singer, and has been reared from childhood in this church. Accordingly I gave him the office very willingly. I petition your Majesty to be pleased to confirm it. [Marginal note: “Seen.”]
It often happens that certain individuals, depending on their favor at court, try to obtain prebends and dignities from your Majesty which they do not merit. They are of such a sort that I am told of persons who even do not know Latin. They hope to be preferred to those who have spent all their lives in study. It would be of great importance for the prelate and cabildo of the district of the said ecclesiastics to inform your Majesty for these appointments, so that, having that information, the most advisable measures for the service of God and that of your Majesty may be taken. [Marginal note: “Seen.”]
During the month of last December, an ecclesiastic named Don Patricio Arcaya de Guevara, a native of Murcia, left this country for those regions [of Europe] via India. The governor was accompanied by him when he came here, and presented him for the treasurership of this holy church; and in fact he served therein ad interim, although the governor did not know then that he had been expelled from the Order of St. Augustine in the province of Andalucia, and that he was living in this country incontinently and with reproach, and with less discretion than was fitting. I inform your Majesty, for, according to his resolve, he was going to ask for a dignity in this or some other church of the Yndias, for which he is not fit. [Marginal note: “It is well. Attention will be given to this in the office, if the papers regarding this man are sent.”]
The wretchedness and misery suffered by my poor ecclesiastics in this my archbishopric is very great, because of their number having increased rapidly in these latter years, on account of the college and seminary of the Society of Jesus, and the care that has been taken therein to maintain its studies—teaching in the classes Latin, the arts, and theology; besides the students who are being reared in the college of Santo Thomas, founded about two years ago by the Order of St. Dominic. As I say, they suffer so great poverty that I am assured that some cannot leave their houses because they have no cassocks to wear—and that, too, in a country where cloth is generally so cheap. This is a matter that is breaking my heart. I have nothing with which to employ them, since the ministries are all managed by the religious. The poor ecclesiastics have only eight benefices of Indians to administer, besides two Spanish curacies—namely that of this city, which is administered by two parish priests [curas]; and that of Santiago, outside the walls—and one other which has in charge the Indians and slaves of Manila. Within the last few days two ecclesiastics, theologues, competed for a sacristy in the benefice of Nuestra Señora de Guia, which has a salary of only ninety pesos. One of them had taken four years of theology, and is an excellent student, and not so fitting for other things. They competed for it only in order to get a morsel of food, so they would not have to beg it from door to door. Will your Majesty be pleased to have provided what is most suitable for the service of God and your own. [Marginal note: “Since he has the case in hand, let him take what measures are advisable.”]
News reached this city in the month of January last of this year, of the death of the bishop of Nueva Cáceres, Fray Diego de Guevara, of the Order of St. Augustine; he died while visiting his bishopric. Inasmuch as that church has no cabildo, the task of its government devolved upon me, as does likewise that of Nueva Segovia. As the bishop of the latter church, Don Juan de Renteria, has not arrived, I petition your Majesty to be pleased to have notice taken that greater competency is required for these bishoprics that are so distant from Manila—in which counsel can [not] easily be taken on the troubles that confront the ministry at every step, and the bishop, like him who holds the office of magistrate, must alone determine these doubts of fuerza—than for the very large bishoprics of España. Will your Majesty please take the advisable measures. [Marginal note: “Seen and provided.”]
The facility of these natives in going to law about marriage is very great. In fact, they achieve their purpose by alleging obstacles arising from their own illicit intercourse, before the marriage, with the relatives of their wives. Often they maliciously conceal this obstacle and are silent until, the wives after experiencing with the lapse of time, during their married life, not so good treatment as they expected from their husbands, and the husbands having less pleasure in the marriage than they had promised themselves, they advance their obstacles, and petition for the annulment of the marriage. With the ease with which they find witnesses for any purpose, they succeed in carrying their desires into effect—with the liability, if what they have alleged and proved is false, of living throughout life in the sin that they have committed to the wrong of marriage; and if true, as they say, of having been unscrupulous in not having declared the obstacle. In order to avoid these troubles, it would be of great importance for your Majesty to be pleased to obtain from his Holiness power for the ministers in these islands to give absolution for all the secret obstacles of these neophytes when they come to be married, in order to contract the said marriage. In this way it will be managed with less offense and with more ease to the conscience than now. [Marginal note: “Have the ambassador at Roma notified to propose this matter to his Holiness; and if it be not unadvisable, to petition him to concede it. After doing this, advise and notify the archbishop that the matter has been sent to Roma, and that he will be notified of the result.”]
Your Majesty ordered by a decree, twice issued (the second dated at San Lorenço, November, 603), that the bishops should inspect the religious who give instruction, in regard to their duty of the care of souls. It would be very advisable for so holy a decree to be executed now, without more delay; for although the orders contain many who attend most earnestly to the service of our Lord, there are certain persons who allow themselves to be too easily led by their inclinations, and who do not labor in their ministry with the devotion and fidelity requisite. Besides the bad example thus furnished to these natives, the latter are wronged, and without any remedy, because there is no superior to whom they can go for vindication—for the provincials, sometimes for private reasons, generally sustain such subordinates. That would cease with the visit of the bishops, and the provincials would find themselves obliged, or the bishops would oblige them, always to station in the missions ministers of learning, virtue, and exemplary life. That would bring a cessation of such troubles. The friars then could not assert that they would leave the ministries, as they did when there were no secular clergy, since that is clearly impossible; for there are now so many seculars that they are sufficient to administer what the orders would abandon. [Marginal note: “Have the decree in regard to this sent to him, and have him observe the order, as declared in the said decree. Despatch decrees to the archbishop and his suffragans, in accordance with those already despatched to the archbishop of Mexico and his suffragan bishops.”]
The kingdom of Xapon is in such an upheaval, and the persecution against Christians so bloody, that it seems rash for religious to go there. However, those who go there from the orders, guided by the spirit of the Lord, go clad as merchants, and go about at Manila in the same way, some days before their passage, in order to have the Japanese get to know them and take them for men who are going to their country to trade. Any other method would be rash, as I say, if they went openly as religious. Further, as Fray Luis Sotelo, of the Order of St. Francis, tried to go with the name of bishop of Xapon, delegate of the pope, and commissary-general (a thing prohibited by your Majesty), and as the bulls for it have been detained by your royal Council; and as your Council has declared that its opinion is that, if there were an open door, there would be many things to consider as to whether Fray Luis Sotelo should go [to Xapon], because of the many reasons that constrain them to prevent his passage; therefore, it is expedient for your Majesty to order that quickly; and that they recall the said Sotelo and take him from these islands, so that he may not go to Xapon. [Marginal note: “Have what was ordered in this matter brought.”]
Having to speak of the orders in particular, I feel obliged to inform your Majesty of occurrences in this city between that of St. Dominic and the Society. It was on an occasion of the death of a man in this city by stabbing, who begged loudly for confession. It was not granted to him, because a father of St. Dominic said that absolution ought not to be given him, although the bystanders said that he had called for confession. A father of the Society stating that absolution ought to have been given him, there arose between the two orders a very serious and violent controversy; for the Dominican fathers printed certain conclusions, in which they declared that it was a rash idea, and in practice a grave and sacrilegious offense to absolve one who, only by the report of bystanders had begged for confession, but was deprived of the power of speech. The fathers of the Society of Jesus drew up other printed conclusions, in which they declared that it was not a rash or sacrilegious idea but a very pious one to absolve such a penitent. They persuaded the people and the orders and so inflamed the controversy that I ordered them by a decree to put an end to both contentions. Both orders agreeing to dispute in my presence, I assigned judges from my cabildo, and from the orders of St. Augustine and St. Francis, and learned persons of the city, to be present at the disputation, and consider the arguments on each side. This was done, and the result was that, having assembled the other day, all the judges declared, nemine discrepante [i.e., “no one dissenting”], that the opinion of the Society was pious and reasonable, and could be followed. The reverend Dominican fathers greatly resented this decision, and tried to carry their point by persuading the people to accept their conclusions. I thought it a matter of scandal to condemn ministers, in an affair of the sacraments, by asserting that they were committing sacrilege. I issued a censure, and ordered that no one should agree to their conclusions, and that the Dominicans should not hold them. Upon this second decree they elected a judge-conservator who accepted the office, but did not continue in it; so the cause was suspended, and the parties intended to have recourse to Roma regarding the case. At this juncture the ritual of our very holy father Paul V, with a bull of his Holiness, dated Roma, June 17, 1614, came to my hands, in which they order absolution to such a penitent, who asks for confession after losing his power of speech, if he shall give signs, in person or through others, of his desire. Upon seeing the said ritual, I ordered it to be published, and it was done on the day of Sts. Peter and Paul, in our church of Manila, this year of 621. A judicial record was made of all of this matter, and authentic papers with the arguments of each party. That alone is being sent to your Majesty as a report, in order to inform you of everything, as is my duty. [Marginal note: “Seen.”]
The Order of St. Francis in these islands is discalced. There is generally a visitor from the commissaries, who is sent by the commissary-general of Nueva España, who must be of the same discalced. This year one came, who was not received by the provincial and his definitors because he did not come in the way required by the rules and privileges of this their province. Although the Audiencia tried to admit the one from Nueva España, matters came to such a pass and so menacing a condition that by way of authority, and in order to avoid scandals, Don Alonso Faxardo, governor of these islands, determined to suspend the commission, after first having conferred with me. What I did was to assemble the orders and learned persons of my cabildo. I found: first, that the commissary was not discalced, although he must be so by virtue of a bull and express privilege, which he carries in order to visit this province, or to exercise an act of jurisdiction. The authorization borne by him was very extraordinary and had a great excess of the ordinary warrants. There was added a very forcible argument of administration, which is that twenty or more of the leading friars had been sworn witnesses in the present contention, while the commissary had given testimony contrary to theirs, so that no good administration was looked for, but only numerous scandals and dissensions. Then affairs almost reached the point where the province was in hostile array, one side against another. Accordingly, all those of the council, without any dissenting voice, resolved that it was inexpedient for the commissary to enter on the administration. That resolution was followed, and the provincial proceeded with his duties in peace. Therefore, those in Nueva España will be informed from here to send hereafter only persons of the discalced religious and of their profession, and they will be peaceably received. For if they are of the cloth [paño],[3] the discalced religious fear that they are trying to introduce themselves into this province and into that of Xapon, and to drive the discalced from here; this has been attempted, contrary to what this city has requested your Majesty several times to order—namely, that no friars of the cloth come to these islands, but only discalced, with whom the province has always been established. [Marginal note: “Seen.”]