“In the city of Manila, on the twenty-ninth of November, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five, about half-past eleven in the morning, more or less, I, the present notary, read and announced the act on this folio to the reverend father Fray Francisco de Herrera, of the Order of St. Dominic, and commissary of the tribunal of the holy Inquisition of these islands, in his own person, exactly according to its contents. Having heard it, he said that it was impossible to notify him of the said act on the said day, as it was a holy day; and that I should accordingly return on the first workday, when he would answer in due form and at greater length. In accordance with my orders in the said act, I affixed a copy of it, signed by the hand of the said judge, and authenticated by me the present notary, to the gates of the college of Santo Thomas, where the said reverend father commissary lives, in the presence of fathers Fray Sebastian de Oquendo and Fray Andres Gomez de Espexo and other persons. Witnesses present were Juan Ortiz de Sossa, Benito de Cañeda, Francisco Correa, and Juan Garcia de Nava, soldiers of the company of Captain Pedro de la Mata. I attest it.
Diego de Aldave, apostolic notary”
At this juncture all the community was thrown into an uproar by certain religious, who showed the hate that they had toward the Society—to such an extent, that on the day of the Presentation, November 21 (which is the chief day of the holy Misericordia of this city, which the orders always attend), not any of them went except those of the Society. The others refused to meet with them although they had been invited—a matter that scandalized us not a little. As often as possible, the same religious uttered innumerable evil and infamous things against the fathers of the Society, which the latter passed by, silencing their suffering. The orders discussed innumerable innovations, all apparently in order to make confusion. As it pertains to the governor to preserve peace, he one day (namely, November 27) had the superiors of the orders of St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Augustine, and the Recollects, summoned to the royal Audiencia. He summoned also the father commissary of the Holy Office, but he refused to attend, and sent no excuse. The others attended. They were told in the royal Audiencia that they must quiet their friars, so that they might not continue to stir up the community. The governor ordered their superiors to banish from the city those who were ringleaders in this—namely, Fray Francisco de Paula, and Fray Sebastian de Oquenda, of the Order of St. Dominic; and two others of the Order of St. Augustine. The superiors would, however, under no considerations obey. On the contrary, on St. Andrew’s day, the thirtieth of November, while celebrating the feast of the apostle, who is the patron saint of this city, in [the church of] Santa Potenciana, the master Don Juan de Ledo ascended the pulpit to preach. A notice was given to him [to read] which stated that father Fray Francisco de Paula would preach on the following Sunday in his convent of St. Dominic. That was a very ill-considered act, since it was equal to giving the governor and the royal Audiencia a slap in the face, not paying any attention to what they had ordered in his Majesty’s name—all of which the governor prudently overlooked, in order to avoid other annoyances.
At this time the despatch of the galleons which were to take the reënforcements to Maluco was being discussed. The religious enticed a pilot, named Francisco Domingues, who had been honored and favored by the governor by being made captain of infantry, and who had been appointed pilot of the flagship, to flee with some of them by way of Yndia. The governor learned of it, and was obliged to arrest the said pilot, and to order at the city gates that two religious of the Order of St. Dominic, namely, Fray Francisco Pinelo and Fray Diego Collado—who were the ones who had planned that escape—should not be allowed to pass through them. Then that order also began to say that the governor was incurring a thousand excommunications, not stopping to consider that he who has charge of this city and these islands is bound to preserve them and watch over them, and to give the proper military orders that he considers necessary; and that he could not prevent that loss, except by not allowing those religious to leave the walls. By another method, other religious stirred up a goodly number of sailors, and as many soldiers; and they, having already received money for the journey to Maluco in the galleons which were about to sail, fled in a champan by way of Yndia. There was in this affair a cleric named Don Francisco Montero, who had been expelled from the priesthood, and who was a restless man. He carried papers and authority from the archbishop. There was also a French Recollect friar, named Fray Nicolas de Tolentino, who was angered at his order because they did not elect him provincial in accordance with his claims. A friar of St. Dominic went also. It was said that he was going on to España with grievous complaints against the governor, the royal Audiencia, and the fathers of the Society. But much greater can be the complaints of the governor of him because he had committed so unreasonable an act, and one so much to the disservice of his Majesty, in taking away the men who were to aid his royal service in the royal fleet.
The judge-conservator weighed down the archbishop with censures, to make him give up the protest or libel. He had declared him excommunicated and suspended; but the archbishop refused to surrender the protest, while the judge-conservator did not cease to demand it. While matters were in this condition, at the petition of the fathers of the Society the governor took hold of affairs, in order to settle them. He called a council of four lawyers—the best in Manila—among whom was his Majesty’s fiscal. The father provincial and the father rector of the Society were at the meeting, and also the judge-conservator. The lawyers read the opinion which they had studied over for several days; and all agreed that the judge-conservator could remove the suspension that he had imposed on the archbishop, in order to obtain from him the said protest or libel, as they said that the said suspension was comminatory. For the same reason, they declared that the pecuniary fines could be moderated or completely withdrawn. The fathers of the Society, although they were the offended parties, took the part of the archbishop and supported the opinion of the lawyers; they made every effort that the archbishop might come well out of the affair, and they managed so well that I promise your Grace that the settlement of this matter is wholly due to them. The judge-conservator only was somewhat harsh, and would agree to none of all this; for he thought that it could not be done, according to the counsel that he had received from some learned men. But the governor had the prudence and wisdom to smooth over all difficulties, and finally, the archbishop was absolved, January 28, 636, from the censures and penalties. The governor went in person to his house for him and took him in his carriage to the cathedral, giving him the right-hand side, notwithstanding the ruling of the royal decree that orders that he shall not give it. He took him as far as the choir, where, seating the archbishop in his chair, and bending his knee to him, he kissed his hand, which he had already done in the archbishop’s house. The governor paid from his own pocket more than one thousand pesos, in costs and expenses of the suit. Great was the happiness at the conclusion of these suits, and all the orders assembled. Father Juan Antonio Sana, of the Society of Jesus, preached at the feast of the dedication of the church, celebrated that day in the cathedral. The archbishop was full of expressions of thanks for what had been done for him, but that happiness was of little duration. For as the archbishop had at his side and at his ear certain religious who, it is to be believed, did not desire peace, but, on the contrary, did their utmost so that it might not exist between the leaders of the community, and were taking the archbishop as a means to oppose the governor, and, as it were, to avenge themselves on the latter for injuries that they thought that they had received from him; from that so many were the angry feelings that arose, that they led to the last rupture; but, before going on to relate that, I shall relate some matters of less moment that happened.
A few years ago, a surgeon came to this country, named Francisco Garçia, who had been exiled by the viceroy of Nueva España for certain libels and crimes; and he was ordered to come to these islands, to serve at the will of the governor. The latter having need of him to go with the galleons which, I have already said, were to go to Maluco with the reënforcements, he was fitted out for the expedition. But he took refuge in [the convent of] St. Dominic, alleging that he was a familiar of the Holy Office. From that occurrence also arose a thousand lies against the governor, declaring that he tried to take the surgeon from his retreat—as if the church can be of any avail to a soldier, so that he need not go to serve in the post where his captain orders him. And if the fact that he was a familiar of the Holy Office (which was not proved), did not avail him in Mexico, in the opinion of the inquisitors, to exempt him from coming here under condemnation, it is a token that those gentlemen did not wish that plea to be of any use to him in Filipinas so that the sentence should not be executed upon him. However, a few days after he had taken refuge, the said Francisco Garçia came to a better resolution, and, leaving the church, delivered himself to the governor. The latter received him kindly, and told him that he need not go in the said galleons. But a few months after, as the hospital of the port of Cabite had been put in order, so that the soldiers and sailors might have a place of retreat in their illnesses, Francisco Garçia was detailed as the physician of that hospital, with a salary of one peso per day—which was not a bad stipend. But, that he might not obey his orders, the archbishop ordained the said Francisco Garçia on Tuesday, April 20, with the tonsure and with minor orders; and he, garbed in very reverend fashion as a cleric, began to walk through the city in sight of the governor—to whom those orders meant to give a slap in the face, although he passed it by. In truth, sir, I cannot see that they could be of any use, since, for one to enjoy the clerical privilege, it is necessary that one be already ordained when the crime is committed; but without that, then it matters but little whether he is ordained, according to what I have read in some authors. Your Grace will ask, then, why the archbishop ordained him and did not think of that. I answer that even as he ordained him, he ordained a few years ago, a Portuguese physician who was living in this city, who went to the city of Macan, one Licentiate Pereira. I have heard that he was twice married in Portugal, and that one wife was a widow. Such a one as this did the archbishop ordain in Pampanga, extra tempora[28] in the three days of a feast, proceeding from the two degrees that he lacked, namely, those of subdeacon and priest. According to the account that I have heard given by learned men, there were more than twelve irregularities, all of which the archbishop passed by, without its being proved that there should be any dispensation, or without considering that there can be no dispensation here in this case—a matter that was considered by many men, both the learned and the ignorant.
The governor thought that there was a great waste of the royal revenue, which was not carefully spent, in the royal Spanish hospital of this city of Manila, and that the sick were not well cared for. In order to remedy both these evils, the governor conceived the idea of appointing a chaplain in the said hospital, and of ordering the fathers of St. Francis, who had it in charge, to leave it. Although the Franciscans objected, they finally left the hospital; for there was no royal decree ordering that the hospital should be given into the care of those religious—since, although the governor asked for such a decree, it was never shown to him. Many of the religious of the same order, zealous for its welfare, wrote to the governor that it was advisable for their own order that the friars be withdrawn from the hospital. What machinations did they not begin to set in motion because of this deed! What councils did they not hold with the archbishop! What excommunications did they not heap on the governor! The newly-appointed chaplain went to the archbishop to get leave to administer the sacraments in the said hospital, but the archbishop steadily refused to give it; nor without that would he consider examining the chaplain, as the latter wished. The archbishop said that, if there had to be a chaplain, he must be appointed through an open competition—although there is a decree of his Majesty against this, ruling that the choice of chaplains pertains to the governor alone, and that the person chosen shall go afterward to the ordinary, so that the latter may give him a license to administer the sacraments. There was more in this than the key of the most holy sacrament at that hospital. The archbishop interposed, and had the said chaplain ordered, under penalty of major excommunication, not to administer the sacraments or say mass in the said hospital, so that the hospital remained many days without succor. The governor sent his Majesty’s fiscal to bring the archbishop to reason, but he could not do it. And although the royal Audiencia, whither recourse was had on the plea of fuerza, declared that he had committed that offense, not for that would the archbishop soften or change his mind.
At that time a general visitation of the clergy was ordered, and it is wonderful to see along what rough lines the archbishop conducted it, and what harsh methods he took, so that the remedy was worse than the disease; he placed the clerics in irons among the negroes and vile people, and that not for serious causes. That was a thing that tended to produce contempt for the priestly estate; and its effect was that all the clergy, as a body, became thoroughly disgusted, and viewed their prelate and shepherd not as a father, but as a severe judge, who treated them very harshly in his language—behavior which they greatly resented. I will relate to your Grace one instance of this. I attended the cathedral of this city on Holy Thursday, March 20. I saw on the platform (where the oils had been blessed that morning) that the said archbishop was clad in his pontifical robes, and that he had been given the towel for the washing of the feet. The twelve clerics whose feet he was to wash were already barefoot, the gospel had been said, everything was ready, and there were many people before him. It happened that, because some Indian singers and some one of the clergy were absent, the archbishop began to scold, saying that it was a most shameless act for anyone to be absent from the cathedral during that ceremony. Then he began to disrobe himself in great wrath and fury, also removing his pontifical ornaments in his anger, and throwing on one side his miter (which fell to the ground), and his towel to the other side. Thus did he continue to lay aside the rest, and with all haste he went to his own house—leaving the priests barefooted, and without washing their feet; and all those present, thunderstruck and amazed, and even scandalized at the sight of so great fury and wrath in a prelate, and during a ceremony that demanded so great humility.
But to return to our governor; there was no action, however insignificant it may have been, that they did not for it cast calumny on him. The archbishop and religious drew up a paper with twenty-one questions, which the archbishop put to the superiors of the religious, in the form of cases of conscience. The questions were prepared with such skill that, with the reply that would be given to them, they would present weapons against the governor. They proceeded to set down on a paper whatever he did, even in matters of the political government, in order to write to his Majesty. That paper certainly twisted the truth, in many of its statements; and it contained more than sixty or seventy sections. One of the religious who were concerned in it gave it to the governor. Just consider, your Grace, what a tax on his patience this would be, and how it would wound him! Furthermore, the paper ended with twenty-five excommunications which the governor was said to have incurred. Everything was quite ready for the greatest kind of a rupture.
The archbishop went to visit La Hermita, a district where Master Don Andres Arias Xiron was cura. It was well known that the archbishop had a prejudice against him, on account of various matters that had occurred between the two, chiefly because Don Andres was an intimate friend of the judge-conservator, Don Fabian Santillan. His Lordship was very harsh with the affairs of the said Don Andres Xiron; and on Saturday, April 26, after the Ave Marias, he ordered him to be notified of an act by which the archbishop commanded that within fourteen hours he be taken before a fiscal at a village outside Manila, called Calompite. Don Andres tried to answer that act, but they would not allow him to do so; nor would they give him a copy of the act, which he requested. He claimed that the notification was null and void, because it was made at night; but no attention was paid to that. Seeing that the whole affair was being conducted with violence, very early on the morning of Sunday, April 22, he presented a petition, appealing from the said act and claiming the royal aid against fuerza, for which he made representations in the royal Audiencia. The latter declared on the following Monday that the archbishop had employed fuerza against the said Don Andres Xiron; and notified the said archbishop of that declaration. On Tuesday, the twenty-fourth of the same month, at three in the afternoon, the archbishop notified Licentiate Marcos de Zapata y Galves—the only auditor of this royal Audiencia, because of the death of the others—that he should consider himself as publicly excommunicated, because he had meddled in ecclesiastical affairs; and notices to that effect were placed on the churches. Upon receiving that notification of excommunication, the auditor Marcos Zapata de Galves made a spirited reply; he alleged the invalid points in the act (which were many), and finally, for greater advantage, appealed to and threatened the royal aid against fuerza. The master Don Andres Arias Xiron, inasmuch as he had hidden, was not found, in order to be notified of another excommunication; but he was placed on the lists as publicly excommunicated. On the following Wednesday, April 30, the governor, the auditor Marcos Zapata, his Majesty’s fiscal, and three advocates of the royal Audiencia—namely, Doctor Luis Arias de Mora, Licentiate Nicolas Antonio de Omaña, and the auditor Manuel Suarez—met in the royal Audiencia. The auditor Marcos Zapata set forth the manifest violence shown him by the archbishop. The lawyers were sworn so that they might serve as judges, and they so acted. The auditor Marcos Zapata leaving the hall, they judged that fuerza was employed against him. Without doubt it was so, for the auditor Marcos Zapata had not sinned further than in admitting Don Andres Xiron into the royal Audiencia on his appeal from fuerza. If that were a sin, so also was it to admit the said archbishop, when, in his suit with the judge-conservator, he appeared before the royal Audiencia with a plea of fuerza. And if Don Andres Xiron incurred excommunication for having thus presented himself, the archbishop likewise incurred it when he appeared there. But no consideration was given to this, and the point of fuerza is a stale one in España, and consequently it was not discussed. The archbishop was notified of a royal provision issued by Don Phelipe, by which he was ordered to absolve the auditor Marcos Zapata. The archbishop obeyed it, and that afternoon he sent Master Juan Velez to absolve him. That was done ad cautelam; for in truth he did not consider himself as excommunicated, nor did the learned jurists so consider him.