Not only was the master Don Andres Xiron not absolved, but new acts were passed against him and new penalties imposed on him. All this was to prevent his presentation, that the governor had made, for the post of archdeacon of this metropolitan church, because of the resignation of the said post by Don Francisco de Baldes. The archbishop refused to accept the said master Don Andres Xiron, as he asserted that he was his mortal enemy, and for that purpose he threw out all the rest [of the governor’s nominations]. He had the prebendaries of the cathedral notified not to accept Don Andres, under penalty of excommunication, and notified Don Francisco de Baldes to assist in the choir as before, since he was the archdeacon—telling him that his resignation had been invalid, as it had been made through the governor and not through the ordinary, before whom the resignation of any ecclesiastical benefice must be made; but the good man did not heed the archbishop and those who were aiding him. Although it is true, and a matter that has been settled by law, that the resignation from an ecclesiastical benefice in which the incumbent has been canonically installed must be presented only through the ordinary, yet Don Francisco de Baldes did not hold the post of archdeacon in titulum, but only in charge, and until his Majesty should appoint another. Therefore, the resignation from it was governed by the same rule as the resignation from other chaplaincies of the king, who was the one to appoint other incumbents to them. It is not necessary that those who hold these should make their resignation before the ordinary; and this, it seems, is the practice. For the same object of preventing that presentation, the archbishop exiled Don Andres Xiron, and announced that he was excommunicated. But his Majesty likewise orders in a royal decree that, when the governors should present any persons as prebendaries, the archbishops should accept them, unless they had some objection to offer to them; but that if any exception were made, then such were not to be accepted—with the proviso that the exception must be proved, and, if it should not be proved, then they must pay damages to the one presented. Therefore, the archbishop came forward for this purpose, and entered several exceptions before the royal Audiencia against the said master Don Andres Xiron. The latter manfully repelled these accusations, and purged himself from them all; for at the outset, in reply to a formal accusation with evidence that he had caused a miscarriage, some years before, by ordering a pregnant Indian woman to be whipped, the said master Don Andres Xiron came forward with another report made by the same judge, in which the witnesses who had sworn against him retracted their oaths, and declared that they had been induced by others to swear; whereupon the judge declared him free from that calumny. Further, on the part of the archbishop, they accused the master Don Andres Xiron of an act of simony; but he gave the lie to that, as salt dissolves in water, by means of authentic documents and reports. They opposed him with other things of less account, but these were not proved, nor was there any witness of them, nor were the accusations completed; they could, therefore, prove of no harm to him, and he did not have to clear himself. Consequently, the royal Audiencia declared that the archbishop had not proved his exceptions to the master Don Andres Xiron, who must be admitted into the archdeaconate, according to the royal patronage. But the archbishop refused to admit him. Hence the royal Audiencia despatched a royal decree, issued by Don Phelipe, ordering that Don Andres be admitted, under penalty of [losing] the temporalities and of banishment from the kingdoms. The archbishop was tied to what the religious who sided with him incited him to, as will be seen from the following letter which he wrote to the master Don Joan de Toledo, his provisor, who counseled him to obey the royal decree, as that was advisable in order to avoid trouble; and that, if he did not obey, without doubt his exile from the kingdoms would be an assured fact. The letter is as follows:
“All that those gentlemen have enacted is in violation of the royal patronage, and contrary to [the precepts of] God and justice; and, although it comes in the name of the king, I am not under obligations to obey it, since men so governed by passion have made it. It is less harmful that I go into exile, and that I suffer, than that so evil a priest enter the cathedral contrary to the will of his Majesty—who, even for but one of the exceptions that I have made, is unwilling that the canonical institution be given to him. It is a piece of nonsense to assert that the cabildo must take charge of the government, for I am not excommunicated or suspended. Already I have appointed governors for the archbishop, and I pray your Grace not to give me any counsel in such things, for I do not wish it. It will seem an admirable thing, in Roma and in Madrid, that an archbishop should be exiled in behalf of Don Andres Arias Xiron, who is a person of great importance in this community. If I shall go, I shall leave the city, so that they shall come to seek me; and they must not think that I shall do through fear what is wrong. Rather will I die twenty deaths. Such is my resolve, and I shall not change it. Accordingly, your Grace may advise them to prepare immediately a ship in which to embark me. I shall not fail to have persons who will go with me, and God will defend so just a cause and will not permit so great evils and tyrannies, for these acts have no other name. Perhaps God is permitting this in order that some one or some persons may pay for their evil acts—which God allows, but not forever. All the community will judge whether those actions are justified, and they will write to his Majesty; since those actions stand out so clearly. May our Lord preserve your Grace many years. From La Hermita, Friday, May 9, 1636.
Fray Hernando, archbishop.
“In regard to your Grace saying that the king, as sovereign, is able to give the prebends to whom he likes, even to natives, your Grace could not have reflected when you wrote that; since his Majesty, being so Christian and Catholic, is not one to waste the ecclesiastical property, for the purpose of giving it to unworthy men. And you, your Grace, do not you venture to write such words, for they are ill-sounding. I shall not go without forbidding the saying of mass, and without hurling a curse, in the name of God and of the Church, on the circumstances and persons who have caused my exile.”
As the archbishop refused to obey the royal decrees, the royal Audiencia had him notified by an act on the morning of May 9, at nine o’clock, that the temporalities were taken from him, and that he was declared an exile from these kingdoms. Then began the trouble. The archbishop summoned the religious of all the orders, and notified the father rector of the Society to go to a meeting with the rest of the religious. The latter excused himself, for reasons that your Grace will see in the following letter written to the archbishop:
“Most illustrious sir:
“Licentiate Don Bartolome de Cañedo, coming from outside, has just now notified me, at half-past six o’clock, to go to a meeting which your most illustrious Lordship is holding with the religious of our fathers St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Nicholas [i.e., the Recollects], who drew up against the Society of Jesus the paper and resolution that your Lordship knows of, and which has not as yet been revoked—as we understand ought to have been done before the matter went so far as closing the doors of the church on us, as happened in Cabite. Consequently, so long as the said paper remains in force and is not revoked, your Lordship can well understand that we are legitimately excused from such meetings, although never from serving your most illustrious Lordship very willingly and lovingly.”
The resolution made in the meeting with the religious was, that under no circumstances would the archbishop obey the royal decrees, besides other disorderly things, which continued to happen, and which I shall relate in their order.
In the afternoon of that same Friday, the archbishop sent the monstrance with the most holy sacrament to the convent of St. Francis, whence it was carried irreverently in his sleeve by a friar, and taken to the house of the archbishop. The latter, at nightfall, sent two clerics who had taken the minor orders, to excommunicate the governor and Auditor Marcos Zapata; the latter, together with his Majesty’s fiscal, were assembled in the tribunal of the royal Audiencia. Seeing things in so great confusion, they ordered the clerical notaries to enter. The latter, upon reaching the tribunal, with wisdom and prudence did not dare to give notice of anything. In order not to lose any time, which was fast fleeting, they went first to the doors of the auditor Marcos Zapata, and commenced to read the excommunication by the light of a torch. But a soldier, who happened to be passing along the street, gave the torch a flick with his hat, and extinguished it. They were unable to proceed with the reading, and accordingly went to give an account of events to the archbishop, who was at home with the most holy sacrament and a great number of religious of all the orders—except those of the Society, who were not summoned and who did not go. The archbishop ordered the said excommunication against the governor and Auditor Marcos Zapata to be read at the door of the master-of-camp, Don Lorenzo Olaso. They were read, and great bills were posted on the church doors, which read as follows:
“Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, governor and captain-general of these islands, and the senior auditor, Marcos Zapata de Galves, will be considered publicly excommunicated, because they prevent the exercise of ecclesiastical justice and the general visitation that is being made by his Excellency Don Fray Hernando Guerrero, archbishop of these islands. No person shall dare to remove or destroy this paper, under penalty of major excommunication, late sententie, ipso facto incurrendo una protina canónica monitione premissa, and a fine of one thousand Castilian ducados for the Holy Crusade, for those who violate the commands herein contained, which penalties they shall be regarded as having forthwith incurred. Given in Manila, on the ninth day of the month of May, one thousand six hundred and thirty-six.