Relation of events in the Philipinas province of the Order of St. Augustine, and of the effects caused therein by the letters of his Holiness Gregory XV in which he commanded that the elections for offices, from the provincial to the most petty official, should be made alternately between the two parties—one, the religious who took the habit in España and came to these islands for the conversion of the infidels and the direction of those who are converted; the other, the religious who have entered the order in the Indias.
This province of Philipinas of the order of our father St. Augustine has enjoyed, from the time of its foundation at the conquest of these islands, the utmost peace in its ordinary government; and it is by virtue of this that it has accomplished so great results in the service of the two majesties [i.e., God and the king of Spain]—being always occupied in the conversion of these peoples, and in the direction of those who are converted; and devoting so much care to the fulfilment of its obligations, even when the results of their labors made their devotion so manifest. In this state the order was maintained, making great progress in the gain of souls, until the year 29, in which this said province received a brief from his Holiness Gregory XV, in which he commanded that the elections in the province, from that of provincial to that of the most petty official, should be made alternately between the religious who had come from España at the cost of his Majesty, and those who had entered the order in these regions. The brief was laid before the province;[2] but it had been obtained by misrepresentations, and its execution was impossible because the religious who had taken the habit in the Indias were very few, numbering less than one-third as many men as were the offices which the said brief commanded to be given to them. For these reasons, the province appealed from the execution of the decree; but, although this appeal was so just and so conformable to law, the judge whom they had appointed to execute the decree[3] refused to allow it, declaring that we were publicly excommunicated. Afterward, the royal Audiencia here, to whom we had recourse with a plea of fuerza, declared that the judge had committed it against us in not allowing the said petition and appeal, that it might go before his Holiness. Then the judge, compelled by the royal Audiencia, admitted the said appeal, and set a time when it should be brought before the authorities at Roma. In order to serve better the interests of this province, we appeared, through our procurators, within the allotted time at Roma, and furnished official statements presented by us, with all due solemnity.
But this was not sufficient to make the religious who took the habit in the Indias cease from disturbing the peace of the province; for they appointed, in the year 35, another judge to execute the said brief. He undertook to establish his judicature by proceeding against us with harsh and violent acts, and caused us much anxiety; for he was aided by nearly all the lay persons of this colony who were born in these islands, who took up this cause as their own. They caused many disturbances, and used language so offensive that they obliged the honorable and well-intentioned people of this city to come to our defense. This was done by the bishop of the city of Santísimo Nombre de Jesus in Çubu, who was then governing this archbishopric; for as judge of the ordinary he demanded from the said judge-executor the documents by virtue of which the latter had erected a tribunal within his territory.[4] Under the compulsion of censures and pecuniary fines, the said judge-executor gave up the documents; and his Lordship, having examined them, declared that they were not sufficient.[5] This declaration was supported and favored by Don Juan Cereço de Salamanca, who was at that time governor of these islands; and he also interposed the superior authority of the office which he filled, to calm and quiet in their beginnings these commotions—which threatened, if they should increase, much greater troubles. They were quieted for the time; but in the following year, 36, those religious again nominated another judge[6] to execute the said brief, who began to carry out this commission with even greater violence than the two former judges displayed. His conduct was such that we could not protect ourselves, although we protested that this cause devolved upon his Holiness; and we offer here the authentic testimony of our statement presented in course of appeal, the tenor of which is as follows:
“By this present public instrument be it known to all that in the year of the birth of our same Lord Jesus Christ, 1631, the fourteenth indiction, the twenty-ninth day of March, and the eighth year of the pontificate of our most holy father in Christ and our lord Urban VIII, by divine Providence pope, the reverend brethren of the Order of Saint Augustine resident in the province of the Philippines, who made their profession in Spain, have proceeded against the brethren similarly resident in the same province, who were received into the order in the Indias. As filed in my office, etc.
“To the petition in the memorial and brief as presented, the reverend father Master Peter Ribadeneira,[7] assistant [general] for the Spains and procurator for the Indias [or Philippines], made answer as follows: That his clients were not bound thereto, inasmuch as the said ordinances could not be carried into effect by reason of impossibility, since the brethren who were given the habit [of the order] in the Indias are fewer in number than the offices [or positions] to be filled [by the same]; wherefore the decree de alternativa[8] cannot be complied with in the conferral of the said offices. Moreover, that the said brief was obtained without a hearing of his clients, and therefore is surreptitious, besides being contrary to truth in that the charge was made therein that a sedition had taken place among the [brethren]. Wherefore protest has been entered that no further steps be taken unless by [due process of law], etc.
“Whereupon I the undersigned, a notary-public, have been requested to have made and drawn up one or more public instruments in reference to all and singular the above, according as may be needed or demanded.
“Done at Rome in my office, etc., of the Rione del Ponte,[9] in the presence and hearing and cognizance of Don Bernardino Pacheto[10] and Don Jacobo Francisco Belgio, fellow-notaries and witnesses, especially called, requested, and summoned to all and singular the above.”
We also present an original letter from the general of our order, and another from the father assistant of the province of España, in which they tell us how his Holiness had already revoked the said brief; also another letter, from the procurator of this province at that court [i.e., Madrid], in which he notified us that he had presented the brief of revocation in the royal Council of the Indias. But, notwithstanding these letters, the religious who had taken the habit in the Indias persisted all the more in persuading their judge to hurry forward the legal proceedings and to urge on the acts of violence which he was executing against us; and in this importunity, and in the opposition which the said religious made to the letters and advices of the general and of the assistant in the Spanish provinces, was admirably displayed the obedience and respect that they have for their superior. At this juncture also arose disturbances made by the relatives of the said religious, occasioning many scandals; and the friars, encouraged by the support which these people gave them, could not be corrected within the convent, and disturbed it to the utmost. They made promises to the lay brethren to ordain them as priests in order to draw these into their following; and so far did they go that all of them together sallied out from the convent one morning—the second day of August in last year—more than two hours before daylight, and carried with them the doorkeeper and three lay brethren, leaving the gates of the convent open. Roaming through the streets at those hours, with very great scandal, they went where they chose until daylight; and then they went to the palace, where they presented themselves before the governor of these islands, Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera—demanding, under pretext of desiring freedom to prosecute their just claims, that he shelter them under the royal patronage, take them out of the [Augustinian] convent, and assign them another where they could reside. The governor, with the prudence and great zeal which he displays in all the affairs of his government, rebuked them for this proceeding, ordered that the provincial be summoned, and charged him to take the religious back to the convent, but to treat them kindly; and, although recognizing the serious nature of their act, he requested the provincial not to punish them for it, and the latter acted in accordance with the governor’s wishes.
But those religious continued to cause much mischief and trouble, and there was reason to fear other and greater difficulties. The procedure of the judge was so violent that he went so far as to issue an act in which he represented the preceding [session of the] chapter as nugatory, and commanded the provincial, with penalties and censures, to surrender within two hours the seal of the province, so that it might be given to the person on whom the said judge should see fit to bestow it. They delayed notification of this act to the provincial until sunset, so that he could not reply within the time set; and as soon as morning came, they declared that he had incurred censures. The governor of these islands, as your Majesty’s lieutenant, interposed the authority of his office; and thus were prevented the great injuries that were beginning outside the order—and, within it, the disturbance and schism which had begun. This was done by means of an act issued by the judge, in which he suspended the former act, and decided that the trial of this cause should be deferred for forty days before the [next] chapter-meeting. Therewith this province remained in peace and quiet,[11] and all the religious attended to their obligations—until the arrival, in this year of thirty-seven, of the bull for this province, passed by the royal Council of the Indias, in which our most holy father Urban Eighth revoked the brief for the alternativa; its tenor is as follows: