[6] Delgado has evidently borrowed much of his account from San Antonio; but in this case he inserts no, without any apparent justification. San Antonio says, y oblige â culpa mortal su observãcia (ante, p. 128); and Delgado, cuya observancia no obliga a culpa moral (the last word apparently a misprint for mortal).
[7] The two decrees here mentioned are, in the printed text of Delgado, respectively 1692 and 1602—some of the numerous errors which render that text untrustworthy as to dates.
Ecclesiastical Survey of the Philippines
[The French scientist Le Gentil, in his Voyages dans les mers de l’Inde (Paris, 1781), pp. 170–191, speaks as follows of the ecclesiastical estate of the Philippines.]
Ninth Article
Ecclesiastical survey of the Philippine Islands
The first church in Manila was erected as a parish church in the year 1571, and dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. The Augustinians and the discalced Franciscans had charge of it until 1581, when the first bishop arrived. Gregory XIII, by a bull, dated Rome, 1578, erected the parish church of Manila into a cathedral, and Philippe II, king of España, established the chapter. It is composed of five dignitaries—dean, archdeacon, orecentor, schoolmaster [écolâtre],[1] and treasurer—two whole prebendaries; two half prebendaries[2] two parish priests [curés]; sacristans; master of ceremonies; and beadle. The divine office is celebrated in this cathedral with great state and majesty.
The archbishop receives 5,000 piastres[3] (25,500 livres); the dean, 600 (3,030 livres); archdeacon, schoolmaster, precentor, and treasurer, each 500 (2,525 livres); the three canons—namely, the doctoral, the magistral, and the one of grace or favor—and the two half prebendaries, each 400 (2,020 livres); the master of ceremonies, 1,200 livres; and last, the two parish priests [cures], each 924 livres.
The fixed revenue of these parish priests is, as one can see, very little, but they have a little in perquisites, as marriages, baptisms, etc. Not more than forty years ago, one of the two parish priests had charge of the Spaniards, while the other attended only to the Indians. Today this ridiculous distinction no longer exists. The parish priests alternate month by month in their duties as curates, and during that time they minister indiscriminately to Spaniards and Indians.