[12] i.e., “the disease of Lazarus,” referring to the beggar at the rich man’s gate, in the parable (Luke xvi, v. 20), evidently a leper. This disease was regarded, in the absence of scientific knowledge of its nature, as a direct visitation or punishment from the deity. It will be remembered that many lepers who were Christians had been sent from Japan to Manila.
[13] The following law is taken from Recopilación leyes de Indias (lib. 1, tit. vii, ley vii): “We charge the archbishops and bishops of our Indias that they ordain mestizos as priests in their districts, if in such persons are united the competency and necessary qualifications for the priestly order; but such ordination must be preceded by careful investigation, and information from the prelates as to the candidate’s life and habits, and after finding that he is well instructed, intelligent, capable, and born from a lawful marriage. And if any mestizo women choose to become religious, and take the habit and veil in the monasteries of nuns, they [i.e., the archbishops and bishops] shall ordain that such women be admitted to the monasteries and to religious profession, after obtaining the same information [as above] regarding their lives and habits.” [Felipe II—San Lorenzo, August 31 and September 28, 1588.]
[14] Referring to the noted prelate Basilio Sancho de Santa Justa y Rufina. He died in December 1787.
[15] This was José Raon (see Vol. XVII, p. 298).
[16] “Pasquin (at Rome) is a statue at the foot of which are fastened placards—sometimes defamatory, sometimes ironical, relative to affairs of the time.”—Le Gentil.
The word “pasquin” (pasquino) is derived from the name of a tailor, who was famous at the end of the fifteenth century for his lampoons. The group of statuary called Pasquino (now badly mutilated) represents Menelaus with the body of Patroclus, looking round for succor in the tumult of battle. The square in which this group stands is also called Piazza del Pasquino.
[17] Le Gentil says (Voyages, ii, pp. 76, 77, 83) that Zamboanga was very insalubrious, being shut in from the sea winds, and suffering great heat. “It is still a place of exile;” and “the earthly Paradise was not there.”
[18] That is, “Nature makes one skilful.”
Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A., says of this expression that it “was an old one, as old at least as the schoolmen, and means little else than the truism ‘One’s handiness comes as a natural gift.’ According to San Antonio the diversity among the races of men as regards their bodily endowments as well as those of mind, genius, and customs, arises from the diversity of climate, and the diversity of air, drink, and meat, whence the axiom that Nature varies her gifts, or man’s character is due in a measure to his environments.”
[19] The passage referred to is at the beginning of San Agustin’s noted “Letter to a friend,” which is printed (in part) in Delgado’s Hist. Filipinas, pp. 273–293. He says: “In this research I have been occupied for forty years, and I have only succeeded in learning that the Indians are incomprehensible.” The allusion to Solomon is explained by Proverbs, chap. xxx, vs. 18, 19.