The spiritual administration of any of the bishoprics that fall vacant devolves upon the metropolitan archbishop, and the latter is the one empowered to appoint a provisor or capitular vicar. In case that the archiepiscopal metropolitan see should become vacant also, the government devolves upon the nearest bishop; and if there be two bishops at equal distances, it devolves upon the senior of these. In accordance with the terms of a royal decree dated April 22, 1705, it is ordered that the expenses incurred by the prelates on their episcopal visits are to be met by the royal treasury. The manner in which the espolios,[3] are collected was determined by a royal decree, dated June 24, 1821.
The secular clergy is divided into parochial and non-parochial. In the latter class are included the persons employed in the metropolitan cathedral; to the same class belong the four provisors of the other dioceses.
The provisor or vicar-general of this diocese holds the title of judge of chaplains, but that title is not held by the provisors of the other bishoprics.
By a general rule, the provisors of the respective dioceses are directors of the conciliar seminaries; but that is not the case with the provisor of this archbishopric, who is at present dean of the cathedral. The presidents of the said establishments are, as a rule, also procurators of the same. The commissary of the crusade and the attorney-general of the ecclesiastical court are at present members of the choir of the cathedral of Manila—as are also the rector of the college of San José, and the secretary and the vice-secretary of the archbishop. But this circumstance does not constitute a general rule, as it is a purely personal favor. Among the employees of the ecclesiastical court of Manila are five chief notaries—of whom one is pensioned [jubilado], another despatches the business relative to the tribunal of the crusade, and the three remaining ones form part of the ecclesiastical courts suffragan to this archbishopric. There are, further, two secretaries of the diocesan courts of Manila and Cebu—the latter being a modern creation, as are also a vice-secretary of the archbishop, and a vice-secretary of the bishop of Nueva Cáceres; also an archivist of the archbishop, a commissary-general of the crusade, eight royal chaplains (inclusive of the chaplain-in-chief), one supernumerary, and the father sacristan; and twelve employees in the seminaries of the four bishoprics, with the name of directors, presidents, rectors, vice-rectors, lecturers, and sacristans. To this number one must add ten more who proceed from the three colleges and the university—who bear the titles of rector, professors, readers, secretary, and master of ceremonies—and thirty chaplains. In the latter number are included those who serve in the detachments of the army; those assigned for the colleges, hospitals, and hospitiums; and those who are paid by certain corporations, such as the Audiencia, etc. In this number those of the royal chapel are not included; for their institution is to provide their divisions, and the boats of the fleet, with priests when those of the former class are lacking. Their total amounts to ninety-three.
Coming now to the seminarists, their number cannot be determined, for it varies every year. But by adopting an average for the students in the conciliar seminary of Manila in 1842 and 48 [sic; 43?]—namely, some twenty-five, counting priests, deacons, subdeacons, those who have taken the lesser orders, and those who have taken the tonsure—one may calculate that the four seminaries will contain about one hundred students; so that, adding these to the ninety-three preceding, belonging also to the secular clergy, the number increases to one hundred and ninety-three. There are also in each one of the bishoprics some secular ecclesiastics employed under the immediate orders of the diocesans, who bear the name of pages, cross-bearers, etc., whose number cannot be determined. One is also unable to calculate the number of those who have been ordained under the title of patrimony,[4] and chaplaincies[5] of blood or of class, etc. By a royal decree of June 1, 1799, order was given for the curas to pay the three per cent for the sustenance of the seminaries.
Before concluding this review, we must also show that there are some arrangements that are common to both secular and regular clergy—those which make it indifferent, for the discharge of certain duties or commissions, whether they are secular or regular priests. Such are outside vicariates, and the chaplaincies of presidios, fortresses, etc.
From the founding of Manila until it obtained its first bishop there was a space of ten years. Its first prelate was suffragan to the metropolitan see of Méjico. But seventeen years after, and twenty-seven from the foundation of the city, in the year 1596, and by means of the bull of Clement VIII, despatched at the proposal of King Don Felipe II, it was separated from that see, and was erected into a metropolitan, with the three suffragan sees which it has at present.
Bishopric of Cebú
Cebú, formerly called Sogbu, is a suffragan bishopric of the archbishopric of Manila, which bounds it on the north. This diocese was created in 1595, at the same time as those of Nueva Segovia and Nueva Cáceres, at the request of the monarch, Felipe II, by brief of his Holiness Clement VIII. Its first bishop was Don Fray Pedro de Agurto, who took possession of this bishopric on October 14, 1598. He who at present occupies the see is his Excellency Don Romualdo Gimeno, who is governing the diocese worthily to the honor and glory of God, and the gain of the metropolitan see, having begun his office February 27, 1847. This diocese includes at present the civil provinces of Cebú, Negros, Leyte, Samar, Capiz, Antique, Misamis, Caraga, Nueva-Guipúzcoa, Zamboanga, Calamianes, and the Marianas. Among those provinces are counted one hundred and seventy-nine curacies, of which one hundred and twelve are held by regular missionaries, and fifty-five by seculars (either Indian or mestizo clergy), as will be seen from chart number 6.[6]
The ecclesiastical court is composed of a provisor and vicar-general, who is at present the priest Don Esteban Meneses; of a secretary of the exchequer and of government, which office is filled by Doctor Don Marcos del Rosario; and of a notary, who is Don Pedro Magno, a priest.