CHAPTER III
Of the intermediary chapter; and of some religious who are mentioned in it as having died, leaving behind the reputation of virtue.
The intermediary chapter of the provincialate of father Fray Carlos Clemente Gant was held in the convent of St. Dominic in Manila, May 15, 1639. [The deceased missionaries given mention in that chapter are as follows: Jacinto de San Geronimo, who professed in the convent of Santa Cruz at Carboneras in the province of España, and died in the province of Itui, after a glorious life of labor. Geronimo Morer, of the province of Aragon, who professed in the convent at Valencia, and died at an advanced age in the missions of the Babuyanes; he had charge there of about one thousand tributes in two villages. Juan de Santo Tomas, who died September 5, 1638, one of the founders of the province. Next morning early also died the lay-brother Juan de San Dionisio, a native of Aguilar, who took the habit at the convent of Escala Cœli (i.e., the Ladder of Heaven) at Cordova; he was known, before his arrival at the Philippine province, as Juan de Heredia. He joined the Philippine mission in 1590, and on reaching that land was employed in various duties, among them that of nurse in the Chinese hospital of San Gabriel.]
[Chapters iv and v deal with the life of Juan de Santo Tomas (alias de Ormaza), one of the founders of the province of Santo Rosario, and its fourth provincial. He was a native of Medina del Campo, and his father was a noted jurist. The latter desiring his son to follow in his footsteps, he was sent to the university of Salamanca; but the youthful student, developing a taste for the religious life, prevailed upon his parents to allow him to devote himself to religion. He entered the Dominican convent at Valladolid, where he professed. The first mission to the Philippines, which arrived there in 1587, found him among its ranks. Arrived at the islands he was assigned to the missions at Bataan, where he labored assiduously until the year 1600, when he became provincial by unanimous vote. Shortly after the completion of his term of office he was sent to Japan as vicar-general of the Dominican missions there, and after several years there he returned to Manila and resumed his old vicariate of Bataan. As old age came on he retired to the convent of Manila, where he died at the age of nearly ninety, on December 7, 1638. In the general chapter held in Rome in 1644, he received mention for his good life and works.]
CHAPTER VI
Of the intermediary meeting of the year 1639, and events of that time
In the year 1639 was held the intermediary meeting in the convent of St. Dominic in Manila, where besides the ordinary arrangements some rules were enacted, although only a few. One of those rules was much to the credit of holy Poverty: namely that no one could ask permission to spend any money, even to the extent of a small sum, unless he first declare the purpose of it to the superior. It was a very happily conceived rule; for supposing that to each religious is given whatever is religiously necessary for him in health and in sickness, it is right and proper, if the alms of any mass come into his hands—even though it be to give alms, or to aid religious friends who are in other villages with some trifles, which they do not possess—to tell it to the superior, and not to give any occasion for Poverty to complain, even in slight matters.
In March of that year a very disastrous insurrection occurred in the province of Cagayan, in some villages retired among some mountains, called Mandayas (whose discovery and reduction to our holy faith is treated in the first part, book 2, chapter 48; and which was due to our Order, at the hands of father Fray Lorenço de Zamora, who accomplished it all). The affair was so disastrous that it cost considerable blood and not a few scandals (which are yet bewailed). The alcalde-mayor of that province was Sargento-mayor Don Marcos Zapata, the son of an auditor of this royal Audiencia. The alcalde, not paying much attention to so noble a trust, or deceived by his own shadow—and, what is more, by the example of the governor (who was, as we have said, very decided in his opinions)—conducted his official duties by the method which he calls “the short cut” (which only shows little cleverness) namely, that of severity. (But this is an expedient which carries with it innumerable inconveniences. We know that the heathen, who drew gods out of the center of the earth, made Love a god, but it is not stated that they made Cruelty a god. The reason is, that, although it seems to one that he can do much by cruelty, he cannot do everything, as can love. Consequently, cruelty lacks qualifications for being called a god.) Following this his line of reasoning, the rigor of the said alcalde was great. Although by order of the central government he had made a fort with a new sentry-post, in the said Mandaya villages, and had a suitable garrison of soldiers, yet so many were the burdens that they put upon the shoulders of the wearied Indians for their support that the latter considered themselves as conquered, especially because of the ill-treatment that they experienced from the commandant of the said fort. The mine of anger exploded, because the said commandant punished one of the principal women, because she had displeased him, by forcing her to pound rice for a whole day; she and her husband were so angry thereat that they became the chief promoters of the insurrection. The nearby villages, which were tormented by the burden of the fort and the oppressions practiced by the soldiers, were invited [to aid in the conspiracy]. They entered the sentry-post at ten on the morning of March 6 with their arms, and killed the sentinel and others who offered them some resistance. They went thence to the fort, and breaking down the doors, or having them opened by the spies inside, they killed about twenty unarmed and naked soldiers, who formed the garrison; only five soldiers escaped, by hiding; but later, the fire increasing, these perished. The Indians entered the convent, and killed a Sangley, at the door of the cell of the father-vicar, who had just been baptized that day (whose death, we must believe, would be most fortunate for his soul). They showed respect to the father-vicar and, all of them weeping with him on account of the bold undertaking in which they found themselves involved, they embarked him together with his clothes, the ornaments from the sacristy, images, crosses, and books, and carried them down to a secure place, from whence he went to the first convent. It was learned afterward that they proceeded with their frenzied sacrilege, and burned the church and the convent. Although the attempt has been made more than once to obtain satisfaction, yet those people are so favored by their inaccessible mountains that this effort has been abandoned, as it is impossible to subdue them.
[A short description of the revolt of the Chinese follows (see Vol. XXIX, pp. 208–258).]