Of the intermediary junta; the arrival of a new governor in Filipinas; affairs of China; and of Mother Maria de Jesus.
The intermediary junta was held in our convent of Santo Domingo, on April fourteen, one thousand six hundred and sixty-three. Besides the usual arrangements, no especial thing was ordained in it except to entrust to the father provincial the printing of the ritual, and, when that was done, to see that the religious used it and no other. That is a very important provision, and one in which the zeal of our superiors is very well occupied, so that our procedure may be uniform, as we are charged in the beginning of our holy constitutions. It is not advisable that this matter of ceremonies be free, since they are so necessary; and piety and opinion have no vote in this matter, in which the decree of the superiors has explained their decision. The worst results will follow if neglect occasions it, since the administration of the holy sacraments is the most essential point of the ministries; and they need rules and regulations, care in their study, and punctuality. In the year 1669, a very suitable ritual was published, which was quite uniform with the Roman ritual of Paul V....
That year of 1663 our governor, the master-of-camp Don Diego de Salcedo, came to these islands. He was a worthy soldier of Flandes, where he had attained honorable posts; and since he had filled them so well his Majesty entrusted to him the influential post of captain-general and governor of these islands. If these islands were three thousand leguas nearer, that office would doubtless not be second in importance to those of America. The ship put in at Nueva Segovia, and consequently the said governor came overland—being received very hospitably by our ministering religious and those of our father St. Augustine, who are established along the way. On that journey also they were received by the natives with feasts, dancing, and music, in which they are very entertaining. His Lordship gained a good name in [receiving] those tokens of welcome, inadequate as they were, by the great affability and generosity that he displayed to the natives. He reached Manila and assumed his office amid great acclamation and pomp on the festal day of September eight, the day consecrated to the birth of the most holy Virgin. That was a great consolation to all people, and good auguries were indicated although not all of them were fulfilled to the letter. He was beyond doubt a capable man, and one of great intellect. In but few days he understood whatever concerned his obligation, and never departed from it so long as it concerned the king’s service. He made the despatches of the ships to España very punctually, and with foresight; for he recognized that the ship that left here annually to get the situado is the one that ought to have the greatest care, and demands activity [in preparation] so that it may not be pushed for time, but that one or two months shall be gained. Consequently, there always was a ship [on that line]; and God took charge of them and brought them in, seeing that people here were doing their utmost.[3] In respect to the good fortune with which he began [his term], he became faint-hearted, and cared little for being liked, for that post cannot be free from cause for harshness. The devil entered, upon seeing the necessary wall of love somewhat fallen; and he put complaints into the minds of the traders, which soon spread to the other estates. That enemy sowed dissension, which is his own seed; and the number of those disaffected increasing, much opposition to the governor arose. At the end of the year 1668 (October tenth) the governor was arrested by the commissary of the Inquisition, Fray Joseph de Paternina, an Augustinian....
[Further references to the Chinese missions and politics are made, and the chapter ends with notices regarding a Spanish beata or devout woman, Maria de Jesus, who died in Manila in 1662. Her parents, Albaro de Angulo Tobar and Isabel de Morales, were old settlers in the islands, who had lived first in Cebú; and their daughter was born in Arevalo, in the island of Panay. The latter took the habit of beata in the tertiary order of the Dominicans, somewhat against the will of her parents. She gave many alms, spent the greater portion of her wealth in the building of the church of Santo Domingo, and reared orphan girls in her house.]
[The life and labors of the famous missionary to China, Juan Bautista de Morales, who died in 1664, fill chapters xxvii-xxxii. The following chapter is devoted to Fray Francisco de Paula, commissary of the Inquisition and twice provincial, and other fathers. The former was born in Segovia and took the habit at Salamanca. Enlisting in the Philippine mission in 1618, on arriving there he began to study Chinese in the Parián; but was soon transferred to the college of Santo Tomás, where he taught for eighteen years. He was a successful and eloquent preacher to the Spaniards, and in consequence was elected preacher-general of the Manila convent. The office of vicar-provincial, as far as Manila is concerned, was conferred on him; and in the year 1641 he was elected provincial. In 1647, while exercising his duties in the Manila college of Santo Tomás, whither he had returned after his office had expired, he was elected commissary of the Inquisition. In 1657 he was again elected provincial. Pedro de Santo Domingo, who took the habit in Milan, Italy, went to the Philippines in 1658, at the age of forty, and was sent to the Chinese missions; but, being unable on account of his age to learn the language, he was sent back to Manila and became vicar of the convent of Santelmo in Cavite. Illness, however, pressing on him, he was assigned as vicar to the Philippine hospice of San Jacinto in Mexico, but died ere reaching his destination.]
CHAPTER XXXIV
The election of a new provincial in the person of the father commissary, Fray Juan de los Angeles; and the great troubles in China.
The capitular members assembled in the year 1665 to elect a provincial, as the father commissary, Fray Felipe Pardo, had completed his office. On the twenty-fifth of April they elected the father commissary, Fray Juan de los Angeles, of the province of Andalucia, and a son of the convent of Santo Domingo del Campo in the village of Zafra in Estremadura. He had come to this province in the year 1635, and had been minister of Tagalos in the district of Bataan, and afterward in the island Hermosa, where he remained six years (the time when the Dutch captured that fort and drove us from the land). He returned to Manila by way of Jacatra and Macasar, and to his former ministry of Tagalos. He was rector of the college of Santo Tomas, twice prior in our convent of Santo Domingo of Manila, at various times vicar-general, and definitor in 1661 and 1673. In the year that we mentioned, the province elected him as its prelate, to the general satisfaction of all. This is as much as we can say at present, for he is still living. We can also say that since being provincial, he has undertaken the charge of the college for boys of San Juan de Letran. He has provided for them a very suitable and spacious house within the walls of Manila, that has gained repute and esteem for the pious education in virtue and the studies of those children, which is the object [of that college]. This holy province was struggling manfully at the time of that election, but both hands were busy in wiping off the tears that were shed before God for two reasons. [The first reason was the effort of the governor to make the orders publish the lists of ministries,[4] as was the custom in the other parts of the Indias. In 1665 the vessel which arrived brought his Excellency, Don Fray Juan Lopez, consecrated bishop-elect of Cebú. He brought with him the acts of the general chapter held in Rome in 1656; the execution of the measures for the government of the Indias in general were suspended, as the Philippines were not included in them unless mentioned specially. The second great trouble of the province was the cruelty practiced on the missionaries in China. The chapter ends with accounts of China and the work there.]