92. It is better, in selecting servants among the Indians for the inside of the house, to see that they be the sons of caciques or chiefs. They must be shown neither love nor familiarity. They must indeed always be treated well, but with uprightness and seriousness of face. It must be considered that in proportion as they are better caressed and clothed, the worse and more insolent they will become. This is the teaching of the Holy Spirit in Proverbs xxiv, 21: Qui delicate a pueritia nutrit servum suum, postea sentiet eum contumacem. They must be taught their duties, and must always be ordered to perform them with prudence and circumspection, for otherwise they will come gradually to lose respect for their master, and for the character which God presents to them in the Spaniard in order to dominate them; and then will result the same thing that happened to the log which, Æsop says, was placed in the lake by Jupiter to be king of the frogs. But the frogs, seeing after a time that it did not move, made sport of it, and jumped on top of it, etc. Not many things should be ordered of them at one time; for their memories are very poor, and they will only keep the last one in mind. The keys of the pantry or to the money must not be entrusted to them, for that would be placing opportunity and temptation in their hands, and they never resist it. Good instruction and subjection in the house, and, above all, the good example of life which they see in their masters, instil much into them; and under such conditions they generally become good servants, especially those of the Pampango nation. On the other hand, also, one must not expect a good servant in the house of a bad master.[211]
93. One must not exhaust them or squeeze them much beyond what they can give of themselves, as we do with the lemon, for all that will be pressed out will be bitter, as says the proverb of the commentary; qui nimis emungit, solet extorquere cruorem.[212] Neither is it well or proper to go about visiting the caciques or going up into their houses, except when necessity requires it; for immediately the whole village will be filled with envy and complaint, and the esteem of the father ministers will suffer considerably. Besides, their stench and vice do not render this diversion desirable.[213]
94. When[214] they are sent with a message to any place, one must very patiently await some notable failure caused ordinarily by their natural sloth and laziness.[215] Sicut acetum dentibus, et fumus oculis, sic piger his qui miserunt illum (Proverbs, x, 26).[216]
95. I do not believe that I should omit mention, saltem per transenam,[217] of a matter very worthy of consideration—namely, that if God chooses to chastise the flourishing Christianity of these islands for our and their sins, by placing it in the hands of Indians ordained as priests (as appears about to threaten us very soon), if God do not apply a remedy, what abominations will not follow! For to declare that they will change their customs[218] and the aforesaid vices is impossible. On the contrary, their arrogance will grow worse with exaltation to so sublime an estate; their cupidity with power will be better fed; their laziness, with the lack of necessity; and their vanity, with the applause that they would wish to have, for they would desire to be served by those whom they would in another estate respect and obey; and the villages would suffer from the curse mentioned in Isaiah xxiv, 2, sicut populus, sic sacerdos. For the Indian who is ordained does not become a priest because it is the calling that conduces to the most perfect estate,[219] but because of the great and almost infinite advantage that comes to him with the new estate that he chooses. How much it differs from being a father cura, to be a baguntao or sexton! From paying tribute, to being paid a stipend! From going to the [compulsory] cutting of timber, to being served in it! From rowing in a banca, to be rowed in it! That does not count with a Spaniard, who, if he become a cleric, often gives up an office as alcalde-mayor, captain, or general, with many other comforts in his native place, while his house is exalted above all the nation of the Indians. Let one contrast this with the vanity with which one who has been freed from the oar,[220] or from an ax in the cutting of timber, will give his hand to be kissed! What a burden for the village will be the father, and mother, sister and nieces ranked as ladies, when many other better women are pounding rice! For if the Indian is insolent and intolerable with but little power, what will he be with so much superiority! And if the wedge from the same log[221] is so powerful, what will it be if driven by so great authority! What plague of locusts can be compared to the destruction that they would cause in the villages?[222] What respect will the Indians have for him, seeing that he is of their color and nation—and especially those who consider themselves as good, and even better perhaps, than he who became a cura, while they do not become anything better than bilango or servant? How severely the good cura will chastise them, and for trifling offenses![223] as we see the Indians do when they act as gobernadorcillos of their villages for even a single year—when the first thing that they do, and in which they most delight, is immediately to place the picota[224] in front of their houses, in order to apply lashes with the hangman’s strap [penca]. What tyranny will the cura practice on them, such as they are wont to practice if they have any power and authority! How well the wedge of the same wood will force its way, without there being any one to say to him, curita facis? [i.e., “Dost thou play the cura?”][225]
96. Therefore, if any insurrection or mutiny should arise, how well could it be arranged and prepared,[226] if the cura entered also into the dance, as he is also an Indian and interested? For, in all the insurrections that have occurred in these islands, respect for the father ministers has been of great importance; but the very opposite would have happened if these were Indians. Then in the frequent carousals and feasts of which they are so fond, and on which their vanity and their chieftainship are founded, without any doubt there would be great indecency; for the cura would be very tender of conscience who would not pledge them in their cups. In that and other temptations would happen what Lucian relates in the second of his dialogues.
97. A noble youth had a very beautiful and gentle female kitten, which he esteemed so highly that he begged the goddess Venus to change it into a beautiful maiden, in order that he might marry her. The goddess did so. Thereupon, the youth[227] immediately arranged the wedding, to which he invited the best people of the city. While, then, the bride was richly adorned with jewels and surrounded by many other women,[228] and the guests, a mouse happened to appear, and began to approach them in order to eat some crumbs of bread which were scattered about. The bride saw it, and, without power to control herself, ran after the mouse throughout the length of the hall, and the guests were unable to restrain her. The groom was ashamed, and said,[229] “Gentlemen, your pardon; for this girl was formerly a cat, and will always have the habits and bad traits of that animal.”
98. I believe that the same thing would happen with the Indians,[230] even when they belong to the caciques or nobility; for it is incredible that they can strip themselves of the peculiarities of their nature. I at least do not believe it at present, although God our Lord can very easily do it, for He is the One who raises up sons of Abraham from the stones. But we must not ask for miracles needlessly, but allow the Indian to remain an Indian, and go to his labor as before. If it is desired to prepare them for the high ministry of the priesthood, it is advisable to test them in the offices of alcaldes-mayor, captains, regidors, and councilors; for it appears to me that there is no one who can say that these said offices are greater and of higher rank and dignity than the priesthood, at least where the Inquisition exists. Then, if they conduct themselves well in the said employments, they can be given the management of the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord; and then one can say with reason: Quia in pauca fuisti fidelis supra multa te constituam.[231] For, as the Church teaches us through the mouths of the holy fathers, the dignity of the priesthood is so great that that of the kings or emperors of the world cannot compare with it. Thus says St. Ignatius the Martyr in his epistle to Smyrna, chapter x, Sacerdotium est apex bonorum omnium, quæ sunt in hominibus.[232] St. Ambrose, in chapter 2 of his book De dignitate sacerdotum[233] says so still more clearly.[234] Father Molina[235] has considerable to say on this in the first treatise of his Libro de sacerdotes [i.e., “Book of priests”] as has Father Señeri[236] in his Cura instruido [i.e., “the cura instructed”].
99. Then is it possible that, even though they are Catholics and faithful sons of the Church, we must exalt to so lofty an estate men against whom there would be so many complaints if they became alférezes of a company in the regiment of Manila? Can the sacred habit of St. Peter, which we religious venerate as that of the greatest dignity, and to which we yield the most honorable place—which, as said the patriarch of Antiochia[237] to the emperor of China, is the first rank and order of the Church—be obliged not to experience disgust at such low creatures? I do not know in what it [i.e., the proposal to ordain Indians] can consist, unless it be that in it is realized the vision that the said St. Peter had in Cesarea when the sheet was let down from heaven filled with toads and serpents, and a voice commanded him to eat without disgust—as is read in chapter x of the Acts of the Apostles. For although it signified the calling of heathendom, it must not be understood in moral things of the barbarous and mean nature of some peoples that compose that heathendom, in order to constitute the ecclesiastic hierarchy.[238] When I come to discuss this matter, I find no end, and I find that we can only say: Domine adauge [nobis] fidem (Luke [x]vii, [5]).[239]
100. It is also a fact that the sacred canons do not demand from those who are ordained more than an honorable life and example, and a sufficient knowledge. Then, in order to dispense the spurious and legitimate[240] and the mestizos, there is a brief of Gregory XIII which begins “Nuper ad nos relatum est,”[241] issued at Roma, January 25, one thousand five hundred and seventy-five. For all that, I regard them [i.e., Indians as priests] as irregular, not only for the reasons given and stated above, but also because they lack the ecclesiastical and priestly mental ability, and the prudence necessary; and without these all the rest serves as almost nothing, as Pedro Urceolo sang with graceful elegance in his “Epigrams:”
Sis licet ingenuus clarisque parentibus ortus;