“Some make the sign of the cross as they go down the stairways. All stop on the street at the sound of the prayer-bell; and the same thing happens in the houses, where they often pray on their knees with true devotion. They all remove their hats when passing in front of the church, and many stop to pray. Nevertheless, all the curas assert that they make a false confession, for they only confess the three following sins: absence from mass, eating of meat during Lent, and vain blaspheming; although it is apparent to the curas that they have committed other greater sins. It is a great trouble to get them to take part in the procession, and those who can do so escape through the cross streets. In Manila it is necessary for the regimental heads to appoint soldiers to go to take part in this act, and to pay them one-half real; and, were it not for this expedient, it would sometimes be impossible to do it. The curas have considerable trouble in the villages in getting them to confess. They are given forty days of grace, and many come after being threatened with twenty-five lashes; while many of the degree of captain, and many who are not, get along in spite of all without confession. In the village of Lilio, on the brow of Mount Banahao, where there are 1,300 tributes, there were more than 600 persons who did not confess in the year 1840; and this has not been one of the most remiss villages in the fulfilment of its religious duties.”
[Father Juan Ferrando, who examined Mas’s MS., says that ‘the Filipinos confess according to the instruction that is given them. In Manila, as I know by experience, they confess as well as the most fervent Spaniard, and I have heard many fathers say the same of many Indians of the provinces.’]
“Very many of them also never go to mass in any village where the cura is not especially zealous. In the city of Vigan, where there are about 30,000 persons, not more than 500 or 800 went to church during my stay there on any feast-day, except one of especial devotion to celebrate a virgin patroness of the city. There has been and is much talk of the influence of the curas in the villages. No doubt there is something in it, but their respect and deference toward the parish priest is influenced not a little, in my opinion by their idea (and one not ill founded) of the power of the priest, of the employment that he can give; and of their hope that he will protect them in any oppression that they receive from the civil government or from the soldiers. In reality, the friar usually addresses his parishioners in the language of peace, which is the method which fits well into the phlegmatic Filipino. He constitutes himself their defender, even without their having any regard for him—now from the injuries that the avarice of their governors causes them, now from the tendency of these to acquire preponderance and to command, which is the first instinct of man. Consequently, the friars, by resisting and restraining in all parts, and at so great a distance from Madrid, the tyranny or greed of the Spaniards, have been very useful to the villages, and have been acquiring their love. And since the islands are not kept subject by force, but by the will of the mass of the inhabitants, and the means of persuasion are principally in the hands of the religious, the government is necessarily obliged to show the latter considerable deference. From this fact originates their influence in temporal affairs, and the fear mixed with the respect with which they inspire the people. Three facts naturally result from all this. The cura, speaking in general, is the one who governs the village. Consequently, when a new village is formed its inhabitants do not care to be annexed or dependent on another village in regard to spiritual things; but desire and petition for a parish priest of their own, in order that they might have in him a powerful defender in their differences and suits with other settlements, or with the alcalde of the province. Lastly, the ascendency that the minister is seen to enjoy is perhaps as much civil as religious, if it is not more so. And in fact ... although they have often succeeded in pacifying seditions by their mere presence alone, and the insurgents, for instance, in Ilocos in the year 1807, surrendered to the friar the cannon that they had captured from a band of 36 soldiers and two patrols of the guard, who were routed, yet at other times not only have individuals but whole masses refused to listen to the admonitions of the religious, have completely lost respect for them, have insulted them, threatened them, wounded them, and even assassinated them, and have not lacked the complement of all this, profaning the churches. I shall not mention the thefts in the churches, such as one which happened in the capital of Pangasinan when I was there in that province; for these might be considered as single individual deeds, isolated and insignificant. I deduce then, as the resultant conclusion of all these observations, that there are many Filipinos, especially among the feminine sex, who have the true fear of God, but many others who feel a great natural indifference in this matter. They exhibit scarce a disposition toward religion, a fact that I believe must proceed from their little consideration of the wonders of religion ... which is a mark of their small amount of intelligence, for they show great indifference for the punishments of the other world, and even the ecclesiastical punishments of this. Nothing shows this so clearly as the insincere confessions which they make in order to finish with it. It is to be noted that almost the same thing happens at the hour of death, and that this is seen in the small and remote villages where Spaniards have never been. Neither can it be the result of errors of faith or philosophic reading, since the people know no other books than those of the doctrine or the passion.
“Combining the above data and observations with what I have heard recounted, and what we see in manuscripts and printed books about the method by which the old-time religious have maintained devotion in these islands—which has been by calling the list in order to ascertain those who did not observe their obligation to attend mass and confession, and by punishing in the church courtyard those who are remiss—I am inclined to believe that the law of Jesus Christ is learned here superficially; and that if the system adopted some years ago be continued, of obliging the curas to reduce themselves only to the means of preaching, prohibiting them rigorously from compulsive and positive means, before a century passes there will be but few pure-blooded natives in this archipelago who are true and devout Christians....” (Mas, pp. 100–106.)
[111] M. and D. omit all of this last sentence and quotation.
[112] A vice common to all the world, says Delgado (p. 313).
[113] “Although they have but little honor, they have in effect only too much vanity. When one goes to their houses, they make a great effort to show off their wealth, even if they have to beg a loan in order to meet the expense. They do not care to bury their relatives for the love of God, although they try if possible to avoid the payment of the funeral expenses. A cura told me that after a man had paid him the burial expenses a baguio or hurricane began; whereupon the man came to get his money, saying that he wished the burial of a pauper, because in the end, no one would have to see it.” (Mas, p. 107.)
[114] Delgado (p. 313) utters a warning against judging on this particular, and says “that virtues are not so distant from them, as his Paternity writes.”
[115] M. omits this sentence to this point.
[116] What fault do the Indians have in trying to get and defend their own? There may be excess in this matter, says Delgado (p. 313), but the Indians do not go to law only to cause trouble.