Answer is made, second: that the generals, the provincials, and the main body of the provinces say the same in regard to the religious who have professed their rule, that the latter are sheep also of the flocks that God has placed in their charge, so long as the government remains in their hands; and whatever care and attention the reverend archbishop of Manila may give to his sheep the Indians, the regular prelates will give to their subordinates in regard to the same account which they will have to render for these to God.
But with a very important difference: for the Indians who are not converted are under the most serious obligations to join the assembly of those who are already converted, and for this object can be forced to hear the divine word; and those who have heard and believed it [can be obliged] not to forsake what they believed, or depart from the bosom of the Church, for it is not possible to be saved in any other manner. And when for the attainment of two objects so great as these there are no secular priests, and there are only religious, who have attained those ends and are still doing so while they are exempt curas, it would seem to be also the greatest obligation of the ordinary to reconcile himself with such curas, in order not to deprive the Church or defraud the blood of Christ of so much fruit.
The religious cannot be forced in the manner which has been stated to be curas subject to the ordinary, for besides the estate of the Christian they have already professed that of the religious order; and therein, without this force and violence, it is quite compatible that the religious should be thoroughly subject and obedient to their orders, and under their visitation and correction, and at the same time as parish priests through charity only, as temporary curas [interinos], and as assistants and coadjutors of the ordinaries, may render them great service, minister to the Indians, attract others who are infidels who thus may receive ministrations, and approve themselves to all—just as if they were parish priests by title, without the risks and difficulties that have been considered.
For the reverend archbishop, then, to ask now—when without any force all this great and well-known benefit to the church in Filipinas may be restored—that the religious be threatened and compelled not to leave those islands, and accept in them another and new calling, so full of peril, and that other religious shall go thither from Europa to the same life—and all in order that he may have greater authority—this is a great deal to ask, and is not at all in his favor before the tribunal of God. Who shall give account to His Divine Majesty of the spiritual detriment that must ensue to fifty parishes, abandoned for [even] a week—without mass, without instruction, and without sacraments for little ones and adults, for the sick and the dying? Over and over, before the affair reached this point, the religious set forth all these injurious effects, and protested against them to the reverend archbishop; and that they were not under obligation [to do this], to the peril and [even] ruin of their own souls, and that of their profession, [which was] to attend to the souls of others. Nevertheless, the reverend archbishop pursued his undertaking, and the religious retired [from their curacies]; the former was done merely to have [his own] will, the latter through necessity based on all that has been stated. Whose part, then, will it be to render account of such a result, and to fear to do so? It is certain that, according to the apostle, power and jurisdiction is not for destruction but for edification.
The reverend archbishop is not ignorant of the necessity for baptism; nevertheless, no adult can be forced to receive it. The profession of a religious is null, if any notable force intervened to bring it about; and marriage is of no validity if a person wholly free were in like manner compelled to marry. For these estates demand liberty, and, no less, inspiration from God; and there is nothing of this where there is only force and violence, for then the estate which was to be a means for salvation is converted by such compulsion into a snare and destruction. For one who is not a parish priest by title to become one is a change of no less importance than for a bachelor to marry, or a layman to become a religious; and for the reverend archbishop to claim that, where others are free, the religious should be forced into a mode of life full of risk, and for an object which can be secured without that compulsion, is to extend his claims further than perhaps he is aware, and to accumulate more material for the account that he so greatly fears. For one thing, [his idea] that, even supposing that the regulars are willing to be curas, they can be forced into subjection, and this would be more tolerable; and, for another, that if they do not choose, for all the reasons here stated, to be curas, ecclesiastical and secular authorities may use violence to make them enter the office of curas by title—and this is very far from what Holy Writ, the general councils, and the holy fathers teach, upon which there is ample material for volumes.
The religious orders are greatly surprised that the reverend archbishop, occupied with zealous cares for feeding his sheep, and by holy fear regarding his account to God, should break out with acts of violence against the religious only—and not do so in order that secular priests should go from Europa or from Nueva España to be parish priests in Filipinas; and that his Majesty may give to the said seculars, for their travels and voyages, the aid that he grants for the same purpose to the religious. If they should constrain the reverend archbishop to state why he does not ask or seek this for the seculars, the world would know what the religious orders have accomplished and merited in the Filipinas, and what they are still doing; and it would also know that, although in the words of Christ the laborer is worthy of wages and recompense, in place of any new remuneration to the said religious orders the reverend archbishop is attempting by his claims to introduce them into a labyrinth of entanglements, discords, and dissensions.
Granted, now, the fundamental reasons why the regulars have refused to be parish priests subject to the ordinary, and [preferred] to leave the mission villages rather than serve them in such a manner, the greatest affliction of the religious orders in Filipinas goes further. Their provincials, in the last conference which they held (as they notify us by letters of February in the past year of 699), resolved that these petitioners should, as their attorneys and in the names of them all, offer before your Council of the Indias an absolute renunciation of the allotment of all the territories which your Majesty gave to them in order that they might, with pontifical jurisdiction, serve therein as parish priests.
The religious are influenced to this action, first: because, even though your Majesty command that no change be made in this regard in the Filipinas, the religious orders do not now entertain a substantial hope that entire obedience would be rendered to this law for peace, without which it is intolerable to remain in those islands. The reason for this fear and lack of confidence is, that this very thing was commanded by your Majesty in a decree issued at Madrid, on November 27, 1687 (which is in the [book of] ordinances, at folios 8 and 9), and the reverend archbishop did the opposite of what was ordained therein, in the sight of your governor and Audiencia. If such was the heed and observance given to a decree for making no change, even when the reverend archbishop was not at variance with the religious orders, what can they expect when he is now so exasperated against them?
This argument gains more force when attention is paid to the immense distance [from España] of those islands, where this is a current saying, or almost a proverb, among those who are in power, “Let them write to Madrid and Roma whatever fairy-tale they please at the time; no one will be disturbed by it while the letters are on the way, or while the decision is being made and until the ordinances arrive.” And therefore it results that although the reverend archbishop arrived at Manila in the year 97, it is now the year 700 when the clamors and disturbances which with his arrival were experienced [in the islands] find an echo in your Council of the Indias—troubles which still are endured, because it is necessary to wait a considerable time for the arrival at the islands themselves of your royal provisions. And when the decree already mentioned of the year 87, and another previous one of the same tenor by the queen-mother our sovereign (who is now with God), were not obeyed, there is little or no ground for the religious to hope that other decrees of that sort will be obeyed. In both cases, the mission curacies were resigned, and in this last one much more has been suffered; and as it is not well that these occurrences and disputes be repeated, and as it is intolerable to live in controversies for the sake of curacies, to any one who is not wedded to them, the religious orders intend, by the said resignation, to make an end, once for all, of all this contention.
The second reason: In Filipinas today the religious orders see themselves dragged along and reduced to a most abject condition, in which their ministers can, according to the divine oracles and the teaching of holy men, gain little esteem or fruit while they exercise these under so much reproach. If the edict of visitation which the reverend archbishop commanded to be posted in the village of Tondo (a mission village which is in charge of the Order of St. Augustine) be read, among innumerable other questions will be found these: “Whether the minister in charge goes without the ecclesiastical garb, or without suitable clothing? Whether he goes without cutting his beard? Whether by day or by night he carries weapons, or is indecently clothed?”