All the triennial during which our provincial father Fray Dionisio Suárez ruled was very propitious for this province—not only because he was a religious very observant, kind, and lovable, but because this province possessed so many members of virtue and learning that they restored it to its first luster. The ministries in the doctrinas were well served, by one or two religious, according to their needs. The erection of many new convents was begun, some having been ruined by the earthquakes, and others torn down by military orders, when we were threatened with the coming of Kuesing Pompoan; but there was so much to restore that it kept us busy for more than three succeeding trienniums. Our provincial applied himself closely to the repairs on the magnificent convent at Manila, which greatly needed them, on the plan which he had made in the preceding triennium, when he was prior of that house; [and he accomplished] so much that to the diligence and zeal of that devout religious may be attributed its preservation.
While he was engaged in these occupations, the time came for him to finish the task of his government, so peaceful and prosperous, and for holding another chapter-session—to the great regret of all, for it seemed as if they divined that it would result less happily; but never did they expect that it would be so calamitous as it proved to be. For, just as the condition of the commonwealth had experienced its change from calamities and miseries to peace and happiness, so this our province changed from tranquillity to sudden fear. Tempus pacis, tempus belli.[7] And the most remarkable thing is that, just as the governor Don Manuel de León was the main cause of the peace and prosperity of Manila, so this same excellent gentleman was the prime cause of many troubles and disturbances, which occurred not only at the time of this chapter but throughout the triennium. I do not throw all the blame on him, because he was a great governor, very pious and of sincere intentions; but all disturbance has another cause, and the vulgar and common Spanish adage is very true which says: “He who is burning the woods is he who comes out of them.”[8] No sensible person will admire seeing among religious the activity of flesh and blood and the passion of ambition, which they cannot leave behind in the world when they take refuge in the asylum of the cloister.[9]...
The fourth definitor, Fray Francisco de Medina Basco, who was associate and secretary of the provincial Fray Dionisio Suárez, had displayed so much ability and good intention in administering his office—for he was an angel of peace, following the advice of our holy constitutions—that all desired that he should succeed to the office of him to whom he had been so capable an associate. This was desired by the provincial most of all; for, as he was of so peaceable a disposition, he wished to leave the province in the hands of one who could maintain it in the tranquillity which it was enjoying. But the malign father of discord was not pleased at seeing the great peace and concord which this province had enjoyed for so many years; he therefore strove with his arts to disturb and disunite it. The time for holding the chapter-session arrived apparently as peaceful as usual; and so the religious who were its members assembled, quite unconscious of what was to occur.
The chapter was convened on April 23, 1671, in the convent of San Pablo at Manila; and its president was father Fray Bernardino Márquez, by commission from our very reverend father the general of all the order of our father St. Augustine, Master Fray Pedro Lafranconio, a native of Ancona; and the other affairs which precede the election were transacted that afternoon with great peace and concord. But on Saturday, the day for the election of provincial, Governor Don Manuel de León sent to notify them that he would be present at the election, and sent over his official chair. This caused great uneasiness, for they recognized that this was an effort to prevent the election of the father definitor Fray Francisco de Medina Basco, on which thirty-one of the voting fathers were agreed. The father president of the chapter was one of the eight who were opposed to this election, and these were favored by the governor—which in these islands means, to have whatever one may desire. Accordingly, the first thing that he did that afternoon was to make charges in virtue of which he deprived father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco of the right to vote or to be elected [voz activa y pasiva], and commanded him to leave the chapter-meeting—which he did with great humility and resignation, saying only those words of Jonah, Si propter me orta est haec tempestas, projicite me in mare,[10] and went to his convent of Tongdo. On the following day the governor came to the convent, accompanied by the senior auditor, Don Francisco de Coloma, Sargento-mayor Don Juan de Robles, and Captain Don Pedro de Tortesa, with their [military] company, as if it were to invest a fort of enemies. The religious were astonished at seeing such a military display, but with much decorum and gravity they proceeded with the transactions of the chapter; and at the first ballot father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco was elected by thirty-one votes, and the remaining eight fathers voted for father Fray Juan Caballero[11]—a religious who had come to this province two years before, as I have already stated, and whose merits deserved such a mark of esteem. The governor would not allow them to sing the Te Deum laudamus, and the president declared that he would not confirm the election, on account of its being inhibited by the suit which Father Francisco had brought when Licentiate Don Juan de Rosales was counselor; and one heard only protests on both sides, although the voters recognized that they would be overpowered by the side which the governor supported.
The latter went out from the hall, leaving the capitulars within under the guard of the soldiers, so that these should prevent the fathers from going out of the room until they should elect another provincial who should not be father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco; for father Fray Juan Caballero was not canonically elected, for lack of one more than half of the ballots of the voters. All that day, until evening, they remained shut up in the chapter-hall, experiencing great harshness; for the guards would not allow even a pitcher of water to be given to them, a cruelty very unlike the kindly nature of Don Manuel de León. The provisor and vicar-general of the vacant see, Doctor Don Francisco Pizarro Orellana, came out in defense of the ecclesiastical immunity, which had been violated by that compulsion; and it resulted in the religious being allowed to go to their cells, weak from hunger and thirst. But the governor ordered that two soldiers should be stationed at the door of each cell, so that the fathers could not leave their cells or communicate with one another. In these disturbances passed that Saturday until sunset, the limit peremptorily allotted by our holy constitutions within which the chapter can proceed to the election of a prior provincial; and, when that time was spent, the authority for such election devolved upon our very reverend general [of the order]. But as this adjustment of the limit was made by violence, this prescription of the limit was, in a case so irregular as this, invalid. What I can assert, on the best information, is the great patience and humility which all the fathers of the chapter displayed in these tribulations, enduring great privations in this imprisonment, which lasted through Saturday and Sunday. Finally, recognizing that their strength was very inferior to that which was opposing them, and that further effort was only to struggle against the current of a freshet, they, acting on the advice of the said provisor, again assembled in the chapter-room on the following Monday, and made a new choice, that of father Fray Jerónimo de León—a native of Mexico, a son of the convent of Manila, quite advanced in years; he was an excellent minister in the province of Tagalos, and formerly prior of the convent of Bulacán, and was much beloved by all for his devout religious spirit and peaceable conduct. They appointed as definitors Master Fray José de Mendoza, father Fray Isidoro Rodríguez, father Fray Luis de Montufar, and father Fray Juan Bautista Bover; and for visitors father Fray Carlos Bautista and father Fray José Duque.[12] As for father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco, they appointed him prior of the convent at Cebú and vicar-provincial of that island, which he accepted with much resignation and humility. The tempest in the chapter ceased, and the province again enjoyed its former tranquillity for some time.
Father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco lived but a short time in Cebú, for while officiating there human weakness, resulting from melancholy and grief at what had occurred, prostrated him with a long illness; this time he knew how to improve to good purpose, seeking the welfare of his soul. His confessor, director, and teacher was the bishop of Cebú, Don Fray Juan López, a prelate of great wisdom and virtue, who took such personal interest in the spiritual welfare of this afflicted religious that he spent most of his time with him, until in his care the sick man gave up his soul to the Lord, with great consolation to the holy bishop and to all who were present at his death. [The proceedings of] this chapter went to Rome, to our very reverend father general; he confirmed father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco as provincial, and annulled the second election, that of father Fray Jerónimo de León, commanding the chapter to guard their prerogatives; otherwise, it would have been a legitimate election, on account of his having conducted himself as merely passive in his election, and it appeared that he had not taken part in the tumults of the chapter-session....
Chapter II
[Chapter ii opens with an account of the rebellion in Otón, already told in VOL. XXXIX.] In September of 1671 was celebrated in Manila the festival of the dedication of the cathedral, which the holy archbishop Don Miguel Millán de Poblete had not been able to attain; but this was done by his nephew the dean, Don José Millán de Poblete, the bishop-elect, of Nueva Segovia. A solemn feast of one week was solemnized, beginning with the day of the Nativity of our Lady, and there were other demonstrations of public rejoicing; for Don Manuel de Leon’s term of office produced many of these diversions, through the agency of his secretary, Don José Sánchez de Castellar—who had a very brilliant and versatile mind, and a flowery imagination; he had a great propensity for poetry, music, and studies in language, and was very liberal, so that he did not hesitate on account of the expenses which such festivities demand for their brilliant display.
On one of the nights of this celebration occurred at the port of Cavite the destruction by fire, without its being possible to prevent it, of the galleon “Nuestra Señora de la Concepción,” one of the largest and finest which had been built in these islands; it had served, with prosperous voyages, on the trade-route to Nueva España. In the year 1672 also the commonwealth of Manila experienced a great calamity; the galleon “San Telmo,” which had sailed for Nueva España in charge of General Antonio Nieto, had to return to Cavite—a misfortune which was keenly felt. But very soon afterward the galleon “San Antonio” was launched, in order to make a voyage under the command of General Don Juan Durán, nephew of the General Pedro Durán de Monforte, who has been so often named [in these pages]. The general remained in Nueva España with his wife, Doña María Jiménez, widow of Doctor Don Diego de Corbera, his Majesty’s fiscal, who died in Lubán in the year 1668.