These and other troubles, together with those of old age, hastened the death of the archbishop, Don Fray Juan López; this was as holy as his life, and occurred in April of the year 1674. He was buried in the convent of Santo Domingo, among his brethren. He was a native of Martín Muñoz de las Posadas, and came to this province of Santo Rosario in the year 1647. He taught theology in the convent of Santo Tomás in Manila, and went to España and Roma as procurator of the province, returning as consecrated bishop of Cebú in the year 1666. In 1672 he began to govern the archbishopric of Manila, with great reputation as a vigilant pastor, although that church enjoyed only two years of his prudent government. The regret for his loss was increased by the fact that a general vacancy in the office of consecrated bishop ensued in all the islands; this lasted until the year 1680, when the bishop of Cebú, Don Fray Diego de Aguilar arrived here—great affliction being caused in all that long period, by the lack of any one to confer holy orders on men who might assist the ministers who gave instruction. Many, both clerics and regulars, were obliged to journey to the kingdom of Siam, where they were ordained by Don Luis de Lanoy Faces, bishop of Metelopolis and vicar-apostolic of that kingdom; and others went to Nueva España to be ordained, for even the city of Macán was without a bishop. Don Fray Payo de Ribera,[16] the archbishop and viceroy of Mexico, was careful to send them the holy oils every year; he belonged to the order of our father St. Augustine, and was a prelate worthy of eternal remembrance on account of his great virtues—on which he placed the seal by renouncing the bishopric of Cuenca and retiring to the convent of our Lady of El Risco. He died there, with a great reputation for sanctity, being an example for prelates and for very austere religious.
Chapter IV
The triennial of our father Fray Jerónimo de León passed with some disturbances, which did not fail to cause considerable disquiet in the minds of the religious, and disturb the peace of the order. The reason was, that after the first year of his term, he began to doubt whether he was lawfully elected, as it seemed to him that the real provincial was father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco; and indeed this was the case, as affirmed by our very reverend father general, Fray Nicolas de Oliva, of Sienna. Father Fray Francisco de Medina Basco had met a holy death in Zebú; and therefore our father Fray Dionisio Suárez, as provincial of the preceding chapter, began to govern [the province] as rector-provincial. Then Fray Jerónimo de León had recourse to the royal Audiencia[17] on a plea of fuerza, alleging this spoliation. And inasmuch as such proceeding acts as a stay, since it is a principle in law that Spoliatus debet ante omnia restitui, omni alio casu postposito,[18] they ordered that the government be restored to Fray Jerónimo, and that the question of title should be acted on later. But as judicial procedure is so slow, and of such bounds that they usually make a lawsuit eternal, our father Fray Dionisio Suárez was not inclined to secure his right at the cost of so much vexation; and therefore the triennial was completed in great peace; for father Fray Jerónimo de León was a religious very affable and worthy of being loved, and he deserved that his election should not be hampered by so notable a defect.
The time arrived for holding the session of the provincial chapter—the time in which the troubles which so many difficulties had caused to this province were to cease, and when not only the former peace and concord were to return, but great gains were to be secured in religious observance; for from the time of this chapter-meeting this province began to grow more strict, and to grow in all that conduces to its greater splendor, every chapter-session increasing in strictness of observance, to the greater glory of our regular institute. Such are usually the benefits that arise from the judicious choice of a good superior, who undertakes to fulfil the obligations of his office. The chapter was convened in the convent of Manila on April 14, 1674; its president was the father definitor Fray Luis de Montuyar, on account of the deaths of the two senior definitors, Master Fray José de Mendoza and Fray Isidro Rodríguez. By general agreement the election for provincial fell on our father Fray José Duque, commissary of the Holy Office. He was a native of Oropesa, and was fifty-six years old; a son of the convent of San Felipe at Madrid, and a very near relative of the glorious saint Teresa de Jesús; and an able minister in the province of Pampanga, besides having much to do with its pacification in the disturbances in that province which we have already related. He came over to this province of Filipinas in the year 1645, and always had the reputation of being a religious of very strict observance, with great ability as a ruler; and this province found him to be such during an experience of many years in his four terms of office therein—three as provincial, and one as rector-provincial—being always reverenced as the father of it. As definitors were elected fathers Fray Enrique de Castro, Fray José Gutiérrez, Fray Bernardino Márquez, and Fray Bartolomé de la Torre; and as visitors fathers Fray Antonio de Villela and the reader Fray José Rubio. Ordinances and regulations very suitable for the good government of the province were enacted, not many in number but useful and judicious.
At that period, this province was found very deficient in religious, on account of the many vacancies caused by death; on this account the ministries lacked the service which their extent and the arduous nature of some rendered necessary. Accordingly, as soon as the chapter-session adjourned the first care to which the new provincial devoted himself was to choose a well-qualified religious who might go as procurator to the two courts of Roma and Madrid, where the discords of the troubled chapter of the year 1671 had made a strong impression. For this purpose a private chapter-session was assembled, and therein a very judicious choice was made for this position, that of father Fray Juan García—a native of Las Encartaciones, and a minister in the province of Ilocos. The necessary despatches were given to him, and he embarked in the same year for Nueva España, in the galleon “San Telmo;” it was commanded by General Tomás de Endaya, a most successful man in these islands, where he died as his Majesty’s master-of-camp for them, in the year 1745. This religious had a prosperous voyage, and arrived at Nueva España and Roma; he successfully fulfilled his commission in all respects, and afterward returned to this province with a mission of religious, in the year 1679, so long was he detained in the negotiations at Roma and Madrid.
Chart of Manila Bay; photographic facsimile from Valentyn’s Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien (Dordrecht en Amsterdam, 1724)
[From copy in library of Wisconsin Historical Society]
Through the peaceful rule of Don Manuel de León, in which term all was prosperous and fortunate, the Filipinas Islands began to take breath after the troubles of so many preceding years; and in a short time they were gathering new strength and vigor. Don Manuel de León was a man of very good intentions, and had the excellent virtue of being very disinterested—which is very important in these regions, where the vice opposite to that has temptations so ready to make one fall headlong into the abyss of greed, which causes so many wrecks, as the root of all evils. Trading vessels came frequently from China, of which country the Tartars had gained entire possession; the Chinese, therefore, having laid aside their defensive arms, strove to accommodate themselves to the times, being anxious to repair the losses caused by war with the gains from trading—which is more adapted to their disposition than is war, Mars giving place to Mercury. The Chinese trade is the mainstay of the maintenance of Filipinas, by means of the silver which comes from Nueva España, which is the blood that gives life to this land; for from China come the stuffs necessary for clothing, from the shirt in their delicate fabrics to the needle and thread. Thence comes the fine earthenware which is, with reason, so celebrated throughout the world as choice and inimitable, because the material and clay of which it is made are found in no other place. Thence come drugs, and very rich coloring stuffs—especially vermilion, which is the best in the world. Finally, one cannot imagine any exquisite article for the equipment of a house which does not come from China, both cheap and excellent—especially the wares that come from Japón, with which country the Chinese have free commerce, just as it is totally prohibited to us. In some of the years of that fortunate governor thirty champans would land at Manila, and many from the province of Cantón, where is the city of Macán, a Portuguese colony—which is so rich in silks that it has enough of that noble commodity to supply nearly all of the whole world; it is conveyed in ships belonging to the Dutch, English, French, and Portuguese, and that which is carried to Manila and thence to Nueva España is the smallest part of it. The great city of Cantón (or Kuang-tung, as they call it) is far greater than the great Cairo or Babilonia of Egypt, for those who are most moderate in estimating its population allow it four millions of inhabitants; but although it is so great it is not the largest city in the extensive empire of China, for that of Nanking has eight millions, according to Father Martino Martínez in his Chinese atlas.[19] It is very commonly said in Manila that the city of Cantón has sixty thousand silk-looms, on which are made various fabrics of cloth and damask; and thus in one month enough is woven to lade many ships. By this some idea can be formed of the other industries of that city—or rather, that little world.