[The following brief summary is compiled from various authorities, full references being given in the footnotes throughout.]
Antonio Sedeño, writing to Felipe II, June 17, 1583, petitions for the establishment of a Jesuit seminary, and asks royal aid.[6]
Felipe II, in a decree dated June 8, 1585, in view of the benefit that will result to the colony from aiding the Jesuits in instituting a college, and in aiding in the support of the religious who shall teach therein, orders Governor Santiago de Vera and Bishop Salazar to discuss measures for the founding of the same.[7]
The above-mentioned royal decree was presented to Governor Luis Perez Dasmariñas, August 15, 1595. September 5, a government act was dictated accepting the petitions of the Society in regard to the foundation of a college, with the condition that 1,000 pesos he assigned to it, together with the royal title and arms. The governor has it noted in the said act that everything is only provisional, until the foundation of the college is discussed with the bishop, and the agreement adopted sent to his Majesty for his approval.[8]
Rodriguez de Figueroa, on setting out for Oton for the conquest of Mindanao, made (March 16, 1596) his will in which he declares: “And inasmuch as, ... some of the said my children may die before reaching the age necessary for making a will, it falls to me as their father and legitimate administrator, to make a will for them. In such case availing myself of the said faculty, I order and command that, if the abovesaid should happen during the lifetime of their mother, the said Doña Ana de Oseguera, the latter shall hold and inherit the goods and property of the one who shall thus die, and with both the third and the remainder of the fifth, shall be done what shall be stated hereinafter. If the said Doña Ana Oseguera shall die, and the said my children, or either one of them without leaving any heir or descendant, then their property and their legal paternal and maternal portion, and the profit and income from it, shall be used to found a college in the manner hereinafter stated. The same must be founded, in case that said Doña Ana de Oseguera is living, from the said third and remainder of the fifth. For if either one or the other of the two casualties occur, a house shall be built next the Society of Jesus, of the city of Manila, sufficient, and which shall be used, for a college and seminary for boys, where all those may enter who desire to study the first letters in such seminary. I request and charge the provincial, at such time, of the Society of Jesus, to take it under his care and to give to such boys sufficient teachers for it. That part of the said building that shall be unoccupied shall be rented, for the support of said children and youth. The said father provincial shall be patron and administrator of the said college.”[9]
In 1601, the Jesuits themselves founded a college, primarily through the efforts of Father Diego Garcia, who went to the Philippines as visitor in 1599. He ordered Father Pedro Chirino, independently of the act of Luis Perez Dasmariñas, to plan for the founding of a college for the Society. The first rector was Father Luis Gomez, who obtained the licenses of both ecclesiastical and civil authorities, August 25 of that year. The cantor, Santiago de Castro, provisor and vicar-general of the archbishopric of Manila, acting in vacant see, in view of the petition presented by Father Gomez, grants “license to said religious of the Society of Jesus, and to the said Father Luis Gomez, to found said college of San José.” Governor Francisco Tello, on the same date, grants the civil license for the erection of the college in view of Gomez’s petition, the erection being for the rearing “in virtue and letters of some Spanish youth, in view of the necessity of training ministers of the gospel of whom there is a lack in this land for the need of said college.”[10] The new college was instituted with thirteen collegiates, and one father and one brother of the Society who were placed at its head to look after the spiritual and economic managements respectively.
October 30, 1604, a royal decree was despatched, which was received by the royal Audiencia at Manila, July 10, 1606, ordering “information in regard to the plan that could be inaugurated for the exercise of letters in these islands, and the lecturing by some professors without there being any university.” The Audiencia in its reply states the death by shipwreck of the younger daughter of Rodriguez de Figueroa (1605), and that the Society of Jesus had entered suit for her estate, in accordance with the will of her father, and that they had been given possession of it.[11] Since a considerable part of Rodriguez de Figueroa’s goods were in Mexico, and since there was a royal prohibition forbidding money to be transferred from one territory to another, the Jesuits requested from the king, through their procurator at Madrid, permission to transfer the necessary money from Mexico to the islands, in order to found the college. Three royal decrees were issued in accordance with this petition, two asking for reports from the archbishop and Audiencia, and one (September 13, 1608)[12] granting permission for the founding of a college and seminary in the city of Manila. By the beginning of 1610, the Jesuits realized the terms of the will of Rodriguez de Figueroa, and on February 28 of that year, the licenses, given formerly to Luis Gomez in 1601, were confirmed by the provisor for the college now founded with an income.[13]
In a letter to the Jesuit general, June 11, 1611, Father Gregorio Lopez writes of the flourishing condition of the college and seminary of San José. He says: “In the seminary of San Joseph, our pupils are reared with the virtue of which advice was given in former years. Some are inclined to our rule, and others to that of the other orders. Three have embraced that of the Order of St Augustine. The seminary has been improved this year with a fine new refectory built of stone, with a very large hall for the lodging of the collegiates, and the work which will be one of the best in the city, is progressing.” Diego Vázquez de Mercado, archbishop of Manila, insists on the idea of the foundation of the university, which was undervalued by Felipe III, after the unfavorable report of Benavides, and in a letter of June 24, 1612, to the king, praises the work of the college and asks that graduates therefrom in arts and theology be granted degrees. Archbishop Garcia Serrano writes to Felipe IV, July 25, 1621, regarding the colleges of San José and Santo Tomás: “There are two colleges for students in the city, one founded by Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, which is in charge of the fathers of the Society of Jesus, whence the collegiates go to the college of the same Society, which is near by, to hear lectures in grammar, philosophy, and scholastic and moral theology. It has twenty collegiates with the beca at present, some of whom pay for their tuition, while others are aided by charity, as the income derived from the founder serves now to support but few because it was spent in building said college. The other college is called Santo Tomas de Aquino and is in charge of the Order of St. Dominic, and is very near their convent. It is not more than two years since collegiates entered it. It was founded with alms of deceased persons and others given by the living which the fathers have procured. It also has some income, and it is making progress. It has also twenty collegiates with the beca, some of whom also pay for their tuition, while others are supported by charity and by other persons. They study grammar, philosophy, and theology in the said college, where they have a rector and masters of the Order of St. Dominic. These two colleges greatly ennoble the city, and the sons of the inhabitants of these islands are being reared therein in civilization, virtue, and good letters. It will be of the highest importance for their progress for your Majesty to honor them by giving them license to grant degrees in the courses taught in them.” Another letter from Serrano, July 30 of the same year, notes that the secular priests have increased so greatly in his archbishopric because of the number that have graduated from the college and seminary of the Jesuits that he has not places for them and they suffer great poverty. The same is true of those who have studied in the college of Santo Tomás. In a letter of August 15, 1624, he notes that the college of San José has obtained the right to grant university degrees, by a papal brief, without the necessity of the graduates going to other universities, and petitions that the rector be allowed to grant the degrees in person. In 1627, Pedro Chirino was dean of the law faculty of the university.[14]
A document of June 18, 1636, shows the college of San José to possess incomes from various houses, aggregating 14,000 pesos.[15] In 1640 the college was able to support 40 collegiates, and was in a flourishing condition.[16] That same year the short-lived royal college of San Felipe de Austria was founded.[17] The earthquake of 1645 caused great losses to the college of San José, as much of its capital consisted of houses which were destroyed.[18]
The Dominican college of Santo Tomás, formally founded in 1619, with the alms left by Archbishop Benavides and others, was the second college founded in the Philippines. October 25, 1645, however, the Dominicans entered suit against the Jesuits declaring the precedence of their institution over the latter in all public acts in which the said institutions participated.[19] Governor Fajardo, before whom the suit was brought, remitted the cause to the royal Audiencia, which rendered a verdict in favor of the Jesuits, May 10, 1647, declaring that all public acts of the college of San José had precedence over those of Santo Tomás, as the former had been founded over eighteen years earlier. This sentence was confirmed in review, July 29 of the same year, and again by the royal Council of the Indias, August 12, 1652, on examination, and again on review, November 25 of the same year. The college of Santo Tomás, being dissatisfied with the decision, endeavored to take precedence in certain public acts, but with no real effect.[20]