[Diaz (Conquistas de las Filipinas), speaks as follows of the short existence of the royal college of San Felipe.]
Governor Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, a magnanimous gentleman, determined to found a royal college under the title of San Felipe in honor of Felipe IV, in whose reign he assigned four thousand pesos from the royal treasury for twenty becas, until other means should be carried out for their support. He joined it to the college of San José of Manila, which is under the charge and direction of the Jesuit religious of the Society. The latter college is the older in foundation of the two in the city, leaving out of account the seminary of San Juán de Letrán, which together with the college of Santo Tomás is in charge of the religious of St. Dominic. Both colleges are gardens of letters and virtue which adorn the ecclesiastical estate, both secular and regular. Very many very eminent persons, both seculars and regulars,[1] have graduated from those colleges, and up to this time three bishops, and Doctor Endaya y Haro, who after being dean of the cathedral of Plasencia, España, is at present archdeacon of Alarcón, a dignity of the cathedral of Cuenca, one of the greatest dignities of España, besides many others who require a separate history. The twenty becas were given to the finest youths in Manila on the day of St. Sebastian of that year, 1641, amid great applause and gatherings, and they were given the title of royal collegiates.[2] The religious of the Society of Jesus took charge of the management and instruction of that college with that care and zeal which they usually display. But the permanence of that college endured only during the government of Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, namely, until the year 1644, when that royal college of San Felipe was destroyed, and the fathers of the Society had to pay the 12,000 pesos which they had spent during those three years on the support [of those pupils], the many good representations made by the said religious—who charged that the royal decree which was couched in very strict terms for that purpose, was obtained by false representation[3]—being of no avail. The new governor Don Diego Faxardo executed that decree with the integrity which these islands experienced in him. The royal treasury owed 8,000 pesos to the fathers of the Society, but they were not allowed to receive them on account. Thus they had to lose those loans. Our province aided them with 8,000 pesos which it had in deposit from some annuities [censos] which their owners had received, and 4,000 were lent them by Captain Manuel Estacio Venegas, a very important person of these islands.[4]... This was the beginning, permanence, and end of that unfortunate college of San Felipe, whose idea we have seen to have been executed and established by the royal will of King Don Felipe V, in the foundation of the royal college of San Felipe newly established in houses that formerly belonged to Captain Gabriel Diaz del Castillo, and afterward confiscated for the properties of Licentiate Manuel Suárez de Olivera, who was also an example of the advantage of wealth in this world, for his wealth all went up in smoke without his having gotten from it (and he had much) enough to apply to a mass for his soul. The royal college of San Felipe has twelve violet colored becas over red mantles, with the arms of Castilla and Leon in silver on the breast. They are obliged to be present at the cathedral in their seminary body during the divine offices, and serve as acolytes and other lesser duties of the altar. Their first rector and the only one as yet, is Licentiate Don Gabriel de Isturis, presbyter, advocate of the royal Audiencia. He was alcalde-in-ordinary of the city of Manila while in the world, and alcalde-mayor of the alcaicería of the Parián of the Sangleys.[5]
II
SUMMARY OF HISTORY
[The following is condensed from annotations of Rev. Pablo Pastells, S.J., in his edition of Colin’s Labor evangélica.]
The college of San Felipe de Austria was founded by Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, at the instance of the ayuntamiento of Manila, and was annexed to the college of San José of Manila. The cabildo proposed to Corcuera, December 15, 1640, that eighteen royal fellowships and two college servants be assigned in the college of San José or Santo Tomás, which were to be given as a reward to those possessing greatest merit and highest rank, because of the great poverty of many of the children and descendants of those who had performed the greatest services for the crown in Filipinas. In view of the fact that there are two universities in Manila, Corcuera is asked to confer in regard to the matter, “so that in the college which his Lordship shall assign, of the two above-mentioned, there be eighteen fellowships, and two college servants—twenty in all—and that to them be appointed those who shall deserve it most and those of the highest rank, with the beca and gown that shall be regarded as fitting, in order that they may be recognized as such, and which shall be different from those worn by the other students. For their support and clothing, a sum of three thousand pesos shall be set aside annually.” The graduates were to succeed, after passing competitive examination, to the canonries of the Manila cathedral.
Corcuera signed the decree founding the college, December 23, 1640, and the direction of the same was given to the Jesuits. By that decree, twenty fellowships were created, and six Pampango college servants provided for. The turn of four thousand pesos was assigned for their support, 3,000 being for the twenty fellowships, and the remaining 1,000 for one master and the six servants. Provision was made for this sum from four hundred of the general licenses which were issued to the Sangleys, granting them permission to remain in Manila.
January 19, 1641, Corcuera issued the rules and regulations for the new college—thirty-three in number—after having conferred with Doctor Diego de Rivera Maldonado; auditor of the royal Audiencia. These rules and regulations provide as follows:[6]
1. There shall be twenty collegiates, “who must be the sons, grandsons, or descendants of deserving persons who have served his Majesty in these islands. The sons of the auditors of this royal Audiencia, living or dead, and those of the royal official judges, and those of all the war officers, great and small, shall always have the preference; and in default of them, any others of these islands, who possess the necessary qualifications. Said collegiates shall be in the charge and under the care of the father rector, present or future, of the said college; and no one shall enter the college or be received therein unless he shall have presented a government provision therefor to the said father rector.”