[Concepción has the following in regard to this seminary and its founding, in chapter xiii, vol. viii.]
Signature of Juan de la Concepción, et al.
[Photographic facsimile from original MS. in Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla]
12. Another matter even more delicate, and which irritated even more the just annoyance of our monarch Phelipe Fifth, was that in which Señor Tournon took part with even greater ardor, and the results of which fell heavily upon the governor and the archbishop. April twenty-eight, one thousand seven hundred and two, a royal decree was sent to this government, in which was mentioned the receipt of a letter from Don Juan Fausto Cruzat y Gongora, dated June thirteen, seven hundred, in observance of a royal despatch of ninety-seven, which ordered him to report as to whether there was a college seminary in the metropolitan church of Manila, and in case there was none, what its foundation and maintenance would cost. In the above-mentioned letter, Don Fausto reported that such a foundation was unnecessary. However, his Majesty, with a spirit of liberality and zeal, resolved upon the foundation with the number of eight seminarists for the time being. Its foundation and maintenance were to be paid from the ecclesiastical incomes. The decree ordered that, after conferring with the archbishop, the account of its cost should be made and the necessary means should be applied for that purpose from what was yielded by the vacant bishoprics. The amount that could be realized from the tithes was also to be ascertained, and [it was to be stated] whether they met the necessary expenses. For it was his royal intention that they should be preferred rather than that it should be at the cost of his royal treasury and estate. The king relied on the governor’s carefulness and accurate direction that he would treat discreetly and economically concerning such expenses, which must be made with all the advisable benefit and saving. Whatever he did, and what result it had, was to be reported promptly. Another royal despatch was sent to the archbishop. In it his Majesty orders and resolves that, inasmuch as the sacred canons and pontifical briefs provide for a seminary for young men in all the cathedral churches, in order that they may become proficient in the sciences, and apply themselves to and assist in divine worship, therefore in fulfilment of them, his Majesty having been informed that there was no such seminary in Manila, he desired one to be founded from his royal treasury in the metropolitan church. For the time being it was to have eight seminarists, and the decree goes on to repeat the orders communicated to the king’s governor for that purpose. These despatches gave advice of the preceding reports of the government to the effect that no such seminary was necessary, as well as of that of the archbishop who was of the opinion that the cost should be met from the pensioned curacies, in proportion to their ecclesiastical allowances. His Majesty determined that the foundation and maintenance should be met not from the pensions of the curas, as such was not stipulated by the Council of Trent, but from the ecclesiastical incomes which the crown enjoys, by virtue of pontifical bulls, the balance being supplied from his royal treasury. Inasmuch as his immunity might be prejudiced, his Majesty advised his governor of the communication with the reverend archbishop, thus avoiding disturbances and litigations in regard to the net amounts [liquidus] with the assignment in the ecclesiastical effects, such resolution being merely informative and not executive. The execution is charged only upon the governor, as is immediately inferred from what the royal despatch says: “You shall give me information of what you shall do, and its result.” The decree addressed to the archbishop does not say this, from which it is evidently deduced that his Majesty’s wish is that the communication to the archbishop is merely economic, in regard to the savings of the royal treasury, and authoritative, in the application of such ecclesiastical properties, so far as may be necessary.
13. The amount of the tithes and vacancies was, in fact, ascertained in the execution of the decree with the aid of his Excellency, Don Diego Camacho. It was found that the tithes, as a general rule, are not collected in these islands; and that those which are received regularly from some estates, do not exceed the sum of four hundred pesos per annum, and they are received by the cathedral church through a concession. The vacancies not proceeding from the products of curacies, could only be in the allowances with which his Majesty aids the bishops for their suitable support from the effects of his royal patrimony, exempt from the obligations by which the tithes, as ecclesiastical incomes, are accompanied, because of vacancies, and are to be converted into benefit for the new prelate, church, and pious uses. However, investigation was made of the vacancies of such stipends, and it was found uniformly in the certifications of the royal officials that they were converted as though they were tithes; and that they were applied to the holy church for its building fund, and for the aid of the archbishops and bishops who had come to these islands, as an aid in the pontifical expenses, and to furnish their household furniture and other things in a fitting manner. Only one vacancy of one of the bishoprics was then found without pay warrant, but its warrant was expected immediately. And although this and the subsequent vacancies were obtained in three payments, those payments were already applied to the expenses of the professors, both those which came from the royal treasury and those of the church fund, and maintenance of such college seminary, which necessarily became perpetual without redintegration being made in whole or in part.
14. The conditions of the first foundation were changed, very much against the intention of his Majesty, by the arrival at Manila of the patriarch, Don Carlos Thomas Maillard de Tournon. The right reverend Camacho came to terms with that gentleman, who took a hand in that college, and altered its foundation, by increasing it with foreign seminarists without the intervention of the vice-patron. Several alms which had been collected were applied to the maintenance of seventy-two collegiates who were to be of all nationalities. A new and showy building was provided for on a site opposite the archiepiscopal palace. For this enterprise was also applied a portion of certain alms which had been collected by Abbot Sidoti, amounting to twelve thousand pesos, which were given into the care of the financial board of the Misericordia, in order that they might yield a suitable return, and their products in the investments realized were applied by the said abbot to various pious purposes, one of them being that of the seventy-two seminarists. His consideration for the apostolic visitor and patriarch, and for the powers promulgated for all by the Apostolic See, reprehensibly restrained Señor Zabalburù in the performance of his duties.
15. This was aided by seeing the archbishop so greatly in harmony with the patriarch. This fact also intimidated the royal Audiencia, so that they passed the matter by with most criminal carelessness in so peculiar and irregular proceedings, and the rights so suitably belonging to the monarch were violated very shamefully. With such condescension, the archbishop passed to the remarkable audacity of influencing Señor Tournon, to report by common consent all that had been done to his Holiness, so that the latter might approve the excesses independently of the royal patronage in the increase of teachers because of the lack which he considered in the education of the collegiates, and apply for their salaries the various alms which he had gathered, and for the maintenance of seventy-two seminarists who were to be of all nationalities, and for the new building. The government and the royal Audiencia were so remiss, that such information came to his Majesty’s ears through the nuncio of his Holiness who resided in his court, to whom the patriarch and the archbishop had communicated it. His Majesty wondered that his governor Zabalburù had not informed him of so weighty an innovation in the progress of the seminary, and that he had not given information regarding the observance of the royal decrees, in which his [i.e., the king’s] watchful zeal had proposed the foundation of the seminary college.
16. So angry was the court against the right reverend prelate Señor Camacho, where his connivance with the patriarch was so displeasing, that he was removed from this metropolitan see to the bishopric of Guadalaxara in Nueva España. He went thither in the year one thousand seven hundred and six, to take possession of his government. He was a zealous and charitable archbishop. From the due salary of his predecessor, Señor Poblete, from various alms given by the king, and from those given by pious private persons, his zealous diligence got together more than forty thousand pesos. He spent them in this holy church of Manila in its decoration and ornament. He gilded the reredos, beautified the choir, enriched the sacristy with chalices and ornaments, and as well built the excellent steeple from its foundations, and other things. More than twenty thousand pesos were pledged in these expenses and in various alms. He was a vigilant shepherd, and if the violent controversies above mentioned which he had with the regulars occurred, he can very easily be excused in what did not exceed the authority and dignity of his office. He promoted the missions of Paynaan and San Isidro, where he went in person to induce the Aetas or Negritos to become converted. [Other facts concerning the life of Camacho follow.][3]
18. No arbitrary measures were taken. His Majesty gave place to the anger that had been conceived, and the representation of the nuncio was examined in the royal and supreme Council. His royal Majesty having been informed concerning the matter, resolved in his royal despatch that the admission of foreign persons into these islands for such a purpose was an unexpected innovation, and to whose active diligence the Roman court might attribute the progress of the conversions. In that his royal zeal might be seen to be corrected, since his principal consideration in his Catholic zeal, was to send and to maintain at so great cost, a great number of ministers chosen from the orders which had been established in these islands. What had been permitted by Governor Zabalburù was to the great violation of the obligation and fulfilment of such a purpose, and the displeasure with which his Majesty viewed the fact that so offensive an act had been allowed against his royal service in the excessive number of seminarists was harshly manifested; as was the fact that foreigners who were not his vassals had been received in said college, and admitted without his royal and express license; and the fact that he had heard that great innovation and those prejudicial proceedings through other mediums than those of his ministers and vassals: thus having altered the conditions which he had resolved should be made so long before.