It is an abuse that the alcaldes in the provinces find it necessary to yield to the father in whatever the latter desires (this is always against royal authority) against the Indian and the Spaniard; and, if the alcalde does not thus act, that moment the fathers rise against him and prove, in part or in all, the following charges: “he lives in concubinage, is a drunkard, a thief, and does not observe his duties toward the church,” even though he be an anchorite. For the father causes the Indian to make depositions as he wishes, and if the Indian does otherwise, there are lashes. By this may be understood the doctrine which is taught to those ignorant people, and the condition in which the administration of his Majesty’s justice and authority is.
Remedy for this evil
To order that the father do not meddle with temporal affairs, under penalty of expulsion. This is certain, for otherwise there will never be peace. [By so doing] the alcalde can administer justice; and, if he should be unjust, the governor and the Audiencia will set the matter right.
NINETEENTH ABUSE
It is an abuse for some men of the religious estate, who are supported and maintained by his Majesty with the character of apostolic missionaries, to teach the Indians, instead of love for their neighbor, to hate and persecute the Castilas (thus they call us Spaniards). This is a practice as old as the conquest, and was seen with horror in the most cruel period of the war; and afterward this proposition was inculcated in a certain pulpit of Manila, to a great gathering of Spaniards and Indians, [saying], “To issue to a man a warrant as alcalde is the same thing as que deleatur de libro vitæ;”[37] and in other pulpits were said other things not less scandalous against all the [Spanish] nation.
Remedy for this evil
To ordain that there be no preaching contrary to the decalogue, under penalty of expulsion, which is justified by so cruel and scandalous an act.
Another of the most grievous abuses is, that religious who have served as missionaries in the islands are generally chosen as bishops in those islands. They having been brought up under the conditions already stated, are influenced, even though they might desire to exercise their jurisdiction as ordinary in certain districts conquered centuries ago, most by the abuses and the domination of their respective orders. Consequently, they overlook wrongs, and keep silent, from which results the despotism of the orders over the two powers [i.e., secular and ecclesiastical]. It is true that, even if they should wish to exercise their jurisdiction, the orders will not allow it; for they are so blind and obstinate in their sway and privileges that they are capable of killing any bishop who makes such an attempt. Doctor Fray Domingo de Salazar, first bishop of Manila, began that dispute with the Augustinians, as Fray Gaspar relates in the above-mentioned history. Others have defended the same idea, but, nevertheless, we see that the said fathers and other regulars still maintain their domination in opposition to the bishops—with detriment to both jurisdictions, and perhaps to Christianity, that cannot be exaggerated.