20. Even within the house they shall go dressed and shod through the day; and any one who shall descend to saying mass in a tipsy condition [con la turca], or shall take his seat in the confessional without collar and cassock, shall undergo severe penalties.
21. In every respect they shall render obedience to our vicar forane.
22. Finally, mindful of the duties of their ministry, and of the very exact account which God will demand from them for the souls of every one of their parishioners, they shall instruct their people, by deed and by word, until the true idea of Christian life is formed in them—stimulating in them love and obedience to our Catholic monarch, who has conferred upon them so great benefits and loves them with a father’s tenderness, and to the venerable ministers who govern them in the name of God and of so great a king. At the archiepiscopal palace in Manila, on the twenty-fifth of October in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one.[3]
[1] These conferences of the clergy originally were held monthly, for consultation on difficult cases of conscience and the like, the investigation of crimes, etc.; they lasted from the ninth to the thirteenth century. They were revived by St. Charles Borromeo, but on a more modern plan, for the discussion of questions in morals, ritual, etc., with the object of providing that the clergy should have the knowledge necessary for their duties. These conferences prevailed in the Catholic countries until the end of the eighteenth century, when they fell into disuse; but they have been once more revived in many countries, and are regularly held in all the dioceses of England. The rubrics are directions to be followed in mass and other sacred rites. (Addis and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary.) [↑]
[2] Vicar forane: “either a dignitary or, at least, if possible, a parish priest, who is appointed by the bishop to exercise a limited jurisdiction in a particular town or district of his diocese; an appeal lies from his decision to the bishop, who can also remove him at pleasure.” (Addis and Arnold, p. 841.) [↑]
[3] These instructions come at the end of a pastoral letter, headed thus: “We, Don Basilio Sancho de Santa Justa y Rufina, by the grace of God and of the holy Apostolic See metropolitan archbishop of these Filipinas Islands; councilor and preacher to his Majesty; and deputy vicar-general of the royal forces by land and sea in these Eastern regions, etc.” (They are obtained from Ferrando’s Hist. PP. dominicos, v, pp. 59–60.) [↑]
THE EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS,
1768–1769
[This subject is one of profound and far-reaching significance in history, especially that of Europe; but the exigencies of our limited space forbid us to do more than suggest some of the more important aspects of this matter, and to furnish references to historical works in which it is treated at length. Our chief attention is necessarily given to the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Philippines, which will concern us mainly with the facts of the case; and for this we must have recourse largely to Montero y Vidal’s account of it as given in his Historia de Filipinas, ii, chapters v–vii. (Ferrando says nothing about the banishment of the Jesuits, save in a few incidental allusions which we have cited in previous notes.) To this relation we add a few contemporaneous documents, and other matter from various historical writers, presenting as far as available actual facts, and the views of both sides, impartially.]