On the seventeenth of March, the father procurator, Antonio de Borja,[9] presented a petition to the governor that he, as vice-patron, should take measures regarding the violent spoliation which the archbishop had inflicted on the Society. The governor referred the petition to the royal fiscal, as being his Lordship’s counselor, but the said fiscal excused himself. Then it was referred to Doctor Cervantes, to Fray Francisco de Santa Ynes, and to many other persons, both ecclesiastics and laymen, but all excused themselves; and in these proceedings much time passed, so that it was the end of May before anything was accomplished.
On the nineteenth of March, in the afternoon, the secretary came to deliver in behalf of the royal court a verbal message to the father procurator [sic] Antonio Jaramillo, advising him of the oversight of the preacher, who that morning in the sermon—at which the governor and the king’s fiscal were present—had omitted to use the phrase, “very potent sir.” The same message was sent to the superiors of the other religious orders, because, several days before, the prior of St. Augustine and another religious, a Dominican, had fallen into the same offense, when preaching in the royal chapel.
On the twenty-seventh of March, Holy Thursday, the monument[10] of the Tagálogs in the church of Santo Domingo was burned. On the twenty-eighth, Good Friday, there was a fire in Binondo and part of Tondo; and one thousand two hundred and sixty houses were destroyed—two hundred and fifty-eight in the village of Tondo, and one thousand and two in that of Binondo. Thirteen persons were burned to death, and many others escaped only with serious injuries. The fire caught three times in the church of Binondo, but the Indians of San Miguel and Dilao put it out.
On the twelfth of April the archbishop demanded aid from the governor, and with it arrested the cantor Don Geronimo de Herrera, and placed him in the fort of Santiago. Soon afterward, the governor caused the arrest of Don Juan de Cordoba and one Carcano, respectively procurator and receptor in the royal Audiencia; and afterward, on the twentieth of April, of Blas de Armenta, secretary of the court, and of Captain Diego de Vargas and others.
On the twenty-second of April Father Ferragut died in the college.
On the eighteenth of April, Domingo Diaz came to give the father rector, Antonio Jaramillo, a copy of a petition by the Augustinians; the father rector, before he knew that the said Domingo Diaz had come, had made, in scriptis [i.e., in writing], his protest of incompetency of the judge, and of challenge and appeal.
On the twenty-third of April, the father procurator, Antonio de Borja, sent to the archbishop a document in which was set forth in due form the said protest, challenge, and appeal. He also presented to the governor a petition that he would give proper attention to the disturbance which the Society had suffered, and the injury inflicted on the royal patronage.
On the twenty-eighth of April, Domingo Diaz came again to give Father Borja a copy of another petition from the Augustinians, who said that the challenge and appeal which he had interposed were of no force.
On the fourth of May, they brought Captain Mateo Perea under arrest from the Lake [of Bay], and left him in his own house with guards. On the sixth of May, Domingo Diaz came to make known to Father Borja an act of the archbishop—who declaring that there was no occasion for the challenge and appeal interposed, commanded that the parties should make their complaint; and that within six days the documents for the sentence should be brought to his illustrious Lordship. On the tenth of May, Father Antonio Borja presented before the royal Audiencia a plea of fuerza, in order that he might make known the injury which the archbishop had done to the Society and the royal patronage.
On the fourteenth of May, Domingo Diaz came to summon for the sentence of the archbishop the father rector, Pedro de Oriol,[11] who replied that he did not regard himself as summoned, or acknowledge his illustrious Lordship as a competent judge. On the same day, the fourteenth, Licentiate Don Antonio Roberto was brought a prisoner from Marinduque; and they placed him in the provisor’s house, with a pair of very heavy fetters.