The Religious Orders
History attests that at least during the first two centuries of Spanish
rule, the subjugation of the natives and their acquiescence in the
new order of things were obtained more by the subtle influence of the
missionaries than by the sword. As the soldiers of Castile carried war
into the interior and forced its inhabitants to recognize their King,
so the friars were drafted off from the mother country to mitigate
the memory of bloodshed and to mould Spain's new subjects to social
equanimity. In many cases, in fact, the whole task of gaining their
submission to the Spanish Crown and obedience to the dictates of
Western civilization was confided solely to the pacific medium of
persuasion. The difficult mission of holding in check the natural
passions and instincts of a race which knew no law but individual
will, was left to the successors of Urdaneta. Indeed, it was but the
general policy of Philip II. to aggrandize his vast realm under the
pretence of rescuing benighted souls. The efficacy of conversion was
never doubted for a moment, however suddenly it might come to pass,
and the Spanish cavalier conscientiously felt that he had a high
mission to fulfil under the Banner of the Cross. In every natural
event which coincided with their interests, in the prosecution of
their mission, the wary priests descried a providential miracle.
In their opinion the non-Catholic had no rights in this world--no
prospect of gaining the next. If the Pope claimed the whole world
(such as was known of it) to be in his gift--how much more so heathen
lands! The obligation to convert was imposed by the Pope, and was
an inseparable condition of the conceded right of conquest. It was
therefore constantly paramount in the conqueror's mind. [88] The
Pope could depose and give away the realm of any sovereign prince
"_si vel paulum deflexerit_." The Monarch held his sceptre under the
sordid condition of vassalage; hence Philip II., for the security
of his Crown, could not have disobeyed the will of the Pontiff,
whatever his personal inclinations might have been regarding the
spread of Christianity. [89] If he desired it, he served his ends with
advantage to himself--if he were indifferent to it, he secured by its
prosecution a formidable ally in Rome. America had already drained the
Peninsula of her able-bodied men to such an extent that a military
occupation of these Islands would have overtaxed the resources of
the mother country. The co-operation of the friars was, therefore, an
almost indispensable expedient in the early days, and their power in
secular concerns was recognized to the last by the Spanish-Philippine
authorities, who continued to solicit the aid of the parish priests
in order to secure obedience to decrees affecting their parishioners.
Up to the Rebellion of 1896 the placid word of the ecclesiastic, the
superstitious veneration which he inspired in the ignorant native,
had a greater law-binding effect than the commands of the civil
functionary. The gownsman used those weapons appropriate to his
office which best touched the sensibilities and won the adhesion of
a rude audience. The priest appealed to the soul, to the unknown,
to the awful and the mysterious. Go where he would, the convert's
imagination was so pervaded with the mystic tuition that he came
to regard his tutor as a being above common humanity. The feeling
of dread reverence which he instilled into the hearts of the most
callous secured to him even immunity from the violence of brigands,
who carefully avoided the man of God. In the State official the native
saw nothing but a man who strove to bend the will of the conquered race
to suit his own. A Royal Decree or the sound of the cornet would not
have been half so effective as the elevation of the Holy Cross before
the fanatical majority, who became an easy prey to fantastic promises
of eternal bliss, or the threats of everlasting perdition. Nor is this
assertion by any means chimerical, for it has been proved on several
occasions, notably in the raising of troops to attempt the expulsion
of the British in 1763, and in the campaign against the Sultan of Sulu
in 1876. But through the Cavite Conspiracy of 1872 (_vide_ p. 106)
the friars undoubtedly hastened their own downfall. Many natives,
driven to emigrate, cherished a bitter hatred in exile, whilst others
were emerging yearly by hundreds from their mental obscurity. Already
the intellectual struggle for freedom from mystic enthralment had
commenced without injury to faith in things really divine.
Each decade brought some reform in the relations between the
parish priest and the people. Link by link the chain of priestcraft
encompassing the development of the Colony was yielding to natural
causes. The most enlightened natives were beginning to understand that
their spiritual wants were not the only care of the friars, and that
the aim of the Religious Orders was to monopolize all within their
reach, and to subordinate to their common will all beyond their mystic
circle. The Romish Church owes its power to the uniformity of precept
and practice of the vast majority of its members, and it is precisely
because this was the reverse in political Spain--where statesmen are
divided into a dozen or more groups with distinct policies--that the
Church was practically unassailable. In the same way, all the members
of a Religious Order are so closely united that a quarrel with one
of them brings the enmity and opposition of his whole community. The
Progressists, therefore, who combated ecclesiastical preponderance in
the Philippines, demanded the retirement of the friars to conventual
reclusion or missions, and the appointment of _clerigos_, or secular
clergymen to the vicarages and curacies. By such a change they hoped
to remedy the abuses of collective power, for a misunderstanding with
a secular vicar would only have provoked a single-handed encounter.
That a priest should have been practically a Government agent in his
locality would not have been contested in the abstract, had he not,
as a consequence, assumed the powers of the old Roman Censors, who
exercised the most dreaded function of the _Regium Morum_. Spanish
opinion, however, was very much divided as to the political safety of
strictly confining the friars to their religious duties. It was doubted
by some whether any State authority could ever gain the confidence or
repress the inherent inclinations of the native like the friar, who led
by superstitious teaching, and held the conscience by an invisible cord
through the abstract medium of the confessional. Others opined that
a change in the then existing system of semi-sacerdotal Government
was desirable, if only to give scope to the budding intelligence of
the minority, which could not be suppressed.
Emerging from the lowest ranks of society, with no training
whatever but that of the seminary, it was natural to suppose that
these Spanish priests would have been more capable than ambitious
political men of the world of blending their ideas with those of the
native, and of forming closer associations with a rural population
engaged in agricultural pursuits familiar to themselves in their
own youth. Before the abolition of monasteries in Spain the priests
were allowed to return there after 10 years residence in the Colony;
since then they have usually entered upon their new lives for the
remainder of their days, so that they naturally strove to make the
best of their social surroundings.
The Civil servant, as a rule, could feel no personal interest in
his temporary native neighbours, his hopes being centred only in
rising in the Civil Service there or elsewhere--Cuba or Porto Rico,
or where the ministerial wheel of fortune placed him.
The younger priests--narrow-minded and biased--those who had just
entered into provincial curacies--were frequently the greater
bigots. Enthusiastic in their calling, they pursued with ardour
their mission of proselytism without experience of the world. They
entered the Islands with the zeal of youth, bringing with them the
impression imparted to them in Spain, that they were sent to make
a moral conquest of savages. In the course of years, after repeated
rebuffs, and the obligation to participate in the affairs of everyday
life in all its details, their rigidity of principle relaxed, and they
became more tolerant towards those with whom they necessarily came
in contact. They were usually taken from the peasantry and families
of lowly station. As a rule they had little or no secular education,
and, regarding them apart from their religious training, they might be
considered a very ignorant class. Amongst them the Franciscan friars
appeared to be the least--and the Austins the most--polished of all.
The Spanish parish priest was consulted by the native in all matters;
he was, by force of circumstances, often compelled to become an
architect,--to build the church in his adopted village--an engineer,
to make or mend roads, and more frequently a doctor. His word was
paramount in his parish, and in his residence he dispensed with
that stern severity of conventual discipline to which he had been
accustomed in the Peninsula. Hence it was really here that his
mental capacity was developed, his manners improved, and that the
raw sacerdotal peasant was converted into the man of thought, study,
and talent--occasionally into a gentleman. In his own vicinity,
when isolated from European residents, he was practically the
representative of the Government and of the white race as well as
of social order. His theological knowledge was brought to bear upon
the most mundane subjects. His thoughts necessarily expanded as the
exclusiveness of his religious vocation yielded to the realization
of a social position and political importance of which he had never
entertained an idea in his native country.
So large was the party opposed to the continuance of priestly
influence in the Colony that a six-months' resident would not fail
to hear of the many misdeeds with which the friars in general were
reproached. It would be contrary to fact to pretend that the bulk of
them supported their teaching by personal example. I was acquainted
with a great number of the friars, and their offspring too, in spite
of their vow of chastity; whilst many lived in comparative luxury,
notwithstanding their vow of poverty.
There was the late parish priest of Malolos, whose son, my friend,
was a prominent lawyer. Father S----, of Bugason, had a whole family
living in his parish. An Archbishop who held the See in my time had a
daughter frequently seen on the _Paseo de Santa Lucia_; and in July,
1904, two of his daughters lived in Calle Quiotan, Santa Cruz, Manila,
and two others, by a different mother, in the town of O----. The
late parish priest of Lipa, Father B----, whom I knew, had a son
whom I saw in 1893. The late incumbent of Santa Cruz, Father M----
L----, induced his spiritual flock to petition against his being made
prior of his Order in Manila so that he should not have to leave his
women. The late parish priest (friar) of Baliuag (Bulacan) had three
daughters and two sons. I was intimately acquainted with the latter;
one was a doctor of medicine and the other a planter, and they bore the
surname of Gonzalez. At Cadiz Nuevo (Negros Is.) I once danced with
the daughter of a friar (parish priest of a neighbouring village),
whilst he took another girl as his partner. I was closely acquainted,
and resided more than once, with a very mixed-up family in the south
of Negros Island. My host was the son of a secular clergyman, his wife
and sister-in-law were the daughters of a friar, this sister-in-law was
the mistress of a friar, my host had a son who was married to another
friar's daughter, and a daughter who was the wife of a foreigner. In
short, bastards of the friars are to be found everywhere in the
Islands. Regarding this merely as the natural outcome of the celibate
rule, I do not criticize it, but simply wish to show that the pretended
sanctity of the regular clergy in the Philippines was an absurdity,
and that the monks were in no degree less frail than mankind in common.
The mysterious deaths of General Solano (August 1860) and of Zamora,
the Bishop-elect of Cebu (1873), occurred so opportunely for Philippine
monastic ambition that little doubt existed in the public mind as
to who were the real criminals. When I first arrived in Manila, a
quarter of a century ago, a fearful crime was still being commented
on. Father Piernavieja, formerly parish priest of San Miguel de
Mayumo, had recently committed a second murder. His first victim
was a native youth, his second a native woman _enceinte_. The public
voice could not be raised very loudly then against the priests, but
the scandal was so great that the criminal friar was sent to another
province--Cavite--where he still celebrated the holy sacrifice of
the Eucharist. Nearly two decades afterwards--in January 1897--this
rascal met with a terrible death at the hands of the rebels. He was
in captivity, and having been appointed "Bishop" in a rebel diocese,
to save his life he accepted the mock dignity; but, unfortunately for
himself, he betrayed the confidence of his captors, and collected
information concerning their movements, plans, and strongholds for
remittance to his Order. In expiation of his treason he was bound
to a post under the tropical sun and left there to die. See how the
public in Spain are gulled! In a Malaga newspaper this individual was
referred to as a "venerable figure, worthy of being placed high up on
an altar, before which all Spaniards should prostrate themselves and
adore him. As a _religieux_ he was a most worthy minister of the Lord;
as a patriot he was a hero."
Within my recollection, too, a friar absconded from a Luzon Island
parish with a large sum of parochial funds, and was never heard of
again. The late parish priests of Mandaloyan and Iba did the same.
I well remember another interesting character of the monastic
Orders. He had been parish priest in a Zambales province town, but
intrigues with a _soi-disant cousine_ brought him under ecclesiastical
arrest at the convent of his Order in Manila. Thence he escaped, and
came over to Hong-Kong, where I made his acquaintance in 1890. He
told me he had started life in an honest way as a shoemaker's boy,
but was taken away from his trade to be placed in the seminary. His
mind seemed to be a blank on any branch of study beyond shoemaking
and Church ritual. He pretended that he had come over to Hong-Kong
to seek work, but in reality he was awaiting his _cousine_, whom he
rejoined on the way to Europe, where, I heard, he became a _garcon
de cafe_ in France.
In 1893 there was another great public scandal, when the friars were
openly accused of having printed the seditious proclamations whose
authorship they attributed to the natives. The plan of the friars was
to start the idea of an intended revolt, in order that they might be
the first in the field to quell it, and thus be able to again proclaim
to the Home Government the absolute necessity of their continuance in
the Islands for the security of Spanish sovereignty. But the plot was
discovered; the actual printer, a friar, mysteriously disappeared,
and the courageous Gov.-General Despujols, Conde de Caspe, was,
through monastic influence, recalled. He was very popular, and the
public manifestation of regret at his departure from the Islands was
practically a protest against the Religious Orders.
In June, 1888, some cases of personal effects belonging to a friar
were consigned to the care of an intimate friend of mine, whose guest
I was at the time. They had become soaked with sea-water before he
received them, and a neighbouring priest requested him to open the
packages and do what he could to save the contents. I assisted my
friend in this task, and amongst the friar's personal effects we
were surprised to find, intermixed with prayer-books, scapularies,
missals, prints of saints, etc., about a dozen most disgustingly
obscene double-picture slides for a stereoscope. What an entertainment
for a guide in morals! This same friar had held a vicarage before
in another province, but having become an habitual drunkard, he was
removed to Manila, and there appointed a confessor. From Manila he
had just been again sent to take charge of the _cure of souls_.
I knew a money-grabbing parish priest--a friar--who publicly announced
raffles from the pulpit of the church from which he preached morality
and devotion. On one occasion a 200-peso watch was put up for P500--at
another time he raffled dresses for the women. Under the pretext of
being a pious institution, he established a society of women, called
the Association of St. Joseph (_Confradia de San Jose_), upon whom
he imposed the very secular duties of domestic service in the convent
and raffle-ticket hawking. He had the audacity to dictate to a friend
of mine--a planter--the value of the gifts he was to make to him,
and when the planter was at length wearied of his importunities,
he conspired with a Spaniard to deprive my friend of his estate,
alleging that he was not the real owner. Failing in this, he stirred
up the petty-governor and headmen against him. The petty-governor was
urged to litigation, and when he received an unfavourable sentence,
the priest, enraged at the abortive result of his malicious intrigues,
actually left his vicarage to accompany his litigious _protege_ to the
chief judge of the province in quest of a reversion of the sentence.
A priest of evil propensities brought only misery to his parish and
aroused a feeling of odium against the Spanish friars in general. As
incumbents they held the native in contempt. He who should be the
parishioner was treated despotically as the subject whose life,
liberty, property, and civil rights were in his sacerdotal lord's
power. And that power was not unfrequently exercised, for if a
native refused to yield to his demands, or did not contribute with
sufficient liberality to a religious feast, or failed to come to
Mass, or protected the virtue of his daughter, or neglected the
genuflexion and kissing of hands, or was out of the priest's party in
the municipal affairs of the parish, or in any other trivial way became
a _persona non grata_ at the "convent," he and his family would become
the pastor's sheep marked for sacrifice. As Government agent it was
within his arbitrary power to attach his signature to or withhold it
from any municipal document. From time to time he could give full vent
to his animosity by secretly denouncing to the civil authorities as
"inconvenient in the town" all those whom he wished to get rid of. He
had simply to send an official advice to the Governor of the province,
who forwarded it to the Gov.-General, stating that he had reason
to believe that the persons mentioned in the margin were disloyal,
immoral, or whatever it might be, and recommend their removal from
the neighbourhood. A native so named suddenly found at his door a
patrol of the Civil Guard, who escorted him, with his elbows tied
together, from prison to prison, up to the capital town and thence to
Manila. Finally, without trial or sentence, he was banished to some
distant island of the Archipelago. He might one day return to find
his family ruined, or he might as often spend his last days in misery
alone. Sometimes a native who had privately heard of his "denunciation"
became a _remontado_, that is to say he fled to the mountains to lead a
bandits life where the evils of a debased civilization could not reach
him. Banishment in these circumstances was not a mere transportation
to another place, but was attended with all the horrors of a cruel
captivity, of which I have been an eye-witness. From the foregoing
it may be readily understood how the conduct of the regular clergy
was the primary cause of the Rebellion of 1896; it was not the monks'
immorality which disturbed the mind of the native, but their Caesarism
which raised his ire. The ground of discord was always infinitely more
material than sentimental. Among the friars, however, there were many
exceptional men of charming manners and eminent virtue. If little was
done to coerce the bulk of the friars to live up to the standard of
these exceptions, it was said to be because the general interests of
Mother Church were opposed to investigation and admonition, for fear
of the consequent scandal destructive of her prestige.
The Hierarchy of the Philippines consists of one Archbishop in Manila,
and four Suffragan Bishoprics, respectively of Nueva Segovia, Cebu,
Jaro, and Nueva Caceres. [90] The provincials, the vicars-general,
and other officers of the Religious Orders were elected by the
Chapters and held office for four years. The first Bishop of Manila
took possession in 1581, and the first Archbishop in 1598.
The Jesuits came to these Islands in 1581, and were expelled therefrom
in 1770 by virtue of an Apostolic Brief [91] of Pope Clement XIV.,
but were permitted to return in 1859, on the understanding that
they would confine their labours to scholastic education and the
establishment of missions amongst uncivilized tribes. Consequently,
in Manila they refounded their school--the Municipal Athenaeum--a
mission house, and a Meteorological Observatory, whilst in many parts
of Mindanao Island they have established missions, with the vain hope
of converting Mahometans to Christianity. [92] The Jesuits, compared
with the members of the other Orders, are very superior men, and their
fraternity includes a few, and almost the only, learned ecclesiastics
who came to the Colony. Since their return to the Islands (1859)
in the midst of the strife with the Religious Orders, the people
recognized the Jesuits as disinterested benefactors of the country.
Several Chinese have been admitted to holy orders, two of them
having become Austin Friars. [93] The first native friars date their
admission from the year 1700, since when there have been sixteen of
the Order of St. Augustine. Subsequently they were excluded from the
confraternities, and only admitted to holy orders as vicars, curates
to assist parish vicars, chaplains, and in other minor offices. Up
to the year 1872 native priests were appointed to benefices, but in
consequence of their alleged implication in the Cavite Conspiracy of
that year, their church livings, as they became vacant, were given
to Spanish friars, whose headquarters were established in Manila.
The _Austin Friars_ were the religious pioneers in these Islands;
they came to Cebu in 1565 and to Manila in 1571; then followed the
_Franciscans_ in 1577; the _Dominicans_ in 1587, a member of this
Order having been ordained first Bishop of Manila, where he arrived
in 1581. The _Recoletos_ (unshod Augustinians), a branch of the Saint
Augustine Order, came to the Islands in 1606; the _Capuchins_--the
lowest type of European monk in the Far East, came to Manila in 1886,
and were sent to the Caroline Islands (_vide_ p. 45). The _Paulists_,
of the Order of Saint Vincent de Paul, were employed in scholastic
work in Nueva Caceres, Jaro, and Cebu, the same as the Jesuits were
in Manila. The _Benedictines_ came to the Islands in 1895. Only the
members of the first four Orders above named were parish priests,
and each (except the _Franciscans_) possessed agricultural land;
hence the animosity of the natives was directed against these
four confraternities only, and not against the others, who neither
monopolized incumbencies, nor held rural property, but were simply
teachers, or missionaries, whose worldly interests in no way clashed
with those of the people. Therefore, whenever there was a popular
outcry against "the friars," it was understood to refer solely to
the Austins, the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Recoletos. [94]
There was no Spanish secular clergy in the Islands, except three or
four military chaplains.
The Church was financially supported by the State to the extent of
about three-quarters of a million pesos per annum.
The following are some of the most interesting items taken from
"The Budget for 1888," viz.:--
_Sanctorum_ or Church tax of 18 3/4 cents (i.e., 1 1/2 reales)
on each _Cedula personal_, say on 2,760,613 Cedulas in 1888,
less 4 per cent, cost of collection P496,910.00
The friars appointed to incumbencies received in former times tithes
from the Spaniards, and a Church tax from the natives computed by the
amount of tribute paid. Tithe payment (_diezmos prediales_) by the
Spaniards became almost obsolete, and the _Sanctorum_ tax on _Cedulas_
was paid to the Church through the Treasury (_vide_ p. 55).
There were priests in missions and newly-formed parishes where the
domiciled inhabitants were so few that the _Sanctorum_ tax on the
aggregate of the _Cedulas_ was insufficient for their support. These
missionaries were allowed salaries, and parish priests were permitted
to appropriate from their revenues, as annual stipend, amounts ranging
from 500 to 800 pesos, as a rule, with a few exceptions (such as
Binondo parish and others), rated at 1,200 pesos, whilst one, at
least (the parish priest, or missionary of Vergara, Davao Province),
received 2,200 pesos a year. In practice, however, a great many parish
priests spent far more than their allotted stipends.
A project was under consideration to value the incumbencies, and
classify them, like the Courts of Justice (_vide_ p. 234), with the
view of apportioning to each a fixed income payable by the Treasury
in lieu of accounting to the Church for the exact amount of the
_Sanctorum_.
By decree of Gov.-General Terrero, dated November 23,1885, the
State furnished free labour (by natives who did not pay poll-tax)
for Church architectural works, provided it was made clear that the
cost of such labour could not be covered by the surplus funds of the
_Sanctorum_. The chief items of Church expenditure were as follows,
viz.:--
_State outlay for Church._
P. cts.
Archbishop's salary 12,000 00
Other salaries (Cathedral) 40,300 00
Other expenses (Cathedral) 3,000 00
Four Bishops, each with a salary of P6,000 24,000 00
Court of Arches (amount contributed by the State [95]) 5,000 00
Chaplain of Los Banos 120 00
Sulu Mission 1,000 00
Mission House in Manila for Capuchin friars 1,700 00
12 Capuchins (State paid) for the Caroline and Pelew
Islands--6 at P300 and 6 at P500 each per annum 4,800 00
Transport of Missionaries estimated at about, per annum 10,000 00
The anticipated _total_ State outlay for the support of
the Church, Missions, Monasteries, Convents, etc.,
_including the above and all other items_ for the
financial year of 1888 was P724,634 50
Moreover, the religious Corporations possessed large private
revenues. The Dominicans' investments in Hong-Kong, derived from
capitalized income, are still considerable. The Austin, Recoleto,
and Dominican friars held very valuable real estate in the provinces,
which was rented to the native agriculturists on conditions which the
tenants considered onerous. The native planters were discontented with
the treatment they received from these landowners, and their numerous
complaints formed part of the general outcry against the regular
clergy. The bailiffs of these corporation lands were unordained
brothers of the Order. They resided in the Estate Houses, and by
courtesy were styled "fathers" by the natives. They were under certain
religious vows, but not being entitled to say Mass, they were termed
"legos," or ignorant men, by their own Order.
The clergy also derived a very large portion of their incomes from
commissions on the sale of _cedulas_, sales of Papal Bulls, masses,
pictures, books, chaplets and indulgences, marriage, burial and
baptismal fees, benedictions, donations touted for after the crops
were raised, legacies to be paid for in masses, remains of wax candles
left in the church by the faithful, fees for getting souls out of
purgatory, alms, etc. The surplus revenues over and above parochial
requirements were supposed to augment the common Church funds in
Manila. The Corporations were consequently immensely wealthy, and
their power and influence were in consonance with that wealth.
Each Order had its procurator in Madrid, who took up the cudgels in
defence of his Corporation's interest in the Philippines whenever
this was menaced. On the other hand, the Church, as a body politic,
dispensed no charity, but received all. It was always begging; always
above civil laws and taxes; claimed immunity, proclaimed poverty,
and inculcated in others charity to itself.
Most of the parish priests--Spanish or native--were very hospitable
to travellers, and treated them with great kindness. Amongst them
there were some few misanthropes and churlish characters who did not
care to be troubled by anything outside the region of their vocation,
but on the whole I found them remarkably complaisant.
In Spain there were training colleges of the three Communities, in
Valladolid, Ocana, and Monte Agudo respectively, for young novices
intended to be sent to the Philippines, the last Spanish Colony where
friars held vicarages.
The ecclesiastical archives of the Philippines abound with proofs of
the bitter and tenacious strife sustained, not only between the civil
and Church authorities, but even amongst the religious communities
themselves. Each Order was so intensely jealous of the others, that
one is almost led to ponder whether the final goal of all could have
been identical. All voluntarily faced death with the same incentive,
whilst amicable fellowship in this world seemed an impossibility. The
first Bishop (_vide_ p. 56) struggled in vain to create a religious
monopoly in the Philippines for the exclusive benefit of the
Augustine Order. It has been shown how ardent was the hatred which
the Jesuits and the other Religious Orders mutually entertained for
each other. Each sacred fraternity laboured incessantly to gain the
ascendancy in the conquered territories, and their Divine calling
served for nothing in palliating the acrimony of their reciprocal
accusations and recriminations, which often involved the civil power.
For want of space I can only refer to a few of these disputes.
The Austin friars attributed to the Jesuits the troubles with the
Mahometans of Mindanao and Sulu, and, in their turn, the Jesuits
protested against what they conceived to be the bad policy of
the Government, adopted under the influence of the other Orders in
Manila. So distinct were their interests that the Augustine chroniclers
refer to the other Orders as _different religions_.
In 1778 the Province of Pangasinan was spiritually administered by the
Dominicans, whilst that of Zambales was allotted to the Recoletos. The
Dominicans, therefore, proposed to the Recoletos to cede Zambales
to them, because it was repugnant to have to pass through Recoleto
territory going from Manila to their own province! The Recoletos
were offered Mindoro Island in exchange, which they refused, until
the Archbishop compelled them to yield. Disturbances then arose in
Zambales, the responsibility of which was thrown on the Dominicans by
their rival Order, and the Recoletos finally succeeded in regaining
their old province by intrigue.
During the Governorship of Martin de Urena, Count de Lizarraga
(1709-15), the Aragonese and Castilian priests quarrelled about the
ecclesiastical preferments.
At the beginning of the 18th century the Bishop-elect of Cebu, Fray
Pedro Saez de la Vega Lanzaverde, refused to take possession because
the nomination was _in partibus_. He objected also that the Bishopric
was merely one in perspective and not yet a reality. The See remained
vacant whilst the contumacious priest lived in Mexico. Fray Sebastian
de Jorronda was subsequently appointed to administer the Bishopric,
but also refused, until he was coerced into submission by the Supreme
Court (1718).
In 1767 the Austin friars refused to admit the episcopal visits, and
exhibited such a spirit of independence that Pope Benedict XIV. was
constrained to issue a Bull to exhort them to obey, admonishing them
for their insubordination.
The friars of late years were subject to a visiting priest--the
Provincial--in all matters _de vita et moribus_, to the Bishop of
the diocese in all affairs of spiritual dispensation, and to the
Gov.-General as vice-royal patron in all that concerned the relations
of the Church to the Civil Government. [96]
An observant traveller, unacquainted with the historical antecedents
of the friars in the Philippines, could not fail to be impressed by the
estrangement of religious men, whose sacred mission, if genuine, ought
to have formed an inseverable bond of alliance and goodfellowship.