[The following brief summary is compiled from various authorities,
full references being given in the footnotes throughout.]
Antonio Sedeño, writing to Felipe II, June 17, 1583, petitions for
the establishment of a Jesuit seminary, and asks royal aid. [24]
Felipe II, in a decree dated June 8, 1585, in view of the benefit
that will result to the colony from aiding the Jesuits in instituting
a college, and in aiding in the support of the religious who shall
teach therein, orders Governor Santiago de Vera and Bishop Salazar
to discuss measures for the founding of the same. [25]
The above-mentioned royal decree was presented to Governor Luis
Perez Dasmariñas, August 15, 1595. September 5, a government act
was dictated accepting the petitions of the Society in regard to
the foundation of a college, with the condition that 1,000 pesos he
assigned to it, together with the royal title and arms. The governor
has it noted in the said act that everything is only provisional,
until the foundation of the college is discussed with the bishop,
and the agreement adopted sent to his Majesty for his approval. [26]
Rodriguez de Figueroa, on setting out for Oton for the conquest
of Mindanao, made (March 16, 1596) his will in which he declares:
"And inasmuch as, ... some of the said my children may die before
reaching the age necessary for making a will, it falls to me as their
father and legitimate administrator, to make a will for them. In such
case availing myself of the said faculty, I order and command that,
if the abovesaid should happen during the lifetime of their mother,
the said Doña Ana de Oseguera, the latter shall hold and inherit the
goods and property of the one who shall thus die, and with both the
third and the remainder of the fifth, shall be done what shall be
stated hereinafter. If the said Doña Ana Oseguera shall die, and the
said my children, or either one of them without leaving any heir or
descendant, then their property and their legal paternal and maternal
portion, and the profit and income from it, shall be used to found a
college in the manner hereinafter stated. The same must be founded,
in case that said Doña Ana de Oseguera is living, from the said third
and remainder of the fifth. For if either one or the other of the two
casualties occur, a house shall be built next the Society of Jesus,
of the city of Manila, sufficient, and which shall be used, for a
college and seminary for boys, where all those may enter who desire
to study the first letters in such seminary. I request and charge the
provincial, at such time, of the Society of Jesus, to take it under
his care and to give to such boys sufficient teachers for it. That
part of the said building that shall be unoccupied shall be rented,
for the support of said children and youth. The said father provincial
shall be patron and administrator of the said college." [27]
In 1601, the Jesuits themselves founded a college, primarily through
the efforts of Father Diego Garcia, who went to the Philippines
as visitor in 1599. He ordered Father Pedro Chirino, independently
of the act of Luis Perez Dasmariñas, to plan for the founding of a
college for the Society. The first rector was Father Luis Gomez, who
obtained the licenses of both ecclesiastical and civil authorities,
August 25 of that year. The cantor, Santiago de Castro, provisor and
vicar-general of the archbishopric of Manila, acting in vacant see,
in view of the petition presented by Father Gomez, grants "license
to said religious of the Society of Jesus, and to the said Father
Luis Gomez, to found said college of San José." Governor Francisco
Tello, on the same date, grants the civil license for the erection
of the college in view of Gomez's petition, the erection being for
the rearing "in virtue and letters of some Spanish youth, in view
of the necessity of training ministers of the gospel of whom there
is a lack in this land for the need of said college." [28] The new
college was instituted with thirteen collegiates, and one father and
one brother of the Society who were placed at its head to look after
the spiritual and economic managements respectively.
October 30, 1604, a royal decree was despatched, which was received by
the royal Audiencia at Manila, July 10, 1606, ordering "information
in regard to the plan that could be inaugurated for the exercise of
letters in these islands, and the lecturing by some professors without
there being any university." The Audiencia in its reply states the
death by shipwreck of the younger daughter of Rodriguez de Figueroa
(1605), and that the Society of Jesus had entered suit for her estate,
in accordance with the will of her father, and that they had been
given possession of it. [29] Since a considerable part of Rodriguez
de Figueroa's goods were in Mexico, and since there was a royal
prohibition forbidding money to be transferred from one territory to
another, the Jesuits requested from the king, through their procurator
at Madrid, permission to transfer the necessary money from Mexico
to the islands, in order to found the college. Three royal decrees
were issued in accordance with this petition, two asking for reports
from the archbishop and Audiencia, and one (September 13, 1608) [30]
granting permission for the founding of a college and seminary in
the city of Manila. By the beginning of 1610, the Jesuits realized
the terms of the will of Rodriguez de Figueroa, and on February 28
of that year, the licenses, given formerly to Luis Gomez in 1601,
were confirmed by the provisor for the college now founded with an
income. [31]
In a letter to the Jesuit general, June 11, 1611, Father Gregorio Lopez
writes of the flourishing condition of the college and seminary of San
José. He says: "In the seminary of San Joseph, our pupils are reared
with the virtue of which advice was given in former years. Some are
inclined to our rule, and others to that of the other orders. Three
have embraced that of the Order of St Augustine. The seminary has been
improved this year with a fine new refectory built of stone, with a
very large hall for the lodging of the collegiates, and the work which
will be one of the best in the city, is progressing." Diego Vázquez de
Mercado, archbishop of Manila, insists on the idea of the foundation
of the university, which was undervalued by Felipe III, after the
unfavorable report of Benavides, and in a letter of June 24, 1612,
to the king, praises the work of the college and asks that graduates
therefrom in arts and theology be granted degrees. Archbishop Garcia
Serrano writes to Felipe IV, July 25, 1621, regarding the colleges
of San José and Santo Tomás: "There are two colleges for students
in the city, one founded by Captain Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa,
which is in charge of the fathers of the Society of Jesus, whence the
collegiates go to the college of the same Society, which is near by,
to hear lectures in grammar, philosophy, and scholastic and moral
theology. It has twenty collegiates with the beca at present, some of
whom pay for their tuition, while others are aided by charity, as the
income derived from the founder serves now to support but few because
it was spent in building said college. The other college is called
Santo Tomas de Aquino and is in charge of the Order of St. Dominic,
and is very near their convent. It is not more than two years since
collegiates entered it. It was founded with alms of deceased persons
and others given by the living which the fathers have procured. It
also has some income, and it is making progress. It has also twenty
collegiates with the beca, some of whom also pay for their tuition,
while others are supported by charity and by other persons. They study
grammar, philosophy, and theology in the said college, where they have
a rector and masters of the Order of St. Dominic. These two colleges
greatly ennoble the city, and the sons of the inhabitants of these
islands are being reared therein in civilization, virtue, and good
letters. It will be of the highest importance for their progress for
your Majesty to honor them by giving them license to grant degrees
in the courses taught in them." Another letter from Serrano, July 30
of the same year, notes that the secular priests have increased so
greatly in his archbishopric because of the number that have graduated
from the college and seminary of the Jesuits that he has not places
for them and they suffer great poverty. The same is true of those who
have studied in the college of Santo Tomás. In a letter of August 15,
1624, he notes that the college of San José has obtained the right to
grant university degrees, by a papal brief, without the necessity of
the graduates going to other universities, and petitions that the
rector be allowed to grant the degrees in person. In 1627, Pedro
Chirino was dean of the law faculty of the university. [32]
A document of June 18, 1636, shows the college of San José to
possess incomes from various houses, aggregating 14,000 pesos. [33]
In 1640 the college was able to support 40 collegiates, and was in
a flourishing condition. [34] That same year the short-lived royal
college of San Felipe de Austria was founded. [35] The earthquake of
1645 caused great losses to the college of San José, as much of its
capital consisted of houses which were destroyed. [36]
The Dominican college of Santo Tomás, formally founded in 1619, with
the alms left by Archbishop Benavides and others, was the second
college founded in the Philippines. October 25, 1645, however,
the Dominicans entered suit against the Jesuits declaring the
precedence of their institution over the latter in all public acts
in which the said institutions participated. [37] Governor Fajardo,
before whom the suit was brought, remitted the cause to the royal
Audiencia, which rendered a verdict in favor of the Jesuits, May 10,
1647, declaring that all public acts of the college of San José had
precedence over those of Santo Tomás, as the former had been founded
over eighteen years earlier. This sentence was confirmed in review,
July 29 of the same year, and again by the royal Council of the Indias,
August 12, 1652, on examination, and again on review, November 25 of
the same year. The college of Santo Tomás, being dissatisfied with
the decision, endeavored to take precedence in certain public acts,
but with no real effect. [38]
A royal decree of June 12, 1665, conceded the sum of 8,000 pesos to
the college of San José; and another, issued July 27, 1669, granted the
further sum of 12,000 pesos. The reason advanced by the petitions for
the grants was the many losses sustained because of the earthquakes
during the period from 1645 to 1658. [39] The Jesuits made many
requests for royal alms for their Society and college; and many royal
decrees were issued granting such alms, both of money and rice. [40]
November 22, 1666, Don José Cabral, a Spaniard born in the Philippines,
died bishop elect of Camarines, and left a pious bequest of certain
lands called later the estate of Liang, to the college, on condition
that a chaplaincy be maintained thereby, and that an annual alms be
given of ten pesos each to the church of Balayan and to the poor of
its district." [41]
A decree issued by Governor Fausto Cruzat y Gongora, September 22,
1695, recites the two royal alms above mentioned, which had been
assigned from tributes of vacant natives. In response to a petition
by Father Juan de Montemayor, S.J., that 1,000 pesos be given the
college annually until the 20,000 pesos be paid in full, he assigned
to the said college 383 1/2 tributes from the encomienda of Tubig,
Sulat, and Pamboan, in the province of Leyte, "so that there may be
paid annually, five hundred and thirty-three pesos four tomins one
grano ... on account of the eighteen thousand six hundred and eleven
pesos six tomins which are still to be paid of the twenty thousand
pesos." [42]
A royal decree of May 3, 1722, grants the title of "royal ad honorem"
to the college of San José. This decree is as follows:
"Inasmuch as Augustin Soler of the Society of Jesus, procurator-general
for his province of Filipinas, has represented to me that his
province has charge in the city of Manila of a seminary of grammar,
philosophical and theological collegiates, under the advocacy of
St. Joseph, which was founded by Don Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa,
adelantado of Mindanao, which by its antiquity and royal writ of King
Don Felipe IV enjoys precedence in all public functions to the other
colleges; and inasmuch as in consideration of the notoriety in that
community of the great profit which has followed and is experienced in
the said college, in virtue and letters from the many erudite men who
have graduated from it to maintain the luster of the cathedral church
of that city and the other churches of their islands, the greater part
of those who today obtain their prebends being among those who have
been raised and have prosecuted their studies in the above-mentioned
college, he petitioned me, in consideration of the above-said and
so that its collegiates may have the greatest application in said
studies with the luster, esteem, and credit that is due because of
the particular blessing which results to that community in general,
to deign to receive it under my royal protection, by conceding it
the title, privileges, and preeminences of royal college, without
any burden on my royal treasury, with the permission to place on its
doors and the other accustomed places, my royal arms, and to make use
of the title of such in the instruments which it presents, and the
letters which it writes to me: therefore, this matter having been
examined in my assembly Council of the Indias, together with what
was declared thereon by my fiscal, I have considered it fitting to
condescend to [heed] his instance, receiving (as by the present I
do receive and admit) the above-named college of San José under my
royal protection. I honor it with the title of Royal ad honorem, in
case that it has no patrons, and with the express conditions that it
never has any, and that it cannot produce any effect of burden on or
embarrassment to my royal treasury by reason of this title. Therefore,
I order my present or future governor and captain-general of the
above-mentioned Filipinas Islands and my royal Audiencia of the city
of Manila, and the other ministers and justices of that jurisdiction,
and I beseech and charge the archbishop of the metropolitan church
of said city, and the ecclesiastical cabildo of it, not to place or
allow to be placed now or in any time any obstacle or hindrance to
the above-mentioned college of San José, which is in charge of the
religious of the Society of Jesus, in the grace which I concede it
of the title of royal ad honorem, in the above-mentioned sense, and
that as such it may place my royal arms on its doors, and the other
accustomed places, and that in all its instruments and letters which
it may write me, both through my councils, tribunals, and ministers,
and in all that which may arise, it may make use of the abovesaid
title of royal. Such is my will. Given at Aranjuez, May three, one
thousand seven hundred and twenty-two. [43]