[Diaz (Conquistas de las Filipinas), speaks as follows of the short
existence of the royal college of San Felipe.]
Governor Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, a magnanimous gentleman,
determined to found a royal college under the title of San Felipe in
honor of Felipe IV, in whose reign he assigned four thousand pesos
from the royal treasury for twenty becas, until other means should
be carried out for their support. He joined it to the college of San
José of Manila, which is under the charge and direction of the Jesuit
religious of the Society. The latter college is the older in foundation
of the two in the city, leaving out of account the seminary of San
Juán de Letrán, which together with the college of Santo Tomás is in
charge of the religious of St. Dominic. Both colleges are gardens
of letters and virtue which adorn the ecclesiastical estate, both
secular and regular. Very many very eminent persons, both seculars
and regulars, [85] have graduated from those colleges, and up to this
time three bishops, and Doctor Endaya y Haro, who after being dean
of the cathedral of Plasencia, España, is at present archdeacon of
Alarcón, a dignity of the cathedral of Cuenca, one of the greatest
dignities of España, besides many others who require a separate
history. The twenty becas were given to the finest youths in Manila on
the day of St. Sebastian of that year, 1641, amid great applause and
gatherings, and they were given the title of royal collegiates. [86]
The religious of the Society of Jesus took charge of the management
and instruction of that college with that care and zeal which they
usually display. But the permanence of that college endured only during
the government of Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, namely, until
the year 1644, when that royal college of San Felipe was destroyed,
and the fathers of the Society had to pay the 12,000 pesos which they
had spent during those three years on the support [of those pupils],
the many good representations made by the said religious--who charged
that the royal decree which was couched in very strict terms for
that purpose, was obtained by false representation [87]--being of
no avail. The new governor Don Diego Faxardo executed that decree
with the integrity which these islands experienced in him. The royal
treasury owed 8,000 pesos to the fathers of the Society, but they
were not allowed to receive them on account. Thus they had to lose
those loans. Our province aided them with 8,000 pesos which it had in
deposit from some annuities [censos] which their owners had received,
and 4,000 were lent them by Captain Manuel Estacio Venegas, a very
important person of these islands. [88]... This was the beginning,
permanence, and end of that unfortunate college of San Felipe, whose
idea we have seen to have been executed and established by the royal
will of King Don Felipe V, in the foundation of the royal college
of San Felipe newly established in houses that formerly belonged to
Captain Gabriel Diaz del Castillo, and afterward confiscated for the
properties of Licentiate Manuel Suárez de Olivera, who was also an
example of the advantage of wealth in this world, for his wealth all
went up in smoke without his having gotten from it (and he had much)
enough to apply to a mass for his soul. The royal college of San
Felipe has twelve violet colored becas over red mantles, with the
arms of Castilla and Leon in silver on the breast. They are obliged
to be present at the cathedral in their seminary body during the
divine offices, and serve as acolytes and other lesser duties of the
altar. Their first rector and the only one as yet, is Licentiate Don
Gabriel de Isturis, presbyter, advocate of the royal Audiencia. He
was alcalde-in-ordinary of the city of Manila while in the world,
and alcalde-mayor of the alcaicería of the Parián of the Sangleys. [89]