Before me:
Juan Soriano, notary-public.
Remission in testimony of truth.
Juan Soriano, notary-public.
Fees gratis.
[An attestation of the authenticity of all matters that pass before
Juan Soriano, dated November 29, 1635, [15] and signed by three
notaries, follows.]
Sire:
Justice in this country was in the worst [possible] condition, because
no one looked to your Majesty for it, and some of your vassals were
committing outrages on others without fear of God or respect for your
Majesty's officials. There was great license and looseness of life,
in both men and women. That has been corrected by exiling some of the
men, and arresting others; and by rebuking and threatening the women
of quality, and sheltering others of less standing, in the seminary
of Santa Potenciana, until they are sought in marriage from that
house. I have done that with despatch, considering only the service
of God and of your Majesty. By that means many of the laymen have been
restrained, as well as many of the ecclesiastical estate and regulars,
who likewise have caused scandal in this direction. Two men have been
punished by hanging--one for having stolen the monstrance of the most
holy sacrament; and the other for the murder of a slave girl whom he
had owned, and whom the archbishop had caused to be sold because he
was living with her in illicit relations. In order that he might not be
deprived of her, he declared that he would marry her, although he had
said the year before that he had been married in Nueva Espana. The
slave girl said that she preferred to belong to another than to
be his wife. The slave girl going carelessly behind her mistress's
carriage, that man, deliberately and very securely, approached her
by stealth; and, embracing her from behind, he stabbed and killed
her treacherously. He took refuge in the convent of St. Augustine,
where neither the master-of-camp nor the sargento-mayor could find
him. But a few days after that, when the affair had died down somewhat,
because of the reward offered to my adjutant of the camp, the latter
found him and took him from the convent. I referred the cause to the
general of artillery, as the man was his subordinate, so that he might
try it in the first instance. The general condemned him to death. He
appealed to his commander-in-chief; but the auditor-general returned
the cause, saying that it had no appeal, as he was convinced of the
man's treachery and perfidy. Thereupon the general of artillery set
about the execution of the sentence of death. The archbishop of this
church excommunicated the general of artillery; and his provisor,
one Don Pedro de Monrroy, a restless man, and a friend of revolution,
sent twice to excommunicate me. But I gave them no opportunity to
notify me at all. They declared interdicts and the cessation of divine
services. The sentence was executed, and the dead man was returned to
the door of the church. I wrote to the archbishop with all courtesy,
entreating him to be pleased to have the churches opened and not
to leave this community without mass and consolation on a day such
as the nativity of our Lady; and that, as justice was already done,
there was nothing else to do. The archbishop called a meeting of the
religious of all the orders. They thinking in this way to avenge
themselves for insults that they imagined they had received--the
fathers of St. Dominic because I did not allow them to place benches
in the principal chapel of their church when the royal Audiencia was
present, for other persons, and on matters touching the communal funds
[of the Sangleys]; those of St. Francis, because of the hospitals; and
those of St. Augustine, because of what I had already written--carried
the torch into that meeting, making a political argument from the
fact that the archbishop and I were at swords' points. Accordingly,
they were of the opinion that the censures should be raised under no
circumstances, and they talked very unbecomingly of my person. Only
the fathers of the Society defended the royal jurisdiction, being
followed by one of the Franciscans. They showed clearly that the
execution that had been performed was a good thing, as the murder had
clearly been a treacherous one. Therefore the other religious gave
them cause for merit by uttering insults toward them; and from that
instant took so great an aversion to them that it was the beginning
of the disturbances that happened afterward. I went twice and thrice
to request the archbishop to raise the interdict and the cessation
of mass, but he was so far from doing it that he even refused to
answer my letters. So I left him; but afterward, for certain reasons
or at the request of others, he raised the censures and interdict,
and absolved the general of artillery _ad cautelam_--for the latter
did not consider himself as excommunicated, nor did learned men even
consider him as such. That was very evident; for, having appealed to
the bishop of Camarines, the sentence was in his favor, and he was
absolved from the pecuniary fines imposed by the archbishop.
Thereupon that tempest was quieted. The principal instigator of it
had been the provisor, Don Pedro de Monrroy, and its fomentors were
the religious of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Augustine. I,
recognizing the naturally turbulent spirit of the said provisor,
thought that we would be involved in other storms soon, unless
something were done to prevent it, and some scheme found so that he
might not be provisor. For that purpose, I wrote the archbishop to
observe a decree of your Majesty in which you order, in the time of
Don Juan Nino de Tabora, that provisors be lettered, and that, since
this man was not so, the office be given to another who was, thereby
obeying your Majesty's orders. He did not answer me, but called a
meeting of the religious of the three orders. All decided not to remove
the provisor, and, in good Romance, not to obey the royal decree, but
to oppose it--as they said, even to the death, if necessary. In order
that your Majesty may see for whom the archbishop and religious made
so great a pledge, Don Pedro de Monrroy is a secular priest, who does
not possess, as your Majesty orders, the education that provisors must
necessarily have (since he possesses no degree in any faculty); still
more, it is apparent to this whole community that his house is a public
gaming-house for all this city, where the gambling is so extravagant,
and men lose their possessions so recklessly and preposterously that
I am obliged to correct it efficaciously by forbidding all persons,
under penalty of fines, from going to play in his house. He is a
secular priest who says mass throughout the year, except now and then;
and is, finally, a restless fellow and one who likes [to stir up]
revolutions. In the time of Governor Don Alonso Faxardo, he was the
cause of a great disturbance in the community, by excommunicating the
auditors. He was sentenced to exile from the kingdoms for that reason
and the temporalities were taken from him, as your Majesty will see
by the enclosed testimony of the royal decree that was despatched for
that purpose. But since justice in these islands is in the charge of
protectors, the said decree, at the request of certain persons, was
not executed. Although I might execute it, in order to cut the root of
the disturbances, I did not do so, in order to obviate difficulties
and murmurs in a community so small. Therefore, seeing that there
was no other way that was milder, I offered the said provisor the
chaplaincy-in-chief and vicariate of the island of Hermosa--as will
appear by my letter and his reply, which I enclose herewith for your
Majesty. [16] That was with the intent of getting him away from Manila,
so that he might not embroil us. But that offer which I made to the
said provisor aroused innumerable disputes. The archbishop declared
that I was the violator of the ecclesiastical immunity. He immediately
convoked a meeting of the religious, the ecclesiastical cabildo,
and other seculars. The seculars, and the bishop of Nueva Segovia,
Don Fray Diego Duarte, excused themselves--the fathers of the Society
of Jesus, in very courteous terms, also begging to be excused from
attending meetings where nothing else was discussed save opposition to
the government. The archbishop and the members of the orders were so
angry because the fathers of the Society did not attend that meeting
(not taking into consideration at all that the bishop of Nueva Segovia
and the ecclesiastical cabildo did not attend, either), that they
turned against the said fathers of the Society. The first thing done
in the said meeting was to enact an act which I enclose herewith. [17]
In it they are separated from the other orders, and the latter were
prohibited from admitting the Jesuits into their convents for feasts
or other ceremonies. The other orders were not to go to the convent of
the Society for public ceremonies or for feasts; while those fathers
could not preach in the cathedral, or in any other churches outside of
their house, throughout this archbishopric--which was equal to exiling
them from its territories. To such a height did passion--not to say
the hate of the archbishop and orders--rise against the Society of
Jesus, that one must pass by what was determined against them in the
said meeting, in which all that was done was to discuss the government
and royal jurisdiction.
The archbishop and the religious seeing that the fathers of the
Society were not disturbed--for which object the former were
striving--because of the resolution made in the said meeting, the
archbishop, twenty days later, sent a notary with a notification to
the superiors of the Society, ordering that they should not preach
outside their house, not even in the plazas and the guardhouses,
under penalty of major excommunication, _late sentencie_, and a fine
of four thousand ducados for the Holy Crusade--a thing which greatly
scandalized all this community. The fathers of the Society answered
with moderation that they would obey whatever was not contrary to the
privileges and immunities given them by the Roman pontiffs; but that,
since the tenor of this act was hostile to those rights, and manifest
injuries were being caused to the Society--first, because all of them
had been deprived of the preaching, without other fault than having
defended the royal jurisdiction, and the truth; second, in ordering
this with [penalty of] excommunication and pecuniary fines; third,
by prohibiting them from giving instruction, even in the plazas
and guardhouses--they were obliged to appoint a judge-conservator;
for although they had tried all means of peace they had succeeded in
none, or in finding any method by which peace could be secured. On
the contrary, they were notified of another act on the part of the
archbishop, on the third day after, ordering them not to instruct
certain Indians, of whom they had legitimate control by provisions of
two former prelates and of the royal patronage. From that they feared
new notifications and insults, and therefore they appointed their
judge-conservator on the second of November, of the past year 1635. He
was a dignitary of this holy church, one Don Fabian de Santillan y
Gavilanes, a qualified person of this country, and son of a treasurer
of the royal exchequer. The judge-conservator ordered the archbishop
to take back the acts made against the Society of Jesus, as they were
a manifest injury. The archbishop had recourse to the royal Audiencia
with a plea of fuerza. The acts were requested, and the fathers of the
Society went to maintain their just claims, as did those of the other
orders on the part of the archbishop. For, although what the Society
was defending was in favor of all the other orders, they did not think
of that. On the contrary, they preferred to lose two eyes, in order
as the saying is, to tear one from the Society--against whom the fear
and aversion which they cherish is remarkable, as they show by word
and deed. They do the Society ill turns whenever possible. After the
secretary had made a report of the cause, those of the Society brought
forward the arguments in favor of their side; they proved also that a
manifest injury had been done them in the decrees of the archbishop,
and that the judge-conservator was legally appointed. The religious,
who had gone on the archbishop's behalf, had nothing to say, and asked
for another day in which to state their case. The following day was
granted them. They summoned many more religious, and six of them were
heard in the archbishop's behalf. Those of the Society replied to
what the others opposed to them, but those of the opposing side did
not satisfactorily answer those of the Society. Thereupon, the royal
Audiencia declared that the judge-conservator had not employed fuerza,
and that he was legally appointed. Therefore, the latter continued
to press the archbishop with censures, in order to make him withdraw
the acts issued against the Society. The archbishop did so; but,
when the matter was in a condition to be disposed of and finished in a
few days, it was discovered that the archbishop and some of the three
said orders of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Augustine, had held
a conference, and had drawn up a defamatory libel under the title
of a protest. They had included in it, according to public report,
not only those of the Society, but also the judge-conservator himself,
and the royal Audiencia, because they had passed judgment contrary to
their will. That protest or libel was authenticated by a royal notary
named Diego de Rueda, who is also a familiar of the Holy Office. The
judge-conservator arrested him, and with the aid that he requested,
the commissary of the Holy Office--who here is a Dominican father,
named Fray Francisco de Herrera--went to ask the said judge-conservator
for his familiar, the said notary. The judge-conservator answered that
he had already taken his deposition, and had no further need of him;
but that they should demand him from me, for he had been arrested by my
order. I answered that he had been delinquent in the exercise of his
duty, for having authenticated, as royal notary, a defamatory libel;
and that the punishment therefor pertained to the royal jurisdiction.
The father commissary sent two young and impudent friars to me, to
notify me of the act which I enclose herewith for your Majesty, and
laid his orders on me as imperiously as if he were the supreme tribunal
of the Inquisition. I, on the contrary, before the completion of the
notification, took the act from the hands of his agent with mildness,
and sent him to the port of Cavite, charging his superior there to
keep him in that place and treat him well. This I did purposely,
because it is not proper for a youthful friar to talk with so great
freedom to the representative of your Majesty--especially in a cause
which is so peculiar to the royal jurisdiction as is this offense,
which concerns the office of a notary.
On that account, the fathers of St. Domingo took occasion to utter
blasphemies against me. They declared that I was excommunicated
for hindering the service of the Inquisition; that I was deposed,
that I was not governor; that I could not act as governor; that
the senior auditor was to assume the government immediately; that
he was to imprison me and lock me up in a fort. In confirmation of
what they were saying throughout the city, they brought a friar from
Cavite, named Fray Francisco Pinelo, whom, being bold, eloquent,
and satirical in the pulpit (as is well known in this community),
they caused to preach the second Sunday in Advent. He read a bull
in the pulpit, which was said to be by Pius Fifth, and which was in
Romance. Therein the pontiff orders that he who should prevent the
exercise of the Holy Office should be infamous and incapacitated
from office, etc. That he declared in such a tone and manner that
it was clearly seen that it was all for the governor, and that he
was censuring me as infamous. In order that your Majesty may see the
license of the friars in this country, and how they treat those who
exercise this office--and this under protection of the Inquisition,
hiding under the authority of so holy a tribunal, to avenge their
passions in things which, truly, neither belong to the Inquisition
nor are at all connected with it--in that same sermon, innumerable
other things and satires were uttered against me and against the
royal Audiencia for having declared, contrary to the pleasure of the
friars, that the judge-conservator was not employing fuerza against
the fathers of the Society, censuring them as heretics; and against
the judge-conservator himself, calling him a canon of London. They
have made use of this style of preaching in many sermons throughout
this time. The Recollect fathers of St. Augustine imitated him, and
I am told that this is no new thing; for whatever the governors do
that is displeasing to them they immediately take into the pulpits,
thus making the pulpit the professorship of vengeance, while it
is the seat of Christ for the preaching of His holy word. The
disorder that has always existed in this regard is very great, and
the matter demands an efficacious remedy. What occurs to me is, for
your Majesty to send a decree to the governor, ordering that, when the
said orders preach in this manner, he shall advise their provincial,
so that the latter may deprive them of the privilege of preaching,
and exile them from Manila to whatever place shall be deemed best;
and that, if the provincial shall not do so, then your Majesty should
immediately take away the temporalities from all of such order,
and should order the royal officials not to pay them anything, not
even the stipends for the instruction. For that nothing more should
be necessary than for the governor to order it. That decree should
be sent, but with restrictions, so that it may be a check on them;
for your Majesty has sent many decrees to the provincials, charging
them not to preach whatever they please against the governors, but
they do not obey them. Your Majesty will see the importance of this
matter, because those friars stir up and disquiet the country by
these actions and sermons, and arouse hatred toward the governors.
The fathers of St. Dominic left no stone unturned. They drew up a
paper, in which they spoke very discourteously of my person; and
with it they presented a petition to the dean of this cathedral
church--who, inasmuch as the archbishop had been excommunicated by
the judge-conservator, was acting as provisor and vicar-general
in it--asking him to declare and publish me in the lists as
excommunicated. The dean, who is a prudent and aged man, was very
far from doing so. Of a truth, Sire, I cannot fail to represent to
your Majesty, in regard to this point, how great is the resulting
inconvenience that any ordinary at all can declare your Majesty's
governors and viceroys excommunicated. And that would be a great
embarrassment and cause for disturbance for a community; for, if the
governor were declared excommunicated, the discontented would take the
opportunity to release themselves from his obedience, and to excite
a revolt against their legitimate king and lord. There is not lacking
one who says that the bishops and ordinaries cannot do this, since the
viceroys and governors enjoy the royal privileges, and that no other
than the pope himself can excommunicate kings. If this is so, will
your Majesty be pleased to declare it, for such a declaration would
be very advisable; or order what should be done in this particular.
Among these things there occurred another very regrettable
incident. Don Pedro de Monroy, who was now no longer provisor,
left the city; and fearing that, if he returned hither, he would
embroil the matter more, as was his custom, I gave orders at the
gates of the city that, if he attempted to enter it, he was not
to be allowed to do so. But on the twenty-first of last November,
the said Don Pedro de Monroy, clad as a Franciscan friar, in the
company of two other Franciscan friars, attempted to enter by a gate
near the convent of Santo Domingo. A number of religious came out
of the convent to receive him. He who was stationed at the gate as
commander recognized him, seized him, and cried out to his soldiers to
take their weapons and prevent his entrance. But there were so many
Dominican friars who attacked the soldiers, and defended Don Pedro
with their fists, that the soldiers could not use their weapons or
prevent the entrance. Thus, by forcing their way into the guardhouse,
the friars, brought him into the city. I felt the resentment in
this matter that was natural, and I ordered the corporal and the
soldiers to be arrested. Being about to punish them for not having
obeyed their orders, they exculpated themselves very thoroughly in
the investigation made by the auditor-general, but the violence of
the religious gave the soldiers no opportunity to do more. Consider,
your Majesty, what liberties these are to be taken from religious;
and who can endure them? I wrote to their vicar-provincial, but he
answered coolly that his religious had not done any such thing, as
they are obedient, and that he had information to the contrary. The
father vicar-provincial adds that Don Pedro [de] Monrroy entered
the city in response to the summons of the Inquisition. This word
"Inquisition" is the motto and cry of the fathers of the Order of
St. Dominic in these islands, for whatever they wish to do. Your
Majesty will have seen from the aforesaid what ill use they make of
the authority of the Inquisition--so much so, that I assert that
with it they disturb and excite the community, which would not be
safe if your Majesty did not have so many soldiers here. Therefore,
since it is advisable to preserve peace here, will your Majesty be
pleased to order the supreme tribunal of the Inquisition to order
the tribunal of Mexico to appoint, as commissaries, not friars but
seculars, since there are so many seculars who are able to act in
that capacity, and since it is an office that properly belongs to the
ecclesiastical estate. Affairs will then run more smoothly, and there
will be more harmony; and I do not expect peace until that be done,
and until these lawless acts be checked.
The judge-conservator went on with his commission, urging the
archbishop with censures in order to make him hand over the protest
or libel which had been made; but the religious gained possession,
by force, of the will of the archbishop, and although he desired to
surrender the paper, they did not allow him to do so. He gave it to
Fray Diego Collado, of the Order of St. Dominic, who secured such
possession of that paper that afterward the archbishop himself was
unable to obtain it, notwithstanding his efforts.
All was now confusion in the community, and the friars made innumerable
evil and vile reports against the fathers of the Society (who bore
these attacks in silence), whenever they had an opportunity. They
preached innumerable satires against the same fathers of the
Society, and against the judge-conservator, saying that these were
bringing in innumerable innovations--all for the purpose of causing
a disturbance. As the preservation of peace pertains to me, I one
day summoned the superiors of the orders of St. Dominic, St. Francis,
St. Augustine, and of the Recollects, and the father commissary of the
Holy Office, in your Majesty's name, and by a duly-executed decree of
the royal Audiencia. The father commissary refused to come, and sent
no excuse. The superiors were told that they were to keep their friars
still, so that they might not go about disquieting the community. In
regard to those who were most to blame in this--namely, Fray Francisco
de Paula and Fray Sebastian de Oquendo of the Order of St. Dominic,
and Fray Alonso de Carvajal and Fray Alonso de Ochoa, of the Order of
St. Augustine--their superiors were ordered, in your Majesty's name,
to cause them to leave the city for some time. But they would by no
means obey, for at this time the friars do not recognize your Majesty;
and, in order to avoid other troubles, I had to overlook this, and
let things go.
At that time I was attending to the despatch to Maluco of the galleons
which were to go with the reenforcements. The religious of St. Dominic
even allured a pilot whom I had honored and favored, and whom I had
chosen to go in the almiranta, so that he should desert with some
of them by way of India. I learned of it, and was obliged to arrest
him, and to leave orders at the gates not to allow either of the two
religious of the Order of St. Dominic, namely, Fray Francisco Pinello
and Fray Diego Collado, who were the two implicated in this flight,
to leave the city. Therefore, because of this order, they began to
assert that I was incurring innumerable excommunications. They do not
stop to consider that I have this city and these islands in charge,
and that, accordingly, I must conserve them, and look out for them,
and issue the advisable military orders that I esteem necessary; and
that I could not prevent that damage except by not permitting those
religious to leave the walls. In another manner, some other religious
incited a goodly number of sailors, who, having received their pay to
go to Maluco, fled in a boat called "champan," and laid their course
toward India. With them was a secular named Don Francisco Montero,
who had been expelled from the religious estate--a restless man,
who had been deprived some few months before of the chaplaincy of
the seminary of Santa Potenciana, as he was not suitable for that
post and served it ill. There was also a Recollect Franciscan friar,
named Fray Nicolas de Tolentino, who was angered because his order had
not elected him provincial, as he wished; and there was also a friar
of St. Dominic. They are said to be about to go to Espana, with the
intention of complaining of me to the supreme Inquisition. But the
road followed is apt to take them into the hands of the Dutch, or to
shipwreck. But in case any such complaint should be carried to Espana,
I am informing your Majesty of everything. I also do so that your
Majesty may see to what lengths these friars go, and how necessary it
is to check them, so that they may not cause similar desertions--which
appear outrages, and which are so, to the disservice of your Majesty,
as it takes from us the men who should attend to the royal service
in the royal fleet.
While affairs were in this condition, and the archbishop refused
to give me the protest or libel which was asked from him, and the
judge-conservator would not desist from requesting it, as I judged
that it was of service to our Lord and to your Majesty for me to
interpose my authority and settle affairs, I called a meeting of
the four best lawyers in Manila, among whom was the fiscal of this
royal Audiencia. To that meeting I summoned the father provincial and
father rector of the Society, and the judge-conservator himself. The
lawyers read the opinions, over which they had studied for several
days. All agreed that the judge-conservator could remove a suspension
that he had imposed on the archbishop as a means of getting the
said protest or libel from him; as they said that such suspension
was condemnatory. [18] For the same reason they said that he could
moderate or completely abrogate the pecuniary fines. The fathers
of the Society, although they were the ones offended, charitably
took the archbishop's part, and favored the opinion of the lawyers,
and desired that the archbishop come safely out of the affair. The
judge-conservator alone was somewhat harsh, and appeared to agree to
nothing of this. But I asked, entreated, and persuaded him, so that he
had to agree to it and absolve the archbishop from everything. Thus
was the affair completely ended, on January twenty-eight. I went
in my coach and took the archbishop to his cathedral. A huge crowd
of people assembled there, and there was much rejoicing in the
community because of the conclusion of those suits, and because it
is believed that your Majesty will consider it well done and to your
royal service. However, I am ever on the watch for new disturbances,
as the archbishop is naturally inclined to such. Sire, I do not know
that the prelates who are clamoring at Madrid are the ones needed here
in these islands. Not even for this archbishopric is it advisable
that the archbishop be a religious; but he should be some learned
secular of exemplary life--one of the many whom your Majesty has in
your kingdoms. And I say the same also even for the other bishopries,
in so far as that might be possible. For the harmony that should reign
in these islands, it is of the highest importance that the prelates
be seculars instead of friars; for these latter side with the others
and throw everything into confusion, and oppose the governor to the
best of their ability. With secular prelates, things will go better,
and great harmony will reign. I have reported these litigations so
minutely that your Majesty may know the exact truth--if any of the
parties should write or go there, and try to deviate from the truth
in their relation. May our Lord preserve your Majesty's royal person,
as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of June, 1636. Sire,
your vassal kisses your Majesty's feet.