[_Endorsed_: "Read and decreed within. December 12, 637."]
Sire:
The Order of St. Dominic and the other orders having so disturbed
me and the community with the affairs of the archbishop, Don Fray
Hernando Guerrero, as I have related to your Majesty in other letters,
Fray Diego Collado, who brought twenty-six religious of the said Order
of St. Dominic last year with your Majesty's order and permission,
presented to me certain letters from his general. He says that he
presented them in the royal Council of the Indias, who ordered that
these be returned to him, granting him the said permission to bring
the religious; although it appears that it was under the leadership
of another, the nephew of the said Fray Diego Collado, as the latter
was sick. I consulted as to the matter with the Audiencia, and with
other learned men. In accordance with their opinions (which I have
in writing), although I have no decree from your Majesty ordering me
to help him, I did aid him, at his petition, so that the provincial
of this province should obey the letters of his general. In those
letters the general orders, under penalty of major excommunication,
that the provincial should deliver the government of five houses and
one hospital of the Chinese to the said Fray Diego Collado, without
making any excuse or delay, so that he might form therewith a separate
congregation for the purpose of the propagation of the faith. [23]
Having, as I declare to your Majesty, consulted on and examined the
matter, and as this division cannot harm your Majesty or the royal
patronage, I deemed it advisable to grant him the aid in accordance
with the opinions aforesaid. Those fathers, therefore, divided into
two bodies, and the moods and restlessness in which they were keeping
the said archbishop subsided, and in fact have died away; and they
are allowing me to live and govern in peace. Until now, I have been
unable to have peace during these ten months, by whatever means I
have sought and striven. May God grant that it last, and that those
fathers content themselves with governing within their gates, and do
not endeavor to govern and manage your Majesty's governors--which
they attempted to do the second or third day after I was received
as such in these islands. One Fray Sebastian de Oquendo, a restless
and impudent friar, and extravagant in his speech, came to give me
his opinion, and to counsel me as to what persons were suitable for
alcaldes-mayor and captains of the districts where those religious
have their missions--praising some, and speaking evil of others;
and endeavoring to make me believe that what he told me was the only
thing that was advisable for your Majesty's service. He continued to
do that twice more within one week, until I asked him who had told
him that I needed his counsel and opinion to execute and carry out
your Majesty's service, which was in my charge. Thereupon, he talked
no more to me, but he has spoken evil things of the government in
the pulpit at various times--and so scandalously that it obliged the
Audiencia and its president to request his superior to cause him to
leave the city for a season, together with Fray Francisco de Paula,
another restless preacher, and a disturber of the peace and quiet and
of the minds of your Majesty's vassals. The superior refused to accede
to this request; accordingly, those fathers are always overbold and
impudent in the pulpits. Unless your Majesty have the goodness to
command that this be corrected, those of the province and those of
this new congregation will have recourse to your Majesty, in order
to lodge their complaints--those of the province declaring that your
Majesty's patronage is not being observed, and that the aid given
to Fray Diego de Collado is contrary to the royal patronage. This
is the first time that has been seen in these islands, that the
friars have defended the royal patronage, for they are through and
through opposed to the said royal patronage. If your Majesty would be
pleased to see it quite plainly, the royal patronage rules that the
provincials shall propose two or three persons as priors and guardians,
and that the government, representing your Majesty, shall appoint one
of these. By decrees sent to my predecessor, Don Juan Nino de Tabora,
in the year twenty-nine, your Majesty once more ordered that this be
ordained by your royal Council of the Indias. But, notwithstanding
what pertains to the patronage and what your Majesty orders,
the religious have refused to do this, or to obey you. They offer
certain cool excuses, and, although they see that that decree is
executed in Piru and Nueva Espana, they refuse to obey in anything
which pertains to the patronage, and which your Majesty orders by a
special decree, unless it suits them very well to obey it. And since
your Majesty has now sent an obedient governor, and one who does what
he is ordered, he is the most evil man in all the world; and they
parade him in their pulpits, attempting to ascertain and publish
what belongs to God alone alone--[asking] whether the continence
of the governor and his endeavor not to furnish a bad example, is
the virtue of chastity, or the fault of nature. These things, Sire,
are taught here in the pulpits by the Dominican friars. The guardian
of St. Francis said publicly in the pulpit of the cathedral church
(because the computer of accounts had presented an account against him)
that he would show a balance due against the king of Espana--talking
in this so discourteous manner of his natural lord, as if he were
English, French, or of any other nation; and charging your Majesty
with the fact that Fray Francisco Jimenez had gained Oran for you,
and that another Franciscan friar had quieted and pacified Nueva
Espana. From these things, he drew up results against your Majesty
in the pulpit. He said of the accountant, Juan Bautista de Cubiaga,
a Vizcayan (who is so well known that no one can be ignorant of his
birth, and of the great fidelity and disinterestedness with which
he serves your Majesty), that he was a Gascon devil, besides other
very insolent words--although the said friar is a Mallorcan or a
native of Cerdena [_i.e._, Sardinia], which one could presume to be
a more barbarous place than Espana. This is preached in the pulpits,
and is winked at; for these religious are exciting and stirring up
the community at any opportunity, and in order to avoid scandals,
the mildest course possible is being taken. These religious, Sire,
are very numerous, and must be trying to excite all these islands. They
show humility only when the hostile Indians go to sack their missions;
and then they come to ask for soldiers, and to set forth many things in
favor of the honor of God, and the service of your Majesty. For both,
with all humility I entreat your Majesty to be pleased to order these
excesses to be corrected, or to give me orders for what I am to do
in like cases.
Will your Majesty command that the question be considered whether
it will suit your Majesty to order the approval of what has been
done, or to take such action as may be most expedient for your royal
service--on account of the advantages arising from the separation of
this Order of St. Dominic into two factions, and for that reason,
their becoming subject to your Majesty's orders. I shall obey you
with my breast to the earth, as I ought to do, and as I have done for
twenty-six years past. May our Lord preserve your Majesty's Catholic
person, as is necessary to Christendom. Manila, the last of June,
1636. Sire, your vassal kisses your Majesty's feet.