Extract from a letter written by Father Luis Pimentel to Father Manuel
Rodriguez, procurator-general of Indias, from Manila, February 8, 1686.
Don Juan de Vargas was excommunicated and placed on the public list
by Archbishop Pardo; he thereupon came before the Audiencia. That
court demanded that the archbishop show them his acts, which he did
not do. A royal decree was sent to him; he replied that he could not
send the act that he had issued against Don Juan de Vargas, since he
had to send it to a superior tribunal--that is, to the tribunal of the
Inquisition. The auditors sent him a second decree; he replied that he
was encumbered with affairs of more importance than those of Don Juan
de Vargas, and could not make [formal] answer. They sent a third one,
commanding him to send such answer; he replied that the doings of Don
Juan de Vargas were public and manifest, so that it was not necessary
to enact anything against him, and accordingly he had no documents to
send them. The secretary of the Audiencia notified him of the fourth
decree, and had orders to read it to the archbishop, but not to give
it to him, because the three former decrees had remained in his hands
without his making any answer. The secretary was told, however, that if
the archbishop should demand a certified copy, he should give him one
and bring back the royal decree; but the archbishop declared that if
the decree were not surrendered to him he would not answer it. As he
did not render obedience to the four decrees, his Majesty commanded,
by his royal decrees, that the archbishop should be declared banished
from the kingdoms. The governor went to talk with him, to start him,
as they say on the road; and it is said that he found him obstinate.
Now follows the fiction that they made arrangements, in order that
the governor might not consider himself obliged to undo what had been
done, [140] by recalling the sentence of banishment, and bringing
the archbishop to Manila. They ordered that all the estates of this
community should go to entreat the governor that the archbishop
should not be exiled; and the same persons went on this errand who
[afterward] bemired themselves in causing the archbishop to return to
Manila. These men went about talking and declaiming to everyone in the
community about the great difficulties, both spiritual and temporal,
which must follow from [the banishment]; but in reality all these were
fantastical, since there would be no further difficulties than those
which the governor chose--as there were none when the archbishop was
banished the previous time; [141] for one would hardly believe how
great is the hatred that most persons feel toward the archbishop and
his officials, and to the Dominican friars. The Order of St. Francis
was remiss in making this request, but an auditor brought them to
terms, as well as the members of the cabildos, both ecclesiastical
and secular. The most difficult thing was to subdue the Jesuits. A
bishop who was a great friend of ours charged himself with this task,
and easily persuaded the vice-provincial and the consultors; but I
always have been of opinion that we ought to pursue an even course--for
I immediately saw the trick, and that he was setting a trap for us,
as actually happened. Finally the vice-provincial and another father
went, because I excused myself from going in company with the other
orders. With them went Don Fray Juan Duran, a religious of the Order
of Mercy and bishop of Sinopolis; it was he who in the name of all the
orders made the address, setting forth the serious difficulties that
must ensue in spiritual and temporal affairs. This petition being
ended, the snare began; the governor told them to draw up a paper
in which they were to set forth the causes that led them to make the
request, and that all the orders should sign it--which converted the
petition into advice, and he did the same with the other estates,
even with the military leaders.
The [preparation of the] paper which the orders were to sign was
entrusted to one of the bemired ones, the provincial of the Augustinian
Recollects; but what he wrote was so unsatisfactory that even the
bishop of Sinopolis--who was active in carrying on this affair for the
governor, on account of being his intimate friend--did not like it;
and the bishop himself therefore drew up the paper, which was signed
by all the orders except the Society. Ours preferred to make its own
answer, separately; we did so, and I send [a copy of it] with this.