The archbishop tries to visit the missions of the religious,
but suspends that effort, and builds the cathedral of Manila.
The archbishop, Don Miguel Millán y Poblete, came here with the firm
determination to pursue the plans of Don Juan de Palafox y Mendoza,
bishop of La Puebla de los Ángeles, who had consecrated him. Those
plans had caused great disturbances in Nueva España because of
their novelty, and had divided that country into the two divisions
of Palafoxistas and Palancas, [86] who were no less mischievous than
the Guelphs and Ghibelines in the time of Federico Barbarroja [i.e.,
Frederick Barbarossa] when determinations issued forth to combat with
understandings. Don Juan de Palafox tried to reduce the ministries of
the missions (which the orders had possessed in Nueva España since the
conquest) to regularly-appointed curacies with canonical institution
and collation, so that they could be administered by ordinary
jurisdiction, to the suppression of the delegated jurisdiction. This
was done in order that the ecclesiastical hierarchy might be one
whole in its proportionate parts; and that the episcopal dignity might
possess entire dominion over the shepherds of its sheep, by visiting
them and sitting in judgment on their excesses in the office of parish
priests, which they exercised by virtue of the concession of St. Pius
V and other worthy pontiffs. His great perseverance obtained that
in the form established at present among the orders, who desired to
retain some ministries of the missions--leaving others, because that
subjection to the bishops did not seem to them to be in harmony with
the institutes of the orders. I shall not mention the disturbances
and scandals that the common enemy of souls compassed during that
time for the ruin of many--which filled the world with gloom, and
gave perfidious heretics the opportunity to blaspheme against the
Catholic priests--for they are very well known.
The archbishops of Manila tried to establish that kind of
ecclesiastical hierarchy in Filipinas, but as he was so holy,
and only desired to promote the greater honor and glory of God (Qui
cogitationem pacis et non aflictionis habet) [87] he found considerable
inconveniences and even impossibilities in effecting what he was
attempting. For Don Juan de Palafox had a great plenty of secular
priests who were very suitable in learning and virtue for choosing and
presenting for the missions, which the orders were abandoning, because
they refused to submit to the rigor of the canonical collation in the
appointments to the missions. But the archbishop found a great lack of
secular priests in these islands, for scarcely are there enough in this
country to fill the choir of the cathedral of Manila, with prebendaries
and chaplains for the royal chapel, and some few curacies which the
clergy hold in this archbishopric. For the Spaniards in this country
multiply but slowly, and very few of their sons apply themselves to
following the ecclesiastical life, either secular or regular. That
is so true that the orders could not maintain themselves if it were
not for the continual missions that are brought from the kingdoms of
España. Thus, the clergy is composed of the sons of the Spaniards of
this country, and with these is maintained a cabildo in this cathedral
of Manila, so distinguished that it might belong to one of the first
churches of España; for most of them are doctors in sacred theology,
after having graduated first as masters of arts. He who has the
least degree is a master. All of them are very learned and of known
virtue, which is a cause for admiration, as they live so far from
reward that one rarely passes from the sphere of the dignities of the
said cabildo. For although some have attained the episcopal dignity,
these are very few--as, for instance, this year their dean, Doctor
Don Domingo de Valencia, was promoted to the bishopric of Camarines,
[88] but at such an age that he cannot obtain the dignity for a long
time. However, in order to comply with his obligation, and to give
the orders an incentive to represent in judicial form what they
had to allege, the archbishop resolved to place the visitation in
execution. He began with the mission at Binondoc, outside the walls
of the city of Manila, belonging to the religious of St. Dominic,
who immediately abandoned that mission; and the same was done by the
other orders, who left the missions in their control in the hands
of the governor as vice-patron. The latter referred the consultative
vote on a so great and weighty matter to the Audiencia in the royal
assembly. It was thoroughly discussed by the auditors of the Audiencia,
who were all very eminent jurisconsults; and they, recognizing the
impossibility of placing in execution in these islands what Don Juan
de Palafox had established in Nueva España, as the system in vogue
in these regions is very different, despatched a royal prohibition
to the archbishop, ordering him to hold his right in reserve, and
to suspend what he had begun until the royal and supreme Council of
the Indias should be informed, and should take suitable measures. The
archbishop was notified by the first and the second royal prohibition;
and he obeyed it, and suspended the visitation, after making his
protests. From that time the orders found him a most loving father
and protector. He referred the case to the royal Council; the orders
also [did the same], by the authority which they gave to the most
reverend father master Fray Juan Polanco of the Order of Preachers,
the procurator of the province of Santo Rosario at court. All the
orders renounced the missions in their charge. The president [of
the Council] was the count of Peñaranda, Don Gaspar de Bracamonte y
Guzmán, a minister of great talent and experience in very difficult
negotiations, as he showed in the peace of Nimega, [89] where he was
the plenipotentiary of Don Felipe IV. That most erudite senate having
examined the matter, and having penetrated like lynxes the most hidden
difficulties, imposed silence for the time being on that innovation.
The perverse spirit of discord which had in charge the incitement of
that litigation in which the prince of darkness profited by a great
number of scandals, discords, and tumults, was suspended and remained
as if asleep for forty-four years--until it awakened, in the year 1697,
because of our sins. Archbishop Doctor Don Diego Camacho y Avila,
[90] a native of Badajoz and former magistral canon of that holy
church, and fellow of the chief college at Cuenca in Salamanca, came
to these islands [in that year]. He was a great prelate, and very
vigilant in his pastoral office. He died later (the year of 1712)
as bishop of Guadalajara and was well remembered for his zeal and
integrity. [Here follows an account of the attempt of Archbishop
Camacho to enforce the visitation of the regulars, which we omit in
this place, as it will be sufficiently noticed later.]
In the beginning, the provinces of América were founded entirely
in accordance with the regular institutes of communal houses and
convents, with a great number of conventuals; they did not need to
take these from the provinces of España, as they could choose plenty
from the country. On the contrary in Filipinas we have no more than the
convents of Manila, Cebú, and Guadalupe as communal convents--although
only the convent of Manila preserves that character; while the others,
more than seventy-four in number, are only missions where one single
religious lives, and, in a very few, two ministers, according to the
size of the village and the ability of the province. The latter is wont
often to consist of as many priests as missions, until reënforcements
of religious come from España; and if that reënforcement is very slow,
then there are generally more missions than religious as priests. What
I say here of our order is the same of all the others. It is not so in
América, Perú, and Nueva España, where the convents are established
totally independent of the missions. They have plenty of religious,
and those who belong to the land itself, so that they do not have
to send to España for them. Those convents have their incomes by
which they are sustained, so that they do not need any of the fees
of the missions; and consequently, the orders who wished to retain
some missions subject to the ordinary could do so very easily, by
assigning some religious to that mission who knew the language of
those villages. Such religious are presented to the vice-patron, who
presents them to the bishop. The latter examines them, and gives them
the collation of the curacy in regular appointment. They administer
that office in subjection to the priors of the convents, and to their
visitation and correction in matters concerning the order; and in
subjection to the bishops, who hold jurisdiction and visitation over
them in regard to any transgressions in their office as curas. Those
religious are maintained perpetually in their offices, and the chapters
cannot change them to other convents; for they cannot leave their
curacies without the intervention of the vice-patron and bishop, who
are very loth to change them because of the investigations demanded
by the presentation, examination, and collation. Those religious
(who are very few) having been dedicated to that office of curas,
the others, who consist of almost all the religious of the province
who are exempt from that occupation, hold their chapters and change
their priors according to the constitutions of the order.
It is not so in these Filipinas, where, as I have said, there are so
few religious. Supposing that the plan of Don Juan de Palafox were
to be inaugurated, and that all the religious submitted to receive
the canonical collation of the curacies in proprietary appointment,
the conservation and continued supply of religious would cease. The
chapters would cease, for they could not remove the religious from
the villages where they were acting as proprietary curas; and it
would be necessary to keep them where they had their parishes. Very
great difficulties would ensue from that. The province would cease
to send procurators to España to bring back religious; and if the
generous motive of coming as apostolic missionaries ceased, they
would leave their provinces and fatherland--all the more because of
being subject to the bishops, a burden so far from the exemption of
the regulars that we watch so carefully. That subjection would have to
be not only to the bishop but also to the ecclesiastical governors of
a vacant see. There have been so many of the latter in these islands,
that in Manila they had them for fourteen years; and in Cebú, Cagayán,
and Camarines, for twenty years. The provincials would have nothing
left but that name, and would not have entire control over their
subordinates. The above and many other representations were made to
Archbishop Don Millán de Poblete, and they availed so well with him
that he suspended his resolve. The same things were represented to Don
Diego Camacho, and these same reasons moved the gentlemen of the royal
Council of the Indias to moderate that subjection--leaving it only in
the visitation, with the limitations already mentioned, thus enjoining
perpetual silence, in regard to erecting the missions into curacies,
and to allowing the orders to abandon the ministries of those missions.
The archbishop having put aside his doubt in regard to undertaking
the visitation of the regulars, dedicated himself, as a true prelate,
to his other obligations. The first one was the building of the
cathedral, because of the ruin that occurred in it on the fatal night
of St. Andrew in the year 1645; the church of the girls' school of
Santa Isabel was being used as a cathedral. He placed his shoulders
very earnestly to that so chief obligation, although the poverty
of the times made it difficult for him. He set about collecting
materials, and the order of our father St. Augustine lent him the
lime-kilns of Birabira, where the best and strongest lime of all
the islands is made. The pious and Catholic governor, Don Sabiniano
Manrique de Lara, was the one who conquered the greatest difficulties
by collecting a generous alms from the citizens of Manila, and by
giving his aid to the archbishop. The building was commenced, and,
after the trenches for the foundations had been made, the archbishop
clad himself in his pontifical garments and on the twentieth of April,
1654, blessed the first stone, which was carried by General Don Pedro
de Mendiola. The master-of-camp, Don Pedro de Almonte, carried on a
rich tray a bronze plate with the inscription of the erection of the
church. Captain Don Nicolás Sarmiento carried on another tray five
silver coins, and Captain Diego Castellanos a box of lead. All went
in procession to the place where the stone was to be placed, and the
governor and archbishop set it in position, while the litanies were
being chanted. In a hollow already made in the stone were placed the
plate and coins. The inscription on the plate is as follows:
"While Innocent X was governing the Church, King Felipe IV the
Españas, and Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, knight of the Order
of Calatrava, the Filipinas Islands, this stone for the building
of this holy cathedral--its titular being the Conception, and its
patron St. Andrew the apostle--was placed in position by Don Miguel
de Poblete, metropolitan archbishop, April 20, 1654."
The building of that cathedral proceeded, as the time, which was
very full of troubles, allowed; accordingly it lasted for many years,
two or three years having passed without any work; and its dedication
services were held on September 8, 1671. It is of Doric architecture
and has three naves, and is very strong, as it is built of heavy
stone. It has a reredos of the finest sculpture in these islands. It
was completed by Archbishop Don Diego Camacho y Ávila, who built a
very beautiful high tower that contains some very fine bells. [91]
He also built the sacristy and other parts which were wanting for
the completion of the cathedral, and adorned it with a quantity of
wrought silver and very rich ornaments and lamps, which he sent from
Guadalajara, for he was not forgetful of his first spouse.