Royal Cæsarean Majesty:
In this letter (the fourth of those which I am writing to your
Majesty), I intend to discuss a matter no less important than those
which I have discussed in the others. This matter is that when I came
to this land, the provincial of the Society of Jesus who resides in the
City of Mexico sent here at your Majesty’s orders four religious of
his order. They consisted of Father Antonio Sedeño, who came as rector
and occupies that position at present, and Father Alonso Sanchez, whom
I have mentioned in the letter which I wrote in regard to Chinese
affairs, and two other religious who were not priests, one of whom died
at sea, and the other of whom is still alive. Those fathers came to
this land to examine and consider the opportunity that may exist here
for the Society to settle and send religious here. That is in
accordance with the practice of that order before they settle
definitely. Inasmuch as they have as yet had no time to write to their
general how the land impresses them, for Father Alonso Sanchez was
absent on the expedition to China last year; and desiring now to write
their impressions of it they both came to speak to me and said that
they had considered the manner in which they could come to this land to
serve God and your Majesty according to the custom of their order; and
that since they had to write their resolution to their provincial and
general, that resolution was that they would go away unless they could
remain in a religious manner and busy themselves in the things in which
that order is wont [to busy itself] in all other districts, namely, the
teaching of letters and the instruction. They said that support was
necessary for those religious who had no other thing to do than to
teach and study, just as for the other religious in the villages of the
Indians. Since they did not see any disposition or possibility to be
able to build a college where they could have a sufficient number of
religious to conserve their order, and to maintain there persons who
might have charge of the teaching of the children and the others, of
whom they might wish to make use, from the first letters of the
alphabet to the arts and theology, they could not write otherwise to
their superiors than that there was no disposition for the Society to
be established here. I was very sorry to hear that, for I assure your
Majesty with the truth that I owe you, that, since my arrival in these
islands, I have had no other recourse or consolation than in them in
all the matters that have been offered to me and all the afflictions in
which I have found myself (which have not been few). Had I been without
them I believe that I would not have dared to have remained in the
land. Leaving out of consideration what concerns me for my consolation
and the security of my conscience, their establishment in this city and
in these islands is so necessary, that not only should your Majesty not
permit those who are here to go away, but it is necessary that you
order their general and provincial of Nueba España to send others to
keep them company, so that they may enter upon the exercises of their
order and inaugurate a college, where they may have persons to teach
the children of the inhabitants of this city and those of the hamlets
of these islands, as well as the mestizos and the sons of the chief
Indians. They should also have persons to teach grammar and matters of
conscience which are so necessary in this land. This college cannot be
established at present unless your Majesty be pleased to order that,
until such time as there be in these islands, a founder [95] of the
said college, according to the custom of these fathers, it be attended
to from the royal estate; or, if your Majesty prefer, that a fund be
created from some villages that are assigned to the royal crown for
that purpose, for what period your Majesty may order. By that means the
religious who are to work in the teaching as abovesaid can be
supported. Although this appears to be a great expense even for your
Majesty, yet consider the extreme necessity of this so that this land
may be maintained and advance, and that if those tributes are not
employed in this manner, they will be given to soldiers who as is
understood will not use them, as well as the fathers will, especially
since we do not petition that this be permanent but that it be only for
a limited time or until there may be a founder [of a college] here. I
trust in the divine Goodness that many days will not pass before some
one will be invited to become a founder and will have the good fortune
to be admitted as such.
There is another more urgent reason that makes me dare to petition your
Majesty to concede this favor to the fathers, or rather, to me and to
this city and these islands, namely, that although this seems to be an
expense and drain to the royal estate, it really is not so, but a
saving of the expenses and drain. For your Majesty cannot neglect to
annually send ministers, either seculars or religious, or some of both,
for the discharge of your royal conscience, in order that they may work
at the conversion and maintenance of these natives. Since the way is so
long the expense is necessarily very heavy; and it is a pity that after
a friar has been brought here at so great trouble and expense, on his
arriving here, he finds that the land is not to his taste nor the
Indians what he expected, and consequently he desires to return
immediately. Further, if one oppose this, it means the useless
detention of one who will attain his end. Experience has shown us that
this does not happen from one man or for only one time. Pursuing the
argument those who come from that country accustom themselves to the
land very slowly, and many years elapse before they know languages by
which they may profit the natives, and some do not even begin to study
them, while many leave the land after they have learned them. Therefore
if this college be established, your Majesty will save great expense,
since ministers will be reared therein (and they will really be reared
there) who can profit the natives much, your Majesty will not be
obliged to send so many religious from España as you would have to if
none were reared here; and consequently the expense will not be so
heavy. In addition, the inconveniences found in those who come from
España will not be met in those reared here, for a minister of our own
can be turned out here in the time that it would take one to come here.
Those who are reared here are accustomed to the manners and customs
here: and the college will graduate masters thoroughly instructed for
necessary work among the Indians. If this college is established, the
soldier whom God touches will resolve to become a secular upon seeing a
place where he can study, and I shall have persons to appoint from
their number to the church service and to the villages of the Indians.
Those villages are innumerable and have no person to tell them that
there is a God. I know that there are many who neglect to change their
status [i.e., to become priests] because they see the poor disposition
at the present, and some of them are so excellent interpreters that
they would prove very useful. This college would also be profitable for
the religious who are here, for the graduates from it would be ready to
be received into the orders. Those who are received at present remain
as ignorant as when they enter, inasmuch as they have no arrangements
for study. That causes me no slight scruple when they present
themselves before me for ordination, while the inconveniences ensuing
from men so ignorant having charge of the administration of so many
Indians as at present, are not few. The above reasons and my obligation
to procure and consider the welfare of this land have given me the
boldness to petition your Majesty to please have the said college
instituted in which the fathers of the Society may live for the
purposes above mentioned. If your Majesty bestow this concession upon
us it will give life to this land and give it an impetus for great
onward growth. Of a surety, your Majesty should not hold the dignity of
this city in small consideration, but should exalt it, for as I say in
another place, your Majesty has nothing of more importance anywhere in
the Yndias than this city. If this college is not built, I do not know
how we can maintain ourselves in the ministry of these Indians, nor
where we can get ministers who will serve the Church. For seven or
eight students whom I ordained with the hope that there would be
someone to teach them, remain in the same condition as when they were
ordained because there is no one to teach them. They are disconsolate,
and I am troubled because I ordained them. Many, as I have remarked,
hesitate to become seculars although they desire it, because of the
poor arrangements that they see for it. Therefore, I humbly petition
your Majesty to order the fathers of the Society to come to this city
either in the above manner or in any other way that your Majesty may
prefer, for by their aid and by their solicitude in caring for the
interests of the community, I trust that this city will once more lift
up its head, for it is now fallen very low.
The above is not the only good that is claimed for, and hoped from,
this college, but there is another of equal and even greater
importance, namely, the aid of the Indians. The fathers claim that they
will aid them and have already asked me for villages so that they may
begin to treat with the Indians. But since the Society is wont to have
a seminary wherever it goes, where those who take the habit of their
order are reared so that each one may go thence to work in the
salvation of souls either of Spaniards or Indians, according to the
order of their superiors, those fathers say that if they do not have
such a college they cannot persevere in this land, for the above is
their manner of preservation and the source of their profit to their
neighbors.
Confident in your Majesty’s kindness, I have prevailed upon those
fathers not to write their general of their intention of departing, but
on the contrary to write him to send others to live with them. I have
assured them that when your Majesty sees the necessity of their coming
here, your Majesty will be pleased to have this concession that we beg
bestowed upon us, or some other which will be better for all of us. In
the meanwhile I shall endeavor to support and to aid them here in
everything, for they also aid me and all this community considerably,
by which your Majesty is not slightly served.
Inasmuch as fathers of the Society will come to this land if your
Majesty grant us this favor, and many will take their habit here (and I
hope religious of my order as well who have not come here as yet), it
will be necessary for your Majesty to issue a royal decree ordering
those religious who have more Indians in charge than they can
conveniently instruct to allow the religious who shall come later or
the seculars who shall come from that country or those who shall be
here to enter upon the instruction of those Indians whom the former are
unable to instruct, in order that I may not have quarrels and strife
with the religious who are here now. The decision of this matter should
be for the bishop and not for the religious, for by embracing a large
territory and by preventing others from entering their districts, they
have taken in this entire bishopric, so that they are trying to occupy
with one friar the space that four or five could not suitably fill.
Whenever I endeavor to relieve this situation the friars complain that
I am preventing them from exercising their prerogatives, and they
prefer to allow souls to perish rather than to allow other friars to
enter to help them. If your Majesty do not correct this, we must
necessarily be at strife, for I cannot, on my conscience, avoid aiding
those souls whom I see to be perishing. May our Lord preserve your
Majesty’s royal Catholic person for many years for the good of His
holy Church, and the conservation of so many and so great kingdoms as
our Lord has placed under your Majesty’s protection. Manila, June 18,
1583. Royal Cæsarean Majesty, your least servant and chaplain kisses
your Majesty’s royal hands.
Fray Domingo, bishop of the Filipinas.
[Endorsed: “Have a decree issued ordering the president and the
bishop to discuss together how the contents of this letter may be best
complied with and with what income. In the meanwhile let them settle
and determine how the adequate instruction that the Society petitions
may be best obtained.”]