(Source: Blair & Robertson, The Philippine Islands, volume 50, pp. 137-156)

 

 

Abuses or disorders which have been fostered in the Filipinas Islands under the shelter of religion, and at the cost of the royal treasury, which ought to be cut down at the root, so that the governors who may be sent to those parts, if they are good may be better, and if bad may not be worse—and, at least, so that they may not have any excuse; so that religion may be established on its sure principles of purity, in order that the king may be owner of those domains (until now he has been owner in the matter of expense); and finally, so that his Majesty's vassals, both Spaniards and Indians, may be vassals of their king alone, and may be relieved from the abominable slavery which they have borne for about two hundred years.68

 

 

FIRST ABUSE

It is an abuse, and a very great one, for a city so reduced as Manila to have two universities for the small student body [estudiante y medio: literally, "student and a half"] therein, without other object or idea than the rivalry of the Thomist and Jesuit schools, to the so great harm of the state, and of religion, as has been seen in all parts, in so many clamorings and scandals.69

It has been said that there is a student and a half, not because there is no more, but because I mean by that that there are eighty or ninety (and there are no more) for the two universities.

In the beginning there was a secular university as in España, but the two orders did not rest until they destroyed it;70 and they, having remained alone, scarcely furnish subjects for the eight canonries, two raciones, and two medias-raciones, of the cathedral.

It is to the interest of all the orders that a secular ecclesiastical estate shall not be fostered, or [even] exist; for in this manner, since there is no one [else] to be obtained they continue in the possession of the curacies, and the king continues his former and most detrimental burden of sending missionaries at his own cost, who become there so many other enemies.

On account of the abovesaid, the two universities in great harmony and accord have introduced the settled plan of furnishing an instruction of mere ceremony, in order thus to disappoint even the small number of students.

In the university of Santo Tomás there is one professorship of institute law, and another in the university of the Society. Who will believe that when I was in Manila there were not more than three advocates who had graduated from those universities? namely, Don Santiago de Orendain, Don Domingo de Aranas, and Don Luis de Luna—the first two professors, but with scarcely any pupils.

It is a fact that the bar in Manila is superabundantly supplied. Notwithstanding that, if advocates did not go from Mexico to gain their livelihood the business [of the courts] would cease for lack of defenders, notwithstanding the two universities—who through their shrewdness and influence prevent the students from pursuing that career, as very few are inclined to that of theology.71

 

Remedy for this evil

The university of the Society having been extinguished by their expulsion, the same ought to be done with that of Santo Tomás; for, otherwise, the same difficulty remains. Suitable professors ought to be sent from here,72 who will maintain themselves with the same incomes,73 and suitable seculars, in order that they may be given the curacies near Manila. in view of this reward there will be no lack of students to attend it; and in a few years, the hard yoke of all the regular estate, hitherto possessing almost all the curacies and maintained by the king, notwithstanding the rich fees or dues [therein, will be shaken off.74

 

SECOND ABUSE

It is an abuse that, although the spiritual administration belongs by right to the secular clergy, and the regulars possess it precariously ad nutum [misprinted mitum] regis propter inopiam clericorum in principio,75 the greatest promotion which an unemployed secular obtains in Filipinas is to be the ser vant or deputy of the fathers.76 Thence it results that the latter abound in so great wealth, collectively and singly, and the former suffer from necessity; and all of them are the sons of Spaniards and Indian women, and all vassals of the king. In view of this disclosure, what father will spend and what son will work without even a remote hope of reward?

 

Remedy for this evil

Since the reign of Don Fernando VI (in the years 1753 and 1757), all the curacies in both Americas have been taken from the regulars as fast as the latter have died. Let the same be done in Filipinas, and that will be in accordance with all right. The true religious will surely give thanks, the curacies will return to their center, anti the ecclesiastical estate will be aided by what is in justice due to it.

 

THIRD ABUSE

 

It is an abuse that since the regulars have possessed the curacies for so many years and with so many troubles [ensuing therefrom], they have not, although the country is so wealthy and their fees and parish dues are so heavy, thought of relieving the king of the hard and intolerable burden of paying them a stipend in money, with rice, wine for the mass, and oil; and, in those curacies which they call missions, even the escorts for the guard of the father—who runs no risk and for that reason is not accustomed to have any escort, although the king always pays for them.77

What vassal who has even the most lukewarm regard and respect for his king could keep still when the curacies of Binondo, Santa Cruz, and the Parian (which are under the canon of Manila), and that of Tondo, which are, with but little difference, worth to the regulars, the first, six or seven thousand pesos in obventions, and the others but little less, nevertheless draw from the king the stipend in the things mentioned above?

 

Remedy for this evil

To create a university, as has been said, to send clergy for its beginning, and to make current the tithes—of which hitherto in Manila it is only known that they are inserted in corpore juris,78 nothing more. By this just provision the king will save three hundred thousand pesos; the army will find that they can be supported with that amount; and the difference between these two investments will be evident, since the soldiers defend the king, and the regulars are his enemies, of which the past war was a good example.

 

FOURTH ABUSE

It is an abuse that amid the many and heavy fees which the regulars charge the Indians they exact fees for confession, and, in the [very] act of making the confession, one and one-half reals in order to comply with the precept, under the pretext of the three feasts, namely, Corpus Christi, the titular saint, and Holy Thursday; for even if that is not simony, at least est res pesimi exempli.79 It is certain that the Indian believes that he pays for confession, and it is also a fact that if he does not pay he is not confessed.

As soon as the English took possession of Manila, they learned of such a custom, and thereupon cast great contempt on our religion, and persuaded the Indians to follow them, for among them there was no such practice, nor could there be—which was an error and a manifest deceit.80

From this custom, abuse, or offering, two hundred pesos are obtained in some villages, and in others three hundred, four hundred, and even more, according to the population.

The abovesaid feasts result so cheaply to the father that with twenty pesos he pays the expenses of all three of them; for the adornment of the church and of the line of march is made by the Indians; wax is no expense to the father, or very cheap; he or his associate preaches the sermon; and, let him preach what he will, he never gets beyond a discourse spoken in a language which either the preacher does not understand, or, if he does understand it, he does so very poorly and with great errors.81

 

Remedy for this evil

To decree that this abuse cease entirely; for it is less inconvenient that there should not be such feasts than that, under the pretext of those feasts, occasion be given for so serious a scandal; a thousand expedients that are proper will be found without using this one, which touches a most sensitive point in religion.

 

FIFTH ABUSE

Since the discovery of the two Americas, the king has been seignior of them in temporal matters, and in spiritual, royal patron and pope, and as such has made appointments to all the secular and ecclesiastical employments of the cathedrals, with the advice of the auditors; and the curacies are filled by the vice-patrons, with preceding examination and proposal by the ordinary. In this matter there is seen the monstrosity in Filipinas that, excepting the prebends of the cathedral, all the curacies are given by the provincials to their subjects without examination, proposal by, or notice to, the ordinaries or the vice-patrons, with absolute despotism and independence, despoiling the king and ordinaries of the so well-known right that belongs to them.

 

Remedy for this evil

Until seculars are provided, the provincials must cause their subjects, by right and the councils, to subject themselves to examination and proposal by the ordinary to the vice-patrons; and it is an intolerable abuse that the provincials make those appointments without giving notice to the latter.

 

SIXTH ABUSE

It is an abuse, born of the preceding, that the archbishop of Manila and the three bishops of Nueva Cáceres, Nueva Segovia, and Cebú, residing in their dioceses, may be bishops in partibus, since, under pretext of the exemption of the regulars, they may not ask the latter how they administer their obventions or how they live, which in truth is the height of scandal.

 

Remedy for this evil

The venerable Palafox, in La Puebla, conquered the regulars by a formal judgment that as parish priests they must remain subject to the ordinary; but after his removal to Osma those who were expelled succeeded in nullifying this and other just decisions. The same thing was obtained in Manila by Archbishop Camacho; but after he was transferred to the bishopric of Guadalajara in Nueva España the same thing happened as in La Puebla, so that the regulars have continued and still remain in the same abuse—which will cease by ordering them to obey the judgment secured by Camacho (or by the council, which is the same thing).82

 

SEVENTH ABUSE

Just as the bishops who live within their dioceses are bishops in partibus, the king is that in the Filipinas Islands. His Majesty resides in them by the authority communicated to his president and Audiencia, and to the alcaldes, governors, and corregidors of the provinces, in which the president, Audiencia, and other ministers do not command, but only the religious father.

The king is named as such, and is called upon as king, only in order that he may pay the stipends; beyond that his royal name is abhorred and persecuted.

It causes horror to see a religious, paid and maintained by his Majesty, with the character of apostolic missionary, no sooner arrived at Manila from these kingdoms than he immediately publishes and defends the assertion that the king is not master of the islands, but only they who have conquered them; that the Indian ought not to pay tribute; and that no bull [i.e., of the Crusade] is needed. It is for this very reason that there are so many difficulties in collecting the tribute, and that the bull is not purchased excepting in Manila and its environs.

 

With these opinions, and their extolling, some the pontifical grants to their girdle, others those of the scapulary of Carmel,83 and others their exercises, they obtain vast contributions which they call alms; and the king is left with the bulls, for the religious assert and proclaim that they are not necessary.

In regard to jurisdiction, it is a well-known fact that no gobernadorcillo of Indians carries out any mandate of the president, Audiencia, or alcalde without the permission of the religious father—under penalty of one hundred lashes, which are given to him instantly if he obeys the royal magistrates and justices.

With these and other pernicious ideas in which the fathers abound, they surprise the poor Indian, strike him with terror, and make him believe that they are all-powerful, can do everything, and that the authority of the king is worth nothing. Thus the king becomes, like the bishops, a monarch in partibus, in name alone, and only in order to maintain certain persons who style themselves apostolic missionaries.

A few days after I had arrived at Manila, the archbishop-governor [i.e., Rojo] despatched an order to the province of Pampanga; it fell into the hands of a father, and he tore it to bits with great calmness, the archbishop overlooking that act of disrespect. Hence, even in case that one obey any mandate of the royal jurisdiction, so many are the obstacles and difficulties that the fathers find for its execution, that they absolutely do not have any other endeavor or desire than to cause the Indian not to recognize any other sovereign than themselves. The worst is, that this idea has existed since the conquest of the two Americas, whence it passed to Filipinas, with the utter detriment and ruin of king; state, and religion. Hence the king is called king, and the president, Audiencia, and alcaldes by their own names; but, in reality, the fathers exercise these functions.84

 

Remedy for this evil

To order with the utmost strictness that the regulars restrain themselves within their limits as parish priests, under penalty of expulsion if they meddle with or embarrass the royal jurisdiction.

 

EIGHTH ABUSE

From these so pernicious ideas fixed in the minds of the Indians, is born the monstrous result that a baptism, burial, or marriage costs them twelve, twenty, or more pesos, if the father asks it—and this is with all caprice, and no resistance or appeal can be made. But when it comes to demanding the tribute, although it is not more than one peso and two reals a year for the whole tribute, and five reals for the half-tribute, there are a thousand difficulties, and various stratagems are used, such as going to the mountains to hide, or feigning that they cannot pay; and, in such a case, they always have the father on their side against the king and the alcalde, on this point.

Remedy for this evil

To order that the fathers shall not meddle in worldly affairs, especially in the royal jurisdiction; that they shall not engage in trade;85 to establish collection of the tithes; and to compel them to observe very moderate tariffs [of parish fees]—under penalty of expulsion obliging them to undo the evil that they have wrought.

 

NINTH ABUSE

It is an abuse that the king pays the expenses of the voyage and support of the fathers in Filipinas, under title of apostolic missionaries, and they go there to become merchants and business men, to the harm of the poor Spaniards and of the Indian, besides their abandonment of the spiritual ministry which is in their charge.

In the environs of Manila—with the exception of the Franciscans, who have nothing, and of the Condesa de Lizárraga, who has a small estate—the religious orders possess the following estates: the Dominicans, Lolomboy, Panay, Navotas, Great Malabon, and Biñan; the calced Augustinians, Malinta and Pasay; the discalced Augustinians, San Pedro Tunasan, San Nicolás, Imus, and Tunasancillo; the Jesuits, Mayjaligue, Masilog, Nagtajan, Nagsubig, Mariquina, Indan, Silan, Marigondon, Payatas, and San Pedro Macati (where they have their earthenware factory, from which they make annually thirty thousand pesos fuertes net profit). These are the ones which I now have in mind, although they have other estates in the provinces, of which I can give no exact account. But indeed I know, because I have seen it, that the Indians who cultivate those lands come to be virtually slaves, by which means the orders have aggrandized themselves, with their trade in sugar, cattle and horses, and rice. Although this last is the bread of all, that bread rises in price to such a degree that it can rise no further—to which is added the great export of these products to China and the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar.86

 

Remedy for this evil

To command, under penalty of expulsion, that they do not trade, as it is contrary to law; and, in respect to estates, they ought to sell them, even though they are the just owners, since such business is inconsistent with their ministry. It is certain that, by public report, if they had to show their titles to those lands it would be found that many, if not all of them, had been usurped from the Indians. On this account, without doubt, in regard to this point there was much talk in the time of Governor Arand[i]a. But nothing was gained in favor of the Indians, from whom, let the fathers allege what they please, the endowment of land which the law orders cannot be taken.

 

TENTH ABUSE

In the extreme parts of the mountains of the provinces of Pampanga, Pangasinan, Ilocos, and others, the regulars possess missions which they call active [vivas] missions. There has been a mission for forty, fifty, or sixty years, without paying tribute or acknowledging the king. If any alcalde has tried to visit them, they have had superabundance of witnesses and testimonies for their right to conduct it;87 this means that the king supports the missionary, and escorts who guard him. This is a monstrosity; for if he wishes to know the condition and results of the mission the matter is reduced to a lawsuit, until the alcalde is ruined. In reality such missions are advance-posts or custom-houses toward the mountains of the heathen, whence the latter bring down to them their gold, cacao, wax, and other products. This is what employs and occupies the religious father. There are well-founded opinions which assert that the inhabitants of the mountains are not reduced to subjection because of the bad treatment which they know is given them in the missions—where from their foundation there has not been nor is there any Spaniard save the father. It follows from this that, where the father is, there is no lack for vexations against the Indians. Consequently, for the same, and even a stronger reason, the rigor of the decree and laws, and the censure of Fray Gaspar de San Agustin, which are cited in the following abuse, ought to include the regulars.

 

Remedy for this evil

To prohibit them from engaging in this trading, under penalty of expulsion; and under the same penalty, that they shall not hinder the Indians from going to Manila to sell these and other products which they have, and much less hinder the Spaniards from going to the provinces to buy them, to reside there, and to marry in them, if they wish. To order that the missions be visited, without hindrance, by the bishops in regard to spiritual matters, and by the government; and that, at the proper time, they must pay the tribute in accordance with the laws.

 

                                  Continued

 

68 To the text of this document we add most of the annotations thereon made by Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, as found in his publication of this document (Memoria de Anda y Salazar, Manila, 1899); these are especially interesting, as coming from the pen of a native Filipino who is a scholar, a liberal, and an enlightened patriot. These notes—either translated in full, or con densed into a summary, citing his exact language whenever possible—are credited to him, stating the note-number and page where they are found. [back to text]

69 From the date of the foundation of the College of Santo Tomás, there was strife between it and the Jesuit college of San Jose. In 1648, the Dominicans triumphed for the time being, and the Jesuits were forbidden by the royal Audiencia to grant degrees in their university. That decision was reversed in Spain by a royal decree of March 12, 1653. San José was closed when the Jesuits were expelled. (Pardo de Tavera, pp. 43, 44, note 1.) [back to text]

70 In note 2 (pp. 44-47), Pardo de Tavera gives a sketch of the history of the "secular university" of Manila. The royal decree founding it (dated May 16, 1714) states as its purpose, "that persons born there may have the comfort of being enabled to fit themselves for obtaining the prebends;" accordingly, three chairs were established at Manila, for instruction in canon and civil law and Roman law. The first incumbents (appointed in 1715) were Julian de Velasco, Francisco Fernandez Toribio, and Manuel de Osio y Ocampo. The institution was opened on June 9, 1718, and included also the chairs of medicine and mathematics, professors for these being appointed by the governor—who, finding that this enterprise was opposed by the religious orders, especially by the Dominicans and Jesuits, ordered that a building for its use should be erected near his palace; but lack of funds stopped this work in 1721. When the chairs became vacant in 1726, a competitive examination was held to fill them, at which only five men with the degree of bachelor of law were present. The lectures were but thinly attended, five or six students only being the usual audience; the royal decree suggested that these be reënforced by students from San José and Santo Tomás, but these colleges discouraged such attendance, and it availed naught. In 1726, the Jesuit Murillo Velarde was appointed to the chair of canon law, and then the Jesuits offered San José college to the new professors (at first, the lectures in the royal foundation had been given in a private house, because the archbishop declined to let them be given in the archiepiscopal seminary); this aroused the jealousy of the Dominicans. Finally a compromise was made between them, by agreeing that in each of the two universities there should be a chair of canon law in charge of a religious, and one of civil law in charge of a layman. The king, learning of this controversy and the ineffectiveness of his foundation, decreed (July 26, 1730) that it should be closed, thus saving to the treasury the annual cost of 2,000 pesos. Pardo de Tavera remarks that the name of "university," given to it in Manila, does not appear in the royal decree of 1714, which simply established the three chairs mentioned. See also the account of "the college seminary of San Phelipe," in VOL. XLV of this series, pp. 187-207, and some allusions to it in VOL. XLIV, pp. 145, 178; Velasco and Toribio were imprisoned by Bustamante at one time (VOL. XLIV, pp. 152, 155, 159.)

In reality, we must go back to the royal foundation in 1702, which was encroached on by Cardinal Tournon and the abbot Sidoti (1704-07); see San Antonio's full account of this in VOL. XXVIII, pp. 117-122. Pardo de Tavera gives an outline of this account in his note 3 (pp. 48-50), and adds: "The power of the friars caused the organization of the seminary to be delayed until, toward the end of the past century, thanks to Señor Sancho de Santa Justa y Rufina, the seminary of San Carlos was created; it was installed in the former house of the expelled members of the Society of Jesus."[back to text]

71 "The religious orders in Filipinas have always been accused of opposing culture and the diffusion of human learning among the Filipinos, having assumed, according to their traditional policy, the role of rnonopolizers of public instruction, in order thus to present themselves as its defenders and partisans, proclaiming themselves the civilizers of the people, and the source and origin of their intellectual progress. In reality, having in their hands the public instruction they so conducted themselves that, as Don Simon says, they organized an instruction of mere ceremony, intended to maintain the Filipinos in a calculated ignorance, and keep them imbued with principles which tended to subject their conscience and reason to the absorptive power of the monastic supremacy." (Pardo de Tavera, p. 50, note 4. ) [back to text]

72 It is to be remembered that Anda wrote this memorial at Madrid, where he was occupying a seat in the Council of Castilla. [back to text]

73 "The idea of secularizing the university of Manila, suggested by Anda y Salazar, was contemplated a century later by Señor Moret, minister for the colonies [de Ultramar], and decreed by the regent of the kingdom on November 6, 1870. The college of San Juan de Letran was also secularized by the same decree; but in Filipinos orders of that sort were not executed. For the friars upset the whole matter, threatening the ruin of the colony if the decree were carried out, raising protests and petitions—in short, causing the bishops and the authorities to range themselves on their side, in order to present to the government at Madrid the question from the point of view which suited the interests of the Dominican older. The execution of the regent's decree was suspended, writings were sent to Madrid in favor of the friars, and, as always, they gained their point, and continued to be owners and masters of the university and of the college of San Juan de Letran.'' ( Pardo de Tavera, note 6, pp. 50, 51. ) [back to text]

74 "The friars have always been considered as poor and needy by the government of España, and in that notion—without stopping to consider that their ownership of land was continually extending further in Filipinas, and that through various schemes they had created for themselves a secure income in the country—the Spanish monarchs by various provisions (most of them despatched at the instigation of the friars) have ordained that their needs be supplied with wine, oil, various contributions, and cash donations, under the most flimsy pretexts." (Pardo de Tavera, note 7, p. 51.) [back to text]

75 "At the pleasure of the king, on account of the lack of clerics at the beginning." [back to text]

76 "In effect, it can be said the friars trained clerics in order afterward to employ the latter in their own service; for under the name of coadjutors each cura kept in his convent one or two clerics, according to the necessities of the parish, who served him as if they were slaves, and who suffered every sort of humiliation and annoyance. It was not only in those times [of Anda] that the situation of the Filipino cleric was so melancholy and abject; but, in the midst of the increasing prosperity of the friars and their curates, with equal pace increased also the wretchedness of their coadjutors and the intolerable misery of their existence. In order to justify their conduct toward the Filipino clerics, the friars resorted to the pretext of their unfitness; but not only is this argument calumnious, but, even if it were accepted as sound, it does not justify the bad treatment which they give the cleric, and would demonstrate, besides, that the education which he receives from the friars is incomplete and defective." (He cites Archbishop Santa Justa as rebuking the regulars for thus calumniating the clerics, saying, among other things, "Is it not notorious to every one of us here that the spiritual administration all devolves upon the coadjutor cleric, the father minister reserving to himself only the charge of collecting in his own house, without leaving it, the parochial dues: How can they deny this, when it is so public? If the clerics are incapable, how can the ministers in conscience allow and entrust to them the spiritual administration of their villages? It that be not so, how dare they discredit the clerics with the strange, not to say unjust, censure of their being unfit and incompetent?") "In these later times, the friars, since they could no longer rail against the clerics in that fashion—for they do not, at least so much now, insist on their old accusation of unfitness, because the Filipino clerics have proved that they include men of as great learning and virtue as the friars, and even more—resorted to a political reason, making the Spanish government believe that the Filipino clerics were every one filibusters. This weapon was of good results for the cause of the friars, but fatal for the Filipino clergy, who found themselves horribly trampled upon in 1870, on occasion of the famous rebellion of the Cavite Arsenal; for three of their most distinguished and revered members, Fathers Burgos, Zamora, and Gomez, were executed under the calumnious accusation of being leaders of the rebellion, and a great number of other distinguished Filipino priests were sent to the military posts or into exile. Public opinion flung back upon the friars the terrible responsibility of sentences so iniquitous; but since then the new and safe weapon of `filibusterism' has been used more and more against the Filipino clerics." (Pardo de Tavera, note 8, pp. 52, 53.) [back to text]

77 "The contribution of wine and oil had been granted (as is stated in ley 7, tit. iii, book i of the Recopilación de Indias) to certain poor monasteries, so that they could illuminate the blessed sacrament and celebrate the holy sacrifice of the mass. It was likewise ordained that such contribution should be furnished in the articles themselves, both oil and wine, and not in money or bullion. This contribution was to be given to the conventual religious and not to the ministers of doctrinas, that is, to the curas (ley 9). The escort of soldiers which was furnished to the missionaries was granted to them by a royal decree of July 23, 1744, the text of which I have not been able to find. According to Diaz Arenas (Memorias históricas), the royal decree of May 13, 1579, granted to each cura in a doctrina the sum of 50,000 maravedis, and half as much to the sacristans. Afterward, by a royal decree of October 31, 1596, the said stipend of missionary religious was fixed at $100 and l00 fanegas of palay. On March 4, 1696, August 14, 1700, January 19, 1704, and July 14, 1713, the king had ordered the viceroys of his colonial possessions to send him a report in regard to the religious who were really in need of the contribution of wine, wax, and oil, in order that he might cease giving aid to those who had no need of it, 'or that the half or the third part might be deducted from their allowance, in proportion to the poverty of each one.' This is seen in the royal decree of September 22, 1720, in which the king insists that this information should be sent to him; but he could not obtain it, in spite of repeated orders." [Other attempts were made to secure such information, through the century, but without success.] (Pardo de Tavera, note 9, pp. 54-56. ) [back to text]

78 "The book of laws;" there is also an allusion to the gen erally adopted legal code or collection of laws, known as Corpus juris—literally, "body of law." The main reference in Anda's phrase is to the Recopilación de Indias, which provides for the collection of tithes in the Spanish colonies. [back to text]

79 "It is an exceedingly bad example." [back to text]

80 Pardo de Tavera cites (note 11, pp. 56-58) a royal decree dated April 27, 1704, charging the governor (then Zabálburu) and Audiencia to restrain the friars from levying unjust exactions on the Indians. This decree was occasioned by the complaints on this score made (in 1702) by Archbishop Camacho; in it are enumerated the following acts of such injustice: "Besides the stipends which are paid to them from the royal treasury, they oblige every Indian in their districts to render them service in all their domestic necessities, and to furnish them with four fowls every day in each mission, and with fish, fuel, and everything else that the land (and even the water) produces. At the same time they collect from the Indians excessive fees, without observing the tariffs; for from an Indian whose property is worth four hundred pesos (which is the value usually of that belonging to the wealthier natives) they exact for a burial one hundred or two hundred, besides what they afterward receive for the funeral honors [i.e., ceremonies for the welfare of departed souls]; and twelve pesos for the offering for [wearing] the cope [del habito de la religión], or, if the natives are very poor, six or eight pesos, the religious making it necessary to the burial that he shall wear the cope; and when they lack means to pay for these, they serve the religious like slaves until they have earned what they need to pay these impositions. As for the marriages, the religious receive thirteen pesos for what they call the altar fee, and thirteen reals for the cross, and eight for the offering for the mass, and four for the veiling; even when they are very poor, the religious exact from them at least six or eight pesos as a requisite [for the marriage]. The Indians are, for a long time, living in illicit intercourse, because they have not the means to pay [these exactions]. In the baptisms they have introduced another tax after the offering; the rich Indian must pay up to twelve pesos for the silver cross, and the poor one pays, as such, for the wooden cross. Besides this, they also receive three reals every year from each Indian for the feast of the patron saint of the village, honors for the dead, and wax for the monument; and, added to this, one or two reals when they confess the Indians at the Lenten season—without giving any care or attention to their instruction, or to the greater service of the churches in their charge. They are deficient in almost all which belongs to their obligations as missionary curas, excepting the religious of the Order of Preachers and those of the Society, who treat the natives more kindly and instruct them better." Cf. the "tariff of fees" drawn up by Camacho (VOL. XLII, pp. 56-64). [back to text]

81 "The friars, in studying the Filipino languages, continually compared them with the Latin and the Castilian, to the grammar and genius of which they molded, whenever they could, those of the new language which they were learning. As a result, the grammars of the Filipino languages which they soon made created an artificial language, very different from that actually spoken by the islanders. Educated Filipinos distinguish perfectly this conventional language of the friars; and the latter in their turn make the charge, when they have noticed one of these observers, that the Indians when talking among themselves employ a different language from that which they use in conversations with the cura. The reverend father Fray Ramón Martinez Vigil (now bishop of Oviedo) has not failed to notice this difference; but in undertaking to explain it he falls into an error that is excusable if one considers his religious calling, which cannot admit that when there is a blunder the mistake is on the priest's side. Speaking, then, as a priest, and doubly superior to the Indian by being a Spaniard besides, he confidently says: `All who have observed their familiar conversations (of the Indians) are agreed in affirming that they entirely lay aside the rules of grammar, in order to make their conversation more rapid and short—speaking among themselves a Tagálog quite different from what they use when they address the Spanish priest or any other European who understands their language.' (Revista de Filipinas, t. ii, 1877, p. 35.) Every one who understands Tagálog has endured mortal torments thousands of times while hearing from the pulpit the sermons which a great number of religious utter in that conventional language. At present, however, the sermons that are preached are, as a rule, written in the old style, for the occasion, and then revised and corrected by coadjutors, or by citizens versed [in the native language], who shape and polish the discourse properly." (Pardo de Tavera, note 12, pp. 58, 59.) [back to text]

82 An interesting sketch of the controversy in Filipinas over the episcopal visitation of the regular curas is given by Pardo de Tavera in his note 13, pp. 59-68. The strife began even with the first bishop, Domingo de Salazar, and continued for some three centuries; for as late as 1865 the archbishop of Manila and two of his suffragan bishops joined in sending to the Spanish government complaints against the friars of substantially the same tenor as those made earlier by Salazar, Camacho, and Santa Justa. Papal and royal decrees were issued at intervals, insisting on the right of episcopal visitation; but in most cases these were practically nullified by the influence or opposition of the friars, and the inadequate supply of secular priests. The friars several times threatened to abandon their curacies (and actually did so, on some occasions); and they claimed exemption from visitation on various grounds—claiming a privilege granted to them by Pope Pius V (which, however, was afterward annulled by Clement XI), the right to obey only the superiors of their respective orders, and the lack of any obligation on them to serve the curacies, which they claimed to be only a work of supererogation. [back to text]

83 "Apart from the religious fiestas and the surplice-fees, Filipinas pays to monasticism, another tribute of incalculable amount for straps, rosaries, scapulars, girdles, and other objects rivaling one another in similarly miraculous qualities—which arc issued for cash, and at a fixed price, which yields no less than a thousand per cent on the capital invested." Instances of this are given; "a worn pair of trousers, which the students from whom it is acted give gratis, is transformed into hundreds of scapulars, and each scapular costs two and one-half reals fuertes, or perhaps thirty-one hundredths of a peso." "Thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of hard dollars are paid as a tax by Filipinas on this account to the monastic coffers; and if Jesus Christ drove out the traders from the temple, in the country of miracles those persons are chastised who refuse to obtain the goods from the temple." (Marcelo H. del Pilar, cited by Pardo de Tavera in note 14, pp. 68, 69. ) [back to text]

84 Pardo de Tavera here cites in full (note 16, pp. 69-76) a letter from Governor Corcuera to the king complaining of the conduct of the friars. (This letter appears in VOL. XXVI of our series, pp. 116-125.) [back to text]

85 "Some have believed that Anda y Salazar, whom they consider resentful against the religious orders in Filipinas, accumulated against them, in this memorial, accusations which he alone maintained; but in the preceding notes we have demonstrated that the charges which that upright magistrate made against them were not unfounded, nor much less were they recent. In regard to the commerce to which, according to him, the religious devoted themselves, it was a certain fact, scandalous and of long standing—with the aggravating circumstance that they continued to trade in opposition to the commands of the sovereign." A decree dated February 2, 1730 is here cited which shows this plainly, accusing both seculars and religious of trafficking openly and scandalously, and using their sacred character as a cloak for this and for extensive smuggling; and ordering the archbishop and bishops, and the provincials of the orders, to restrain and punish those of their subjects who thus offend, and the president and Audiencia to proceed against the ecclesiastical authorities if the latter fail to do their duty. (Pardo de Tavera, note 17, pp. 76-78.) [back to text]

86 "The economic ideas of Señor Anda were as erroneous as were those among the generality of the Spaniards in that period. The commerce of exportation was for them a wrong and a heinous act, with which they reproached him who did it; nor would they admit that he who sells his products has a right to carry them where he can obtain the highest price." (Pardo de Tavera, note 18, p. 78.) [back to text]

87 "It is now the general opinion that the religious orders cannot prove their right of ownership of all the income-producing properties which they hold in both town and country. It cannot be doubted that under the régime of government established by the United States this important question of ownership will be cleared up." The writer here relates the controversy of Auditor Sierra with the religious orders over this question in the time of Archbishop Camacho; finally the governor intervened with his authority, terminating the dispute by declaring that the new visitor, Auditor Ozaeta, would accept as valid the titles to property presented by the friars. (Pardo de Tavera, note 19, pp, 78-80. ) [back to text]

 

 

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