(Source: Blair & Robertson, The Philippine Islands, volume 25, pp. 177-200)

        CHAPTER XVII

Within a short time, the old wounds were reopened, and the archbishop was given new causes for anger in which it was impossible for him to employ dissimulation, as they were all concerning the administration of his office. The governor deprived the Order of St. Francis of the administration and chaplaincy of the royal hospital of Manila, which they had administered with great care, charity, and zeal; and appointed a lay administrator and a secular chaplain. The archbishop felt that greatly, and declined to give the new chaplain permission to administer the sacraments, on account of legitimate reasons which he had for this step. The latter had recourse to the Audiencia by plea of fuerza; and the auditor, Don Marcos Zapata, immediately declared that it had been committed. The archbishop protested, knowing by what had happened in the past the prejudice that the said auditor felt, and because one auditor with only the fiscal could not constitute so sovereign a tribunal. For the fiscal had not the royal appointment, but had only been appointed by the governor ad interim; for the plurality of votes which attest a correct decision and authorize the best opinion, according to the Divine sentence Salus autem ubi multa consilia (Proverbs, ch. 5), were lacking. This has been experienced on various occasions, on which only one auditor has been left in Manila, an arbiter following rather the dictates of his will than that of his understanding, which has the truth as its object.

At that same time, Don Francisco de Valdés having resigned the post of archdean, to which he had been presented by Don Juan Cerezo de Salamanca, the governor appointed Don Andrés Arias Xirón to it on the eighteenth of April, and presented him to the archbishop, so that the latter might give him the collation. The prudent prelate grieved sorely over an occasion that could only with great difficulty terminate satisfactorily, as the said Don Andres was then prohibited from being promoted to any dignity, because of the visitation in which he had been proclaimed as a criminal by many heavy charges, which demanded a rigorous sentence and deprivation of the benefice that he held; and it was impossible to give him the collation for so lofty a dignity according to the holy canons and council. The archbishop refused to commit a like act of injustice, whereupon Don Andres Arias Xirón, aggrieved, interposed the appeal from fuerza, which the auditor Zapata did not fail to declare against the archbishop. He did this, and despatched a royal decree for it, which the archbishop refused to obey. The governor was very angry at not succeeding with his attempt, and because the archbishop had not given the canonical collation to Don Andrés Arias Xirón. That strife increasing in violence by means of the interlocutors, Don Andrés and the auditor, the declared enemies of the archbishop, assemblies and meetings were held in order to exile the archbishop from the kingdom, because he did not obey the royal decrees. In conclusion, they issued a decree for his exile, and notified the archbishop of it May 9, 1636.

The archbishop called a meeting of the orders, in order to consult them and get their advice in so urgent a case. All were of the opinion that the archbishop ought not to yield, since what they were trying to compel him to do was manifestly unjust. They exhorted him to be constant in defending the ecclesiastical immunity, and the observance of the holy canons; for that, in case he were exiled, he was suffering for defending his church as a good shepherd, and it was enough to acquire the aureola of a martyr. Upon this the archbishop took the resolution to suffer for his church, with a valor and constancy worthy of wonder. The party of the governor having learned this, and that the archbishop would not yield his right, the governor determined to execute what had been decided by what he called the royal Audiencia.

The evening of that same day, Friday, May 9, the governor summoned the auditor Zapata and the fiscal to a meeting. After the meeting they sent the chief constable of that court with orders to execute the banishment of the archbishop. He was given such aid of soldiers as the governor deemed sufficient. The latter also sent other squads to the cathedral church, so that they might take their station in the sacristy of the most holy sacrament, so that it might not be taken out or destroyed. That order went forth and immediately the city learned of the impious imprisonment that was about to be executed on their shepherd. It caused great excitement and grief to all, and a great scandal among the natives of these islands, even among the pagans and Mahometans who frequent the islands for commerce; and not many wished to concur in so unjust a determination. The orders hastened to the archiepiscopal houses, where they found the archbishop with the warnings that they were about to arrest him, clad in his pontifical robes. He, also knowing that the most holy sacrament was being guarded in the cathedral, sent father Fray Juan de Piña, guardian of St. Francis, to his convent for the most holy sacrament. On that occasion it was placed in a lunette; and it was brought with all the propriety possible, accompanied by many religious carrying candles. When it had been brought, the father guardian placed it in the hands of the archbishop. He, bathed in tears, received it; and, with noteworthy courage, seated himself to await the agents of the execution. He sent his notaries to notify the governor and the auditor, Don Marcos Zapata, of censures; but the notaries, finding them assembled with the fiscal in the hall of meeting, had more respect for the human Majesty, whom they represented there in assembly, than the chief constable and his helpers had for the supreme majesty of majesties, Christ our Lord, whose sacrament was in the hands of the archbishop.

Therefore the ecclesiastical notaries notified them at the doors. While doing this at one of the doors, it is said that the governor ordered a soldier to extinguish the lights by which they were reading, by waving his hat, which was done.

At that same time the chief constable and his helpers were in the archiepiscopal house, where the archbishop was found in the manner above described, surrounded and accompanied by all the orders except, that of the Society of Jesus. The chief constable sent to advise the governor of the condition in which he had found the archbishop, whereupon the governor sent him orders that he should cause the religious to retire to their convents; and that, when the archbishop grew tired of holding the most holy sacrament, he was to arrest him with the soldiers whom he had with him. That was intimated to the religious and lay priests who were about the archbishop; but they refused to obey it, fearing lest they incur the wrath of God if they abandoned the prince of the Church on such an occasion. Thus by common consent they remained to aid their afflicted prelate; relieving him at times by easing him of the weight of the lunette, by placing their hands on those of the tired old man, whose eyes were turned into two fountains of tears when he reflected on the acts of` desecration that they were practicing on the Supreme Lord. The governor was so far from mitigating his anger in what he had commenced, that, in place of repenting and returning to himself, he took horse, although it was the middle of the night, and went to the archiepiscopal house; and, seated at the door, sent his orders to the executors of the commission. The first order was for them to eject forcibly all the priests who were with the archbishop, the adjutants striking the soldiers with the flat of their swords and giving them heavy blows because they did not execute their orders. Thereupon the religious, seeing that the poor soldiers were forced to do what they did not wish, allowed themselves to be seized and carried outside. The soldiers humbly begged their pardon, protesting that they were under orders. The governor's purpose was to wait until the archbishop, destitute of all human consolation, should surrender on account of his advanced age and his lack of nourishment, his watching and continual annoyance, and should relinquish the most holy sacrament, so that they could then seize him and make him enter the boat. That report circulated among the orders, and accordingly they all came in a body with lighted candles to attend to the recovery of the most holy sacrament. But the governor had already seized the entrances of the streets by means of soldiers, in order that they might not pass, and they accordingly returned to their convents. The city and the magistracy sent their commissaries to the archbishop, begging him to avoid compromising himself, which was equivalent to telling him to allow himself to be arrested and exiled. For, as these islands are one body which has only one head, it is the latter which attracts all wills to his own; for fear (which is very powerful here), or self-interest, has more place here than anywhere else in the world.

The afflicted shepherd seeing that "this was his hour of darkness," and that the frightened sheep had abandoned him, ordered the interdict to be raised—the grieving bells publishing the feeling that many did not give vent to and others could not show, in order not to incur the anger of the passionate governor. The governor ordered the soldiers to disperse the religious by force, even if they had to take them into custody. The soldiers carried out the order with the violence necessary for so unjust a sentence, being instigated by the sword-blows and strokes of the adjutants. That having been seen by the priests, they pitied them so keenly that they preferred to have that punishment executed on them than on the poor soldiers. Some religious were seated beside the archbishop to see whether they would be allowed to aid him; but so many were the pushes and prods given them by the soldiers, that not only did they tear them away, but they fell down with the holy monstrance breaking the lunette in which was the holy host. This ought to be written with tears of blood. The father guardian of St. Francis and a secular priest hastened to put a strap about the archbishop's neck and to fasten the lunette to him, so that he could support it, for his powers were now failing him. At that juncture, order was given to a soldier named Juan de Santa Ana (whom I knew, and who told me that event many times), to draw away the hand of the archbishop. He, assisted by a living faith, answered boldly that he would kill himself before he would commit such an act of sacrilege. Then drawing his sword, and placing the point in his breast, he fell upon it. By the permission of divine Providence, the sword doubled up in such a manner when the soldier fell upon it, that he was not wounded at all. That incident caused great surprise to all the bystanders; but the governor was so little moved by it that he ordered the soldier to be arrested, when he ought to have rewarded his heroic determination. At one o'clock at night, the archbishop was so greatly weakened and tired out from thirst, that he begged to be given a little water. They sent to consult with the governor as to what they were to do. The governor ordered that they should not allow it to be given him, explaining that the denial of the temporalities was understood not to allow water to be given him for his thirst, and that to do otherwise would be not to execute the royal law—as if so sovereign dispositions extended to such impieties. Advice was given to the convents, threatening the suspension of religious functions, in order that they should not forestall by celebrating the offices of the following day. The archiepiscopal hall was cleared of the religious who were assisting the archbishop, the soldiers having already driven them away by blows. The soldiers stationed themselves with firearms in hand, and thus did they remain all the night without giving any nourishment to the archbishop, except what a pious Franciscan religious could give him by applying to his lips a wet cloth, under pretext of tightening the strap with which the most holy sacrament was fastened to the afflicted prelate's breast. And he did not receive any other nourishment for a day and a half, until they took him to the island of Mariveles. Saturday, the second [sic; sc. tenth] of May dawned, the most fatal day that these islands have seen. On that day the archbishop was so defeated that, seeing that he could make no further resistance for lack of strength, he ordered the most holy sacrament to be returned to the church with all possible reverence, and, bathed in tears, he laid aside the pontifical robe. Immediately he was seized by an adjutant and fifty soldiers with firearms. They led him from the archiepiscopal palace on foot, at five in the morning; and without other following than the troops who executed the tragedy. They did not need so great preparation for an old man of sixty, worn out by so much fatigue, hunger, and thirst. They took him on foot through those streets boasting of their victory, the fearful inhabitants thrusting their heads out of the most hidden windows, frightened by the despotic governor, to whom any commiseration that should be shown to the poor archbishop was regarded as a detestable crime. The soldiers took the archbishop to the gate on the river, called Santo Domingo, where the prelate, complying with the precept of Christ, shook off the dust from his shoes; and, bathed in tender tears, he threw five little stones at the ingrate walls of Manila. It was noted that one of them touched the leg of Don Pedro de Corcuera (sargento-mayor of the camp, and chief of that impious execution), where later in the war with Joló he received a ball, from which he died.

They put the archbishop aboard a champan of a ship-captain called Marcos Cameros, who would not allow one single mouthful of food to be placed on board. Setting sail, they carried the archbishop to the island of Mariveles, which is situated in the middle of the mouth of the bay. There they disembarked the exiled shepherd, for whose lodging they had provided a wretched little room, where he suffered many discomforts, too long to relate; for it has not been my intention to enlarge upon this lamentable tragedy, in the narration of which I have omitted many circumstances which aggravate the execution [of his banishment]. For it is my intention not to exaggerate, but only to relate succinctly what happened; and, although eye-witnesses of everything are not lacking today, to guide myself by the most truthful relations, and chiefly by those which are found in a book containing sketches of the archbishops, which is kept in the cathedral church of Manila.⁴³

The purpose of the governor and his followers having been obtained, as we have seen, they persuaded the ecclesiastical cabildo to take charge of the government, interpreting the archbishop's exile as a vacant see, thus opening the door to other disturbances, no less serious, which originated from this intrusion—in the very sight of the archbishop who was [still] within his diocese, and who had left a provisor in Manila, Doctor Don Francisco Fernandez de Ledo. For his forcible banishment and the deprivation of his secular revenues did not extend to his spiritual jurisdiction, which originated from the Roman pontiff. In case that the church had suffered a vacancy by the death of the archbishop, then the bishop of Cebú, Don Pedro de Arce, was to enter its government; for it belonged to him by virtue of the bull and royal decree mentioned in another place. The archbishop had already appointed the father master, Fray Francisco de Paula, of the Order of Preachers, to govern the archbishopric in the first place, and two others in the second, and hence they could not allege the condition of affairs that the law points out in the chapter Si Episcopus: de supplenda negligencia Prælatorum, in Case sixth. That happened afterward in Manila, in the exile of Archbishop Don Fray Felipe Pardo,⁴⁴ of the Order of Preachers, who had appointed to his place of governor during his absence Don Fray Ginés de Barrientos, bishop of Troya; the cabildo refused to admit him, but [declared] that it was a case of a vacant see; and took charge of the government—which cost the dean, Master Don Miguel Ortiz de Covarrubias, and all the prebendaries, very dear.

The cabildo took charge of the government at the governor's command, and appointed Don Fray Francisco Zamudio, bishop-elect of Camarines (who had come to Manila to negotiate concerning his bishopric), as provisor-general. He received the appointment under protest of ad interim until the bishop of Cebú should be advised, for the vacancy pertained to him in case that one were proclaimed. He absolved the governor, the auditor Zapata, and the others included in the excommunications of the archbishop, on the twentieth of May. It is said that when the cabildo were obliged to take charge of the government by the governor and auditor, they entered their protests; but the archbishop was greatly grieved over it when he heard of it, which with the many other sorrows [that he endured] made it remarkable that his life did not come to an end, since he was so aged and had borne so many hardships.

          CHAPTER XVIII

Stripped of all consolation, the archbishop, Don Hernando Guerrero remained twenty-six days in the island of Mariveles, where he endured perforce privations, both because of his advanced age, and because of the dreariness of the island—which is very great, as it is nearly deserted, and contains only some few Indian huts. Those Indians have charge of scouting those seas, and of advising Manila of what they discover, by the greater or less number of fires which they light—in the manner that the Persians were wont to do, who gave advice by means of those fires, which they called angaros, as is mentioned by Bardayo in the first chapter of his Argenis. The climate [of Mariveles] is very unhealthful, and the location is not a pleasant one as the island is shut in on all sides by thick forests, and because of the continual beating of the sea. There lived the venerable shepherd, meditating on the ingratitude of his sheep, venting his feeling in gentle sighs, and relieving his afflicted breast with tears. Thus was he found by four prebendaries of the Manila cabildo who went to console him, and to propose to him certain matters in behalf of the governor, which we shall detail later.

The church at Manila remained during that time as a flock without a shepherd. All was confusion and disorder. The new provisor, the bishop of Camarines, had readily raised the interdicts and the suspension of religious functions. He ordered the bells to be chimed for the feast on Saturday, the eve of the festival of the Holy Ghost. The prelates of the orders, with the exception of him of the Society, thought that the provisor who had been intruded could not legitimately raise the interdict and the other censures. For no mention of this is made in the chapter Alma Mater: de Sententia Excomunic. in 6; and having held a conference in regard to this matter, with the university of Santo Tomás, which always maintained a firm attitude in defense of the immunity of the Church, they determined to close their churches, and to observe the orders imposed by their legitimate prelate. They did so until after the feast of Pentecost was over. The Audiencia summoned them to act in accordance with the cathedral, but they paid no attention to it until they had despatched a suitable person to the archbishop. The latter, fearful lest greater disturbances should originate, gave heed, as a true father, and sent an order for them to raise the interdict; and they did so on May 20.

The orders and the two universities held various meetings and consultations with the governor, when they saw that the troubles which had originated from the archbishop's exile were increasing, because of the acts of jurisdiction enacted by the provisor who had been intruded, invalid procedures in the administration of the sacraments; and scandals which had been occasioned to these new fields of Christendom. This last was not the point least worthy of consideration, since that precedent did more damage than was realized, both in the new fields of Christendom, and in the report of this matter among the foreign nations who surround these islands on all sides, for they note our actions carefully. They rendered various signed opinions for this; and they also drew up another, counseling the archbishop to yield certain things in order to avoid greater troubles which were indispensably necessary to restore the peace of that church, which was exposed to greater disturbances; and that, to assure his right, he should make a protest regarding it. They despatched the aforesaid prebendaries with this commission, who, on their arrival, laid the determination of the cabildo, orders, and universities before the archbishop, as well as the decision of the Audiencia in regard to the recalling him from exile, if the archbishop would concede three points, to wit:

"That he would consider as lawful, and confirm, all the acts of jurisdiction performed by the bishop of Camarines.

"That he would place in possession of their posts Don Andres Arias Xirón as archdean, and also the chaplain of the royal hospital.

"That he would not proceed in any ecclesiastical trial pertaining to the archiepiscopal government, without the advice of the counselor who would be assigned to him."

The archbishop resented greatly the proposition of such points to him, and preferred to remain in exile, where he had greater quiet than in Manila; but considering the decision and advice of so erudite persons, which were sufficient to discharge his conscience, he agreed to all the points proposed—first having made a protest that he was doing this to relieve himself from molestation, and to obtain the peace of his church and repose for the consciences of his sheep, until the decision of the matter should come from the royal and supreme Council of the Indias, in whom it inhered.

The governor and Audiencia determined to restore Don Fray Hernando Guerrero to his church, and on June 6, 1636, they withdrew him from the island of Mariveles. He entered Manila amid the great rejoicing of all, who could not look enough at their beloved shepherd; and commenced to govern his church. But it was not with the peace that he ought to have had, for new contentions and new causes for anger arose daily with the governor, who was ever despotic in his actions.⁴⁵ The archdean Don Andrés Arias Xirón took possession of his prebend, but God did not permit that he who had been the origin of so many disasters should obtain much; for in a short time he sickened with dropsy and other bad complications, and died in the flower of his age. The greatest evil was that he died impenitent, refusing to be absolved from the excommunication and censures by which he was bound, although the archbishop, as a pious shepherd, sent a priest to his house to persuade him to be absolved. The soldiers who took the archbishop into exile all died within two years, by quick and sudden deaths. The auditor Zapata died suddenly, being found dead in his bed, although he had retired in perfect health. The governor lost his nephew, Don Pedro de Corcuera, whom he loved dearly; and another nephew, named Don Juan de Corcuera, perished while going as commander of the ship "Nuestra Señora de la Concepción," which was dashed to pieces in the islands of the Ladrones (today the Marianas), where many people were lost, and where the governor lost a great quantity of riches, which his greed (which was great) had amassed during his term. At this same time, Don Pedro de Francia, brother-in-law of Don Pedro [de] Corcuera, died; and so that no branch of that house might be left, God took to himself Don Pedro de Francia, son of Don Pedro Corcuera and Doña María de Francia. The same year the governor received news of the death of his brother, Don Iñigo Hurtado de Corcuera. His entire government was fatal and unfortunate; and later, in his residencia for it, he suffered many troubles, for he was kept prisoner for five years in a castle, and all his property was confiscated. Misfortune followed him into all parts, for having returned to España, where he was corregidor of Córdoba, they tried to kill him, and he got out of it by the skin of his teeth. Finally, when he was governor of the Canarias, it is said that he died suddenly. I write here only the results; I shall not consider what so many disasters together demonstrate. I leave the generally-known things which these islands still bewail, since the universal knowledge of them frees me from it; and in the following chapter, another and better pen [will take it up.] ⁴⁶

But it does not seem to me fitting to neglect to mention in this place a testimony of what, it seems, Divine justice must have executed; so that we may conjecture from it how great an offense to the divine Majesty was the scandalous manner in which the exile of Archbishop Don Hernando Guerrero was carried out; so that we may know that if He displayed his temporal punishment in regard to what was pardonable and not guilty, how great will be the punishment which His Divine Majesty will mete out in His just tribunal to those men who were the cause and instrument of so sacrilegious and scandalous a desecration, unless they first hastened to atone for it by works of true penitence, in order to be deserving of His infinite mercy.

The many and horrifying earthquakes from which the city of Manila has suffered from its beginning until the present, have resulted in almost its destruction and depopulation—especially in those of 1645 and 1658, as we shall see later. But in the midst of these ruins, the houses which suffered most always preserved the principal walls, some even the first floor, and others more—although these were stripped of their covering, and, as it were, the skulls and shapeless skeleton which indicate the robust symmetry of that building's corpse. Only in the area and place where this lamentable tragedy occurred (namely, the archiepiscopal palace of that time) has there remained not only no wall, nor a vestige of its building, but not even the foundations. Neither were any stones found there, which tell that there was a house of human habitation. There is seen naught but an open space, which forms a square for some splendid houses owned now by sargento-mayor Don Domingo Bermudez, alcalde-in-ordinary, who inherited it from his father-in-law, Don Francisco de Moya y Torres, chief constable of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Whenever I pass by that place, this memorial of the Divine punishment presents itself to me.

The sardines were once as ordinary a food in Manila as in Coruña; but from the time of that lamentable exile, they have so abandoned those waters that one can catch them but seldom, and then it is a matter for surprise. And (in order to publish more fully that that [exile] was the cause), whenever any consecrated archbishop or bishop arrives at Manila, on those days some sardines are caught; and then they retire to continue their interdict.⁴⁷ Pens have not been wanting to undertake as their employment the defense of Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, chiefly those from one order—to which he was very devoted until, as is said, they came to regard him as a saint. But they do their duty as thankful [for favors received ], although it was not necessary for them to do so much that they should declare themselves his admirers. The worst is that in the year of 1683, Manila again relapsed into this scandalous sin with the exile and banishment of Don Fray Felipe Pardo, of the Order of Preachers. But I shall relate, in its proper place, the disastrous end that all those who were guilty in that affair suffered.

The common enemy of the human race was not content with the lamentable tragedies of which he made the Filipinas Islands the sad theater; on the contrary, fearful that the peace which all desired might be established between the governor and the archbishop, he commenced to arouse new contentions. Although they did not result in scandalous outbreaks, they were sufficient to make the archbishop, Don Hernando Guerrero, live in the midst of continual warfare, the matters of controversy threatening to assume very quickly an evil aspect. Not the least important of these was that which even until the present has not ceased to result in disastrous effects—namely, the founding of the royal chapel for the military forces of Manila, which was founded by Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera. Thus did he separate from the parochial right of the cura of the Spaniards all the soldiers, who constitute the majority of the people in these islands, and especially in the city of Manila. For that purpose he created twelve collegiates in the college of San José (which is in charge of the fathers of the Society of Jesús), with the title of royal chaplains; they were clad in blue cloaks, with sleeves of violet velvet, on which were wrought the royal arms; and for their support [was given] the encomienda of Calamianes. Taking two reals from the pay of each soldier every month, which is a very considerable sum, he applied five hundred pesos of it as a means of sustenance for the chief chaplain, and sums at the rate of two hundred pesos for the other chaplains. It has a chief sacristan who looks after its adornment, and its administration is in charge of either the master-of-camp or the sargento-mayor. The soldiers are buried there, and they pay well for it when they die. It has the advocacy of our Lady of the Annunciation, and there they celebrate other feasts during the year, by vote of the camp of Manila—such as, chiefly, the advocacy of the Immaculate Conception and the most holy sacrament, besides others which the governors add for their devotion. There is a sermon in this chapel during Lent on Wednesday and Friday mornings; to which the governor and royal Audiencia go.

That caused very great detriment to the right of the cura of the Spaniards, because of the division which it made of the soldiers; and it became necessary for the archbishop to sally out in defense of that point. As the governor was so desirous of the said foundation, there were debates of great heat on both sides; for the archbishop was unwilling to grant permission for that foundation, which would cause so much harm to the parochial right. But, recognizing that the break would only widen, he agreed to concede the permission under certain limitations and obligations which he was able to impose, reserving the determination for his Holiness. Afterward, there being some difficulties in that permission, because it was opposed by the curas of the cathedral, as they said that the chief chaplains abused the permission, extending their functions more than was their right, they begged a declaration of that permission from Archbishop Don Hernando Guerrero. He gave it with the privilege that is observed today, and it is attested by the records which exist in the ecclesiastical archives, under date of January 5, 1640.

The archbishop tried to appoint a collector of the contributions for masses during that year of 1636; for one was lacking in the cathedral, from which arose certain troubles. The cabildo resisted him, refused to obey the act for the appointment of one, and denied that the archbishop had authority and jurisdiction for it. As an argument that he did not possess it, they declared that he had not presented the confirmation of his Holiness and the pallium, and the year in which he had taken oath to present it had passed. That caused the archbishop considerable anxiety, for the cabildo presented itself in the [Audiencia] session with a plea of fuerza, and the matter was declared against the archbishop. Various opinions were given in this matter by the universities and by erudite persons; and consequently, that suit lasted a long time, until, at the arrival of the ships from Nueva España, the pallium and the bulls of confirmation came to the archbishop. New disturbances were feared, in case the contrary should happen, and the method adopted for adjusting this matter was that the archbishop jointly with the cabildo should appoint the collector of the contributions for the masses, and that is still observed in the cathedral of Manila.

The archbishop had scarcely gotten out of that matter when he found himself involved in another of no less importance; for the governor, Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera, wished to appoint a governor to the bishopric of Camarines, because of the death of its bishop, Don Fray Francisco Zamudio. That thrust gave the archbishop considerable anxiety, as he had experienced fully the despotic disposition of the governor. But he could do no less than oppose it, as it was a matter which concerned the ecclesiastical authority and the spiritual jurisdiction; and the archbishops have always made the appointment in the vacancies that have occurred in these islands, as it pertains to them by their right as metropolitans. The governor threw himself with all his might into what he had commenced, and gave the bishop to understand that that occasion for dispute would end worse than the past; and he continued to arrange matters in so high-handed a way, that the archbishop feared what the governor threatened. But God permitted that that controversy be settled by the interposition of zealous and influential persons, who mollified the governor; and it was settled that the archbishop should name three subjects, so that the governor might appoint one of them. For that purpose the archbishop called meetings of learned men, and, having made a protest, appointed in the first place Doctor Hernando Paez Guerrero; in the second, Master Don Juan de Velez, who died bishop-elect of Cebú; and in the third, Licentiate Manuel Reaelo [sic; sc. Rafaelo] Macedo. The same thing happened afterward through the death of Bishop Don Fray Diego de Aduarte, of the Order of Preachers, a man of singular virtue, the bishop of Nueva Segovia. In his government, Canon Alonso de Vargas entered to govern, with the same form of choice as the first. That form of appointing governors for the vacancies of the bishops was usurped many years in these islands—although there has been sufficient opposition from the bishops at such an innovation and corruption—until the provision suitable to so essential a matter was made in the royal and supreme Council of the Indias, and in our own times a decree was received from the queen mother; that the archbishops alone should appoint rulers for the bishoprics, but the cabildo of Manila [should do this] when the see is vacant.

During all the time while Archbishop Don Fray Hernando Guerrero governed the church of Manila, he was exercising echoes of the etymology of his name in the contentions that he had with Governor Don Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera; ⁴⁸ and had there not been a prelate in the church of Manila so zealous and vigilant in matters of ecclesiastical immunity, it would have been involved in other and greater difficulties. The archbishop commenced the visitation of his diocese as soon as he became free from the late storms; and he continued it through all the benefices of his clergy, until he reached the island of Mindoro. There he found himself in another danger, no less than those which he had experienced on land; for he was attacked by six hostile galliots of the Mindanao enemy, which bore down upon the boat in which he was, near Naohan. Had not that boat been staunch and swift, the enemy would have captured and killed him—as is the usual custom of those Mahometan pirates, the enemy of our holy faith. It defended itself with the men aboard it, until it arrived at the land of Bacoo, where they had scarcely time to land and get into a place of safety; when, as the boat had remained in the sand, the pirates seized it, and captured many of the followers of the archbishop. They pillaged all the cargo aboard the boat, even the ornaments and the pontifical robe, all which was of much value. That blow caused great sorrow to that good prelate, for the Mindanaos killed most of the men whom they captured, and it was only after many difficulties that a few could be ransomed. The bishop became very ill with a serious sickness, from sorrow and his past troubles. ⁴⁹

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