Note 78 — The Printing of the Books
Reading edition
Juan de la Concepcion, Historia general de Philipinas, Manila, 1788–92, II, pp. 45–6. Schilling, p. 203n, maintains that the early writers were mistaken in believing that the Synod was held in 1581. On October 16, 1581 the Bishop called a meeting of ten priests at the Convent of Tondo to discuss the execution of the decree about slaves, Torres, II, pp. cxliv–v. No laymen were present and no other topic was discussed. The decisions of this meeting were sent in a letter from Salazar to the King, dated from Tondo, October 17, 1581, translated in B. & R., XXXIV, pp. 325–31, from the original MS. in the A. of I. (68–1–42), Torres, II, no. 2686, p. 95. The following year a real Synod was held, this time including lay government officials as well as priests, at which was discussed a variety of subjects. Robert Streit, Bibliotheca Missionum, Aachen, 1928, IV, pp. 327–31, cites a MS. account of it by the Jesuit father Sanchez who was present; and Valentín Marín, Ensayo de una Síntesis de los trabajos realizados por las Corporaciones Religiosas Españoles de Filipinas, Manila, 1901, I, pp. 192 et seqq., cites another MS., then in the Archives of the Archiepiscopal Palace of Manila, Memoria de una junta que se hizo a manera de concilio el año de 1582, para dar asiento a las cosas tocantes al aumento de la fe, y justificacíon de las conquistas hechas y que adelante se hicieron por los espanoles, from which he quotes extensively. With reference to the Synod see further Lorenzo Pérez, Origen de las Misiones Franciscanas en el extremo oriente, in Archivo Ibero-Americano, 1915, III, pp. 386–400.