Note 39 — Treasury Matters

Fray Agustín de Alburquerque was a native of Castilla, and professed at the convent of Salamanca. Batangas became the theater of his missionary labors in the islands. He was definitor in 1572, prior of Tondo in 1575, and prior provincial in 1578, renouncing to the Franciscans during his term the omnimoda ecclesiastical jurisdiction. He tried to sell himself as a slave, in order that he might introduce Christianity into China. He is the author of the first or second Tagál grammar, the Franciscans claiming that the first was written by Fray Juan de Plasencia. He died in 1580. See Pérez’s Catálogo, pp. 13, 14.