Note 12 — Letters from Governor Hurtado de Corcuera

The Order of St. Dominic and the other orders having so disturbed me and the community with the affairs of the archbishop, Don Fray Hernando Guerrero, as I have related to your Majesty in other letters, Fray Diego Collado, who brought twenty-six religious of the said Order of St. Dominic last year with your Majesty’s order and permission, presented to me certain letters from his general. He says that he presented them in the royal Council of the Indias, who ordered that these be returned to him, granting him the said permission to bring the religious; although it appears that it was under the leadership of another, the nephew of the said Fray Diego Collado, as the latter was sick. I consulted as to the matter with the Audiencia, and with other learned men. In accordance with their opinions (which I have in writing), although I have no decree from your Majesty ordering me to help him, I did aid him, at his petition, so that the provincial of this province should obey the letters of his general. In those letters the general orders, under penalty of major excommunication, that the provincial should deliver the government of five houses and one hospital of the Chinese to the said Fray Diego Collado, without making any excuse or delay, so that he might form therewith a separate congregation for the purpose of the propagation of the faith.12 Having, as I declare to your Majesty, consulted on and examined the matter, and as this division cannot harm your Majesty or the royal patronage, I deemed it advisable to grant him the aid in accordance with the opinions aforesaid. Those fathers, therefore, divided into two bodies, and the moods and restlessness in which they were keeping the said archbishop subsided, and in fact have died away; and they are allowing me to live and govern in peace. Until now, I have been unable to have peace during these ten months, by whatever means I have sought and striven. May God grant that it last, and that those fathers content themselves with governing within their gates, and do not endeavor to govern and manage your Majesty’s governors—which they attempted to do the second or third day after I was received as such in these islands. One Fray Sebastian de Oquendo, a restless and impudent friar, and extravagant in his speech, came to give me his opinion, and to counsel me as to what persons were suitable for alcaldes-mayor and captains of the districts where those religious have their missions—praising some, and speaking evil of others; and endeavoring to make me believe that what he told me was the only thing that was advisable for your Majesty’s service. He continued to do that twice more within one week, until I asked him who had told him that I needed his counsel and opinion to execute and carry out your Majesty’s service, which was in my charge. Thereupon, he talked no more to me, but he has spoken evil things of the government in the pulpit at various times—and so scandalously that it obliged the Audiencia and its president to request his superior to cause him to leave the city for a season, together with Fray Francisco de Paula, another restless preacher, and a disturber of the peace and quiet and of the minds of your Majesty’s vassals. The superior refused to accede to this request; accordingly, those fathers are always overbold and impudent in the pulpits. Unless your Majesty have the goodness to command that this be corrected, those of the province and those of this new congregation will have recourse to your Majesty, in order to lodge their complaints—those of the province declaring that your Majesty’s patronage is not being observed, and that the aid given to Fray Diego de Collado is contrary to the royal patronage. This is the first time that has been seen in these islands, that the friars have defended the royal patronage, for they are through and through opposed to the said royal patronage. If your Majesty would be pleased to see it quite plainly, the royal patronage rules that the provincials shall propose two or three persons as priors and guardians, and that the government, representing your Majesty, shall appoint one of these. By decrees sent to my predecessor, Don Juan Niño de Tabora, in the year twenty-nine, your Majesty once more ordered that this be ordained by your royal Council of the Indias. But, notwithstanding what pertains to the patronage and what your Majesty orders, the religious have refused to do this, or to obey you. They offer certain cool excuses, and, although they see that that decree is executed in Piru and Nueva España, they refuse to obey in anything which pertains to the patronage, and which your Majesty orders by a special decree, unless it suits them very well to obey it. And since your Majesty has now sent an obedient governor, and one who does what he is ordered, he is the most evil man in all the world; and they parade him in their pulpits, attempting to ascertain and publish what belongs to God alone alone—[asking] whether the continence of the governor and his endeavor not to furnish a bad example, is the virtue of chastity, or the fault of nature. These things, Sire, are taught here in the pulpits by the Dominican friars. The guardian of St. Francis said publicly in the pulpit of the cathedral church (because the computer of accounts had presented an account against him) that he would show a balance due against the king of España—talking in this so discourteous manner of his natural lord, as if he were English, French, or of any other nation; and charging your Majesty with the fact that Fray Francisco Jimenez had gained Oran for you, and that another Franciscan friar had quieted and pacified Nueva España. From these things, he drew up results against your Majesty in the pulpit. He said of the accountant, Juan Bautista de Çubiaga, a Vizcayan (who is so well known that no one can be ignorant of his birth, and of the great fidelity and disinterestedness with which he serves your Majesty), that he was a Gascon devil, besides other very insolent words—although the said friar is a Mallorcan or a native of Cerdeña [i.e., Sardinia], which one could presume to be a more barbarous place than España. This is preached in the pulpits, and is winked at; for these religious are exciting and stirring up the community at any opportunity, and in order to avoid scandals, the mildest course possible is being taken. These religious, Sire, are very numerous, and must be trying to excite all these islands. They show humility only when the hostile Indians go to sack their missions; and then they come to ask for soldiers, and to set forth many things in favor of the honor of God, and the service of your Majesty. For both, with all humility I entreat your Majesty to be pleased to order these excesses to be corrected, or to give me orders for what I am to do in like cases.