Note 3 — Relation of 1635–36

On Friday, the ninth of May, at seven o’clock at night, a royal decree was issued that within an hour from the viewing of the said royal decree Don Andres should be put in possession, on pain of the archbishop being exiled from the kingdoms, and paying two thousand Castilian ducados. Thereupon his most illustrious Lordship answered that he would obey the said decree, as in the name of his king and lord; but as for its fulfilment, there were reasons why he could not accede to this, that the man was under visitation, and [the ecclesiastical authorities] must not be hindered. At eight o’clock at night, seeing that they were going on with the execution of the decree, and had declared him exiled, fearing some further severity, he sent for the most holy sacrament to the convent of St. Francis; and, dressed in his pontifical robes, holding the elements in his hands, in front of his episcopal chair, with all possible propriety, he approached an altar, and there remained, waiting for the conclusion of what had been begun. At ten o’clock at night the captain of artillery and Alguazil-mayor Tenorio, with Adjutant Don Diego de Herrera, and thirty musketeers, entered the archiepiscopal dwelling. At this juncture an interdict was declared; on that night, therefore, the confusions, disorders, and turbulence were greater than ever before seen. Guards were posted above and below [the archbishop’s house] on all the street corners, so that no one could enter or go out; and having found the lord archbishop in the aforesaid state, and attended by many religious of all orders, word thereof was given to the governor. He sent an order that all the religious and secular priests who remained with his most illustrious Lordship should be sent away. Although this was not executed, because it was not mentioned in the warrant, the court-alguazil went to the palace to learn the intention of the governor. The latter rectified the order anew; and the said alguazil-mayor, coming to the archiepiscopal building, executed it, directing the religious and secular priests to depart from the house. As they did not do so, he commanded the soldiers to obey him, under penalty of three doses of rope;3 and to take the religious out, dragging them, or in any way they could. This they did, maltreating them and giving them rude pushes, tearing their habits. They left two religious with his most illustrious Lordship, to aid him to bear the imprisonment. The alguazil-mayor came to take them away, and hurt one of them with the rays on the lunette, owing to the force which he applied; for the religious were clinging to the archbishop, whom they caused to fall to the floor, with the most holy sacrament. It was only by great good fortune that he did not lose his grasp upon it at this time. In this confusion a soldier drew his sword, and threw himself upon it, intending to kill himself—saying that the man who had seen the most holy sacrament upon the ground was no longer fit to live. He lay there, wounded, and thus they took him prisoner, and were about to garrote him; this, however, they did not do, but sent him to exile at Samboanga. The archbishop was left alone with the soldiers of the guard, and several of them, as good Christians, remained on their knees before the most holy sacrament, shocked and weeping to see that among Catholics such things could take place. At this juncture the bishop of Camarines told his most illustrious Lordship that the governor said that if he wished to eat he must abandon the holy sacrament, and that if he did not do so nothing was to be given to him; and that these were the orders he had given to the said adjutant, under pain of death. Thereupon the lord archbishop answered, with much courage, that he was prepared to die with the most holy sacrament in his hands, rather than do anything that would be an offense against it. Thereupon they left him without a servant, to the great indignation and sorrow of many soldiers, the governor remaining as hard and obdurate as if he had not been a Christian.