Volume 28 — Character and Influence of the Friars

[The following is taken from volume ii of Sinibaldo de Mas’s Informe sobre el estado de las islas Filipinas en 1842 (Madrid, January, 1843).]

The ecclesiastical estate

As a result of these continuous and obstinate quarrels between the regular curas and the bishops and civil authorities, and as if to cut the Gordian knot, the government ordered, in 1753, that all the curacies be handed over to secular priests of the country. The execution of this decree presented so many difficulties, and raised so many remonstrances that it was decided in 1757 that, until it should be ordered otherwise, none of the curacies administered by regulars should be granted to a secular priest under any circumstances, until it was really vacant, and that then the viceroy and the diocesan should agree together whether or no it were advisable to make it secular; and the opinion of both should be carried into effect, and that in equal accord they should execute the decree of 1753. By this decision, the governor-general had the power to deprive the friars of their curacies at will, since the bishops have almost always desired or solicited that. Cárlos III, wearied at the obstinacy of the Augustinian religious in not submitting to the diocesan visit, ordered by decrees of August 5 and November 9, 1774, that all the missions should be secularized as they fell vacant. The governor, then Don Simon de Anda, in spite of being at open war with the friars—because they had intrigued in Madrid against him when the government was conferred on him—and of his being, perhaps, the governor-general most hated by them, inveighed so strongly against this order, asserting that it was not advisable to the service of God and the State, that the same Cárlos III resolved that the decree of 1774 should not have effect, and that the curacies and missions which the religious had filled before the decree, should be returned to them. Nevertheless the government of Madrid was so annoyed and wearied at the continual strife which the friars maintained with the bishops and authorities, that it desired to cut the dispute short, at any risk; and in this same decree it was recommended that a body of Filipino secular priests be formed, so that the curacies could be surrendered to these as they became vacant—thus carrying into effect the decree of 1757, when they should be ready for it. This same order was confirmed by another decree of December 11, 1776, and another of September 7, 1778—although in this last, in consideration of a representation of Don Pedro Sarrio, which will be seen later, it was provided that there should be no innovation in what was contained in the decree of ’76, without the express order of the Council and of the king. In 1822, in consequence of a decree of the Córtes, the curacies which fell vacant were presented at a meeting of opponents. In regard to the first, which was that of the village of Malate, the superior of the calced Augustinians, Fray Hilarion Diez, made a representation; but the archbishop, Don Fray Juan Zulaybar, was interested in complying with the decrees of the Madrid government. In 1826, order was given to return that curacy to the religious, and all [others] that they had, and what was declared to them by the decree of 1776; and that the secularization of any curacy should not be proceeded with except by express order of the king.

I am going to insert what Don Tomás de Comyn said about the religious of Filipinas in a book which has not had the appreciation that it merits, and which is already rare.

“The valor and constancy with which Legaspi and his worthy companions conquered these natives would have been of little use, had not the apostolic zeal of the missionaries aided in consolidating the undertaking. The latter were the true conquerors—who, without other weapons than their virtues, attracted the good-will of the natives, made them love the Spanish name, and gave the king, as by a miracle, two millions more of submissive and Christian vassals. They were the legislators of the barbarous hordes who inhabited the islands of this immense archipelago, thus realizing with their persuasive mildness the allegorical prodigies of Amphion and Orpheus.

“As the means, then, which the missionaries employed to reduce and civilize the Indians, were their preaching and other spiritual instruments, and as, although they were scattered and working separately, they were at the same time subject to the authority of their superiors—who as chiefs, directed the great work of the conversion—the government primitively established in these provinces must necessarily have shared much of the nature of the theocratic; and there is no doubt that it so continued until, the number of the new colonists, as well the effective force of the royal authority, increasing with the lapse of time, it was possible to make the governing system uniform with that which rules in the other ordinary establishments of España.

“Further, this same is deduced from the fragments which even yet remain of that first constitution in the islands of Batanes and the missions of Cagayan, which are administered spiritually and temporally by the Dominican fathers; and from what can be noted at every step in the other provinces, by whoever gives the matter but a little attention. For although the civil magistracies are regulated now, and their respective attributes determined with all precision, it has been as yet impossible to lay aside, however much they have tried to show the contrary, the personal authority which the parish priests hold among their parishioners; on the contrary, the government has indeed seen itself constantly under the necessity of making use of this same authority, as the most powerful instrument to acquire respect and due subordination. Consequently, although the parish priests are not today authorized to intervene by law in the civil administration, they become in fact the real rulers.

“It certainly is the case that, since the parish priest is the consoler of the afflicted, the pacifier of families, the promoter of useful ideas, the preacher and example of all good; as generosity is conspicuous in him, and the Indians see him alone among them, without relatives, without trade, and always engaged in their greater good—they are accustomed to live contentedly under his paternal direction, and to give him their whole confidence. Master in this way of their wills, nothing is done without the counsel—or, to speak more correctly, without the consent—of the cura. The gobernadorcillo, on receiving an order from the alcalde, goes first to get the permission of the father; and it is the latter who, in strict terms, tacitly sees to its fulfilment, or prevents its course. The father concludes or directs the suits of the village; makes the writs; goes up to the capital to plead for his Indians; opposes their petitions, and at times their threats, to the violences committed by the alcaldes-mayor; and manages everything by the standard of his own desire. In a word, it is impossible for there to be any human institution, at once so simple and so firmly grounded, and from which so many advantages can be derived for the State, as that (which is admired with reason) which is firmly established in the ministries of these islands. And by the same fatality it is very strange that since the true art of governing a colony like Filipinas, which is different from all others, consists in the wise use of so powerful an instrument as secrecy, the superior government has been laboring under an hallucination for some years past, to the point of pledging itself to the destruction of a work that it is so advisable to maintain.

“In this as in other things, one may very plainly see how absurd or how difficult it is to organize a system of government which is equally well suited to the genius of all peoples, regardless of what discordance may exist in their physical and moral make-up. Hence, when one tries to assimilate in toto the administrative régime of these provinces to that of the Americas, he meets obstacles at every step which evidently originate from this erroneous principle. The regime, however much one may try to assert it, must either make itself obeyed by fear and force, or respected by means of love and confidence. And in order to convince one’s self that the first is impracticable, it is quite sufficient to take into consideration the following circumstances and reflections.

“The number of the whites in proportion to that of the natives is so small, that it can scarcely be set at the ratio of 15:25,000. These provinces, infinitely more populous than those of América, are given into the care of their alcaldes-mayor, who take there no other troops than the title of military captains and the royal decree. Besides the religious, no other whites than their alcalde-mayor generally live in the whole province. He has the care of the royal possessions; he attends to the punishment of evildoers; he pacifies riots; he raises men for the regiments who garrison Manila and Cavite; he orders and leads his subjects in case of an invasion from the outside; in short, he alone must do everything, on the word of alcalde-mayor and in the name of the king. In view, then, of the effective power that the fulfilment of so great a variety of obligations exacts spontaneously, and the fact that no one assists him with what is in his charge, who could deny that it would be to risk the security of these dominions too greatly to try to rule them by means so insufficient? If the villages are in disorder or revolt, to whom will the alcalde turn his face for aid in checking and punishing them? What other recourse is there for him in such a conflict than to flee or to die in the attempt? And if it is considered indispensable among cultured nations that authority always present itself accompanied by force, how can one expect that bare and unprotected law be respected among Indians?

“It is clear that it is necessary to appeal to force of another kind, and to employ means, which although indirect, are without dispute the most adequate under the peculiar circumstances of these lands; means which, by influencing the imagination, excite veneration, subjugate the rude intellect of the inhabitants, and lead them to endure our dominion without repugnance. And well can one understand, too, how ready these means are found, and how we are envied for them and have always been envied by all the other European nations who have aspired to extend and consolidate their conquests in both Indias.

“Let one listen to La Perouse, if he would know and wonder at the arms with which our missionaries captured the natives of the Californias. Let him read dispassionately the marvelous deeds of the Jesuits in other parts of América. And above all, let him go to the Filipinas Islands, where he will be surprised to see those remote fields strewn with spacious temples and convents wherein divine worship is celebrated with splendor and pomp; regularity in the streets; ease and even luxury in dress and house; primary schools in all the villages, and the inhabitants very skilful in the art of writing; paved highways disclosed to view; bridges constructed in good architectural style; and the greater portion of the country, finally, in strict observance of the provisions of good government and civilization—all the work of the union of the zeal, apostolic labors, and fiery patriotism of the ministering fathers. Let him traverse the provinces, where he will see villages of five, ten, and twenty thousand Indians, ruled in peace by one weak old man who, with his doors open at all hours, sleeps secure in his dwelling, without other magic or other guard than the love and respect with which he has been able to inspire his parishioners. Can it be possible, on contemplating this, that by the efforts of foolish zealots, and by the vain endeavor that only those persons assigned by the general laws in ordinary cases shall intervene in the government of the natives, there should not only be a waste of the fruit obtained in so long a time and by so great constancy; but also that, scorning and repelling for the future a coöperation as efficacious as economical, the attempt should be made purposely to destroy the royal regulator, the principal wheel of this machine. Such is, notwithstanding, the deplorable upheaval of ideas that has conduced in these latter times to the adoption of regulations diametrically opposed to the public interest, under pretext of restraining the excessive authority of the parish priests.

“The superior government does not content itself with having despoiled the ministers of the power of themselves prescribing certain corrective punishments—which although of slight importance, contributed infinitely, when applied with discretion, to strengthen their predominance, and consequently that of the sovereign. But, in order more effectively to exclude them from and deprive them of all intervention in civil administration, the attempt has been made directly to destroy their influence, by arousing the distrust of the Indian, and by separating, when possible, the latter from their side. In proof of this, and so that my statement may not be taken as an exaggeration, it is sufficient to cite substantially two notable measures which, by their tendency, were obviously intended to weaken the influence and good reputation of the spiritual administrators.

“By one measure it is decreed that, for the purpose of preventing the abuses and notorious maladministration of the fund of the saints (especially attached to the cost of the festivals and the worship of each parish, formed from the principal and medium parishes—which are contributed by each individual tributario for that purpose, and are collected and administered privately by the cura), it should thereafter be kept in a box with three keys, one of which was to be in the possession of the alcalde-mayor, another in that of the gobernadorcillo of the respective village, and the other in that of the parish priest. By the other measure, it is declared, as a general point, that the Indian who is or has recently been employed in the domestic service of the parish priest is disqualified for being chosen to any office of justice.

“It is surely superfluous to make comments upon measures of such a nature, and which so clearly speak for themselves. The only thing that ought to be said is, that means could not more intemperately have been chosen, that are more harmful to the state, to the propagation of religion, and even to the natives themselves. It is, indeed, very strange that so much effort should have been exercised in impeaching the purity of the parish priests, by degrading in passing their respectable character, just at the moment when circumstances would make it appear natural that because on account of the mortality and scarcity of religious, the ardor and authority of even the few who remain ought to be encouraged by new stimulation. [This comes, too,] at a time when because the sending of missionaries to China has been suspended, and the spiritual conquest of the Igorrotes and other infidels who inhabit the interior of the islands has been almost abandoned the said Spanish laborers can neither give any help to the ordinary administration, nor prevent the transference of whole provinces to the hands of secular Indians and Sangley mestizos (as is happening)—who by their crass ignorance, disgraceful morals, and utter lack of decency, incur universally the contempt of their parishioners, making them, because of the tyrannies of these, sigh for the gentle yoke of their former shepherds.

“If it is desired, then, to keep this colony subject, and to elevate it to the lofty grade of prosperity, of which it is susceptible, in my opinion the first thing that ought to be attempted is the efficient organization of its spiritual administration. I say again, that we cannot be blind to the fact that, if the local government is powerless, because of the lack of military force and the scarcity of Europeans, to make itself duly obeyed through its own efforts, it is necessary to call to its aid the powerful influence of religion, and to bring new reënforcements of missionaries from the peninsula. For the latter differ essentially by their nature from the rest of public servants; it is well known that they neither claim nor expect any remuneration for their labor, aspiring only to obtain in the community the degree of respect to which they rightfully believe themselves entitled. Let their jurisdictions, then, be preserved, let them be treated with decorum, and let the direction of the Indian be entrusted to them; and instantly, they will be seen, in turn, reconciled, and the supporters of the legitimate authority.

Even though this be matter which pertains to a chapter on internal policy rather than to religion, I can do no less than say, succinctly and in passing, that in my opinion the ideas of Señor Comyn are very true; and that nothing could better qualify as men weak in affairs of state the governors or counselors who dictated the present ordinances and the above-mentioned measures and phrases printed in them against the religious. Even supposing those sentences to be very just, wise, and merited, what need would there be, what gain would result from printing them and placing them in the hands of the Filipinos?

Those who have no liking for the friars, censure them as egoists and buffoons; as living in concubinage; as gamblers and usurers; as arrogant, and ambitious for power.

The friars in Filipinas are quite different from those in España. They are very glad to see a Spaniard arrive, when they know that he is not a malicious person. They have traveled, and they have escaped from the conversations and meetings of the convent; they are more tolerant, because they have rubbed against many Spaniards of liberal ideas; they have found that the lion is not so fierce as it is painted, and that there are respectable people in all parties, and men with good hearts—especially in that which takes for its goal the good of the country. How often would we abhor people less if we approached them and became acquainted with them! We must confess also that the hate cherished by the religious in España toward the liberals proceeds in great measure from the personal insults which they have endured; while in Filipinas these are very few and are neutralized by the tokens of veneration and respect which others pay them, because of circumstances which are entirely distinct from those of España. A man without prejudice and with a suitable standard of judgment, who lives in the metropolis [i.e., Madrid], sees in a friar the enemy of reforms, of progress, and of public prosperity; but, when he is in Filipinas, he sees in this same friar the benefactor of the public, and the preserver of tranquillity and of the colony. Consequently he considers and treats the friar differently than in España, and is repaid in the like coin. From this it happens that many who come from España with very exaggerated and preconceived ideas against the religious—even to the point of never having had relations or speech with a friar—and here have to come in contact with them, are surprised to find some (and even very many) of them very sociable, serviceable, tolerant, and worthy of all appreciation; and this has happened to me myself, both in Filipinas and in Palestina.

In regard to their being gamblers, I can say that when several curas of the neighboring villages assemble on the feast-day of a village, they sometimes play to pass the hot hours of the day; but I have never seen in the houses of Spanish religious what can be called play for gaining and losing money, and, in the convents of Manila, cards are not even played for amusement. I know this positively.

“There are two kinds or modes of annoyances which the Indians who are more influential practice on those of lower rank. Some are peculiar to the cabezas de barangay, with their cailianes; others are common to every kind of rich Indian toward the poor. I shall first treat of those of the first class, and next, of those of the second.

“First, the cabezas are accustomed to impose on their cailianes certain taxes of silver, rice, and other products, under pretexts that they there feign, of service to the church or to the village. Perhaps, they cast the blame on the alcalde, who is most often unaware of such taxes and is not told of them. The remedy is that, when the minister learns of it, he causes the cabezas to be punished, and the silver to be returned to the cailianes.

“Second, when the father or some passenger pays the Indian rowers or carriers, or tanores, through the medium of the cabeza or of the government, the silver generally does not reach the hands of the Indians; but the cabezas keep it, under pretexts which they advance that the Indians owe a certain polo or tribute, long overdue, or similar things. The same thing happens with the money which the father or passengers give them with which to buy provisions, and, with the opas of those who perform personal duty for others. The remedy for all this is for the minister to solicit him to pay the money to all [the Indians] into their own hands; and especially should he do that in what he buys [from them] or when he makes the Indians perform any work.

“Third, that in the polos the cabezas exempt whomever they wish, without other justification than that they choose to do so; and because those persons contribute silver, tobacco, or rice to the cabeza, thereby exempting themselves from personal service throughout the year. In that way the yoke of the polos and personal service is loaded on those of less influence. Consequently the personal service comes upon the Indians more frequently; e.g., although the village can have two months of rest (if there is order and harmony), it is usual for lack of that to have a return [of the personal service] every month, or every six weeks, if the minister does not attend to it, or intervene in the distribution of the personal service, by investigating and showing up these frauds of the cabezas.

“Fourth, in the tree-cuttings that arise for the king or for the village, all those who are cited do not go, many redeeming themselves with money which they give to their cabeza or to the petty officer [who exacts the work], thus burdening with all the work those who go—from which it follows that the felling of the timber is extended in time, and lasts longer than is necessary; and also that the petty officers or the cabezas make the Indians work for their own private interests. All of the above cannot be remedied unless the minister undertake to station secret spies, to advise him of the number of those who go, and also of those who work there more than is necessary for the king or for the village—so that those who shall be involved in such frauds may be punished, and so that they may be made to pay what they have usurped.

“Fifth, the gobernadorcillos of the villages appoint the officials whom they wish to help in their government. Many of them buy off their personal attention to it with money, which they give to the gobernadorcillo, and only help on Sundays with their authority, remaining the rest of the time in their houses. Consequently, the personal service of the village falls on very few, because of these and other like exemptions by the gobernadorcillos and cabezas for money, by which they themselves alone profit. For this reason, one must assign a definite number of bilangos or constables, outside of which number the gobernadorcillo cannot assign others. It appears sufficient that in villages of five hundred tributes twelve bilangos be appointed, so that each week four may aid, together with their constable-in-chief and lieutenant. In smaller villages nine are sufficient, so that three may aid every week. In very large villages there may be fifteen or eighteen, so that five or six may assist every week. Thus in all the villages the bilangos would rest two weeks, which is sufficient relaxation, since their personal duty is not very heavy.

“Sixth, in the collection of tributes, the cabezas perform many acts of injustice; for some are accustomed to collect the entire tribute of rice, and then to collect separately what they call ‘the stipend of the father,’ as if that were not included in the tribute. Some collect from each person six gantas more than they ought to give; for in many villages they receive fifty-eight cates as a kind of half tribute, and in others they receive from one house sixty cates from one and fifty-five from another, and it amounts to the same. There is generally an inequality in the balances used for weighing there in the field, where only God is witness, and the cabeza or collector, who weighs according to his pleasure. Not less is the deceit existing in the collection of oil, for double the amount asked from them by the king is usually taken, and the cabezas keep it; because they assess it among all the cailianes, although often half the barangay would be sufficient to obtain the assessment, and thus they could alternate between the two halves each year. All these troubles are usually encountered, and the worst is that they are often concealed so skilfully that the minister can learn of them but seldom; and for that reason I write them here, so that warning may be taken and the remedy procured—not only in respect to the charge on the consciences of those who occasion them, but in the matter of restitution to the sufferers, not neglecting to check these abuses, and to solicit that they be condignly punished by the civil authority.

“Seventh, others make their cailianes serve the entire year in their house or field, under pretext of paying their tribute for them. Some deliver them to mestizos or to other Indians, as if they were their slaves. In this way there are cabezas who hold many cailianes in slavery, making them serve in their houses for many years—without allowing them sometimes to hear mass or to go to the village, so that the father may not see them.

“All public works, both great and small, ought to be consulted over with the village itself which has to construct and pay for them. But it is to be noted that the village does not settle upon them, but the cabezas only. Rather they are a suspicious party, in this point, for if there is any work in the village, the cabezas are wont to have the greatest advantage from it. Consequently, they are generally the first to encourage the government officials to undertake any work; for not only do they not have to work at it, but they hope to get some benefit from it by the methods which they know how to use.”

But returning from our digressions to our matter in hand, I believe that if it is useful and indispensable for the parish priest to know, directly or indirectly, the particular affairs of the village, it is evident that far from undermining his authority, it ought to strengthen it as much as possible. From the time of the conquest, the curas have availed themselves of the expedient of applying some lashes to the natives, when the fathers have believed it necessary in order to correct faults, whether religious or those of another kind; and it is known that this has contributed not a little to the preservation of devotion. It is also known that they have not been hated for this by the islanders; but, on the contrary, the friars have constantly merited their love and have enjoyed a prestige which no one doubts. Everyone knows that if the friars have shown themselves exaggerated and unreasonable in anything, it has been in the protection of the Filipinos—more, indeed, than they deserved and than healthy justice demanded. Let us listen to the following words of Fray Casimiro Diaz: “The old laws in regard to the execution of the tributes were harsh, even to the point of making slaves of the debtors, and even killing them with lashes, or mutilating them. And although these laws were abolished from the time of Constantine as wicked, and have with the law of Christ been moderated within judicious limits, this benefit has not been obtained by the Indians. The Indian is beaten for his tribute. The goods of the Indian are sold for the tribute, and he is left destitute all his life. The Indian is enslaved for the tribute; for the cabeza de barangay, under pretext that he is getting back what the Indian owes, takes his house away from him, and, for the five reals that the Indian owes, makes him serve one whole year. In short, the wrongs which the tribute brings upon the poor wretch are so many, that the greatest charity which the parish priest can show him is to pay it himself.” The above shows how this good father grieves because the Indian has to pay five reals per year—five reals, which a Filipino can get by simply planting a cocoa or cacao tree at the door of his hut. How happy would be the Spaniards, or the French and English, and any other Europeans, if they had no more to pay than that! But it is not credible that Father Diaz was unacquainted with the people who so broke his heart, and that he did not know the measures resorted to in the country. A few pages farther on the same father says: “The poverty of these Indians is not their curse, but it is their own idleness and laziness, and they content themselves with little. They are not ruled by covetousness; and, although there is some covetousness, their fondness for doing nothing tempers it, and they wish to live rather by providence than to dedicate themselves to work.” What, then, would the good Father Diaz wish? that the Filipinos should not be made to contribute even the little amount that they now contribute, and that the government of España should send money there from the mother country in order to meet all the expenses of state, at the cost of increasing the heavy taxes which the Spaniards already pay? And all this, for what motive? Because the Filipinos are very “fond of doing nothing, desiring rather to live under the care of providence than to dedicate themselves to work.” For thus are the fathers all, often carrying this enthusiasm or mania for protection to a ridiculous extreme—for it is the same to touch one of their parishioners and the apple of their eye. At times they make use of unjust and compromising expressions: Thus the tobacco monopoly is “an imposition” or “a bit of knavery.” The impost for elections of gobernadorcillos, the signing of a passport, or any other accidental expense which is incurred [by the Indian], is “a theft.” The services for the repairing of roads and bridges are “annoyances” or “tyrannies.” And so on all in this tenor. Many would wish that the Filipino be left stretched out at ease all day long, and that afterward the manna should fall, and he have no other work than to open his mouth. Whoever has known the country, especially in former years, can do no less than say that there is not the least exaggeration in the picture which I draw; that the letters and remonstrances of the religious are what have been influential in dictating the laws of the Indias—which breathe out in every one of their lines, so great piety and mildness that one would believe that they treat only of innocent and tender lambs which are found among wolves. These know, too, that this same spirit has always led the religious to support the quarrels that have arisen against the civil and military government, which have, for the greater part, given origin to royal orders against them, and to the indiscreet articles of the ordinances which we have cited. Notwithstanding all this, during the last years certain new arrivals from España, especially those of the class of auditors and governors-general, have been feverish on hearing that the curas of the villages have whippings administered; and decrees have been fulminated against many provinces, in order to check this. In fact, they have attained that object; but the result of this most fatal error has been the increase of impiety in an astonishing manner, and there are a great number of villages where few go to mass, and more than the third part refuse to take the communion—which is probably also the cause of the increase in criminality which has been noted. But a short time ago, during the government of General Lardizabal, the religious presented a petition through the archbishop, asking that they be allowed to administer corrective punishment at the door of the church, as had always been their custom with those who were remiss in complying with the duties of religion. The government replied that the curas should avail themselves in such cases of advice and admonition, but that they should under no circumstances punish anyone corporally; and to complete matters, this ruling was circulated and communicated to the natives themselves, a measure that caused the greatest grief to the parish priests. The good Señor Lardizabal, who had an excellent heart, himself told me this incident, very well satisfied at the manner in which it had worked. We shall discuss this matter more at length in the chapter on “Internal policy.”

There are regular and secular clergy in Filipinas. The latter are more numerous, and include some mestizos, Chinese, and many full-blooded Filipinos. The bishops, in spite of being Spanish, have almost always shown themselves hostile to the friars and patrons to the seculars. The origin of this partiality must be found in the old-time fight between the bishops and the regular curas—who defend their rights with tenacity; while the natives are submissive and most humble to the prelates and flatter them. Notwithstanding the protection of the bishops, the seculars have generally had a very bad reputation; and many private persons, of every class and in every epoch, have openly declared against them.

The religious now living in Filipinas, excepting those of the Order of St. Francis, are not able to fill the curacies in their charge—although there are curas who take under their charge an extension which they are unable, notwithstanding all their efforts, to administer well. The cura of Surigao has twelve visitas or dependent towns. From this condition there results, among other evils, this: that when there is any cura who is unruly or of evil conduct, there is no method of summoning him to the convent and replacing him with another. Hence proceeds the laxity which is consequent on impunity.

There is one archbishop in the capital, and three suffragans—to wit, the bishop of Nueva Segovia, he of Nueva Cáceres, and he of Zebú.

The archbishopric includes the provinces of Tondo, Bulacan, Pampanga, Batangas, Cavíte, Laguna, Bataan, Zambales, and Mindoro. It contains one hundred and sixty-seven curacies, of which ninety-five are served by religious, and seventy-two by secular priests.

The bishopric of Nueva Segovia comprises the provinces of Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Cagayan, and the missions of Ituy, of Pangui, of Abra, and of Batanes. It contains ninety-two curacies, of which eighty are served by religious, and twelve by seculars.

The bishopric of Nueva Cáceres comprises the provinces of Tayabas, part of Nueva Ecija, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, and Albay. It contains eighty-four curacies, of which twenty-seven are served by religious, and fifty-seven by seculars.

The bishopric of Zebú comprises the provinces of Zebú, Iloilo, Capis, Antique, Negros, Caraga, Misamis, Zamboanga, Samar, Leyte, and Marianas (three hundred leguas distant). It contains one hundred and forty-three curacies, of which eighty-six are served by regulars and fifty-seven by seculars.

At present there are four hundred and fifty Spanish religious in Filipinas, and seven hundred Filipino secular priests, or thereabouts. More than three per cent of the Spaniards die annually; so that, in order that their present number may not diminish, it is necessary for fifteen to go there annually.

As a conclusion to this chapter, I cannot resist the desire to insert the words of a wise religious of Filipinas of former days, Father Pedro Murillo Velarde, as it may be useful to the ministers of the present time who may read these pages.