Volume 28 — Ecclesiastical Survey of the Philippines

[The French scientist Le Gentil, in his Voyages dans les mers de l’Inde (Paris, 1781), pp. 170–191, speaks as follows of the ecclesiastical estate of the Philippines.]

Ninth Article

Ecclesiastical survey of the Philippine Islands

The fixed revenue of these parish priests is, as one can see, very little, but they have a little in perquisites, as marriages, baptisms, etc. Not more than forty years ago, one of the two parish priests had charge of the Spaniards, while the other attended only to the Indians. Today this ridiculous distinction no longer exists. The parish priests alternate month by month in their duties as curates, and during that time they minister indiscriminately to Spaniards and Indians.

The cathedral of Manila was erected into a metropolitan in 1595. The bishoprics of Zebu, Camarinés, and Nueva Ségovia are of the same date, and were made suffragan to Manila. This archbishopric has more than two hundred livings, of which only thirteen are served by secular priests—who are subject, say the friars, to visitation; the other livings, to the number of about two hundred, are administered by the religious, who, as they say, are not at all subject to the visitation of the archbishop. We shall discuss this subject and the rebellion occasioned by this matter in Manila in 1767, while I was still there.

Tenth Article

Of the ecclesiastical tribunals established at Manila

These tribunals are three in number: that of the archbishop; that of the Inquisition; and that of the Holy Crusade.

The tribunal of justice of the archbishop is composed of a vicar-general, one notary, and two fiscals. The archbishop has his prison, where there are lodgings for lewd women.

At present these commissaries have no right to bring suit against anyone at all, nor even to cause any arrest. They are under obligation to write to Mexico, in order to inform the tribunal of charges and accusations. Thereupon the tribunal renders a sentence, which it sends to the commissary, who has it executed. That sentence comprehends arrest. Thereupon the commissary causes the arrest of the accused person, and ships him to Mexico. The trial is conducted there, and the accused is sent back to Manila for the execution of the sentence, if there is cause therefor.

The tribunal of the Holy Crusade has nothing especially deserving that I should stop to mention it.

Eleventh Article

Which contains details in regard to the churches and colleges of Manila

Next to the cathedral of which I have just spoken, must be reckoned the royal chapel. It is used for all the feast-days and ceremonies of the royal Audiencia. It has in charge the spiritual administration of the royal hospital of his Majesty’s soldiers; it is their parish church, and they are buried there. This chapel has a chaplain, who is, as it were, the rector. He has five other chaplains under him, besides sacristans and assistants. The divine office is celebrated there with great state. The royal chapel furnishes chaplains for the galleons. The royal hospital, which is located quite near by, has its chaplain, its administrator, its physician, its surgeon, its apothecary, and everything necessary.

Formerly the royal seminary of San Felipe, composed of eight seminarists and one rector, was located at Manila; theology and the arts were taught there. These two chairs have been suppressed, and those who wish to avail themselves of the schools go to the university of Santo Tomás. Since the war this seminary no longer exists; that is to say, it is no longer maintained, so that it amounts to the same thing. Its annual expenses were paid from the royal revenues, so that its maintenance depended absolutely upon the good-will of the governor. For that reason, I saw it, in 1767, without support. That lasted after the war, which caused great outcry at Manila against the governor. The archbishop was never able to succeed in reëstablishing it, although he contended that a seminary was very useful in this capital. But the religious took the opportunity to oppose it secretly, for, as they wish to extend their authority, the fewer the priests who can be trained in the archbishopric, the more need will there be of religious to serve the curacies.

In 1717, the king caused three persons to go to Manila, in order to teach the institutes and laws there; and assigned them the suitable incomes, namely, one thousand piastres (5,050 livres). These three persons took one of the largest houses in Manila, and in fact, began to teach there; but they generally had no scholars. The royal Audiencia represented to the king that since there were two universities at Manila, those three posts were useless, since the same branches could be taught in the universities. Consequently, the king had to pay four places instead of three, for it was necessary to establish a chair of canon law and another of the institutes in the university of Santo Tomás, and the same in the university of the fathers of the Society.

The seminary of Sancta Potenciana was established in 1591; it served for young girls bereft of father and mother, who were reared and instructed there at the expense of the king. They had a mother superior, a chaplain, and a portress. The building of this seminary having fallen into ruins, Archbishop Roxo proposed to rebuild it, but the English prevented him from doing so. The bombs and bullets having finished its destruction, its pensioners were transferred to Santa Isabela. Santa Isabela is a sort of house or seminary designed for the rearing of young Spanish girls and orphans. The church is dedicated to the Presentation of our Lady.

All those houses have been thriving for many years on that silver that comes on the galleons, from which one may judge of the immense wealth that they enjoy. We will give an idea of it here in the list of the revenues of La Misericordia. The girls at Santa Isabela have a mother superior and a portress. When they are married, they leave the college with a dowry; and La Misericordia, in order to dower them, has established a fund of 16,000 piastres (84,000 livres). There were about fifty girls aided by La Misericordia when I was at Manila. Santa Isabela also receives boarders; and for the expenses of all the necessary supplies for the support of the orphans, for the domestics, etc., La Misericordia gives 10,700 piastres (56,175 livres). Besides that, that confraternity has disbursed in alms according to a statement that I have seen for the years 1599–1726, 3,448,506 piastres (181,046,656 livres), which amounts to 142,556 livres of French money per year. Furthermore, La Misericordia has assisted the public in cases of extreme necessity, and when the city has been threatened by an invasion on the part of enemies—as happened in the years 1646, 1650, 1653–1663, 1668, and 1735. According to an exact account, it has given 1,069,099 piastres (5,612,769 livres). I say nothing of the considerable sum that it furnished in 1762, when the English captured Manila.

The house of La Misericordia has its peculiar statutes, according to which it is governed. It has many privileges and, above all, indulgences, which the popes have successively heaped on it. Finally, in 1733, the king took it under his protection.

One may judge, from the sample, of the wealth of all the convents of Manila, which, during the more than one hundred and fifty years while they have been established there, have profited from the money for charitable works, without having diffused it outside.

The calced Augustinians were the first religious estate to appear at Manila; they went there in 1565. The convent has about fifty religious, and furnishes laborers to all the provinces where those fathers have livings. They have forty-five or fifty in the bishopric of Manila alone. The church of the Augustinians is a very beautiful edifice, being built of cut stone. It has suffered considerably from earthquakes.

The Dominicans went to Manila in 1587, in order to found a mission there. They have a fine convent, with about thirty religious. Their university dates from 1610. The Dominicans have only a dozen livings in the archbishopric of Manila.

The college of San Juan de Letran owes its institution to a Spaniard of singularly exemplary life, who took charge of the orphan children of the Spaniards, and those whose fathers and mothers were poor. He supported them and taught them at the expense of his own income, and when that did not suffice, he collected alms to assist the lack in his own funds. The king, in order to make it easier for him to exercise his humane acts, gave him an encomienda in the province of Ilocos. At the approach of old age, he retired into the infirmary of the Dominicans, with the permission of the archbishop, and died there a religious. He renounced his encomienda, his house, and all his possessions, in due form; and placed them at the disposal of the Dominicans, on condition that they take charge of the rearing of his orphans. According to the act that was passed June 18, 1640, the house was erected into a college under the advocacy of St. John of the Letran. The king added to it some revenues from the royal chapel; and the students who left that college belonged to the king, and had to enter his service, either in the military or otherwise. The Dominicans have gradually changed those rules. The students of that college, to the number of about fifty who are supported there annually, are all or nearly all destined for the priesthood. Consequently they study philosophy and theology in the university of Santo Tomás.

The Recollects arrived at Manila in 1606. They have built a fine convent there, and so large that two hundred religious could be very comfortable in it; however, they never have more than forty. They have a dozen livings in the archbishopric of Manila.

The hospital Order of St. John of God obtained permission from the king in 1627 to send ten religious to Manila. In 1656, the board of La Misericordia made those fathers a present of their old hospital. The king approved that gift, but the hospital has fallen many times. In 1726, the archbishop undertook to reestablish it, and to rebuild it again on new foundations; and that has been executed. That hospital is a vast and elegant building. The church is beautiful. The wards for the sick are large, and filled with very comfortable beds, and there are plenty of religious. Those fathers are very useful in Manila, for they are very charitable to the sick. The Spaniards of Manila and its environs send their domestics there when they are sick; and they are given especial care, and treated gratis. Those fathers are, beyond doubt, the most useful in Manila; but, in spite of that, they are poor and often in want. They live only on alms, and without the Confraternity of La Misericordia that house would find it hard to subsist.

I shall make here only one reflection, which the love for humanity tears from me. The Confraternity of La Misericordia have amassed immense wealth, but they scatter and spend it on the unfortunate who are in need: the State itself has often found aid there. The religious orders also have their treasures, but I have been assured that no one benefits by them; and that, on the contrary, like those treasures of the Igolotes, their treasures only increase each year. Also the Histoire Espagnole [i.e., ”Spanish History”], that tells of the employment made by La Misericordia of its charitable contributions, is silent as to what the religious orders do with theirs.

Article Twelve

Of the bishops of the Philippines suffragan to Manila; and of the general number of Christian souls in those islands.

The bishopric of Camarines dates from the same time as that of Zébu, and was founded in the same manner. That city is not more beautiful than that of Zébu. The calced Augustinians, the Recollects, and the discalced Franciscans are established at Camarines.

The bishopric of Nueva Segovia was founded at the same time and in the same manner as the preceding. The city (if it is one) has a convent of calced Augustinians, one of discalced Franciscans, and one of Dominicans.

The secular priests, according to a list that I have seen, govern one hundred and forty-two livings, which include 131,279 persons. The other livings, to the number of more than five hundred and fifty, are divided among the Augustinians, the fathers of the Society, the Dominicans, the Recollects, and the discalced Franciscans.

The Augustinians have charge of 241,806 persons

The fathers of the Society had 170,000

The Dominicans have 89,752

The Recollects have 63,149

The discalced Franciscans 141,196

Sum total 705,903 persons.

The above sum is for 1735, and is very exact, as it is taken from the communities and from the statement of the royal officials. There may, however, be some error in it, due to the fact that the Indians change their dwelling from time to time, or absent themselves for some time. Mortality must also have some effect on it. It results always that the natives of the Philippines, the subjects of the king of España, form a colony about as numerous as the city of Paris; and that that colony, if it were well governed and well directed, might become very flourishing.

Article Thirteenth

Of the power and influence enjoyed by the religious in the Philippines

If the governor of the Philippines is absolute, the religious orders form there a body that is not less powerful. Masters of the provinces, they govern there, one might say, as sovereigns; they are so absolute that no Spaniard dares go to establish himself there. If he tried to do so, he would succeed only after having surmounted great difficulties, and removed the greatest obstacles. But he would always be at swords’ point: the friars would play him so many tricks; they would seek so many occasions of dispute with him; and they would stir up so many things against him, that in the end he would be forced to go away. Thus do those fathers remain masters of the land, and they are more absolute in the Philippines than is the king himself.

In 1763 or 1764 an alcalde of Manila, zealous for the public welfare, had a royal road lengthened two or three leagues from the city, and had both sides of it planted with trees. It produced a very beautiful effect, and facilitated the carriage of food to Manila. The fathers of the Society began a suit against the alcalde, because, they said, he had encroached upon the lands of the poor Indians. The alcalde, and rightfully, paid but little attention to the suit. The fathers of the Society, upon seeing that the matter was not turning out at all to their advantage, caused the trees to be cut down by the Indians, and reduced the road to its former condition—that is to say, they administered justice themselves. Will it be believed that the affair is left in this condition? However, nothing is more certain; it was still quite recent at my arrival at Manila, and was related to me by several persons worthy of credit.

According to an ordinance of the king, renewed, perhaps, a hundred times, the religious are ordered to teach Castilian to the young Indians. But his Majesty, the Spaniards of Manila have assured me universally, has not yet been obeyed to this day, and has not been able to succeed in having the ordinance executed. Public schools are to be seen at a half-league’s distance from Manila, where the youth are taught, but good care is taken not to teach them Castilian. They are taught the language of the country. They have, it is true, little prayer-books written in Castilian, and the youth are taught now and then a few words of that language; but the chief language that the teachers try to have them speak and read well is the language of their own country. So, go one league from Manila, and you can scarcely be understood if you do not know the language of the country—a fact which I can attest, for I have experienced it. It is still worse in the provinces. Thus are the friars the masters of the Indians. A great abuse that follows from that is, that the Spaniards themselves cannot get any knowledge of the condition of things in those provinces. They would have no safety in traveling, if they were not known to the religious, and if they did not have with them recommendations presented by the religious of Manila. Those recommendations are infinitely more to be preferred than the orders which the governor could give to the alcaldes or to those religious. The latter would probably not deign to receive them; while the alcaldes, who themselves need to keep on good terms with the friars, would give but faint response to the governor’s orders.

Notwithstanding all the recommendations possible, it yet happens that the friar in charge of the people among whom you travel, allows you but rarely to speak alone with the Indians. When you speak in his presence to any Indian who understands a little Castilian, if that religious is displeased to have you converse too long with that native he makes him understand, in the language of the country, not to answer you in Castilian but in his own language. The Indian obeys him; and, if you are not aware of that practice, you cannot guess his reason, inasmuch as you have not understood what the religious said. I have been assured of this by several Spaniards, among them the engineer Don Féliciano Marquès. He has several times complained to me that, in spite of his great desire to travel in the provinces, he did not dare resolve to do it, in view of the great difficulties that he saw to be inseparable from such an undertaking.

We went together, he and I, several times, on the river in a pangue—the boat of the country. Once we went up stream for three leguas. No one could understand us at that short distance from Manila, for no one knew any Castilian; neither did they even pay any attention to us. One would not believe that the Spaniards were the masters of the country. That, I was told by the Spaniards, was the result and the effect of the policy of the friars.

If the religious in the Philippines have resisted the temporal power in these matters, they have not been more docile, in another matter, to the ecclesiastical power; for they have been able, even to this day, to elude the visitation of the archbishops, and those prelates have never been able to succeed in that.

The great obstacle in this matter is, that there are very few [secular] priests in the Philippines, and the majority of those who are there are Indians. The people, say the Spaniards, have almost no respect or veneration for the latter. Most frequently they are dressed like their compatriots, the other Indians, in the fashion of the country. The friars, on the contrary, are necessarily more respected, and even though it were only by reason of their mode of dress, they would inspire more awe in the people than do the Indian priests. Those religious hold the people in a sort of dependence in which the priests of their own race, and clad as they, could not hold them. But so the religious, because they know that they are necessary in the present condition of affairs, have always raised an opposition when the archbishops have tried to visit them, so that the latter have never been able to surmount the difficulty. The religious are, so to speak, entrenched or fortified in castles (encastillados, to use the peculiar expression of the Spaniards), so that all the zeal of the archbishops has been unable to reduce them to the footing of the other curas. As a rule, there are no difficulties at all in the other bishoprics; for, as the livings there are almost always filled by religious, the curas easily allow themselves to be visited by a person of their own class. It is true that, since the governors have not as yet taken sides with them, the archbishops have always been the weaker party.

Monsieur Arandia, of whom I have already spoken, a man fit to govern a state, would have doubtless put an end to it had he lived. Don Manuel Antonio Roxo was appointed archbishop of Manila under his government. Don Andrès Roxo, nephew of that archbishop, told me several times that Monsieur Arandia was only awaiting his uncle’s arrival to conclude that important matter. But Arandia died before his arrival, and it is claimed that he was helped to die. However that may be, Archbishop Roxo, having lost his support, could not, although he became governor and captain-general of the islands, make the friars submissive. He wrote to the king that the briefs of the pope and the decrees of his Majesty would always be without force and validity; and that the one and only way of succeeding in regulating that matter was to issue imperative commands to the general of each order in Europe to direct their friars at Manila to receive the visit of the archbishop. In the meantime, the war comes—Manila is captured; Roxo dies, and all is as before.

Such are the intrenchments that the friars opposed in 1767 to the new archbishop of Manila. In the beginning, the Dominicans and Augustinians were disturbed; the Dominicans in fact submitted, and the archbishop’s party already thought that he had the victory. But, toward the end of the year, some repented, and changed their minds; and, as a consequence, there was a schism in the convent. The Augustinians also were divided, and they came even to blows among themselves. One of the chief actors was imprisoned in his room. However, the matter was arranged, and it was agreed that all of them should assemble and be reconciled, without saying a word of what had occurred. It produced a singular effect. At my arrival the dissension had again commenced, but I am not aware how the affair terminated.

I must tell what side the governor took in so delicate a matter. On one side he was pressed by the archbishop; on the other he was solicited by the Jesuits and the friars. During these contests I found him one evening when I went to see him, meditative and thoughtful. He had two letters in his hand, which the archbishop had written to him, successively, that same day. He told me, with demonstrations of feeling which showed his embarrassment, that the archbishop was writing to him letter after letter, on a matter that depended on him in no way at all. He said that he had no instructions on the matter, and that he could not exceed his powers. And, as he repeated that to me time after time, I answered him that, since he had no orders from his court, and especially since he had no secular priests at his disposal, it was in fact very difficult for him to proceed as the archbishop desired. It must be observed that I was living with a wealthy French merchant, one of whose daughters had married the secretary of the government; and I have often remarked that that secretary was not at all inclined to the archbishop’s side.

The friars in the Philippines are, as can be seen, absolute in the provinces. It is quite true that, according to the ordinances, the governor ought to send the auditors there from time to time in the quality of visitors. But besides that that scarcely ever happens, these visitors, although members of the royal Audiencia, are obliged to take recommendations from the convents of Manila before their departure, in order to be well received. However, that great authority of the friars over the people does not prevent the latter from revolting very often in the provinces; and those revolts are nearly always followed by the death of some religious. Then there is no means of restoring order except by sending troops to reduce the Indians to obedience, for the eloquence of the religious can do nothing. Such an emergency occurred in my time, at the end of 1767. Several settlements about the large lake revolted, and carried their boldness even to the point of killing the friar curas. It was necessary to send a cavalry officer at the head of a detachment of fifteen men, to make those rebels submit.

These disorders always happened when the provinces of the Philippines had at their head, to govern them, only an alcalde and the friars. I believe that it would be necessary for the court to have four or five hundred troops (or at least a sufficient number), for the sole purpose of scattering them through those different provinces, in posts of only fifteen or twenty men. That number, besides being but inconsiderable and of little expense, would be sufficient to maintain the Indians in their duty, since only fifteen men have appeased the disturbance in a considerable district near the lake.

[The following, also from Le Gentil (pp. 59–63), treats in part of the ecclesiastical estate.]

Ninth Article

Of the genius of the inhabitants of the Philippines, and the peculiar punishments inflicted by the religious on the women who do not attend mass on the prescribed days.

This article is the fourteenth chapter of the Franciscan religious from whom I have extracted a portion of my details. But I believe that it will be important to reproduce here in exact translation the text of the original.

[The extract is from San Antonio’s Chronicas, vol. i, part of chapter xl of book i; it is not, however, an exact translation, but in part a synopsis. The meaning is not distorted; but we have preferred to translate this portion of the chapter, entitled in San Antonio “Of the characteristics and genius of the Filipino Indians,” directly from the Spanish, reproducing exactly the matter synopsized by Le Gentil.]

[Here we resume the narrative of Le Gentil, who italicises the words, “It is necessary to employ the lash in order to get them to attend mass on the prescribed days when holy Church orders it, and to treat them as schoolchildren,” and continues:]

This is an abuse which reigns in the provinces. The religious give the lash to women and girls with a cat-o’-nine-tails, even in the presence of their husbands, and no one dares say a word. That is not practiced at Manila, and the religious are not so absolute there as they are in the provinces; and, besides, one is able at times not to attend mass on Sunday without that act of irreligion reaching the ears of the religious or the curés.

I was intimately acquainted at Manila with some army officers, with whom I had gone from the Île de France to that city on board the “Bon-conseil.” Although Spaniards, they dared to revolt publicly against that ridiculous custom; others approved it. Sometimes the religious or fathers have their own executioners, and the church is the place of the action. In this regard a singular chance procured me a knowledge of the following.

A short league [lieue] from Manila is a parish called Las Peñas (les Roches) [i.e., “the rocks”]. It is under the charge of a secular priest, and has a very small church, built of bamboo and thatched with straw. It is a charming place, and pleasure-parties often go there to dine, or walk there after dinner. I went there quite frequently with Father Melo. One Sunday, Don Andrés Roxo and Doña Ana Roxo, his wife, asked me to go there to dine with them. Don Andrés Roxo had married one of the daughters of the marquis of Villa-Mediana, a distinguished family of Spain. The marquis, who has died since my return to France, was then commandant of the troops in Manila, and was to come to join us in the afternoon. As I was walking with Monsieur and Madame Roxo in the country quite near the village, about four or five in the afternoon, we beheld a great concourse of people gathered about the entrance of that same village. We went in that direction, to ascertain what could be happening. It was a woman who had not attended mass that day, whom they were taking to the church to lash. She was led along by the executioner. He had a heavy cat-o’-nine-tails on his shoulder, which hung down to the middle of his back. The father, more black than white, went behind, and a crowd of Indians followed, especially of Indian women. Doubtless they were those of the village, who were obliged to witness the ceremony, in order to teach them not to stay away from mass. Madame Roxo, seeing this sight, was touched with compassion. She left us, forced her way through the crowd, and easily succeeded in reaching the father. She asked clemency for that woman, which was obtained.

At this juncture the marquis of Villa-Mediana arrived. From as far as we could see him we went to meet him. When he asked us whence we came, Madame Roxo told him what had just happened. But the marquis, far from approving the generosity of his daughter, put on a severe countenance, and scolded her for it roundly in my presence. He told her in express terms that she had performed a very wrong action, which would be the cause of a greater evil; that that woman would not fail to commit that sin again, and perhaps several times, and the blame and sin for it would rebound on her who had asked for the pardon.

[Le Gentil concludes this article by a further translation and synopsis of the same chapter of San Antonio, which relates entirely to the characteristics of the natives—matter which will, if space permit, be embodied in this series.]