Note 14 — Ecclesiastical Survey of the Philippines

Roxo was replaced only in 1767. That year the court of España sent an archbishop.14 I saw him, and even went to make him several visits when he had made his [public] entrance. He wrote to all the communities that he was preparing to visit his diocese. He had, so it was said, left Europe with the fullest authority for that purpose. He had bulls, briefs from the pope, and orders from the court. He thought that he would succeed with all these arms, but he did not know that there would be an answer for everything at Manila. The friars answered then that they could not allow him to visit them; and such is their answer [to their superior]. They went, say they, first to the Philippines; they have received the care of souls, under certain conditions and certain charges that cannot be set aside; [and they said] that the archbishop might, if he wished, take away all the livings in their charge and provide the same with secular priests. I have said that the archbishopric of Manila contains more than two hundred livings, of which only thirteen are in charge of secular priests. Consequently, there are about two hundred still occupied by the friars. Now the case was very embarrassing for the archbishop, who did not then have two hundred priests at his disposal. As to the briefs, bulls, etc., consider the pleasant response that they made, and which their partisans scattered abroad in public; they said, then, that his Excellency had not brought any new rulings with him from the courts of Rome and Madrid. It was very true that there existed a bull of the pope in regard to that matter, but it would have to be looked for in the books. In order that it might, on the other hand, become a law, it was necessary for the archbishop to give notification of it, legalized by notary in the ordinary manner. Such, they said, were the laws of the kingdom, in consideration of the fact that there might be some difference in the books, either by the transposition of a comma, or by some other error that might have slipped into the printing.