Volume 28 — Chapter XLVI

Ecclesiastical theater of the Philipinas Islands

510. Who does not express wonder that the evangelical preaching in these islands (and more especially at Manila) is so eloquent; that the worship in the temples has a veneration as perennial as it is ceremonious; that the holy orders maintain themselves in the most strict observance of their institutes and rules; that the Christian church is so happily increased; that devotion is so well received; and that justice is so uprightly administered? For, if one considers without prejudice, these are certain precious gems, so resplendent and so exquisite, that the crown of España can glory in adorning itself with them—even though it he, as is the fact, the Spaniards who shape those gems from justice. All this so ennobles these islands that they are reported as extraordinary among all these lands.

511. This ecclesiastical theater of the city of Manila demands huge tomes from justice for its history, which the limits of my history do not permit; and a very ingenious pen for its praises, which is not united with my lack of eloquence. I have seen some voluminous writings on this subject, which I have no time to follow. I have seen some that are written so meagerly, that my own interest [in the subject] is offended. May it please God that my design, which confesses itself debtor to all, may now find a proper medium.

512. The first church of Manila was erected as a parochial church, under the title of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady, at the end of the year 1571, when the adelantado and conquistador, Legaspi, divided the lands and site of Manila. Although I have read in a certain manuscript that that first erection was made with four clerics, I cannot find in history anything that verifies this statement. For the printed histories of these islands state that when the adelantado Legaspi divided the land, he summoned the natives of Manila and their ruler, Raja Matanda; and, placing the fathers of St. Augustine in their presence, told them that those were their true fathers, and their instructors in the law of the true God, who had come to teach it to them; and there is no mention of any secular.

515. Gregory XIII was the one who erected that first parochial church into a cathedral, by his bull given at Roma in the seventh year of his pontificate, namely, in that of 1578, at the petition of our Phelipe II, king of the Españas. He assigned it twenty-seven prebendaries of whom the king appoints those who are necessary. They consist of five dignitaries—dean, archdeacon, precentor, schoolmaster, and treasurer; three canons (the fourth having been suppressed by the Inquisition, as has been done throughout the Indias); and two whole and two half racioneros, by virtue of a royal decree given in Valladolid, June 2, 1604, countersigned by Juan de Ybarra, the king’s secretary. With the above, and two curas, sacristans, master-of-ceremonies, verger, etc., this church is very distinguished and well served, and the choir is quite crowded at all canonical hours. At its first erection, the advocacy of the most pure Conception was bestowed upon this church, and it has been preserved up to the present time.

516. The archbishops of Manila receive the salary of 5,000 pesos of common gold, by virtue of his Majesty’s decree given at Madrid, May 28, 1680; the dean, 600 pesos, by virtue of royal presentation; the four dignitaries of this holy church—namely, archdeacon, schoolmaster, precentor, and treasurer—each receive 500 pesos, for the same reason; the three canons—namely, the doctoral, the magistral, and he of grace—each 400 pesos, for the same reason; the two racioneros, each 300 pesos, for the same reason; the two medio-racioneros, each 200 pesos, for the same reason; the master-of-ceremonies, 200 pesos, by a royal decree dated February 22, 1724; the two curas of the holy church—one for the Spaniards, and the other for the natives and blacks—each 183 pesos, 6 tomins, and 7 granos.