Volume 35 — THE DOMINICAN MISSIONS, 1635–39
Reading edition
CHAPTER FIRST
Of the condition of the province in the year 1637, which is the first year of this history
The band was received with as joyful demonstrations of consolation as were the others. But considering the appearance of those who came in that band, which was so strange to this province, the joy was changed into wonder; for all of them wore long beards, a fact which was an immediate portent of some great trouble as it was the superscription of peculiarity. The first part, book 2, chapter 56 treats of this sufficiently; but, as it is so serious a matter, we have thought best to repeat considerable and to add somewhat. Father Fray Diego Collado, a native of Meazadas in Estremadura, and son of [the convent of] San Estevan at Salamanca, a truly exemplary religious, energetic in his ministry, and very zealous for the conversion of Japon and China, was a minister of this province for some years in Cagayan. But the devil—who, like an asp, converts the most medicinal flowers into poison—availed himself of the zeal of this father to divide the seamless and scanty garment of this holy province; and, beginning to deface his government with less humility, created in his breast thoughts of being the reformer of the province (a self-love, at bottom, which was given shelter under the holy name of Virtue, in order that it might become more pernicious and incurable), by separating the congregation so that it should only be employed in the missions of other kingdoms, without paying any heed to the ministries to the Indians. He so arranged matters here, that from Japon (where he was a minister for four years) serious difficulties excluded him from that field of Christendom. Here also the superiors sent him for religious to España. He went there and to Roma, where he proposed to our most reverend father-general, Fray Serafino Sico, that, inasmuch as this province was embarrassed with ministries to Indians and assistance to Spaniards; and inasmuch as the missions of China and Japon and other kingdoms were an employment which ought to be their sole one: it would be a great service to God to have them separate, by that most reverend father instituting a new congregation, to apply themselves to this purpose, and this alone. They were to have houses of their own, from among those which the order possesses in these islands, where the languages could be learned without other exercise than that of the said missions. The most reverend father having examined and consulted regarding the new pretension, resolved to demolish it; and, even angered at such a proposal, he deprived the said father of his powers, ordered him to quit Roma, and not to return again to discuss the matter further. The father obeyed, but it happened that the father-general died in the year 28. In the year 29, our most reverend father, Fray Nicolas Rodulfo was elected. Father Collado sought an interview with him, and painted his scheme in such colors that he obtained whatever he wished from him: the erection of a new congregation, under the title of St. Paul the apostle; the appointment of himself as the first vicar-general; and all things for that necessary end, with great amplitude of power and authority. The father went to España, and, first seeking the indispensable permission of the royal Council of the Indias, and finding that innovations were not resolved upon in those royal and most prudent courts, without first hearing a report from the governors and their audiencias, and that he was demanding an impossible thing, he concealed the facts of the division, and only made public the mission to Filipinas and his appointment as vicar. There was no difficulty in his obtaining the favor, orders, and help of the king our sovereign, and despatches from his royal Council, in order that he might conduct his band by the usual way. The father came to terms with the twenty-four said religious, and embarked with them. He always said, whenever any necessity arose to say it, that the letters of the most reverend father were so weighty and were so vigorously expressed that their execution in the province would be accomplished without the slightest difficulty. Father Fray Mateo de la Villa, procurator-general of this province, resident at the court, sent private information of whatever he could discover in regard to the business, proceedings, and efforts, and of Father Collado, in the same vessel. The latter, as a man of authority, of example and weight, and of experience, had sufficient time in the course of two so long voyages to infuse his opinions into the religious. That was an easy matter, because of the lack of events contrary to the faith which they must give him; and more so if, fearful of the dangers so often exaggerated, of a ministry among the Indians, representations were made to them of the glory of a martyrdom, truly fantastic without great exercise of virtues, tears, and prayer. In this manner did he so bind them to himself in this holy province, and under the disguise above mentioned.
He presented his letters, in which the lack of so essential a part was immediately discovered. The matter was disputed, and the father-provincial, then the reverend father-commissary Fray Domingo Gonçalez, having briefly considered the matter, resolved upon a severe remedy. Before considering other orders, his first was that no permission was to be given the newcomers to say mass, unless they shaved as did the others. Thereupon, taking better counsel, they obeyed, and desisted from their attempts; and in a short time were scattered throughout the province in order to study the languages there, while the said Father Collado remained behind in the convent.