Note 35 — Chapter XI

The archbishops of Manila tried to establish that kind of ecclesiastical hierarchy in Filipinas, but as he was so holy, and only desired to promote the greater honor and glory of God (Qui cogitationem pacis et non aflictionis habet)35 he found considerable inconveniences and even impossibilities in effecting what he was attempting. For Don Juan de Palafox had a great plenty of secular priests who were very suitable in learning and virtue for choosing and presenting for the missions, which the orders were abandoning, because they refused to submit to the rigor of the canonical collation in the appointments to the missions. But the archbishop found a great lack of secular priests in these islands, for scarcely are there enough in this country to fill the choir of the cathedral of Manila, with prebendaries and chaplains for the royal chapel, and some few curacies which the clergy hold in this archbishopric. For the Spaniards in this country multiply but slowly, and very few of their sons apply themselves to following the ecclesiastical life, either secular or regular. That is so true that the orders could not maintain themselves if it were not for the continual missions that are brought from the kingdoms of España. Thus, the clergy is composed of the sons of the Spaniards of this country, and with these is maintained a cabildo in this cathedral of Manila, so distinguished that it might belong to one of the first churches of España; for most of them are doctors in sacred theology, after having graduated first as masters of arts. He who has the least degree is a master. All of them are very learned and of known virtue, which is a cause for admiration, as they live so far from reward that one rarely passes from the sphere of the dignities of the said cabildo. For although some have attained the episcopal dignity, these are very few—as, for instance, this year their dean, Doctor Don Domingo de Valencia, was promoted to the bishopric of Camarines,36 but at such an age that he cannot obtain the dignity for a long time. However, in order to comply with his obligation, and to give the orders an incentive to represent in judicial form what they had to allege, the archbishop resolved to place the visitation in execution. He began with the mission at Binondoc, outside the walls of the city of Manila, belonging to the religious of St. Dominic, who immediately abandoned that mission; and the same was done by the other orders, who left the missions in their control in the hands of the governor as vice-patron. The latter referred the consultative vote on a so great and weighty matter to the Audiencia in the royal assembly. It was thoroughly discussed by the auditors of the Audiencia, who were all very eminent jurisconsults; and they, recognizing the impossibility of placing in execution in these islands what Don Juan de Palafox had established in Nueva España, as the system in vogue in these regions is very different, despatched a royal prohibition to the archbishop, ordering him to hold his right in reserve, and to suspend what he had begun until the royal and supreme Council of the Indias should be informed, and should take suitable measures. The archbishop was notified by the first and the second royal prohibition; and he obeyed it, and suspended the visitation, after making his protests. From that time the orders found him a most loving father and protector. He referred the case to the royal Council; the orders also [did the same], by the authority which they gave to the most reverend father master Fray Juan Polanco of the Order of Preachers, the procurator of the province of Santo Rosario at court. All the orders renounced the missions in their charge. The president [of the Council] was the count of Peñaranda, Don Gaspar de Bracamonte y Guzmán, a minister of great talent and experience in very difficult negotiations, as he showed in the peace of Nimega,37 where he was the plenipotentiary of Don Felipe IV. That most erudite senate having examined the matter, and having penetrated like lynxes the most hidden difficulties, imposed silence for the time being on that innovation.