Volume 39 — Events in Filipinas, 1686–88

Diary of new events in Filipinas, from June, 1686 to June in 87

On June 11, 1686, the galleon “Santo Niño” discovered, twenty-two leguas from the island of San Juan, a new island, larger than any of those discovered in Marianas; it is named San Bernabé, because it was discovered on the day of that saint.

On July 11 the bells were rung in Manila for the arrival of the galleon “Santa Rosa.”

On the twelfth they hanged five Sangleys, who were found guilty in the mutiny.

On the fourteenth news came that all the people who were in the lancha that lost its course in Marianas had safely reached port in Cagayan.

On the nineteenth the auditor Don Diego Calderon died.

On the second of August, Licentiate Don Rafael Tome, a student in San José, died.

On the twenty-sixth, our mail reached Manila. On the twenty-eighth, that from Roma was opened, and no [provision for our] government was found.

At the beginning of September, the Augustinians brought suit against us before the archbishop, regarding the administration of Mariquina.

On the sixth of October, Father Jose Lopez died in Palapag.

On the same day, the twelfth of October, it was decided in a provincial council that the paths of government should be opened. The first was entered by Father Geronimo de Ortega, and the second by Father Juan Andres de Palavicino; but, on account of the death of both these, Father Luis Pimentel—at the time, rector of the college of San Ignacio—began to govern.

On the thirteenth of October, the armada entered the port of Cavite.

On the eighteenth of October, a decree was made known to the provisor, who had gone to Mariquina and Pasig, forbidding any official whatever of the archbishopric from taking action in matters pertaining to the lawsuit of Mariquina.

On the twenty-first, a decree was made known to the archbishop strictly charging him that he must refrain from taking action in the lawsuit of Mariquina, and that he must exhibit the records.

On the eighteenth of December, the archbishop was notified and charged not to disturb us in the Mariquina affair. On the nineteenth, a similar charge was laid upon the prior of Pasig; and another, on the twentieth, on the prior-general of the Augustinians.

On the same day, the twentieth of December, the archbishop sent a denunciation of excommunication, with the curse of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and his own, and that of the apostles Peter and Paul, to the governor and to Auditor Bolivar, in order that they should not interfere in the Mariquina affair.

Year of 1687

On the twenty-first of January, 1687, General Don Juan de Zalaeta was arrested by order of the governor, and thrust into the sulphur dungeon [calabozo de azufre]. Item, they also arrested Licentiate Don Miguel de Lozama, and conveyed him, wearing two pairs of fetters, to the fort of San Gabriel. The goods of both were seized, and several of their clerks arrested.

On the twenty-second, Doña Ynes, the wife of the said Don Miguel, sent a petition to the said governor, who answered that the judge of the suit was Don Francisco Velasco, alcalde-in-ordinary. Doña Ynes came before the royal Audiencia, and that body passed an act providing that the said alcalde should, after taking the confession of the accused, present the documents within twenty-four hours. The governor, having seen this decree, issued another, prohibiting further action by the royal Audiencia, and ordering the alcalde to prosecute the case without surrendering the documents. At night the governor summoned the auditors and fiscal to a conference, and made an address to them—from which resulted, as was noticed, great fear in the auditors, who almost decided to forsake the Audiencia, and take refuge in sanctuary.

On the seventh of February, they arrested the auditor Don Diego de Viga, put him on a vessel, and conveyed him to the island of Mariveles. At the same time they made the most careful search, in order to seize the auditor Don Pedro de Bolivar; but by that time he had fled to sanctuary.

On the fourteenth of February, they took from his house, where she had remained with guards, Doña Josefa Moran de la Cueva, the wife of the auditor Don Pedro de Bolivar, and carried her into banishment at Abucay.

On the sixteenth, they also seized Doña Ynes, sister of the said Doña Josefa, and wife of Licentiate Don Miguel de Lezama, and carried her to the same place, Abucay.

On the twenty-sixth of February, the college of the Society of Jesus was surrounded [by soldiers], to remove thence the person of the auditor Don Pedro de Bolivar; and not finding him, the men remained on guard, both within and without the college, for the space of nine days. In that time they searched the house eleven times—four of these with violence, wrenching the locks from doors, and breaking open tables; but they did not find the said Don Pedro. At the end of the nine days, he showed himself, of his own accord, and they arrested him and took him to Mariveles; several days before they had removed from the said island the auditor Don Diego de Viga, and transferred him to that of Lucban.

Just about this time a new Audiencia was formed, which was thus arranged: the governor was its president; the royal fiscal became an auditor, Captain Don Jose Cervantes was judge of Audiencia, and Captain Juan de Agulo attorney-general.

On the same day, the fourth of March, the archbishop sent to Mariquina to investigate whether Father Diego de Ayala was officiating as cura; the latter prevented the notary from doing so, and, when other people went to make the said investigation, he told them that they need not take that trouble—that he was acting as cura in virtue of the bull of St. Pius V and of his assignment [to that parish] by the [royal] patron.

About Christmas, the royal magazines in Panay were burned, and in them some six thousand cabans of rice. On the first of March, Saturday, the Augustinians set fire to the cottage on the ranch which the college of the Society of Jesus at Yloilo owns in Suaraga. On the following Saturday, March 8, fire visited the Augustinians, destroying a visita, a church and convent, and more than forty houses in the village. Item, and the following Saturday, March 15, the church and house were burned in the village of Dumangas, without their being able to save their valuables, or to prevent the burning of the pious offerings [colectas] of Cebu, which had been stored [in that convent]; and, besides this, more than two thousand cabans of rice.

On the sixteenth of March, Passion Sunday, while Father Diego de Ayala was saying mass in the village, the church was entered by armed men, with Bachelor Teodoro de Aldana, the notary of the archbishop; the prior of Pasig, with two laymen; and other people. After mass was ended, they read to the Indians an act by the archbishop, which commanded them, under penalty of flogging and the galleys, to appear within three days before the prior of Pasig, resorting to the latter for religious ministrations, and to repeat the sacraments.

On the nineteenth of March, in the afternoon, the secretary came to deliver in behalf of the royal court a verbal message to the father procurator [sic] Antonio Jaramillo, advising him of the oversight of the preacher, who that morning in the sermon—at which the governor and the king’s fiscal were present—had omitted to use the phrase, “very potent sir.” The same message was sent to the superiors of the other religious orders, because, several days before, the prior of St. Augustine and another religious, a Dominican, had fallen into the same offense, when preaching in the royal chapel.

On the twelfth of April the archbishop demanded aid from the governor, and with it arrested the cantor Don Geronimo de Herrera, and placed him in the fort of Santiago. Soon afterward, the governor caused the arrest of Don Juan de Cordoba and one Carcano, respectively procurator and receptor in the royal Audiencia; and afterward, on the twentieth of April, of Blas de Armenta, secretary of the court, and of Captain Diego de Vargas and others.

On the twenty-second of April Father Ferragut died in the college.

On the eighteenth of April, Domingo Diaz came to give the father rector, Antonio Jaramillo, a copy of a petition by the Augustinians; the father rector, before he knew that the said Domingo Diaz had come, had made, in scriptis [i.e., in writing], his protest of incompetency of the judge, and of challenge and appeal.

On the twenty-third of April, the father procurator, Antonio de Borja, sent to the archbishop a document in which was set forth in due form the said protest, challenge, and appeal. He also presented to the governor a petition that he would give proper attention to the disturbance which the Society had suffered, and the injury inflicted on the royal patronage.

On the twenty-eighth of April, Domingo Diaz came again to give Father Borja a copy of another petition from the Augustinians, who said that the challenge and appeal which he had interposed were of no force.

On the fourth of May, they brought Captain Mateo Perea under arrest from the Lake [of Bay], and left him in his own house with guards. On the sixth of May, Domingo Diaz came to make known to Father Borja an act of the archbishop—who declaring that there was no occasion for the challenge and appeal interposed, commanded that the parties should make their complaint; and that within six days the documents for the sentence should be brought to his illustrious Lordship. On the tenth of May, Father Antonio Borja presented before the royal Audiencia a plea of fuerza, in order that he might make known the injury which the archbishop had done to the Society and the royal patronage.

On the fifteenth of May, the father rector, Pedro de Oriol, presented a petition to the governor, asking him to issue a juridical testimony of his recourse [to the Audiencia] with a plea of fuerza; and that notification be sent to the archbishop that his illustrious Lordship must not take any further action until the royal court should decide what must be done.

On the seventeenth of May, Domingo Diaz came to make known the sentence of the archbishop, which declared that the Augustinians were the lawful parish priests of Mariquina, and that the sacraments administered by the fathers of the Society since October 12, 1686, had no force. The reply to all was, [that such proceeding was] null, and contrary to law. On the nineteenth of May, Father Borja came before the royal court a second time with a plea of fuerza. On the twentieth of May, the royal court resolved to issue a royal decree to the archbishop, commanding him to deliver up the documents in the Mariquina lawsuit.

On the twenty-third of May, they arrested the dean, Don Miguel Ortiz de Cobarrubias, by order of the archbishop; they placed him in the provisor’s house, and seized his goods. At the end of May, they carried the two auditors, and soon afterward Don Juan de Zalaeta and Don Miguel de Lezama, to Cagayan, as exiles; and they were placed one in each of the four garrisons that are maintained in the said province.

On the third of June, a notary came from the archbishop with a petition from the Augustinians, who were asking his illustrious Lordship to confirm the sentence that he had pronounced. Father Borja made a reply, more than two sheets in length.

On the fifth of June, a royal decree was made known to the archbishop that he must exhibit the documents in the Mariquina lawsuit, and his illustrious Lordship said that he would reply and would send the papers—which were in regard to the value of the sacraments.

News of this year of 1688 and part of the last one, with an appendix of other points

1. The ship “Santo Niño” which sailed from Cavite last year, 1687, put back to the port of Bagatao, to the grief of everyone—not only on account of the deterioration of property and the very considerable damages, but also this greatly delayed the remedy which is needed by the public calamities and the oppression under which this colony lies. The ship’s return to port is attributed to the excessive lading which it carried, to careless arrangements and lack of proper outfit, and to the undue timidity of those who had charge of the vessel.

2. The Recollect fathers made a raid through the lands of Silang, which they call Alipaopao, Oyaye, Malinta, etc.; and, trying to adjudge them to the ranch of Sarmiento, which they had recently bought through the agency of General Endaya, they committed unheard-of atrocities in the houses and grain-fields of the Indians—burning and ravaging them as furiously and horribly as if an army of Camucones had raided them. The Indians lost, as appears from a juridical statement that was drawn up, more than three thousand pesos.

3. A Dominican friar in Cagayan refused to absolve a Spaniard at the hour of death, in spite of all his entreaties for absolution. Although the friar had begun to hear his confession, the dying man could not proceed with it, being stopped by the nausea which comes at death, and he therefore died without absolution. I do not know all the circumstances in this case.

4. Another friar in the same province refused to absolve Auditor Don Diego de Viga, unless he would first express I know not what protestations and detestations. The auditor replied that, for what concerned the banishment of the archbishop, his conscience had not given him any uneasiness, because he had understood that he acted in regard to it in accordance with the laws and decrees of our king a sovereign so Catholic as is that of España; and that in affairs in which he had felt scruples, and had proceeded according to human judgment, there was nothing for which to employ the friar’s zeal, and still less occasion for his trying to have him make those detestations and protestations. Nevertheless, the friar persisted [se estuvó en sus trece] in refusing to absolve him; and Don Diego, embracing the holy Christ and uttering fervent acts of contrition, said that he appealed to the mercy of God, and thus he died. He was buried in consecrated ground, although afterward, it is reported, the archbishop sent orders that his bones should be disinterred, and removed from consecrated ground.

6. The archbishop, since he came back from his exile, has not ceased to wage war on this city. He demanded aid for arresting the religious of the seraphic father St. Francis, who preached in favor of the royal patronage; item, for arresting those who were ministering in Mariquina, the fathers of the Society; item, for seizing Father Cano; and all these acts proceed from the fury and partiality of Father Verart.

7. The bishop of Sinopolis died, and orders were given that he be buried in [the church of] the Society of Jesus. This the archbishop and his friars took so ill that the latter refused to go to his funeral and burial, to the surprise and scandal of the whole city; and the archbishop prevented the cabildo from paying the last honors to the bishop in the church of the said order, declaring that it was polluted by [containing] the remains of Señor Grimaldos, who in the opinion of the said fathers died excommunicate.

8. The archbishop forcibly took from the fathers of the Society the administration of the village of Cainta and Jesus de la Peña, and gave it to the Augustinian fathers—thus revenging himself on those of the Society, whom he regarded as enemies; and for this cause he commanded them to tear down their buildings at Jesus de la Peña, to the foundations—the governor aiding him in this atrocious act, contrary to the laws and privileges of the royal patronage.

Appendix

1. The goods which the governor shipped as contraband, of which the accountant made a written statement, are two hundred and thirty-five packages.

2. The vessels which Endaya has built, with the authority that he possesses, are two pataches and a champan.

3. The amount which the governor received from the Marques de la Laguna, at Santa Rosa, was one hundred thousand pesos.

5. Of the Dominican friar who went to look at the bulls of Don Fernando, that he might enter as a Franciscan.

6. How not even this gentleman has escaped from the anger of the archbishop and Verart.

9. Of the imprisonment of Roberto; and why and how the provisor went, with great clatter of weapons and constables, to arrest a brother of the Society.

10. How Father Pedroche, who had been banished from these islands, escaped from Acapulco, and came back dressed as a Recollect.