Note 23 — The Pardo Controversy

In the Dominican chapter-session of 1673, it was enacted that no religious of that order should become executor of a deceased person’s estate, or undertake the charge of his last will. This was to prevent risk of accusations against the friars, so general was the dishonest administration of executorships in Manila—so much so that it occasioned no surprise in the minds of the people, although all complained of the grievances thus caused. “There are few fortunes which have not some executorship as the foundation.” See Salazar’s Hist. Sant. Rosario (Manila, 1742), p. 43.