Note 230 — San Agustin’s Letter on the Filipinos

98. I believe that the same thing would happen with the Indians,230 even when they belong to the caciques or nobility; for it is incredible that they can strip themselves of the peculiarities of their nature. I at least do not believe it at present, although God our Lord can very easily do it, for He is the One who raises up sons of Abraham from the stones. But we must not ask for miracles needlessly, but allow the Indian to remain an Indian, and go to his labor as before. If it is desired to prepare them for the high ministry of the priesthood, it is advisable to test them in the offices of alcaldes-mayor, captains, regidors, and councilors; for it appears to me that there is no one who can say that these said offices are greater and of higher rank and dignity than the priesthood, at least where the Inquisition exists. Then, if they conduct themselves well in the said employments, they can be given the management of the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord; and then one can say with reason: Quia in pauca fuisti fidelis supra multa te constituam.231 For, as the Church teaches us through the mouths of the holy fathers, the dignity of the priesthood is so great that that of the kings or emperors of the world cannot compare with it. Thus says St. Ignatius the Martyr in his epistle to Smyrna, chapter x, Sacerdotium est apex bonorum omnium, quæ sunt in hominibus.232 St. Ambrose, in chapter 2 of his book De dignitate sacerdotum233 says so still more clearly.234 Father Molina235 has considerable to say on this in the first treatise of his Libro de sacerdotes [i.e., “Book of priests”] as has Father Señeri236 in his Cura instruido [i.e., “the cura instructed”].