Note 76 — Chapter IV

13. The decree so enacted had the effect that the office of procurator-general of the province of Santissimo Rosario was changed and given to father Fray Domingo Escalera,76 who together with the procurator-general of the Recollects, presented a joint petition to his Highness to deign to have the preceding writs annulled, as they were not suitable and germane to the case, nor respectful to the royal Audiencia and the parties [in the suit]. This was handed to the fiscal for review, who said that, because of their joint agreement, and moreover, because the writs were not germane to the case in the chief point of the pending suit, greater harmony would result to the two orders which were at law, and to the public cause, and that if the writs were juridically annulled because of their contents, his Highness could order the execution of what the parties petitioned, and such decree would be valid and efficacious—an opinion however that had no definitive result. Then in regard to the writ presented by the Recollect procurator Father Escalera rejoined that, inasmuch as such ministries were handed to his province by the government, if his Highness were pleased to order that they be restored to the plaintiff province his province was ready to do its part, and for that purpose he renounced this copy of the proceedings, and any other, as he had nothing to petition or plead. Therefore, in consideration of the decrees already passed in which he considered himself as cited, his Highness should deign to issue an order for whatever should be his pleasure. Consequently, a decree was drawn up embodying the ordinances that had been made in which the parties were recorded as having been cited, as they considered themselves as cited, and the Recollect procurator presented proofs to the effect that his province had never renounced such ministries, but had always violently protested against the fact of their having been despoiled thereof, in support of which it had been prosecuting the cause in the Council. For the Dominicans, their prior provincial, father Fray Christoval Pedroche, answered the citation by saying that his province had held those ministries in encomienda and trust in the name of his Majesty through the vice-patron, and consequently, if any act of spoliation had been committed, his province was not a party thereto, just as it was not a party to the present proceedings. Therefore he was ready to return them whenever his Highness so ordered; and hence he did not oppose the claim of the Recollect fathers. In answer to their statement that they had elected priors for those missions in all their provincial chapters, and that therein they had no other consideration than the service of God in those missions and the spiritual welfare of souls, he petitioned that his province be adjudged as not a party in the said suit, protesting moreover that he would not plead, or in any way oppose his Highness’s decision. When the parties were cited, an order was issued by the court that with these decrees be united those which were enacted by the master-of-camp, Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, for the assignment of the Zambals to the Dominican fathers. The decrees having thus been brought together, various motions were made, in which proceedings the Dominicans always by joint action refused to be recognized as a party thereto. Whereupon the members of the court having examined the proceedings after their previous examination by the fiscal, declared, that notwithstanding the reply of the father provincial of the Order of Preachers in which he petitioned that his order be declared not to be a party, they maintained, as they now maintained, that he was a legitimate party in these proceedings; moreover that they ordered him, as they now repeated their order, that he notify the father procurator-general of the said order to answer to the summons within three days, and to make full return thereto. He was also warned that if, at the expiration of said limit, he had not done so, the royal courts would declare the proceedings so far as taken as sufficient, and the case would be prosecuted in them. The Dominican procurator having been cited and notified, said that he obeyed the decree of his Highness, that he heard it, but that there was no answer to be given, as he was not a party, as he had already declared, and that in case that it was necessary he would repeat the same answer of his father provincial. This occurrence took place on November twenty-four, one thousand six hundred and ninety.