Volume 41 — Chapter IV
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By sentence of the royal Audiencia, the province of Zambales is restored to its first conquistadors, the discalced Augustinian Recollect fathers.
4. The malicious Calignao, after having wounded the father, went to Balacbac, and made an effort to enter the convent in order to kill the servants of father Fray Domingo. The servants barred the doors on the inside until the wounded father arrived, and during all the three days while the latter lived, the murderer remained in the village, without anyone daring to raise a hand against him. During that time Calignao assaulted the convent several times, but could effect nothing, because of the vigilance of Father Rois. The commandant of the fort desired to go in person to punish the treachery, but he was prevented from it by the other religious, for the reason that if he were killed the fort was in danger; and, if that presidio were captured by the Zambals, there would not be a father or a Spaniard in Playahonda who would not be sacrificed to their fury. He sent indeed a detachment of men, with orders to arrest or kill Calignao; but they were unable to do so, as all the village was interested in his liberty. They were present at the funeral, which took place in the church on the following day, with all possible propriety. A year and a half later the father’s bones were moved to the church of his convent at Manila.
8. Even though the religious of his province had represented to those natives that they would return to their ancient administration, one could not argue from that that any injury to the propagation of the faith, or to the credit of so holy an order [i.e., the Dominican] would follow, as the memorial declared—in formal prejudice to his own order [i.e., the Recollect] (in regard to which that order was protesting, in order to demand whatever was proper for its side). The proposed hopes of the restoration, however, would hinder the flight of the natives, which, it was known, proceeded from other reasons, through a great part of the villages of Zambales having been depopulated. That they had been living in idolatry from their first conversion, besides being an implicatory proposition, did not appear from the sentence of a competent tribunal, nor was it credible of all. And it was no new thing, that after some years, a few superstitions should be discovered [among the Indians], as was usually the case, and happened at every step; for it was not an easy thing to reduce mountain infidels to a civilized life, in which task the ministers must acquire thorough knowledge of their customs. Consequently, it had been impossible to eradicate their barbarous ferocity in committing murders, as they had done to a religious of the Order of St. Dominic. And because his province had shirked no labor for the service of God and the king, in the welfare of souls, especially in the administration of the Zambals during the space of sixty years, it desired to reap the fruit [of the harvest] that had been commenced; wherefore in furtherance of its claim he prayed his Lordship to order and command that the pleadings which had been presented be referred to the royal Audiencia, to the end that whatever should be ruled therein be considered as law. The decree enacted (with the opinion of the assessor) was, that the cognizance of the entire matter be referred to the royal Audiencia, so that the parties to the suit might there plead their claims in equity, and in fulfilment of the decree of the supreme Council of the Indias. The Recollect procurator general having been notified, appeared before the royal Audiencia with his claim together with the rest of the papers annexed, which, having been presented, were considered as referred to that tribunal for official action therein. Notice of that decision having been given to father Fray Juan Peguero, he said that he heard it, and pleaded that the papers be given him for his reply as was done. But I shall not give his answer here, because of the irregularity of his pleadings, his rashness of speech, his boldness of opinion, and his disrespect for the royal power, since his Majesty does not allow causes to be conducted in rude fashion, especially when they do not bear on the case in point, while personal defects of ecclesiastics were not under consideration in the present case, nor in the cause which was being prosecuted, as it concerned ministries only.
9. In conclusion his reply was that while maintaining the contrary of what was advanced by the Recollect fathers, as their province was not a party [to the suit]; he petitions and prays that his Highness deign to issue a citation on the party [of the Recollects], to the end that an investigation be made of all the aforesaid, as was necessary, and becoming, etc. The ruling was that the decree be communicated to the father procurator of the Recollects, who answered as follows, namely, that he acknowledged the indecorous manner in which, in view of the sovereignty of the royal Audiencia, the good name of his side and his subjects was injured. But that although he could answer point by point, he would avoid doing so, as it was a matter in which, leaving aside the requirements of law, which were to be complied with, the subject matter was getting to be a bone of contention, and a partisanship dispute—a matter which ought to be held in abhorrence by religious, who are placed as models for all in these regions, and because law enjoins the manner in which one ought to speak in the royal courts of justice, where it is expressly forbidden to bring forward incriminating libels in place of actions of laws; for these wound not only the sacredness of the religious orders, but even the sovereignty of such a tribunal, to which is due the highest respect. On that account they ought to order the withdrawal of the two allegations presented by Father Peguero as being indecorous, and notice ought to be given to the said father to answer as was fitting, by representing the authority that his province had in the administration of Zambales; in default of which, the court was to record them as having been duly pleaded. To this motion, the gentlemen [of the Audiencia] agreed that the decree should issue, and the clerk of the assembly summoned the said Father Peguero in due form for the examination, who thereupon refused such style of procedure until he had presented his grounds for opposing such action [i.e., the above decision of the Audiencia].
10. The said father procurator pleaded before his Highness that Doctor Calderon, the senior auditor, during his week had refused to sign a paper in which he [i.e., the Recollect procurator-general], pleaded in regard to the pending article; and having been ordered to present himself in the royal Audiencia, he did this by means of two religious at a time when the said doctor was the only member present in the Audiencia, because of the illness of his associate judges. There a decree was entered which ordered that the writ and other papers pertaining to this matter be presented by a procurator of the royal Audiencia, who could be punished in default for his negligence. And in view of the fact that he considered this measure burdensome and harmful to his order and person, as he was condemned before sentence was passed on the point, and the order was prevented from prosecuting this or any other cause in the royal courts, because of their well-known poverty, he prayed his Highness to deign to repeal the said act, and to allow his province the liberty of having it prosecuted by its own prosecutors. A decree to that effect was passed and the trial set for the first day, when the said Doctor Don Diego Calderon should be present.
11. The auditor, in order to justify his act in the royal Audiencia, related that Father Peguero had brought a paper to his house for him to fill out to the effect that the petition, which as he declared, he was going to present to the royal courts, should come before him, the said auditor, during his week; and that in consideration of the fact that it was a matter that concerned priests against priests, of religious missionaries against religious of the same institute, it could not set forth allegations that were wanting in fraternal charity and profound humility. This he signed without reading it, while charging the father procurator to present it in the royal courts, as was done on the day when his Lordship was the only member present [in the Audiencia]. The petition was granted and an order issued to have the papers served on the Recollect father procurator, who was bid to file his answer thereto; furthermore, in order to determine this point, the abovesaid auditor ordered that the case so far as concerned the examination of the same be laid before him. Peguero, not content with what was done, presented another petition in regard to the same cause, that it might be signed officially and passed. But having glanced over it, he found that this should not be done, as it contained other unbecoming expressions based on the one that had been presented previously, and therein at variance with the laws and ordinances of the royal Audiencia, wherefore he told the said father procurator to hand his petition back and present it when all the members [of the Audiencia] were assembled. The result was that their illness still continuing, two lay-brethren, religious of the Order of Preachers, entered the chamber and requested that the petition that they presented be granted, which was the same as had been presented by the father procurator Peguero, in which his Highness was able to recognize the irregularity of the statements, and his inability to sanction such proceedings, through his desire for public peace, and to the end that such holy orders be not embarrassed with injurious writs. Consequently, in order to prevent disrespectful petitions from being presented in those tribunals, his Highness had to decree what was most in consonance with loyalty to both their Majesties, and the public peace.
15. The parties being notified, and a report of the proceedings having been proclaimed, sentence was then given as follows: “In the city of Manila, October twenty-two, one thousand seven hundred and twelve: The president and auditors of the royal Audiencia and Chancilleria of these islands assembled in the royal courts thereof, having examined in relation the proceedings prosecuted on the part of the Recollect province and religious of San Nicolas de Tolentino of these islands, against the province of Santo Rosario and the religious of St. Dominic in regard to the restitution of the spiritual administration of the natives of the province of Zambales, hereupon declared that they ought to restore—and they hereby have restored—to the said Recollect province, and religious of San Nicolas of these islands the spiritual administration of the natives of Zambales, in the same manner as they held it at the time when the very reverend and devout father provincial of the said order, Fray Joseph de San Nicolas de Tolentino, resigned, handed over, and separated them from his administration in the former year one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine. In consequence whereof they moreover ordered—and they have so ordered—that there be made out in due form for the party of the said Order of San Nicolas a warrant to that effect. Thus was it decreed, ordered, and subscribed to in the presence of his Majesty’s fiscal.
Doctor Torralva Licentiate Villa The Fiscal”