Note 15 — Chapter II

[Most of chapter iii is devoted to the coming to Manila of a French bishop, François de Palu, titular bishop of Heliopolis and vicar-apostolic for China, accompanied by several other Frenchmen, both priests and laymen; he is one of three envoys sent to promote the missions in Siam, Camboja, and other provinces, and in China, and to endeavor to reopen those of Japan. They make their headquarters at Ayudia, the Siamese capital, but their efforts to convert the Siamese fail, on account of the obstinacy with which they hold to their false religion and idol-worship—in which they surpass all other nations, whether heathen or Mahometan, “for it is not known that any Siamese has abandoned his idolatry and professed the law of Christ.” Moreover, the Frenchmen get into a controversy with the Portuguese ecclesiastics of Malacca, who claim all the above-named regions as being under their spiritual jurisdiction, since they are still classed as missions, not having a formal ecclesiastical hierarchy, as do the churches of Manila, America, and Goa. Palu’s coming to Manila stirs up much commotion in official circles. It is reported that he had set out for China, and was driven back by unfavorable weather to this port; and the Audiencia consider that it will not answer to allow him to go to that country, as, having been sent by authority of Alexander VII and the Propaganda, his entrance into China on such a mission would be an infringement of the royal patronage, since a large part of China is included in the demarcation of Castilla laid out by Alexander VI; and ecclesiastical appointments and jurisdiction therein belong to the jealously-guarded prerogatives of the Spanish crown. The royal officials at Manila therefore detain Palu, lodging him at the Jesuit college, where he is very hospitably entertained. When the Acapulco galleon is ready to sail, these French ecclesiastics are all placed aboard it and sent to Nueva España, and thence to Madrid. There Palu is well received, and has “much communication with the Conde de Medellín, the president of the supreme Council of Indias, an able minister and a man of great virtue.”] The bishop filled him with strange notions, basing his information on the little which he could have comprehended of the mode of government of these islands, and their religious conditions; for his retirement in the college of the Society of Jesus was for a short time, and his knowledge came not from ocular experience, but only from information by secular persons who visited him—who must have been only corrupt alcaldes-mayor who were trying to get rid of the gospel ministers, with whom those officials could not be on very good terms since the ministers had restrained them in their illegal and oppressive acts; this [conflict with the officials] is the greatest hardship that is experienced in the ministries. The president, desiring to do what was right, listened attentively to the information furnished by so reverend a person, not considering that the prejudice of a person from a nation so opposed to us, and who had not found at Manila what he was expecting, rendered his account unreliable. From these reports ensued many royal decrees, which came [to Manila] years afterward, with mandates which were very difficult to carry out; because, as all the peoples [here] are different, they need different laws and rules. From this also originated the ordination of Indians as priests, of which there had been no previous example [here]—a wise precaution against the inconveniences which the Portuguese had experienced in Eastern India from ordaining canerines15 under the pressure of necessity. This is a usage which even the Dutch heretics abominate, saying that it is one of the three causes through which India has been ruined. And as in Filipinas that necessity does not exist, because of the admirable arrangements which the Catholic monarchs of España have made for sending, at the cost of their royal exchequer, religious from their kingdoms as missionaries, there was no need of resorting to the extreme measure of ordaining the Indians as priests—as the Portuguese of India had done, and as now do the bishops sent out on the part of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide in their missions of Eastern India; and the latter do so because of their urgent necessity, since the said holy Congregation has not the funds for the support of European priests. On the contrary, the few whom they have in China, Tunquín, and other regions are supported by the alms which the citizens of Manila send them—except the bishops and priests of Siam, who have more means of support from fixed incomes in France.