The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 42, 1670-1700

Volume 42 — The Camacho Ecclesiastical Controversy, 1697–1700 (continued 2)

Reading edition

In so lamentable a condition [are affairs there], when the religious desire not only to see themselves free from the charge of the mission villages, but, if it be possible, away from those islands, and far from a prelate who feels so annoyed at the union and brotherhood of the religious orders—a union dictated by the natural light of reason, prescribed in their general chapters, inculcated by the generals of the orders as being their supreme heads, ordained by your Majesty, suggested by the vicars of Christ, promulgated in the sacred writings, and bequeathed as in His last will by Christ himself to His disciples; and they without it would not have reaped a harvest in the world, nor would He have retained them as His missionaries. The religious admit that the great horror of this prelate at their concord and union gives them much cause for serious reflection; and that when this concord is so persecuted on account of the mission curacies, there is no safer way to maintain it than to separate themselves from those curacies.

The fifth and last reason: By letters of February in the year 699 it is learned that the reverend archbishop has been sending information not only against the said concord [of the orders], but against even the reverend bishop, the delegate of his Holiness—and all with [the threat of] excommunication in order to maintain secrecy. If a bishop and delegate of the pope is not secure, how will a religious who is a parish priest be so? It seems as if the reverend archbishop now falls back from lands to persons, regarding those holdings as property merely profane, and the religious as persons without any privilege. At the outset he claimed that the regulars, as parish priests, must be subject to his investigations and visitation; and now, extending his claims further, he invents against them, as religious, a new visitation, made up from secret inquiries by dint of censures. How is it possible now not only to have but even to imagine peace in the Filipinas? If the religious orders do not defend themselves, he endangers their reputation in the places where he will send the said information—and all the more if those reports go forth authorized by the secretary and notary who attest the official documents of the archbishop; for the notary, according to popular report, is a relative of his, or passes as such; and the secretary is his cousin-german. And it appears from the acts (on folio 3) that the notary-public, Master Joaquin Ramirez, testified that on November 27 of 697 he had given a paper with a letter from the archbishop to Fray Jose del Rosario, provincial of the Augustinian Recollects—not casually, but delivered into the said provincial’s own hands—when the fact is, that this provincial had died four years before, as is well-known in Manila, and as is evident from the registers of deaths in that province, and will also be here. Such were his impetuosity and his mode of procedure, without instructing the notary, or the latter knowing, of whom he was talking, and confounding times and persons, and the living with the dead. And if by such testimonies a man is introduced in the documents as alive, when in reality he was dead, what wonder will it be if, for the greater disparagement of the regulars, the virtues are introduced as dead among them which are alive in them?

Royal decree, May 20, 1700

I the King

By command of the king our sovereign:

Don Manuel de Àperregui

[Six rubrics are added at the foot of this document, which appear to be those of the members of the Council.]

For baptism: a voluntary offering [gratificación voluntaria], the minimum of which is 6 reals for the cura and 2 for the acolyte $ 1.

For burial: of free adult 7.50

of free child 6.50

of slave adult 5.50

of slave child 5.

For prayers—responso with cope, sacristan, and processional cross [cruz alta], at the house of the deceased 7.

For prayers, with cope, at the burial 4.

For office (of three lections) 5.

For mass chanted (body present) 6.

For each halt [posa] 12.50

For processional cross at the grave (without cross, .50) 2.

For each censer .50

For each attendant in surplice 1.

For remaining till end [of interment] 1.50

For four [church] bells [tolled] 2.

For three [church] bells [tolled] 1.50

For two [church] bells [tolled] 1.

For low mass [without chant] 1.

For a fiesta [feast-day celebration] with vespers and mass chanted 12.

For a fiesta with procession 14.

For votive mass chanted 6.50

For marriage 7.25

For cura at the house [of the parties] 4.

For foreigners 25. to 30.

For record of baptism 1.

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · At the end of this document appear the following memoranda relative to the archbishop’s voyage to the islands: “Archbishop Camacho embarked Note 2 · Spanish, realengos; “applied to the villages which are not held by seigniors or by the religious orders, and to lands belonging to the state Note 3 · This bull was a papal sentence of excommunication formerly published against heretics every Holy (or Maundy) Thursday; for ages it was publi Note 4 · The decree here mentioned is dated May 15, 1572, and begins, Exposcit debitum pastoralis officii. In it provision is made for “appeals from Note 5 · Probably Manuel Fernandez de Santa Cruz, as he was bishop of Puebla in 1696 (Bancroft’s Mexico, iii, p. 256).Note 6 · Cruzat y Gongora’s term of office was lengthened by the failure of his successor to go to the islands. This was Domingo Zabalburu de Echevar Note 7 · Spanish, sobrino, which may be applied not only to a brother’s or sister’s child, but to that of a cousin-german.Note 8 · Spanish, ni mejorarla [apelacion]; a legal phrase, meaning “to support the appeal before the superior court, after having appealed before it Note 9 · So in Ventura del Arco’s transcription; but it would seem to be an error for 120—perhaps a copyist’s conjecture of an illegible character—si Note 10 · He was almost seventy years old, according to Concepción (Hist. de Philipinas, viii, p. 229).Note 11 · In the Latin Church the ecclesiastical orders are those of bishops, priests, deacons, sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcists, readers, and ostiari Note 12 · Spanish, seminario conciliar; “the house assigned for the education of the young men who devote themselves to the ecclesiastical career” (Ba Note 13 · José Sarmiento Valladares, Conde de Montezuma, was the successor, in the viceroyalty of Nueva España, of Gaspar de la Cerda, Conde de Galve Note 14 · Miguel Bayót was a discalced Franciscan, an Aragonese, who came to the Philippines in 1669; he was employed in ministries to the Indians, an Note 15 · The first page of this MS. is occupied by official attestations showing that on January 22, 1699, officially certified copies of these decre Note 16 · Spanish, casamientos y velaciones; the former the general term for marriages, the latter also used thus, but referring especially to the nup Note 17 · Hijo de la Iglesia; a term applied to a foundling or abandoned infant; cf., the Italian appellation, “a child of the Madonna.”Note 18 · Spanish, octavas. None of the standard dictionaries give a meaning to cover this use of octavas. Dominguez’s Diccionario (Supplement) states Note 19 · Spanish, canonicas monitoriales. In law books, banns (in Latin) are styled proclamationes monitoriæ.—Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.Note 20 · Spanish, limosna. The fees (derechos) of the cura were determined, fixed sums, as in the tariff lists, nor could he change them. The limosna Note 21 · The term Morenos, as has appeared from former documents, was applied generally to persons of swarthy complexion—mulattoes, some negroes, and Note 22 · Spanish, arraz (arras); a very old term, of Hebrew origin; hence the Latin law term of arrha, i.e., anticipated payment of part. Arras also Note 23 · The context would seem to require here the amount of the fee for burial of a child; this has apparently been omitted in the MS. by a clerica Note 24 · Spanish, possas. At funerals, prayers were read at different points on the way to the cemetery; for instance, at the church door, midway on Note 25 · Spanish, missas de nouenario; the novenary is a nine days’ condolence for the deceased. The same term is also applied to a nine days’ devoti Note 26 · Spanish, el velo; literally, the “veil,” or the “veiling;” evidently referring to the old-time usage of placing a veil over the married pair Note 27 · Spanish, cruz alta con su manga. The processional cross was carried on a staff, as used in the United States in processions; at funerals the Note 28 · Spanish, por titulo de justicia. Parroco de justicia, so frequently used in this document, is the Spanish rendering of the technical Latin p Note 29 · See account of the allotment of diocesan titles in VOL. I, p. 244, note 188. Baluffi, there cited, adds: “Relative to the two ninths that we Note 30 · In text, oneroso, but evidently a transcriber’s error for onrroso.Note 31 · In the text, projimos, “neighbors”—in allusion to the Scriptural injunction, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” a duty strictly incu Note 32 · Alluding to Paul’s precept in I Corinthians, vii, v. 20.Note 33 · That is, a non-resident or merely titular prelate; see VOL. XVIII, p. 339, note 101.Note 34 · The whole sentence, divested of technicalities, simply means that one must “look before he leaps;” or that, when one has his eyes open, he i Note 35 · Spanish, pordioseros; that is, those who ask alms “for God’s sake.”Note 36 · Spanish, conciliabulo; like English “conventicle,” used to designate an unauthorized or illegal assembly.Note 37 · Spanish, mal sonante y temeraria—literally, “of evil sound and reckless.” This is part of a legal phrase, taken from Latin forms used by the Note 38 · This memorial seems to have been written by the Dominican Fray Raimundo Berart (see Reseña biográfica, ii, p. 203); and it was printed by Fr Note 39 · Spanish, consumiendo; “the reception or eating by the priest of the body and blood of Christ, in the elements of bread and wine” (Dominguez)Note 40 · But if the religious, invaded in so many ways, look after their defense, how will they be to blame in this? And if, in order to defend thems Note 41 · The King. To my reverend father in Christ, Doctor Don Diego Camacho y Avila, archbishop of the metropolitan church of Manila in the Filipina Note 42 · —Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.