Note 22 — JESUIT MISSIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

[Fol. 229 b:] About this time dissoluteness was reigning in these islands, with as unrestrained and despotic dominion as if there were no law superior to it, which could repress it. Fraud in trade and commerce, hatred, falsehood, and malice prevailed everywhere, and without restraint. Above all, sensuality was, so to speak, the prince and master vice; and so general that, unrestricted in time, sex, rank, or age, it kept these regions aflame with an infernal and inextinguishable fire. These crimes were aggravated by the scandalous publicity with which they were committed, almost without punishment; and they had so filled the country with iniquity and abomination that they had to a certain extent corrupted the land itself, filling it with malediction, as Scripture tells us of the time of Noe: Corrupta est autem terra coram Deo, & repleta est iniquitate.22 This provoked the wrath of God so much that in those times were experienced such calamities, wars, misfortunes, earthquakes, deaths, factions, shipwrecks, imprisonments, and so great disturbances, that the citizens themselves, obliged to begin to reflect on these things, believed that the sword of divine indignation was unsheathed among them; and those who with prosperity seemed to be losing their senses came to themselves, as did the prodigal son with his coming to want. They had recourse to the holy Pope, the vicar of Christ on earth; and at his feet, submitting themselves with humble repentances, they explained to him the cause of their affliction. He who then presided over the Church of God was his Holiness Innocent X, who as a benign father despatched an apostolic brief to the archbishop of Manila directing him to absolve all the inhabitants and citizens of these islands from whatever crime or transgression they might have committed, or excommunication that they might have incurred. He sent them his apostolic benediction, and granted a plenary indulgence to those who should worthily prepare to receive it.