Note 7 — COLLEGE OF SAN JUAN DE LETRAN

They lived in it but for a short time, for some great earthquakes happening in the year 1645, that college was entirely ruined, as well as many other buildings of this city. The city conceived so great a horror of those earthquakes that many of its citizens went to live in the suburbs, where they feared less danger of their ruin. That same reason was taken account of in the rebuilding of that college, and it was moved outside the city near the alcaycería or Parián of the Sangleys. With the alms that some benefactors offered, a college was built out of wood, with its church also of the same material, all very poor. At that site outside of the city the college was maintained for about twenty years, with notable discomfort to the collegiates, both because of the distance of the university where they had to go to attend to their studies, and because of the dampness and unhealthfulness of the land; and because of the nearness of the Chinese, who were not very good neighbors, both for fear of their insurrections, which were then very frequent, and because, being idolaters and heathens, their nearness could, not but be the cause of much scandal and a poor example to the collegiates. For these and other like reasons, from the first years that they were there, our religious began to discuss their removal and shifting. But, although they called several meetings to discuss the matter, and several plans were made for that purpose, they were never realized, for the college was very much in need of funds, for it scarcely had enough for its maintenance, until the seriousness of the harm, which was feared from keeping the college outside the city obliged the piety of this holy province to expend whatever was necessary for its removal. On the occasion of the death of a lady, named Doña Maria Ramirez Pinto, who had a new house inside the city back of the garden of the convent of Santo Domingo, the province determined to buy it, along with other houses which were near it. It gave those houses as an alms to the college for that purpose, and arranging in them all the rooms necessary for a community, with their church, choir, and belfry; for the licenses which were taken out in the year 1668 for that removal from the government, city, and ecclesiastical cabildo expressed such permission. When all the building was arranged in the form of a college on the above-mentioned day, May 8, of that year 69, the collegiates were transferred to it, with great pomp and solemnity, amid the joy and gladness of all the community.7 For that was a matter that all desired, as that college had always merited the general esteem of this city.