Note 15 — ANDA’S MEMORIAL, 1768

An interesting sketch of the controversy in Filipinas over the episcopal visitation of the regular curas is given by Pardo de Tavera in his note 13, pp. 59–68. The strife began even with the first bishop, Domingo de Salazar, and continued for some three centuries; for as late as 1865 the archbishop of Manila and two of his suffragan bishops joined in sending to the Spanish government complaints against the friars of substantially the same tenor as those made earlier by Salazar, Camacho, and Santa Justa. Papal and royal decrees were issued at intervals, insisting on the right of episcopal visitation; but in most cases these were practically nullified by the influence or opposition of the friars, and the inadequate supply of secular priests. The friars several times threatened to abandon their curacies (and actually did so, on some occasions); and they claimed exemption from visitation on various grounds—claiming a privilege granted to them by Pope Pius V (which, however, was afterward annulled by Clement XI), the right to obey only the superiors of their respective orders, and the lack of any obligation on them to serve the curacies, which they claimed to be only a work of supererogation. ↑