Note 7 — The Religious Orders

The Austin Friars were the religious pioneers in these Islands; they came to Cebú in 1565 and to Manila in 1571; then followed the Franciscans in 1577; the Dominicans in 1587, a member of this Order having been ordained first Bishop of Manila, where he arrived in 1581. The Recoletos (unshod Augustinians), a branch of the Saint Augustine Order, came to the Islands in 1606; the Capuchins—the lowest type of European monk in the Far East, came to Manila in 1886, and were sent to the Caroline Islands (vide p. 45). The Paulists, of the Order of Saint Vincent de Paul, were employed in scholastic work in Nueva Cáceres, Jaro, and Cebú, the same as the Jesuits were in Manila. The Benedictines came to the Islands in 1895. Only the members of the first four Orders above named were parish priests, and each (except the Franciscans) possessed agricultural land; hence the animosity of the natives was directed against these four confraternities only, and not against the others, who neither monopolized incumbencies, nor held rural property, but were simply teachers, or missionaries, whose worldly interests in no way clashed with those of the people. Therefore, whenever there was a popular outcry against “the friars,” it was understood to refer solely to the Austins, the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Recoletos.7 There was no Spanish secular clergy in the Islands, except three or four military chaplains.