The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 24 of 55. Unknown

ever the name of a most devout religious; and as such the province of Filipinas, which at that time was most noted for its religious devotion, elected him as its superior and provincial. But who can free himself from an evil tongue, and an ill will? For the loyal man lives no longer than the traitor desires. His hopes were frustrated, a matter that troubled him little, as he was a humble religious. He undertook to return [to Filipinas], and our king gave him commission to bring over a ship-load of religious. He received letters as vicar-general of the islands from Roma, so that he might always preside at the chapters held there. He had letters as master, and his academic degree; and brought a dispensation from our most reverend [general], so that, if elected as provincial the second time, he might serve; for the rules prohibit him who presides from becoming provincial. He reached Méjico, although without that so notable ship-load, which he failed to bring, because of various casualties; with him came, however, one who was sufficient to render that vessel glorious, and even the entire province. This was the holy martyr, Fray Hernando de San José.7 Together with him came father Fray Hernando de Morales, father Fray Felipe Gallada, father Fray Pedro del Castillo, father Fray Martín de San Nicolás,8 all from Méjico, and brother Fray Andrés García. The heads of the Inquisition in Méjico appointed him [i.e., Lorenzo de León] commissary for the islands. With these honorable titles and honors he came to Manila, one year before the chapter was held. He gladdened by his coming all the sons [of the order], and all the others, for the order knows no distinction, but embraces us all with the same love and charity. His prudence, his good government, and his great devotion were remembered; and since he bore letters ordering him to be obeyed as vicar-general, therefore the number of prelates was increased. Thus presiding in the following chapter, in 1605, he received votes as provincial, in rivalry with father Fray Estéban Carrillo9—one of the most eloquent preachers in the islands; and the best loved by all, both great and small, who has ever been known. Finally the astuteness, or rather, the diligence of certain ones prevailed, and father Fray Lorenzo de León became provincial pro secunda vice [i.e., “for the second time”].

      Chapter XXXI

      Of the second election as provincial of master Father Lorenzo de León

      With the advent, then, of the year 1605, in the latter days of April, our fathers assembled in the islands, as is the custom. On the Friday before the third Sunday after Easter, our father Fray Lorenzo de León went to take over the presidency by virtue of his letters-patent, and they were found to be such as were required. In consequence, he was received as president of that chapter, over which he presided, not only as president, but as vicar-general. The election resulted in [the choice of] his person, as above stated. In it, the first definitor was father Fray Juan Bautista de Montoya; the second, father Fray Estéban Carrillo; the third, father Fray Pedro de Aguirre; and the fourth, father Fray Roque de Barrionuevo. Father Fray Miguel de Sigüenza had the vote for president in this definitorio, and as visitors were elected father Fray Mateo de Peralta10 and father Fray Francisco Serrano. All assembled, they ordained and enacted the acts that they judged advisable in accordance with that time. All those acts show the sincerity of those who enacted them, and they provided not only for the welfare of the order, but for that of the native fathers under our charge; for surely, under our shadow they increase and are sheltered. And if religious were lacking, what would become of them? Beyond doubt they would be like the wretched boat exposed to the fury of the winds, which has no greater security upon the waters than where the winds choose to carry it. For this one orders them, that one petitions them, and another one seizes and knocks them about; but with the protection of the religious they are free from all these annoyances. Very conformably with this, religious were established in the missions in order to teach them and often to protect them.

      Our father provincial entered upon the exercise of his office with the same wisdom and prudence as in his first term, attending to it with all his might. However, his second term was not apparently so successful as the first—caused perhaps by various casualties, which have no place here, and do not affect the matter at all. In short, the affair was running badly and the body of the province was becoming laden with humors. I well believe that our father knew it all, and that he could have been less rigid, and that without dividing the forces that were forming. He thought that they were religious, and he the superior; and that all dissent, however violent, would be only murmur—just like certain huge clouds that predict great storms, but finally and at the end, the entire storm is expended in clouds of dust, thunders, and lightnings, so that that storm ends with only noise. But such did not happen here, but the matter went farther; and the father definitors, within one and one-half years, after meeting, deposed our father Fray Lorenzo de León. They sent him to España; but he remained in the province of Méjico, without wishing more than to serve our Lord, and ended his days there, as one may understand of so renowned a religious, leaving his cause in the hands of God. I leave it likewise; for, if we glance at the definitorio which assembled there, there is no doubt that it was one of the most sober-minded councils ever assembled in the province. And even were there none other in it than our father Fray Pedro de Arce, who presided in it, he was sufficient to ensure that; but it was much more creditable, for the others were very erudite. Father Fray Juan Bautista de Montoya was the most notable man in laws and moral causes that has been in the islands, and was no less a very great theologue. Father Fray Estéban Carrillo, as we have said already, was a great orator, and the other fathers were very learned. On the part of our father provincial, it was known that he was very devout, very punctual in attending to his obligations and that his first term was considered as most successful. Hence, without taking from anyone what belongs to him, we leave this matter with God, who has already judged it, and He has been pleased to take all those concerned in it. Bishop Fray Pedro de Agurto was at his bishopric in Sugbú at this time. He was desirous of remedying what was already becoming established, and even left his city for that purpose. But when he reached Manila, he found that there was no remedy. He sorrowed greatly over this blow at the order, for, as the true religious that he was, he felt, as keenly as death, whatever misfortune came upon the order. In the world this proceeding was discussed with the charity that is exercised in other things; but, when everything was over, it was also erased from memory—and more, as the government of our father Fray Pedro de Arce followed immediately, who exercised the office of rector-provincial for that one and one-half years, and his fame and well-known virtue filled everything with fragrance and good-will.

      [The order of discalced Augustinians in Spain petition for leave to go to the islands in 1605. The petition granted, a number of them set out; and, after waiting at Sevilla for some time for vessels, reach Mexico, where they are entreated to found a convent. Refusing this request, however, they continue on their journey, reaching the Philippines, in 1606, under the leadership of Juan de San Jerónimo. “They were given a house outside the city in a garden11 that had belonged to Don Pedro de Acuña, who governed these islands.... But those who treated the said fathers most generously were Ours, for we gave them our best and brightest jewel, namely, San Nicolás, allowing them to found their convent in his name. This meant wholly to enrich them and to leave us poor.” Further, a layman named Don Bernardino, captain and castellan of the port of Manila, builds a convent for the new order “sufficient for forty religious.” At death he and his wife also leave money to continue the work, and the new order begins to multiply.]

      Since then those fathers have continued to establish convents here. For as they were the last, and the islands are in the conditions under which Miguel López de Legazpi left them, there was not before any place where they could settle. However, outside Manila, they possess a small house called Sampaloc, because it has many tamarind trees. There they minister to a few Tagáls, and one religious lives there generally.12 It has a stone church and house. They have a garden with a stone house and its chapel (where one religious lives), near the walls of Manila, in the suburbs. Opposite the island of Mariveles, in the same district of Manila, they have a Tagál mission. It is but small, and, with its visitas, does not amount to four hundred Indians. But farther along the coast, they have two Zambal missions of settled Indians, which are situated nearer here than Ilocos. One is called Masinloc

7

Fray Hernando de San José, the Japanese martyr, whose family name was Ayala, was born at Vallesteros, in 1575, and took his vows in the Augustinian convent of Montilla, May 19, 1593. He arrived in the Philippines in August, 1604, and was soon sent to Japan, whence he returned in 1607 to Manila as procurator. On his return to Japan, he labored in various places, and founded the convent at Nagasaki, of which he was made prior in 1613. He was martyred June 1, 1617. See Diaz’s Conquistas (Valladolid, 1890), pp. 76–103.

8

Fray Hernando Morales, a native of Montilla, in the province of Córdoba, professed in the Córdoba convent, and on his arrival at the Philippines was sent to labor among the Aetas in Panay. He was minister of Sibucao in 1611, and of Laglag in 1618, in which year he took charge of San Nicolás de Cebú, going later to Dumalag. He died in the last place in 1647.

Fray Felipe Tallada was born in Estepa, in the province of Sevilla. Professing in the city of Sevilla, he was sent to the Philippines, where he labored in the province of Pampanga at various periods from 1605 to 1645. He was definitor and examiner in 1617, and procurator to Spain and Rome in 1618. His death occurred in Betis in 1645. He wrote a life of St. Nicholas of Tolentino in the Pampanga dialect.

Fray Pedro del Castillo became a conventual of Pototan in 1605, and was minister of Dingle in 1611 and 1633, of Jaro in 1614, of Laglag in 1617, and of San Nicolás de Cebú in 1621. He was also subprior of the convent of San Pablo in Manila in 1623, and minister of Santa Cruz in Ilocos the same year; was procurator-general; and exercised the care of souls in Bacarra in 1626, and in Purao in 1629, dying in 1642.

Fray Martín de San Nicolás was a native of Osma, and made his profession in the convent of Puebla de los Angeles. He was a missionary in Maluco and Japan for some years. While vicar at Guimbal in 1617, he accompanied the troops on an expedition against the Moros of Mindanao. He died at Manila in 1630.

See Perez’s Catálogo.

9

Fray Estéban Carrillo was a native of the city of Écija and made his profession in the Córdoba convent, where he obtained a professorship. On going to the Philippines he spent four years among the highlands of Ilocos. He was preacher-general (1602–1609), provincial secretary (October 31, 1603), prior of Manila (December 24, 1603), definitor (1605), and procurator-commissary to Madrid (1607). He was one of the foremost orators in Manila, which city he left in 1609 for Spain, where he died in 1617. See Perez’s Catálogo, p. 52.

10

Fray Pedro de Aguirre took his vows in the convent at Mexico. He was, after his arrival at the islands, a conventual in Pásig and Bombón until 1600, in which year he went to Taguig, whence he passed to Calumpit in 1602. He was prior of Santo Niño in 1603, and commissary-procurator to Spain and Rome in 1607, dying in 1631.

Fray Roque de Barrionuevo, a native of Lubia, took his vows in the convent of Agreda in 1589. In 1597 he was laboring in Tanauan, and in Malolos in 1600. In 1606, while in Hagonoy, he went to Ternate at the request of Pedro de Acuña, whence he returned in 1608. He was definitor and minister of Malolos in 1609, of Tondo in 1612. He died in 1649. He wrote a grammar and dictionary of the Márdica dialect.

Fray Miguel de Sigüenza professed at the Burgos convent in 1579. From 1581 to 1599 he labored at various missions in the Visayas and in Luzon. He was provincial secretary in 1602 and visitor to the Tagáls the same year, after which (1605) he exercised the care of souls in Hagonoy and in Calumpit until 1607, in which year he died.

Fray Mateo de Peralta was a conventual at Lubao in 1584, of Pangasinan in 1587, of Calumpit in 1590; after which he was at the missions in Mexico (1591 and 1607), Pórac (in 1594), Candaba (in 1597), Lubao (in 1602), Betis (in 1608), and Apálit in 1609, where he died in the same year.

See Pérez’s Catálogo.

11

The text reads puerta, “gate,” which is probably an error for huerta, “garden.” See account of their establishment, in Vol. xxi, p. 269.

12

The Franciscans now (1893) have charge of Sampaloc.—Coco.