The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 27 of 55. Unknown

last one was Don Albaro de Mesa y Lugo, who died about six weeks ago—although it is true that, according to the concordant opinion of lawyers, the Audiencia cannot be held as excommunicate. I called together the advocates in the Audiencia, and named three for the defense of the case, who should continue to act with the authority that was given to them by the ordinance and iterative decrees of your Majesty. The royal decree having been issued, the archbishop yielded, and absolved the said auditor, Marcos Çapatta. But as he continued his display of fuerza against Don Andres Arias Xiron, an act and an iterative decree were also issued against the archbishop, which he refused to obey in any case. In this stand he was aided by the friars—Dominicans, Franciscans, Recollects, and Augustinians—at the time when the alguazil-mayor of court proceeded to execute the royal decree which exiled the archbishop from the kingdoms and deprived him of the temporalities. A friar carried to his house the monstrance with the most holy sacrament; he was clad in his pontifical robes, and, holding the monstrance in his hands, the three religious orders being present, he awaited the said alguazil-mayor with the said royal decree. The latter, seeing this array, did not know what he ought to do. The Audiencia commanded him to drive the religious out of the archbishop’s house by force, with the assistance that he had, and to serve the royal decree. They ordered him to remain there with his soldiers, with all devoutness and respect, before the archbishop, and to wait until he should lay down the most holy sacrament, before executing the decree; also that he should not allow the archbishop to eat or drink, nor permit any one else to enter his house to give him food. The friars refused to go away, until the soldiers had to carry them away bodily. Then, at eleven o’clock at night, they were going about the streets, and finally obliged me to take other measures, after I had sent, in the name of your Majesty, protests to the provincial of St. Dominic and the guardian of St. Francis—informing them that their religious were gathered at the gate of the archbishop’s house in the manner of a [religious] community, with lighted candles in their hands. The religious refused to go away until I gave orders that the soldiers should carry them in their arms to the convents. Their intention was to stir up the community, and cause scandals and tumults in it; and in truth they would have succeeded in this if your Majesty had not here your armed troops. For in these Philipinas Islands these friars are lawless people; and I would rather fight the Dutch in Flandes than deal with these friars, or have occasion for trouble with them. I will write further particulars about them in a separate letter and information to your Majesty, in order that you may be pleased to command that some corrective be applied to these disorders; and so that the governor may be enabled to conduct the government and attend to the service of your Majesty without being hindered by them.

      The archbishop remained in the island of Maribeles—to which place he allowed himself to be conveyed for his disobedience—more than a fortnight. During this time the royal Audiencia set affairs in order, after having written to the bishop of Cibú (to whom pertains the ecclesiastical government [in such cases]) that the bishop of Camarines—who is second in that succession, and was here in the city—was to govern the church. This he has done, removing the suspension of divine services, and absolving the excommunicated ad cautelam. The archbishop, before the alguazil-mayor of the court could arrive to notify him of your Majesty’s royal decree, had declared excommunication against the auditor Çapatta and the governor of Filipinas—as your Majesty will see by the papers which I send, which were posted in the churches. However, all the matters that I have mentioned, and everything else, I will leave for the report which the said fathers of the Society, Diego de Bobadilla and Simon Cotta, will make to your Majesty, in your royal Council of the Indias; they will inform you of all the circumstances and details which here I omit.

      The royal Audiencia, exercising the clemency, kindness, and affection with which your Majesty treats your vassals (especially the prelates and ecclesiastics), issued a new royal decree to restore the said archbishop to your Majesty’s favor and to his archbishopric—all which has been carried out, for the sake of a good example to all the foreign peoples here; but making preëminent the authority of your Majesty’s jurisdiction in what concerns him. But we always remain hopeless that the said archbishop will govern his church peaceably, without interfering with the said royal jurisdiction or with your Majesty’s patronage; for he is instigated [by others], and cannot be obliged, on account of the extent of his authority, to punish the ecclesiastics and his cabildo. He unites himself, on every occasion, with the three religious orders aforesaid—who do not content themselves with giving opinions which are not for his good, but force him to carry out these. They act thus out of revenge for my being told, when I first came here, of their shortcomings by the said archbishop; and they cannot revenge themselves for this in any other way than by driving him into the same uneasy disposition. In order that your Majesty may form some idea of the archbishop, I will tell you of what occurred on Holy Thursday. At half-past two in the afternoon, when he was in the choir to perform the ceremony of washing the feet of twelve priests, he began to put on his pontifical robes, and at the same time gave orders that the musicians should sing. The sub-chanter was not there, not having arrived at the church; and moreover the dignitaries (who do not have to put on their vestments with him) had not come. One of these was Don Francisco de Valdes, who resigned the archdeaconry; he had treated these ecclesiastics so badly with insulting language that, on the last occasion of that, the said archdeacon resolved that he would not serve in the church during the term of the archbishop. As he did not possess your Majesty’s confirmation of his prebend, they all said that he could do so. At this time the singers came in, and began the offices; the archbishop became so angry (for he is exceedingly choleric) that he snatched the miter from his head and flung it on the floor. Thus he went on, throwing down the rest of his vestments, one after another; and when he had stripped off all of them he went to his own house, snorting with anger, and uttering a thousand insults against all the prebendaries, and leaving all the priests sitting, barefooted, on a bench. Such are the actions of the archbishop; and with his headlong tendencies, combined with the excellent counsels that the friars give him, I shall have plenty to do in keeping them all quiet, and endeavoring to live in peace. All these things demand from your Majesty suitable and efficacious correction.

      For the honor of God and of your own service, will your Majesty be pleased to command that all these matters be amended, or else to send another governor, so that one shall take care of ecclesiastical affairs, and the other of the temporal, for one man alone cannot do both; for the hindrances which these religious orders put in his way are many, and he has no time left for the political government or military affairs, or for considering the general welfare of the provinces. May our Lord guard the Catholic person of your Majesty, as Christendom has need. Manila, on the last day of June in the year 1636. Sire, your Majesty’s vassal kisses your feet.

Sevastian Hurtado de Corcuera

      I, Alonso Vaeça del Rio, public notary, one of the number [allotted] to this city for the king our sovereign, attest and give truthful testimony to the persons who shall see the present, that today, Friday, which is reckoned the ninth of May in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-six, at about eight o’clock at night, a little more or less, Christoval de Valderrama, notary of this archbishopric, stationed himself at the corner of the archbishop’s house, near the dwelling of the master-of-camp, Don Lorenzo de Olasso, to read a document. This he did by the light of a taper, in loud and intelligible words; and at the noise I, the present secretary, and several other persons went to the windows in the house of Captain Luis Alonso de Roa (which forms half a square), on the side where the said notary was standing. Continuing his reading, he said that inasmuch as the most reverend prelate of these islands had been making his official visitation on Master Don Andres Arias Jiron, a beneficed cura for the district of La Hermita; and in order to interrupt him, so that he could not continue that visitation, Don Sevastian Hurtado de Corcuera, governor and captain-general of these islands, had nominated the said Don Andres for archdeacon of the cathedral of this city; and besides, in order that the archbishop should accept him and bestow upon him collation and canonical installation, had issued against the said archbishop a royal decree in which he commanded him to give Don Andres the said collation—which was contrary to the bull In cena Domini: [accordingly,] the said governor and the licentiate Don Marcos Çapata de Galves, auditor of this royal Audiencia, had rendered themselves liable to excommunication; and he therefore commanded them that, within half an hour, they should withdraw the said royal decree—under penalty of four thousand ducados of Castilla to be applied for the Holy Crusade, and of the