The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 26 of 55. Unknown

was not mentioned in the warrant, the court-alguazil went to the palace to learn the intention of the governor. The latter rectified the order anew; and the said alguazil-mayor, coming to the archiepiscopal building, executed it, directing the religious and secular priests to depart from the house. As they did not do so, he commanded the soldiers to obey him, under penalty of three doses of rope;3 and to take the religious out, dragging them, or in any way they could. This they did, maltreating them and giving them rude pushes, tearing their habits. They left two religious with his most illustrious Lordship, to aid him to bear the imprisonment. The alguazil-mayor came to take them away, and hurt one of them with the rays on the lunette, owing to the force which he applied; for the religious were clinging to the archbishop, whom they caused to fall to the floor, with the most holy sacrament. It was only by great good fortune that he did not lose his grasp upon it at this time. In this confusion a soldier drew his sword, and threw himself upon it, intending to kill himself—saying that the man who had seen the most holy sacrament upon the ground was no longer fit to live. He lay there, wounded, and thus they took him prisoner, and were about to garrote him; this, however, they did not do, but sent him to exile at Samboanga. The archbishop was left alone with the soldiers of the guard, and several of them, as good Christians, remained on their knees before the most holy sacrament, shocked and weeping to see that among Catholics such things could take place. At this juncture the bishop of Camarines told his most illustrious Lordship that the governor said that if he wished to eat he must abandon the holy sacrament, and that if he did not do so nothing was to be given to him; and that these were the orders he had given to the said adjutant, under pain of death. Thereupon the lord archbishop answered, with much courage, that he was prepared to die with the most holy sacrament in his hands, rather than do anything that would be an offense against it. Thereupon they left him without a servant, to the great indignation and sorrow of many soldiers, the governor remaining as hard and obdurate as if he had not been a Christian.

      At one o’clock at night there came a new order that the soldiers should drive from the streets the religious, who had been upon their knees with candles in their hands, worshiping the Lord of heaven and earth, since the time when they had been driven from His presence. They were driven away, by dragging them and tearing their garments; and the cassock and cross were taken from the cross-bearer of his most illustrious Lordship. He cried out to God, begging for mercy—a thing which melted the hearts of all the city, so that nothing was heard of but “Mercy!” accompanied by the tears and apprehensions of the faithful. After this was done, at two o’clock at night there came another order, that the friars should be made to go back to their convents, which they had not done. The governor sent the sargento-mayor to tell them to go back, and not cause any more disturbance. To this they answered that they had left their convents determined to die for God, and that whether they died there or in Japon was all one; that they would not leave that place, because they were in front of the most holy sacrament; and, if it should fall from the hands of the lord archbishop, the soldiers must not approach to raise it, as this was not lawful, but they themselves must do so, as priests.

      The sargento-mayor went away with this answer; and as the governor was at the corner of Santa Potenziana, on the square of the archiepiscopal buildings, in disguise, he heard all that occurred. He sent another order, commanding, in the name of his Majesty, that the religious should retire to their convents; and that, if they did not do so, they would be dragged thither. Seeing his accursed intention, they thought it best to let themselves be taken away by the soldiers, but with much sadness and weeping. The Franciscan friars remained in their portico, to be near the house of the lord archbishop, so that they might watch what passed. The governor himself came personally, and made them retire and go within their convent.

      The very next day, which was the eve of Espiritu Santo, his illustrious Lordship, finding that the governor’s obstinacy was continuing and that he was being abandoned (for no one was allowed to enter), and that he had had nothing to eat for twenty-four hours, and that all this was in preparation for placing him on shipboard, sent to call the guardian of the Franciscans, and entrusted to him the most holy sacrament, which was taken to his convent with great ceremony, and there deposited. At this time the archbishop was allowed to make appointments of persons to govern his archbishopric. He appointed the father reader Fray Francisco de Paula, of the Order of St. Dominic, and the father reader and definitor Fray Pedro de Santo Thomas, of the discalced Augustinians, ordering them not to raise the interdict and suspension of religious functions, or absolve the governor, Auditor Marcos Capata, and Don Andres Giron, as he reserved their absolution to himself. Thereupon at eleven o’clock in the morning the court-alguazil came with a carriage, and his illustrious Lordship alone was placed in it, all the religious accompanying it with tears at seeing such cruelty and severity. When they had come to the gate known as Puerta de los Almazenes,4 the archbishop alighted, and again excommunicated all those who had caused his exile, and cursed the city; and throwing stones at it, and shaking the dust from his feet, he directed his steps to the water to board a champan. This was provided with sixteen arquebusiers, and the said adjutant; but they did not allow any of his servants to embark, nor consent that any provision of food be placed aboard for the voyage. When he begged for his cross, the said alguazil-mayor answered that there was no cross for him. Thereupon he embarked, and although many religious desired to take leave of him, they were not allowed to come. Thus they conveyed him to the island of Maribelis, distant from this city some seven leguas, more or less. Although many private citizens of this city made urgent request to go in their boats to the champan, they were not allowed to do so; for it was seen that they were carrying provisions for the archbishop, being moved to pity by the cruelty with which they were using him, for one would not expect infidels to do worse.

      In this island he was kept prisoner, without being allowed to communicate or to write letters, his treatment being such as might be expected from dispositions so obstinate. On the eleventh of this month of May the said governor appointed the said bishop of Camarines to govern the archbishopric, contrary to [the law of] God and with no permission, saying that the lord archbishop was a decayed limb. The said bishop accepted the appointment, acting contrary to [decrees of] the Council of Trent, and incurring its penalties. He absolved the said governor, Auditor Capata, and Don Andres Giron: and gave the last-named the collation for the archdeaconry, raising the interdict imposed by the legitimate prelate. Those in the cathedral and the fathers of the Society, who were followed by other churches, besides the convents of St. Dominic, St. Francis, and the discalced Augustinians, at once replied that they would observe the suspension imposed on them, because they knew that a governor [of the diocese] could not raise the interdict, or do anything of what he had done; for he was suspended, interdicted, excommunicated, and under discipline, for having exercised the pontifical office, raised the interdict, and absolved the excommunicated—all this being reserved to the lord archbishop, as was declared by all the learned men of this city. Although the cathedral, the church of the Society, and the Observantine convent of St. Augustine said mass, no one went to hear it; but on the contrary the Catholics were scandalized that these people should do such things through fear of the governor—things which caused great scandal, and which it would take a long time to tell. [I omit them] mainly because most of them are better left unsaid, because of the cruelty involved in them, rather than told in a relation.

      On the twentieth of May there came an order from the lord archbishop, at the petition of religious and holy persons, that the suspension should be raised for a fortnight, so that the feast of Corpus Christi, which was on the twenty-second of the said month, might be celebrated; and when the said period of time was past, he imposed the interdict as before—although it was not observed except by the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the discalced Augustinians. The governors of the archbishopric and of the islands respectively gave to the fathers of the Society [the curacy of] Chiapo, which they demanded, as belonging to the archiepiscopal court. It was donated to the lord archbishop by the Franciscan fathers, on condition that it should be conferred upon no-one, but should remain for the maintenance of the poor and of secular priests; and that, in case it were given to any other order, the condition and donation should not be valid which had been made to the said lord archbishop, and accordingly it should revert again to the said Franciscan fathers, as it was before. But the fathers of the Society would listen to none of this, drawn on by ambition; nor would the governor, who allowed them to demand what they wished.

      A

3

Spanish, tres tratos de cuerda; referring to punishment by suspending the delinquent by his hands, which are tied behind his back.

4

i.e., “gate of the magazines,” or royal storehouses. The northernmost gate of the city, not far east of the fort of Santiago, and opening toward the Pásig River.