Chapter XVIII (3)

"From the time when I went last evening to pay my respects to your Lordship, I have thought of nothing else excepting how I might manage to serve you. With that purpose, I had the four advocates of the royal Audiencia summoned, and others--ecclesiastics, jurists, and theologians. On meeting them, I set before them my great desire for peace and for the quiet and comfort of your Lordship. I had them read the letters that your Lordship wrote me, the efforts that had been commenced, and the papers given me yesterday by the father readers of St. Augustine. After discussing them, little credit was given to the statement of father Fray Pedro de Herrera and to the mandate of father Fray Antonio Gonsalez; for both of them are accomplices. Moreover, it was not well for them that the people should see them meddling in a matter that is so unrighteous and one so unbecoming to their profession. [I told those who were assembled] that, accordingly, they should protect these papers, so that neither the mandate of father Fray Antonio should bind father Fray Diego Collado or any other of his religious, or the statement of the said father Fray Pedro de Herrera have any effect. For it was considered also that the latter had been issued nine days after the incident [of Rueda's arrest] had occurred; and more especially was noted the obstinacy of father Fray Diego Collado in refusing to return to your Lordship the paper or protest that had been made. For these reasons all unanimously, without one dissenting voice, were of the opinion that your Lordship should make new and more strenuous efforts to secure and surrender the said protest on account of the difficulties that so evidently result from secreting it. And since, sir, it contains nothing that can tarnish the reputation of the Order of the Society, or that can be of importance to any other, I would judge it impossible that there can be any agreement, or that the cause can be concluded to the pleasure and satisfaction of your Lordship, except by handing over the said paper--with the promise that I hereby give, as a gentleman, that if it be handed over to me, I shall only allow the notary to see the signature, so that he may attest that it is the document that he authenticated; and then immediately, in the presence of him who hands it to me, or in the pretence of your Lordship (for which purpose I shall go to your residence), I shall burn it so that nothing of it can remain. It has also seemed best for me to ask the judge-conservator to grant your Lordship four or six days more than the time-limit that he has assigned; and I shall do that immediately, so that your Lordship may have more time to see that that religious may not ruin the whole affair, and that he may hand over the paper. And in case that he always prove obstinate, I shall immediately refrain from meddling in this matter, either for or against your Lordship. I beg you to pardon me for having made this resolution, in accordance with the opinion of so many erudite and well-intentioned men. And, even had they not given it, I would have made it of my own accord, after hearing what the sargento-mayor has just told me of the religious of St. Dominic, who have broken into the guardhouse at one of the gates of the wall, defying the soldiers stationed there, and forcibly bringing inside Don Pedro Monrroy--contrary to the order that I had given that he was not to be allowed to enter, since he is not provisor, and has nothing to do inside the walls. And if these disorderly acts are committed while I am seeking means and methods of doing your Lordship a service, by which I may aid you in paying the condemnations that have been ordered, I am freed from the obligation of having anything to do with these matters, either pro or con. On the contrary I shall inform the king our sovereign of the efforts made on my part; and all the community will have understood them and will know that your Lordship, taking counsel of the three orders, neither desires nor tries to secure peace. I beg your Lordship's pardon for speaking so boldly, and rest assured that there is not, nor will there be, more than I have said here. May God preserve your Lordship for happy years. Given at the palace, November 21, 1635.

_Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera_"

Since the above letter makes mention of the forcing of the guardhouse, I shall narrate to your Grace what occurred. Don Pedro de Monrroy, since he was not provisor, left the city. The governor, fearing that if he returned hither, the matter would be more unsettled than ever, left orders at the city gates that Don Pedro should not be allowed to enter, should he make the attempt. But on November 21--on the same day and at the same hour when the governor was with the archbishop in the convent of St. Francis, trying to settle the matter--the said Don Pedro Monrroy, clad as a Franciscan friar, with another Franciscan friar as companion, attempted to enter by a gate near the convent of St. Dominic, at the time of the Ave Marias. A great number of religious went out of the convent to receive him. The commandant at the gate, one Alférez Don Francisco de Ribera, recognized him; he seized him, and called out to his soldiers to take their arms, and prevent Don Pedro's entrance. But there were so many friars of St. Dominic, who charged down and defended him by fighting with their fists, that the soldiers could not use their weapons or prevent his entrance. Consequently, forcing the guardhouse, they took him into the city. The governor felt just anger at this. He ordered the commandant and soldiers to be arrested, and he was about to garrote the commandant and punish the soldiers for not having obeyed his order. They exculpated themselves quite sufficiently in the report that they made of having done their utmost, but that the fury of the religious gave them no time to do any more. The governor in great anger wrote to the father vicar-provincial of St. Dominic, Fray Antonio Gonsalez, regarding the matter; and the latter responded very coolly that his religious had not done such a thing, and that he had proof and information to the contrary. The father vicar added that Don Pedro de Monrroy had entered the city in obedience to the summons of the Inquisition. For your Grace must suppose that as the friars saw the matter was ending ill, and as their passion against the fathers of the Society was so great, they endeavored by all means to make it a case of Inquisition against them. Therefore, on November 19, the father commissary sent for a copy of the act of the judge-conservator, in which the latter ordered the archbishop to produce the protest or defamatory libel, under penalty of suspension; that act was affixed to the archbishop's door, as he was not at home, and as he could not be found to notify him. Father Fray Francisco de Paula [72] acted as notary on this occasion. He ordered a writing-desk to be placed in the street, and, with great pomp and clatter, had the said act removed, and copied it on the writing-desk. Next morning the father commissary sent another friar, named Fray Ignacio Muñoz, [73] to act as notary to summon the judge, Don Fabian de Santillan; he did it in so clamorous a manner, and at such a time, that people thought he was trying to place some stain on the said judge. The latter, in order to purge himself from it, asked the father commissary for an official statement stating that he had not been summoned for any crime, but only to be told that the trial of the said protest did not pertain to him. At nine o'clock in the morning of the twenty-third of the same month of November, two lay brothers of the same Order of St. Dominic, also in the capacity of notaries, went to the judge-conservator, who was at [the convent of] the Society, to notify him that he must surrender Diego de Rueda. And because the doorkeeper of the Society told them to wait a moment, they began to cry aloud and to attest by witnesses that they were being prevented from attending to the affairs of the Inquisition. On the twenty-sixth of the same month, another notification was made to the same judge, asking for Diego de Rueda, and ordering that he be sent to demand the protest. Many other notifications were served on him through the agency of Fray Antonio Espexo [74] of the same order. From this your Grace will observe that they had a different notary for each day; this is a matter on which I may reflect much, and I even imagine that the inquisitors of Mexico would not be pleased with so great a variety of notaries for one commissary--some being lay brothers and others ordained priests, some youths and others of greater age--and usually but little restrained. To show that, I will only tell your Grace of one thing that one of those notaries, Fray Ignaçio de Muñoz, said, when going one day to a garden with another friar of his order, Fray Pedro de Ledo, [75] and with the collegiates of Santo Thomas: "I shall not stop until I see all the Theatins [_i.e._, Jesuits] put to the knife." What a fine disposition is that, your Grace, and what a good inclination in a notary of so holy, upright, and dispassionate a tribunal as is that of the holy Inquisition! Finally, the father commissary asked the judge-conservator to surrender to him an information that he had brought against Don Pedro de Monrroy, because he had said that Lutero and Calvino [_i.e._, Luther and Calvin] and other heretics had not done so much harm to the Church of God as had the fathers of the Society. The judge gave him the original, but kept a copy, which the father commissary also sent to get from him. The judge refused to give it to him, saying that he could not give it up, and that it was necessary to adduce in the cause; and that although it pertained to the father commissary, as far as it was a mischievous statement, yet it pertained to the judge himself, so far as if was an injury against the Society, of whom he was the conservator. The father commissary notified him, besides, that he himself would send to demand the protest or defamatory libel, since, being such, it pertained to the Inquisition to try it. The judge answered him that it did not pertain exclusively to the Inquisition, and that he had begun to try that cause, as it concerned the principal cause. The father commissary served many different notifications on the judge, in which it could be plainly seen that he was trying to embarrass the affair, so that if should not proceed further. Accordingly, the judge notified the commissary, or rather, father Fray Francisco de Herrera, not to lay obstacles in the path of his apostolic jurisdiction, and to cause him no hindrance in it. In order to conclude this part of the matter, I shall cite here the answer given by the judge-conservator to an act by the father commissary; it is as follows:

"I, Don Fabian de Santillan y Gavilanes, schoolmaster of the holy cathedral church of this city, apostolic judge-conservator for the observance and immunity of the privileges, rights, and actions, of the Order of the Society of Jesus, etc., declare that, having examined the reply of the reverend father Fray Francisco de Herrera, commissary of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, given to the act issued by myself on the twenty-eighth of the present month and year, he says therein that he is not trying and never has tried to disturb the peace, or anything that the said judge-conservator could do in its defense; but only to take cognizance of what pertains to the Holy Office of the Inquisition in order to fulfil his obligation (to which pertains all that of which he has been notified), and to obtain the papers regarding the said causes, according to the terms of the briefs of the supreme pontiffs, so that no paper shall remain in possession of any judge, notary, or any other person; and that the said judge-conservator has no brief to oppose to this, nor can he have such. As for the chief order in the said my act, it is not that the said reverend father commissary should not disturb the peace, nor do all that which he may do in defense of it, but that he restrain himself from hindering and disturbing, in any manner, the exercise of my apostolic jurisdiction, which I am actually exercising; and, especially, that he do not ask for papers which do not pertain to him, but to my court and to the cause that I have in hand. Such are the papers that the said reverend father commissary asks from me; for the originals of those which belong to the cause of Don Pedro de Monrroy I have delivered without waiting to have them asked from me, as I have mentioned in the said my act--only because in a certain manner they may belong to the said tribunal of the holy Inquisition. But they belong principally to my court, and to the cause that I have in hand; for the words spoken by the said Don Pedro de Monrroy are especially injurious and insulting to the said Society of Jesus and its religious. It is necessary for this reason that an authenticated copy of the papers which I delivered to the said reverend father commissary remain in the records of this cause, in order that I may not fail in my duty and jurisdiction, and that I may give a good account to his Holiness of the affairs under my charge. As for the assertion that the briefs of the supreme pontiffs order that the said tribunal of the Holy Office shall obtain all the papers (both original and copies) touching the causes that pertain to the Holy Office, and that no paper remain in possession of any judge, notary, or any other person--that is understood, as is apparent from the said briefs, to mean the causes which belong strictly to the said tribunal of the Holy Office, and to no other court. Likewise, those which are asked from me belong--inasmuch as they contain injurious and insulting words against the said Society, whose apostolic judge-conservator I am--peculiarly and chiefly to my court; and if I handed them over I would be greatly delinquent in the obligations of my office, and I would cease to be a judge-conservator of the said Society of Jesus. Neither can I be ordered to refrain from requesting the protest or paper that I am asking from the archbishop of Manila, Don Fray Hernando Guerrero; for it contains affronts and insults uttered recently against the said Society of Jesus, and against my jurisdiction, and the acts that I have pronounced. And supposing that it could also pertain to the said tribunal of the Holy Office to try the defamatory libels against religious persons, it has not hitherto been understood that the exclusive trial of such causes has pertained to it. And since this cause is at least _mixtifori_; [76] and since I am actually trying this cause as apostolic judge-conservator, and consequently, with exclusive apostolic authority, without anyone having the power to take it from my hands, except his Holiness (whose delegate I am, and to whom only I am immediately subject); and since, for all this [authority], it is unnecessary for me to produce any other brief except the apostolic authority and jurisdiction of judge-conservator which I hold and which I am exercising; and since with less justification can the said reverend father commissary restrain me from asking the said paper or protest from the said archbishop, and make me leave it to the said reverend father commissary--first, because he has a part in this affair, as he was present and signed the first act of the said archbishop against the said Society of Jesus on the ninth of October of this present year, together with certain religious of his order, whose signatures I have in my possession (that act having been the foundation and origin of all the insults received by the said Society of Jesus, and the reason whereby they were incited to appoint me their judge-conservator); and second, because, the said archbishop having made the said protest or defamatory libel, the said reverend father commissary cannot lawfully demand it, for the said archbishop is not his subordinate, while I, forsooth, can ask it as being his legitimate apostolic judge, and moreover I can constrain him with fines and censures against his obstinacy and disobedience to the apostolic mandates; hence the said reverend father commissary's command that I leave to him the demand for the said protest or defamatory libel, and that I refrain from asking for it, means that I should allow him to exceed the authority of his commission, and that I refrain from fulfilling mine: therefore I order the said reverend father commissary to observe and obey the act of which he was notified yesterday, the twenty-eighth, exactly as is therein contained, without exceeding it in any point, under the penalties and censures therein contained, to which I regard him as immediately liable in their fullest measure if he does the contrary. By this act, I decree and order, and affix my signature. If the said father commissary should not appear so that this notification may be served by the notary who shall make it, the latter shall serve it at the doors of the college of Santo Thomas, where the said father commissary is rector and where he lives; and the notary shall affix a copy of this act to the doors so that he may consider it as completely a damage and injury as if the notification were made and read to him in person. And the notary shall establish this act by an attestation. Given in Manila, November twenty-nine, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five. The schoolmaster,

_Don Fabian Santillan y Gavilanes_

By his order:

_Diego de Aldave_, apostolic notary."

"In the city of Manila, on the twenty-ninth of November, one thousand six hundred and thirty-five, about half-past eleven in the morning, more or less, I, the present notary, read and announced the act on this folio to the reverend father Fray Francisco de Herrera, of the Order of St. Dominic, and commissary of the tribunal of the holy Inquisition of these islands, in his own person, exactly according to its contents. Having heard it, he said that it was impossible to notify him of the said act on the said day, as it was a holy day; and that I should accordingly return on the first workday, when he would answer in due form and at greater length. In accordance with my orders in the said act, I affixed a copy of it, signed by the hand of the said judge, and authenticated by me the present notary, to the gates of the college of Santo Thomas, where the said reverend father commissary lives, in the presence of fathers Fray Sebastian de Oquendo and Fray Andres Gomez de Espexo and other persons. Witnesses present were Juan Ortiz de Sossa, Benito de Cañeda, Francisco Correa, and Juan Garcia de Nava, soldiers of the company of Captain Pedro de la Mata. I attest it.

_Diego de Aldave_, apostolic notary"

At this juncture all the community was thrown into an uproar by certain religious, who showed the hate that they had toward the Society--to such an extent, that on the day of the Presentation, November 21 (which is the chief day of the holy Misericordia of this city, which the orders always attend), not any of them went except those of the Society. The others refused to meet with them although they had been invited--a matter that scandalized us not a little. As often as possible, the same religious uttered innumerable evil and infamous things against the fathers of the Society, which the latter passed by, silencing their suffering. The orders discussed innumerable innovations, all apparently in order to make confusion. As it pertains to the governor to preserve peace, he one day (namely, November 27) had the superiors of the orders of St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Augustine, and the Recollects, summoned to the royal Audiencia. He summoned also the father commissary of the Holy Office, but he refused to attend, and sent no excuse. The others attended. They were told in the royal Audiencia that they must quiet their friars, so that they might not continue to stir up the community. The governor ordered their superiors to banish from the city those who were ringleaders in this--namely, Fray Francisco de Paula, and Fray Sebastian de Oquenda, of the Order of St. Dominic; and two others of the Order of St. Augustine. The superiors would, however, under no considerations obey. On the contrary, on St. Andrew's day, the thirtieth of November, while celebrating the feast of the apostle, who is the patron saint of this city, in [the church of] Santa Potenciana, the master Don Juan de Ledo ascended the pulpit to preach. A notice was given to him [to read] which stated that father Fray Francisco de Paula would preach on the following Sunday in his convent of St. Dominic. That was a very ill-considered act, since it was equal to giving the governor and the royal Audiencia a slap in the face, not paying any attention to what they had ordered in his Majesty's name--all of which the governor prudently overlooked, in order to avoid other annoyances.

At this time the despatch of the galleons which were to take the reënforcements to Maluco was being discussed. The religious enticed a pilot, named Francisco Domingues, who had been honored and favored by the governor by being made captain of infantry, and who had been appointed pilot of the flagship, to flee with some of them by way of Yndia. The governor learned of it, and was obliged to arrest the said pilot, and to order at the city gates that two religious of the Order of St. Dominic, namely, Fray Francisco Pinelo and Fray Diego Collado--who were the ones who had planned that escape--should not be allowed to pass through them. Then that order also began to say that the governor was incurring a thousand excommunications, not stopping to consider that he who has charge of this city and these islands is bound to preserve them and watch over them, and to give the proper military orders that he considers necessary; and that he could not prevent that loss, except by not allowing those religious to leave the walls. By another method, other religious stirred up a goodly number of sailors, and as many soldiers; and they, having already received money for the journey to Maluco in the galleons which were about to sail, fled in a champan by way of Yndia. There was in this affair a cleric named Don Francisco Montero, who had been expelled from the priesthood, and who was a restless man. He carried papers and authority from the archbishop. There was also a French Recollect friar, named Fray Nicolas de Tolentino, who was angered at his order because they did not elect him provincial in accordance with his claims. A friar of St. Dominic went also. It was said that he was going on to España with grievous complaints against the governor, the royal Audiencia, and the fathers of the Society. But much greater can be the complaints of the governor of him because he had committed so unreasonable an act, and one so much to the disservice of his Majesty, in taking away the men who were to aid his royal service in the royal fleet.

The judge-conservator weighed down the archbishop with censures, to make him give up the protest or libel. He had declared him excommunicated and suspended; but the archbishop refused to surrender the protest, while the judge-conservator did not cease to demand it. While matters were in this condition, at the petition of the fathers of the Society the governor took hold of affairs, in order to settle them. He called a council of four lawyers--the best in Manila--among whom was his Majesty's fiscal. The father provincial and the father rector of the Society were at the meeting, and also the judge-conservator. The lawyers read the opinion which they had studied over for several days; and all agreed that the judge-conservator could remove the suspension that he had imposed on the archbishop, in order to obtain from him the said protest or libel, as they said that the said suspension was comminatory. For the same reason, they declared that the pecuniary fines could be moderated or completely withdrawn. The fathers of the Society, although they were the offended parties, took the part of the archbishop and supported the opinion of the lawyers; they made every effort that the archbishop might come well out of the affair, and they managed so well that I promise your Grace that the settlement of this matter is wholly due to them. The judge-conservator only was somewhat harsh, and would agree to none of all this; for he thought that it could not be done, according to the counsel that he had received from some learned men. But the governor had the prudence and wisdom to smooth over all difficulties, and finally, the archbishop was absolved, January 28, 636, from the censures and penalties. The governor went in person to his house for him and took him in his carriage to the cathedral, giving him the right-hand side, notwithstanding the ruling of the royal decree that orders that he shall not give it. He took him as far as the choir, where, seating the archbishop in his chair, and bending his knee to him, he kissed his hand, which he had already done in the archbishop's house. The governor paid from his own pocket more than one thousand pesos, in costs and expenses of the suit. Great was the happiness at the conclusion of these suits, and all the orders assembled. Father Juan Antonio Sana, of the Society of Jesus, preached at the feast of the dedication of the church, celebrated that day in the cathedral. The archbishop was full of expressions of thanks for what had been done for him, but that happiness was of little duration. For as the archbishop had at his side and at his ear certain religious who, it is to be believed, did not desire peace, but, on the contrary, did their utmost so that it might not exist between the leaders of the community, and were taking the archbishop as a means to oppose the governor, and, as it were, to avenge themselves on the latter for injuries that they thought that they had received from him; from that so many were the angry feelings that arose, that they led to the last rupture; but, before going on to relate that, I shall relate some matters of less moment that happened.

A few years ago, a surgeon came to this country, named Francisco Garçia, who had been exiled by the viceroy of Nueva España for certain libels and crimes; and he was ordered to come to these islands, to serve at the will of the governor. The latter having need of him to go with the galleons which, I have already said, were to go to Maluco with the reënforcements, he was fitted out for the expedition. But he took refuge in [the convent of] St. Dominic, alleging that he was a familiar of the Holy Office. From that occurrence also arose a thousand lies against the governor, declaring that he tried to take the surgeon from his retreat--as if the church can be of any avail to a soldier, so that he need not go to serve in the post where his captain orders him. And if the fact that he was a familiar of the Holy Office (which was not proved), did not avail him in Mexico, in the opinion of the inquisitors, to exempt him from coming here under condemnation, it is a token that those gentlemen did not wish that plea to be of any use to him in Filipinas so that the sentence should not be executed upon him. However, a few days after he had taken refuge, the said Francisco Garçia came to a better resolution, and, leaving the church, delivered himself to the governor. The latter received him kindly, and told him that he need not go in the said galleons. But a few months after, as the hospital of the port of Cabite had been put in order, so that the soldiers and sailors might have a place of retreat in their illnesses, Francisco Garçia was detailed as the physician of that hospital, with a salary of one peso per day--which was not a bad stipend. But, that he might not obey his orders, the archbishop ordained the said Francisco Garçia on Tuesday, April 20, with the tonsure and with minor orders; and he, garbed in very reverend fashion as a cleric, began to walk through the city in sight of the governor--to whom those orders meant to give a slap in the face, although he passed it by. In truth, sir, I cannot see that they could be of any use, since, for one to enjoy the clerical privilege, it is necessary that one be already ordained when the crime is committed; but without that, then it matters but little whether he is ordained, according to what I have read in some authors. Your Grace will ask, then, why the archbishop ordained him and did not think of that. I answer that even as he ordained him, he ordained a few years ago, a Portuguese physician who was living in this city, who went to the city of Macan, one Licentiate Pereira. I have heard that he was twice married in Portugal, and that one wife was a widow. Such a one as this did the archbishop ordain in Pampanga, _extra tempora_ [77] in the three days of a feast, proceeding from the two degrees that he lacked, namely, those of subdeacon and priest. According to the account that I have heard given by learned men, there were more than twelve irregularities, all of which the archbishop passed by, without its being proved that there should be any dispensation, or without considering that there can be no dispensation here in this case--a matter that was considered by many men, both the learned and the ignorant.

The governor thought that there was a great waste of the royal revenue, which was not carefully spent, in the royal Spanish hospital of this city of Manila, and that the sick were not well cared for. In order to remedy both these evils, the governor conceived the idea of appointing a chaplain in the said hospital, and of ordering the fathers of St. Francis, who had it in charge, to leave it. Although the Franciscans objected, they finally left the hospital; for there was no royal decree ordering that the hospital should be given into the care of those religious--since, although the governor asked for such a decree, it was never shown to him. Many of the religious of the same order, zealous for its welfare, wrote to the governor that it was advisable for their own order that the friars be withdrawn from the hospital. What machinations did they not begin to set in motion because of this deed! What councils did they not hold with the archbishop! What excommunications did they not heap on the governor! The newly-appointed chaplain went to the archbishop to get leave to administer the sacraments in the said hospital, but the archbishop steadily refused to give it; nor without that would he consider examining the chaplain, as the latter wished. The archbishop said that, if there had to be a chaplain, he must be appointed through an open competition--although there is a decree of his Majesty against this, ruling that the choice of chaplains pertains to the governor alone, and that the person chosen shall go afterward to the ordinary, so that the latter may give him a license to administer the sacraments. There was more in this than the key of the most holy sacrament at that hospital. The archbishop interposed, and had the said chaplain ordered, under penalty of major excommunication, not to administer the sacraments or say mass in the said hospital, so that the hospital remained many days without succor. The governor sent his Majesty's fiscal to bring the archbishop to reason, but he could not do it. And although the royal Audiencia, whither recourse was had on the plea of fuerza, declared that he had committed that offense, not for that would the archbishop soften or change his mind.

At that time a general visitation of the clergy was ordered, and it is wonderful to see along what rough lines the archbishop conducted it, and what harsh methods he took, so that the remedy was worse than the disease; he placed the clerics in irons among the negroes and vile people, and that not for serious causes. That was a thing that tended to produce contempt for the priestly estate; and its effect was that all the clergy, as a body, became thoroughly disgusted, and viewed their prelate and shepherd not as a father, but as a severe judge, who treated them very harshly in his language--behavior which they greatly resented. I will relate to your Grace one instance of this. I attended the cathedral of this city on Holy Thursday, March 20. I saw on the platform (where the oils had been blessed that morning) that the said archbishop was clad in his pontifical robes, and that he had been given the towel for the washing of the feet. The twelve clerics whose feet he was to wash were already barefoot, the gospel had been said, everything was ready, and there were many people before him. It happened that, because some Indian singers and some one of the clergy were absent, the archbishop began to scold, saying that it was a most shameless act for anyone to be absent from the cathedral during that ceremony. Then he began to disrobe himself in great wrath and fury, also removing his pontifical ornaments in his anger, and throwing on one side his miter (which fell to the ground), and his towel to the other side. Thus did he continue to lay aside the rest, and with all haste he went to his own house--leaving the priests barefooted, and without washing their feet; and all those present, thunderstruck and amazed, and even scandalized at the sight of so great fury and wrath in a prelate, and during a ceremony that demanded so great humility.

But to return to our governor; there was no action, however insignificant it may have been, that they did not for it cast calumny on him. The archbishop and religious drew up a paper with twenty-one questions, which the archbishop put to the superiors of the religious, in the form of cases of conscience. The questions were prepared with such skill that, with the reply that would be given to them, they would present weapons against the governor. They proceeded to set down on a paper whatever he did, even in matters of the political government, in order to write to his Majesty. That paper certainly twisted the truth, in many of its statements; and it contained more than sixty or seventy sections. One of the religious who were concerned in it gave it to the governor. Just consider, your Grace, what a tax on his patience this would be, and how it would wound him! Furthermore, the paper ended with twenty-five excommunications which the governor was said to have incurred. Everything was quite ready for the greatest kind of a rupture.

The archbishop went to visit La Hermita, a district where Master Don Andres Arias Xiron was cura. It was well known that the archbishop had a prejudice against him, on account of various matters that had occurred between the two, chiefly because Don Andres was an intimate friend of the judge-conservator, Don Fabian Santillan. His Lordship was very harsh with the affairs of the said Don Andres Xiron; and on Saturday, April 26, after the Ave Marias, he ordered him to be notified of an act by which the archbishop commanded that within fourteen hours he be taken before a fiscal at a village outside Manila, called Calompite. Don Andres tried to answer that act, but they would not allow him to do so; nor would they give him a copy of the act, which he requested. He claimed that the notification was null and void, because it was made at night; but no attention was paid to that. Seeing that the whole affair was being conducted with violence, very early on the morning of Sunday, April 22, he presented a petition, appealing from the said act and claiming the royal aid against fuerza, for which he made representations in the royal Audiencia. The latter declared on the following Monday that the archbishop had employed fuerza against the said Don Andres Xiron; and notified the said archbishop of that declaration. On Tuesday, the twenty-fourth of the same month, at three in the afternoon, the archbishop notified Licentiate Marcos de Zapata y Galves--the only auditor of this royal Audiencia, because of the death of the others--that he should consider himself as publicly excommunicated, because he had meddled in ecclesiastical affairs; and notices to that effect were placed on the churches. Upon receiving that notification of excommunication, the auditor Marcos Zapata de Galves made a spirited reply; he alleged the invalid points in the act (which were many), and finally, for greater advantage, appealed to and threatened the royal aid against fuerza. The master Don Andres Arias Xiron, inasmuch as he had hidden, was not found, in order to be notified of another excommunication; but he was placed on the lists as publicly excommunicated. On the following Wednesday, April 30, the governor, the auditor Marcos Zapata, his Majesty's fiscal, and three advocates of the royal Audiencia--namely, Doctor Luis Arias de Mora, Licentiate Nicolas Antonio de Omaña, and the auditor Manuel Suarez--met in the royal Audiencia. The auditor Marcos Zapata set forth the manifest violence shown him by the archbishop. The lawyers were sworn so that they might serve as judges, and they so acted. The auditor Marcos Zapata leaving the hall, they judged that fuerza was employed against him. Without doubt it was so, for the auditor Marcos Zapata had not sinned further than in admitting Don Andres Xiron into the royal Audiencia on his appeal from fuerza. If that were a sin, so also was it to admit the said archbishop, when, in his suit with the judge-conservator, he appeared before the royal Audiencia with a plea of fuerza. And if Don Andres Xiron incurred excommunication for having thus presented himself, the archbishop likewise incurred it when he appeared there. But no consideration was given to this, and the point of fuerza is a stale one in España, and consequently it was not discussed. The archbishop was notified of a royal provision issued by Don Phelipe, by which he was ordered to absolve the auditor Marcos Zapata. The archbishop obeyed it, and that afternoon he sent Master Juan Velez to absolve him. That was done _ad cautelam_; for in truth he did not consider himself as excommunicated, nor did the learned jurists so consider him.

Not only was the master Don Andres Xiron not absolved, but new acts were passed against him and new penalties imposed on him. All this was to prevent his presentation, that the governor had made, for the post of archdeacon of this metropolitan church, because of the resignation of the said post by Don Francisco de Baldes. The archbishop refused to accept the said master Don Andres Xiron, as he asserted that he was his mortal enemy, and for that purpose he threw out all the rest [of the governor's nominations]. He had the prebendaries of the cathedral notified not to accept Don Andres, under penalty of excommunication, and notified Don Francisco de Baldes to assist in the choir as before, since he was the archdeacon--telling him that his resignation had been invalid, as it had been made through the governor and not through the ordinary, before whom the resignation of any ecclesiastical benefice must be made; but the good man did not heed the archbishop and those who were aiding him. Although it is true, and a matter that has been settled by law, that the resignation from an ecclesiastical benefice in which the incumbent has been canonically installed must be presented only through the ordinary, yet Don Francisco de Baldes did not hold the post of archdeacon _in titulum_, but only in charge, and until his Majesty should appoint another. Therefore, the resignation from it was governed by the same rule as the resignation from other chaplaincies of the king, who was the one to appoint other incumbents to them. It is not necessary that those who hold these should make their resignation before the ordinary; and this, it seems, is the practice. For the same object of preventing that presentation, the archbishop exiled Don Andres Xiron, and announced that he was excommunicated. But his Majesty likewise orders in a royal decree that, when the governors should present any persons as prebendaries, the archbishops should accept them, unless they had some objection to offer to them; but that if any exception were made, then such were not to be accepted--with the proviso that the exception must be proved, and, if it should not be proved, then they must pay damages to the one presented. Therefore, the archbishop came forward for this purpose, and entered several exceptions before the royal Audiencia against the said master Don Andres Xiron. The latter manfully repelled these accusations, and purged himself from them all; for at the outset, in reply to a formal accusation with evidence that he had caused a miscarriage, some years before, by ordering a pregnant Indian woman to be whipped, the said master Don Andres Xiron came forward with another report made by the same judge, in which the witnesses who had sworn against him retracted their oaths, and declared that they had been induced by others to swear; whereupon the judge declared him free from that calumny. Further, on the part of the archbishop, they accused the master Don Andres Xiron of an act of simony; but he gave the lie to that, as salt dissolves in water, by means of authentic documents and reports. They opposed him with other things of less account, but these were not proved, nor was there any witness of them, nor were the accusations completed; they could, therefore, prove of no harm to him, and he did not have to clear himself. Consequently, the royal Audiencia declared that the archbishop had not proved his exceptions to the master Don Andres Xiron, who must be admitted into the archdeaconate, according to the royal patronage. But the archbishop refused to admit him. Hence the royal Audiencia despatched a royal decree, issued by Don Phelipe, ordering that Don Andres be admitted, under penalty of [losing] the temporalities and of banishment from the kingdoms. The archbishop was tied to what the religious who sided with him incited him to, as will be seen from the following letter which he wrote to the master Don Joan de Toledo, his provisor, who counseled him to obey the royal decree, as that was advisable in order to avoid trouble; and that, if he did not obey, without doubt his exile from the kingdoms would be an assured fact. The letter is as follows:

"All that those gentlemen have enacted is in violation of the royal patronage, and contrary to [the precepts of] God and justice; and, although it comes in the name of the king, I am not under obligations to obey it, since men so governed by passion have made it. It is less harmful that I go into exile, and that I suffer, than that so evil a priest enter the cathedral contrary to the will of his Majesty--who, even for but one of the exceptions that I have made, is unwilling that the canonical institution be given to him. It is a piece of nonsense to assert that the cabildo must take charge of the government, for I am not excommunicated or suspended. Already I have appointed governors for the archbishop, and I pray your Grace not to give me any counsel in such things, for I do not wish it. It will seem an admirable thing, in Roma and in Madrid, that an archbishop should be exiled in behalf of Don Andres Arias Xiron, who is a person of great importance in this community. If I shall go, I shall leave the city, so that they shall come to seek me; and they must not think that I shall do through fear what is wrong. Rather will I die twenty deaths. Such is my resolve, and I shall not change it. Accordingly, your Grace may advise them to prepare immediately a ship in which to embark me. I shall not fail to have persons who will go with me, and God will defend so just a cause and will not permit so great evils and tyrannies, for these acts have no other name. Perhaps God is permitting this in order that some one or some persons may pay for their evil acts--which God allows, but not forever. All the community will judge whether those actions are justified, and they will write to his Majesty; since those actions stand out so clearly. May our Lord preserve your Grace many years. From La Hermita, Friday, May 9, 1636.

_Fray Hernando_, archbishop.

"In regard to your Grace saying that the king, as sovereign, is able to give the prebends to whom he likes, even to natives, your Grace could not have reflected when you wrote that; since his Majesty, being so Christian and Catholic, is not one to waste the ecclesiastical property, for the purpose of giving it to unworthy men. And you, your Grace, do not you venture to write such words, for they are ill-sounding. I shall not go without forbidding the saying of mass, and without hurling a curse, in the name of God and of the Church, on the circumstances and persons who have caused my exile."

As the archbishop refused to obey the royal decrees, the royal Audiencia had him notified by an act on the morning of May 9, at nine o'clock, that the temporalities were taken from him, and that he was declared an exile from these kingdoms. Then began the trouble. The archbishop summoned the religious of all the orders, and notified the father rector of the Society to go to a meeting with the rest of the religious. The latter excused himself, for reasons that your Grace will see in the following letter written to the archbishop:

"Most illustrious sir:

"Licentiate Don Bartolome de Cañedo, coming from outside, has just now notified me, at half-past six o'clock, to go to a meeting which your most illustrious Lordship is holding with the religious of our fathers St. Dominic, St. Francis, and St. Nicholas [_i.e._, the Recollects], who drew up against the Society of Jesus the paper and resolution that your Lordship knows of, and which has not as yet been revoked--as we understand ought to have been done before the matter went so far as closing the doors of the church on us, as happened in Cabite. Consequently, so long as the said paper remains in force and is not revoked, your Lordship can well understand that we are legitimately excused from such meetings, although never from serving your most illustrious Lordship very willingly and lovingly."

The resolution made in the meeting with the religious was, that under no circumstances would the archbishop obey the royal decrees, besides other disorderly things, which continued to happen, and which I shall relate in their order.

In the afternoon of that same Friday, the archbishop sent the monstrance with the most holy sacrament to the convent of St. Francis, whence it was carried irreverently in his sleeve by a friar, and taken to the house of the archbishop. The latter, at nightfall, sent two clerics who had taken the minor orders, to excommunicate the governor and Auditor Marcos Zapata; the latter, together with his Majesty's fiscal, were assembled in the tribunal of the royal Audiencia. Seeing things in so great confusion, they ordered the clerical notaries to enter. The latter, upon reaching the tribunal, with wisdom and prudence did not dare to give notice of anything. In order not to lose any time, which was fast fleeting, they went first to the doors of the auditor Marcos Zapata, and commenced to read the excommunication by the light of a torch. But a soldier, who happened to be passing along the street, gave the torch a flick with his hat, and extinguished it. They were unable to proceed with the reading, and accordingly went to give an account of events to the archbishop, who was at home with the most holy sacrament and a great number of religious of all the orders--except those of the Society, who were not summoned and who did not go. The archbishop ordered the said excommunication against the governor and Auditor Marcos Zapata to be read at the door of the master-of-camp, Don Lorenzo Olaso. They were read, and great bills were posted on the church doors, which read as follows:

"Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, governor and captain-general of these islands, and the senior auditor, Marcos Zapata de Galves, will be considered publicly excommunicated, because they prevent the exercise of ecclesiastical justice and the general visitation that is being made by his Excellency Don Fray Hernando Guerrero, archbishop of these islands. No person shall dare to remove or destroy this paper, under penalty of major excommunication, _late sententie, ipso facto incurrendo una protina canónica monitione premissa_, and a fine of one thousand Castilian ducados for the Holy Crusade, for those who violate the commands herein contained, which penalties they shall be regarded as having forthwith incurred. Given in Manila, on the ninth day of the month of May, one thousand six hundred and thirty-six.

_Fray Hernando_, archbishop.

Before me:

_Francisco de la Roca_, notary."

I am told that an act was issued by the archbishop for the purpose of announcing to the said master-of-camp that he was not to obey the governor, as the latter was publicly excommunicated. But I have been unable to assure myself of the truth of that statement, and consequently, I do not mention it, except with the doubt that surrounds it. But, if it were a fact, let your Grace consider whether that were an act of mutiny or no.