Chapter XIV: Part 14

[88] Feria is a name given to all the days of the week except Sunday and Saturday in the ecclesiastical calendar. It seems strange that the title of feria or feast should be given to days that are not feasts, or at least are not considered as such, so far as they are called feriæ. The explanation given in the breviary, that clerics are to be free from worldly cares and keep a perpetual feast to God, scarcely suffices, and perhaps is not intended, to account for the actual origin of the name. The true explanation is probably this. The Jews were accustomed to name the days of the week from the Sabbath, and thus such expressions as “the first day from the Sabbath,” or, in other words “the first day of the week” are found in the gospels. The early Christians reckoned the days in Easter week in the same fashion: only as all the days in that week were holy days, they called Easter Monday, not the first day after Easter Sunday, but the second feria or feast-day; and as every Sunday is a lesser Easter, the practice prevailed of calling each Monday “feria secunda,” each Tuesday “feria tertia,” etc. Feriæ are divided into greater and lesser.—The latter give place to any feast-day within an octave or vigil, without even being commemorated. The former are the week-days of Advent and Lent, the Ember-days, and Monday (not Tuesday) in Rogation Week. If a simple feast falls on such a feria, the ferial office and mass are said, the feast being only commemorated, and if a double, semi-double, or day within an octave coincides with the feria, the festal office is, indeed, said, but the feria is commemorated. The privilege granted by apostolic indult of reciting a votive office on certain days of the week or month cannot be made use of on these greater feriæ. Some of the greater feriæ are privileged (the days of Holy, Easter, and Whitson Weeks, and Ash Wednesday). These days exclude any feast of however high a rank, and cause it to be transferred to another day. This must be understood of the celebration in choir, for the obligation of resting from servile work and hearing mass on holidays usually remains, even if the holiday falls on a greater feria. See Addis and Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary, pp. 346, 347.

[89] Terms signifying the stipends falling to those bound to choir office who were present at the recitation of Tierce and Sext.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[90] Among some of the monastic orders and friars, the tonsure leaves only a circle of hair round the head; the tonsure of the secular clerks on the other hand, is small. The first tonsure is made by the bishop in a form prescribed by the Pontifical, and the person receiving it is thereby admitted to the state and privilege of a cleric. The bishop may confer it at any place or time. Mitred abbots may give it to their own subjects; cardinal priests to the clergy of their titles; and it may also be conferred by other priests with special privileges. There have been at various times different forms and degrees of the tonsure. It was only gradually that the right to tonsure was limited to bishops, abbots, etc. Till the tenth century it was given by simple priests, or even by laymen to one another. See Addis and Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary, p. 798.

[91] The “Ordo Romanus” arc certain ancient collections of ritual prescriptions, or rubrics, as observed in the Roman Catholic Church. They are represented at the present day by the “Ceremoniale” and the “Pontificale Romanum.” The first of these collections to appear in print was the “Ordo Vulgatus” (1559) of Melchior Hittorp. The rubrics and directions contained in these collections relate to both ordinary and extraordinary matters. Of the former class are the papal mass, the episcopal mass, the celebration of baptism and extreme unction, ordinations, the communion of the sick, the ceremonial of the last three days of Holy Week, papal and cardinalitial functions during the functions of the whole year, sacerdotal functions on all ferias, benedictions, etc. Of the second class are the election and consecration of a pope, the coronation of the emperor and of kings, the creation of cardinals, the nomination of the legates, canonization, etc. See Addis and Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary, p. 630.

[92] Proverbs xxii, 28—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[93] See Colin’s Labor evangélica, pp. 170–192 for an account of Sanchez’s trips to China and Macao. His second trip to Macao occurred near the end of this same year 1583.

[94] See letter from this official in VOL. V, pp. 192–195, and post, pp. 392–402. From a royal decree dated Madrid, March 27, 1591, it appears that Roman had died in the Philippines while still exercising his duties as treasurer.

[95] This founder was Captain Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa, a native of the Spanish African possessions, a Portuguese by birth, who had accompanied Legazpi to the Philippines. By his will (1596) he gave two thousand pesos to the Jesuit college of Manila, and signified that all his property was to be given to the college of San José (whose foundation was decreed) in case of the death of his daughters. See Montero y Vidal’s Hist. de Filipinas, i, pp. 109, 110.

[96] See the excellent “History of the population” of the Philippine Islands, by Dr. David P. Barrows, in Census of Philippine Islands, pp. 411–491; and the succeeding articles on population, pp. 492–585.

[97] Possibly the state of Achen in Sumatra is meant.

[98] Cf. Loarca’s account of the beliefs of the Visayas Islands, VOL. V, pp. 121–141, 163, 165, of the Tagálogs, pp. 171–175; Plasencia’s account of the worship of the Tagálogs, VOL. VII, pp. 185–196.

[99] That is Franciscans, who first went to the islands in 1577. Salazar in his relation (VOL. VII, p. 39), says also that there were twelve religious houses in the province of La Laguna—ten Franciscan, one Augustinian, and one secular. This would indicate that Salazar’s relation is the later, for the tendency would be for the Franciscans to increase.

[100] Loarca (VOL. V, pp. 87, 88) mentions the names of the ten encomiendas about the lake of Bay. Salazar (ut supra) allows but eight encomenderos to this district.

[101] The production of cotton in the Philippines has been almost entirely confined to the island of Luzón, and was formerly much more important than now. Ilocos (Norte and Sur) produced in 1902, 64.2 per cent of the cotton grown in the archipelago (the cotton area in the two provinces constituting 73.2 per cent of all the cotton area of the island). The cotton area of Ilocos Norte for that year was 1,591 hectares, and the crop, 605,021 kilograms; and the cotton land of Ilocos Sur, 645 hectares, and the crop, 244,140 kilograms. The greatest rice-producing province in the Philippines is Pangasinán, which produced 1,454,601 hectoliters in 1902, while Ilocos Norte is fifth in order with 483,520 hectoliters, and Ilocos Sur eighth with 425,231 hectoliters. The archipelago does not raise enough rice to meet domestic wants, as it is more profitable to raise other crops, especially abacá. See Census of Philippine Islands, iv, pp. 209, 218, 219.

[102] Cf. Loarca’s account of the province of Ilocos, VOL. V, p. 103, and Salazar’s, VOL. VII, p. 37.

[103] The cotton area of Cagayan did not reach 100 hectares in 1902, and the rice crop for that year was only 89,285 hectoliters. In 1902 Cagayan was the third province in the production of corn (11,598 hectoliters) and sweet potatoes (5,415,626 kilograms). The total area of that province is 1,308,468 hectares, of which 138,166 hectares or 10.6 per cent is agricultural. Of this 35,430 hectares or 25.6 per cent are cultivated and 102,736 hectares uncultivated. See Census of Philippine Islands, iv.

[104] Montero y Vidal (Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 84) says of this incident: “A Japanese pirate, called Tayfusa or Taizufa, having made himself master of Cagayán, was committing many depredations among its natives. Ronquillo sent Juan Pablo Carrión to oppose him, who succeeded, although not without difficulty, in driving him from the province. Then Carrión pacified the whole territory after defeating the native chiefs. He founded the city of Nueva Segovia in Lal-lo. He was accompanied in that expedition by the Dominican father Fray Cristóbal de Salvatierra and the Augustinian Francisco Rodríguez.”

[105] Francisco Cabral was born at Covilham Portugal, in 1528, and entered his novitiate in the Society of Jesus at Goa in 1554. He professed philosophy and theology, and later became master of novices, and rector of the colleges of Goa, Baçaim, and Cochim. Later he went to Japan, where he was vice-provincial for some years. Going thence to China, he returned later to the Indies, where he was visitor, provincial, and an official in the professed house at Goa, where he died April 16, 1609. Many of his letters have been published. See Sommervogel’s Bibliothèque.

[106] The author probably includes in the term Camarines the modern provinces of Ambos Camarines, Albay, and Sorsogón, and possibly Tayabas. In 1902 Ambos Camarines was fourth in the production of abacá, the provinces of Leyte, Albay, and Sorsogón, preceding it. Its total area is 849,261 hectares, of which 106,371 hectares or 12.5 per cent are agricultural. Of this 59,683 hectares or 56.1 per cent are cultivated. Cf. the above account with that of Loarca, VOL. V, pp. 93–101. See Census of Philippine Islands, iv.

[107] This is the Bucaygan of Loarca (see VOL. V, p. 99), and must be the point on the southeastern extremity of Sorsogón.

[108] See Pigafetta’s description of the city of Brunei, ante, VOL. XXXIII, p. 221; see also VOL. IV, p. 160 ff.

[109] Literally: “Notwithstanding that our men were four cats.”

[110] See the account of Candish’s expedition in VOL. XV, pp. 291–299.

[111] Pesos de Tipusque: Pedro Gutiérrez de Santa Clara says (i, p. 171) in his Historia de las guerras civiles del Perú—called also Quinquenarios—(Madrid, 1904; published for the first time from the original MS.): “and it was all gold de minas, ten pesos of which are worth sixteen and one-half pesos and four granos, of the money called common gold or gold of Tepuzque in Nueva España.” See also VOL. II, p. 221, and VOL. XII, p. 46, note 6.

[112] Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva, the “hangman of the Netherlands” (1508–82 or 83) was specially trained by his grandfather for war and politics. He served under both Charles V and Felipe II; and will always be remembered by his cruelty and atrocities in the Netherlands. Motley’s estimate of him is interesting: “Such an amount of stealth and ferocity, of patient vindictiveness, and universal blood thirstiness has never been found in a savage beast of the forest, and but rarely in a human being.” See New International Encyclopedia.

[113] The following royal decree taken from a MS. book of decrees entitled “Cedulas reales dirigidas à estas Yslas Filipinas, Copiadas fielmente de las originales ò authenticas que se guardan en el archivo de la real Audiencia de Manila” (a copy of the seventeenth or eighteenth century) and kindly loaned by Mr. E. E. Ayer of Chicago, is interesting. “The King. Leonardo Furriano, my engineer. Inasmuch as it is desirable for my service that you go to the Philipinas Islands with Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, knight of the Order of Santiago, whom I have appointed as my governor and captain-general of them, so that forts may be built according to your advice and design, which, in accordance with the contents of the instructions of the said Gomez Perez are to be built in the said islands: I order you to go with him, and that you embark very speedily in order not to tarry an instant for the sake of our cause. For that purpose, Don Luis de la Cueva, my governor and captain-general of those islands of Canaria shall aid you. Thus have I ordered him; and the officials of my royal treasury of the said Philipinas Islands shall give and pay you at the rate of one thousand ducados per year from the date when you shall show by signed notarial testimony that you have set sail from any port of the said islands of Canaria, and for so long as you are busied and engaged in the construction of the said forts. When the forts are completed, you shall return to these kingdoms with the design and plan of said forts. Given at San Lorenzo, September twelve, one thousand five hundred and eighty-nine.

I the King

“By order of the king our sovereign:

Juan de Ybarra”

[114] See the royal instructions given to Dasmariñas, in VOL. VII, pp. 141–172; and especially pp. 149–151.

[115] The opinions of the religious given January 19 and 20, 1592 upon the question of waging war on the Zambals (see VOL. III, pp. 199–233), prove this assertion of Dasmariñas to have been made too soon.

[116] The province of Pampanga is still an abundant source of supplies. Of its total area of 224,812 hectares, 105,677 or 47 per cent is agricultural, and of that 63,840 hectares (or 60.4 per cent) are cultivated. It is the second sugar producing province in the archipelago, producing 14,317,776 kilograms in 1902.

[117] Morga makes a statement somewhat at variance with this (see VOL. XV, p. 75).

[118] See the bull of Gregory XIII, dated February 6, 1578, in VOL. IV, pp. 119–124, where the patronage of the Spanish monarch in ecclesiastical matters is conceded. Libro i, tit. 6, of Recopilación de Leyes de Indias treats of the royal patronage. Law i, promulgated by Felipe II, at San Lorenzo, June 1, 1574, and Madrid, February 21, 1575; and by Felipe IV, June 15, 1654, is as follows:

“Inasmuch as the right of ecclesiastical patronage belongs to us throughout the state of the Indias, both because we discovered and acquired that new world, built and endowed there the churches and monasteries at our own cost, and that of the Catholic sovereigns our ancestors, and because it was conceded to us by bulls of the supreme pontiffs of their own accord, for their conservation and for that of the justice which we have there: we order and command that this right of patronage of the Indias, singly, and in solidum, be reserved forever to us and to our royal crown, and it cannot be deprived of it in whole or in part; and by any grace, reward, privilege, or any other disposition that we or the kings our successors may make or concede, it shall not be adjudged that we concede the right of patronage to any person, church, or monastery, or that we are prejudiced in the said our right of patronage. Further, no person or persons, ecclesiastical or secular community, church, or monastery, can make use of the right of patronage by any custom, rule, or any other title, unless it be the person who exercises it in our name, and with our authority and power. No person, secular or ecclesiastical, order or convent, religious order or community of any estate, condition, rank, and preëminence, judicially or extrajudicially, shall dare, for any cause or occasion, to meddle at all with anything touching the said our royal patronage, or to damage us in our exercise of it, or appoint to church, benefice, or ecclesiastical office, or receive such to which appointments are made throughout the state of the Indias, without our presentation, or that of the person to whom we entrust the same by law or letters-patent. Whoever shall do the contrary, if he be a secular person, shall incur the loss of the rewards that we shall have given him throughout the state of the Indias, shall be declared incapable of gaining and holding others, and shall be exiled from all our kingdoms perpetually. If he be an ecclesiastical person, he shall be considered and regarded as exiled from our kingdoms, and shall be unable to possess or hold any benefice or ecclesiastical office in the said our kingdoms. Both classes shall incur the other penalties established by the laws of these kingdoms. Our viceroys, and royal audiencias and justices shall proceed with all rigor against those who fail in the observance and inviolability of our right of patronage. They shall proceed by virtue of their office or at the petition of our fiscals, or of any other party who pleads it, and shall observe the necessary precautions in the execution thereof.”

Law xliv (dated San Lorenzo, August 28, 1591), treats of the hospitals and is as follows:

“We order the steward or superintendent of the funds of the churches and hospitals of the Indians to be appointed according to the ordinance of the royal patronage, without any innovation. Thus shall it be executed by the viceroys and presidents, and the others who are concerned with the exercise of the patronage.”

See also laws xvi and xvii of this same libro and título which treat directly of the Philippines, and which are given in VOL. XVI, p. 169, note 220. Law xviii (dated San Lorenzo, October 5, 1606) also treating of the Philippines, is as follows: “In order that the bishops of the churches of Nueva Cáceres, Nueva Segovia, and that of Nombre de Jesus of the Filipinas Islands may have persons to aid them in the pontifical ceremonies and in order that they may have the requisite propriety of form in their churches, and the divine worship have more veneration, in view of the fact that there are no tithes by which any prebendaries can be maintained in them, our governor of those islands shall appoint in each one of the said churches two secular priests of good morals and example who shall assist and aid the bishop in the pontifical ceremonies and in everything touching the divine worship. He shall assign to them some moderate sum from our royal treasury for their maintenance, so that they might thereby serve the churches for the present and until there is more faculty for endowing them with prebendaries and supplying whatever else is necessary.”

[119] The information given by Pérez concerning Tomás Márquez (in view of the present document) is unsatisfactory. He was a minister of Cagayán in 1587 and 1590, where he taught the natives to develop their natural agricultural resources. In 1597 he was elected commissary-procurator in Spain, but did not make the voyage. He died in Manila in 1616. The present document would indicate that Márquez did go to Spain, and probably Rome. See Pérez’s Catálogo, p. 33.

[120] The Philippines were originally regarded by the Spaniards as belonging to the West Indies.

[121] The Augustinian convent of San Felipe el Real of Madrid was founded in 1545 or 1547.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[122] The numbering of the various parts of this section is very confused, but we follow it throughout.

[123] Discreet (Latin Discretus) a representative of a province chosen to go to a general chapter to make report thereto on all matters.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[124] John Baptist Bernori of Piombino, Italy, belonged to the province of the Augustinians of Siena. He was scripture professor at the Roman Sapienza. See Lanteri, Eremus (Rome, 1874–75) ii, p. 233.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[125] This was the first Augustinian colony in the New World. Seven were sent at first to Mexico by San Tomás de Villanueva, then provincial of Castile (leaving Spain, March 3, 1533, and arriving in Mexico, June 7, of the same year). The names of these seven were: Francisco de la Cruz, Agustín de Coruña, Gerónimo Jimenez, Juan de San Roman, Juan de Oseguera, Alonso de Borja, and Jorge de Avila. Two years later five others (under Nicolás de Agreda) were also sent to Mexico from Spain. See Revista Agustiniana, xi, pp. 34, 35.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[126] Thaddeus Guidelli of Perugia, general of the Augustinians, born in Tuscany, filled many offices in the order: provincial of Ombria, in 1557; procurator-general for many years; vicar general of the order; and finally general, having been elected in general chapter at Perugia, May 14, 1570. He had been present at the Council of Trent. His death occurred at Perugia in 1606, at the age of ninety-five. See Lanteri, Eremus (Rome, 1874–75), i, p. 307; ii, p. 232.—T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[127] The first archbishop of Manila, Ignacio de Santibañez, O.S.F., died August 14, 1598, after having been in the islands only since May 28, of the same year. His successor Miguel de Benavides, O.P., did not assume his seat until 1603.

[128] This was the estate at Quiapo. See VOL. XIV, pp. 327–329.

[129] See Ortega’s relations and representations, VOL. IX, pp. 95–119.

[130] The benefactor of the Recollects. See VOL. XXI, pp. 194, 284–289.

[131] See the accounts of Morga’s fight with Oliver van Noordt in VOL. XI, pp. 140–186, and VOL. XV, pp. 205–237, 300–306 (voyage of van Noordt).