as such, and therein he did exceeding well. For, as has been proved, he is the most prudent man who has come to the Filipinas, very silent, very long-suffering, and above all, a most devout religious. The province, aware of this, has never allowed him any rest, but has always entrusted to him the offices of greatest weight and honor; and he has given most strict account of them, to the very signal interest of the order. He has twice been prior of Manila, which place is the rock of experience, and where each one shows his talents. Both times he labored hard, performed much, and ruled that convent in all strictness. He was prior of Sugbú, as well as visitor and definitor of the province at the same time, and prior of many convents. He ever bore the name of provincial, to which office he was not elected—not for lack of merit, but of fortune, which is not always equal; and the lots go by pairs.
Our father visitor-general began, then, his visit through the Tagál province Pampanga, and Ilocos, and kept for the following triennium what remained in the Pintados. He was not limited in time, and therefore, went slowly. Everywhere he exhibited great prudence and wisdom, as the religious recognized, and he knew how to carry himself with them. He provided what he saw was most essential to the perfection of the province, which he thought to establish with the earnestness demanded by his care and devotion, and by disposing their minds to observe what he was teaching them by word and precept.
When he was in Manila he was an excellent chorister, and in the other convents he assisted in the same manner. When he saw what was advisable, he approached Manila to arrange what was needful in the chapter affairs, for the true reformation is, that the superior be such. If the superior be perfect, then he must try to see that all whom he rules be perfect also. Qualis rector est civitatis, tales et inhabitantes in ea.21
Chapter XXXIV
Of the election of our father Fray Miguel García
Since the province, as we have seen, was so extensive, and all the houses had a vote, except that there were some few convents which were vicariates, the men who collected for the chapter were numerous; and if I do not deceive myself, they were difficult to count—that is, they were more than sixty. And among so many men (although it is true that it was always thought that the province was to be for our father Fray Miguel García), there are different tempers, and factions, and they say those things which afterward it were well that they had not said. They found the president inclined not to make our father Fray Miguel García provincial—not because there were demerits in his person, but because he had already governed, and he considered that enough. Such discussions, although they were in good point, did not have any effect; for the waters flowed in their usual channels, and this talk served only to disquiet some. In short, our father Fray Miguel García was declared elected on the twenty-third of April, of the year 1611, all votes concurring in his election with great good-will; for they saw that he was the one of whom the province had need for those times. Thereupon, our father Fray Miguel García performed an action most worthy of his devout heart, namely, to kneel down before our president, and with tears to resign his office, confessing himself as unworthy and insufficient for it, while he did not have the grace or rather the age for it. This he did with so many tears that his devotion made many others weep. The bishop-elect of Sugbú, who was present, caused our father visitor to dispense him in whatever obstruction he had by reason of his age, and to confirm him in the election. The bishop coöperated, and considered it good that the province had elected him; and the province itself insisted on it by universal acclaim. Consequently, our father visitor confirmed our father provincial Fray Miguel García, first dispensing him for the impediment of the lack of age, which was but little. That lack was more than supplied by his excess of prudence.
The definitors elected at this chapter were the reverend fathers: first, Fray Francisco Bonifacio; second, Fray Juan de Tapia; third, Fray Vicente de Sepúlveda; and fourth, Fray Estacio Ortíz. The absolute provincial, father Fray Diego Gutiérrez, received a vote. The visitors who were elected in this definitorio were father Fray Bernabé de Villalobos and father Fray Antonio de Porras22, the latter being adito.23 All the above in assembly made excellent regulations, and established for that time very good acts and laws; and they charged our father provincial with the execution of them, since on that depended the universal good of all the province.
It was proposed in this chapter, and, in fact, it was so ordered, for reasons that were very apparent there, that the chapters in the future should be held every four years, and the intermediary chapters every two years. The main consideration that influenced them was the great deficiency that the fathers create in their convents during the time when they come to the election, and they deemed it advisable to obviate this injury as much as possible, since it could not be entirely remedied—concluding that the expenses, if they could not be avoided, at least would be delayed as late as possible. This was agreed upon at that time, but later it was considered unadvisable, and consequently the enactment in this matter was repealed.
After the election, and the departure of the vessels to Castilla, our father visitor undertook to go to visit the province of Bisayas, which he did very slowly. He took as his associate our father Fray Hernando Becerra,24 then a recent arrival. He visited the island of Panay very leisurely. When about to go to the convent of Sugbú, he took as associate our father Fray Alonso de Méntrida,25 then without office, as he had refused any. He established an excellent system in that convent, of which he had great care. He caused its annuities to be raised, for it was very poor and overburdened. Father Fray Hernando Becerra went to Manila to read theology. Although he did this only for a short time, yet he became very renowned throughout the islands, and in consequence was cordially received by the other orders. Thence the father visitor came to Manila to assist in the superior government of the province, although the government of our father, Fray Miguel García, was such that, when he was there, no one else was needed.
In the year 1613, the ships with the reënforcements arrived in good shape from Nueva España. In them came that company of religious above mentioned as being sent by Bishop Solier. Father Fray Juan de Montemayor, their leader, who brought them from Nueva España, did it as well as he could; but there most of the religious, finding themselves tired out by the severe voyage, and the breadth of the land and its mildness and beauty inviting them, and that first courage having been lost with which they had left their native land and country, separated in a thousand directions, so that very few of that flock were left. These embarked and set sail in the port of Acapulco, March 25, 1613, without enough provisions; and even in what provision they had so little judgment was shown that they arrived as if by a miracle. Such was their need that when they arrived at the Embocadero, which is about eighty leguas from Manila, they had to disembark, and go from island to island, selling what few clothes they had left. There the fathers of the Society, who have charge of those missions, performed toward them a thousand acts of charity, by means of which they sustained life until, thus broken and with innumerable necessities, they reached Sugbú. Of a truth, they were ill advised; for, since they were already in the islands, they would have been delayed much less in the ships, which were retarded because of the route that they took, which was full of dangers and not a little troublesome. But the government does not learn. It is a gift given by God to those who please Him. Two fathers who remained in the ships arrived promptly and many months before their associates.
The religious in that company were as follows:
1. The father master, Fray Pedro García, own brother of our father Fray Miguel García. He did not come as master, but his brother negotiated that for him upon going to España.
2. Father Fray Juan de Montemayor, one of the greatest preachers who have been in the islands.
3. Fray Jerónimo Medrano.
4. Fray Nicolás de Herrera, a preacher, and a prominent religious.
5.
Ecclesiasticus x, 2.—Coco.
Fray Francisco de Bonifacio, a native of Sevilla, took his vows in the Salamanca convent in 1586. He was fluent in the language of Cebú, and labored in various missions among the Bisayas (1596–1611). The latter year he was chosen definitor, and in 1614 presided over the chapter. He was minister at Pásig in 1617, at Tondo in 1618, and at Bulacán in 1620. In 1621 he went to Otón, as his presence there was necessary. In 1626, while definitor, he acted as provincial because of the death of Father Becerra, after which period he had care of missions in Luzón, until his death in Manila in 1645. Two manuscripts written by him were conserved in the convent at Cebú.
Fray Vicente Sepúlveda was a native of Castilla, and professed in that province. In the Philippines he became chief sacristan of the Manila convent, and learned thoroughly the Pampanga dialect, ministering in that province for five years. He was definitor in 1611, and provincial in 1614. His term was one of discord because of his rigorous enforcement of the laws passed by the father visitor. In 1617, he was chosen to fill out the term of provincial, that office becoming vacant by the death of Jerónimo de Salas. He was killed August 21, 1617, as the result of a conspiracy of brother Augustinians who were opposed to him.
Fray Diego Gutiérrez was a native of Sigüenza in the province of Guadalajara, and professed in the convent of Agreda in 1574. He went to the Philippines in 1578, where he had charge of various missions in Luzón. He served as definitor during the chapters of 1578 and 1590. His death occurred at Lubao in 1613.
Fray Antonio de Porras was born in Sevilla and professed in the convent of that city. He arrived at Manila in 1598, where he exercised the duty of master of novitiates in the convent. He went to Bisayas instead of Japan which was his chosen field, working there from 1600 to 1639 (the year of his death). He held several important ecclesiastical offices in the Bisayas.
See Pérez’s
Definitors are the fathers who compose the council of the provincial. Aditos are those who are to be substituted for any definitor because of his death.—Coco.
Fray Fernando Becerra was born in Valladolid and took his vows in the convent of Salamanca, where he read sacred theology. On going to the Philippines he was missionary in Bantay in 1611, preacher and reader in 1613, provincial secretary in 1614, missionary at Hagonoy in 1615, at Pásig, 1617, 1620, and 1623, after having served as visitor and definitor. He was elected provincial by acclamation in 1626, but died July 31 of the same year. He left several writings. See Pérez’s
Fray Alonso Méntrida, an illustrious Bisayan missionary and a noted writer, was born in the city of Méntrida, and took his vows in the convent of Casarrubios in 1590, where he became reader for some time, later exercising the same duty at Manila and Lubao until he went to the Bisayas, where most of his work thereafter lay, although he ministered in some of the Luzón missions. He served as definitor in 1614, as prior of Manila in 1618, and as provincial in 1623. He died at the age of seventy-eight, on March 22, 1637. He compiled a grammar and dictionary in Bisayan dialects. See Pérez’s
