of Nuestra Señora de Guia, for the happy arrival of the ships that we were awaiting from Nueva España, in which were the royal Audiencia, cabildo, city, and orders—all aware of the event of the previous day, for even the most secret thing is known in a city so small—all were universally scandalized. Consequently, my provisor, in order to avoid that scandal, was obliged to order the said minister to leave the procession, and not to furnish the bad example that he was setting by showing contempt for ecclesiastical censures. As he refused to leave, the provisor removed him from the procession, ordering the fiscal of this archbishopric to follow him until he ejected him from the procession. As it was a matter that concerns, and is dependent on, the visit, all the orders were so angry over it that, speaking through the mouth of the Order of St. Francis, they elected as judge conservator a friar of St. Dominic, the rector of this college of Manila, in order to avoid any further attempts in the said visit to the ministries of the orders. The judge conservator, without informing me of any apostolic letter or brief of his Holiness pertaining to the said conservatorship, posted decrees next day in the churches and public places, declaring the said provisor as excommunicated and as fallen into the penalties of the clause si quis suadente Diabolo … I continued to prosecute the cause of the visit, and, having found the said minister guilty, I requested aid in order to proceed against him, and, until he should become obedient, to keep him confined in one of these convents of Manila.
The royal Audiencia voted that there was at present no occasion for the said aid. Thereupon I issued an act, in which I abandoned the visit until I could give an account to your Majesty—to whom I enclose a testimony of everything with this letter, and with it another testimony of the act of the royal Audiencia in regard to the case against my provisor, whom the judge conservator tried to arrest, and for which he requested aid, which the auditors refused him.
I have written your Majesty this relation in order to comply with your orders to inform you of what should be done in this, and so that you may see the freedom with which the religious proceed in this country, confident that they are the greatest part of the community; and that having, as they do, so great influence in all these provinces which they administer, they must succeed with whatever they undertake, even creating a judge conservator, contrary to the ruling of the holy council and the royal will of your Majesty. That is so true that they proclaimed in Manila that if the archbishop proceeded with the visit, they would place him on the list as excommunicated, and would not absolve him until he should go to their convent of St. Dominic to beg absolution. I might easily have proceeded with the visit, Sire, but I preferred to be chidden as remiss, than not to have those great scandals muzzled which were represented to me to be inevitable if I went to law with these religious. And speaking with all truth, it seems to them a case of less value than that any Indian or Spaniard should imagine that there is any power in these kingdoms greater than their own. May God preserve the very Catholic person of your Majesty, with the increase of new kingdoms and the happiness of those that you possess, as Christendom has need, and as we your Majesty’s humble vassals and chaplains desire.
Manila, August first, one thousand six hundred and twenty-two.20
Regulations concerning the visits of religious
The King. Inasmuch as I have considered it advisable to order to be given, and gave, one of my decrees of the following tenor:
“The King. Inasmuch as there have been many differences in regard to the manner in which the religious of the mendicant orders who have missions of Indians in their charge in Nueva España, are to be visited by their prelates, and whether it is advisable that they possess missions; and inasmuch as various decrees have been despatched, some of which have been carried out, but others, because of finding some trouble in the execution, have not been observed; and desiring to end those quarrels and establish the form most advisable for the service of God and for mine: I ordered that, the papers that treat of that matter having been collected, what had been done in that matter be examined in an assembly of ministers and other experienced and educated persons. The assembly having conferred on the matter, and advised me of their opinion, I have considered it best to determine and order, as I do by this present, that, for the present, and until I order otherwise, the said missions remain to, and be continued by, the religious as hitherto; and there shall under no consideration be any innovation in that matter; and the assignment and removal of the religious who are curas, whenever it may be necessary, shall be made by my viceroy of those provinces, in my name, the latter observing in those appointments and promotions the form, together with the conditions and circumstances, with which it is done in the kingdoms of Pirú; and it is my will that the religious be not admitted to the exercise or to the service of the said missions, or that they receive the emoluments of them in any other manner. I also order that the archbishop of those provinces may visit the said religious in what refers to the ministry of curas and to nothing else—inspecting the churches, the sacraments, the chrism, the confraternities, their alms, and everything pertaining to the mere administration of the holy sacraments and the said ministry of curas. He shall go to make the visit in his own person, or shall assign or send for this duty such persons as he shall choose and find satisfactory, to those districts where he cannot go in person, or where there is no occasion for his aid. He shall employ correction and punishment whenever necessary, strictly within the limits and exercise of curas as above stated, and nothing further. In respect to personal transgressions in the morals and lives of such religious curas, the latter shall not remain subject to the said archbishops and bishops, so that these may punish them through the visits, even though under pretext that they are curas; but, on having notice of such matters, they shall, without writing or drawing up processes, secretly advise their regular superiors of such persons, so that the latter may correct the wrong. In case that the latter should not do this, then the former might make use of the authority given them by the holy council of Trent, in the manner and in the cases when they can and ought to act in regard to religious who are not curas. In this instance I order that they have recourse to the said my viceroy, who shall appoint them and who can remove them, to represent to him the causes, so that it may be done as has been and is done in Pirú. And inasmuch as the said religious, in regard to the jurisdiction, are not endeavoring to acquire any right for the perpetuity of the said missions; and since by the aforesaid the ordinary jurisdiction is not annulled in cases that conform to law and to the holy council of Trent: it pertains to the superiors to try the causes of the religious. That must and shall be understood, without any prejudice to the ordinary jurisdiction and the right of my patronage. I order all the above to be thus observed and executed inviolably by my viceroy, archbishop, bishops of Nueva España and all other persons whom its fulfilment concerns, notwithstanding any other orders whatever that may exist to the contrary. Such I revoke and declare null and void. Given in Madrid, June twenty-two, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four.
And in behalf of the archbishop of the metropolitan church of the city of Manila in the Philipinas Islands, I have been requested to be pleased to declare whether the decree of November fourteen of the former year six hundred and three is to be observed in those islands, in regard to the manner in which the said religious missionaries are to be visited; or whether the visit is to be exercised with the limitation and in the form contained in the new decree which was given to Nueva España. The matter having been examined in my royal Council of the Indias, I have considered it fitting to give the present. By it I order that everything contained in the decree herein inserted be observed and obeyed by my governor, archbishop, and bishops of those islands, and by all other persons whom it concerns, exactly as is contained in it, for such is my will. Given in Madrid, August fourteen, one thousand six hundred and twenty-four.21
Conflict Between Civil and Religious Authorities
Case that happened in Manila in the year 1623, in regard to a fugitive who was taken from the church
Juan
The original of this letter is conserved in the Archivo general of Sevilla; its pressmark, “Cartas y expedientes del Arzobispo de Manila; años 1579–1697; est. 68, caj. I, leg. 32.”
This document is obtained from Pastells’s
