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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55: 1621-1624; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55: 1621-1624; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

We, the provincial and definitors of the province of Sant Gregorio
of the Philipinas Islands of the order of the discalced religious
of our seraphic Father St. Francis, your Majesty's loyal vassals
and humble chaplains, declare that this province has been signally
injured and aggrieved, with great detriment to its general credit and
good name, and the opinion of all our order, and in particular that
of the said province, by Licentiate Hieronimo del Gaspi Chabarria,
Doctor Don Albaro de Mesa y Lugo, and Doctor Don Antonio Rodriguez
de Villegas, auditors of your royal Audiencia of these islands,
by reason of their having granted your royal aid to Fray Francisco
Ximenez, an Observantine religious. The latter came to this province
with a commission granted by the father commissary-general of our
order in Nueva España, ordering us to receive him--although he ought
not to be received, as it was in violation of the general rule of
government in our order; and in violation of a brief of his Holiness,
Gregory Thirteenth. Moreover, such action tends to the destruction
of the discalced religious, and of the reform and common welfare of
this province, and of the conversions in these new kingdoms of your
Majesty--especially when the said auditors compel this province to
receive him in your royal name, making an ill use of your name and
of the royal authority, and insulting it--and he does that, who,
under pretext of such name, practices injustices and extortions,
and who does not observe the terms of laws and ordinances; and much
more, when they are practiced against an order and province that your
Majesty has always esteemed and esteems so highly. Thus, nominally by
your royal authority, we have suffered great violence and scandals,
and it is certain that had this occurred nearer to your Majesty's pious
eyes, a most signal and exemplary chastisement would have followed. But
in these so remote regions, where redress arrives late, it is usual,
and almost necessary for us chaplains of your Majesty and the orders
to suffer these extortions; and if they did not result in detriment
to virtue and to the public welfare, by bearing them patiently we
would not lose, but rather gain much.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 20 of 55: 1621-1624; Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century.

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

We, the provincial and definitors of the province of Sant Gregorio
of the Philipinas Islands of the order of the discalced religious
of our seraphic Father St. Francis, your Majesty's loyal vassals
and humble chaplains, declare that this province has been signally
injured and aggrieved, with great detriment to its general credit and
good name, and the opinion of all our order, and in particular that
of the said province, by Licentiate Hieronimo del Gaspi Chabarria,
Doctor Don Albaro de Mesa y Lugo, and Doctor Don Antonio Rodriguez
de Villegas, auditors of your royal Audiencia of these islands,
by reason of their having granted your royal aid to Fray Francisco
Ximenez, an Observantine religious. The latter came to this province
with a commission granted by the father commissary-general of our
order in Nueva España, ordering us to receive him--although he ought
not to be received, as it was in violation of the general rule of
government in our order; and in violation of a brief of his Holiness,
Gregory Thirteenth. Moreover, such action tends to the destruction
of the discalced religious, and of the reform and common welfare of
this province, and of the conversions in these new kingdoms of your
Majesty--especially when the said auditors compel this province to
receive him in your royal name, making an ill use of your name and
of the royal authority, and insulting it--and he does that, who,
under pretext of such name, practices injustices and extortions,
and who does not observe the terms of laws and ordinances; and much
more, when they are practiced against an order and province that your
Majesty has always esteemed and esteems so highly. Thus, nominally by
your royal authority, we have suffered great violence and scandals,
and it is certain that had this occurred nearer to your Majesty's pious
eyes, a most signal and exemplary chastisement would have followed. But
in these so remote regions, where redress arrives late, it is usual,
and almost necessary for us chaplains of your Majesty and the orders
to suffer these extortions; and if they did not result in detriment
to virtue and to the public welfare, by bearing them patiently we
would not lose, but rather gain much.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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