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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 22 of 55: 1625-29; 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. — John Shaqi

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 22 of 55: 1625-29; 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

In another decree, of June twenty of the past year twenty-five,
your Majesty also orders me to inform you, with the distinctness and
clearness necessary for the better understanding of what you desire,
of the annual incomes and values of the benefices and revenues of this
archbishopric of Manila, and what sum pertains to the dignidades,
canonries, and prebends, both of this church and of the others of
my diocese. [Your Majesty also asks for] the number in each church;
how many beneficed curacies there are in each district, and their
income; the number of missions, their value, and whether they are in
charge of seculars or religious of the orders. I gave your Majesty
a long account of that in a letter that I wrote the former year of
six hundred and twenty-one on the twenty-fifth of July, to which I
have had answer from that royal Council that it was received in the
following year of six hundred and twenty-two. I only neglected to place
in that letter the incomes of the archbishopric and the prebends of
this church--taking that for granted, as a matter very well known,
since your Majesty sustains both the archbishop and the dignidades,
canonries, and prebends from your royal treasury, because there is
no other source, and the tithes are not sufficient. The latter are
placed in the said treasury, and are collected at the account of
your Majesty. They amount to a very small sum, since, from what I
have experienced, only the stock farms of the larger cattle of the
Spaniards pay tithes to your Majesty, and that has not, as yet,
been practiced with the Indians. Consequently your Majesty pays
the archbishop a salary of three thousand ducados of eleven reals
each; the dean, six hundred pesos of eight-real pieces; the four
dignities of archdean, precentor, schoolmaster, and treasurer, five
hundred pesos; four canons, four hundred pesos; two racions, three
hundred pesos; two media-racions, each two hundred pesos--all paid in
thirds. Consequently both the archbishop and his prebendaries suffer
abundant misery; and, because of that, your Majesty is petitioned to
favor us by increasing these salaries, since they hardly suffice to pay
their house-rent, and support them very moderately. [_In the margin_:
"Set down everything in the books that have been ordered to be made."]

This cathedral church has no other revenue than the alms received
from burials; and if it were not for the four hundred pesos that your
Majesty has granted it for a limited time, it would have nothing for
the wine, wax, and flour for divine worship. With this and with some
allotment of cargo (although little) that the city generally gives it,
the band of musicians, who come to serve on their feast days in the
same church, is maintained.

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