The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 26 of 55, 1636: 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 26 of 55, 1636: 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
Among these things there occurred another very regrettable
incident. Don Pedro de Monroy, who was now no longer provisor,
left the city; and fearing that, if he returned hither, he would
embroil the matter more, as was his custom, I gave orders at the
gates of the city that, if he attempted to enter it, he was not
to be allowed to do so. But on the twenty-first of last November,
the said Don Pedro de Monroy, clad as a Franciscan friar, in the
company of two other Franciscan friars, attempted to enter by a gate
near the convent of Santo Domingo. A number of religious came out
of the convent to receive him. He who was stationed at the gate as
commander recognized him, seized him, and cried out to his soldiers to
take their weapons and prevent his entrance. But there were so many
Dominican friars who attacked the soldiers, and defended Don Pedro
with their fists, that the soldiers could not use their weapons or
prevent the entrance. Thus, by forcing their way into the guardhouse,
the friars, brought him into the city. I felt the resentment in
this matter that was natural, and I ordered the corporal and the
soldiers to be arrested. Being about to punish them for not having
obeyed their orders, they exculpated themselves very thoroughly in
the investigation made by the auditor-general, but the violence of
the religious gave the soldiers no opportunity to do more. Consider,
your Majesty, what liberties these are to be taken from religious;
and who can endure them? I wrote to their vicar-provincial, but he
answered coolly that his religious had not done any such thing, as
they are obedient, and that he had information to the contrary. The
father vicar-provincial adds that Don Pedro [de] Monrroy entered
the city in response to the summons of the Inquisition. This word
"Inquisition" is the motto and cry of the fathers of the Order of
St. Dominic in these islands, for whatever they wish to do. Your
Majesty will have seen from the aforesaid what ill use they make of
the authority of the Inquisition--so much so, that I assert that
with it they disturb and excite the community, which would not be
safe if your Majesty did not have so many soldiers here. Therefore,
since it is advisable to preserve peace here, will your Majesty be
pleased to order the supreme tribunal of the Inquisition to order
the tribunal of Mexico to appoint, as commissaries, not friars but
seculars, since there are so many seculars who are able to act in
that capacity, and since it is an office that properly belongs to the
ecclesiastical estate. Affairs will then run more smoothly, and there
will be more harmony; and I do not expect peace until that be done,
and until these lawless acts be checked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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