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
As soon as we arrived, our holy mother undertook the building of a
convent, where we might live with modesty and humility, and with the
aid of alms which were given to us by some citizens; and orphan nuns
sent what they possessed. We have been building a house and church
near the wall which overlooks the river of this city--in the part
that appeared the most remote from trade and very secluded, and with
no other view than that of the heavens. In front of it is the street
in the middle of which is the royal hospital of the Spaniards, which
has been administered since its foundation by the religious of our
seraphic father St. Francis. There the religious who is vicar of this
convent, who administers to us the holy sacraments, had a cell. From
the alms given us we provide for his support. Lately, Governor Don
Sevastian Hurtado de Corcuera, without cause or reason for it, drove
the religious from the said hospital by force and violence and the
arms of soldiers, to the contempt of our sacred order, saying that he
prefers to have it administered by a secular priest, whom he brought
with him as his chaplain. This prohibition, as it is not befitting
the service of God and your Majesty, has cost great suffering to the
archbishop of these islands, grief to all this Christian community, and
wonder to the heathen Chinese--who even among themselves respect those
whom they call "bonzes," who are the same as archbishops among us.
The governor, joining to the matter of the hospital other
reasons--unworthy that he should assign them because he did not act
upon them--had enough power, with only one auditor who is in this
royal Audiencia, to take away from the archbishop his temporalities,
banish him from the kingdoms, and condemn him to a fine of two
thousand ducados. The governor took charge of the execution of the
banishment, one night, with a large body of infantry with matches
lighted. The orders and their superiors came out to attend their
prelate, who was clad in his pontifical robes. While he had the most
holy sacrament in his hands, it happened that the chief constable of
the court, one Bartolome Thenorio, tried to take it away from him,
and used so much force that he wounded the finger of a discalced
religious of St. Augustine (who was aiding the archbishop to hold the
monstrance) against the foot of the monstrance, drawing blood from his
hand. The archbishop fell to the ground, as did the lunette of the
monstrance. When the governor (who was in the street in disguise)
learned of it, he sent infantry to drive out forcibly all the
religious, with orders to leave the archbishop all alone. They were
not to allow him to take food or drink. Thus did they, dragging away
the religious, upon whom the vilest men in the world laid hands, since
now they could. Finally the archbishop, having been arrested, sent
the most holy sacrament to the church next day; and, having decreed
a suspension of religious functions, allowed himself to embark and
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