The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 30 of 55, 1640: 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 centuryAduarte, Diego
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 30 of 55, 1640: 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
Aduarte, Diego
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
[The mighty work described, being beyond human power, must have been of
God; and, to make this clear, God showed His power in this region. At
one time the father vicar was going to hear confessions in one of
those villages, and was met by a leading Indian already converted,
by name Don Pablo Taclanmanoc, who asked where he was going. When
he said: "To hear the confessions of the people in this village,"
the Indian replied, "Well then, Father, you have inquired about their
debts, so that they may be able to confess?" "I cannot know them,"
answered the father, "if they do not tell me them; and for that reason
I have taken care to instruct them in my sermons that those who owe
debts must pay them." "More than that is necessary," said Don Pablo;
"give me the charge of investigating the debts in this village,
so that they may make a good confession." The religious thanked him
and put off the confessions that he might see what would come of this
undertaking. Don Pablo made his investigation with much care. He made
inquiry throughout the village, and he ascertained that there were
much usury and many other unjust and wrongful acts which had been
committed in it. He took this all, written down in a memorandum-book,
to the minister, who governed himself by it and made his inquiries in
the confessions as it suggested. The confessions were very accurate,
and in this way many wrongs were undone without any further pressure or
force than this. When he saw how useful and necessary this undertaking
had been, he had it done in all the villages, making use of the idea of
the Indian Don Pablo--whom the Lord had given to these missionaries in
this region as a teacher; and by whose instruction they might dig out
many evil roots, which had grown strong with age, and were certain to
be a great hindrance to the growth of the good seed of the gospel. This
result these ministers at that time could not attain, because they
were then new; nor would they have been able to attain them later,
if the Indians had been silent with regard to them, and had followed
the bad habit of confessing the rest while being silent on this point,
which to them is the hardest thing in our law. But as they were at that
time at the very beginning, and as this course was followed with all,
and as it agreed with the truth and with all the evidence obtained
by Don Pablo, they all accepted it very well. The results were most
beneficial to this district. The Indians of it came to have such a
reputation for devotion, for frequenting the holy sacraments, for
obedience to their ministers, and for peace and brotherly love among
themselves--being free from the vanities and excesses to which these
Indians are naturally inclined--that when the ecclesiastical judges
desired to bring to order any persons in other regions, they used to
send them to Bataan, because of the good example set there. The Lord
cared for these Indians with a very loving providence, as He showed by
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