Loading your reading…

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 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 31, 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

Name: The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 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
Author: Aduarte, Diego

Aduarte, Diego

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

August, 1905.







                      HISTORIA DE LA PROVINCIA DEL
                       SANCTO ROSARIO DE LA ORDEN
                            DE PREDICADORES

                              (Continued)

                 By Diego Aduarte, O.P.; Manila, 1640.


    Source: Translated from a copy of the above work in the
    possession of Edward E. Ayer, Chicago.

    Translation: This is made by Henry B. Lathrop, of the University
    of Wisconsin. The present instalment covers pp. 167-384 of book i
    of the Historia (which will be concluded in Vol. XXXII).







HISTORY OF THE DOMINICAN PROVINCE OF THE HOLY ROSARY

By Fray Diego Aduarte, O.P.

(Continued)


CHAPTER XXXVIII

The advance made by the Indians of this province in virtue, and their
attendance upon the sacraments


Even if the religious in this province of Nueva Segovia had done
no other good than bringing to an end or preventing so many sins of
idolatry as these Indians used to commit, every day and every hour,
by adoring the devil and offering him superstitious reverence in
all the ways which have already been described, a very great service
indeed would have been done to the Lord, to whom all such actions as
these are directly offensive. In these idolatrous acts His honor is
taken from Him, and His divine supremacy is overthrown and given to
His greatest enemy. To prevent one of these offenses to God would be
of much more merit than to prevent any homicide whatsoever, for that
is a direct offense only against a man; while idolatry is directly
against God, and takes from Him His divine honor, which is much more
valuable than the life of a man. If this be true, how high is the
merit of having prevented the innumerable acts of idolatry which used
to be committed daily by those Indians, and having brought to an end
the multitude of sins which followed upon this one--constant wars,
murders, robberies, drunkennesses which surpassed one another, lewd
actions, and all the other vices which were committed--without the
rulers of those people concerning themselves the least in them or
punishing them, except when they personally were wronged. And this
they did, not out of zeal for justice, but as their personal act of
revenge, so that they sinned more in the excess of the punishment
than the delinquents had sinned in the faults for which they were
punished. Now all these evils came to an end, as the result of the
preaching of the religious, to the great glory of God. Hence, if they
had done no more than this, very great indeed would the service have
been which thereby they wrought and continue to work for the Creator of
all and the universal Lord. But this was not all; for when these evil
growths had been rooted out, there were planted in the hearts of these
Indians the opposite virtues. By the aid of the Lord they began so
soon to bear flowers and fruit that the first bishop of this province,
Don Fray Miguel de Venavides, a holy and most learned prelate, wrote

No reviews yet