The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 37, 1669-1676: 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 37, 1669-1676: 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
Those who suffered most from his harsh and violent acts were the
[fathers of the] order of our father, St. Augustine, the cause of
his wrath being that they had refused to elect as provincial one
of their members who was acceptable and dear to him. Although the
abilities of that father made him merit the office, yet it was not
allowable that it be conferred by that method, so strictly forbidden
by the sacred counsels and canons. Consequently, his wrath was aroused
against the order of our father St. Augustine, and he sent malicious
reports against it to his Majesty in the royal and supreme Council
of the Indias, in letters apparently signed by Governor Don Diego
Fajardo--who, when he waked from that lethargy, declared under oath
that they were not his. At our petition, the following governor, Don
Sabiniano Manrique de Lara, made a full investigation before Auditor
Don Álvaro García de Ocampo, the commissioned judge, in January,
1654--which proved that all that was charged by the said favorite
against the order was false. He sent that report to the said royal
and supreme Council, and a copy of it is kept in our archives.
The divine clemency did not choose that the troubles of afflicted
Manila should go further. Therefore He encouraged and strengthened
our father Fray Jerónimo de Medrano--who had been provincial of
this province of ours for three terms, and was its true father--to
penetrate the deep retirement of the deluded governor (in whom the
father's virtue and age had inspired some affection and considerable
veneration). He informed the governor of the truth with efficacious
arguments, showing him the deceit in which the cunning of the favorite
had kept him buried, while he yielded to the violent operations of the
ambition and cruelty of that man, injuring his own reputation. Divine
Providence permitted him to open the eyes of the deceived governor,
because of the favorable idea that the latter had formed of the
accuser; and, seeing that his honor and his conscience were being
endangered, he made the investigations on his part that were necessary,
in order not to discredit his determination as being precipitate. He
found all that father Fray Jerónimo de Medrano had said, and much
more, to be true. Thereupon, he resolved to come to himself, for
the sake of the community of Manila, and had his favorite arrested,
September 16, 1651. Formulating legal proceedings against him for
the crimes that he had committed, he questioned him under torture,
in which the prisoner answered nothing--either because of his great
courage, or because he had taken some confection of opium, which they
purposely gave him to drink, and which has so narcotic a virtue that
it renders those who drink it insensible to pain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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