The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 44, 1700-1736: 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 44, 1700-1736: 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
Every Sunday certain fathers are sent to preach at the fort or
castle, to the soldiers and the other men who live there. The
Christian doctrine is chanted through the streets, and in the
procession walk the boys of the school; it ends at the royal chapel,
where some part of the catechism is explained, and a moral sermon
is preached to the soldiers who live in their quarters in order to
mount guard. The doctrine is explained at the Puerta Real and at the
Puerta del Parián, and there is preaching in the guard-room--where
there is a large attendance, not only of soldiers, but of the many
people who, on entering or going out from the gates, stop to hear the
word of God. Another father goes to the royal foundry, in which the
galley-slaves live, where there is such a variety of people--mestizos,
Indians of various dialects, Cafres, negroes of different kinds,
and Sangleys or Chinese--that exceptional ability and patience are
necessary in order to make them understand. Other fathers go to the
college of Santa Isabel and the seminary of Santa Potenciana, where
they give addresses and exhortations to the students of the former,
and the women secluded in the latter. Others go to the prisons of
both the ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions, in order that the
prisoners may obtain the spiritual food of the doctrine. On Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays there is in our church a Miserere, with the
discipline [i.e., scourging]; a spiritual book is read to those who are
present, and at least once a week an exhortation is addressed to them.
Such is, in general, the distribution of work for our college at
Manila in Lent, and therein are engaged nearly all the men in the
college, whether priests or students; and in times when there is a
scarcity of workers I have seen some helping at two or three posts,
and not only ministers and instructors thus occupied, but even the
superiors, and men of seventy years old, to the great edification
of the community. At Lent is seen in Manila that which occurred at
the destruction of Jericho, where, when the priests sounded around
the city the trumpets of the jubilee, the walls immediately gave
way and fell to the ground. Thus in Manila do the Jesuits surround
the walls, calling to every class of people with the trumpets of the
jubilee and offering pardon; and at the sound, through the grace and
mercy of the Highest, the lofty walls of lawlessness, vice, and crime,
fall in ruins. And even the presence of the ark is not lacking to this
marvelous success, for it is not to be doubted that the Blessed Virgin,
most merciful mother of sinners, aids us with her intercession. [Our
author here relates various instances of miraculous aid from heaven,
and other edifying cases.]
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