Part 12 (1/2)
The question of owners.h.i.+p resulted equally unsatisfactorily. To the case were attached the original canonical order for the creation issued in 1746 at the instance of the Vice Royal Patron and in conformity with the canonical custom and the laws of the Indies. Likewise there were submitted certified copies of the nomination of the parish priest who served the parish from the last named date to 1808, since which date as the Provincial admitted ”it had been bestowed on compet.i.tion and appointment by the Vice Royal Patron on secular priests.” Against its having been a canonical foundation, the most legal and strongest of claims, and to a continuous, undisturbed, unquestioned and clear possession for one hundred twenty years, the Provincial offered that his order had claimed the curacy within a few days of its establishment. He did in fact submit two doc.u.ments which were written by the Provincial of San Juan de Dios, to which order the hacienda of San Rafael had belonged. But in one hundred and twenty-two years it had not been found convenient to push the claim, possibly because at first the curacy had only some eighty poverty-stricken natives, herders and laborers, while now it has over three thousand souls.
Likewise it was argued that since the Royal warrant of July 8th, 1826, monastic orders had been returned to their charges in the state and conditions they had when these were secularized by the Royal Warrant of December 11th, 1776, the curacy of San Rafael must be included because of the situation within the territory ceded to them. One must, however, remember that this curacy could not be secularized, because from its foundation it had been secular, and the two Royal warrants mentioned are not applicable except by making the laws retroactive, since the curacy was created thirty years before the Royal Warrant of 1776 was issued.
These arguments, with others of the weakest character, were set forth in a lengthy and hazy brief fathered by the Administrative Council, and as the Vice Royal Patron endorsed it without changing a letter, the matter was closed, because, although the undersigned pet.i.tioned the Vice Royal Patron to submit the case to the Supreme Government's decision, enclosing an opinion from two attorneys, he could not gain this point and out of respect to the highest authority of the Island (whose prestige he has ever endeavored to sustain) he desisted from further effort. This result produced a real scandal among the native priests and greatly enhanced their grief over so great and repeated losses.
The chief cause of the obstacles which in every direction the clergy of the country encounter is a public sentiment in vogue for some years back, which unreasonably opposes having any native parish priest. Those who think thus entirely forget the facts, allowing their imagination to freely rove in the realm of imagination. Certain is it that if the ecclesiastical establishment of the Archipelago were being for the first time set up and it were possible to bring from Spain enough priests to attend to the spiritual needs of its populous parishes, scarcely would there be found a Spaniard of any intelligence to whom such an arrangement would not seem the politic course. But the question is not theoretic, on the contrary it is eminently practical, and before it is settled there is no escape from the previous examination of others which offer serious difficulties, for example, considering the present cooling of religious ardor, what likelihood is there of obtaining a considerable number of young men willing to abandon their home country and go to lend their services in spiritual ministrations in so distant a clime, especially one which is reputed bad for the health? Could the public treasury without difficulty meet the expenses necessary for establis.h.i.+ng colleges and maintaining professors and students, and for fitting out and paying the fares of so many persons from the Peninsula to the Philippine Islands? And even if this offered no difficulty and putting aside present conditions, is there nothing to fear from keeping the native clergy in their present growing bitterness? Let anybody put himself in their place and reflect upon the series of measures heretofore mentioned and he cannot but recognize how enormous have been the damages they have suffered, and that those with which they are still threatened give over-sufficient and powerful motives that, notwithstanding their timidity, should change to hostility their former fidelity and respect for the Spaniards.
Formerly the native priests controlled the curacies of the provinces of Zambales, Bataan, and Pampanga. Of these they were dispossessed and when they felt that with the taking away of these parishes all their ills had ended, they received fresh, ruder shocks which renewed and inflamed the wound. Consequently it is no longer possible to characterise as cla.s.s hatred their resentment against the friars, though that was the proper term while the natives attributed their ill fortune to the ambition and power of the monastic order. Now, after repeated proofs, they are convinced that the government is a.s.sisting the friars' immoderate aspirations; and that in the opinion of these same priests of the country there has been adopted the policy of reducing them to insignificance, they pa.s.s over the ancient barrier, direct their glances higher, and what was formerly only hostility to the friars is changing into anti-Spanish sentiment. I do not hesitate to a.s.sert that if the Anglo-Americans or the English were to possess themselves of the Philippine Archipelago they surely would show the natives more consideration than they are receiving at the hands of the Spaniard. And so, Your Royal Highness, to escape an imaginary risk there is being created a real and true danger.
It will be readily understood that for the full carrying out of the Royal Order of September 10th there will have to elapse a period as long as that (from 1826 till the present) taken for completing the turning over of the curacies a.s.signed the friars under the Royal Warrant before mentioned. And likewise it must be understood that as the resentment of the natives is renewed each time that they lose a curacy (as has just happened with the loss of Rosario parish in Batangas province and of Cavite of which the Recollects are going to take charge by way of compensation for the parish of Dapitan and Lubugan mission, which they relinquished to the Jesuit fathers last July) their hearts are filled with bitter grief, and so far from its finding any relief, it is embittered, as seeing themselves without any a.s.sistance at all while on the other hand the influence of their adversaries is increasing on every hand. It is more urgent to furnish prompt relief for their discontent and exasperation since if the effervescence which I noticed in them on my return from the Vatican council continues for any considerable length of time it will give an opportunity for the sentiments of the native clergy spreading among their parents, relatives, and the entire Filipino people, with whom they are in closer touch than are the friars, and so the evil might take on grave proportions.
It will not be hidden from the exalted ac.u.men of Your Highness that it is highly desirable and even necessary to put out this small fire which might by mischance change itself into a formidable conflagration, which perhaps in the first stage of slight apprehension might serve the purpose of those who are trying to spread vain terrors, and I say vain, because in spite of the strictest investigation, until now there has been no positive proof to justify the accusation latterly directed against the secular clergy, for the reason set forth that the writer is of the opinion that the Royal Order of September 10th, and the explanation thereof insofar as they affect the Archbishopric of Manila, should be changed restoring matters by prompt and effective measures to the conditions and state in which they were when the Mindanao curacies and missions were turned over by the Recollect friars to the Jesuit fathers; that the Recollect should be compensated with other parishes in the Diocese of Cebu and the Jaro Diocese, which was taken from them in 1867, according to the number of parishes supplied in each of them by the secular clergy, to make up for the lack of native priests which is experienced in both; and, lastly, that there be ordered the reference to the Minister of Ultramar of the original case inst.i.tuted at the suggestion of the Provincial (now the Procurator) of the Calced Augustinians (i. e., Recollects), regarding the holding of the parish of San Rafael, Bulac province, in order that it may be investigated and reach a solution in accordance with justice, which in the judgment of the secular clergy it is now far from being.
The writer earnestly implores Your Excellency so to adjust the matter, with full confidence that it will not only calm the inquietude of their minds, but also that, reenforced by the grat.i.tude of the never tarnished loyalty of the Filipino native clergy, it may tighten more and more the ties that unite this fruitful Archipelago to our beloved Spain.
May G.o.d preserve for many years the life of Your Highness and grant him amplest wisdom and favor for the well-being of the Catholic religion and of our beloved fatherland.
GREGORIO, Archbishop of Manila.
Manila, December 31, 1870.
HIS SERENE HIGHNESS The Regent of the Kingdom.
NINETEENTH CENTURY DISCONTENT
(In Madrid review: ”La Politica de Espana en Filipinas” in a series. ”Las Insurrecciones de Filipinas,” beginning with Vol. I, p. 44.)
1807.--The political troubles and intrigues of the Court between G.o.doy, Maria Luisa and Ferdinand VII reached the Philippines (as had the errors of Carlos III and those of a celebrated American archbishop, a great reformer).
In spite of the vigilance of the authorities an outbreak occurred in Ilokos, at first controlled by the missionaries, who put themselves at the head of the loyal towns, but soon it broke out again, the insurgents making themselves masters of the town of Pigdig and conquering the king's forces there. An Augustinian friar (parish priest of Batac) preached obedience to the sovereign but a woman immediately made a speech in opposition, saying not to believe the priest for they all were deceivers who in the name of G.o.d, of the Gospel and of the King only beguiled them so the Spaniards might despoil them and suck their blood; that the friars were Spaniards like the rest. The priest preached again next day and got the people to take arms, cheering for the king, march to the mountains of Patae where he maintained them all at his own expense.
1811.--In this same region, there was another uprising to change the religion, setting up a new G.o.d called Lingao. The princ.i.p.ales (former town-chiefs--C.) and cabezas de barangay (vice-chiefs for wards--C.) conspired with the igorots and other persons, madmen and savages of Cagayan, to exterminate the Spaniards, but they were found out by the friars who informed the Government in time to thwart so terrible a plot.
1814.--At the beginning of the year, against the advice of the friars, General Gardoqui set out to publish the Const.i.tution of 1812 and the Indians took so seriously the equality between themselves and the Spaniards that they began to rebel, refusing to pay the tribute and slight taxes placed upon them. They would not recognize the authority of the princ.i.p.ales and barangay chiefs and in some towns of Ilokos they went so far as to set free the prisoners.
Ferdinand VII abolished the Const.i.tution of 1812, which had so pleased the Indians, and then arose a conspiracy because the Indians believed the abolition of the Const.i.tution was due to the intrigues of the Spaniards and the missionaries to deprive them of the equality over which they had gotten so enthusiastic. With the organic law of 1812 they had thought themselves free, happy, and independent, with no tribute to pay nor any authority to obey.
Other insurrections followed in 1820, 1828, 1837, 1844, 1854, 1863, 1869, 1872, 1883, and 1888. (Also in 1896 and 1898--C.)
The fatal consequences of the imprudent proclamation of the const.i.tution of Cadiz in the Philippines produced a certain lack of social discipline and led to uprisings. A pitiable one was the catastrophe of 1820, when, with excuse of cholera, the Indians a.s.sa.s.sinated countless Chinese and many foreigners who were in Manila. The hatred against the French (from Napoleon's attempt to make his brother King of Spain in place of Ferdinand VII.--C.) the pretext which caused the American conspiracies--had come even there. Let us cover with a veil the horrible picture, only saying that the ones chiefly guilty of this international crime were the acting Captain General Folgueras, weak and not far-seeing, and the Alcalde of Tondo (a position corresponding to the later Governor of Manila) who was a Spaniard of the country (creole) named Varela, more ignorant, impressionable and of worse and bad faith than any Indian.