Doctrina Christiana Part 9

[41] Retana, col. 10, cited from the original MS. in the A. of I. (68-1-42), Torres, II, no. 3211, p. 150.

[42] San Antonio, II, p. 297. This work, treated at length by San Antonio, is proof of the high esteem in which Plasencia was held as a Tagalist. It was incorporated in a doc.u.ment of Governor Francisco Tello, dated July 13, 1599, now in the A. of I. (67-6-18), and first printed in the appendix to Santa Ines, II, pp. 592-603, and translated in B. & R., VII, pp. 173-96.

[43] Santiago Vela, VI, pp. 442-3. His study of the questionable _Arte_ of 1581 is the most thorough and detailed yet written.

[44] Schilling, p. 205.

[45] Pardo de Tavera, _op. cit._, pp. 8-9. After quoting the latter part of this pa.s.sage, Medina, p. xviii, adds a quizzical note, "I want to cite the opinion of so distinguished a student of the Philippines because it shows how tangled and confused is the information concerning the primitive Philippine press, even among men best informed on the subject."

[46] Medina, nos. 1 and 2, p. [3].

[47] Medina, p. xix.

[48] Retana had published many of his findings in _La Politico de Espana en Filipinas_, Madrid, 1891-98; in his edition of Joaquin Martinez de Zuniga, _Estadismo de las Islas Filipinas_, Madrid, 1893; and in the _Archivo del Bibliofilo Filipino_, Madrid, 1895-97.

[49] Retana, cols. 7-8. We shall speak of Juan de Vera later.

[50] Thomas Cooke Middleton, _Some Notes on the Bibliography of the Philippines_, Philadelphia, 1900, pp. 32-33.

[51] Pardo de Tavera, _Biblioteca Filipina_, Washington, 1903, pp. 9-10.

[52] Medina, _La Imprenta en Manila desde sus Origenes hasta 1810 Adiciones y Ampliacones_, Santiago de Chile, 1904.

[53] P. & G., pp. xxi-xxvi.

[54] B. & R., LIII, p. 11.

[55] Artigas, _op. cit._ He admitted that the celebration should have been held in 1902.

[56] Retana, _Origenes de la Imprenta Filipina_, Madrid, 1911. Retana had also published between 1897 and 1911 several other books which contained some information about the early Philippine press, the _Aparato Bibliografico_ in 1906 and his edition of Morga in 1909, both of which have already been cited.

[57] Antonio Palau y Dulcet, _Manuel del Librero Hispano-Americano_, Barcelona, 1923-37, III, p. 72.

[58] Schilling, _op. cit._

[59] Chirino, p. 3, writes that he was "the first who made converts to Christianity in the Philippines, preaching to them of Jesus Christ in their own tongue--of which he made the first vocabulary, which I have seen and studied;" and Juan de Medina (who originally wrote his history in 1630), p. 54, says that in visiting Cebu in 1612 he "saw a lexicon there, compiled by Father Fray Martin de Rada, which contained a great number of words." Grijalva, _op. cit._, f. 124V, writes that Rada "by the force of his imaginative and excellent ability learned the Visayan language, as he had learned the Otomi in this land [Mexico], so that he could preach in it in five months."

[60] Perez, p. 5.

[61] Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza, _The Historie of the great and mightie kingdom of China ... Translated out of Spanish by R. Parke_, London, 1588, p. 138. The original edition of 1585 said he made an "arte y vocabulario." We must take the phrase "in few daies" in a comparative sense, but that an Augustinian, probably Rada, knew some Chinese as early as July 30, 1574 is shown by a letter from Governor Lavezaris to the King from Manila, sending him "a map of the whole land of China, with an explanation which I had some Chinese interpreters make through the aid of an Augustinian religious who is acquainted with the elements of the Chinese language," B. & R., III, p. 284, from the original MS. in the A. of I. (67-6-6), Torres, II, no. 1868, p. 10-11. Antonio de Leon Pinelo, _Epitome de la Biblioteca Oriental i Occidental, Nautica i Geographica_, Madrid, 1629, p. 31, also records Rada's Chinese grammar and dictionary. Santiago Vela, VI, pp. 444-60, gives a full history of Rada and his writings. He went to China a second time in May 1576, and in 1578 accompanied La Sande on his expedition to Borneo, dying on the way back to Manila in June of that year.

[62] Gonzalez de Mendoza, _op. cit._, pp. 103-5.

[63] Diego Ordonez Vivar came to the Philippines in 1570, filled various ministries there, and according to Agustin Maria de Castro was in j.a.pan in 1597, where he witnessed the martyrdom of the Franciscans; he died in 1603, Perez, p. 10. Juan de Medina, p. 74, says, "Father Diego de Ordonez learned this language [Tagalog] very quickly." Alonso Alvatado had been on the unsuccessful 1542 expedition of Villalobos, and returned to the Philippines in 1571. Perez, p. 11, records that he became familiar with the Tagalog language, was the first prior of Tondo, ministered to the Chinese there, and was the first Spaniard to learn the Mandarin dialect. He was elected provincial in 1575, and died at Manila the following year. Jeronimo Marin came to the islands with Alvarado, acquired skill in the Visayan, Tagalog and Chinese languages, accompanied Rada on his first expedition to China, was in Tondo in 1578, and later returned to Spain to recruit new missionaries for the province, dying in Mexico in 1606, Perez, pp. 11-12.

[64] Cano, p. 12. Santiago Vela, I, p. 85, expresses the opinion that Cano's statement was an overenthusiasm, and is not valid.

[65] Retana, col. 9.

[66] Juan de Medina, p. 156.

[67] Santiago Vela, I, p. 85, where he cites the first book of the _Gobierno_ of the Augustinian province.

[68] Santiago Vela, I, pp. 84-6 treats of the whole question in detail.

[69] A Doctrina in Tagalog, attributed to Alburquerque by Agustin Maria de Castro in his unpublished _Osario_, is said by Santiago Vela, I, p. 85, to have been arranged and perfected by Quinones, and was probably that presented by him to the Synod of 1582, if indeed he did present such a work then. For an account of the MS. _Osario_, see Schilling, p. 205n.

[70] Perez, p. 20n, quotes Vicente Barrantes, _El teatro tagalo_, Madrid, 1890, p. 170, as saying that "according to the Augustinian writers" Alburquerque compiled an _Arte de la Lengua Tagala_ between 1570 and 1580, the ma.n.u.script of which disappeared when the English sacked Manila in 1762. It may be that Barrantes referred to Cano or possibly Castro, but it must be emphasized that no contemporary historian, as far as has been discovered up to this time, has made such a statement.

[71] Quinones came to the Philippines in 1577 and spent his time in missions in and about Manila. He was named prior of Manila in 1586, and provincial vicar in 1587 in which year he died, Perez, p. 19, and Santiago Vela, VI, pp. 433-4.

[72] Again Castro, as cited by Santiago Vela, VI, p. 435, is the only authority for this, although San Agustin, p. 391, lists Quinones'

name among those present at the Synod.

[73] San Agustin, p. 381. It should be noted that this statement is in direct contradiction to those we shall cite later in connection with the controversy between the Augustinians and Dominicans over the Chinese ministry. The convent at Tondo had been founded in 1571, so San Agustin here must refer specifically to the Chinese mission.

[74] Perez, p. 22.

[75] Perez, p. 29.

[76] Huerta, pp. 443 & 500-01. In 1580, under the influence of Plasencia, Talavera took the habit of the Franciscan order and preached throughout the Philippines until his death in 1616. Huerta lists six works in Tagalog by him, all of them devotionary tracts, the last of which he notes was printed at Manila in 1617, and is listed by Medina, no. 20, pp. 14-5. His works are also recorded by Leon Pinelo, _op. cit._, 1737-38, II, f. 919r.

[77] Santa Ines (written originally in 1676), p. 211. Virtually the same information is given by San Antonio, I, pp. 532-3 & 563.

[78] Juan de la Concepcion, _Historia general de Philipinas_, Manila, 1788-92, II, pp. 45-6. Schilling, p. 203n, maintains that the early writers were mistaken in believing that the Synod was held in 1581. On October 16, 1581 the Bishop called a meeting of ten priests at the Convent of Tondo to discuss the execution of the decree about slaves, Torres, II, pp. cxliv-v. No laymen were present and no other topic was discussed. The decisions of this meeting were sent in a letter from Salazar to the King, dated from Tondo, October 17, 1581, translated in B. & R., x.x.xIV, pp. 325-31, from the original MS. in the A. of I. (68-1-42), Torres, II, no. 2686, p. 95. The following year a real Synod was held, this time including lay government officials as well as priests, at which was discussed a variety of subjects. Robert Streit, _Bibliotheca Missionum_, Aachen, 1928, IV, pp. 327-31, cites a MS. account of it by the Jesuit father Sanchez who was present; and Valentin Marin, _Ensayo de una Sintesis de los trabajos realizados por las Corporaciones Religiosas Espanoles de Filipinas_, Manila, 1901, I, pp. 192 et seqq., cites another MS., then in the Archives of the Archiepiscopal Palace of Manila, _Memoria de una junta que se hizo a manera de concilio el ano de 1582, para dar asiento a las cosas tocantes al aumento de la fe, y justificacion de las conquistas hechas y que adelante se hicieron por los espanoles_, from which he quotes extensively. With reference to the Synod see further Lorenzo Perez, _Origen de las Misiones Franciscanas en el extremo oriente_, in Archivo Ibero-Americano, 1915, III, pp. 386-400.

[79] Santa Ines, p. 212. Again similar accounts are to be found in San Antonio, I, pp. 563-6, in far more detail and phrased in even more laudatory terms, and the fullest early biography of Plasencia is given by San Antonio, II, pp. 512-79. Modern surveys appear in Marin, _op. cit._, II, pp. 573-82, and Lorenzo Perez, _op. cit._, pp. 378 et seqq.

[80] Chirino, _Primera parte_, quoted by Retana, col. 24, implied that Quinones and Plasencia wrote at about the same time: "The first who wrote in these languages were, in Visayan, P. Fr. Martin de Rada, and in Tagalog, Fr. Juan de Quinones, both of the Order of St. Augustine, and at the same time Fr. Juan de Oliver and Fr. Juan de Plasencia of the Order of St. Francis, of whom the latter began first, but the former [wrote] many more things and very useful ones." However, San Antonio, I, p. 532, wrote perhaps with bias in favor of his own order, "Although the Augustinian fathers had come earlier and did not lack priests fluent in the idiom, the language had not yet been reduced to a grammar, so that it could be learned by common grammatical rules, nor was there a general vocabulary of speech; except that each one had his own notes, to make himself understood, and everything was unsystematized."

[81] _Entrada de la seraphica Religion de nuestro P. S. Francisco en las Islas Philipinas_, MS. of 1649, first published in Retana, _Archivo_, I, no. III, translated in B. & R., x.x.xV, p. 311.

[82] Medina, p. 15, quoting from Martinez whom we are unable to trace.

[83] Huerta, pp. 492-3. Oliver died in 1599. San Antonio, II, p. 531, says that Plasencia was the first to write a catechism (called in Tagalog "Tocsohan"), and Oliver was the first to translate the explanation of the Doctrina. Oliver's works are noted by Leon Pinelo, _op. cit._, 1737-38, II, col. 730, and Barrantes, _op. cit._, p. 187.

[84] Sebastian de Totanes, _Arte de la Lengua Tagala_, Manila, 1850, p. v, (first edition printed in 1745) says of Oliver that "up to the present day our province reveres him as the first master of this idiom."

[85] See note 42.

[86] Huerta, p. 517. Nothing is known of Diego de la Asuncion except that he wrote five works in Tagalog including an _Arte_ and _Diccionario_. Huerta was unable to find any record of him in the mission lists, the capitularies or the death records, but that he was in the Philippines before 1649 we can be sure of from the notice of him in the ma.n.u.script of that date.

[87] Huerta, p. 495. Montes y Escamilla came to the islands in 1583 and remained there until his death in 1610. Five works in Tagalog are attributed to him, an _Arte_, _Diccionario_, _Confesionario_, _Devocional tagalog_, and a _Guia de Pecadores_. The _Devocional_ is listed by Medina, no. 16, p. 12.

[88] Pablo Rojo, _Fr. Juan de Plasencia_, _Escritor_, Appendix 3 of Santa Ines, II, p. 590. An early reference by Fernandez, _Historia Eclesiastica_, p. 300, speaking of the Franciscan missionary successes among the natives, says, "They learned the Doctrina Christiana which the priests translated into Tagalog."

[89] Rojo, in Santa Ines, II, pp. 590-1, says that the Doctrina then being used among the Tagalogs was the same as that written by Plasencia except for modernization in accordance with the changes which had taken place in the language since his time.