The Inhabitants of the Philippines Part 8

CHAPTER VII.

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

The Augustinians--Their glorious founder--Austin Friars in England--Scotland--Mexico--They sail with Villalobos for the Islands of the Setting Sun--Their disastrous voyage--Fray Andres Urdaneta and his companions--Foundation of Cebu and Manila with two hundred and forty other towns--Missions to j.a.pan and China--The Flora Filipina--The Franciscans--The Jesuits--The Dominicans--The Recollets--Statistics of the religious orders in the islands--Turbulence of the friars--Always ready to fight for their country--Furnish a war ship and command it--Refuse to exhibit the t.i.tles of their estates in 1689--The Augustinians take up arms against the British--Ten of them fall on the field of battle--Their rectories sacked and burnt--Bravery of the archbishop and friars in 1820--Father Ibanez raises a battalion--Leads it to the a.s.sault of a Moro Cotta--Execution of native priests in 1872--Small garrison in the islands--Influence of the friars--Their behaviour--Herr Jagor--Foreman--Worcester--Younghusband--Opinion of Pope Clement X.--Tennie C. Claflin--Equality of opportunity--Statuesque figures of the girls--The author's experience of the Friars--The Philippine clergy--Who shall cast the first stone?--Const.i.tution of the orders--Life of a friar--May become an archbishop--The chapter--The estates--The Peace Commission--Pacification r.e.t.a.r.ded--Who will collect the rents?

Before referring further to these estates it may be as well to give a brief sketch of the religious orders, whose existence is bound up with the history of the Philippines, to the conversion and civilisation of which they have so largely contributed. They won the islands for Spain, they held them for centuries, and now, having served their purpose, they have lost them, doubtless for ever.

The Augustinians were the pioneers in converting the inhabitants of the Philippines, and they have maintained their predominance ever since.

I therefore begin my description with this venerable order, and it will be proper to say something about its glorious founder.

The following data are taken from the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica'

and other sources.

Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) one of the four great fathers of the Latin Church, and admittedly the greatest of the four, was born at Tagaste (Tajelt), a town of Numidia, North Africa, A.D. 354. His father, Patricius, was a burgess of this town, and was still a pagan at the time of his son's birth.

His mother, Monica, was not only a Christian, but a woman of the most elevated, tender, and devoted piety, whose affectionate and beautiful enthusiasm have pa.s.sed into a touching type of womanly saintliness for all ages.

Augustine studied rhetoric at Madaura and Carthage, and visited Rome and Milan.

He pa.s.sed many years in unrest of mind and doubt, but ultimately a pa.s.sage from Romans xii. 13, 14 seemed to pour the light of peace into his heart. He became a Christian and was baptised in his thirty-third year. Patricius was also converted and baptised, and Monica found the desire of her life fulfilled and her dear ones united to her in faith.

After some years of retirement, Augustine made a journey to Hippo Regius, a Roman colony on the River Rubricatus in North Africa, and became a presbyter.

His princ.i.p.al writings are 'The City of G.o.d,' 'Confessions,' and 'The Trinity.'

He died during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals at the age of 75.

The theological position and influence of Augustine may be said to be unrivalled. No single name has ever exercised such power over the Christian Church, and no one mind has ever made such an impression upon Christian thought.

The Augustinians look upon this great Christian moralist as their founder, and reverence his memory and that of his saintly mother.

Whether he personally drew up the rules they observe or not, they were his disciples, following in his foot-steps, and finding their inspiration in his writings and example.

Great indeed must have been the magnetic force of that vehement nature that it could give an impetus to his followers that carried them all over Europe, that made them the companions of the discoverers and conquerors of the New World, and that filled their hearts with zeal and courage to face the dangers of the great lone ocean in company with Villalobos and Legaspi.

The Order traces its inception to the town of Hippo, and fixes the date at A.D. 395. Many, doubtless, were its vicissitudes, but in the year 1061, and again in 1214, we find the Order remodelled and extended. The Augustinians were very numerous in England and Scotland. In 1105 they had settled at Colchester and at Nostell, near Pontefract. Later they had abbeys at Bristol, Llantony, Christchurch, Twynham, Bolton and London, where part of their church (Austin Friars) is still standing. Altogether they had 170 houses in England. Their first house in Scotland was at Scone in 1114, and they soon had 25 houses, including churches or abbeys at Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth, St Andrew's, Holyrood, Cambuskenneth and Inchaffray.

The Austin Friars or Black Canons were then described as an order of regular clergy holding a middle position between monks and secular canons, almost resembling a community of parish priests living under rule, and they have retained these characteristics to the present day.

They were numerous in Spain, and some of the other Orders, such as the Dominicans or Preaching Friars, the Franciscans, and the Recollets, may almost be looked upon as offshoots of this venerable order, for they conformed to its general rule, with certain additions. Thus the Dominicans, founded by Saint Dominic de Guzman, were incorporated in 1216 by a Bull of Pope Honorius III. and adopted a rule of absolute poverty or mendicancy in addition to the usual vows of chast.i.ty and obedience.

This Order held its first chapter in 1220 at Bologna, under the presidency of its founder.

The vows of poverty of this powerful Order have not prevented it from holding large estates in the Philippines, from owning blocks of buildings in Manila and Hong Kong, and from having a huge sum invested in British and American securities. These however belong to the Corporation and not to the individual members.

From Spain the Augustinians spread to Mexico and a.s.sisted the Franciscans, who were the pioneers there under Father Bartolome de Olmedo and Father Martin de Valencia, to gather in the abundant harvest. Father Toribio de Benavente was one of twelve Franciscans sent out in 1523, and he has left records of the success of these missionaries. They opened schools and founded colleges, and in twenty years nine millions of converts had been admitted into the Christian fold.

By this time Magellan had pa.s.sed the narrow straits, and sailing across the vast solitudes of the Pacific had reached the Visayas Islands to meet his fate, and Sebastian de Elcano had completed the circ.u.mnavigation of the globe and had arrived in Spain with accounts of the new lands which the expedition had discovered.

When, in 1542, Captain Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sailed from Natividad (Mexico) for the Islands of the Setting Sun, only to die of grief at Amboyna, there accompanied him a group of Augustinian Friars. After the loss of his vessels the survivors took ship for Goa and from thence returned to Europe, arriving at Lisbon in August 1549, seven years after leaving the port of Natividad.

The Order has carefully preserved the names of these early missionaries; they are, Frs. Jeronimo de San Esteban, Sebastian de Trasierra, Nicolas de Perea, Alonso Alvarado.

In the expedition under General Don Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, which sailed in 1564, Fray Andres Urdaneta, an Augustinian, went as chief navigator and cartographer, and the following friars accompanied him: Frs. Andres de Aiguirre, Martin de Rada, Diego Herrero, Pedro Gamboa.

Since founding the city of Cebu in 1570, and the city of Manila the following year, the Augustinians have continued to found town after town, and down to 1892 had founded no less than two hundred and forty-two, administered by two hundred and forty-seven priests of the Order as by the following table:--

Year 1892.

Summary of Towns founded by the Augustinians.

Handed over to other Orders 28 Amalgamated with other towns 11 Administered by Augustinians 203 --- Total 242

Population of the above 203 towns, 2,082,181.

The Augustinians in the Philippine Islands.

In Parish Ministry.

Parish Priests 188 Stewards 37 Coadjutors 7 Vicars (learning dialects) 3 Missionaries 12 --- 247

Residing in the convents of Manila, Cebu, and Guadalupe.

Superiors or Office bearers 19 Conventual Priests 7 Students 14 Invalids 6 Lay Brethren 17 -- 63 === Total 310

In former years this Order had established missions in j.a.pan, and they were very successful in making converts, but during the persecution many members of the Order lost their lives, or, as they phrase it, "attained the palm of martyrdom."

At the present time they maintain seven missionaries in the province of Hun-nan in China. In Spain they support three colleges, Valladolid, La Vid, and La Escorial. They are also in charge of the magnificent church of that extraordinary palace, and of the priceless library of which they are editing a catalogue.

The Augustinians have published a great many works, such as grammars and vocabularies of the native dialects, and many books of devotion.

One of their leading men, Father Manuel Blanco, was a most learned and laborious botanist. He collected and cla.s.sified so many of the Philippine plants that the Order decided to complete his work and publish it. Fray Andres Naves and Fray Celestino Fernandez Villar, both well-known to me, worked for years at this, and were a.s.sisted by my ill.u.s.trious friend H. E. Don Sebastian Vidal Soler and others.

The result is a most sumptuous and magnificent work--published in Manila--there being four folio volumes enriched by many hundreds of coloured plates of the different trees, shrubs, orchids and lianas, most beautifully executed from water-colour paintings by D. Regino Garcia and others. This monumental book is called the 'Flora Filipina.' It received a diploma of honour at the International Colonial Exhibition of Amsterdam in 1883. The British Museum possesses a copy, but unfortunately most of the work was destroyed by fire in the bombardment of the Convent of Guadalupe during the war.

However, the widow of Senor Vidal, now Mrs. Amilon of Philadelphia, still has some copies to dispose of.

I hope that what I have said about the Augustinians will show that they are not the lazy and unprofitable persons they are sometimes represented. The same may be said of the Dominicans.

The Augustinians were followed, after an interval of seven years, by the Franciscans, four years after that by the Jesuits, six years after the Jesuits came the Dominicans.

Last of all came the Recollets, or bare-footed Augustinians.

The following Table gives the numbers of friars of the five religious orders in the Philippines, at the dates mentioned, taken from their own returns. The first column gives the dates of the first foundation of the Order, the second the date of its arrival in the Archipelago. The other columns give the statistics of baptisms, marriages and deaths, taken from the parish registers.