The Philippine Islands Part 19

Within my recollection, too, a friar absconded from a Luzon Island parish with a large sum of parochial funds, and was never heard of again. The late parish priests of Mandaloyan and Iba did the same.

I well remember another interesting character of the monastic Orders. He had been parish priest in a Zambales province town, but intrigues with a _soi-disant cousine_ brought him under ecclesiastical arrest at the convent of his Order in Manila. Thence he escaped, and came over to Hong-Kong, where I made his acquaintance in 1890. He told me he had started life in an honest way as a shoemaker's boy, but was taken away from his trade to be placed in the seminary. His mind seemed to be a blank on any branch of study beyond shoemaking and Church ritual. He pretended that he had come over to Hong-Kong to seek work, but in reality he was awaiting his _cousine_, whom he rejoined on the way to Europe, where, I heard, he became a _garcon de cafe_ in France.

In 1893 there was another great public scandal, when the friars were openly accused of having printed the seditious proclamations whose authorship they attributed to the natives. The plan of the friars was to start the idea of an intended revolt, in order that they might be the first in the field to quell it, and thus be able to again proclaim to the Home Government the absolute necessity of their continuance in the Islands for the security of Spanish sovereignty. But the plot was discovered; the actual printer, a friar, mysteriously disappeared, and the courageous Gov.-General Despujols, Conde de Caspe, was, through monastic influence, recalled. He was very popular, and the public manifestation of regret at his departure from the Islands was practically a protest against the Religious Orders.

In June, 1888, some cases of personal effects belonging to a friar were consigned to the care of an intimate friend of mine, whose guest I was at the time. They had become soaked with sea-water before he received them, and a neighbouring priest requested him to open the packages and do what he could to save the contents. I a.s.sisted my friend in this task, and amongst the friar's personal effects we were surprised to find, intermixed with prayer-books, scapularies, missals, prints of saints, etc., about a dozen most disgustingly obscene double-picture slides for a stereoscope. What an entertainment for a guide in morals! This same friar had held a vicarage before in another province, but having become an habitual drunkard, he was removed to Manila, and there appointed a confessor. From Manila he had just been again sent to take charge of the _cure of souls_.

I knew a money-grabbing parish priest--a friar--who publicly announced raffles from the pulpit of the church from which he preached morality and devotion. On one occasion a 200-peso watch was put up for P500--at another time he raffled dresses for the women. Under the pretext of being a pious inst.i.tution, he established a society of women, called the a.s.sociation of St. Joseph (_Confradia de San Jose_), upon whom he imposed the very secular duties of domestic service in the convent and raffle-ticket hawking. He had the audacity to dictate to a friend of mine--a planter--the value of the gifts he was to make to him, and when the planter was at length wearied of his importunities, he conspired with a Spaniard to deprive my friend of his estate, alleging that he was not the real owner. Failing in this, he stirred up the petty-governor and headmen against him. The petty-governor was urged to litigation, and when he received an unfavourable sentence, the priest, enraged at the abortive result of his malicious intrigues, actually left his vicarage to accompany his litigious _protege_ to the chief judge of the province in quest of a reversion of the sentence.

A priest of evil propensities brought only misery to his parish and aroused a feeling of odium against the Spanish friars in general. As inc.u.mbents they held the native in contempt. He who should be the parishioner was treated despotically as the subject whose life, liberty, property, and civil rights were in his sacerdotal lord's power. And that power was not unfrequently exercised, for if a native refused to yield to his demands, or did not contribute with sufficient liberality to a religious feast, or failed to come to Ma.s.s, or protected the virtue of his daughter, or neglected the genuflexion and kissing of hands, or was out of the priest's party in the munic.i.p.al affairs of the parish, or in any other trivial way became a _persona non grata_ at the "convent," he and his family would become the pastor's sheep marked for sacrifice. As Government agent it was within his arbitrary power to attach his signature to or withhold it from any munic.i.p.al doc.u.ment. From time to time he could give full vent to his animosity by secretly denouncing to the civil authorities as "inconvenient in the town" all those whom he wished to get rid of. He had simply to send an official advice to the Governor of the province, who forwarded it to the Gov.-General, stating that he had reason to believe that the persons mentioned in the margin were disloyal, immoral, or whatever it might be, and recommend their removal from the neighbourhood. A native so named suddenly found at his door a patrol of the Civil Guard, who escorted him, with his elbows tied together, from prison to prison, up to the capital town and thence to Manila. Finally, without trial or sentence, he was banished to some distant island of the Archipelago. He might one day return to find his family ruined, or he might as often spend his last days in misery alone. Sometimes a native who had privately heard of his "denunciation"

became a _remontado_, that is to say he fled to the mountains to lead a bandits life where the evils of a debased civilization could not reach him. Banishment in these circ.u.mstances was not a mere transportation to another place, but was attended with all the horrors of a cruel captivity, of which I have been an eye-witness. From the foregoing it may be readily understood how the conduct of the regular clergy was the primary cause of the Rebellion of 1896; it was not the monks'

immorality which disturbed the mind of the native, but their Caesarism which raised his ire. The ground of discord was always infinitely more material than sentimental. Among the friars, however, there were many exceptional men of charming manners and eminent virtue. If little was done to coerce the bulk of the friars to live up to the standard of these exceptions, it was said to be because the general interests of Mother Church were opposed to investigation and admonition, for fear of the consequent scandal destructive of her prestige.

The Hierarchy of the Philippines consists of one Archbishop in Manila, and four Suffragan Bishoprics, respectively of Nueva Segovia, Cebu, Jaro, and Nueva Caceres. [90] The provincials, the vicars-general, and other officers of the Religious Orders were elected by the Chapters and held office for four years. The first Bishop of Manila took possession in 1581, and the first Archbishop in 1598.

The Jesuits came to these Islands in 1581, and were expelled therefrom in 1770 by virtue of an Apostolic Brief [91] of Pope Clement XIV., but were permitted to return in 1859, on the understanding that they would confine their labours to scholastic education and the establishment of missions amongst uncivilized tribes. Consequently, in Manila they refounded their school--the Munic.i.p.al Athenaeum--a mission house, and a Meteorological Observatory, whilst in many parts of Mindanao Island they have established missions, with the vain hope of converting Mahometans to Christianity. [92] The Jesuits, compared with the members of the other Orders, are very superior men, and their fraternity includes a few, and almost the only, learned ecclesiastics who came to the Colony. Since their return to the Islands (1859) in the midst of the strife with the Religious Orders, the people recognized the Jesuits as disinterested benefactors of the country.

Several Chinese have been admitted to holy orders, two of them having become Austin Friars. [93] The first native friars date their admission from the year 1700, since when there have been sixteen of the Order of St. Augustine. Subsequently they were excluded from the confraternities, and only admitted to holy orders as vicars, curates to a.s.sist parish vicars, chaplains, and in other minor offices. Up to the year 1872 native priests were appointed to benefices, but in consequence of their alleged implication in the Cavite Conspiracy of that year, their church livings, as they became vacant, were given to Spanish friars, whose headquarters were established in Manila.

The _Austin Friars_ were the religious pioneers in these Islands; they came to Cebu in 1565 and to Manila in 1571; then followed the _Franciscans_ in 1577; the _Dominicans_ in 1587, a member of this Order having been ordained first Bishop of Manila, where he arrived in 1581. The _Recoletos_ (unshod Augustinians), a branch of the Saint Augustine Order, came to the Islands in 1606; the _Capuchins_--the lowest type of European monk in the Far East, came to Manila in 1886, and were sent to the Caroline Islands (_vide_ p. 45). The _Paulists_, of the Order of Saint Vincent de Paul, were employed in scholastic work in Nueva Caceres, Jaro, and Cebu, the same as the Jesuits were in Manila. The _Benedictines_ came to the Islands in 1895. Only the members of the first four Orders above named were parish priests, and each (except the _Franciscans_) possessed agricultural land; hence the animosity of the natives was directed against these four confraternities only, and not against the others, who neither monopolized inc.u.mbencies, nor held rural property, but were simply teachers, or missionaries, whose worldly interests in no way clashed with those of the people. Therefore, whenever there was a popular outcry against "the friars," it was understood to refer solely to the Austins, the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Recoletos. [94]

There was no Spanish secular clergy in the Islands, except three or four military chaplains.

The Church was financially supported by the State to the extent of about three-quarters of a million pesos per annum.

The following are some of the most interesting items taken from "The Budget for 1888," viz.:--

_Sanctorum_ or Church tax of 18 3/4 cents (i.e., 1 1/2 reales) on each _Cedula personal_, say on 2,760,613 Cedulas in 1888, less 4 per cent, cost of collection P496,910.00

The friars appointed to inc.u.mbencies received in former times t.i.thes from the Spaniards, and a Church tax from the natives computed by the amount of tribute paid. t.i.the payment (_diezmos prediales_) by the Spaniards became almost obsolete, and the _Sanctorum_ tax on _Cedulas_ was paid to the Church through the Treasury (_vide_ p. 55).

There were priests in missions and newly-formed parishes where the domiciled inhabitants were so few that the _Sanctorum_ tax on the aggregate of the _Cedulas_ was insufficient for their support. These missionaries were allowed salaries, and parish priests were permitted to appropriate from their revenues, as annual stipend, amounts ranging from 500 to 800 pesos, as a rule, with a few exceptions (such as Binondo parish and others), rated at 1,200 pesos, whilst one, at least (the parish priest, or missionary of Vergara, Davao Province), received 2,200 pesos a year. In practice, however, a great many parish priests spent far more than their allotted stipends.

A project was under consideration to value the inc.u.mbencies, and cla.s.sify them, like the Courts of Justice (_vide_ p. 234), with the view of apportioning to each a fixed income payable by the Treasury in lieu of accounting to the Church for the exact amount of the _Sanctorum_.

By decree of Gov.-General Terrero, dated November 23,1885, the State furnished free labour (by natives who did not pay poll-tax) for Church architectural works, provided it was made clear that the cost of such labour could not be covered by the surplus funds of the _Sanctorum_. The chief items of Church expenditure were as follows, viz.:--

_State outlay for Church._ P. cts.

Archbishop's salary 12,000 00 Other salaries (Cathedral) 40,300 00 Other expenses (Cathedral) 3,000 00 Four Bishops, each with a salary of P6,000 24,000 00 Court of Arches (amount contributed by the State [95]) 5,000 00 Chaplain of Los Banos 120 00 Sulu Mission 1,000 00 Mission House in Manila for Capuchin friars 1,700 00 12 Capuchins (State paid) for the Caroline and Pelew Islands--6 at P300 and 6 at P500 each per annum 4,800 00 Transport of Missionaries estimated at about, per annum 10,000 00 The antic.i.p.ated _total_ State outlay for the support of the Church, Missions, Monasteries, Convents, etc., _including the above and all other items_ for the financial year of 1888 was P724,634 50

Moreover, the religious Corporations possessed large private revenues. The Dominicans' investments in Hong-Kong, derived from capitalized income, are still considerable. The Austin, Recoleto, and Dominican friars held very valuable real estate in the provinces, which was rented to the native agriculturists on conditions which the tenants considered onerous. The native planters were discontented with the treatment they received from these landowners, and their numerous complaints formed part of the general outcry against the regular clergy. The bailiffs of these corporation lands were unordained brothers of the Order. They resided in the Estate Houses, and by courtesy were styled "fathers" by the natives. They were under certain religious vows, but not being ent.i.tled to say Ma.s.s, they were termed "legos," or ignorant men, by their own Order.

The clergy also derived a very large portion of their incomes from commissions on the sale of _cedulas_, sales of Papal Bulls, ma.s.ses, pictures, books, chaplets and indulgences, marriage, burial and baptismal fees, benedictions, donations touted for after the crops were raised, legacies to be paid for in ma.s.ses, remains of wax candles left in the church by the faithful, fees for getting souls out of purgatory, alms, etc. The surplus revenues over and above parochial requirements were supposed to augment the common Church funds in Manila. The Corporations were consequently immensely wealthy, and their power and influence were in consonance with that wealth.

Each Order had its procurator in Madrid, who took up the cudgels in defence of his Corporation's interest in the Philippines whenever this was menaced. On the other hand, the Church, as a body politic, dispensed no charity, but received all. It was always begging; always above civil laws and taxes; claimed immunity, proclaimed poverty, and inculcated in others charity to itself.

Most of the parish priests--Spanish or native--were very hospitable to travellers, and treated them with great kindness. Amongst them there were some few misanthropes and churlish characters who did not care to be troubled by anything outside the region of their vocation, but on the whole I found them remarkably complaisant.

In Spain there were training colleges of the three Communities, in Valladolid, Ocana, and Monte Agudo respectively, for young novices intended to be sent to the Philippines, the last Spanish Colony where friars held vicarages.

The ecclesiastical archives of the Philippines abound with proofs of the bitter and tenacious strife sustained, not only between the civil and Church authorities, but even amongst the religious communities themselves. Each Order was so intensely jealous of the others, that one is almost led to ponder whether the final goal of all could have been identical. All voluntarily faced death with the same incentive, whilst amicable fellowship in this world seemed an impossibility. The first Bishop (_vide_ p. 56) struggled in vain to create a religious monopoly in the Philippines for the exclusive benefit of the Augustine Order. It has been shown how ardent was the hatred which the Jesuits and the other Religious Orders mutually entertained for each other. Each sacred fraternity laboured incessantly to gain the ascendancy in the conquered territories, and their Divine calling served for nothing in palliating the acrimony of their reciprocal accusations and recriminations, which often involved the civil power.

For want of s.p.a.ce I can only refer to a few of these disputes.

The Austin friars attributed to the Jesuits the troubles with the Mahometans of Mindanao and Sulu, and, in their turn, the Jesuits protested against what they conceived to be the bad policy of the Government, adopted under the influence of the other Orders in Manila. So distinct were their interests that the Augustine chroniclers refer to the other Orders as _different religions_.

In 1778 the Province of Pangasinan was spiritually administered by the Dominicans, whilst that of Zambales was allotted to the Recoletos. The Dominicans, therefore, proposed to the Recoletos to cede Zambales to them, because it was repugnant to have to pa.s.s through Recoleto territory going from Manila to their own province! The Recoletos were offered Mindoro Island in exchange, which they refused, until the Archbishop compelled them to yield. Disturbances then arose in Zambales, the responsibility of which was thrown on the Dominicans by their rival Order, and the Recoletos finally succeeded in regaining their old province by intrigue.

During the Governorship of Martin de Urena, Count de Lizarraga (1709-15), the Aragonese and Castilian priests quarrelled about the ecclesiastical preferments.

At the beginning of the 18th century the Bishop-elect of Cebu, Fray Pedro Saez de la Vega Lanzaverde, refused to take possession because the nomination was _in partibus_. He objected also that the Bishopric was merely one in perspective and not yet a reality. The See remained vacant whilst the contumacious priest lived in Mexico. Fray Sebastian de Jorronda was subsequently appointed to administer the Bishopric, but also refused, until he was coerced into submission by the Supreme Court (1718).

In 1767 the Austin friars refused to admit the episcopal visits, and exhibited such a spirit of independence that Pope Benedict XIV. was constrained to issue a Bull to exhort them to obey, admonishing them for their insubordination.

The friars of late years were subject to a visiting priest--the Provincial--in all matters _de vita et moribus_, to the Bishop of the diocese in all affairs of spiritual dispensation, and to the Gov.-General as vice-royal patron in all that concerned the relations of the Church to the Civil Government. [96]

An observant traveller, unacquainted with the historical antecedents of the friars in the Philippines, could not fail to be impressed by the estrangement of religious men, whose sacred mission, if genuine, ought to have formed an inseverable bond of alliance and goodfellowship.

CHAPTER XIII

Spanish Insular Government

From the days of Legaspi the supreme rule in these Islands was usually confided for indefinite periods to military men: but circ.u.mstances frequently placed naval officers, magistrates, the Supreme Court, and even ecclesiastics at the head of the local government. During the last half century of Spanish rule the common practice was to appoint a Lieut.-General as Governor, with the local rank of Captain-General pending his three-years' term of office. An exception to this rule in that period was made (1883-85) when Joaquin Jovellar, a Captain-General and ex-War Minster in Spain, was specially empowered to establish some notable reforms--the good policy of which was doubtful. Again, in 1897, Fernando Primo de Rivera, Marquis de Estella, also a Captain-General in Spain, held office in Manila under the exceptional circ.u.mstances of the Tagalog Rebellion of 1896, in succession to Ramon Blanco, Marquis de Pena Plata. Considering that Primo de Rivera, during his previous Gov.-Generalship (1880-83), had won great popularity with the Filipinos, he was deemed, in Madrid, to be the man most capable of arresting the revolutionary movement. How far the confidence of the Home Government was misplaced will be seen in Chapter xxii.

Soon after the conquest the Colony was divided and sub-divided into provinces and military districts as they gradually yielded to the Spanish sway. Such districts, called _Encomiendas_, [97] were then farmed out to _Encomenderos_, who exercised little scruple in their rigorous exactions from the natives. Some of the _Encomenderos_ acquired wealth during the terms of their holdings, whilst others became victims to the revenge of their subjects. They must indeed have been bold, enterprising men who, in those days, would have taken charge of districts distant from the capital. It would appear that their tenure was, in a certain sense, feudal, for they were frequently called upon to aid the Central Government with vessels, men, and arms against the attacks of common enemies. Against Mahometan incursions necessity made them warriors,--if they were not so by taste,--civil engineers to open communications with their districts, administrators, judges, and all that represented social order. _Encomiendas_ were sometimes given to Spaniards as rewards for high services rendered to the commonwealth, [98] although favouritism or (in later years) purchase-money more commonly secured the vacancies, and the holders were quite expected to make fortunes in the manner they thought fit, with due regard for the Royal Treasury (_vide_ p. 54).

The _Encomenderos_ were, in the course of time, superseded by Judicial Governors, called _Alcaldes_, who received small salaries, from 60 per annum and upwards, but were allowed to trade. The right to trade--called "_indulto de comercio_"--was sold to the _Alcalde-Governors_, except those of Tondo, [99] Zamboanga, Cavite, Nueva Ecija, Islas Batanes and Antique, whose trading right was included in the emoluments of office. The Government's object was economy.

In 1840 Eusebio Mazorca wrote thus [100]:--"The salary paid to the chiefs of provinces who enjoy the right of trade is more or less P300 per annum, and after deducting the amount paid for the trading right, which in some provinces amounts to five-sixths of the whole--as in Pangasinan; and in others to the whole of the salary--as in Caraga; and discounting again the taxes, it is not possible to conceive how the appointment can be so much sought after. There are candidates up to the grade of brigadier who relinquish a P3,000 salary to pursue their hopes and projects in governorship."

This system obtained for many years, and the abuses went on increasing. The _Alcaldes_ practically monopolized the trade of their districts, unduly taking advantage of their governmental position to hinder the profitable traffic of the natives and bring it all into their own hands. They tolerated no compet.i.tion; they arbitrarily fixed their own purchasing prices, and sold at current rates. Due to the scarcity of silver in the interior, the natives often paid their tribute to the Royal Treasury in produce,--chiefly rice,--which was received into the Royal Granaries at a ruinously low valuation, and accounted for to the State at its real value; the difference being the illicit profit made by the _Alcalde_. Many of these functionaries exercised their power most despotically in their own circuits, disposing of the natives' labour and chattels without remuneration, and not unfrequently, for their own ends, invoking the King's name, which imbued the native with a feeling of awe, as if His Majesty were some supernatural being.

In 1810 Tomas de Comyn wrote as follows:--"In order to be a chief of a province in these Islands, no training or knowledge or special services are necessary; all persons are fit and admissible.... It is quite a common thing to see a barber or a Governor's lackey, a sailor or a deserter, suddenly transformed into an Alcalde, Administrator, and Captain of the forces of a populous province without any counsellor but his rude understanding, or any guide but his pa.s.sions." [101]

By Royal Decree of 1844 Government officials were thenceforth strictly prohibited to trade, under pain of removal from office.

In the year 1850 there were 34 Provinces, and two Political Military Commandancies. Until June, 1886, the offices of provincial Civil Governor and Chief Judge of that province were vested in the same person--the _Alcalde Mayor_. This created a strange anomaly, for an appeal against an edict of the Governor had to be made to himself as Judge. Then if it were taken to the central authority in Manila, it was sent back for "information" to the Judge-Governor, without independent inquiry being made in the first instance; hence protest against his acts was fruitless.

During the Regency of Queen Maria Christina, this curious arrangement was abolished by a Decree dated in Madrid, February 26, 1886, to take effect on June 1 following.