Kitabı oku: «The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 31, 1640», sayfa 14

At the end of this year, 1607, another church was built in December, on Innocents’ day, in a village of the same province named Yguig, two days’ journey up the river from the city of the Spaniards. The encomendero had collected his tribute from these Indians with great care; but he had given no attention to providing them with Christian instruction, as God and the king commanded him. The Lord, who overlooks many other grievous sins, was unwilling to let this pass without chastisement; but the punishment which He gave the encomendero was that of a kind father, and was inflicted outside of his clothes – that is to say, it fell only upon his wealth, which, when it is guiltily acquired, shall not profit. This encomendero lost all; and when these misfortunes came upon him, one after the other, he perceived that they did not come by chance, and saw what it was with which the Lord might be angry. This was his supporting idolatry and the service of the devil in this village, by his mere failure to provide Christian instruction in it, as was his duty. He repented of what he had hitherto done, and vowed to provide in this village the teaching of the true God, and a religious to preach and teach it. In this year he asked for the religious from the father provincial, Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, and one was given him. Since there was a discussion as to what patron this new church should be given, many slips with the names of saints upon them were placed in a vessel. Three times the name of Sanctiago, patron of the Españas, came out; and hence the church was given this name, which has been retained in this village of Yguig. This has been done in spite of the fact that, on account of great inundations and floods of the river, it has been necessary to build the church on four separate sites – the first three having been overflowed, although it did not appear possible that the river should reach land situated so high. This river, however, is very large; and its floods are so extreme that they overflowed these eminences, until the church was finally placed where it now is, which is upon a very high hill. Here it enjoys without disturbance the fresh breezes, and is safe against any flood. Among all these changes and difficulties, this tribe would have been scattered and their village destroyed, if the religious had not sustained them with alms and charities. They received much assistance from the Indian chiefs, in particular from one who far surpassed the others in Christian zeal and in fidelity to God, the church, and the Spaniards. The Lord has wrought him great and apparent benefits for this. One was as follows. He went for many days under a temptation of the devil to kill another Indian chief, who had wrought him a great wrong; and could not rest by day or by night for thinking how he might obtain satisfaction against the guilty man. Now he thought of these plans, now of those, and was in such disquiet that he could not conceal the matter. The religious came to a knowledge of this, called him aside, and rebuked him earnestly, for his guilt and the great sin which he was designing, which was entirely contrary to the laws which should govern a Christian, such as he was, who is bound to love his enemies. It was even contrary to the principles of his rank and his chieftainship for him to desire to commit a murder. Don Ambrosio Luppo (as this Indian was named) responded, weeping freely: “Would to God, father, that you might see my heart, in order that you might understand well how much I suffer from the deed of this man, and might also see plainly how great an impression your teachings have made upon me. If I had not looked to God for some way of following your teachings, would this man have had his head on his shoulders so long? But I pardoned him because God pardoned me; and from that time I have been calm, and more devout than before.” He received another benefit. He and his wife much desired to have children, but, though they had lived for many years together, they had now passed their youth, and had no children. They communicated their desire to the father, and he advised them what they ought to do, saying: “When good Spaniards feel these desires, they offer particular devotion to the mother of God and to other great saints” – naming some who are of most signal assistance in such cases – “and they go to the churches and offer prayers before their images, that they may intercede with God who can do all things. In this way they many times attain what they desire.” “All this will we do very willingly,” answered husband and wife; “but what shall we say in our prayer after we have recited the Paternoster and the Ave Maria?” The religious taught them what they ought to say and what prayers they ought to make to our Lady, briefly indicating to her the desire which they had, and offering to her service the fruit of the blessing which they might attain by their prayers. This they did, going with their petition to the Lady of the Rosary which was in their church. A year later they had a son, to whom the religious, in memory of that which had been agreed upon, gave the name of Juan de Sancta Maria. The parents recognized him as a gift from our Lady. Afterward this same Lady, by means of this same religious, restored the child to complete health in an instant, when it was almost at the point of death. This she did for the comfort of the parents, for it seemed as if they would follow it out of sorrow. On many other occasions she has come to their help; and the Lord has rewarded them with a generous hand for the faith and the good services which, since they became Christians, they have done and are doing.

Chapter LXVII
The election as provincial of father Fray Baltasar Fort, the martyrdom of the holy Leon, and events in the province

In April, 1608, the electors, assembled in the convent of Sancto Domingo at Manila, chose as provincial father Fray Baltasar Fort, minister of the holy gospel in the province of Pangasinan. He was by habit and profession a son of the convent of San Estevan at Salamanca, and adopted into that of the Preachers in Valencia, his native land, whence he came to this province in the year 1602. He was at this time prior of the convent. He was of a character such that all necessary qualities for so high an office were united in him; and hence his election was very agreeable to all, both religious and lay, because he was greatly loved and reverenced by all – not only of his own religious order, but also of the others. In this chapter were accepted the houses which had been newly formed in Japon, Pangasinan, and Nueva Segovia, an account of which has been given in the two preceding chapters. What had been at other times ordained and commanded was recalled to mind – namely, that in our conversations we should speak constantly of God, a subject which is never exhausted, is never wearisome to a good man, is edifying to all, and keeps the religious in the fulfilment of the obligations that belong to their estate.

[At this time the fathers who were laboring for the good of the natives of Japon had a joyful day in seeing the martyrdom of a person who had been brought to the faith, instructed, and baptized by their ministry; and in whom the faith had struck so deep roots that he yielded fruit an hundred fold, according to the gospel, by suffering martyrdom within four months after becoming a Christian. Having been baptized on July 22, 1608, he was decapitated for his confession of faith on the seventeenth of November in the same year, in the kingdom of Satzuma, his native country. There were laws of the emperor, and also of the actual king of that region, that no soldier or person of rank should be baptized, since it was believed that the strength of these persons would be weakened if they gave up their obligations to those deities from whom victory was expected. In spite of this law, many soldiers and persons of rank were baptized, among them Xichiyemon, a youth of high rank. He received baptism from the hands of father Fray Joseph de San Jacintho, who warned him of the tumult which his baptism would arouse, and of the destruction of his soul which would follow if he were to renounce his baptism. He was so determined and courageous that the father baptized him by the name of Leon. His devotion was such that his conversion could not long be hidden; and, when it was known, the valiant Leon was obliged to resist the supplications of his superior officers, his friends, and his relatives, who represented to him the shame which he would bring upon his family if he should die by the hands of the executioner. This is a thing above measure infamous in Japon, because all malefactors of rank who are condemned to death cut open their own abdomens, and wound their bowels with their own knives [catanas], and thus kill themselves, that they may not die at the hands of another.”⁵² His obligations to his wife and children, and his duties of obedience as a soldier, were insisted upon; but he remained resolved to die as a Christian, not taking his own life, but offering it. He was not imprisoned, and visited his spiritual father, Fray Juan Joseph de San Jacintho, in a little village a quarter of a legua from Firaça. At the appointed time he dressed himself in new white clothes, washed his head, and gird on two swords. He then went to the cross-roads where he was to suffer, and died with a rosary in his hand and a little picture of the descent from the cross on his bosom. His holy body was exhumed by the Christians, and was kept by the fathers of St. Dominic, who afterward, when they were driven from the country, took it with them to Manila and placed it in the chapel of the relics. The tyrant commanded that Leon’s wife and eldest son should suffer death, because they had been unable to persuade him to recant. Pablo, Leon’s friend, who was accused at the same time, was not so happy as he, but was merely banished from the kingdom of Satzuma.

On the eleventh of April in this year (i. e., 1609) there arrived at Manila some religious from the number of those who were brought from España to this province by father Fray Gabriel de Quiroga. He died on the voyage before he reached Mexico, and most of the others were scattered, and remained in Nueva España. Father Fray Gabriel was a son of our convent at Ocaña. He was a great preacher, and had come to this province in 1594. He was in the ministry to the Chinese; being unable to learn the language on account of his advanced age, and being in ill health, he returned to España. Here he felt scruples at having left the province of the Philippinas, and asked permission of the most reverend general to return to it with a company of religious. In 1607 he gathered a company in Sevilla, but was unable to come for lack of a fleet. Later in the same year, learning that six pataches were being prepared for the voyage, he arranged to reassemble the religious and to take them in these vessels, though he had already been appointed bishop of Caceres. He quickly got together thirty associates, taking the risk of sailing in December. The storms were so furious, and the asthma from which the bishop suffered was so severe, that he departed this life on the way. Of all those who came with him only eight completed the voyage which they had begun.

The success of the religious in Satzuma during the six years which they had spent in that kingdom aroused the tono, who was persuaded by the devil and his servants the bonzes to expel the fathers from his country. The case of the holy martyr Leon contributed to influence the tono. It was said in that kingdom that no one ever failed to do what his lords commanded him, and hence such disobedience as that of Leon was regarded as dangerous to the state. The bonzes particularly were bitter against the Christians, who despised the deity whom they worshiped.⁵³ All the cases of misfortune and all the downfalls which had happened to Christian princes within a few years were referred to their belief, although the misfortunes of the heathen princes had been much more numerous. As the king of Satzuma was at this time actually preparing for a war of conquest against the islands of the Leuquios,⁵⁴ he was greatly impressed by these reasonings. He was also disgusted because no vessels had come from Manila to this country, the desire for trade having been his chief object in sending for religious. The king of Satzuma sought for some pretext for expelling the father, without finding any. In the month of August, he sent word to them that the emperor complained because the Spanish religious in his country had never appeared before him. This was only a pretext to get the religious out of the country. There were at that time in all Japan, outside of Nangasaqui, not more than three churches licensed by the emperor: one in Meyaco, of the fathers of the Society; a second in Yendo, of the Franciscan fathers; and a third in Ozaca, of the Society. All the rest were practically in concealment, and had license only from the tonos or kings. The emperor, though he knew this, paid little attention to the matter. The fathers, however, were able to say that father Fray Alonso de Mena had visited the emperor, and had received license from him for the stay in Japan of the rest of the fathers. Still, thinking that they might do well to appear before the emperor, they decided to follow the suggestion of the tono, and father Fray Francisco de Morales went directly to visit him and was kindly received. Before father Fray Francisco returned, the tono gave commands that all the Christians should recant, and exiled those who refused to obey, confiscating their goods. When this happened, there were in Satzuma only the fathers Fray Joseph de San Jacintho and Fray Jacintho Orfanel. Father Fray Joseph went directly to appear before the old tono, and was received with much apparent courtesy, which was a mere cloak for the evil which he was preparing to execute. The father also desired to go to visit the young tono, but was advised that he could do no good; and therefore he went from village to village, strengthening and encouraging the converts. He and father Fray Jacintho, happening to be both at once within the convent, the governor forbade the religious to leave the church, and prohibited the Christians from going to it, hoping thus to prevent the religious from receiving any support. There was only one half-leprous boy, named Juan, who succored them at this time. When he went to buy what they needed, the people paid no attention to his coming and going, because of his being afflicted in this way.]

Chapter LXVIII
The religious, being exiled and expelled from the kingdom of Satzuma, are admitted to other kingdoms

[The kingdom of Japon is subject to constant changes and novelties, as may be known by those who have lived in it, and by those who have read what historians have to say of it. Although the plague of inconstancy is very common among all heathen, the Japanese are particularly subject to it. It is not to be wondered at that the king of Satzuma, after all that he had done to bring religious from St. Dominic to Manila, should have expelled them without any cause. The natural inconstancy of this race is sufficient explanation for his conduct. St. Francis Xavier was expelled from the same kingdom of Satzuma, as he was afterwards from the country of Yamaguçu,⁵⁵ whence he fled to the kingdom of Firando. As early as the year 1555, the heathen Japanese believed that so soon as the faith should enter their country the kingdom would be destroyed; and in the following year the city of Amaguchi was destroyed, and there was a great persecution. In the year 1564 there was another persecution, even more severe, in Meaco, the imperial court. Father Cosme de Torres was obliged to leave there and to go to the kingdom of Bungo. In Firando the churches were overthrown, and the emperor Nabunanga imprisoned Father Argentino⁵⁶ and his associate, refusing to release them until he received, as a ransom, from the most noble and Catholic Don Justo the fortress called Tayca Yama.⁵⁷ In 1599 the Taico [i. e., Iyeyasu] banished by public edict all the religious there were in Japon (all of whom were then Jesuits), declaring that all Christians were his enemies; but soon after he granted to father Fray Juan Cobo – a religious of St. Dominic, who had come from Manila as ambassador – that he, and religious of the Society or of any other order, might preach and make converts in Japon. The sons of the seraphic father St. Francis went, under this permission, in 1593, and were kindly received; but very soon afterward commands were given to crucify them, as preachers of the gospel. Father Fray Francisco de Morales felt that conditions were such that it was necessary to comply, and began by taking down the church and looking for boats to carry it in; for it was fitted together with grooves, without nails, and could be, used elsewhere. They removed for a time to Meyaco, and soon afterwards to the city of Ozaca. In the erection of both churches they were bitterly opposed by the members of the other religious orders, although the others could not serve the twentieth or the thirtieth part of the people of those cities. The Japanese banished from Satzuma suffered greatly. Among this people banishment is often worse than death, which is not greatly feared by them. Banishment is generally accompanied with a loss of their goods, so that those who are noble and rich are by it instantly reduced to poverty and drudgery. The fathers carried away their vestments, the timber of the church, and the body of the holy martyr Leon, removing them to Nangasaqui. Father Fray Francisco also carried with him the lepers of the hospital which he had before his house, that they might not be left in the power of wolves. In the meantime, the affairs of Christianity went on prosperously in the kingdom of Fixen. In July, 1609, father Fray Juan de Sancto Thomas, who sent the first religious to Japon when he was provincial, came to Japon as vicar-provincial, bringing with him as his associate brother Fray Antonio de San Vicente. He labored much and successfully in Fixen, and the Lord showed the fathers grace by enabling them to baptize many whom He had predestinated at the point of death. There were especially many cases of baptism of new-born children, whom the parents intended to kill, or left to drown in the river.]

One day’s journey up the river from Abulug, in the province of Nueva Segovia, there is a village named Fotol in the midst of a number of other smaller villages, as is customary among the mountains. When these villages were visited for the purpose of collecting tribute, the religious was accustomed to go along that he might be there conveniently to give them some knowledge of the law of God, and strive to bring them to a love of the faith by which they might be saved. This diligence, although it was exercised so seldom – only once a year – was yet not in vain; for the words of the gospel sown in the hearts of these heathen took root and caused them to go down [the river], voluntarily, for the purpose of seeking a preacher to live among them, to teach, direct, and baptize them. Father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, vicar of Abulug, sent there father Fray Diego Carlos.⁵⁸ The Spaniards did not dare to visit the village when they collected the tribute, except in numbers and with arms. On this account, and because they were surrounded by mountaineers who were heathen, untamed, and ferocious, it seemed to the Christian Indians of Abulug that the religious ought not to go without a guard to protect his life; but since the order given by our Lord Jesus Christ is not such, but directs that His preachers should go as sheep among wolves, father Fray Diego would not receive the advice given him by these Indians, though they were friendly; and departed alone with his associate, as a preacher of peace and of the law of love. All the Indians, great and small, came out to receive them with great joy; and the religious immediately began to preach to them and to teach them. In a short time they did a great work, and baptized not only those of this village, but also those who dwelt near there. They left their old sites and, gathering in this one, formed a new settlement. The church was built under the patronage of our Lady of the Rosary, and here the Christian faith went on flourishing until the devil, hating so much good, disturbed them and caused them to fall away for a time – to their great harm, spiritual and temporal; though afterward, recognizing their error, they returned to their obedience to their Creator, as will be told hereafter. Almost in the same manner, and following the same course, another church was built at this time in the high region at the head of the great river, six days’ journey from the city of the Spaniards, in a village named Batavag. Here father Fray Luis Flores, who was afterward a holy martyr in Japon, gathered together seven little hamlets, making one very peaceful one. He preached to them, taught them, and baptized many, without receiving any other assistance in all this than that which the Lord promises those who, for love of Him and from zeal for souls, go alone, disarmed, and in gentleness among heathen. To such no evil can happen, since, if the heathen hear the teaching and are converted, all is happiness and joy both in heaven and for the preachers, since the sinners are converted; while if they refuse to admit them, or if, when the preachers are admitted, the heathen do not become converts, the preachers have a certain reward, as the Lord has promised. This reward will be much greater if the heathen, in addition to refusing to be converted, treat them ill, or take their lives from them, for the sake of the Lord whom they preach. Therefore in this as in all the other conversions the religious have always gone alone, unarmed, and in poverty, but sure that they are to suffer no evil. The results in Batavag were very good, although they did not last many years because, desirous of a greater laxity of life than the divine law permits, the natives went up into the neighboring mountain, apostatizing from the faith which many of them had professed in baptism.

In the mountains of Ytui, which are not far from Pangasinan, father Fray Juan de San Jacintho went on a journey at this time, accompanied by only two Indians. Here he taught, settled their disputes, and brought them to the faith. These people were a race of mountaineers, among whom other religious had not been safe even with an escort of many soldiers; but the gentle manners of father Fray Juan caused them to become calm, and many of them came sometimes to Pangasinan to ask that religious might be given to them. Many years passed before it was possible to provide them with religious; but the father provincial had, as minister of Pangasinan, seen their pious desires and wished to give them the religious. For this he requested the sanction of the ordinary, and asked the governor for the royal patronage. When the fathers of St. Francis learned this, they came and said that this conversion belonged to them, because it was very near to the ministry and the convent which they had in Baler. The order (which needed religious in other regions) instantly yielded without any dispute, permitting the fathers of St. Francis to take charge of these Indians. This they did, but very soon abandoned them, since the region was not one to be coveted, but was very unhealthy. As a result these Indians remained for some time deprived of the ministry of the holy gospel; and, what caused greater regret, they were morally certain to apostatize, like many other Christians among heathens, since they were children among idolatrous parents and kinsmen, without religious and without instruction.

[In this year, 1609, father Fray Juan de Anaya departed this life. He was a native of San Pedro de las Dueñas, two leguas from Segovia, and was a professed son of the convent at Valladolid, whence he came to this province in 1598. He was sent immediately to Nueva Segovia, the conversion of which had just begun. He learned the language very quickly, and so wrought with them that he not only taught them the gospel and the Christian life, but also civilization. He showed them how to build their houses, and how to work their fields; and taught them all other matters of human life, not only by instruction, but by example. He sought out the Indians, and brought them down from the mountains and the hiding-places where some, deluded by their sins, had gone to hide from grace. Father Fray Juan was not content to ask where they were and to send for them; but, trusting in his natural strength, he went to look for them and brought them down from the mountains, traveling through the rough and thorny places among the thickets where they hid. He compelled them to enter upon the path of their welfare, not by the violence of a tyrant, but by the force of love and charity. When he was vicar of Pilitan, some of the poor Indians lost all their harvest from an overflow of the river. Not daring to wait for those who were to come and get the tribute, and indeed through fear of starvation, they left the village, and many of them fled to the mountains. Father Fray Juan was deeply afflicted because of the danger which their souls ran. This grief and his many labors affected his health, and finally brought on a flux, from which he died. Another religious, a subordinate and companion of Father Juan, father Fray Vicente Alfonso, died eight days later. He was a Valencian by birth, and had been a sailor up to his twenty-fourth year. He assumed the habit in the convent of Preachers in Valencia, and set a good and humble example as a religious. He was very charitable, giving away even his clothes to the poor. In the province of Pangasinan, in the month of August, 1609, there departed from the miseries of this life father Fray Francisco Martinez, a native of Zacatecas, and a son of the convent of Mexico. He came to Manila in 1598, and was assigned to Pangasinan, where he learned the language of the natives with great perfection. He was constant in labor and in prayer. To defend the Indians, he did not shrink from suffering or fear the perils of the sea. On one occasion, when he had gone to Manila on this account, he fell into the hands of Japanese pirates on his way back to Pangasinan, and was several times in danger of death, with the pirate’s knife at his throat, who intended by such terrors to increase the ransom. Death called him from his labors and sufferings. He rejoiced, and died a most holy death.]

In this year the most reverend general of the order, seeing how many great things were wrought by the medium of the divine grace through the religious of this province, and condemning the silence with which they hid and covered them, without giving any account of them even to the general head and superior of the order, issued a mandate to the provincials that they should every year, on pain of incurring mortal sin, give him information of what took place in this province of the Philippinas, Japon, and China in the conversions of the heathen and the extension of the holy Church, the service of the divine Majesty, and the edification of the people of Christ. In addition to this, they were to give an account of the state of our order in each province, declaring how many and what convents it included, how many religious it possessed, and of what virtue, sanctity, learning, and good example they were; telling if any of them, after having done illustrious things, had died gloriously; and recounting all other matters which might be an honor to God, a source of comfort to the religious, and an adornment and decoration of our religious order. Together with this mandate, he wrote with his own hand the following letter, from which may be seen the high esteem in which he held this province. The letter is in the archives of the convent of Manila.

“Very reverend Father Provincial: Father Fray Alonso Navarrete has given me good news of the great devotion, spirit, and continual preaching in this new province. In this I have felt very great satisfaction; but it would be desirable that I should receive more detailed reports with regard to matters there, and particularly with regard to what has been done for the conversion of the heathen, by the grace of our Lord, in those kingdoms of China and Japon. This knowledge would be of great service to our Lord, great edification to our fellow-men, and great honor to our holy religious order. On this account and in order that you, very reverend Father, may have the merit of obedience, it has seemed good to me to send you the enclosed mandate. This is sent, however, still more that it may serve as a memorandum for the fathers provincials who may succeed your Reverence in that province, because I know that there may be some carelessness in this respect. Orders have already been given that friars religious shall go to that province to preach and assist your Paternities in the conversion of the heathen. Would that it might please our Lord that I might go with those for whom our Lord has prepared so great rewards in heaven. Your prayers, very reverend Father, and the prayers of all that province I beg for myself and for my associates. Palermo, June 18, 1609. Your Reverence’s fellow-servant in God,

Fray Agustin Galaminio,

master of the Order of Preachers.”