ILLUSTRATIONS

Title-page of Historia general de los religiosos descalzos ... del gran padre ...  San Augustin, by Andres de San Nicolas (Madrid, 1664); photographic facsimile from copy in library of Edward E. Ayer, Chicago. 109 Title-pages (the first engraved) to Historia general de los religiosos descalzos ... del gran padre ...  San Augustin, by Luis de Jesus, Augustinian Recollect (Madrid, 1681); photographic facsimiles from copy in library of Edward E. Ayer, Chicago. 187, 189 Title-page of volume iv of Historia general de Philipinas, by Juan de la Concepcion, Augustinian Recollect (Manila, 1788); photographic facsimile from copy in library of Harvard University. 261

PREFACE

This volume, dated 1624, is entirely devoted to religious matters, ecclesiastical or missionary in their scope.  The current documents for that year are concerned with conflicts between the diocesan authorities and the religious orders, and between the civil and religious authorities in Manila; the defeat by the Audiencia of the late Governor Fajardo’s attempt to found a seminary for the training of Japanese missionaries to be sent to labor in their own country; and efforts by the Spanish government to check the assumptions of the religious orders.  Then follows a historical account of the early Recollect missions in the islands, down to the year 1624, compiled from the works of Andres San Nicolas, Luis de Jesus, and Juan de la Concepcion.

A document entitled “Ecclesiastical affairs in the Philippines” contains letters, decrees, etc., bearing on this subject, dated from 1574 to 1624.  Instructions to Gomez Perez Dasmarinas (1574) jealously restrict to the crown or its officials all exercise of the royal patronage; and give minute details of the course to be pursued by the governor and the provincials of the religious orders in matters where that right is involved.  This is followed by various official documents issued in the controversy between Archbishop Serrano and the religious orders (1622-24) regarding the right claimed for archbishop and bishops to exercise the same jurisdiction and authority over the religious of the orders, when charged with the care of souls, as over the secular clergy.  Serrano fortifies his position by various royal decrees and papal bulls.  These documents show that much laxity has prevailed in selecting missionaries for the Indians, some of these teachers not even knowing the language of the natives to whom they minister; also that the friars claim even greater authority over their parishioners than that exercised by the archbishop and bishops in whose dioceses their missions are located.  On June 20, 1622, the archbishop begins his official visit in the parish of Dilao (near Manila); and his edict announcing this calls upon the people of the parish to bring to him any complaints or information