Part 34

6. Letter from Lara.--In "tomo 119, n°. 19."

NOTES

Apparently referring to the gate (now Puerta Real) at the southern end of the city which opens toward Bagumbayan, a district between Manila and Ermita. Through this gate were made the formal entrances of governors and archbishops previous to 1762, when the city was taken by the English; after that time, these entrances were made by the Puerta del Parián, at the north-eastern part of the wall.

Spanish, mas boluesele el sueño del perro; literally, "a dog's sleep fell on him."

Spanish, tres tratos de cuerda; referring to punishment by suspending the delinquent by his hands, which are tied behind his back.

i.e., "gate of the magazines," or royal storehouses. The northernmost gate of the city, not far east of the fort of Santiago, and opening toward the Pásig River.

So in the manuscript, probably a transcriber's error; but it evidently refers to the Dominican Pinelo.

The Editors are indebted to Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A., of Villanova College, and father Fray Juan but no Mateos, of the same order, of the Escorial, but now (May, 1905) at Villanova, for valuable help in the translation of this pasquinade. As much of the subject matter of the lampoon is local tit-tat, and as many of the meanings (although they would be perfectly apparent to the Manila populace) are purposely veiled, assurance cannot be given that the present interpretation is correct in every detail. There are also evident plays upon words and phrases, which can only be guessed at. Hence, the original is given partly for that reason.

The poetical form in which this pasquinade is written dates from an early period in Castile. Cervantes has a poem of this class in Chapter xxvii of the first part of Don Quijote; while Lope de Vega has also employed it. The second, fourth, and sixth lines form a sort of echo to the first, third, and fifth lines (the six lines being, however, written as three in the pasquinade). See Clemencin's edition of Don Quijote (Madrid, 1894), iii, pp. 7-9.

See the book of Esther. This is the Hamah of the King James Bible.

Father Fray Juan Mateos says of this passage: "The author seems to use the word 'quesos' [cheeses], alluding to 'casos' [cases] (a practical question of moral theology). I imagine that the text refers to the accusation made against those fathers of being casuists or adapters of the moral doctrine to their own convenience. From the context, one can deduce that 'cera' is used in the meaning of 'dinero' [money], and the meaning in that case might be, that the Jesuits were trying to get money by fitting up the consciences of men with moral doctrines easy of fulfilment."

This is a very obscure stanza, although the allusions were doubtless well understood in Manila. The second line might be translated "And who in hanging apples, saw tares;" although the translation as given above is to be preferred.

There is evidently a play on the word "cura," which may mean either "cures," or "priests" [i.e.,"cures"]. The meaning of the last line seems to refer to the ecclesiastical term.

This may be another play on words, for "sinzera" may be the adjective "sincere" or the two words "sin zera," "waxless," and hence in this last meaning, an allusion to the third line of the third stanza.

This has been already given in Vol. XXV, pp. 216-219.

See this paper in Vol. XXV, pp. 243-244.

Continuing from this point, the present document resumes. It is probable that the part omitted in the present document was originally a portion of it; but, being written on a loose sheet of paper, has suffered the fate common to many documents and portions of documents in Spanish archives, and been lost.

One of our two copies of this attestation bears date July 29, 1635, and the other November 19, 1635. We have adopted the date above, as being more probably the correct one, errors in the transcripts being due to the poor writing of the original.

See these letters in Vol. XXV, pp. 207-208, 209-210.

See ante, p. 61, note 12.

Spanish, condenatoria; but the word comminatoria is employed in a similar expression in the "Letter from a citizen of Manila."

So in our transcript, but evidently an error of the transcriber.

As the reader will observe, this letter from Corcuera is, in part, almost the same as that preceding; but it contains a considerable quantity of matter (including several appended documents) which is not found elsewhere, and is for that reason presented here. It is probably one of the letters sent, either partly or wholly in duplicate, by other routes to Spain, so that at least one set of the despatches might reach the home government.

Here used in a technical sense--the option or right to take action or enjoy an advantage alternately with others, as in appointments to ecclesiastical benefices, etc.; the creoles evidently demanding to share those appointments with the clergy brought over from Spain.

Several of the matters discussed in the above letter are answered by the following royal decree:

The King. To Don Sevastian Hurtado de Corcuera, knight of the Order of Alcantara, my governor and captain-general of the Philipinas Islands, and president of my royal Audiencia therein. Your letter of June 30, 636, on ecclesiastical matters has been examined in my royal Council of the Indias, and reply is now made to you. You say that the religious of the Order of St. Augustine need correction, since they had not obeyed the bulls of his Holiness nor the decrees which have been issued in regard to the alternation; and that it was expedient not to allow them any more religious for eight years. Because they have many religious, as well as on account of the reasons that you bring forward for that, it has seemed best to me to charge you that you shall cause the decree for the alternation to be punctually executed, without allowing any more religious in each mission than the number which, conformably to my royal patronage, shall be enough for its needs; and that the rest of them occupy themselves in missions and preaching for which they were sent there. As for what you wrote me about the advanced age of the archbishop of those islands--who is so old that his hands and head tremble, and that it would be desirable to give him a coadjutor, and that you would arrange for giving him two thousand pesos of income besides the four thousand which the said archbishop receives, without drawing it from my royal treasury or from my vassals--I charge you to make known to me the measure or means by which that sum could be obtained without loss to my royal exchequer or my vassals, so that I may consent to your carrying it out if it be worthy of acceptance. In order that the religious of St. Dominic and of the other orders who are laboring in those islands may live with the concord and good example which is proper, and that they may not appropriate more Indian villages than those which are allowed them by my decrees, you shall not permit them to select any new ones beyond what shall be conformable to my patronage; and you shall, with the agreement of the archbishop, endeavor to unite some of the villages to others; and in those which are newly established you shall make the same effort, by introducing secular priests when you find them intelligent and competent. Madrid, September 2, 1638.

I the King

Countersigned by Don Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcon, and signed by the Council. (Conserved in Archivo Historico Nacional, in the Cedulario Indico, tomo 39, folio 225b.)