Chapter XXXI
Of the second election as provincial of master Father Lorenzo de León
With the advent, then, of the year 1605, in the latter days of April, our fathers assembled in the islands, as is the custom. On the Friday before the third Sunday after Easter, our father Fray Lorenzo de León went to take over the presidency by virtue of his letters-patent, and they were found to be such as were required. In consequence, he was received as president of that chapter, over which he presided, not only as president, but as vicar-general. The election resulted in [the choice of] his person, as above stated. In it, the first definitor was father Fray Juan Bautista de Montoya; the second, father Fray Estéban Carrillo; the third, father Fray Pedro de Aguirre; and the fourth, father Fray Roque de Barrionuevo. Father Fray Miguel de Sigüenza had the vote for president in this definitorio, and as visitors were elected father Fray Mateo de Peralta10 and father Fray Francisco Serrano. All assembled, they ordained and enacted the acts that they judged advisable in accordance with that time. All those acts show the sincerity of those who enacted them, and they provided not only for the welfare of the order, but for that of the native fathers under our charge; for surely, under our shadow they increase and are sheltered. And if religious were lacking, what would become of them? Beyond doubt they would be like the wretched boat exposed to the fury of the winds, which has no greater security upon the waters than where the winds choose to carry it. For this one orders them, that one petitions them, and another one seizes and knocks them about; but with the protection of the religious they are free from all these annoyances. Very conformably with this, religious were established in the missions in order to teach them and often to protect them.
Our father provincial entered upon the exercise of his office with the same wisdom and prudence as in his first term, attending to it with all his might. However, his second term was not apparently so successful as the first—caused perhaps by various casualties, which have no place here, and do not affect the matter at all. In short, the affair was running badly and the body of the province was becoming laden with humors. I well believe that our father knew it all, and that he could have been less rigid, and that without dividing the forces that were forming. He thought that they were religious, and he the superior; and that all dissent, however violent, would be only murmur—just like certain huge clouds that predict great storms, but finally and at the end, the entire storm is expended in clouds of dust, thunders, and lightnings, so that that storm ends with only noise. But such did not happen here, but the matter went farther; and the father definitors, within one and one-half years, after meeting, deposed our father Fray Lorenzo de León. They sent him to España; but he remained in the province of Méjico, without wishing more than to serve our Lord, and ended his days there, as one may understand of so renowned a religious, leaving his cause in the hands of God. I leave it likewise; for, if we glance at the definitorio which assembled there, there is no doubt that it was one of the most sober-minded councils ever assembled in the province. And even were there none other in it than our father Fray Pedro de Arce, who presided in it, he was sufficient to ensure that; but it was much more creditable, for the others were very erudite. Father Fray Juan Bautista de Montoya was the most notable man in laws and moral causes that has been in the islands, and was no less a very great theologue. Father Fray Estéban Carrillo, as we have said already, was a great orator, and the other fathers were very learned. On the part of our father provincial, it was known that he was very devout, very punctual in attending to his obligations and that his first term was considered as most successful. Hence, without taking from anyone what belongs to him, we leave this matter with God, who has already judged it, and He has been pleased to take all those concerned in it. Bishop Fray Pedro de Agurto was at his bishopric in Sugbú at this time. He was desirous of remedying what was already becoming established, and even left his city for that purpose. But when he reached Manila, he found that there was no remedy. He sorrowed greatly over this blow at the order, for, as the true religious that he was, he felt, as keenly as death, whatever misfortune came upon the order. In the world this proceeding was discussed with the charity that is exercised in other things; but, when everything was over, it was also erased from memory—and more, as the government of our father Fray Pedro de Arce followed immediately, who exercised the office of rector-provincial for that one and one-half years, and his fame and well-known virtue filled everything with fragrance and good-will.
[The order of discalced Augustinians in Spain petition for leave to go to the islands in 1605. The petition granted, a number of them set out; and, after waiting at Sevilla for some time for vessels, reach Mexico, where they are entreated to found a convent. Refusing this request, however, they continue on their journey, reaching the Philippines, in 1606, under the leadership of Juan de San Jerónimo. “They were given a house outside the city in a garden11 that had belonged to Don Pedro de Acuña, who governed these islands.... But those who treated the said fathers most generously were Ours, for we gave them our best and brightest jewel, namely, San Nicolás, allowing them to found their convent in his name. This meant wholly to enrich them and to leave us poor.” Further, a layman named Don Bernardino, captain and castellan of the port of Manila, builds a convent for the new order “sufficient for forty religious.” At death he and his wife also leave money to continue the work, and the new order begins to multiply.]
Since then those fathers have continued to establish convents here. For as they were the last, and the islands are in the conditions under which Miguel López de Legazpi left them, there was not before any place where they could settle. However, outside Manila, they possess a small house called Sampaloc, because it has many tamarind trees. There they minister to a few Tagáls, and one religious lives there generally.12 It has a stone church and house. They have a garden with a stone house and its chapel (where one religious lives), near the walls of Manila, in the suburbs. Opposite the island of Mariveles, in the same district of Manila, they have a Tagál mission. It is but small, and, with its visitas, does not amount to four hundred Indians. But farther along the coast, they have two Zambal missions of settled Indians, which are situated nearer here than Ilocos. One is called Masinloc