The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 50 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE SECULAR CLERGY

1. Retirement and abstraction [from the world]; the priests shall not enter any house except to administer the sacraments, or to perform some function proper to one who has the care of souls.

2. They shall explain the Christian doctrine and the gospel, using at least half of the time for this holy exercise in the Castilian language.

3. They shall visit, both afternoon and morning the schools for boys, which our curas shall be under obligation to promote in their villages with every endeavor; and, if it be possible, the schools for girls.

4. [They shall pay] all respect and courtesy to the governors of their villages and the officials of justice, not allowing the latter to remove their caps when in the presence of the priests, and much less to serve them at the table—warning them that they must not leave their wands or insignia of justice on the stairs or in any other place, but always and everywhere carry these with them.

5. They shall not meddle with elections; and the affection and reverence of the people will be won if they attend solely to the welfare of souls and give personal advice.

6. They shall promote peace among their parishioners by all means; and shall exhort them to shun idleness and cultivate their lands.

7. They shall strive to banish the sport of cock-fighting, not sparing any effort for this, and the same with drunkenness.

8. They shall not allow the dalagas [i.e., young girls] or any woman to clean the church; the sacristans must perform this duty.

9. Any cura who shall not attend to the adornment and cleanliness of his church will be punished with the utmost severity.

10. No woman shall enter the clergyman’s house.

11. The priests shall spend the day in prayer and study, after having celebrated mass and divine service.

12. The conferences on moral subjects and on the church rubrics1 shall be inviolably observed.

13. They shall conform, without any exception, to the tariff in the exaction of parochial fees; but if the parishioner shall be poor, the cura shall not for that reason neglect the administration of the sacraments, the burial ceremonies, etc.

14. They shall proceed to remove the abuses in [furnishing] cross and candlesticks of wood for the poor man, and of silver for him who pays the fees.

15. They shall immediately propose, in a kind and gentle manner, the [formation of] settlements [for their people], and shall expatiate to their parishioners on the advantages which will result to them from living in a settled community and village.

16. Games of cards are prohibited to our curas, even among themselves.

17. They shall be careful to reside in their respective villages; and they shall leave these only for conferences or for hearing one another’s confessions, when they have [in charge] no sick person in danger; but under no pretext shall they pass the night outside their own parishes.

18. On all occasions they shall wear their long robes.

19. Each priest shall forthwith prepare a book, in which these our decrees shall be written—as well as those which we shall again issue in person, or which our provisor and vicar-general shall enact; or measures which shall be taken by our vicar forane,2 as the one who keeps all things in his view.

20. Even within the house they shall go dressed and shod through the day; and any one who shall descend to saying mass in a tipsy condition [con la turca], or shall take his seat in the confessional without collar and cassock, shall undergo severe penalties.

21. In every respect they shall render obedience to our vicar forane.

22. Finally, mindful of the duties of their ministry, and of the very exact account which God will demand from them for the souls of every one of their parishioners, they shall instruct their people, by deed and by word, until the true idea of Christian life is formed in them—stimulating in them love and obedience to our Catholic monarch, who has conferred upon them so great benefits and loves them with a father’s tenderness, and to the venerable ministers who govern them in the name of God and of so great a king. At the archiepiscopal palace in Manila, on the twenty-fifth of October in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one.3

1 These conferences of the clergy originally were held monthly, for consultation on difficult cases of conscience and the like, the investigation of crimes, etc.; they lasted from the ninth to the thirteenth century. They were revived by St. Charles Borromeo, but on a more modern plan, for the discussion of questions in morals, ritual, etc., with the object of providing that the clergy should have the knowledge necessary for their duties. These conferences prevailed in the Catholic countries until the end of the eighteenth century, when they fell into disuse; but they have been once more revived in many countries, and are regularly held in all the dioceses of England. The rubrics are directions to be followed in mass and other sacred rites. (Addis and Arnold, Catholic Dictionary.)?

2 Vicar forane: “either a dignitary or, at least, if possible, a parish priest, who is appointed by the bishop to exercise a limited jurisdiction in a particular town or district of his diocese; an appeal lies from his decision to the bishop, who can also remove him at pleasure.” (Addis and Arnold, p. 841.)?

3 These instructions come at the end of a pastoral letter, headed thus: “We, Don Basilio Sancho de Santa Justa y Rufina, by the grace of God and of the holy Apostolic See metropolitan archbishop of these Filipinas Islands; councilor and preacher to his Majesty; and deputy vicar-general of the royal forces by land and sea in these Eastern regions, etc.” (They are obtained from Ferrando’s Hist. PP. dominicos, v, pp. 59–60.)?

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