Monastic Supremacy

Service to God and to King

• The Patronato Real
• Struggle for control and jurisdiction over the
Spanish Church (and its colonial branches)
with popes
• The church's organization, personnel, and role
in society were all defined early in the colonial
era.
The Two Sovereigns
• Temporal & Spiritual Sovereignity
• Nationalism & Religiosity
• Justification for colonization
• The role of the Church and its clergy
Clerical Ascendency
• Clergy >>> King’s officials
• Great demand for priests
• Descent of decadence in the religious
in Mother Spain
Friar Acquisition of Land
Friars to Encomenderos
Means of acquisition
1. Royal Bequest
2. Donations and Inheritances
3. Buying of land
4. Foreclosure of Mortgages
5. Land-grabbing
Royal Bequest
Friars suggested that the King grant them some
estates in the native villages so that the missionaries
could become self supporting.
Royal Lang Grants
This proposal ran counter to the royal order that the
clergy should not own lands in the Indian villages.
Friars became encomenderos
Donations and Inheritances
Deathbed bequests by pious Filipinos
Donations to friars in gratitude for their ministrations
Down payment for a place in heaven
Priests were prohibited from inheriting property from
those they habitually confessed by order of the King
Buying of Land
Friars bought land from the natives using the money
obtained from church fees, trade, and from profits
gained from the produce of lands.
With their prestige and power, they pressured natives
to sell them their lands at very low prices.
Foreclosure of Mortgages
Natives lacked capital for extensive cultivation
Partnerships were formed between the farmers and
friars wherein the friars provided capital while the
farmers worked on the fields.
Friars began to demand that their advances be
regarded as loans payable at a fixed rate of interest.
Farmer debt ran into debt leading to foreclosure of
lands.
“All lands within one thousand meters of the principal
market place of every town are considered communal
property of the town residents”
- Statute that was ignored
Land-grabbing
Usurpation
Additional hectares of land outside original
boundaries of friar property were gobbled up each
time a new survey was conduction.
Priests claimed lands and had them titled.
Original native settlers were declared squatters.
“titulos reales”
 7

MISSION
RIVALRIES
How it started…
Friar Andres de Urdaneta – Augustinian
friar who accompanied Legazpi on his
memorable trip that resulted to the conquest
of the Philippine Islands by Spain
- Organized the work spreading the doctrine
of Christianity
Friar Domingo de Salazar – Dominican,
ambitious and apparently somewhat
arrogant first bishop of Manila
 Arrival
 Augustinians – 1565
 Franciscan - 1578
 Jesuits - 1581
 Dominicans – 1587
 Recollects (Discalced Augustinians)
 - 1606
 Extent of Power
 Augustinians - Visayas, Pampanga, part of Pangasinan, and
the Ilocos coast
 Dominicans - Pangasinan and the valley of the Cagayan River
in Northern Luzon
 Franciscans - Camarines and Southern Luzon, including the
region of Laguna de Bay.
 Recollects – Mindanao, Palawan, Mindoro

All of these orders had their principal convents and

monasteries in Manila
 Influence and
Contributions
Augustinians – Univ. of San Agustin (Iloilo); San Agustin
Church in Intramuros (oldest)
Franciscans – San Lazaro Hospital, Saint Francis
Jesuits - Ateneo, Xavier
Dominicans – UST, Letran
Recollects – University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos
(1941) in Bacolod City; Univ. of San Jose – Recoletos
(1947) in Cebu City; San Sebastian College – Recoletos
(1966) in Cavite City; Colegio de Santo Tomas-
Recoletos in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental;
Colegio San Nicolas de Tolentino - Recoletos in Talisay
City, Negros Occidental; and San Pedro Academy in
Caidiocan, Valencia, Negros Oriental.
Property Acquisitions

...fundamental cause for the

corruption of friars.
 How it started?
• Contention of the religious
• Suggested that it would be best if the king
grant them some estates in the native villages
• King revoke his previous decree
• Bishop Domingo Salazar – March 21, 1591
• Exemption from the pope from their monastic
vows
• Opportunity to amass large tracts of lands
 How they do it?
• Royal bequest
• Bought land from the states
• Donations and inheritances from pious
Filipinos (Deathbed bequests)
• Bought land from the natives – church fees,
trade, from the profits of land produce
• Bought lands at very low price
 How they do it?
• Land acquired through foreclosure of
mortgages
• Laws:
– Setting a limit to the amount that could be lent to
the natives
– Reservation of all land within one thousand
meters of the principal market place of every town
as communal property
 How they do it?
• Land-grabbing
– Corrupt surveyors
– Claimed pieces of lands  drew maps  had
them titled  set themselves as owners
– Natives declared as squatters
– they lack titulos reales
From Friars to Encomenderos
Our Friar who art our Landlord
 Friars (Landlord)
 Inquilinos (Lessees/Middleman)
 Kasamas (Subtenants)
 Indios, slaves
 Friar Abuses
• Taxes
• Tributes
• Exhorbitant rents
• Arbitrary increases on the previous
• Forced labor
• Personal services
• Petty cruelties
 Jesuit ranches in 1745
• In Lian and Nagsubu, Batangas
• Friars charged locals for personal use of wood,
rattan, and bamboo from their own land
 Bulacan
• Friars claimed land as their own
• The following were prohibited:
– Fishing in the rivers
– Cutting firewood
– Gathering of fruits from the forrest
– Carabao gazing
 Cavite, Manila, and Bulacan
• Friars claimed land through which rivers
passed
– Permission was needed to allow for water
irrigation
 Bitter protest on friar landlords
• Friars increase taxes on productive farms
– Surtax on planted trees
• Land owners lowered prices to lower the taxes
 Side-lines and other abuses
• Fees for all sorts of rites
– Including baptism and burial
– Native paid even if to lose their last possessions
• Selling of rosaries, scapulars and other objects
• Requirement of offering of food and services for the
covenant table
• Corporal punishment
– Girls were compelled to pound rice in convents
• Many of them were raped
• Exempted from taxes
Economic power & commercial
activities
Friar Supremacy
 Church vs. State
• Knowledge of Friars outweighed that of government officials
• Friars had a more secure term in the church; this in turn
made the government dependent on them
• Friar control spans from birth until death
– Taxation
– Health
– Public works
– Censor
– Elections
– Police and Army
– Schools
Almacen de la Fe
• Literally means, “Faith Warehouse”
• Friars gained Economic Power though:
– Conversion to Christianity
– Investments
– Internal trade within the population
– Participation in government activities
– Spiritual control
 Friars Dominate
• Indispensable to Spain
• Arrogance of Friars
• Friction between Governor Generals and the
Friars
Friar Conflicts
 Conflict with Governors
Governors complain to Spanish Monarchs
• Gov. Dasmarinas (1952)
– Indians recognize friars as kings
– Friars use Indians as slaves
– Friars have the say with regards to everything
– Approval of the friars are needed

• Gov. Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera (1636)

– Objected to the increase of religious in the Philippines
– Friars monopolized business
 Casualties
• Gov. Diego de Salcedo (1669)
– Imprisoned and died
• Gov. Juan de Vargas
– Stood for 4 months in Manila wearing sackcloth
and rope
– Archbishop Pardo
• Gov. Fernando Manuel
– Ordered clergy to return owed money from
government
– Stabbed to death
 Conflict over Land Titles
Examination of land title ordered by the King
– Forgery
– Ecclesiastical immunity
– Oidores
• Juan Sierra
• Juan Ozaeta y Oro
 Conflict with the Pope

• Refusal to submit to authority of bishops

• Claimed to be under exclusive control of own
orders
 Conflict with Secular Clergy
• Religious orders do not include Filipinos
• Seculars became assistants to regular friars
– No territory/ parish
Monastic Supremacy TODAY
• Since the Philippines is a majorly Catholic
country, Church traditions of monastic habits
are still in effect in our country. Most
politicians ask to be endorsed by the Church
officials, the Church demands in political
decisions, Church leaders hold positions in the
government cabinet or advise the presidents,
and leaders of our country ask guidance from
priests, bishops, and the like.
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
asked guidance from the Pope about her
decision on abolishing the death penalty in
the Philippines.
President Benigno Aquino III appoints Bro.
Armin Luistro FSC to be the DepEd secretary
Church demands the teaching of sex
education, not to be done in current events.
Those running for office ask endorsements from religious
leaders, not only in the Catholic realm.