LESSON 11:

MONASTIC
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SUPREMACY
IN THE PHILIPPINES
 OBJECTIVES:

Define the roles Dicuss Filipino Evaluate the

of the church in culture as a result country’s
the Philippines in of Spanish progress by
18th century supremacy in the formulating an
context. Philippines. insight.
LA SOBERANIA MONACAL EN FILIPINAS

qFirst published in Barcelona, Spain

(1889)

qhailed by the spanish liberals and

administrators in the Philippines;
former governor General Emilio
Terrero (1885-1888) and Benigno
Quiroga; and scholars; Miguel
Morayta and Ferdinand Bluementritt;
and Jose Rizal called his works as one
that had “no chaff, it is all grain”.
MARCELO H. DEL PILAR
3 ASPECTS

ü POLITICAL ASPECT

ü RELIGIOUS ASPECT

ü ECONOMIC ASPECT
 POLITICAL ASPECT
§ Friars control the status quo/affairs of the country.
§ offer the government to suppress the country’s rebelliousness.
§ portray the ruler in the personification of tyranny and depotism.
§ lack of union between people and government because of
language diversity.
§ Convents are the millioners of the country
§ the inheritance of the families is passed to the control of the
monastic communities.
§ the lands are on leased and the rent increases from time to time
(poverty).
§ the government finance office relies on the sworn statement of the
convents.
§ Filipinos pay direct and indirect taxes but there exist another one
called tax of religious festival nevertheless gives burden to them.
§ saint’s day are celebrated with the pomp and expense of the
people.
§ every district where fifty families dwell, a chapel is erected.
§ It is no longer fanaticism that builds this opulence, no; it is fear of
the group which has been raised to the power which, with no one
stroke of the pen or a low whisper, can kill the happiness of one
who obstructs or does not cooperate in the development of its
schemes of exploitation.
 RELIGIOUS ASPECT
§ Municipal officials performance on their duties depends on parish
priest.

§ curate’s signature is an essential requisite.

§ to consolidate the fraternity of Spain and the Philippines is through

national integrity.

§ the divisive plan of the curate is to indanger the national intergity.

§ the cry for the immediate expulsion of the friars is unanimous

 ECONOMIC ASPECT
§ the abundance found in the convents makes laughable the pity of the
government.

§ the Philippine government lacks resources to undertake public works;

while the monastic orders build grand and costly convents in Manila.

§ the government establishes primary schools in each town. The

government houses are made of light materials, like those destined for
the tribunal which hardly approximate the stable of the friar curators.
§ government finds a thousand obstacles in collecting taxes from the
tax paying public; but the monastic orders empty without the
difficulty the purse of the same public in return for heavenly
promises.

§ government worries about meeting its peremptory financial needs,

but the monastic treasuries are overflowing with money.

§ government refrains from creating new sources of revenue in order

not to burden Filipino interests, but the friars invent every day new
forms of devotion and the public pay because of fear.
§ there is a notable contrast between the poverty of the
government and the opulence of the vow of poverty

§ amortization of lands is fatal to agriculture everywhere.

§ the sale of religious objects that rise in price by reason of priestly

blessing constitutes a true and indisputable simony; and
notwithstanding, one of the principal sources of income of the
monastic order is the trade in religious objects.
LA SOBERANIA MONACAL EN FILIPINAS

To sum it all up, the document created by Marcelo H. Del

Pilar tells us how abusive the Spanish friars were during the
Spanish colonization. They have deceived the people and the
government by plotting lies in their heads. They have made
divisive plans so that they can maintain their power and control
over the people. How they take advantage of people's money,
which leads them to suffer from poverty. They are like the
controllers of a game in which they have played the lives of the
Filipinos.