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”
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
 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 cov
 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.