The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; 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, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 36]

1649-1666] RECOLLECT MISSIONS, 1646-60

I8I

Now, did those who began the conquest of America
or those of Philipinas endure the more grievous and
continual persecutions? Therefore, if those were
worthy of receiving the exemption, because they
were employed at the cost of their lives in the promulgation of the faith, no change ought to be introduced in these missions.
742. The procedure of our religious in resisting
the subjection of the ordinaries is justified even more
by that which causes the anxiety of the ministers, if
one considers the fact (on which their resistance is
founded) that the proper administration of those
souls is morally impossible. For that we must assume that the king assigns one missionary to each five
hundred tributes or families. But our districts,
especially those of the islands of Luzon, Calamianes,
and Mindoro, although each does not exceed three
hundred tributes; need each one or two religious in
order that they may be looked after as is necessary
for the preaching and for the [spiritual] food of the
holy sacraments. This arises from the fact that each
mission is extended over a distance of twenty or thirty
leguas, without its being possible to make any other
arrangement. For although the reduction into large
settlements has been attempted, for the more suitable
spiritual administration it has been impossible to
attain that. On the contrary, whenever it has been
attempted, Christianity has decreased. In the islands
of Mindanao, Romblon, and Masbate, the missions
have more people, for they contain from six to eight
hundred tributes. But, for the same reason, each
one needs three or four religious; and even that number must be on the road continually in order to fulfil
their obligations as parish priests. Hence it results