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. 48]

i56

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 48

should be placed [for the time] in Santa Potenciana,
but this was vigorously opposed by the Dominican
fathers. They had recourse to the superior government, but, not finding support in that tribunal, they
gave way and surrendered the lady to the provisor,
to whom was entrusted this sequestration. The lawsuit followed, and the archbishop decided that, in
view of the fact that his Majesty had forbidden that
the beaterio of Santa Cathalina should be erected
into a convent, Mother Cecilia, who had made profession in it, could not be truly a religious, and therefore her profession was null.T7 The Dominican
fathers lodged an appeal before the [papal] delegate,
79 "This [Dominican] province had already (in I745) reported
to his Majesty that the beaterio of Santa Cathalina was maintained
in the form of observance provided by the royal decrees of February
17, I7i6 and September 10, I732; that it contained the fifteen
religious which it ought to have according to the arrangements of
its founder; that they observed the three vows of religious, according to the enactment of St. Pius V, issued on 28 [sic] in I566;
and that, although there had never been the slightest question
raised on this point, some uncertainties were beginning to present
themselves regarding the nature of their vows, and even whether
dispensation from these could be granted by the archbishop of
Manila." Accordingly, the Dominicans requested the royal decision on these matters; the king therefore decreed (June 20,
1747) that a committee formed of the governor, the archbishop,
and the Dominican provincial, should carefully examine into the
best method of carrying out the previous decrees. They did so,
and, when their deliberations were laid before the royal fiscal, he
demanded that the vows taken by these beatas be declared opposed
to his Majesty's will. Sister Cecilia, as soon as she was placed
in Santa Potenciana, divested herself of the religious habit, claiming that her profession was null- a claim which was irregular,
"because the five years had already passed which the laws and
justice allow for proceedings of this sort." When the papal delegate disallowed the appeal of the Dominicans from the archbishop's
attempted control of this case, they appealed to the Audiencia for
protection from the fuerza exerted by the latter; but that
court declined to interfere, saying that there was no fuerza committed. The archbishop then pronounced a definitive sentence in
favor of Cecilia, and set her at liberty; she then married Figueroa,
and they went to Nueva Espaiia. The Spanish government took