The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 32, 1640. Aduarte Diego

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СКАЧАТЬ silence, occupation, and virtues of father Fray Luis, and his happy death

      [Father Fray Luis had the three virtues which St. Ambrose, the doctor of the Church, affirms to be fundamental ones: the power to keep silence, the power to speak in due time, and the contempt for worldly things. His habit of silence seemed excessive to some, but when it was necessary he spoke with great spirit; and he so contemned worldly things that, in spite of the high offices which he held in the order, he had not even, as many good religious have, an image or any other trifling thing of his own. When he was ambassador in China, he left the rich table of Don Fernando de Castro and sustained himself, as one in poverty, by the allowance granted to the poor in China. Contrary to his nature, he was very humble. He was devout in prayer, and careful in saying the divine offices. He distributed his time with the greatest accuracy. He was most modest in the presence of women, and, though he sometimes had to speak to them, he never looked upon their faces. He was so charitable and tender-hearted that, when the judges were about to execute any rigorous sentence, they always concealed it from father Fray Luis, because they knew they could not resist his prayers for pity and pardon. He could not bear offenses against God, however willing to suffer wrongs to himself. He slept on a mat on the floor of his cell. His pillow was a piece of wood hollowed to make it light. Though the rules of the order permitted him two blankets, one to lie on and the other to cover himself with, he contented himself with one, folding it so that it would fulfil both offices. He wore his serge tunic a month without changing it, which in such a hot country causes great annoyance, because of the great amount of perspiration. He said that custom had made it not uncomfortable for him. He constantly wore a hair-shirt next his skin, and over that a corselet of mail. In his extreme old age, the bishop of Nueva Segovia compelled him to lay this last aside. He wore his breeches in such a way that the fastenings cut into the flesh of his legs. He was very sparing in his eating, giving his suppers, when the constitutions permit them to us, to the poor; and his noon allowance was more theirs than his. His lunch was two biscuit crusts and a banana, or two guavas, when there were any; and except at these times he neither ate nor drank. When he was vicar of the convent of Nueva Segovia, a father visited him as his guest, bringing with him two crawfish, which he boiled and put on the table; but father Fray Luis would not permit them to be eaten, saying it was not a feast, that they should have anything so unusual. He scourged himself every night, with the energy which was his by nature. He was most patient, and, though his body was mortified, his spirit was open to divine influences. He had great power of insight into the souls of those whom he saw. At one time he caused the bishop of Nueva Segovia, whose vicar-general he was, to dismiss two youths of his household – saying that he saw in them the marks of wickedness, and that one of them was a thief and the other a traitor. This was not known at the time, but the truth was afterwards discovered, one of them having ransacked a desk of the bishop’s and the other having been condemned to be hanged for murder. When he was engaged in contemplation, his mind was so absorbed that he could hear and see nothing else than the visions of God. This life of penitence continued from his youth to an old age of almost eighty years. In his last illness he was taken to the convent of Sancto Domingo at Manila, where he died. Testimony of miracles wrought by him during his life was given after his death. He is mentioned with honor in the records of the provincial chapter of 1612 and in the general chapter held at Bolonia in 1615.]

      Chapter LXXV

      The election as provincial of father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho, and the condition of the province and Japon

      On the thirteenth of May, 1612, father Fray Miguel de San Jacintho was a second time elected as provincial, not because there was any lack of religious of much virtue, knowledge, and prudence to take the place of father Fray Baltasar Fort – who had just completed his term, and had governed like an angel – but because father Fray Miguel had left all the religious of the province so devoted to his good government that they finally determined to elect him again. They regarded it as more prudent to select one whom they knew by experience to be of great skill in the government of the province, than to try the government of others who, though they gave good hopes, could not offer so much certainty.

      [At this time the bishop of Macan, Don Fray Juan de la Piedad, was in Manila. He was a religious of our order; and when he saw the interest of our religious here in the conversion of the Chinese, he was desirous that some of the fathers of the order who understood the Chinese language might be given to him to enter the kingdom by way of Macan. Two fathers, Thomas Mayor – a very successful minister among the Chinese race, and excellent in their language – and Bartolome Martinez, were assigned for this purpose; but they met with so much opposition at Macan from the religious of another order that they were unable to carry out their purpose. Father Fray Thomas went to España, and father Fray Bartholome returned to the Philippinas. Their voyage was not entirely without fruit, inasmuch as it resulted in the conversion of one Chinaman from Chincheo.

      At this time, although our religious and the Christian people in the kingdom of Figen in Japon enjoyed peace and quiet, there were persecutions in other kingdoms of that realm. After the death of Father Gregorio Cespedes of the Society of Jesus in the kingdom of Bugen, in 1611, the tono of that region, who had protected Christianity out of respect for the father, banished two other fathers who were there, and tore down the churches. The tono of Firando martyred in October of this year three Christians; and that of Caratzu,2 a cruel renegade, banished many. Thus the devil began that which afterwards took place. The Lord gave warning, by means of crosses miraculously found, of the persecution which was to occur. In this year there went to Japon father Fray Alonso Navarrete and father Fray Domingo de Valderrama, sent there by father Fray Baltasar Fort; and in the following year father Fray Baltasar himself, at the end of his term as provincial, went as vicar-provincial to this kingdom.

      For a long time the emperor of Japon3 had shown much dislike to Christianity, and in the year 1612 he began to persecute it. Don Pablo Dayfachi, the secretary of a man who was very intimate with the emperor, received a great quantity of money from Don Juan, tono of Arima, to help him in the recovery of some lands which had been lost by his ancestors in war. Don Pablo, who was a Christian, could do nothing for the cause of Don Juan, who complained to the emperor. The emperor commanded that Don Pablo should be burned alive in the sight of his wife, and that his son should be killed. The emperor thereupon began to persecute the Christians, saying that deeds like these were not done by the Japanese, and that Don Pablo had degenerated from them because he was a Christian. Fourteen knights with their wives and families and servants were exiled. The tono of Arima was banished, because he had endeavored to get back by favors lands which others had gained by war, and was finally executed. A certain English heretic, named Guillermo Adam [i. e., Will Adams], who knew the Japanese language and who pleased the emperor by giving him an account of European affairs, vomited forth the hate which he felt against our holy faith whenever he had opportunity. He told him that the plan of the king our lord to conquer kingdoms is to send religious first, that they may make the way plain for soldiers, citing for example Nueva España and the Philippinas – although, in point of fact, neither there nor here did religious precede, but invaders who intended to conquer the country. In addition to this, Safioye, the governor of Nangasaqui, had difficulties with certain fathers, and had complained of them to the emperor. The result was that the hatred of the emperor for Christianity grew greater and greater. He finally commanded all the churches in that part of Japon known as Cami to be demolished, and gave the same commands for the kingdom of Quanto.4 He required the Christians in certain parts of the country to deny their faith. A number of the Christians proved weak; while of those who refused to obey the commands some were martyred, some banished, and some driven to the mountains. The conduct of the governors in different parts of the country varied from very great rigor to as much kindness as was consistent with obeying the commands of the emperor. The tono of Figan, who had shown so many favors to our order, directed the religious of our order to leave the kingdom, but did not at that time persecute the Christians. The command to depart was received by the religious in September, 1613. Two of the religious retained their habit, and went on to Nangasaqui; but the third, disguising СКАЧАТЬ