Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/550



The broad stretch of islands bounded by the China Sea and the Pacific Ocean which PhiUp II., King of Spain, called the Phihppines, were scarcely opened up by Ferd- inand Magellan at the beginning of the sixteenth century when, with the image of the holy cross planted on their shores, they were consecrated to God and offered as a first-fruit offering of the Catholic religion.

From that time the Roman Pontiff's, with the aid of Charles V. and Philip his son, both remarkable for their zeal for spreading the faith, have thought nothing more urgent than to convert the islanders, who were idol-wor- shippers, to the faith of Christ. With God's help, by the strenuous efforts of the members of different religious orders, this came about very favorably and in such a short time that Gregory XIII. decided to appoint a bishop for the growing Church there, and constituted Manila an Episcopal See. With this happy beginning the growth which followed in after years corresponded in every way. Owing to the united measures of Our predecessors and of the Spanish kings, slavery was abolished, the inhabitants were trained in the ways of civilization by the study of arts and letters, so that the people and Church in the Phil- ippines were deservedly distinguished by the renown of their nation and their meritorious zeal for religion. In this way, under the direction of the kings of Spain and the patronage of the Roman Pontiffs, Catholicity was maintained with due order in the Philippine Islands. But the change which the fortunes of war have wrought in civil matters there has affected reUgion also; for when