Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 08).djvu/282

 he is not bishop for your Majesty, but for the pope. What royal patronage he must observe, the pope declares in his bulls, and not he who praying kept to his bed. He talks with the same liberty in his theology and judgments, since in order to prove his opinions, he says that the universities of Salamanca and Alcalá (who do the contrary) are in error, and he right. He declared also that those who should follow the instruction of the Theatins here would go to hell; and that the doctrine of Father Acosta was heretical—beside innumerable other things. And it is quite certain that, since my arrival here, I have had in him a continual opposition and obstacle to whatever is ordered and done. If things are not quite to his taste, he says that he will go into retirement, and abandon everything. And the friars say the same thing—namely, that they will abandon their doctrinas [i.e., Christian villages] if their power over the Indians is taken away. This power is such that the Indians recognize no other king or superior than the father of the doctrina, and are more attentive to his commands than to those of the governor. Therefore the friars make use of them by the hundreds, as slaves, in their rowing, works, services, and in other ways, without paying them, and whipping them as if they were highwaymen. In whatever pertains to the fathers there is no grief or pity felt for the Indians; but as for some service of your Majesty, or a public work, in which an Indian may be needed, or as for anything ordered from them, the religious are bound to gainsay it, place it on one's conscience, hinder it, or disturb everything. Without doubt, if I did not exercise so much caution and moderation, some mutiny or rebellion might arise, in a country so new, at