sade. Then
he relates interesting details about the churches, convents, schools,
and other institutions. Among these are the royal chapel, the seminary
of San Felipe, the seminary of Santa Isabela, the confraternity
of La Misericordia, the universities, and the hospitals. Le Gentil
describes the ecclesiastical machinery of the suffragan dioceses,
and the convents therein--all more extensive and costly than the
population and wealth of the country justify. The rest of his account
is devoted to "the power and influence enjoyed by the religious in the
Philippines." He says: "Masters of the provinces, they govern there,
as one might say, as sovereigns; they are so absolute that no Spaniard
dares go to establish himself there.... They are more absolute in the
Philippines than is the king himself." They ignore the royal decrees
that the Indian children must be taught the Castilian language; thus
the friars keep the Indians in bondage, and prevent the Spaniards from
knowing the real state of affairs in the provinces. They have refused
to allow the visitations of the archbishops--a matter explained at
considerable length by the writer. The natives sometimes revolt,
and then the friars cannot influence them, but troops must be sent
to punish the rebels. Le Gentil also relates the manner in which
the friars punish the natives for not attending mass, by flogging
them--not only men, but women, and that in public.

Sinibaldo de Mas, a Spanish official who spent some time at Manila,
gives in his _Informe_ (Madrid, 1843) a chapter regarding the character
and influence of the friars--partly from his own observations, partly
cited from Comyn's _Estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1810_, a valuable
work, published at Madrid in 1820. He relates the difficulties
encountered in the attempts so often made to subject the friars
to the diocesan visit. This has been at last accomplished, but,
according to Mas, with resulting lower standards of morality among
the curas. He cites various decrees and instances connected with
the controversies between the friars and the authorities, civil and
religious; and then long extracts from Comyn, which show the great
extent of the priestly influence, and the causes therefor. Comyn
regards the priests as the real conquerors of the islands, and as the
most potent factor in their present government--at least, outside of
Manila. He shows how inadequate is the power of the civil government,
apart from priestly in