, which are otherwise so many quiet
groups of honest and industrious natives--who form, in the religious
estate, the same number of parishes canonically established, each
one with its own pastor, who is charged to watch over them through
the functions of religion, and to dispense the sacraments and other
benefits of religion to the souls of his respective parish--and
having enumerated the communities that make up the general total of
the population of what is now one of the most populous provinces of
the archipelago: a meditative mind goes back about one century with
the desire of ascertaining the state of the province in that time,
since now we are seeing its condition in our own time. It has been
stated above, in the introduction, that the villages having regular
ministers were eight in number. In regard to canonical legislation
then in force, those ministers had the character of missionaries,
and not of parish priests. They labored in the salvation of souls
with the apostolic zeal generally recognized (and denied by no one),
which is characteristic of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. But
the social state of those natives was a hindrance to the abundant
fruit that ought to be expected from the fervent devotion and charity
of so distinguished missionaries.

The insurrections which took place in Bohol in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries had succeeded in forming a considerable body of
malcontents who raised the banner of rebellion and disorder; and the
disorder at the same time when it destroyed the obedience of most
of their subjects to the authorities, also influenced very directly
the advancement of Catholicism, and gave as a result that all those
who took to the mountains, thus being separated from the immediate
neighborhood of the eight churches then existing, returned to the
habits of heathenism at the same time when they passed to the camp of
freedom. Other things also were added to the causes which diminished
the abundant fruits of the priestly ministry. That coldness of the
people of Bohol toward the Spanish name, observed long before by
Legaspi at the time of the discovery, and certain opposition inspired
by some captious natives who favored but little the very zealous
ministers of Jesus Christ (who were sacrificing their own existence
for the eternal salvation of those souls), placed this territory in
an abnormal condition, taking from it the forces necessary for its
advancement and prosperity. Ab