commonwealth. [147]

Felipe Pardo as archbishop

[The Dominican side of this controversy is related by Salazar, one of
the official historians of that order, in his Hist. Sant. Rosario,
pp. 490-513 (chapters xviii-xxi); as this account is long, it is
presented here partly in full translation, partly in synopsis.]

On the fourth day of August in the year 1677, dedicated to our
glorious patriarch St. Dominic, a royal decree was received in
Manila in which our Catholic monarch Don Carlos II appointed for
archbishop of Manila father Fray Felipe Pardo--who that year had
completed his second provincialate and now was filling the post of
commissary of the Holy Office. In the latter office he had given,
before this second provincialate, such proofs of good judgment that
report of his abilities had reached Madrid; and these alone, without
any other backing, had procured for him so high a dignity. The
choice of him [as bishop] was received in this community with
universal acclamation and applause, on account of the esteem that
was merited by his abilities, accredited by the experience that all
had of his success and discretion in government--not only in the two
provincialates which he had obtained, but also, as I have indicated, in
the commissariat of the Inquisition; all therefore confidently expected
in him a prelate discreet and accomplished in all respects. Our
father Fray Felipe Pardo alone, distrustful of his suitability for
that office--either on account of his sixty-seven years of age, or
in view of the difficulty of the task--was greatly perplexed about
accepting it. Indeed, it was necessary at the end of two months, to
make requisition on him, in accordance with the rules established by
the councils regarding immediate acceptance by those thus appointed,
under penalty of the appointment being annulled, and the see being
again declared vacant. [He finally accepts (November 11 of that year)
the dignity of archbishop, and by special decree of the king enters
on his duties before being consecrated (which occurs on October 28,
1681), "the first archbishop who has governed this archbishopric
without being consecrated, and the first who has been consecrated in
these islands." Having spent thirty years in that country, he has
much knowledge of it and of its moral and social conditions, and
much experience in ecclesiastical government. "He was very learned
in theology, whether speculative or practical, moral or scholasti