The Regular And Secular Clergy
In Catholic countries the monastic orders constitute the regular
clergy. The secular clergy is not bound by monastic rules. Both
classes exercise their functions independently, the former under the
authority of their respective superiors or generals, the latter under
the bishops.
When, after the return of Columbus from his first voyage, the
existence of a new world was demonstrated and preparations for
/>
occupying it were made, the Pope, to assure the Christianization of
the inhabitants, gave to the monks of all orders who wished to go the
privilege, pertaining till then to the secular clergy exclusively, of
administering parishes and collecting tithes without subjection to the
authority of the bishops.
The Dominicans and the Franciscans availed themselves of this
privilege at once. There was rivalry for power and influence between
these two orders from the time of their first installation, and they
carried their quarrels with them to America, where their differences
of opinion regarding the enslaving and treatment of the Indians
embittered them still more. The Dominicans secured a footing in Santo
Domingo and in Puerto Rico almost to the exclusion of their rivals,
notwithstanding the king's recommendation to Ceron in 1511 to build a
monastery for Franciscans, whose doctrines he considered "salutary."
the city.]
Puerto Rico was scantily provided with priests till the year 1518,
when the treasurer, Haro, wrote to Cardinal Cisneros: "There are no
priests in the granges as has been commanded; only one in Caparra, and
one in San German. The island is badly served. Send us a goodly number
of priests or permission to pay them out of the produce of the
tithes."
The "goodly number of priests" was duly provided. Immediately after
the transfer of the capital to its present site in 1521, the
Dominicans began the construction of a convent, which was nearly
completed in 1529, when there were 25 friars in it. They had acquired
great influence over Bishop Manso, and obtained many privileges and
immunities from him. Bishop Bastidas, Manso's successor, was less
favorably disposed toward them, and demanded payment of tithes of the
produce of their agricultural establishments. He reported to the king
in 1548: "There is a Dominican monastery here large enough for a city
of 2,000 inhabitants, and there are many friars in it. They
possess farms, cattle, negroes, Indians, and are building horse-power
sugar-mills; meanwhile, I know that they are asking your Majesty for
alms to finish their church ... It were better to oblige them to sell
their estates and live in poverty as prescribed by the rules of their
order."
The Franciscans came to Puerto Rico in 1534, but founded no convent
till 1585, when one of their order, Nicolas Ramos, was appointed to
the see of San Juan. Then they established themselves in "la Aguada,"
and named the settlement San Francisco de Asis. Two years later it was
destroyed by the Caribs, and five of the brothers martyrized. No
attempt at reconstruction of the convent was made. The order abandoned
the island and did not return till 1642, when they obtained the Pope's
license to establish themselves in the capital. Like the Dominicans,
they soon acquired considerable wealth.
The privilege of administering parishes and collecting tithes, which
was the principal source of monastic revenues, was canceled by royal
schedule June 13, 1757. The monks continued in the full enjoyment of
their property till 1835, when all the property of the regular clergy
throughout the Peninsula and the colonies was expropriated by the
Government. In this island the convents were appropriated only after
long and tedious judicial proceedings, in which the Government
demonstrated that the transfer was necessary for the public good. Then
the convents were used - that of the Dominicans as Audiencia hall, that
of the Franciscans as artillery barracks. The intendancy took charge
of the administration of the estate of the two communities, the
mortmain was canceled, and the transfer duly legalized. A promised
indemnity to the two brotherhoods was never paid, but in 1897 a sum of
5,000 pesos annually was added to the insular budget, to be paid to
the clergy as compensation for the expropriated estate of the
Dominicans in San German. Succeeding political events prevented the
payment of this also. The last representatives in this island of the
two dispossessed orders died in San Juan about the year 1865.
Bishop Monserrate made an effort to reestablish the order of
Franciscans in 1875-'76. Only three brothers came to the island and
they, not liking the aspect of affairs, went to South America.
* * * * *
The first head of the secular clergy in Puerto Rico was nominated in
1511. The Catholic princes besought Pope Julius II to make it a
bishopric, and recommended as its first prelate Alonzo Manso, canon of
Salamanca, doctor in theology, a man held in high esteem at court. His
Holiness granted the request, and designated the whole of the island
as the diocese, with the principal settlement in it as the see.
The subsequent conquests on the mainland kept adding vast territories
to this diocese till, toward the end of the eighteenth century, it
included the whole region extending from the upper Orinoco to the
Amazon, and from Guiana to the plains of Bogota. Manso's successors
repeatedly represented to the king the absolute impossibility of
attending to the spiritual wants of "the lambs that were continually
added to the flock." They requested that the see might be transferred
to the mainland or that the diocese might be divided in two or more.
This was done in 1791, when the diocese of Guiana was created, and
Puerto Rico with the island of Vieyques remained as the original one.
The bishop came to San Juan in 1513, and at once began to dispose all
that was necessary to give splendor and good government to the first
episcopal seat in America. Unfortunately, he arrived at a time when
dissension, strife, and immorality were rampant; and when it became
known that he was authorized to collect his tithes in specie, the
opposition of the quarrelsome and insubordinate inhabitants became so
violent that the prelate could not exercise his functions, and was
forced to return to the Peninsula in 1515. He came back in 1519,
invested with the powers of a Provincial Inquisitor, which he
exercised till 1539, when he died and was buried in the cathedral,
where a monument with an alabaster effigy marked his tomb till 1625,
when it was destroyed by the Hollanders.
Rodrigo Bastidas, a native of Santo Domingo, was Manso's successor. He
was appointed Bishop of Coro in Venezuela in 1532, but solicited and
obtained the see of Puerto Rico in 1542. He was a man of great
capacity, virtuous and benevolent. He advised the suppression of the
Inquisition, asked the Government for facilities to educate the youth
and advance the agricultural interests of his diocese, and commenced
the construction of the cathedral. He died in Santo Domingo in 1561,
very old and very rich.
Friar Diego de Salamanca, of the order of Augustines, succeeded
Bastidas. He continued the construction of the cathedral, but soon
returned to the metropolis, leaving the diocese to the care of the
Vicar-General, Santa Olaya, till 1585, when the Franciscan friar
Nicolas Bamos was appointed to the see. He was the last Bishop of
Puerto Rico who united the functions of inquisitor with those of the
episcopate, and a zealous burner of heretics. After him the see
remained vacant for fourteen years; since then, to the end of the
eighteenth century there were 39 consecrated prelates, 9 of whom
renounced, or for some other reason did not take possession. The most
distinguished among the remaining 30 were: Bernardo Balbuena, poet and
author, 1623-'27; Friar Manuel Gimenez Perez, pious, active, and
philanthropist, 1770-'84; and Juan Alejo Arismendi, who, according to
the Latin inscription on his tomb, was an amiable, religious, upright,
zealous, compassionate, learned, decorous, active, leading,
benevolent, paternal man. Of the rest little more is known than their
names and the dates of their assumption of office and demise.
* * * * *
The year 1842 was, for the secular clergy, one of anxiety for the
safety of their long and assiduously accumulated wealth. The members
to the number of 17 individuals, including the bishop, drew annual
stipends from the insular treasury to the amount of 36,888 pesos,
besides which they possessed and still possess a capital of over one
and a half millions of pesos, represented by: 1. Vacant chaplaincies.
2. Investments under the head Ecclesiastical Chapter. 3. Idem for
account of the Carmelite Sisterhood. 4. Legacies to saints for the
purpose of celebrating masses and processions in all the parishes of
the island. 5. Pious donations. 6. Fraternities and religious
associations for the worship of some special saint. 7. Revenues from
an institution known by the name of Third Orders. 8. Capital invested
by the founders of the Hospital of the Conception, the income of which
is mostly consumed by the nuns of that order. And 9. The
ecclesiastical revenues of different kinds in San German.
All this was put in jeopardy by the following decree:
"Dona Isabel II, by the grace of God and the Constitution of the
Spanish Monarchy, Queen of Spain, and during her minority Baldomero
Espartero, Duke of 'la Victoria' and Morella, Regent of the kingdom,
to all who these presents may see and understand, makes known that the
Cortes have decreed, and we have sanctioned, as follows:
"ARTICLE I. All properties of the secular clergy of whatever class;
rights or shares of whatever origin or denomination they may be, or
for whatever application or purpose they may have been given, bought,
or acquired, are national properties.
"ART. II. The properties, rights, and shares corresponding in any
manner to ecclesiastical unions or fraternities, are also national
properties.
"ART. III. All estates, rights, and shares of the cathedral,
collegiate and parochial clergy and ecclesiastical unions and
fraternities referred to in the preceding articles, are hereby
declared for sale."
* * * * *
The 15 articles that follow specify the properties
in detail, the manner of sale, the disposition of the
products, administration of rents, etc.
The law was not carried into effect. Espartero, very popular at first,
by adopting the principles of the progressist party, forfeited the
support of the conservatives - that is, of the clerical party, and the
man is not born yet who can successfully introduce into Spain a
radical reform of the nature of the one he sanctioned with his
signature September 2, 1841. From that moment his overthrow was
certain. Narvaez headed the revolution against him, his own officers
and men abandoned him, and on July 30, 1843, he wrote his farewell
manifesto to the nation on board a British ship of war.