John Leddy Phelan

Some ideological aspects of the conquest of Philippines.

THE Spanish overseas empire was not won in a fit of absent-mindedness nor was it developed in a mood of salutary neglect. It was won with a conscience as well as with a sword. Some disagreement has recently been expressed as to whether the ideas of Francisco de Vitoria, prima professor of theology at the University of Salamanca at the time of his death in 1546, exercised any appreciable influence on the actual development of events and ideas in the New World. One thing is beyond contention. Vitoria’s thought had a decisive impact on the Philippines. The ideological controversy precipitated by the conquest of the archipelago often assumed the character of a creative commentary on the lectures of that great Dominican theologian.

The Influence of Religion on the History of the New World

I have given a careful and interested reading to the draft of the chapter on the influence of religion on the history of the New World for the PAIGH project. As it now stands, the draft ought to be discarded and redrafted in its entirety. This essay lacks a conceptual framework which would provide some unity of organization to the considerable amount of illustrative data that such a chapter must of necessity include. What first must be selected are those spheres in which religion has played a major role in the history of the Americas and then to compare and to contrast the various roles that these religious factors have played in the development of Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, and Dutch America. This type of organizational and conceptual framework will give a religious dimension to the central thesis of the whole project, i. e ., that the Americas do have a common history, without distorting the often dissimilar impact that religious considerations have had on the historical development of the New World.

Pre-Baptismal Instruction and the Administration of Baptism in the Philippines during the Sixteenth Century

Magellan’s abortive attempts to introduce baptism among the natives of the island of Cebu during the month of April of 1521 and the more successful efforts of the Spanish missionaries to preach the Gospel following the arrival of the Legazpi-Urdaneta expedition at Cebu on February 13, 1565 occurred during the initial and the culminating chapters respectively of the “spiritual conquest” of those native peoples of America and the Far East who were to enter the orbit of Spanish culture. During April of 1521, as Magellan was transforming himself into a lay missionary, Hernan Cortes was making the final preparations for the siege of Tenochtitlan. Its successful issue on August 13, 1521 laid the foundation not only of the Spanish Empire in the New World, but also it provided the Spaniards with the base of operations from which eventually they could extend their power to the Philippines. It was Cortes’ conquest of the Aztec Confederation in 1521 which enabled the Catholic missionaries of Spain to undertake one of the most extensive expansions in the history of the Christian Church. In 1565 the Spanish Church for its Philippine enterprise was able to draw upon a vast storehouse of missionary experience acquired in both North and South America. Magellan’s apostolic labors, ill-starred and brief though they were, exemplify many of the permanent features of the Spanish missionary enterprise. The Magellan episode also illustrates how his successors after 1565 did in fact profit from the Circumnavigator’s errors of judgment and tactics.