corporation. The _regidores_ were aldermen and with the registrar
and constable held office permanently as a proprietary right. These
permanent positions in the _cabildo_ could be bought and sold or
inherited. [72]

Turning now to the ecclesiastical administration, we find there the
real vital organs of the Philippine governmental system. To the modern
eye the islands would have seemed, as they did to the French scientist
Le Gentil, priest-ridden. Yet it was only through the Friars that Spain
retained her hold at all. [73] A corrupt civil service and a futile
and decrepit commercial system were through their efforts rendered
relatively harmless, because circumscribed in their effects. The
continuous fatherly interest of the clergy more than counterbalanced
the burden of the tribute. [74] They supervised the tilling of the
soil, as well as the religious life of the people; and it was through
them that the works of education and charity were administered. [75]

The head of the ecclesiastical system was the Archbishop of Manila,
who in a certain sense was the Patriarch of the Indies. [76] The other
high ecclesiastical digntaries were the three bishops of Cebú, of
Segovia in Cagayán, and of Cazeres in Camarines; and the provincials
of the four great orders of friars, the Dominicans, Augustinians,
the Franciscans, the barefooted Augustinians, and the Jesuits. [77]
In the earlier days the regular clergy (members of the orders) greatly
outnumbered the seculars, and refused to acknowledge that they were
subject to the visitation of bishop or archbishop. This contention
gave rise, at times, to violent struggles. During the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries the proportionate number of seculars increased. In
1750 the total number of parishes was 569, of which 142, embracing
147,269 persons, were under secular priests. The numbers in charge