CONFLICT BETWEEN CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES


_Case that happened in Manila in the year 1623, in regard to a fugitive
who was taken from the church_


Juan Soto de Vega, whom justice was prosecuting for having stolen
a large sum of money from the ship which was coming from Mejico to
Filipinas, had taken refuge in the asylum [_sagrado_] of the cathedral
of Manila. Desirous of escaping from the prosecution of the secular
tribunal, he tried to get to Eastern or Portuguese Yndia in the month
of December. He begged permission from the provisor and vicar-general,
Don Pedro Monrroy, that he might be taken from the cathedral and kept
in the ecclesiastical prison; and they actually kept him there, but
with guards and in confinement, until the Portuguese boats left for
Yndia. Then they returned him to the cathedral, where he remained for
the space of eight months, until an auditor took him violently from
the church on the fifth of September, 1623, and took him to the public
prison. There he, in company with another auditor, tortured Juan de
la Vega until they broke his arm, which caused a great public scandal.

The provisor began to take steps in defense of the ecclesiastical
immunity. He demanded the criminal, and publicly declared the auditors
to be excommunicated, threatening to place them under interdict, unless
they would return the prisoner to the church. After the time-limit had
expired, the interdict was imposed. The auditors, on the other hand,
despatched a letter and a second letter to the provisor charging him
to lift the censures and interdict, under penalty of banishment and a