Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 08).djvu/168

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164
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
[Vol. 8

that he erred then, and now is in the right. (It appears to me, however, that he errs now, and was then in the right.) So firm is he in his opinion that he does not wish to call it opinion, but truth. He declares that if all the orders in this bishopric, and the universities of Salamanca and Alcala[1] in addition, should say the contrary, he would not forsake his opinion; and he is very certain that your Majesty will oblige me to follow his opinion. He offers a treatise on the subject which he is preparing for the explanation and elucidation of everything, and finally closes by asking me to have the money paid which is owed by the royal treasury.

17. It is unnecessary to report here my reply to his letter; for, besides being brief, inasmuch as I had said all that there was to say in regard to the principal business, I did not care to attempt more than to pacify him, and to reply by means of the fathers, who had caused him to show such indignation, and to beg him not to give rise to scandals and schisms. I advised him to finish his treatise and hoped that God would grant that everything might be settled and composed.

18. After this there was quiet for several days, in

  1. The university of Salamanca was founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century. The city of Salamanca, although it contains beautiful churches, owes its fame chiefly to the university. The studies were divided into the greater schools, or university proper, and the lesser schools, or colleges. In 1569 it had the following chairs: canonical law, ten; theology, seven; medicine, seven; logic and philosophy, eleven; astronomy, one; music, one; Hebrew and Chaldean, two; Greek, four; rhetoric and grammar, seventeen. It was among the very first universities to teach the sciences.

    The university of Alcala was founded by Cardinal Cisneros, July 26, 1508, under the name of Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso. It was removed to Madrid in 1836. The building occupied by the university combined in itself several forms of architecture, not adhering to any one.