Malley, William J.

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archīum.ATENEO (Ateneo de Manila Univ.)

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints Volume 8 Number 2 Article 32 3-31-1960 Jesuit Documents: Monumenta Mexicana William J. Malley Follow this and additional works at: https://archium.ateneo.edu/phstudies Recommended Citation Malley, William J. (1960) "Jesuit Documents: Monumenta Mexicana," Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints: Vol. 8: No. 2, Article 32. Available at: https://archium.ateneo.edu/phstudies/vol8/iss2/32 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Ateneo Journals at Archīum Ateneo. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints by an authorized editor of Archīum Ateneo. philippine studiesAteneo de Manila University • Loyola Heights, Quezon City • 1108 PhilippinesJesuit Documents:Monumenta MexicanaReview Author: William J. MalleyPhilippine Studies vol. 8, no. 2 (1960): 468—469Copyright © Ateneo de Manila UniversityPhilippine Studies is published by the Ateneo de Manila University. Contents may not be copied or sent via email or other  means to multiple sites and posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s written permission. Users may download and print articles for individual, noncom-mercial use only. However, unless prior permission has been obtained, you may not download an entire issue of a journal, or download multiple copies of articles.Please contact the publisher for any further use of this work at philstudies@admu.edu.ph.http://www.philippinestudies.netFri June 30 13:30:20 2008468 PHILIPPINE STUDIES JESUIT DOCUMENTS MONUMENTA HEXICANA. Volume I, 1570-1580. Volume 11, 1581-1585. Edited by F6lix Zubillaga, S.J. Rome, 1956, 1959. ~1,631 and ~ 1 , 8 5 2 ~ .  The, second volume of Monumenta mezicana is also the 84th volume of the series M o n m e n t a  historica Societatis Zesu, which has a s  its aim since its inception in 1894 the publication of documents dealing with the history of the Society of Jesus. In the volumes under review Fr. Zubillaga makes frequent mention of a projected Monumentz Znsularum Philippinarum, which will certainly be a welcome aid to a well rounded study of Philippine history. Those familiar with the earlier works of Zubillaga, Monumenta antiquae Floridae, L a  Florida and his edition of Ale,gre's Historia de la  CompaCia.. . e n  Nueva  E s p a h ,  will find in the Monumentn k c a n a  the same high quality of critical scholarship. Title, date, origin, summary and critical apparatus accompany each document. Most of the documents in Volume I concern the entrance of the Society of Jesus into New Spain and the erection of its f irst  schools and mission statioi;~ there. A few, however, concern the Philippines. As early as 1574, the Annual Letter 2f the Province of New Spain to Superiors in Rome hinted a t  the possibilities of mission work in the Island's (Doc. 62). The Acts of the Jesuit Provincial Congrega- tion of 1577 record the readiness of the Society to accede to  the request ~f Philip I1 that Jesxits be sent to the Philippines. "Aviendo hecho instancia el Virey, con orden del Rey, que vayan algunos de 10s Nuestros a las Philipinas, se embien dos P a h e s  con dos Hermanos, para ayudar a 10s espafioles que alli estLn, y veer el estado de aquella tierra y avisar dello" (Doc. 112). Letters which concern their journey and early days there are thereafter recorded. In  sharp contrast with the first volume, Volume I1 contains a great deal more Philippine material. The Index, under Filipinus, gives two closely printed columns of references. In a number of letters the writers mention their willingness to push on to Japan and China, for they were a t  c loss as  to what to do. "Si la Compaiiia no toma a cargo indios o no assienta estudios en Manila, no hai para qu6 estkn alli 10s de la Compaiiia, porque no tiene:n que hacer; porque 10s hespafioles son muy pocos, y Bstos, lo mLs ordinario, occu- pados en tales tratos, que han menester personas de miis hancha consciencia que 10s absuelva" (Doc. 151). The Mexican Provincial Congregation, however, answered quite emphatically in 1585 that  no Jesuit was to go from the Philippines to Japan or China. But the Monumenta Znsrulnrum Philippinamm will no doubt help to throw more light on this problem a s  well a s  on all early Jesuit activity in the Isands. BOOK REVIEWS There are several misprints in Volume 11, none of which, a s  f a r  a s  I could judge, are of importance. One laudable change is made in the second volume. The notes are in Spanish, not Latin, thus put- ting them within the reach of a greater number of scholars interested in Spanish colonial affairs and their relation with the Society of Jesus. NICHOLAS P. CUSHNER A SUPERB NARRATIVE THE LIBERATION OF THE PHILIPPINES: Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas, 1944-45. The History of United States Naval Operations in World War 11. Volume XIII. By Samuel Eliot Morison. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1959. 338p., Illus. $6.50. The things lost in war are always precious ones. Among them are mem0rie.s: the facts, the personal experiences, the many crosu- threads and intangibles with which a historian, especially a naval one, must weave a fabric of solid cloth. Memories fade in their vividness and clarity; facts once known and recorded can be lost or forgotten; experiences suffer the fading fate of memories. And so when the time comes for someone to speak in print that  "this is how it was, how i t  happened, and why", there must come a sense of frustration that  somewhere, somehow, something is missing. A broken vase can never be put together whole; a tiny sliver is always missing, and cannot be found again. This is one of the minor but important tragedies of war, a s  i t  is of life itself. I t  is a particular tragedy to the painstaking historian, and I am sure Admiral Morison, who takes infinite pains, will say "amen" to that. This latest volume, the thirteenth in Admiral Morison's Histoqy of United States Ncwal Operations in World War II, deals not only with the liberation of the Philippines following the operations in Leyte Gulf but also includes the operations in Borneo, the supporti2g (but always silent and separate) submarine operations of 1945, and the even more obscure doings of the U.S. Naval Group, China, known a s  the "Rice-Pactdy Navy". There is another frustration, I am sure, to a war historian and that  is the fact that so many events are taking place a t  the same time that  i t  becomes difficult to isolate one set of happenings from another and arrange the whole in neat categories. I have always felt that somehow or other Admiral Morison's series has suffered from that  in some respects. Yet how could he have done otherwise if he wanted to make a good story? And all his historical writings are eminently good stories. Any other historian might have said: 

Jesuit Documents: Monumenta Mexicana

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Jesuit Documents: Monumenta Mexicana

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