The Negro trail blazers of California [microform] : a ... - Homestead

OF CALIFORNIA 27
of which and a Concordate of April 7, 1772, between the authorities of the two orders
sanctioned by the Viceroy, the Missions of Lower California were confided to the Dominicans
and those of Upper California to the Franciscans.
"The income and product of the Pious Fund were hereafter applied to the Missions
of both orders. The Church, when first established in Upper California, was purely missionary
in its character. It first dates from 1769, in July of which year Fr. Junipero
Serra, a Franciscan Friar, and his companions reached the port of San Diego overland
from the frontier Missions of Lower California and then foundeil the first Christian Mission
and the first settlement of civilized men within the territory comprising what is now the
State of California. The Missions were designed so that, when the population should be
sufficiently instructed, to be converted into parish churches and maintained as such, as had
already been done in other parts of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.
"But in the meantime and while the necessary missionary character continued, they
were under the ecclesiastical government of a President of the Mission. Fr. Junipero
Serra was the first who occupied that office and the Missions were governed and directed
by him and his successors as such down to the year 1836, when the authority of this office
was superseded by the appointment of a bishopric or diocese. Francis Garcia Diego, the
last President of the Missions, was the first bishop of the new diocese of Upper California.
"The text of the decree of pragmatic sanction expelling the Jesuits from the Spanish
domain is very brief. Under this provision the Crown took all the estate of the order into
its possession, including those of the Pious Fund, but later constituting a trust estate,***
charged with this trust. This was fully recognized by the Crown, and the property of the
Pious Fund, so held in trust, was afterwards managed in its name by officers appointed
for the purpose, called a Junta Directive.
"This income and product continued to be devoted through the instrumentality of
the ecclesiastical authorities to the religious uses for which they were dedicated by the
donors.***On the declaration of Mexican Independence, Mexico succeeded to the Crown
of Spain as trustee of the Pious Fund, and it continued to be managed and its income
applied as before down to September 19, 1836, when the condition of the Church and the
Missions established in California seemed to render desirable the erection of the country
into a diocese or bishopric for its government.***
"The two Californias. Upper and Lower, were erected by His Holiness, Pope Gregory
XVI into a diocese and Francis Garcia Diego, who until that time had been President of
the Missions of Upper California, was made bishop of the newly constituted See. As
such he became entitled to the administration, management and investment of the Pious
Fund as a trust.
***"0n February 8, 1840, so much of the law of September 19, 1836, as confided the
management and investment of the fund to the bishop was abrogated by a decree of Santa
Ana, the President of the Eepublic, and the trust was again devolved on the State, but
that decree did not purport in any way to impair or alter the rights of the trust. On the
contrary, it merely devolved on the Government the investment and money of the Pious
Fund.***On October 24, 1842, another decree was made by the same President,*** directing
that the property belonging to the Pious Fund should be sold for the sum represented
by its income capitalized on the basis of 6% per annum,*** and that the proceeds of the
sale as well as the cash investment of the funds should be paid into the public treasury
and recognized as an obligation on the part of the Government to pay annually thereof
thenceforth. '
The reader has learned from the quotation of extracts from the paper by Mr.^ Doyle
that the missionary fathers financed their own establishment of the California Missions,
through the income derived from the Pious Fund. This paper fully stated the banishment
from Mexico of the Jesuit Order of missionaries. The reason for allowing the Franciscan
Order to do such wonderful work in laying the foundation for civilizing the Californians
is explained by Father Engelhardt, who says: "When the royal decree expelling the
Jesuits from New Spain had been executed, Viceroy de Croix and Inspector General Jose
de Galvez resolved to place the California Missions in charge of the Franciscan Mission
College of San Fernando, in the City of Mexico. ***There were still some Jesuit Friars in
the Missions of Lower California. The Crown sent Captain Gaspar de Portolo, a Castilian,
to execute the Koyal decree in California. He was at the same time made Governor
of the Peninsula of California. Don Gaspar de Portolo sailed from Spain with
fifty soldiers and fourteen Franciscans."
Seven years previous there also had sailed from "Spain August 28, 1749, Fr. Junipero
Serra, a Franciscan, and Francisco Palou, who came to the College of San Fernando,
in Mexico City, arriving in January, 1750." These two Friars were anxious to Christianize
the heathen in California.