Chapter III.The Rebellion Largely the Work of a Secret Organization.Secret societies, and, above all, that great guild known as Freemasonry, are certainly foremost, if not controlling, factors in the warfare made upon throne and altar during the last one hundred and fifty years.In saying this we do not intend to express any opinion for or against the sentiments of Protestant Freemasons in England and the United States, numbers of whom, no doubt, reprobate the anti-Christian spirit this association shows on the Continent and in Spanish America. They have been brought up to regard it as a perfectly harmless and beneficent institution, and cannot understand the attitude taken with regard to it by the Catholic Church.Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of the natives.Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of the natives.It is quite true that Freemasonry may have in these countries kept to its original constitution, which, we may admit, was of a beneficent nature. But what Catholic writers on the subject urgently insist upon is, that on the Continent it very soonassumed a political and dangerous character. For a long time it was not condemned by the Church, and many good Catholics of rank and position gave their names to it. It was only when its dangerous tendencies came to light that it received solemn ecclesiastical condemnation, and that Catholics were forbidden to join it. For more than a century this secret guild has been at the bottom of the revolutions that have desolated the modern world. Some years previous to the French Revolution, German envoys of the Society of the Illuminati advised the French Masons to form a political committee in each lodge; and in time, as Robison remarks, these committees led to the formation of the Jacobin Club. “Thus were the lodges of France,” says this writer, “converted in a very short time into a set of affiliated secret societies, corresponding with the mother lodges of Paris, receiving from thence their principles and instructions, and ready to rise up at once when called upon to carry on the great work of overturning the State. Hence it arose that the French aimed, in the very beginning, at subverting the whole world. Hence, too, may be explained how the revolution took place almost in a moment in every part of France. The revolutionary societies were early formed, and were working in secret before the opening of the National Assembly; and the whole nation changed, and changed again and again, as if by beat of drum.”In Spain, since its introduction it assumed a sanguinary and virulent character; it brought about revolutions and civil wars, embittered classes against one another, wronged and starved the clergy, robbed, turned adrift, and banished the religious Orders.There is, indeed, a good deal of difficulty in tracing all these evils to the action of the Freemasons; for on the Continent, especially in Spain, the society has been always of a more secret nature than in these countries. Members of the Craft in England and the United States are generally well known to belong to it; their halls and lodges in the larger towns are imposing and conspicuous; their emblems and badges are often seen in the light of day. But on the Continent we see very little of all this; it is a thoroughly secret society; the members and their movements are carefully veiled from sight. As we said before, Freemasonry, on its introduction to the Continent, at once assumed a political character. The Deists and free-thinkers of the last century utilized it as a potent means of combining against the Church, and of carrying on their evil propaganda. In this way they were aided by the Jansenists, with different motives it is true, but still, when it was a question of opposing the religious Orders, with a whole heart. The working of the society in Spain in this century has necessarily been more stealthy and insidious than in France, for there itwas face to face with a truly Catholic population devotedly attached to the Church.By means of atheistical French literature, the works of Voltaire and other unbelievers, translated into Spanish, brought across the border in large bales, and disseminated through the Peninsula, the Freemasons had already indoctrinated a large number of active and restless spirits with revolutionary and anti-Christian ideas, when the troubles and civil war of 1834 gave them the opportunity they desired of making an onslaught on the religious Orders. At such times the minds of men are in a ferment, and the most incredible reports may be spread abroad, and will be implicitly believed by the populace. Accordingly, on the awful visitation of cholera, which swept over Europe at that time, desolating cities and towns, and leaving thousands upon thousands of families in mourning, in Madrid the report was industriously spread by the Masons that the Monks and Friars had poisoned the wells, and were the cause of the sickness among the people. In a mad fit of rage the populace rose on all sides, rushed to the convents and monasteries, and murdered all the inmates they could lay their hands upon. This awful event is referred to in the Memorial.Such a state of things may seem hardly possible in the nineteenth century; and yet a similar catastrophe nearly happened in Lisbon a few years ago, the circumstances of which were related to thewriter by one of the Dominicans who was living there at the time. It appears that the Dominican nuns had opened a dispensary for the relief of the poor. Strange to say, the frightful report soon went abroad that the nuns were stealing children, and killing and boiling them down to make a healing ointment out of their remains. The city was in an uproar; it was unsafe for priests and nuns to be seen in the streets; and the populace who really believed the absurd story, being in a furious state of excitement, were on the point of burning down the convent, and maltreating the nuns.To return to Spain, the popular rising in Madrid was utilized by the revolutionary party in carrying out, the following year, the suppression of all the convents and monasteries in the country. The religious were driven out into the world; and their lands, goods, libraries, and art-treasures were sold for the benefit of the public debt, and to supply means to carry on the civil war. The bishops and secular clergy as well were also robbed, numerous episcopal sees were suppressed, and the goods of the Church declared to be national property. The Freemason Government promised to look after the interests of the Church by paying salaries to all ecclesiastics. As a result, Spain was filled, in a few years, with a poverty-stricken and starving clergy, and ruined churches and mouldering abbeys were to be seen on all sides. The effects of that great spoliation are still felt in the Peninsula; forthough the religious Orders have revived in the meantime, and numerous convents and monasteries have been built, the priests are not in sufficient numbers for the needs of the population, which thereby, in many places, is suffering great spiritual destitution.The policy of robbery and confiscation was boldly advocated for the Philippines, just before the late war, in one of the leading reviews of Madrid. Juan Ferrando Gomez, in a series of articles1bitterly hostile to the Philippine Friars, proposed their entire suppression. They should be turned out of their convents and missionary houses by a secret decree, of which they were to be kept in ignorance till the execution actually took place. Their convents in Manila would be useful as barracks and Government offices, their country estates could be divided amongst their tenants, and the rents formerly paid to the Friars could be commuted into a tax to be paid to the State. Moreover, the Archbishop of Manila, and any others of the bishops belonging to the religious Orders, should be forced out of the country. Besides that, the schools and university belonging to the Friars should also be either suppressed, or taken out of their hands. Reading these flagrantly unjust proposals in the light of recent Spanish history, and with the help of the Memorial, we areinclined to believe that, without much further pressure from the Freemasons, the Spanish Ministry would have carried them out. Fortunately for the Friars, as well as the natives, they have no voice in the matter now. Under the American flag the religious will be treated as citizens, having the common right of citizens, neither to be molested in their persons nor robbed of their property. The President of the United States has declared this in clear terms to the Holy See.With regard to Freemasonry in Spanish or Latin America, the Rev. Reuben Parsons has recently written on the subject (seeAppendix III.), substantiating all his assertions by quotations from Masonic organs or other unprejudiced sources, and clearly exposing the systematic war which the lodges in South and Central America have carried on against religion. He shows how it has started revolutions, assassinated the leaders of the people, exiled the clergy, and persecuted the Church in other ways.We will now endeavor to trace the history of Freemasonry in the Philippines and its connection with the insurrection there. In the Philippines Freemasonry found itself face to face with a simple native population, mostly Christian, and an active body of Spanish missionaries belonging to various religious Orders, loyal to their native country, possessing unbounded influence over their flocks, and rapidly bringing under the yoke of Christ the tribeswho were still Pagan. The religious were a power that they could not hope to cope with for a long time; and so at first they were left unmolested, while the members of the Craft were gathering converts, and strengthening their position, among a class more suitable to their nefarious designs, viz., the mestizos, or half-breeds; the Filipinos, or those who, though born in the country, consider themselves the pure-blooded descendants of the early colonists; and the Spanish officials, numbers of whom were already Masons before they went to the Archipelago.That the Freemasonry in the Philippines has shown itself of a distinctly sanguinary nature is not to be wondered at when we consider its close connection with Spain. The Lodge of Action, or Red Lodge, composed of determined revolutionists ready to use the dagger, and prepared to wade through a sea of blood to accomplish their designs, represented by Mazzini and the Carbonari in Italy, has a large following in Spain, and was presided over, a few years ago, by Zorilla, the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Spain.The following account of the growth of Freemasonry in the Philippines, taken from theRosario, an organ published in Rome, the editor of which has access to special information, and is in close touch with friars who have been living for many years in the archipelago as missionaries, will be of profound interest. In or about 1860 manyof the strangers who frequented the Philippines were Freemasons, and members of the lodges of Singapore, Hongkong, Java, Macao, and the open ports of China. This was at a period when England, Holland, France, the United States, for colonial reasons of their own, showed hostility to Spain. It was therefore quite natural that, in those lodges, an anti-Spanish spirit gradually arose in the Philippines. Seeing this spirit arising, two officials of the Spanish navy, Malcampo and Mendez Nunez, Freemasons themselves, determined to oppose Freemasonry to Freemasonry, by founding lodges that would uphold the Spanish interests; they therefore established, at Cavite, the Lodge Primera Luz Filippina, placing it under the Grand Orient of Lusitania, and a little afterwards another lodge at Zamboanga, for the officials, seamen, and civil functionaries who held positions in Mindanao.In opposition to these, the strangers residing in the Philippines established at Manila itself a lodge of the Scottish rite, as apoint d’appuifor the enemies of Spain. They thus moved the centre of conspiracy against Spain to the islands themselves, and tried to draw the natives into their nets by giving them important positions in the Craft. The two opposing factions of Freemasonry also increased their numbers largely by taking in the political exiles who were sent to the Philippines as a result of the part taken by them in the variouscivil wars in the Peninsula, most of whom gave their names and services to one or the other. It is remarkable that these two bodies, guided by opposite political principles, one depending on a Spanish centre and directed principally by Spaniards, the other directed principally by Germans, English, and Americans, and opposed to Spanish interests, found, at least in one direction, a point of concord, namely, in opposition to the religious Orders. Although the Spanish Masons were actuated by a love for their mother-country, still the well-known anti-clericalism of Freemasonry prevailed over every other consideration, blinding them to the fact that the best and most influential representatives of Spain in the Philippines were to be found in the religious Orders, who were the only civilizing force able to deal with the natives. They thus indirectly paved the way for the insurrection; for it is well known that from the ranks of the opposing factions, and principally by reason of their anti-clerical tendencies, arose the sanguinary society of the “Katipunan,” which made it its direct aim to expel the friars, and overturn the Spanish government in the islands. TheGrand Orient, the organ of this society, declared that one of the first articles of its programme was the extermination of the religious. And here it may be noticed that the ninth term of the proposals made by the insurgents to America was as follows: “There shall be a general religious toleration; butmeasures shall be adopted for the abolition and expulsion of the religious communities, who, with an iron hand, have hitherto demoralized the actual civil administration.”In the meantime the lodges increased in number, so much so that two years ago there were at Manila sixteen lodges affiliated to the Grand Orient of Spain, and one at least in every pueblo in the province of Luzon, and also lodges in Zamboanga and the Visaya Islands; an Anglo-German club-lodge, on the books of which were inscribed the names of a great part of the Government officials; also the German Union, affiliated to the Grand Orient of Berlin; the society of S. Giovanni del Monte, a centre common to Swiss, French, Belgian, and Dutch Masons. In all, according to reliable statistics, there were a hundred lodges and 25,000 initiates. When the Freemasonry of the Philippines had gathered these numbers under its banner, the insurrection broke out; and of its 25,000 members, at least 20,000 were to be found in the ranks of the rebels. Could any clearer proof than this be found that the insurrection in the Philippines is the direct work of Freemasonry?We will here call the attention of our readers to two of the illustrations. The first is a collection of various seals and stamps, forty-one in number, in use by the various branches of the Katipunan, the sanguinary secret society of the natives. Masonic emblems, the compass and rule, thetriangle, the keys, etc., are to be found on almost all of them, proving beyond doubt the Masonic direction and constitution of the society. Turn now to the other illustration,—a Masonic apron, worn at secret meetings and also in battle, which was found on the body of an insurgent after an engagement. No concealment here of methods to be used,—the head dripping with blood, one hand grasping the bleeding head, and the other holding the dagger, sufficiently attest to all beholders the work of the Red Lodge.The position of the religious Orders in the Philippines, just before the war broke out between Spain and America, had become so perilous and unbearable, that they addressed a long Memorial to the Spanish Government, exposing their grievances, explaining the cause of the rebellion, and suggesting remedies suitable for the situation.This Memorial is more than a mere appeal to the Spanish Government. It is a challenge to the civilized world, made by men whose dignity and honor have been outraged by awful and unjust charges levelled at them by their foes, and spread far and near by the press. The Memorial has been put into print by the Friars, and scattered through Spain; it has been translated into French, and now it appears (in a condensed form) in an English dress. Up to the present, at any rate, it has not drawn forth an answer from those whose calumnies were the cause of its appearance.From another point of view it is of interest, giving us valuable information as to the causes of the rebellion, and incidentally throwing a lurid light upon the dark places and dark workings of Freemasonry. Its importance as an authoritative exposition lies in the fact that it emanates from the combined heads of all the religious Orders in the Philippines, men having under their spiritual care more than five out of the six millions of Christians in the country. It is signed by Father Manuel Gutierrez, Provincial of the Augustinians; Father Gilberto Martin, Commissary-Provincial of the Franciscans; Father Francisco Ajarro, Provincial of the Recollects; Father Candido Garcia Valles, Vicar-Provincial of the Dominicans; Pio Pi, S. J., Superior of the Missions of the Society of Jesus.Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”We doubt whether any official notice was taken of the document by the Spanish Government. It was on its way to Spain when, on the declaration of war by America, Admiral Dewey stole into Manila Bay by night, shattered the Spanish fleet the next morning at Cavite, and laid siege to Manila. In the meantime, too, the Spanish Ministry had resigned; and when the documents arrived at its destination, a new Ministry was in office, under Señor Sagasta, with a new colonial minister. Facing bravely, but ineffectually, one of the greatest powers in the world, the new Ministry was entirely taken up with cares and interestson which depended the existence of Spain as a nation.A striking characteristic of the memorial is its outspoken insistence upon Freemasonry as the principal cause of the Rebellion, a position not unwarranted in view of the evidence presented on previous pages. So much has been heard from the opponents of the religious Orders, that a word from themselves, in their own defence, will have all the air of novelty. We reprint the memorial, quite confident that it will not suffer by comparison with what has appeared from the other side.The Memorial of the Philippine Friars to the Spanish Government, April, 1898.TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE COLONIAL MINISTER.In addition to the telegram sent to His Excellency, the Governor-General and Viceroy, on the first of this month, that he might bring it officially under your Excellency’s notice, which the said authority informs us has been done, we, the Superiors of the Congregations of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Recollects, Dominicans, and Jesuits, have the honor of presenting this Statement to his Majesty, King Alfonso XIII., and, in his royal name, to Her Majesty the Queen Regent, Dona Maria Christina, to the President and Members of the Crown Ministerial Council, and more especially to your Excellency as Colonial Minister. We address this Statement directly to your Excellency, according to law and custom, that you may deign to bring itunder the notice of the exalted personages already mentioned, and even if it appears desirable before the nation, duly assembled in the Cortes of the kingdom.The time has come for us faithful and constant upholders of Spanish rule in the Philippines to break our traditional silence. The hour has also come to defend our honor, which has been so much assailed, and our holy and patriotic ministry, which has been the object of the most terrible and unjustifiable accusations and calumnies.We have borne patiently with the Freemasons and insurgents, known and unknown, who in their newspapers, clubs, and public meetings, have for the last eighteen months insulted and vilified us, accusing us, among other things, of having fostered the rebellion. We have discovered to our sorrow that a number of Spaniards, having resided in these islands for a longer or shorter period as the case might be, on their return to the Peninsula have spoken of us in terms which they would not have dared to employ if in place of being priests and friars we had been laymen, or if instead of being ecclesiastical congregations we had belonged to civil or military bodies.The religious of the Philippines, far away from Europe, alone in their ministry, scattered to the furthermost corners of the Archipelago, and without any other companions and witnesses of their labors than their own dear and simple parishioners, have no other defence save right and reason. Conscious that we have always been loyal and patriotic subjects, and have always fulfilled our duties and the obligations to our holy ministry, we have borne patiently and silently, according to the advice of the Apostle, insults and calumnies from the very persons to whom we had offered our services in all Christian sincerity. We have kept silence under insults from persons calling themselves forsooth Catholics, but who are infected with the practical Jansenismof certain latter-day reformers. We even suffered in silence certain false information, most dishonoring to the religious Orders, to be brought before the Cortes last year. It was asserted, not only in private, but in important, centres, that the prestige of the religious Orders in the Philippines was so shaken that it would be necessary to drive them out by armed force. It was also declared, as most dishonoring to a great nation like Spain, to have commissioned friars to furnish information about the Philippines, and to have asked their advice in the form of a memorial presented to the Senate. In addition to all this, the gravest accusations, some directed against a worthy prelate, were brought against us, veiled, however, under the guise of impartiality and gentle correction. Before long the clamors will be renewed in a different tone; and we shall see the reproduction in the Archipelago, with more or less cruelty, of that historical period in the Peninsula of 1834–1840.REASONS FOR OUR SILENCE TILL THE PRESENT TIME.We believed that a wise and prolonged silence, added to that prudence and magnanimity which should always distinguish religious orders, would have sufficed for good and discreet persons, and that they would have repelled the accusations, and formed a judgment that would be proof against these repeated attacks. But, instead of calming down, the storm appears to increase daily. The Treaty of Biac-na-Bato has furnished to many the opportunity of renewing the crafty insinuation, nay, bold affirmation, already made by the rebel chiefs, that the religious institutes were the sole cause of the insurrection. One of the chiefs of the “Katipunan” secret society has declared in his paper, TheGrand Orient, which, like a plague, is still scatteredover the islands, that one of the first articles in his programme is the expulsion of the religious Orders. In the Peninsula as well as here, the Freemasons and others who second their efforts have recommenced the war against us. They have published manifestoes at Madrid, in which, misusing the name of the Philippine natives, they demand vexatious and disgraceful measures against the clergy.If under these circumstances we still remained silent, our silence would be attributed, and rightly so, to fear or to guilt. Our patience would be called weakness; and even sensible and solid Catholics, who recognize the injustice of the attacks made against us, might be led to believe that we were really stained with guilt, or that we had fallen into such a state of moral prostration, that we could be ill-treated with impunity.THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY UPHOLD RELIGION.On what grounds are the religious bodies persecuted? Simply because they uphold true and sound doctrine, and have never shown a weak front to the enemies of God and of their country. If we had shown ourselves pusillanimous in sight of the works of Masonic lodges, and in presence of the propagation of the politico-religious errors imported from Europe; if we had given the faintest mark, not of sympathy, but even of toleration, to the men who were scattering broadcast false notions of liberty condemned by the Church; if patriotism had cooled in our hearts, or if the innovators had not found in each Philippine religious an intractable and terrible adversary to their plans,—the religious congregations would never have been disturbed. On the contrary, we should have been extolled to the skies, the more so because our enemies do notignore the fact that, were we to help them in the Archipelago, were we to give them our support, or at least were we to remain silent, we should thereby give them an undisputed victory.But they know well that our standard is no other than the Syllabus of the great Pontiff, Pius IX., so frequently confirmed by Leo XIII., wherein all rebellion against the powers is so energetically condemned. Yea! truly they hate us, and under different names and on divers pretexts they are making such a cruel war upon us that it would seem as if the Freemasons and Revolutionists had no other enemies in the Philippines than the religious bodies.THE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTED AS LOYAL SPANIARDS.Apart from their essentially religious character, the regular clergy of the Archipelago are the sole Spanish institution, permanent and deeply-rooted, which exists in the islands—a vigorous organization well adapted to these regions. While the civil and military officials on the one hand, who come from Spain, live here only for a time, fulfilling their duties more or less wisely according as it is for or against their private interests, and yet are ignorant of the languages of the country, and have only a superficial intercourse with the Islanders, we, the religious, come over here to sacrifice our whole existences, dispersed often one by one amongst the remotest tribes. When we bid an eternal farewell to our native shores, we voluntarily condemn ourselves, by virtue of our vows, to live forever devoted to the moral, religious, and civil education ofthenatives; and we have waged many conflicts in their behalf.CRAFTINESS OF THE INSURGENT CHIEFS.Seeing that we were the most deeply rooted, influential, and best-respected Spaniards in the country, and that we would come to no terms with them or their projects, the rebel chiefs determined to demand our expulsion from the Government. They were aware that they would be backed up in their demand by many among the Spanish residents in the Archipelago, who, led by passion and ignorance, lend a willing ear to all who declaim against the religious Orders, especially when the watchwords used are “Free Thought,” “Liberty of the Press,” “Secularization of Education,” “Ecclesiastical Liquidation,” “Suppression of the Privileges of the Clergy.”Thus the password among the rebels became, especially since the Treaty of Biac-na-Bato, the emancipation of their country. They declared they had no dislike to Spanish administration, nor any intention of separation from Spain; what made them rise in rebellion were the abuses of the clergy, and their only demand was the expulsion of the religious Orders. But these were lying declarations, as numerous judicial and non-judicial documents containing the plans of the conspirators have proved. They made these false professions because they knew that if they declared that the insurrection was brought about by the numerous abuses of power which have been committed by civil and military functionaries, they would have all the Spanish element in the Archipelago leagued against them, and would have the door closed to all their means of propaganda.ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.We ask, in the first place, where are these abuses which are always the subject of their declamations in the clubsand lodges? We preach the Gospel, and not only do we draw to a civilized life the barbarous tribes of the Archipelago, whom we have preserved peaceful and happy for three centuries, as the whole world knows, but we have always been the defenders of the natives, who are subjected to a thousand vexations on the part of the Spanish lay residents. At all times we have watched over the purity of the Faith and the preservation of good morals, showing ourselves inflexible against illegal exactions, immoral games, and those who lead scandalous lives. After all that has been written against us for so many years, we defy our calumniators, and do not fear an honest and impartial examination of our lives and works. Let those who murmur and speak against us, prove by exact dates and authentic documents that their accusations are well founded.They say we are enemies of education and of the diffusion of knowledge; if by education they mean the teaching of doctrine condemned by the Church, we are at one with them; but there is no education in the ordinary sense of the term, primary, secondary, or superior, in the islands that has not been founded, encouraged, and sustained by the clergy. It is well known that very few of the native officials who went through their course in our schools have taken part in the rebellion; and the proclaimers of “Free-thought” are, for the most part, individuals who failed in their career, and were the refuse of our classes.As to the accusations of immorality which are recklessly levelled against us, all we have to say is that everyone can see our monasteries and convents and ourselves, and can form a judgment on our lives; the parish priests and missionaries are alone, surrounded by a multitude of natives; everyone can see what we are doing, and hear what we are saying; our European figures and sacerdotal characterbring us into such prominence before the people that it would be stupid to imagine that we could hide our doings.We consider, as not worthy of reply, the impudent assertion that in the country parts we are despots; that in a thousand ways we suck the blood of our tenants; charges often before refuted by the most explicit documentary evidence. Neither is it worth while speaking of the abominable calumny of attributing to us the passage through the country with armed force, and the imprisoning and torturing of those implicated in the first revolt. All this is part of the absurd fable that we are absolute masters, not only of the consciences of the people, but of the Archipelago itself; statements contradicted by the very men who make them, when they declare in the Cortes that we have lost all influence and all prestige in the islands.CAUSE OF THE REBELLION.The utter want of religion to be found among a great number of the Spanish residents, the facility with which the ancient laws of the Archipelago were changed, the instability of the public functionaries, a fruitful source of abuses, contributed for several years to discredit the Spanish name. But Freemasonry, as the world knows, has been the principal cause of the social disorganization of the Philippines. The Hispano-Philippine Association of Madrid was Masonic; the Masons were almost alone in the work of urging on the natives to make war on the clergy and the Spanish residents; they authorized the founding of lodges in the Archipelago. It was the Masons, too, who formed the “Katipunan” society, so essentially Masonic that in the terrible “compact of blood” they make, they are actually imitating the Carbonari of Italy.In consequence of the teaching of the Freemasons, thevoice of the parish priest has no longer any effect on numbers of the natives, especially at Manila and in the neighboring provinces, where they are accustomed to give themselves airs of importance and independence; and the prestige of the Spanish name has grown considerably less, and disappeared entirely in many places. What wonder, then, if the powerful instincts of race awoke, and that, pondering on the fact that they had a language and climate and territory of their own, the rebels should try to build a wall of separation between the Spaniards and the Malays? Is it not natural that having been brought to believe that the friar is neither their father nor the pastor of their souls, nor their friend and enthusiastic defender, but, on the contrary, a spoiler, and that the Spanish resident is only a money-grubber, having more or less power and authority, they should have desired to free themselves from the Spanish authority?Six months ago the “Katipunan” society was limited to the mountains of Langua and Bulacan, where the rebel chiefs had taken refuge, and also counted some adherents among certain tribes in touch with the insurgents. But now the plague is widespread; the insurgents violating the promise made to the gallant Marquis of Estella, and at the call of a secret signal, have scattered themselves over the central provinces, and by means of cruelty and terrorism have succeeded in enrolling in their ranks a great number of natives who after the submission at Biac-na-Bato gave pledges of fidelity to Spain. They have also succeeded in intrenching themselves at Capiz and in other parts of the Viscayas. The rising in Zambaies, Pagasinan, Iloco, and Cebu are all of recent origin; and the same may be said of the “Katipunans” discovered at Manila.However, the greater part of the country is not yet perverted; a wave of hallucination and fanaticism has passedover it, but the heart of the people is still sound, and with careful management they will return to their usual habits of peace and submission. The move wealthy classes are also sound, and are against the rebellion.We frankly tell the Government that if it does not aid the Church, the revolutionary movement will increase every day, and it will be morally impossible for the religious to remain here any longer. What good is it for us to do our duty to the people when others are allowed to undo our work at the same time? Of what use is it for us to teach the people to be docile and submissive when their worst passions are excited by others, who tell them to make nothing of our teaching? What professor could teach successfully if his pupils were met outside the classroom by respectable persons who told them to despise his lessons? The civil authority, according to the teaching of the Church, ought as far as possible to be a bulwark to religion and morality. If the Government, therefore, does not protect us from the avalanche of insults hurled against us; if it does not root out the secret societies; if it allows our sacerdotal character to be trodden under foot while our enemies destroy the fruit of our labors,—we regret to say that we cannot continue our ministry in the islands.Spain has bound herself very stringently to obligations of this nature. One of the laws of the Code of the Indies says expressly on this point: “We command the Viceroys, the Presidents, the Auditors, the Governors, and the other functionaries of the Indies, to favor, and aid, and encourage the religions orders who are occupying themselves in the conversion of the natives to our entire satisfaction.”The spirit that moved Philip II. was seen in the answer he made to those who advised him to abandon the Archipelago, in view of the little revenue they brought to theCrown. He said: “For the conversion of only one of the souls that are there I would willingly give all the treasures of the Indies, and if they were not enough I would add those of Spain. Nothing in the world would make me consent to cease sending preachers and ministers of the Gospel to all the provinces that have been discovered, even if they are barren and sterile, for the Holy Apostolic See has given to us and our heirs the apostolic commission of publishing and preaching the Gospel. The Gospel can be spread through these islands, and the natives can be drawn from the worship of the demon by making known to them the true God, in a spirit alien to that of temporal greed.”UNJUST CONTEMPT SHOWN TOWARDS THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN THE PHILIPPINES.An idea has spread since the Revolution in Spain of 1868 that the Philippine Friars are a necessary evil, an out-of-date institution which has to be kept up for reasons of state. This unworthy idea, manifested sometimes with frankness, sometimes with a certain reticence, and which wounds us to the quick, has been constantly brought forward by our enemies. The natives who have been to Spain are fully aware of it; without leaving the Philippines, a great number of natives have observed it, and are at present trying to propagate it in the Archipelago. Very numerous, too are the Spanish residents who are hostile to us, owing to an anti-clerical spirit or to jealousy; in fact, we have enemies in all classes of society.Many people, in consequence, think that our very existence in the country is simply owing to pity and condescension on the part of the Government; that we are merely tolerated, and are of less value in the eyes of thecivil authorities than the members of any lay profession. With a marvellous facility all the evils that affect the country are laid at our door; and every time a governor makes a gross blunder in dealing with the natives, the evil consequences which flow from it are put down to us. Now, every class of society has a right to ordinary respect and fair treatment; we receive neither one nor the other, but are treated with absolute contempt. This humiliating situation, as individuals obliged to greater perfection than other Christians, we patiently bear with; but as religious orders we cannot put up with it any longer, for we see only too well how this treatment injures our ministry, and destroys our influence with the people committed to our care.If the Government through an error to which we cannot give unqualified respect, since it is contrary to the real interests of religion and of our country, believes that the mission of the Orders in the islands has come to an end, we nevertheless say to them: “We await your dispositions with sincerity, but do not flatter yourselves that in adopting measures against our religious professions you can burn a light both before Christ and before Belial.” If, on the contrary, we are to remain in the islands, no one can deny that it is necessary to protect our persons, our prestige, and our ministry; our country must show that she is pleased with us, and treat us as her children; we must not be abandoned to our enemies as a thing of no value, and made victims of the resentment of the Freemasons. We do not fear martyrdom, which is an honor we do not feel ourselves worthy of; on the other hand, we do not wish to die as criminals abandoned by their friends and protectors, and deprived of all honor.It is incredible that religious men placed in our position could be the cause of the woes of the Archipelago. Weprefer to resign our ministry, and see ourselves expelled, rather than continue our mission in the islands, if the situation does not better itself before long. We have done our work well in these islands, and we feel sure that we shall be able to do our duty quite as well elsewhere with the grace of God.1In theAdministration, of Madrid, one of the leading reviews in Spain.Chapter IV.The Rebels and Their Grievances.We cannot view without grave misgivings the unexpected turn that affairs have taken since the war, and the second war which has broken out between the rebels and the Americans. It is now plain that it was entire independence from all control that the promoters of the rebellion were looking for from the very beginning; this being well known to the Friars all along, and clearly indicated in their memorial to the Spanish Government. Aguinaldo and his companions have unlimited confidence in themselves, and aspire to form a civilized republic. The character of this pure-souled patriot may be judged from a transaction he had with the Spanish Government. After the armistice of Biac-na-Bato, he was bought out by them, and took thousands of dollars as his price for leaving the country for aye, never to return. He pocketed the money, and went off to Hongkong; but when the Americans came to Manila, and destroyed the Spanish fleet, this worthy returned to the Philippines, and once more raisedthe standard of rebellion. As a result the Americans are apt to find themselves burdened with a war expenditure, even heavier than that borne by Spain in her effort to prevent a repetition in the Philippines of the gruesome story of San Domingo and Hayti. All colored and tropical races have a tendency to revert to their original type and the barbarous customs of their ancestors. The blacks got possession of Hayti nearly a century ago, at which time they were at least domesticated, and partially civilized, having been in contact with the white man for the two previous centuries. They have gone back, and not forward, ever since. The history of the black republic is a bloody revolution every two or three years, distinguished by acts of barbarous ferocity. Life there at the present day is a hideous caricature of civilization and Christianity. Incredible as it may seem, there has been a revival in the remote villages of the old African serpent-worship, and child sacrifices, followed by cannibalism.Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.Archbishop of Nueva Segovia.Ten Spanish Augustinian Friars recently came to San Francisco from the Philippines (seeAppendix IV.). In an interview with the representative of theSan Francisco Monitorthey stated that it was not through fear of the Americans that they had left Manila, but, on the contrary, they believed that the Church would prosper under American rule. They said that the respectable element in the Philippines, though they had been quite contentwith the Spanish rule, and deeming it all that could be expected under the circumstances, are yet welcoming the Americans as a relief from insurgent atrocities. “The insurgents,” they said, “are an undisciplined mob of rioters, led by a demagogue. They are the riff-raff of the islands, men without principle or property in most instances. Aguinaldo has them pretty well in hand to-day, but to-morrow they may disintegrate into fifty gangs. Aguinaldo is an ungrateful renegade, who was fed, clothed, and educated by Catholic priests. He is a mere puppet in the hands of the Freemasons.1It is to these worthies and organizedanarchy in Europe that we may trace the origin of the trouble in the Philippines. Soon after the destruction of the Spanish fleet, the insurgents wrecked our schools, robbed and despoiled our missions and churches, and drove us into Manila. About fifty priests were brutally killed by them. As our field of work was thus laid bare, we decided to leave the Philippines. What made us depart was the discouragement of seeing the work of years destroyed by the men we had gone to teach, and the improbability of being able to build up the work again immediately.”The Filipinos have already shown proof how far removed they are from civilized ideals, and how dangerous it would be to leave them to themselves, by their inhuman treatment of their Spanish prisoners. Besides ordinary Spanish civilians, they have kept in captivity for several months hundreds of Friars, including one hundred Dominicans, and the Dominican Bishop of Neuva Segovia, Mgr. Joseph Hevia, whose portrait we give. Numbers of the Friars have lately died of the hardships to which they were subjected. A letter, received some time ago from one of them by a friend in Manila, describes the ferocious and satanic hatred shown towards them by the rebel chiefs. They were stripped of their clothes, hats, and shoes, robbed of their money, spat upon, tied to trees, and flogged several times. Daily they were forced to work on the public roads frommorning to evening, under a broiling sun, receiving food and drink barely sufficient to support life. The leaders mocked at and jested over their sufferings. Though violent threats were held out against all who succored them, their parishioners seized opportunities of coming to visit them, and alleviate their miseries. From other sources we learn that the noses of some of the prisoners were slit, and a cord passed through the aperture, to be used as a leading-string by their guards. The venerable Bishop was subjected to the grossest indignities. One aged Friar was placed on a saddle, and jumped upon till blood flowed from his mouth and nose. Another, it is said, clothed only in a rain-coat, was carried in triumph for two hundred yards, and then cudgelled to death amid savage cries. Some were crushed to death between boards. Nuns in the convents were subjected to shameful treatment. In the name of common sense, we ask if men who encourage or permit such atrocities are fit to control and guide the destinies of eight millions of people. (SeeAppendix V.)Of course the policy of the Press in general has been to keep these atrocities from the eyes of the public. As it did not suit political purposes to publish them, they have been kept concealed. Owing to this careful management, the sympathies of the world have been enlisted on the side of the “poor downtrodden Filipinos.” An impartialexamination of the grievances of the latter, and of the catch-cries by which the leaders have seduced a considerable portion of the simple natives, will not reveal very much against either the civil or the ecclesiastical rule of the Spaniard. As in everything human, we may suppose that neither was absolute perfection; but, all things considered, there was less to justify rebellion in the Philippines than in most parts of the world where the black is ruled by the white man.One of the grievances of the rebels is that nearly all the ecclesiastics in the Archipelago have been Spaniards, and they demand an entirely native clergy. Now, the Catholic Church has been always most anxious to form a native clergy in missionary countries, but insuperable difficulties have often prevented the realization of this idea. Among colored races there is a paucity of real vocations; it is hard enough to get the people to live up to the Christian ideal without adding thereto the grave responsibilities and life of self-sacrifice of the priesthood. An example in point is the Black Republic of Hayti. It is a Catholic country, nominally at least. The people have retained the Faith taught them by the white man, though preserving such a dislike to him that no white man can own a yard of land in the country. Yet such is their inability to provide themselves with priests of their own blood that they are forced to fall back on the services of a FrenchBishop and French missionary priests, who do all the spiritual work of the island. Another case in point is that of Cuba, an island containing a million and a half of inhabitants, Cubans and Spaniards, of which only forty-three of the former are to be found in the ranks of the priesthood. There has never been any distinction made between Cubans and Spaniards in the two Seminaries of Havana and Santiago de Cuba; all are received alike, and treated alike if they have a vocation; of the forty-three priests, twenty-eight hold parishes, and the rest have other positions of trust, which shows that it is simply owing to lack of vocations and not to any other cause that we must ascribe their fewness in number. In the Philippines, as far back as two centuries ago, the experiment was made of forming a native priesthood, with doubtful success, however, as Dampier informs us that the natives generally held the native priests in contempt, while holding the Spanish clergy in the greatest esteem. We must, perforce, conclude that in the Philippines, as in other countries, it is simply lack of vocations that keeps the number of the native clergy at such a low ebb.Another grievance, brought well to the front by those who have written on behalf of the Filipinos, is the taxation, which is alleged to have been excessive. The writer is informed by one who lived many years there that it was not. However this may be, all taxation is odious to primitiveand half-civilized communities, who are inclined to look upon the most necessary taxes, without which no stable government could be carried on, in the light of oppression. The Americans will have the same difficulties to face with regard to taxation as the Spaniards had, though not in the same degree maybe, as the country will be opened to trade in a freer way than formerly. In the interests of order, and also to protect the people from unjust imposts, the Friars were in the habit of acting as their counsellors in these matters, and used to exhort their parishioners publicly and privately to pay the necessary taxes. A passage from Blumentritt, whom we have quoted more than once in our previous chapters, will go to show that all this was done in the interests of the people: “In the following centuries the Friars continued to extend their protecting hand over the natives, preventing, as far as possible, any oppression on the part of the Government employés.” Yet this action of the Friars, good, charitable, and necessary under the circumstances, has been used by the promoters of the rebellion as a fulcrum to raise the Friars, in the eyes of the poorer classes, into the invidious position of tax-gatherers, tyrants, and abettors of oppression. Without doubt, cruel methods, for which, however, the Friars were not responsible, were in vogue in dealing with defaulters, as we may see in Dean Worcester’s lately published work on the Philippines; but it is nothingless than downright hypocrisy to raise a chorus of condemnation against the Spaniard on this score, when it is well known that no other nation, in trying to solve the eternal difficulty about the taxation of colored and subject races, has emerged from the conflict with clean hands. We remember reading some years ago of very cruel methods employed in the gathering of the taxes in British India, in some of the up-country districts; and within the present year of grace, 1899, two books have appeared dealing with the English and the Dutch in South Africa,2both of which, in describing the punishment inflicted on those refusing to pay taxes to the ruling powers, could easily give points to the colonial Spaniard for cruelty. What is very remarkable about the Protestant missionary is that, instead of condemning the barbarities described in his book, of which he was an eye-witness, he approves of them, even to the extent of giving his sanction to the inhuman crime of blowing up with dynamite the caves in which four hundred men, women, and children had taken refuge. The Rev. Mr. Rae’s opinion of the campaign against Malaboch for his refusal to pay taxes, a campaign in which women and children, and men bearing flags of truce were fired upon recklessly, is that “the Transvaal Government was doing a muchbetter work than any Christian missionary has yet accomplished.” God help the Filipinos if Protestant missionaries of this description are going to overrun the field of labor left vacant by the deaths and expulsion of the Spanish Friars. One great test of the mild rule of the Spaniard in that country is that the native population has increased since the conquest, instead of being almost exterminated, as is the case in North America and in many of the colonies of European States. We hope that the American rule will be characterized by clemency and justice. A hypocritical cry has been raised in the States about the tyranny and oppression under which the natives are said to be groaning. The rule of the Spaniard has indeed been imperfect enough; but America should approach the question of reform with becoming modesty, seeing that her own record in dealing with the Indians has been stained by many a crime against human rights. They have been robbed of the country which once was their own, and driven back from reservation to reservation, while even the rights guaranteed to them by Government as compensation for what they lost have been often filched from them by unscrupulous officials. The light recently thrown on the case of the Pillager Indians has disclosed cruelty, open robbery, and a disregard of solemn obligations. In the Philippines the Americans will find the natives still in possession of their country;a people, once wild and nomadic like the Indians, brought into settled habits of life by three centuries of missionary effort; a people, in fine, who, whatever is said to the contrary by noisy declaimers and demagogues, have been on the whole well pleased with their lot.Tagalogs planting rice to the sound of music.Tagalogsplanting rice to the sound of music.It is quite evident from the words and acts of the rebels that they have been casting envious eyes on the large landed estates of the Friars, hoping, on their expulsion, to have a division of the spoils among themselves. Already, before the war, an iniquitous plan of confiscation was boldly advocated in Spain itself. We now learn to our surprise, from theChurch News(Washington, D.C.), that this cry has found an echo across the Atlantic from Protestant pulpits in the States. Besides the fact that confiscation would be robbery pure and simple, as the estates are not national property, and have not been given by the Government, but have been acquired in the usual way by purchase, and in the course of three centuries have naturally grown large, confiscation of the estates would mean a great calamity to the country, even if the Friars were allowed to go back quietly to their parishes, and resume their spiritual ministrations among the people. For it was by means of the estates that the Friars introduced agriculture and settled habits of life among tribes originally nomadic; it was by means of the estates that they got them to live in villages, andintroduced amongst them the arts of civilized life; it was by means of the estates that they acquired the power of inducing them to labor with a certain amount of regularity and method, the great safeguard against a relapse into a state of savagery. Giraudier, who was director of the “Diario” of Manila, and spent thirty years in the Archipelago, says something very much to the point: “The natives, with some rare exceptions, are in need of tutelage, without which they would fall back to the customs of their ancestors, a tutelage that no one can exercise better than the Friars.” The latter, in truth, made themselves all in all to the people. Within the precincts of the monasteries were to be found workshops for teaching carpentry, forges for teaching the natives the working of iron, brick and tileyards,—in fact, most of the mechanical arts were fostered and encouraged by the Friars. The villages they formed around them presented a pleasing picture of happiness and content, in startling contrast to the homes of those who were still pagan and uncivilized.A former British consul thus describes them: “Orderly children, respected parents, women subject but not oppressed, men ruling but not despotic, reverence with kindness, obedience with affection—these form a lovable picture by no means rare in the villages of the Eastern Isles.” Will such a happy state of things exist under new conditions? We are very much inclined to doubtit. The experiment tried in some of the islands of the West Indies of making the blacks small freeholders, and planting them on the bankrupt planters’ estates, has not been attended by such beneficial results to the land as to justify our hoping that a similar experiment in the Philippines will prove a success. The natives of the tropics in general are like overgrown children, blessed with the virtues and cursed with the faults of children, rejoicing in present abundance, and destitute of that measure of forethought for the morrow, without which there can be no human progress. What a contrast at the present day do the civilized villages under the paternal care, and, if you will, government, of Friars present to the wild nomadic life still led by the natives of Mindanao, whom the Jesuit fathers are trying to bring under civilizing influences. We find, from letters written lately by some of the fathers there, that human sacrifice is still in vogue, and murder, pillage, and slave-catching extremely common. We fear that self-government, bringing in internal conflicts between the various parts of the Archipelago, would gradually reduce most of it to this deplorable state of things, and that the Philippine Republic would be as great a travesty on civilization as Hayti.1One may hardly be surprised that men who have been robbed of their all—reputation, home, and field of work—are apt to be plain-spoken and severe when commenting upon those who have upset their lives, and destroyed the sacred interests of the religion to which they had devoted themselves unreservedly. Friends, on the other hand, of the persons who have been the instruments of such ruin, are sure to uphold the destroyers as heroes, great of character and great of deed. Hence we need not be surprised at such different estimates of Aguinaldo as those referred to in a sketch of him published in the AmericanReview of Reviewsfor February, 1899.“Friends and enemies agree that he is intelligent, ambitious, far-sighted, brave, self-controlled, honest, moral, vindictive, and at times cruel. He possesses the quality which friends call wisdom, and enemies call craft. According to those who like him he is courteous, polished, thoughtful, and dignified; according to those who dislike him he is insincere, pretentious, vain, and arrogant. Both admit him to be genial, generous, self-sacrificing, popular, and capable in the administration of affairs. If the opinion of his foes be accepted he is one of the greatest Malays on the page of history. If the opinion of his friends be taken as the criterion he is one of the great men of history, irrespective of race.”2“Rhodesia and its Government,” by H. C. Thomson. “Malaboch; or Notes from my Diary on the Boer Campaign of 1894 against the Chief Malaboch,” by the Rev. Colin Rae.
Chapter III.The Rebellion Largely the Work of a Secret Organization.Secret societies, and, above all, that great guild known as Freemasonry, are certainly foremost, if not controlling, factors in the warfare made upon throne and altar during the last one hundred and fifty years.In saying this we do not intend to express any opinion for or against the sentiments of Protestant Freemasons in England and the United States, numbers of whom, no doubt, reprobate the anti-Christian spirit this association shows on the Continent and in Spanish America. They have been brought up to regard it as a perfectly harmless and beneficent institution, and cannot understand the attitude taken with regard to it by the Catholic Church.Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of the natives.Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of the natives.It is quite true that Freemasonry may have in these countries kept to its original constitution, which, we may admit, was of a beneficent nature. But what Catholic writers on the subject urgently insist upon is, that on the Continent it very soonassumed a political and dangerous character. For a long time it was not condemned by the Church, and many good Catholics of rank and position gave their names to it. It was only when its dangerous tendencies came to light that it received solemn ecclesiastical condemnation, and that Catholics were forbidden to join it. For more than a century this secret guild has been at the bottom of the revolutions that have desolated the modern world. Some years previous to the French Revolution, German envoys of the Society of the Illuminati advised the French Masons to form a political committee in each lodge; and in time, as Robison remarks, these committees led to the formation of the Jacobin Club. “Thus were the lodges of France,” says this writer, “converted in a very short time into a set of affiliated secret societies, corresponding with the mother lodges of Paris, receiving from thence their principles and instructions, and ready to rise up at once when called upon to carry on the great work of overturning the State. Hence it arose that the French aimed, in the very beginning, at subverting the whole world. Hence, too, may be explained how the revolution took place almost in a moment in every part of France. The revolutionary societies were early formed, and were working in secret before the opening of the National Assembly; and the whole nation changed, and changed again and again, as if by beat of drum.”In Spain, since its introduction it assumed a sanguinary and virulent character; it brought about revolutions and civil wars, embittered classes against one another, wronged and starved the clergy, robbed, turned adrift, and banished the religious Orders.There is, indeed, a good deal of difficulty in tracing all these evils to the action of the Freemasons; for on the Continent, especially in Spain, the society has been always of a more secret nature than in these countries. Members of the Craft in England and the United States are generally well known to belong to it; their halls and lodges in the larger towns are imposing and conspicuous; their emblems and badges are often seen in the light of day. But on the Continent we see very little of all this; it is a thoroughly secret society; the members and their movements are carefully veiled from sight. As we said before, Freemasonry, on its introduction to the Continent, at once assumed a political character. The Deists and free-thinkers of the last century utilized it as a potent means of combining against the Church, and of carrying on their evil propaganda. In this way they were aided by the Jansenists, with different motives it is true, but still, when it was a question of opposing the religious Orders, with a whole heart. The working of the society in Spain in this century has necessarily been more stealthy and insidious than in France, for there itwas face to face with a truly Catholic population devotedly attached to the Church.By means of atheistical French literature, the works of Voltaire and other unbelievers, translated into Spanish, brought across the border in large bales, and disseminated through the Peninsula, the Freemasons had already indoctrinated a large number of active and restless spirits with revolutionary and anti-Christian ideas, when the troubles and civil war of 1834 gave them the opportunity they desired of making an onslaught on the religious Orders. At such times the minds of men are in a ferment, and the most incredible reports may be spread abroad, and will be implicitly believed by the populace. Accordingly, on the awful visitation of cholera, which swept over Europe at that time, desolating cities and towns, and leaving thousands upon thousands of families in mourning, in Madrid the report was industriously spread by the Masons that the Monks and Friars had poisoned the wells, and were the cause of the sickness among the people. In a mad fit of rage the populace rose on all sides, rushed to the convents and monasteries, and murdered all the inmates they could lay their hands upon. This awful event is referred to in the Memorial.Such a state of things may seem hardly possible in the nineteenth century; and yet a similar catastrophe nearly happened in Lisbon a few years ago, the circumstances of which were related to thewriter by one of the Dominicans who was living there at the time. It appears that the Dominican nuns had opened a dispensary for the relief of the poor. Strange to say, the frightful report soon went abroad that the nuns were stealing children, and killing and boiling them down to make a healing ointment out of their remains. The city was in an uproar; it was unsafe for priests and nuns to be seen in the streets; and the populace who really believed the absurd story, being in a furious state of excitement, were on the point of burning down the convent, and maltreating the nuns.To return to Spain, the popular rising in Madrid was utilized by the revolutionary party in carrying out, the following year, the suppression of all the convents and monasteries in the country. The religious were driven out into the world; and their lands, goods, libraries, and art-treasures were sold for the benefit of the public debt, and to supply means to carry on the civil war. The bishops and secular clergy as well were also robbed, numerous episcopal sees were suppressed, and the goods of the Church declared to be national property. The Freemason Government promised to look after the interests of the Church by paying salaries to all ecclesiastics. As a result, Spain was filled, in a few years, with a poverty-stricken and starving clergy, and ruined churches and mouldering abbeys were to be seen on all sides. The effects of that great spoliation are still felt in the Peninsula; forthough the religious Orders have revived in the meantime, and numerous convents and monasteries have been built, the priests are not in sufficient numbers for the needs of the population, which thereby, in many places, is suffering great spiritual destitution.The policy of robbery and confiscation was boldly advocated for the Philippines, just before the late war, in one of the leading reviews of Madrid. Juan Ferrando Gomez, in a series of articles1bitterly hostile to the Philippine Friars, proposed their entire suppression. They should be turned out of their convents and missionary houses by a secret decree, of which they were to be kept in ignorance till the execution actually took place. Their convents in Manila would be useful as barracks and Government offices, their country estates could be divided amongst their tenants, and the rents formerly paid to the Friars could be commuted into a tax to be paid to the State. Moreover, the Archbishop of Manila, and any others of the bishops belonging to the religious Orders, should be forced out of the country. Besides that, the schools and university belonging to the Friars should also be either suppressed, or taken out of their hands. Reading these flagrantly unjust proposals in the light of recent Spanish history, and with the help of the Memorial, we areinclined to believe that, without much further pressure from the Freemasons, the Spanish Ministry would have carried them out. Fortunately for the Friars, as well as the natives, they have no voice in the matter now. Under the American flag the religious will be treated as citizens, having the common right of citizens, neither to be molested in their persons nor robbed of their property. The President of the United States has declared this in clear terms to the Holy See.With regard to Freemasonry in Spanish or Latin America, the Rev. Reuben Parsons has recently written on the subject (seeAppendix III.), substantiating all his assertions by quotations from Masonic organs or other unprejudiced sources, and clearly exposing the systematic war which the lodges in South and Central America have carried on against religion. He shows how it has started revolutions, assassinated the leaders of the people, exiled the clergy, and persecuted the Church in other ways.We will now endeavor to trace the history of Freemasonry in the Philippines and its connection with the insurrection there. In the Philippines Freemasonry found itself face to face with a simple native population, mostly Christian, and an active body of Spanish missionaries belonging to various religious Orders, loyal to their native country, possessing unbounded influence over their flocks, and rapidly bringing under the yoke of Christ the tribeswho were still Pagan. The religious were a power that they could not hope to cope with for a long time; and so at first they were left unmolested, while the members of the Craft were gathering converts, and strengthening their position, among a class more suitable to their nefarious designs, viz., the mestizos, or half-breeds; the Filipinos, or those who, though born in the country, consider themselves the pure-blooded descendants of the early colonists; and the Spanish officials, numbers of whom were already Masons before they went to the Archipelago.That the Freemasonry in the Philippines has shown itself of a distinctly sanguinary nature is not to be wondered at when we consider its close connection with Spain. The Lodge of Action, or Red Lodge, composed of determined revolutionists ready to use the dagger, and prepared to wade through a sea of blood to accomplish their designs, represented by Mazzini and the Carbonari in Italy, has a large following in Spain, and was presided over, a few years ago, by Zorilla, the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Spain.The following account of the growth of Freemasonry in the Philippines, taken from theRosario, an organ published in Rome, the editor of which has access to special information, and is in close touch with friars who have been living for many years in the archipelago as missionaries, will be of profound interest. In or about 1860 manyof the strangers who frequented the Philippines were Freemasons, and members of the lodges of Singapore, Hongkong, Java, Macao, and the open ports of China. This was at a period when England, Holland, France, the United States, for colonial reasons of their own, showed hostility to Spain. It was therefore quite natural that, in those lodges, an anti-Spanish spirit gradually arose in the Philippines. Seeing this spirit arising, two officials of the Spanish navy, Malcampo and Mendez Nunez, Freemasons themselves, determined to oppose Freemasonry to Freemasonry, by founding lodges that would uphold the Spanish interests; they therefore established, at Cavite, the Lodge Primera Luz Filippina, placing it under the Grand Orient of Lusitania, and a little afterwards another lodge at Zamboanga, for the officials, seamen, and civil functionaries who held positions in Mindanao.In opposition to these, the strangers residing in the Philippines established at Manila itself a lodge of the Scottish rite, as apoint d’appuifor the enemies of Spain. They thus moved the centre of conspiracy against Spain to the islands themselves, and tried to draw the natives into their nets by giving them important positions in the Craft. The two opposing factions of Freemasonry also increased their numbers largely by taking in the political exiles who were sent to the Philippines as a result of the part taken by them in the variouscivil wars in the Peninsula, most of whom gave their names and services to one or the other. It is remarkable that these two bodies, guided by opposite political principles, one depending on a Spanish centre and directed principally by Spaniards, the other directed principally by Germans, English, and Americans, and opposed to Spanish interests, found, at least in one direction, a point of concord, namely, in opposition to the religious Orders. Although the Spanish Masons were actuated by a love for their mother-country, still the well-known anti-clericalism of Freemasonry prevailed over every other consideration, blinding them to the fact that the best and most influential representatives of Spain in the Philippines were to be found in the religious Orders, who were the only civilizing force able to deal with the natives. They thus indirectly paved the way for the insurrection; for it is well known that from the ranks of the opposing factions, and principally by reason of their anti-clerical tendencies, arose the sanguinary society of the “Katipunan,” which made it its direct aim to expel the friars, and overturn the Spanish government in the islands. TheGrand Orient, the organ of this society, declared that one of the first articles of its programme was the extermination of the religious. And here it may be noticed that the ninth term of the proposals made by the insurgents to America was as follows: “There shall be a general religious toleration; butmeasures shall be adopted for the abolition and expulsion of the religious communities, who, with an iron hand, have hitherto demoralized the actual civil administration.”In the meantime the lodges increased in number, so much so that two years ago there were at Manila sixteen lodges affiliated to the Grand Orient of Spain, and one at least in every pueblo in the province of Luzon, and also lodges in Zamboanga and the Visaya Islands; an Anglo-German club-lodge, on the books of which were inscribed the names of a great part of the Government officials; also the German Union, affiliated to the Grand Orient of Berlin; the society of S. Giovanni del Monte, a centre common to Swiss, French, Belgian, and Dutch Masons. In all, according to reliable statistics, there were a hundred lodges and 25,000 initiates. When the Freemasonry of the Philippines had gathered these numbers under its banner, the insurrection broke out; and of its 25,000 members, at least 20,000 were to be found in the ranks of the rebels. Could any clearer proof than this be found that the insurrection in the Philippines is the direct work of Freemasonry?We will here call the attention of our readers to two of the illustrations. The first is a collection of various seals and stamps, forty-one in number, in use by the various branches of the Katipunan, the sanguinary secret society of the natives. Masonic emblems, the compass and rule, thetriangle, the keys, etc., are to be found on almost all of them, proving beyond doubt the Masonic direction and constitution of the society. Turn now to the other illustration,—a Masonic apron, worn at secret meetings and also in battle, which was found on the body of an insurgent after an engagement. No concealment here of methods to be used,—the head dripping with blood, one hand grasping the bleeding head, and the other holding the dagger, sufficiently attest to all beholders the work of the Red Lodge.The position of the religious Orders in the Philippines, just before the war broke out between Spain and America, had become so perilous and unbearable, that they addressed a long Memorial to the Spanish Government, exposing their grievances, explaining the cause of the rebellion, and suggesting remedies suitable for the situation.This Memorial is more than a mere appeal to the Spanish Government. It is a challenge to the civilized world, made by men whose dignity and honor have been outraged by awful and unjust charges levelled at them by their foes, and spread far and near by the press. The Memorial has been put into print by the Friars, and scattered through Spain; it has been translated into French, and now it appears (in a condensed form) in an English dress. Up to the present, at any rate, it has not drawn forth an answer from those whose calumnies were the cause of its appearance.From another point of view it is of interest, giving us valuable information as to the causes of the rebellion, and incidentally throwing a lurid light upon the dark places and dark workings of Freemasonry. Its importance as an authoritative exposition lies in the fact that it emanates from the combined heads of all the religious Orders in the Philippines, men having under their spiritual care more than five out of the six millions of Christians in the country. It is signed by Father Manuel Gutierrez, Provincial of the Augustinians; Father Gilberto Martin, Commissary-Provincial of the Franciscans; Father Francisco Ajarro, Provincial of the Recollects; Father Candido Garcia Valles, Vicar-Provincial of the Dominicans; Pio Pi, S. J., Superior of the Missions of the Society of Jesus.Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”We doubt whether any official notice was taken of the document by the Spanish Government. It was on its way to Spain when, on the declaration of war by America, Admiral Dewey stole into Manila Bay by night, shattered the Spanish fleet the next morning at Cavite, and laid siege to Manila. In the meantime, too, the Spanish Ministry had resigned; and when the documents arrived at its destination, a new Ministry was in office, under Señor Sagasta, with a new colonial minister. Facing bravely, but ineffectually, one of the greatest powers in the world, the new Ministry was entirely taken up with cares and interestson which depended the existence of Spain as a nation.A striking characteristic of the memorial is its outspoken insistence upon Freemasonry as the principal cause of the Rebellion, a position not unwarranted in view of the evidence presented on previous pages. So much has been heard from the opponents of the religious Orders, that a word from themselves, in their own defence, will have all the air of novelty. We reprint the memorial, quite confident that it will not suffer by comparison with what has appeared from the other side.The Memorial of the Philippine Friars to the Spanish Government, April, 1898.TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE COLONIAL MINISTER.In addition to the telegram sent to His Excellency, the Governor-General and Viceroy, on the first of this month, that he might bring it officially under your Excellency’s notice, which the said authority informs us has been done, we, the Superiors of the Congregations of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Recollects, Dominicans, and Jesuits, have the honor of presenting this Statement to his Majesty, King Alfonso XIII., and, in his royal name, to Her Majesty the Queen Regent, Dona Maria Christina, to the President and Members of the Crown Ministerial Council, and more especially to your Excellency as Colonial Minister. We address this Statement directly to your Excellency, according to law and custom, that you may deign to bring itunder the notice of the exalted personages already mentioned, and even if it appears desirable before the nation, duly assembled in the Cortes of the kingdom.The time has come for us faithful and constant upholders of Spanish rule in the Philippines to break our traditional silence. The hour has also come to defend our honor, which has been so much assailed, and our holy and patriotic ministry, which has been the object of the most terrible and unjustifiable accusations and calumnies.We have borne patiently with the Freemasons and insurgents, known and unknown, who in their newspapers, clubs, and public meetings, have for the last eighteen months insulted and vilified us, accusing us, among other things, of having fostered the rebellion. We have discovered to our sorrow that a number of Spaniards, having resided in these islands for a longer or shorter period as the case might be, on their return to the Peninsula have spoken of us in terms which they would not have dared to employ if in place of being priests and friars we had been laymen, or if instead of being ecclesiastical congregations we had belonged to civil or military bodies.The religious of the Philippines, far away from Europe, alone in their ministry, scattered to the furthermost corners of the Archipelago, and without any other companions and witnesses of their labors than their own dear and simple parishioners, have no other defence save right and reason. Conscious that we have always been loyal and patriotic subjects, and have always fulfilled our duties and the obligations to our holy ministry, we have borne patiently and silently, according to the advice of the Apostle, insults and calumnies from the very persons to whom we had offered our services in all Christian sincerity. We have kept silence under insults from persons calling themselves forsooth Catholics, but who are infected with the practical Jansenismof certain latter-day reformers. We even suffered in silence certain false information, most dishonoring to the religious Orders, to be brought before the Cortes last year. It was asserted, not only in private, but in important, centres, that the prestige of the religious Orders in the Philippines was so shaken that it would be necessary to drive them out by armed force. It was also declared, as most dishonoring to a great nation like Spain, to have commissioned friars to furnish information about the Philippines, and to have asked their advice in the form of a memorial presented to the Senate. In addition to all this, the gravest accusations, some directed against a worthy prelate, were brought against us, veiled, however, under the guise of impartiality and gentle correction. Before long the clamors will be renewed in a different tone; and we shall see the reproduction in the Archipelago, with more or less cruelty, of that historical period in the Peninsula of 1834–1840.REASONS FOR OUR SILENCE TILL THE PRESENT TIME.We believed that a wise and prolonged silence, added to that prudence and magnanimity which should always distinguish religious orders, would have sufficed for good and discreet persons, and that they would have repelled the accusations, and formed a judgment that would be proof against these repeated attacks. But, instead of calming down, the storm appears to increase daily. The Treaty of Biac-na-Bato has furnished to many the opportunity of renewing the crafty insinuation, nay, bold affirmation, already made by the rebel chiefs, that the religious institutes were the sole cause of the insurrection. One of the chiefs of the “Katipunan” secret society has declared in his paper, TheGrand Orient, which, like a plague, is still scatteredover the islands, that one of the first articles in his programme is the expulsion of the religious Orders. In the Peninsula as well as here, the Freemasons and others who second their efforts have recommenced the war against us. They have published manifestoes at Madrid, in which, misusing the name of the Philippine natives, they demand vexatious and disgraceful measures against the clergy.If under these circumstances we still remained silent, our silence would be attributed, and rightly so, to fear or to guilt. Our patience would be called weakness; and even sensible and solid Catholics, who recognize the injustice of the attacks made against us, might be led to believe that we were really stained with guilt, or that we had fallen into such a state of moral prostration, that we could be ill-treated with impunity.THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY UPHOLD RELIGION.On what grounds are the religious bodies persecuted? Simply because they uphold true and sound doctrine, and have never shown a weak front to the enemies of God and of their country. If we had shown ourselves pusillanimous in sight of the works of Masonic lodges, and in presence of the propagation of the politico-religious errors imported from Europe; if we had given the faintest mark, not of sympathy, but even of toleration, to the men who were scattering broadcast false notions of liberty condemned by the Church; if patriotism had cooled in our hearts, or if the innovators had not found in each Philippine religious an intractable and terrible adversary to their plans,—the religious congregations would never have been disturbed. On the contrary, we should have been extolled to the skies, the more so because our enemies do notignore the fact that, were we to help them in the Archipelago, were we to give them our support, or at least were we to remain silent, we should thereby give them an undisputed victory.But they know well that our standard is no other than the Syllabus of the great Pontiff, Pius IX., so frequently confirmed by Leo XIII., wherein all rebellion against the powers is so energetically condemned. Yea! truly they hate us, and under different names and on divers pretexts they are making such a cruel war upon us that it would seem as if the Freemasons and Revolutionists had no other enemies in the Philippines than the religious bodies.THE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTED AS LOYAL SPANIARDS.Apart from their essentially religious character, the regular clergy of the Archipelago are the sole Spanish institution, permanent and deeply-rooted, which exists in the islands—a vigorous organization well adapted to these regions. While the civil and military officials on the one hand, who come from Spain, live here only for a time, fulfilling their duties more or less wisely according as it is for or against their private interests, and yet are ignorant of the languages of the country, and have only a superficial intercourse with the Islanders, we, the religious, come over here to sacrifice our whole existences, dispersed often one by one amongst the remotest tribes. When we bid an eternal farewell to our native shores, we voluntarily condemn ourselves, by virtue of our vows, to live forever devoted to the moral, religious, and civil education ofthenatives; and we have waged many conflicts in their behalf.CRAFTINESS OF THE INSURGENT CHIEFS.Seeing that we were the most deeply rooted, influential, and best-respected Spaniards in the country, and that we would come to no terms with them or their projects, the rebel chiefs determined to demand our expulsion from the Government. They were aware that they would be backed up in their demand by many among the Spanish residents in the Archipelago, who, led by passion and ignorance, lend a willing ear to all who declaim against the religious Orders, especially when the watchwords used are “Free Thought,” “Liberty of the Press,” “Secularization of Education,” “Ecclesiastical Liquidation,” “Suppression of the Privileges of the Clergy.”Thus the password among the rebels became, especially since the Treaty of Biac-na-Bato, the emancipation of their country. They declared they had no dislike to Spanish administration, nor any intention of separation from Spain; what made them rise in rebellion were the abuses of the clergy, and their only demand was the expulsion of the religious Orders. But these were lying declarations, as numerous judicial and non-judicial documents containing the plans of the conspirators have proved. They made these false professions because they knew that if they declared that the insurrection was brought about by the numerous abuses of power which have been committed by civil and military functionaries, they would have all the Spanish element in the Archipelago leagued against them, and would have the door closed to all their means of propaganda.ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.We ask, in the first place, where are these abuses which are always the subject of their declamations in the clubsand lodges? We preach the Gospel, and not only do we draw to a civilized life the barbarous tribes of the Archipelago, whom we have preserved peaceful and happy for three centuries, as the whole world knows, but we have always been the defenders of the natives, who are subjected to a thousand vexations on the part of the Spanish lay residents. At all times we have watched over the purity of the Faith and the preservation of good morals, showing ourselves inflexible against illegal exactions, immoral games, and those who lead scandalous lives. After all that has been written against us for so many years, we defy our calumniators, and do not fear an honest and impartial examination of our lives and works. Let those who murmur and speak against us, prove by exact dates and authentic documents that their accusations are well founded.They say we are enemies of education and of the diffusion of knowledge; if by education they mean the teaching of doctrine condemned by the Church, we are at one with them; but there is no education in the ordinary sense of the term, primary, secondary, or superior, in the islands that has not been founded, encouraged, and sustained by the clergy. It is well known that very few of the native officials who went through their course in our schools have taken part in the rebellion; and the proclaimers of “Free-thought” are, for the most part, individuals who failed in their career, and were the refuse of our classes.As to the accusations of immorality which are recklessly levelled against us, all we have to say is that everyone can see our monasteries and convents and ourselves, and can form a judgment on our lives; the parish priests and missionaries are alone, surrounded by a multitude of natives; everyone can see what we are doing, and hear what we are saying; our European figures and sacerdotal characterbring us into such prominence before the people that it would be stupid to imagine that we could hide our doings.We consider, as not worthy of reply, the impudent assertion that in the country parts we are despots; that in a thousand ways we suck the blood of our tenants; charges often before refuted by the most explicit documentary evidence. Neither is it worth while speaking of the abominable calumny of attributing to us the passage through the country with armed force, and the imprisoning and torturing of those implicated in the first revolt. All this is part of the absurd fable that we are absolute masters, not only of the consciences of the people, but of the Archipelago itself; statements contradicted by the very men who make them, when they declare in the Cortes that we have lost all influence and all prestige in the islands.CAUSE OF THE REBELLION.The utter want of religion to be found among a great number of the Spanish residents, the facility with which the ancient laws of the Archipelago were changed, the instability of the public functionaries, a fruitful source of abuses, contributed for several years to discredit the Spanish name. But Freemasonry, as the world knows, has been the principal cause of the social disorganization of the Philippines. The Hispano-Philippine Association of Madrid was Masonic; the Masons were almost alone in the work of urging on the natives to make war on the clergy and the Spanish residents; they authorized the founding of lodges in the Archipelago. It was the Masons, too, who formed the “Katipunan” society, so essentially Masonic that in the terrible “compact of blood” they make, they are actually imitating the Carbonari of Italy.In consequence of the teaching of the Freemasons, thevoice of the parish priest has no longer any effect on numbers of the natives, especially at Manila and in the neighboring provinces, where they are accustomed to give themselves airs of importance and independence; and the prestige of the Spanish name has grown considerably less, and disappeared entirely in many places. What wonder, then, if the powerful instincts of race awoke, and that, pondering on the fact that they had a language and climate and territory of their own, the rebels should try to build a wall of separation between the Spaniards and the Malays? Is it not natural that having been brought to believe that the friar is neither their father nor the pastor of their souls, nor their friend and enthusiastic defender, but, on the contrary, a spoiler, and that the Spanish resident is only a money-grubber, having more or less power and authority, they should have desired to free themselves from the Spanish authority?Six months ago the “Katipunan” society was limited to the mountains of Langua and Bulacan, where the rebel chiefs had taken refuge, and also counted some adherents among certain tribes in touch with the insurgents. But now the plague is widespread; the insurgents violating the promise made to the gallant Marquis of Estella, and at the call of a secret signal, have scattered themselves over the central provinces, and by means of cruelty and terrorism have succeeded in enrolling in their ranks a great number of natives who after the submission at Biac-na-Bato gave pledges of fidelity to Spain. They have also succeeded in intrenching themselves at Capiz and in other parts of the Viscayas. The rising in Zambaies, Pagasinan, Iloco, and Cebu are all of recent origin; and the same may be said of the “Katipunans” discovered at Manila.However, the greater part of the country is not yet perverted; a wave of hallucination and fanaticism has passedover it, but the heart of the people is still sound, and with careful management they will return to their usual habits of peace and submission. The move wealthy classes are also sound, and are against the rebellion.We frankly tell the Government that if it does not aid the Church, the revolutionary movement will increase every day, and it will be morally impossible for the religious to remain here any longer. What good is it for us to do our duty to the people when others are allowed to undo our work at the same time? Of what use is it for us to teach the people to be docile and submissive when their worst passions are excited by others, who tell them to make nothing of our teaching? What professor could teach successfully if his pupils were met outside the classroom by respectable persons who told them to despise his lessons? The civil authority, according to the teaching of the Church, ought as far as possible to be a bulwark to religion and morality. If the Government, therefore, does not protect us from the avalanche of insults hurled against us; if it does not root out the secret societies; if it allows our sacerdotal character to be trodden under foot while our enemies destroy the fruit of our labors,—we regret to say that we cannot continue our ministry in the islands.Spain has bound herself very stringently to obligations of this nature. One of the laws of the Code of the Indies says expressly on this point: “We command the Viceroys, the Presidents, the Auditors, the Governors, and the other functionaries of the Indies, to favor, and aid, and encourage the religions orders who are occupying themselves in the conversion of the natives to our entire satisfaction.”The spirit that moved Philip II. was seen in the answer he made to those who advised him to abandon the Archipelago, in view of the little revenue they brought to theCrown. He said: “For the conversion of only one of the souls that are there I would willingly give all the treasures of the Indies, and if they were not enough I would add those of Spain. Nothing in the world would make me consent to cease sending preachers and ministers of the Gospel to all the provinces that have been discovered, even if they are barren and sterile, for the Holy Apostolic See has given to us and our heirs the apostolic commission of publishing and preaching the Gospel. The Gospel can be spread through these islands, and the natives can be drawn from the worship of the demon by making known to them the true God, in a spirit alien to that of temporal greed.”UNJUST CONTEMPT SHOWN TOWARDS THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN THE PHILIPPINES.An idea has spread since the Revolution in Spain of 1868 that the Philippine Friars are a necessary evil, an out-of-date institution which has to be kept up for reasons of state. This unworthy idea, manifested sometimes with frankness, sometimes with a certain reticence, and which wounds us to the quick, has been constantly brought forward by our enemies. The natives who have been to Spain are fully aware of it; without leaving the Philippines, a great number of natives have observed it, and are at present trying to propagate it in the Archipelago. Very numerous, too are the Spanish residents who are hostile to us, owing to an anti-clerical spirit or to jealousy; in fact, we have enemies in all classes of society.Many people, in consequence, think that our very existence in the country is simply owing to pity and condescension on the part of the Government; that we are merely tolerated, and are of less value in the eyes of thecivil authorities than the members of any lay profession. With a marvellous facility all the evils that affect the country are laid at our door; and every time a governor makes a gross blunder in dealing with the natives, the evil consequences which flow from it are put down to us. Now, every class of society has a right to ordinary respect and fair treatment; we receive neither one nor the other, but are treated with absolute contempt. This humiliating situation, as individuals obliged to greater perfection than other Christians, we patiently bear with; but as religious orders we cannot put up with it any longer, for we see only too well how this treatment injures our ministry, and destroys our influence with the people committed to our care.If the Government through an error to which we cannot give unqualified respect, since it is contrary to the real interests of religion and of our country, believes that the mission of the Orders in the islands has come to an end, we nevertheless say to them: “We await your dispositions with sincerity, but do not flatter yourselves that in adopting measures against our religious professions you can burn a light both before Christ and before Belial.” If, on the contrary, we are to remain in the islands, no one can deny that it is necessary to protect our persons, our prestige, and our ministry; our country must show that she is pleased with us, and treat us as her children; we must not be abandoned to our enemies as a thing of no value, and made victims of the resentment of the Freemasons. We do not fear martyrdom, which is an honor we do not feel ourselves worthy of; on the other hand, we do not wish to die as criminals abandoned by their friends and protectors, and deprived of all honor.It is incredible that religious men placed in our position could be the cause of the woes of the Archipelago. Weprefer to resign our ministry, and see ourselves expelled, rather than continue our mission in the islands, if the situation does not better itself before long. We have done our work well in these islands, and we feel sure that we shall be able to do our duty quite as well elsewhere with the grace of God.1In theAdministration, of Madrid, one of the leading reviews in Spain.
Chapter III.The Rebellion Largely the Work of a Secret Organization.
Secret societies, and, above all, that great guild known as Freemasonry, are certainly foremost, if not controlling, factors in the warfare made upon throne and altar during the last one hundred and fifty years.In saying this we do not intend to express any opinion for or against the sentiments of Protestant Freemasons in England and the United States, numbers of whom, no doubt, reprobate the anti-Christian spirit this association shows on the Continent and in Spanish America. They have been brought up to regard it as a perfectly harmless and beneficent institution, and cannot understand the attitude taken with regard to it by the Catholic Church.Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of the natives.Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of the natives.It is quite true that Freemasonry may have in these countries kept to its original constitution, which, we may admit, was of a beneficent nature. But what Catholic writers on the subject urgently insist upon is, that on the Continent it very soonassumed a political and dangerous character. For a long time it was not condemned by the Church, and many good Catholics of rank and position gave their names to it. It was only when its dangerous tendencies came to light that it received solemn ecclesiastical condemnation, and that Catholics were forbidden to join it. For more than a century this secret guild has been at the bottom of the revolutions that have desolated the modern world. Some years previous to the French Revolution, German envoys of the Society of the Illuminati advised the French Masons to form a political committee in each lodge; and in time, as Robison remarks, these committees led to the formation of the Jacobin Club. “Thus were the lodges of France,” says this writer, “converted in a very short time into a set of affiliated secret societies, corresponding with the mother lodges of Paris, receiving from thence their principles and instructions, and ready to rise up at once when called upon to carry on the great work of overturning the State. Hence it arose that the French aimed, in the very beginning, at subverting the whole world. Hence, too, may be explained how the revolution took place almost in a moment in every part of France. The revolutionary societies were early formed, and were working in secret before the opening of the National Assembly; and the whole nation changed, and changed again and again, as if by beat of drum.”In Spain, since its introduction it assumed a sanguinary and virulent character; it brought about revolutions and civil wars, embittered classes against one another, wronged and starved the clergy, robbed, turned adrift, and banished the religious Orders.There is, indeed, a good deal of difficulty in tracing all these evils to the action of the Freemasons; for on the Continent, especially in Spain, the society has been always of a more secret nature than in these countries. Members of the Craft in England and the United States are generally well known to belong to it; their halls and lodges in the larger towns are imposing and conspicuous; their emblems and badges are often seen in the light of day. But on the Continent we see very little of all this; it is a thoroughly secret society; the members and their movements are carefully veiled from sight. As we said before, Freemasonry, on its introduction to the Continent, at once assumed a political character. The Deists and free-thinkers of the last century utilized it as a potent means of combining against the Church, and of carrying on their evil propaganda. In this way they were aided by the Jansenists, with different motives it is true, but still, when it was a question of opposing the religious Orders, with a whole heart. The working of the society in Spain in this century has necessarily been more stealthy and insidious than in France, for there itwas face to face with a truly Catholic population devotedly attached to the Church.By means of atheistical French literature, the works of Voltaire and other unbelievers, translated into Spanish, brought across the border in large bales, and disseminated through the Peninsula, the Freemasons had already indoctrinated a large number of active and restless spirits with revolutionary and anti-Christian ideas, when the troubles and civil war of 1834 gave them the opportunity they desired of making an onslaught on the religious Orders. At such times the minds of men are in a ferment, and the most incredible reports may be spread abroad, and will be implicitly believed by the populace. Accordingly, on the awful visitation of cholera, which swept over Europe at that time, desolating cities and towns, and leaving thousands upon thousands of families in mourning, in Madrid the report was industriously spread by the Masons that the Monks and Friars had poisoned the wells, and were the cause of the sickness among the people. In a mad fit of rage the populace rose on all sides, rushed to the convents and monasteries, and murdered all the inmates they could lay their hands upon. This awful event is referred to in the Memorial.Such a state of things may seem hardly possible in the nineteenth century; and yet a similar catastrophe nearly happened in Lisbon a few years ago, the circumstances of which were related to thewriter by one of the Dominicans who was living there at the time. It appears that the Dominican nuns had opened a dispensary for the relief of the poor. Strange to say, the frightful report soon went abroad that the nuns were stealing children, and killing and boiling them down to make a healing ointment out of their remains. The city was in an uproar; it was unsafe for priests and nuns to be seen in the streets; and the populace who really believed the absurd story, being in a furious state of excitement, were on the point of burning down the convent, and maltreating the nuns.To return to Spain, the popular rising in Madrid was utilized by the revolutionary party in carrying out, the following year, the suppression of all the convents and monasteries in the country. The religious were driven out into the world; and their lands, goods, libraries, and art-treasures were sold for the benefit of the public debt, and to supply means to carry on the civil war. The bishops and secular clergy as well were also robbed, numerous episcopal sees were suppressed, and the goods of the Church declared to be national property. The Freemason Government promised to look after the interests of the Church by paying salaries to all ecclesiastics. As a result, Spain was filled, in a few years, with a poverty-stricken and starving clergy, and ruined churches and mouldering abbeys were to be seen on all sides. The effects of that great spoliation are still felt in the Peninsula; forthough the religious Orders have revived in the meantime, and numerous convents and monasteries have been built, the priests are not in sufficient numbers for the needs of the population, which thereby, in many places, is suffering great spiritual destitution.The policy of robbery and confiscation was boldly advocated for the Philippines, just before the late war, in one of the leading reviews of Madrid. Juan Ferrando Gomez, in a series of articles1bitterly hostile to the Philippine Friars, proposed their entire suppression. They should be turned out of their convents and missionary houses by a secret decree, of which they were to be kept in ignorance till the execution actually took place. Their convents in Manila would be useful as barracks and Government offices, their country estates could be divided amongst their tenants, and the rents formerly paid to the Friars could be commuted into a tax to be paid to the State. Moreover, the Archbishop of Manila, and any others of the bishops belonging to the religious Orders, should be forced out of the country. Besides that, the schools and university belonging to the Friars should also be either suppressed, or taken out of their hands. Reading these flagrantly unjust proposals in the light of recent Spanish history, and with the help of the Memorial, we areinclined to believe that, without much further pressure from the Freemasons, the Spanish Ministry would have carried them out. Fortunately for the Friars, as well as the natives, they have no voice in the matter now. Under the American flag the religious will be treated as citizens, having the common right of citizens, neither to be molested in their persons nor robbed of their property. The President of the United States has declared this in clear terms to the Holy See.With regard to Freemasonry in Spanish or Latin America, the Rev. Reuben Parsons has recently written on the subject (seeAppendix III.), substantiating all his assertions by quotations from Masonic organs or other unprejudiced sources, and clearly exposing the systematic war which the lodges in South and Central America have carried on against religion. He shows how it has started revolutions, assassinated the leaders of the people, exiled the clergy, and persecuted the Church in other ways.We will now endeavor to trace the history of Freemasonry in the Philippines and its connection with the insurrection there. In the Philippines Freemasonry found itself face to face with a simple native population, mostly Christian, and an active body of Spanish missionaries belonging to various religious Orders, loyal to their native country, possessing unbounded influence over their flocks, and rapidly bringing under the yoke of Christ the tribeswho were still Pagan. The religious were a power that they could not hope to cope with for a long time; and so at first they were left unmolested, while the members of the Craft were gathering converts, and strengthening their position, among a class more suitable to their nefarious designs, viz., the mestizos, or half-breeds; the Filipinos, or those who, though born in the country, consider themselves the pure-blooded descendants of the early colonists; and the Spanish officials, numbers of whom were already Masons before they went to the Archipelago.That the Freemasonry in the Philippines has shown itself of a distinctly sanguinary nature is not to be wondered at when we consider its close connection with Spain. The Lodge of Action, or Red Lodge, composed of determined revolutionists ready to use the dagger, and prepared to wade through a sea of blood to accomplish their designs, represented by Mazzini and the Carbonari in Italy, has a large following in Spain, and was presided over, a few years ago, by Zorilla, the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Spain.The following account of the growth of Freemasonry in the Philippines, taken from theRosario, an organ published in Rome, the editor of which has access to special information, and is in close touch with friars who have been living for many years in the archipelago as missionaries, will be of profound interest. In or about 1860 manyof the strangers who frequented the Philippines were Freemasons, and members of the lodges of Singapore, Hongkong, Java, Macao, and the open ports of China. This was at a period when England, Holland, France, the United States, for colonial reasons of their own, showed hostility to Spain. It was therefore quite natural that, in those lodges, an anti-Spanish spirit gradually arose in the Philippines. Seeing this spirit arising, two officials of the Spanish navy, Malcampo and Mendez Nunez, Freemasons themselves, determined to oppose Freemasonry to Freemasonry, by founding lodges that would uphold the Spanish interests; they therefore established, at Cavite, the Lodge Primera Luz Filippina, placing it under the Grand Orient of Lusitania, and a little afterwards another lodge at Zamboanga, for the officials, seamen, and civil functionaries who held positions in Mindanao.In opposition to these, the strangers residing in the Philippines established at Manila itself a lodge of the Scottish rite, as apoint d’appuifor the enemies of Spain. They thus moved the centre of conspiracy against Spain to the islands themselves, and tried to draw the natives into their nets by giving them important positions in the Craft. The two opposing factions of Freemasonry also increased their numbers largely by taking in the political exiles who were sent to the Philippines as a result of the part taken by them in the variouscivil wars in the Peninsula, most of whom gave their names and services to one or the other. It is remarkable that these two bodies, guided by opposite political principles, one depending on a Spanish centre and directed principally by Spaniards, the other directed principally by Germans, English, and Americans, and opposed to Spanish interests, found, at least in one direction, a point of concord, namely, in opposition to the religious Orders. Although the Spanish Masons were actuated by a love for their mother-country, still the well-known anti-clericalism of Freemasonry prevailed over every other consideration, blinding them to the fact that the best and most influential representatives of Spain in the Philippines were to be found in the religious Orders, who were the only civilizing force able to deal with the natives. They thus indirectly paved the way for the insurrection; for it is well known that from the ranks of the opposing factions, and principally by reason of their anti-clerical tendencies, arose the sanguinary society of the “Katipunan,” which made it its direct aim to expel the friars, and overturn the Spanish government in the islands. TheGrand Orient, the organ of this society, declared that one of the first articles of its programme was the extermination of the religious. And here it may be noticed that the ninth term of the proposals made by the insurgents to America was as follows: “There shall be a general religious toleration; butmeasures shall be adopted for the abolition and expulsion of the religious communities, who, with an iron hand, have hitherto demoralized the actual civil administration.”In the meantime the lodges increased in number, so much so that two years ago there were at Manila sixteen lodges affiliated to the Grand Orient of Spain, and one at least in every pueblo in the province of Luzon, and also lodges in Zamboanga and the Visaya Islands; an Anglo-German club-lodge, on the books of which were inscribed the names of a great part of the Government officials; also the German Union, affiliated to the Grand Orient of Berlin; the society of S. Giovanni del Monte, a centre common to Swiss, French, Belgian, and Dutch Masons. In all, according to reliable statistics, there were a hundred lodges and 25,000 initiates. When the Freemasonry of the Philippines had gathered these numbers under its banner, the insurrection broke out; and of its 25,000 members, at least 20,000 were to be found in the ranks of the rebels. Could any clearer proof than this be found that the insurrection in the Philippines is the direct work of Freemasonry?We will here call the attention of our readers to two of the illustrations. The first is a collection of various seals and stamps, forty-one in number, in use by the various branches of the Katipunan, the sanguinary secret society of the natives. Masonic emblems, the compass and rule, thetriangle, the keys, etc., are to be found on almost all of them, proving beyond doubt the Masonic direction and constitution of the society. Turn now to the other illustration,—a Masonic apron, worn at secret meetings and also in battle, which was found on the body of an insurgent after an engagement. No concealment here of methods to be used,—the head dripping with blood, one hand grasping the bleeding head, and the other holding the dagger, sufficiently attest to all beholders the work of the Red Lodge.The position of the religious Orders in the Philippines, just before the war broke out between Spain and America, had become so perilous and unbearable, that they addressed a long Memorial to the Spanish Government, exposing their grievances, explaining the cause of the rebellion, and suggesting remedies suitable for the situation.This Memorial is more than a mere appeal to the Spanish Government. It is a challenge to the civilized world, made by men whose dignity and honor have been outraged by awful and unjust charges levelled at them by their foes, and spread far and near by the press. The Memorial has been put into print by the Friars, and scattered through Spain; it has been translated into French, and now it appears (in a condensed form) in an English dress. Up to the present, at any rate, it has not drawn forth an answer from those whose calumnies were the cause of its appearance.From another point of view it is of interest, giving us valuable information as to the causes of the rebellion, and incidentally throwing a lurid light upon the dark places and dark workings of Freemasonry. Its importance as an authoritative exposition lies in the fact that it emanates from the combined heads of all the religious Orders in the Philippines, men having under their spiritual care more than five out of the six millions of Christians in the country. It is signed by Father Manuel Gutierrez, Provincial of the Augustinians; Father Gilberto Martin, Commissary-Provincial of the Franciscans; Father Francisco Ajarro, Provincial of the Recollects; Father Candido Garcia Valles, Vicar-Provincial of the Dominicans; Pio Pi, S. J., Superior of the Missions of the Society of Jesus.Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”We doubt whether any official notice was taken of the document by the Spanish Government. It was on its way to Spain when, on the declaration of war by America, Admiral Dewey stole into Manila Bay by night, shattered the Spanish fleet the next morning at Cavite, and laid siege to Manila. In the meantime, too, the Spanish Ministry had resigned; and when the documents arrived at its destination, a new Ministry was in office, under Señor Sagasta, with a new colonial minister. Facing bravely, but ineffectually, one of the greatest powers in the world, the new Ministry was entirely taken up with cares and interestson which depended the existence of Spain as a nation.A striking characteristic of the memorial is its outspoken insistence upon Freemasonry as the principal cause of the Rebellion, a position not unwarranted in view of the evidence presented on previous pages. So much has been heard from the opponents of the religious Orders, that a word from themselves, in their own defence, will have all the air of novelty. We reprint the memorial, quite confident that it will not suffer by comparison with what has appeared from the other side.The Memorial of the Philippine Friars to the Spanish Government, April, 1898.TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE COLONIAL MINISTER.In addition to the telegram sent to His Excellency, the Governor-General and Viceroy, on the first of this month, that he might bring it officially under your Excellency’s notice, which the said authority informs us has been done, we, the Superiors of the Congregations of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Recollects, Dominicans, and Jesuits, have the honor of presenting this Statement to his Majesty, King Alfonso XIII., and, in his royal name, to Her Majesty the Queen Regent, Dona Maria Christina, to the President and Members of the Crown Ministerial Council, and more especially to your Excellency as Colonial Minister. We address this Statement directly to your Excellency, according to law and custom, that you may deign to bring itunder the notice of the exalted personages already mentioned, and even if it appears desirable before the nation, duly assembled in the Cortes of the kingdom.The time has come for us faithful and constant upholders of Spanish rule in the Philippines to break our traditional silence. The hour has also come to defend our honor, which has been so much assailed, and our holy and patriotic ministry, which has been the object of the most terrible and unjustifiable accusations and calumnies.We have borne patiently with the Freemasons and insurgents, known and unknown, who in their newspapers, clubs, and public meetings, have for the last eighteen months insulted and vilified us, accusing us, among other things, of having fostered the rebellion. We have discovered to our sorrow that a number of Spaniards, having resided in these islands for a longer or shorter period as the case might be, on their return to the Peninsula have spoken of us in terms which they would not have dared to employ if in place of being priests and friars we had been laymen, or if instead of being ecclesiastical congregations we had belonged to civil or military bodies.The religious of the Philippines, far away from Europe, alone in their ministry, scattered to the furthermost corners of the Archipelago, and without any other companions and witnesses of their labors than their own dear and simple parishioners, have no other defence save right and reason. Conscious that we have always been loyal and patriotic subjects, and have always fulfilled our duties and the obligations to our holy ministry, we have borne patiently and silently, according to the advice of the Apostle, insults and calumnies from the very persons to whom we had offered our services in all Christian sincerity. We have kept silence under insults from persons calling themselves forsooth Catholics, but who are infected with the practical Jansenismof certain latter-day reformers. We even suffered in silence certain false information, most dishonoring to the religious Orders, to be brought before the Cortes last year. It was asserted, not only in private, but in important, centres, that the prestige of the religious Orders in the Philippines was so shaken that it would be necessary to drive them out by armed force. It was also declared, as most dishonoring to a great nation like Spain, to have commissioned friars to furnish information about the Philippines, and to have asked their advice in the form of a memorial presented to the Senate. In addition to all this, the gravest accusations, some directed against a worthy prelate, were brought against us, veiled, however, under the guise of impartiality and gentle correction. Before long the clamors will be renewed in a different tone; and we shall see the reproduction in the Archipelago, with more or less cruelty, of that historical period in the Peninsula of 1834–1840.REASONS FOR OUR SILENCE TILL THE PRESENT TIME.We believed that a wise and prolonged silence, added to that prudence and magnanimity which should always distinguish religious orders, would have sufficed for good and discreet persons, and that they would have repelled the accusations, and formed a judgment that would be proof against these repeated attacks. But, instead of calming down, the storm appears to increase daily. The Treaty of Biac-na-Bato has furnished to many the opportunity of renewing the crafty insinuation, nay, bold affirmation, already made by the rebel chiefs, that the religious institutes were the sole cause of the insurrection. One of the chiefs of the “Katipunan” secret society has declared in his paper, TheGrand Orient, which, like a plague, is still scatteredover the islands, that one of the first articles in his programme is the expulsion of the religious Orders. In the Peninsula as well as here, the Freemasons and others who second their efforts have recommenced the war against us. They have published manifestoes at Madrid, in which, misusing the name of the Philippine natives, they demand vexatious and disgraceful measures against the clergy.If under these circumstances we still remained silent, our silence would be attributed, and rightly so, to fear or to guilt. Our patience would be called weakness; and even sensible and solid Catholics, who recognize the injustice of the attacks made against us, might be led to believe that we were really stained with guilt, or that we had fallen into such a state of moral prostration, that we could be ill-treated with impunity.THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY UPHOLD RELIGION.On what grounds are the religious bodies persecuted? Simply because they uphold true and sound doctrine, and have never shown a weak front to the enemies of God and of their country. If we had shown ourselves pusillanimous in sight of the works of Masonic lodges, and in presence of the propagation of the politico-religious errors imported from Europe; if we had given the faintest mark, not of sympathy, but even of toleration, to the men who were scattering broadcast false notions of liberty condemned by the Church; if patriotism had cooled in our hearts, or if the innovators had not found in each Philippine religious an intractable and terrible adversary to their plans,—the religious congregations would never have been disturbed. On the contrary, we should have been extolled to the skies, the more so because our enemies do notignore the fact that, were we to help them in the Archipelago, were we to give them our support, or at least were we to remain silent, we should thereby give them an undisputed victory.But they know well that our standard is no other than the Syllabus of the great Pontiff, Pius IX., so frequently confirmed by Leo XIII., wherein all rebellion against the powers is so energetically condemned. Yea! truly they hate us, and under different names and on divers pretexts they are making such a cruel war upon us that it would seem as if the Freemasons and Revolutionists had no other enemies in the Philippines than the religious bodies.THE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTED AS LOYAL SPANIARDS.Apart from their essentially religious character, the regular clergy of the Archipelago are the sole Spanish institution, permanent and deeply-rooted, which exists in the islands—a vigorous organization well adapted to these regions. While the civil and military officials on the one hand, who come from Spain, live here only for a time, fulfilling their duties more or less wisely according as it is for or against their private interests, and yet are ignorant of the languages of the country, and have only a superficial intercourse with the Islanders, we, the religious, come over here to sacrifice our whole existences, dispersed often one by one amongst the remotest tribes. When we bid an eternal farewell to our native shores, we voluntarily condemn ourselves, by virtue of our vows, to live forever devoted to the moral, religious, and civil education ofthenatives; and we have waged many conflicts in their behalf.CRAFTINESS OF THE INSURGENT CHIEFS.Seeing that we were the most deeply rooted, influential, and best-respected Spaniards in the country, and that we would come to no terms with them or their projects, the rebel chiefs determined to demand our expulsion from the Government. They were aware that they would be backed up in their demand by many among the Spanish residents in the Archipelago, who, led by passion and ignorance, lend a willing ear to all who declaim against the religious Orders, especially when the watchwords used are “Free Thought,” “Liberty of the Press,” “Secularization of Education,” “Ecclesiastical Liquidation,” “Suppression of the Privileges of the Clergy.”Thus the password among the rebels became, especially since the Treaty of Biac-na-Bato, the emancipation of their country. They declared they had no dislike to Spanish administration, nor any intention of separation from Spain; what made them rise in rebellion were the abuses of the clergy, and their only demand was the expulsion of the religious Orders. But these were lying declarations, as numerous judicial and non-judicial documents containing the plans of the conspirators have proved. They made these false professions because they knew that if they declared that the insurrection was brought about by the numerous abuses of power which have been committed by civil and military functionaries, they would have all the Spanish element in the Archipelago leagued against them, and would have the door closed to all their means of propaganda.ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.We ask, in the first place, where are these abuses which are always the subject of their declamations in the clubsand lodges? We preach the Gospel, and not only do we draw to a civilized life the barbarous tribes of the Archipelago, whom we have preserved peaceful and happy for three centuries, as the whole world knows, but we have always been the defenders of the natives, who are subjected to a thousand vexations on the part of the Spanish lay residents. At all times we have watched over the purity of the Faith and the preservation of good morals, showing ourselves inflexible against illegal exactions, immoral games, and those who lead scandalous lives. After all that has been written against us for so many years, we defy our calumniators, and do not fear an honest and impartial examination of our lives and works. Let those who murmur and speak against us, prove by exact dates and authentic documents that their accusations are well founded.They say we are enemies of education and of the diffusion of knowledge; if by education they mean the teaching of doctrine condemned by the Church, we are at one with them; but there is no education in the ordinary sense of the term, primary, secondary, or superior, in the islands that has not been founded, encouraged, and sustained by the clergy. It is well known that very few of the native officials who went through their course in our schools have taken part in the rebellion; and the proclaimers of “Free-thought” are, for the most part, individuals who failed in their career, and were the refuse of our classes.As to the accusations of immorality which are recklessly levelled against us, all we have to say is that everyone can see our monasteries and convents and ourselves, and can form a judgment on our lives; the parish priests and missionaries are alone, surrounded by a multitude of natives; everyone can see what we are doing, and hear what we are saying; our European figures and sacerdotal characterbring us into such prominence before the people that it would be stupid to imagine that we could hide our doings.We consider, as not worthy of reply, the impudent assertion that in the country parts we are despots; that in a thousand ways we suck the blood of our tenants; charges often before refuted by the most explicit documentary evidence. Neither is it worth while speaking of the abominable calumny of attributing to us the passage through the country with armed force, and the imprisoning and torturing of those implicated in the first revolt. All this is part of the absurd fable that we are absolute masters, not only of the consciences of the people, but of the Archipelago itself; statements contradicted by the very men who make them, when they declare in the Cortes that we have lost all influence and all prestige in the islands.CAUSE OF THE REBELLION.The utter want of religion to be found among a great number of the Spanish residents, the facility with which the ancient laws of the Archipelago were changed, the instability of the public functionaries, a fruitful source of abuses, contributed for several years to discredit the Spanish name. But Freemasonry, as the world knows, has been the principal cause of the social disorganization of the Philippines. The Hispano-Philippine Association of Madrid was Masonic; the Masons were almost alone in the work of urging on the natives to make war on the clergy and the Spanish residents; they authorized the founding of lodges in the Archipelago. It was the Masons, too, who formed the “Katipunan” society, so essentially Masonic that in the terrible “compact of blood” they make, they are actually imitating the Carbonari of Italy.In consequence of the teaching of the Freemasons, thevoice of the parish priest has no longer any effect on numbers of the natives, especially at Manila and in the neighboring provinces, where they are accustomed to give themselves airs of importance and independence; and the prestige of the Spanish name has grown considerably less, and disappeared entirely in many places. What wonder, then, if the powerful instincts of race awoke, and that, pondering on the fact that they had a language and climate and territory of their own, the rebels should try to build a wall of separation between the Spaniards and the Malays? Is it not natural that having been brought to believe that the friar is neither their father nor the pastor of their souls, nor their friend and enthusiastic defender, but, on the contrary, a spoiler, and that the Spanish resident is only a money-grubber, having more or less power and authority, they should have desired to free themselves from the Spanish authority?Six months ago the “Katipunan” society was limited to the mountains of Langua and Bulacan, where the rebel chiefs had taken refuge, and also counted some adherents among certain tribes in touch with the insurgents. But now the plague is widespread; the insurgents violating the promise made to the gallant Marquis of Estella, and at the call of a secret signal, have scattered themselves over the central provinces, and by means of cruelty and terrorism have succeeded in enrolling in their ranks a great number of natives who after the submission at Biac-na-Bato gave pledges of fidelity to Spain. They have also succeeded in intrenching themselves at Capiz and in other parts of the Viscayas. The rising in Zambaies, Pagasinan, Iloco, and Cebu are all of recent origin; and the same may be said of the “Katipunans” discovered at Manila.However, the greater part of the country is not yet perverted; a wave of hallucination and fanaticism has passedover it, but the heart of the people is still sound, and with careful management they will return to their usual habits of peace and submission. The move wealthy classes are also sound, and are against the rebellion.We frankly tell the Government that if it does not aid the Church, the revolutionary movement will increase every day, and it will be morally impossible for the religious to remain here any longer. What good is it for us to do our duty to the people when others are allowed to undo our work at the same time? Of what use is it for us to teach the people to be docile and submissive when their worst passions are excited by others, who tell them to make nothing of our teaching? What professor could teach successfully if his pupils were met outside the classroom by respectable persons who told them to despise his lessons? The civil authority, according to the teaching of the Church, ought as far as possible to be a bulwark to religion and morality. If the Government, therefore, does not protect us from the avalanche of insults hurled against us; if it does not root out the secret societies; if it allows our sacerdotal character to be trodden under foot while our enemies destroy the fruit of our labors,—we regret to say that we cannot continue our ministry in the islands.Spain has bound herself very stringently to obligations of this nature. One of the laws of the Code of the Indies says expressly on this point: “We command the Viceroys, the Presidents, the Auditors, the Governors, and the other functionaries of the Indies, to favor, and aid, and encourage the religions orders who are occupying themselves in the conversion of the natives to our entire satisfaction.”The spirit that moved Philip II. was seen in the answer he made to those who advised him to abandon the Archipelago, in view of the little revenue they brought to theCrown. He said: “For the conversion of only one of the souls that are there I would willingly give all the treasures of the Indies, and if they were not enough I would add those of Spain. Nothing in the world would make me consent to cease sending preachers and ministers of the Gospel to all the provinces that have been discovered, even if they are barren and sterile, for the Holy Apostolic See has given to us and our heirs the apostolic commission of publishing and preaching the Gospel. The Gospel can be spread through these islands, and the natives can be drawn from the worship of the demon by making known to them the true God, in a spirit alien to that of temporal greed.”UNJUST CONTEMPT SHOWN TOWARDS THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN THE PHILIPPINES.An idea has spread since the Revolution in Spain of 1868 that the Philippine Friars are a necessary evil, an out-of-date institution which has to be kept up for reasons of state. This unworthy idea, manifested sometimes with frankness, sometimes with a certain reticence, and which wounds us to the quick, has been constantly brought forward by our enemies. The natives who have been to Spain are fully aware of it; without leaving the Philippines, a great number of natives have observed it, and are at present trying to propagate it in the Archipelago. Very numerous, too are the Spanish residents who are hostile to us, owing to an anti-clerical spirit or to jealousy; in fact, we have enemies in all classes of society.Many people, in consequence, think that our very existence in the country is simply owing to pity and condescension on the part of the Government; that we are merely tolerated, and are of less value in the eyes of thecivil authorities than the members of any lay profession. With a marvellous facility all the evils that affect the country are laid at our door; and every time a governor makes a gross blunder in dealing with the natives, the evil consequences which flow from it are put down to us. Now, every class of society has a right to ordinary respect and fair treatment; we receive neither one nor the other, but are treated with absolute contempt. This humiliating situation, as individuals obliged to greater perfection than other Christians, we patiently bear with; but as religious orders we cannot put up with it any longer, for we see only too well how this treatment injures our ministry, and destroys our influence with the people committed to our care.If the Government through an error to which we cannot give unqualified respect, since it is contrary to the real interests of religion and of our country, believes that the mission of the Orders in the islands has come to an end, we nevertheless say to them: “We await your dispositions with sincerity, but do not flatter yourselves that in adopting measures against our religious professions you can burn a light both before Christ and before Belial.” If, on the contrary, we are to remain in the islands, no one can deny that it is necessary to protect our persons, our prestige, and our ministry; our country must show that she is pleased with us, and treat us as her children; we must not be abandoned to our enemies as a thing of no value, and made victims of the resentment of the Freemasons. We do not fear martyrdom, which is an honor we do not feel ourselves worthy of; on the other hand, we do not wish to die as criminals abandoned by their friends and protectors, and deprived of all honor.It is incredible that religious men placed in our position could be the cause of the woes of the Archipelago. Weprefer to resign our ministry, and see ourselves expelled, rather than continue our mission in the islands, if the situation does not better itself before long. We have done our work well in these islands, and we feel sure that we shall be able to do our duty quite as well elsewhere with the grace of God.
Secret societies, and, above all, that great guild known as Freemasonry, are certainly foremost, if not controlling, factors in the warfare made upon throne and altar during the last one hundred and fifty years.
In saying this we do not intend to express any opinion for or against the sentiments of Protestant Freemasons in England and the United States, numbers of whom, no doubt, reprobate the anti-Christian spirit this association shows on the Continent and in Spanish America. They have been brought up to regard it as a perfectly harmless and beneficent institution, and cannot understand the attitude taken with regard to it by the Catholic Church.
Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of the natives.Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of the natives.
Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of the natives.
It is quite true that Freemasonry may have in these countries kept to its original constitution, which, we may admit, was of a beneficent nature. But what Catholic writers on the subject urgently insist upon is, that on the Continent it very soonassumed a political and dangerous character. For a long time it was not condemned by the Church, and many good Catholics of rank and position gave their names to it. It was only when its dangerous tendencies came to light that it received solemn ecclesiastical condemnation, and that Catholics were forbidden to join it. For more than a century this secret guild has been at the bottom of the revolutions that have desolated the modern world. Some years previous to the French Revolution, German envoys of the Society of the Illuminati advised the French Masons to form a political committee in each lodge; and in time, as Robison remarks, these committees led to the formation of the Jacobin Club. “Thus were the lodges of France,” says this writer, “converted in a very short time into a set of affiliated secret societies, corresponding with the mother lodges of Paris, receiving from thence their principles and instructions, and ready to rise up at once when called upon to carry on the great work of overturning the State. Hence it arose that the French aimed, in the very beginning, at subverting the whole world. Hence, too, may be explained how the revolution took place almost in a moment in every part of France. The revolutionary societies were early formed, and were working in secret before the opening of the National Assembly; and the whole nation changed, and changed again and again, as if by beat of drum.”
In Spain, since its introduction it assumed a sanguinary and virulent character; it brought about revolutions and civil wars, embittered classes against one another, wronged and starved the clergy, robbed, turned adrift, and banished the religious Orders.
There is, indeed, a good deal of difficulty in tracing all these evils to the action of the Freemasons; for on the Continent, especially in Spain, the society has been always of a more secret nature than in these countries. Members of the Craft in England and the United States are generally well known to belong to it; their halls and lodges in the larger towns are imposing and conspicuous; their emblems and badges are often seen in the light of day. But on the Continent we see very little of all this; it is a thoroughly secret society; the members and their movements are carefully veiled from sight. As we said before, Freemasonry, on its introduction to the Continent, at once assumed a political character. The Deists and free-thinkers of the last century utilized it as a potent means of combining against the Church, and of carrying on their evil propaganda. In this way they were aided by the Jansenists, with different motives it is true, but still, when it was a question of opposing the religious Orders, with a whole heart. The working of the society in Spain in this century has necessarily been more stealthy and insidious than in France, for there itwas face to face with a truly Catholic population devotedly attached to the Church.
By means of atheistical French literature, the works of Voltaire and other unbelievers, translated into Spanish, brought across the border in large bales, and disseminated through the Peninsula, the Freemasons had already indoctrinated a large number of active and restless spirits with revolutionary and anti-Christian ideas, when the troubles and civil war of 1834 gave them the opportunity they desired of making an onslaught on the religious Orders. At such times the minds of men are in a ferment, and the most incredible reports may be spread abroad, and will be implicitly believed by the populace. Accordingly, on the awful visitation of cholera, which swept over Europe at that time, desolating cities and towns, and leaving thousands upon thousands of families in mourning, in Madrid the report was industriously spread by the Masons that the Monks and Friars had poisoned the wells, and were the cause of the sickness among the people. In a mad fit of rage the populace rose on all sides, rushed to the convents and monasteries, and murdered all the inmates they could lay their hands upon. This awful event is referred to in the Memorial.
Such a state of things may seem hardly possible in the nineteenth century; and yet a similar catastrophe nearly happened in Lisbon a few years ago, the circumstances of which were related to thewriter by one of the Dominicans who was living there at the time. It appears that the Dominican nuns had opened a dispensary for the relief of the poor. Strange to say, the frightful report soon went abroad that the nuns were stealing children, and killing and boiling them down to make a healing ointment out of their remains. The city was in an uproar; it was unsafe for priests and nuns to be seen in the streets; and the populace who really believed the absurd story, being in a furious state of excitement, were on the point of burning down the convent, and maltreating the nuns.
To return to Spain, the popular rising in Madrid was utilized by the revolutionary party in carrying out, the following year, the suppression of all the convents and monasteries in the country. The religious were driven out into the world; and their lands, goods, libraries, and art-treasures were sold for the benefit of the public debt, and to supply means to carry on the civil war. The bishops and secular clergy as well were also robbed, numerous episcopal sees were suppressed, and the goods of the Church declared to be national property. The Freemason Government promised to look after the interests of the Church by paying salaries to all ecclesiastics. As a result, Spain was filled, in a few years, with a poverty-stricken and starving clergy, and ruined churches and mouldering abbeys were to be seen on all sides. The effects of that great spoliation are still felt in the Peninsula; forthough the religious Orders have revived in the meantime, and numerous convents and monasteries have been built, the priests are not in sufficient numbers for the needs of the population, which thereby, in many places, is suffering great spiritual destitution.
The policy of robbery and confiscation was boldly advocated for the Philippines, just before the late war, in one of the leading reviews of Madrid. Juan Ferrando Gomez, in a series of articles1bitterly hostile to the Philippine Friars, proposed their entire suppression. They should be turned out of their convents and missionary houses by a secret decree, of which they were to be kept in ignorance till the execution actually took place. Their convents in Manila would be useful as barracks and Government offices, their country estates could be divided amongst their tenants, and the rents formerly paid to the Friars could be commuted into a tax to be paid to the State. Moreover, the Archbishop of Manila, and any others of the bishops belonging to the religious Orders, should be forced out of the country. Besides that, the schools and university belonging to the Friars should also be either suppressed, or taken out of their hands. Reading these flagrantly unjust proposals in the light of recent Spanish history, and with the help of the Memorial, we areinclined to believe that, without much further pressure from the Freemasons, the Spanish Ministry would have carried them out. Fortunately for the Friars, as well as the natives, they have no voice in the matter now. Under the American flag the religious will be treated as citizens, having the common right of citizens, neither to be molested in their persons nor robbed of their property. The President of the United States has declared this in clear terms to the Holy See.
With regard to Freemasonry in Spanish or Latin America, the Rev. Reuben Parsons has recently written on the subject (seeAppendix III.), substantiating all his assertions by quotations from Masonic organs or other unprejudiced sources, and clearly exposing the systematic war which the lodges in South and Central America have carried on against religion. He shows how it has started revolutions, assassinated the leaders of the people, exiled the clergy, and persecuted the Church in other ways.
We will now endeavor to trace the history of Freemasonry in the Philippines and its connection with the insurrection there. In the Philippines Freemasonry found itself face to face with a simple native population, mostly Christian, and an active body of Spanish missionaries belonging to various religious Orders, loyal to their native country, possessing unbounded influence over their flocks, and rapidly bringing under the yoke of Christ the tribeswho were still Pagan. The religious were a power that they could not hope to cope with for a long time; and so at first they were left unmolested, while the members of the Craft were gathering converts, and strengthening their position, among a class more suitable to their nefarious designs, viz., the mestizos, or half-breeds; the Filipinos, or those who, though born in the country, consider themselves the pure-blooded descendants of the early colonists; and the Spanish officials, numbers of whom were already Masons before they went to the Archipelago.
That the Freemasonry in the Philippines has shown itself of a distinctly sanguinary nature is not to be wondered at when we consider its close connection with Spain. The Lodge of Action, or Red Lodge, composed of determined revolutionists ready to use the dagger, and prepared to wade through a sea of blood to accomplish their designs, represented by Mazzini and the Carbonari in Italy, has a large following in Spain, and was presided over, a few years ago, by Zorilla, the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Spain.
The following account of the growth of Freemasonry in the Philippines, taken from theRosario, an organ published in Rome, the editor of which has access to special information, and is in close touch with friars who have been living for many years in the archipelago as missionaries, will be of profound interest. In or about 1860 manyof the strangers who frequented the Philippines were Freemasons, and members of the lodges of Singapore, Hongkong, Java, Macao, and the open ports of China. This was at a period when England, Holland, France, the United States, for colonial reasons of their own, showed hostility to Spain. It was therefore quite natural that, in those lodges, an anti-Spanish spirit gradually arose in the Philippines. Seeing this spirit arising, two officials of the Spanish navy, Malcampo and Mendez Nunez, Freemasons themselves, determined to oppose Freemasonry to Freemasonry, by founding lodges that would uphold the Spanish interests; they therefore established, at Cavite, the Lodge Primera Luz Filippina, placing it under the Grand Orient of Lusitania, and a little afterwards another lodge at Zamboanga, for the officials, seamen, and civil functionaries who held positions in Mindanao.
In opposition to these, the strangers residing in the Philippines established at Manila itself a lodge of the Scottish rite, as apoint d’appuifor the enemies of Spain. They thus moved the centre of conspiracy against Spain to the islands themselves, and tried to draw the natives into their nets by giving them important positions in the Craft. The two opposing factions of Freemasonry also increased their numbers largely by taking in the political exiles who were sent to the Philippines as a result of the part taken by them in the variouscivil wars in the Peninsula, most of whom gave their names and services to one or the other. It is remarkable that these two bodies, guided by opposite political principles, one depending on a Spanish centre and directed principally by Spaniards, the other directed principally by Germans, English, and Americans, and opposed to Spanish interests, found, at least in one direction, a point of concord, namely, in opposition to the religious Orders. Although the Spanish Masons were actuated by a love for their mother-country, still the well-known anti-clericalism of Freemasonry prevailed over every other consideration, blinding them to the fact that the best and most influential representatives of Spain in the Philippines were to be found in the religious Orders, who were the only civilizing force able to deal with the natives. They thus indirectly paved the way for the insurrection; for it is well known that from the ranks of the opposing factions, and principally by reason of their anti-clerical tendencies, arose the sanguinary society of the “Katipunan,” which made it its direct aim to expel the friars, and overturn the Spanish government in the islands. TheGrand Orient, the organ of this society, declared that one of the first articles of its programme was the extermination of the religious. And here it may be noticed that the ninth term of the proposals made by the insurgents to America was as follows: “There shall be a general religious toleration; butmeasures shall be adopted for the abolition and expulsion of the religious communities, who, with an iron hand, have hitherto demoralized the actual civil administration.”
In the meantime the lodges increased in number, so much so that two years ago there were at Manila sixteen lodges affiliated to the Grand Orient of Spain, and one at least in every pueblo in the province of Luzon, and also lodges in Zamboanga and the Visaya Islands; an Anglo-German club-lodge, on the books of which were inscribed the names of a great part of the Government officials; also the German Union, affiliated to the Grand Orient of Berlin; the society of S. Giovanni del Monte, a centre common to Swiss, French, Belgian, and Dutch Masons. In all, according to reliable statistics, there were a hundred lodges and 25,000 initiates. When the Freemasonry of the Philippines had gathered these numbers under its banner, the insurrection broke out; and of its 25,000 members, at least 20,000 were to be found in the ranks of the rebels. Could any clearer proof than this be found that the insurrection in the Philippines is the direct work of Freemasonry?
We will here call the attention of our readers to two of the illustrations. The first is a collection of various seals and stamps, forty-one in number, in use by the various branches of the Katipunan, the sanguinary secret society of the natives. Masonic emblems, the compass and rule, thetriangle, the keys, etc., are to be found on almost all of them, proving beyond doubt the Masonic direction and constitution of the society. Turn now to the other illustration,—a Masonic apron, worn at secret meetings and also in battle, which was found on the body of an insurgent after an engagement. No concealment here of methods to be used,—the head dripping with blood, one hand grasping the bleeding head, and the other holding the dagger, sufficiently attest to all beholders the work of the Red Lodge.
The position of the religious Orders in the Philippines, just before the war broke out between Spain and America, had become so perilous and unbearable, that they addressed a long Memorial to the Spanish Government, exposing their grievances, explaining the cause of the rebellion, and suggesting remedies suitable for the situation.
This Memorial is more than a mere appeal to the Spanish Government. It is a challenge to the civilized world, made by men whose dignity and honor have been outraged by awful and unjust charges levelled at them by their foes, and spread far and near by the press. The Memorial has been put into print by the Friars, and scattered through Spain; it has been translated into French, and now it appears (in a condensed form) in an English dress. Up to the present, at any rate, it has not drawn forth an answer from those whose calumnies were the cause of its appearance.From another point of view it is of interest, giving us valuable information as to the causes of the rebellion, and incidentally throwing a lurid light upon the dark places and dark workings of Freemasonry. Its importance as an authoritative exposition lies in the fact that it emanates from the combined heads of all the religious Orders in the Philippines, men having under their spiritual care more than five out of the six millions of Christians in the country. It is signed by Father Manuel Gutierrez, Provincial of the Augustinians; Father Gilberto Martin, Commissary-Provincial of the Franciscans; Father Francisco Ajarro, Provincial of the Recollects; Father Candido Garcia Valles, Vicar-Provincial of the Dominicans; Pio Pi, S. J., Superior of the Missions of the Society of Jesus.
Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”
Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”
We doubt whether any official notice was taken of the document by the Spanish Government. It was on its way to Spain when, on the declaration of war by America, Admiral Dewey stole into Manila Bay by night, shattered the Spanish fleet the next morning at Cavite, and laid siege to Manila. In the meantime, too, the Spanish Ministry had resigned; and when the documents arrived at its destination, a new Ministry was in office, under Señor Sagasta, with a new colonial minister. Facing bravely, but ineffectually, one of the greatest powers in the world, the new Ministry was entirely taken up with cares and interestson which depended the existence of Spain as a nation.
A striking characteristic of the memorial is its outspoken insistence upon Freemasonry as the principal cause of the Rebellion, a position not unwarranted in view of the evidence presented on previous pages. So much has been heard from the opponents of the religious Orders, that a word from themselves, in their own defence, will have all the air of novelty. We reprint the memorial, quite confident that it will not suffer by comparison with what has appeared from the other side.
The Memorial of the Philippine Friars to the Spanish Government, April, 1898.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE COLONIAL MINISTER.In addition to the telegram sent to His Excellency, the Governor-General and Viceroy, on the first of this month, that he might bring it officially under your Excellency’s notice, which the said authority informs us has been done, we, the Superiors of the Congregations of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Recollects, Dominicans, and Jesuits, have the honor of presenting this Statement to his Majesty, King Alfonso XIII., and, in his royal name, to Her Majesty the Queen Regent, Dona Maria Christina, to the President and Members of the Crown Ministerial Council, and more especially to your Excellency as Colonial Minister. We address this Statement directly to your Excellency, according to law and custom, that you may deign to bring itunder the notice of the exalted personages already mentioned, and even if it appears desirable before the nation, duly assembled in the Cortes of the kingdom.The time has come for us faithful and constant upholders of Spanish rule in the Philippines to break our traditional silence. The hour has also come to defend our honor, which has been so much assailed, and our holy and patriotic ministry, which has been the object of the most terrible and unjustifiable accusations and calumnies.We have borne patiently with the Freemasons and insurgents, known and unknown, who in their newspapers, clubs, and public meetings, have for the last eighteen months insulted and vilified us, accusing us, among other things, of having fostered the rebellion. We have discovered to our sorrow that a number of Spaniards, having resided in these islands for a longer or shorter period as the case might be, on their return to the Peninsula have spoken of us in terms which they would not have dared to employ if in place of being priests and friars we had been laymen, or if instead of being ecclesiastical congregations we had belonged to civil or military bodies.The religious of the Philippines, far away from Europe, alone in their ministry, scattered to the furthermost corners of the Archipelago, and without any other companions and witnesses of their labors than their own dear and simple parishioners, have no other defence save right and reason. Conscious that we have always been loyal and patriotic subjects, and have always fulfilled our duties and the obligations to our holy ministry, we have borne patiently and silently, according to the advice of the Apostle, insults and calumnies from the very persons to whom we had offered our services in all Christian sincerity. We have kept silence under insults from persons calling themselves forsooth Catholics, but who are infected with the practical Jansenismof certain latter-day reformers. We even suffered in silence certain false information, most dishonoring to the religious Orders, to be brought before the Cortes last year. It was asserted, not only in private, but in important, centres, that the prestige of the religious Orders in the Philippines was so shaken that it would be necessary to drive them out by armed force. It was also declared, as most dishonoring to a great nation like Spain, to have commissioned friars to furnish information about the Philippines, and to have asked their advice in the form of a memorial presented to the Senate. In addition to all this, the gravest accusations, some directed against a worthy prelate, were brought against us, veiled, however, under the guise of impartiality and gentle correction. Before long the clamors will be renewed in a different tone; and we shall see the reproduction in the Archipelago, with more or less cruelty, of that historical period in the Peninsula of 1834–1840.REASONS FOR OUR SILENCE TILL THE PRESENT TIME.We believed that a wise and prolonged silence, added to that prudence and magnanimity which should always distinguish religious orders, would have sufficed for good and discreet persons, and that they would have repelled the accusations, and formed a judgment that would be proof against these repeated attacks. But, instead of calming down, the storm appears to increase daily. The Treaty of Biac-na-Bato has furnished to many the opportunity of renewing the crafty insinuation, nay, bold affirmation, already made by the rebel chiefs, that the religious institutes were the sole cause of the insurrection. One of the chiefs of the “Katipunan” secret society has declared in his paper, TheGrand Orient, which, like a plague, is still scatteredover the islands, that one of the first articles in his programme is the expulsion of the religious Orders. In the Peninsula as well as here, the Freemasons and others who second their efforts have recommenced the war against us. They have published manifestoes at Madrid, in which, misusing the name of the Philippine natives, they demand vexatious and disgraceful measures against the clergy.If under these circumstances we still remained silent, our silence would be attributed, and rightly so, to fear or to guilt. Our patience would be called weakness; and even sensible and solid Catholics, who recognize the injustice of the attacks made against us, might be led to believe that we were really stained with guilt, or that we had fallen into such a state of moral prostration, that we could be ill-treated with impunity.THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY UPHOLD RELIGION.On what grounds are the religious bodies persecuted? Simply because they uphold true and sound doctrine, and have never shown a weak front to the enemies of God and of their country. If we had shown ourselves pusillanimous in sight of the works of Masonic lodges, and in presence of the propagation of the politico-religious errors imported from Europe; if we had given the faintest mark, not of sympathy, but even of toleration, to the men who were scattering broadcast false notions of liberty condemned by the Church; if patriotism had cooled in our hearts, or if the innovators had not found in each Philippine religious an intractable and terrible adversary to their plans,—the religious congregations would never have been disturbed. On the contrary, we should have been extolled to the skies, the more so because our enemies do notignore the fact that, were we to help them in the Archipelago, were we to give them our support, or at least were we to remain silent, we should thereby give them an undisputed victory.But they know well that our standard is no other than the Syllabus of the great Pontiff, Pius IX., so frequently confirmed by Leo XIII., wherein all rebellion against the powers is so energetically condemned. Yea! truly they hate us, and under different names and on divers pretexts they are making such a cruel war upon us that it would seem as if the Freemasons and Revolutionists had no other enemies in the Philippines than the religious bodies.THE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTED AS LOYAL SPANIARDS.Apart from their essentially religious character, the regular clergy of the Archipelago are the sole Spanish institution, permanent and deeply-rooted, which exists in the islands—a vigorous organization well adapted to these regions. While the civil and military officials on the one hand, who come from Spain, live here only for a time, fulfilling their duties more or less wisely according as it is for or against their private interests, and yet are ignorant of the languages of the country, and have only a superficial intercourse with the Islanders, we, the religious, come over here to sacrifice our whole existences, dispersed often one by one amongst the remotest tribes. When we bid an eternal farewell to our native shores, we voluntarily condemn ourselves, by virtue of our vows, to live forever devoted to the moral, religious, and civil education ofthenatives; and we have waged many conflicts in their behalf.CRAFTINESS OF THE INSURGENT CHIEFS.Seeing that we were the most deeply rooted, influential, and best-respected Spaniards in the country, and that we would come to no terms with them or their projects, the rebel chiefs determined to demand our expulsion from the Government. They were aware that they would be backed up in their demand by many among the Spanish residents in the Archipelago, who, led by passion and ignorance, lend a willing ear to all who declaim against the religious Orders, especially when the watchwords used are “Free Thought,” “Liberty of the Press,” “Secularization of Education,” “Ecclesiastical Liquidation,” “Suppression of the Privileges of the Clergy.”Thus the password among the rebels became, especially since the Treaty of Biac-na-Bato, the emancipation of their country. They declared they had no dislike to Spanish administration, nor any intention of separation from Spain; what made them rise in rebellion were the abuses of the clergy, and their only demand was the expulsion of the religious Orders. But these were lying declarations, as numerous judicial and non-judicial documents containing the plans of the conspirators have proved. They made these false professions because they knew that if they declared that the insurrection was brought about by the numerous abuses of power which have been committed by civil and military functionaries, they would have all the Spanish element in the Archipelago leagued against them, and would have the door closed to all their means of propaganda.ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.We ask, in the first place, where are these abuses which are always the subject of their declamations in the clubsand lodges? We preach the Gospel, and not only do we draw to a civilized life the barbarous tribes of the Archipelago, whom we have preserved peaceful and happy for three centuries, as the whole world knows, but we have always been the defenders of the natives, who are subjected to a thousand vexations on the part of the Spanish lay residents. At all times we have watched over the purity of the Faith and the preservation of good morals, showing ourselves inflexible against illegal exactions, immoral games, and those who lead scandalous lives. After all that has been written against us for so many years, we defy our calumniators, and do not fear an honest and impartial examination of our lives and works. Let those who murmur and speak against us, prove by exact dates and authentic documents that their accusations are well founded.They say we are enemies of education and of the diffusion of knowledge; if by education they mean the teaching of doctrine condemned by the Church, we are at one with them; but there is no education in the ordinary sense of the term, primary, secondary, or superior, in the islands that has not been founded, encouraged, and sustained by the clergy. It is well known that very few of the native officials who went through their course in our schools have taken part in the rebellion; and the proclaimers of “Free-thought” are, for the most part, individuals who failed in their career, and were the refuse of our classes.As to the accusations of immorality which are recklessly levelled against us, all we have to say is that everyone can see our monasteries and convents and ourselves, and can form a judgment on our lives; the parish priests and missionaries are alone, surrounded by a multitude of natives; everyone can see what we are doing, and hear what we are saying; our European figures and sacerdotal characterbring us into such prominence before the people that it would be stupid to imagine that we could hide our doings.We consider, as not worthy of reply, the impudent assertion that in the country parts we are despots; that in a thousand ways we suck the blood of our tenants; charges often before refuted by the most explicit documentary evidence. Neither is it worth while speaking of the abominable calumny of attributing to us the passage through the country with armed force, and the imprisoning and torturing of those implicated in the first revolt. All this is part of the absurd fable that we are absolute masters, not only of the consciences of the people, but of the Archipelago itself; statements contradicted by the very men who make them, when they declare in the Cortes that we have lost all influence and all prestige in the islands.CAUSE OF THE REBELLION.The utter want of religion to be found among a great number of the Spanish residents, the facility with which the ancient laws of the Archipelago were changed, the instability of the public functionaries, a fruitful source of abuses, contributed for several years to discredit the Spanish name. But Freemasonry, as the world knows, has been the principal cause of the social disorganization of the Philippines. The Hispano-Philippine Association of Madrid was Masonic; the Masons were almost alone in the work of urging on the natives to make war on the clergy and the Spanish residents; they authorized the founding of lodges in the Archipelago. It was the Masons, too, who formed the “Katipunan” society, so essentially Masonic that in the terrible “compact of blood” they make, they are actually imitating the Carbonari of Italy.In consequence of the teaching of the Freemasons, thevoice of the parish priest has no longer any effect on numbers of the natives, especially at Manila and in the neighboring provinces, where they are accustomed to give themselves airs of importance and independence; and the prestige of the Spanish name has grown considerably less, and disappeared entirely in many places. What wonder, then, if the powerful instincts of race awoke, and that, pondering on the fact that they had a language and climate and territory of their own, the rebels should try to build a wall of separation between the Spaniards and the Malays? Is it not natural that having been brought to believe that the friar is neither their father nor the pastor of their souls, nor their friend and enthusiastic defender, but, on the contrary, a spoiler, and that the Spanish resident is only a money-grubber, having more or less power and authority, they should have desired to free themselves from the Spanish authority?Six months ago the “Katipunan” society was limited to the mountains of Langua and Bulacan, where the rebel chiefs had taken refuge, and also counted some adherents among certain tribes in touch with the insurgents. But now the plague is widespread; the insurgents violating the promise made to the gallant Marquis of Estella, and at the call of a secret signal, have scattered themselves over the central provinces, and by means of cruelty and terrorism have succeeded in enrolling in their ranks a great number of natives who after the submission at Biac-na-Bato gave pledges of fidelity to Spain. They have also succeeded in intrenching themselves at Capiz and in other parts of the Viscayas. The rising in Zambaies, Pagasinan, Iloco, and Cebu are all of recent origin; and the same may be said of the “Katipunans” discovered at Manila.However, the greater part of the country is not yet perverted; a wave of hallucination and fanaticism has passedover it, but the heart of the people is still sound, and with careful management they will return to their usual habits of peace and submission. The move wealthy classes are also sound, and are against the rebellion.We frankly tell the Government that if it does not aid the Church, the revolutionary movement will increase every day, and it will be morally impossible for the religious to remain here any longer. What good is it for us to do our duty to the people when others are allowed to undo our work at the same time? Of what use is it for us to teach the people to be docile and submissive when their worst passions are excited by others, who tell them to make nothing of our teaching? What professor could teach successfully if his pupils were met outside the classroom by respectable persons who told them to despise his lessons? The civil authority, according to the teaching of the Church, ought as far as possible to be a bulwark to religion and morality. If the Government, therefore, does not protect us from the avalanche of insults hurled against us; if it does not root out the secret societies; if it allows our sacerdotal character to be trodden under foot while our enemies destroy the fruit of our labors,—we regret to say that we cannot continue our ministry in the islands.Spain has bound herself very stringently to obligations of this nature. One of the laws of the Code of the Indies says expressly on this point: “We command the Viceroys, the Presidents, the Auditors, the Governors, and the other functionaries of the Indies, to favor, and aid, and encourage the religions orders who are occupying themselves in the conversion of the natives to our entire satisfaction.”The spirit that moved Philip II. was seen in the answer he made to those who advised him to abandon the Archipelago, in view of the little revenue they brought to theCrown. He said: “For the conversion of only one of the souls that are there I would willingly give all the treasures of the Indies, and if they were not enough I would add those of Spain. Nothing in the world would make me consent to cease sending preachers and ministers of the Gospel to all the provinces that have been discovered, even if they are barren and sterile, for the Holy Apostolic See has given to us and our heirs the apostolic commission of publishing and preaching the Gospel. The Gospel can be spread through these islands, and the natives can be drawn from the worship of the demon by making known to them the true God, in a spirit alien to that of temporal greed.”UNJUST CONTEMPT SHOWN TOWARDS THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN THE PHILIPPINES.An idea has spread since the Revolution in Spain of 1868 that the Philippine Friars are a necessary evil, an out-of-date institution which has to be kept up for reasons of state. This unworthy idea, manifested sometimes with frankness, sometimes with a certain reticence, and which wounds us to the quick, has been constantly brought forward by our enemies. The natives who have been to Spain are fully aware of it; without leaving the Philippines, a great number of natives have observed it, and are at present trying to propagate it in the Archipelago. Very numerous, too are the Spanish residents who are hostile to us, owing to an anti-clerical spirit or to jealousy; in fact, we have enemies in all classes of society.Many people, in consequence, think that our very existence in the country is simply owing to pity and condescension on the part of the Government; that we are merely tolerated, and are of less value in the eyes of thecivil authorities than the members of any lay profession. With a marvellous facility all the evils that affect the country are laid at our door; and every time a governor makes a gross blunder in dealing with the natives, the evil consequences which flow from it are put down to us. Now, every class of society has a right to ordinary respect and fair treatment; we receive neither one nor the other, but are treated with absolute contempt. This humiliating situation, as individuals obliged to greater perfection than other Christians, we patiently bear with; but as religious orders we cannot put up with it any longer, for we see only too well how this treatment injures our ministry, and destroys our influence with the people committed to our care.If the Government through an error to which we cannot give unqualified respect, since it is contrary to the real interests of religion and of our country, believes that the mission of the Orders in the islands has come to an end, we nevertheless say to them: “We await your dispositions with sincerity, but do not flatter yourselves that in adopting measures against our religious professions you can burn a light both before Christ and before Belial.” If, on the contrary, we are to remain in the islands, no one can deny that it is necessary to protect our persons, our prestige, and our ministry; our country must show that she is pleased with us, and treat us as her children; we must not be abandoned to our enemies as a thing of no value, and made victims of the resentment of the Freemasons. We do not fear martyrdom, which is an honor we do not feel ourselves worthy of; on the other hand, we do not wish to die as criminals abandoned by their friends and protectors, and deprived of all honor.It is incredible that religious men placed in our position could be the cause of the woes of the Archipelago. Weprefer to resign our ministry, and see ourselves expelled, rather than continue our mission in the islands, if the situation does not better itself before long. We have done our work well in these islands, and we feel sure that we shall be able to do our duty quite as well elsewhere with the grace of God.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE COLONIAL MINISTER.
In addition to the telegram sent to His Excellency, the Governor-General and Viceroy, on the first of this month, that he might bring it officially under your Excellency’s notice, which the said authority informs us has been done, we, the Superiors of the Congregations of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Recollects, Dominicans, and Jesuits, have the honor of presenting this Statement to his Majesty, King Alfonso XIII., and, in his royal name, to Her Majesty the Queen Regent, Dona Maria Christina, to the President and Members of the Crown Ministerial Council, and more especially to your Excellency as Colonial Minister. We address this Statement directly to your Excellency, according to law and custom, that you may deign to bring itunder the notice of the exalted personages already mentioned, and even if it appears desirable before the nation, duly assembled in the Cortes of the kingdom.
The time has come for us faithful and constant upholders of Spanish rule in the Philippines to break our traditional silence. The hour has also come to defend our honor, which has been so much assailed, and our holy and patriotic ministry, which has been the object of the most terrible and unjustifiable accusations and calumnies.
We have borne patiently with the Freemasons and insurgents, known and unknown, who in their newspapers, clubs, and public meetings, have for the last eighteen months insulted and vilified us, accusing us, among other things, of having fostered the rebellion. We have discovered to our sorrow that a number of Spaniards, having resided in these islands for a longer or shorter period as the case might be, on their return to the Peninsula have spoken of us in terms which they would not have dared to employ if in place of being priests and friars we had been laymen, or if instead of being ecclesiastical congregations we had belonged to civil or military bodies.
The religious of the Philippines, far away from Europe, alone in their ministry, scattered to the furthermost corners of the Archipelago, and without any other companions and witnesses of their labors than their own dear and simple parishioners, have no other defence save right and reason. Conscious that we have always been loyal and patriotic subjects, and have always fulfilled our duties and the obligations to our holy ministry, we have borne patiently and silently, according to the advice of the Apostle, insults and calumnies from the very persons to whom we had offered our services in all Christian sincerity. We have kept silence under insults from persons calling themselves forsooth Catholics, but who are infected with the practical Jansenismof certain latter-day reformers. We even suffered in silence certain false information, most dishonoring to the religious Orders, to be brought before the Cortes last year. It was asserted, not only in private, but in important, centres, that the prestige of the religious Orders in the Philippines was so shaken that it would be necessary to drive them out by armed force. It was also declared, as most dishonoring to a great nation like Spain, to have commissioned friars to furnish information about the Philippines, and to have asked their advice in the form of a memorial presented to the Senate. In addition to all this, the gravest accusations, some directed against a worthy prelate, were brought against us, veiled, however, under the guise of impartiality and gentle correction. Before long the clamors will be renewed in a different tone; and we shall see the reproduction in the Archipelago, with more or less cruelty, of that historical period in the Peninsula of 1834–1840.
REASONS FOR OUR SILENCE TILL THE PRESENT TIME.
We believed that a wise and prolonged silence, added to that prudence and magnanimity which should always distinguish religious orders, would have sufficed for good and discreet persons, and that they would have repelled the accusations, and formed a judgment that would be proof against these repeated attacks. But, instead of calming down, the storm appears to increase daily. The Treaty of Biac-na-Bato has furnished to many the opportunity of renewing the crafty insinuation, nay, bold affirmation, already made by the rebel chiefs, that the religious institutes were the sole cause of the insurrection. One of the chiefs of the “Katipunan” secret society has declared in his paper, TheGrand Orient, which, like a plague, is still scatteredover the islands, that one of the first articles in his programme is the expulsion of the religious Orders. In the Peninsula as well as here, the Freemasons and others who second their efforts have recommenced the war against us. They have published manifestoes at Madrid, in which, misusing the name of the Philippine natives, they demand vexatious and disgraceful measures against the clergy.
If under these circumstances we still remained silent, our silence would be attributed, and rightly so, to fear or to guilt. Our patience would be called weakness; and even sensible and solid Catholics, who recognize the injustice of the attacks made against us, might be led to believe that we were really stained with guilt, or that we had fallen into such a state of moral prostration, that we could be ill-treated with impunity.
THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY UPHOLD RELIGION.
On what grounds are the religious bodies persecuted? Simply because they uphold true and sound doctrine, and have never shown a weak front to the enemies of God and of their country. If we had shown ourselves pusillanimous in sight of the works of Masonic lodges, and in presence of the propagation of the politico-religious errors imported from Europe; if we had given the faintest mark, not of sympathy, but even of toleration, to the men who were scattering broadcast false notions of liberty condemned by the Church; if patriotism had cooled in our hearts, or if the innovators had not found in each Philippine religious an intractable and terrible adversary to their plans,—the religious congregations would never have been disturbed. On the contrary, we should have been extolled to the skies, the more so because our enemies do notignore the fact that, were we to help them in the Archipelago, were we to give them our support, or at least were we to remain silent, we should thereby give them an undisputed victory.
But they know well that our standard is no other than the Syllabus of the great Pontiff, Pius IX., so frequently confirmed by Leo XIII., wherein all rebellion against the powers is so energetically condemned. Yea! truly they hate us, and under different names and on divers pretexts they are making such a cruel war upon us that it would seem as if the Freemasons and Revolutionists had no other enemies in the Philippines than the religious bodies.
THE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTED AS LOYAL SPANIARDS.
Apart from their essentially religious character, the regular clergy of the Archipelago are the sole Spanish institution, permanent and deeply-rooted, which exists in the islands—a vigorous organization well adapted to these regions. While the civil and military officials on the one hand, who come from Spain, live here only for a time, fulfilling their duties more or less wisely according as it is for or against their private interests, and yet are ignorant of the languages of the country, and have only a superficial intercourse with the Islanders, we, the religious, come over here to sacrifice our whole existences, dispersed often one by one amongst the remotest tribes. When we bid an eternal farewell to our native shores, we voluntarily condemn ourselves, by virtue of our vows, to live forever devoted to the moral, religious, and civil education ofthenatives; and we have waged many conflicts in their behalf.
CRAFTINESS OF THE INSURGENT CHIEFS.
Seeing that we were the most deeply rooted, influential, and best-respected Spaniards in the country, and that we would come to no terms with them or their projects, the rebel chiefs determined to demand our expulsion from the Government. They were aware that they would be backed up in their demand by many among the Spanish residents in the Archipelago, who, led by passion and ignorance, lend a willing ear to all who declaim against the religious Orders, especially when the watchwords used are “Free Thought,” “Liberty of the Press,” “Secularization of Education,” “Ecclesiastical Liquidation,” “Suppression of the Privileges of the Clergy.”
Thus the password among the rebels became, especially since the Treaty of Biac-na-Bato, the emancipation of their country. They declared they had no dislike to Spanish administration, nor any intention of separation from Spain; what made them rise in rebellion were the abuses of the clergy, and their only demand was the expulsion of the religious Orders. But these were lying declarations, as numerous judicial and non-judicial documents containing the plans of the conspirators have proved. They made these false professions because they knew that if they declared that the insurrection was brought about by the numerous abuses of power which have been committed by civil and military functionaries, they would have all the Spanish element in the Archipelago leagued against them, and would have the door closed to all their means of propaganda.
ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
We ask, in the first place, where are these abuses which are always the subject of their declamations in the clubsand lodges? We preach the Gospel, and not only do we draw to a civilized life the barbarous tribes of the Archipelago, whom we have preserved peaceful and happy for three centuries, as the whole world knows, but we have always been the defenders of the natives, who are subjected to a thousand vexations on the part of the Spanish lay residents. At all times we have watched over the purity of the Faith and the preservation of good morals, showing ourselves inflexible against illegal exactions, immoral games, and those who lead scandalous lives. After all that has been written against us for so many years, we defy our calumniators, and do not fear an honest and impartial examination of our lives and works. Let those who murmur and speak against us, prove by exact dates and authentic documents that their accusations are well founded.
They say we are enemies of education and of the diffusion of knowledge; if by education they mean the teaching of doctrine condemned by the Church, we are at one with them; but there is no education in the ordinary sense of the term, primary, secondary, or superior, in the islands that has not been founded, encouraged, and sustained by the clergy. It is well known that very few of the native officials who went through their course in our schools have taken part in the rebellion; and the proclaimers of “Free-thought” are, for the most part, individuals who failed in their career, and were the refuse of our classes.
As to the accusations of immorality which are recklessly levelled against us, all we have to say is that everyone can see our monasteries and convents and ourselves, and can form a judgment on our lives; the parish priests and missionaries are alone, surrounded by a multitude of natives; everyone can see what we are doing, and hear what we are saying; our European figures and sacerdotal characterbring us into such prominence before the people that it would be stupid to imagine that we could hide our doings.
We consider, as not worthy of reply, the impudent assertion that in the country parts we are despots; that in a thousand ways we suck the blood of our tenants; charges often before refuted by the most explicit documentary evidence. Neither is it worth while speaking of the abominable calumny of attributing to us the passage through the country with armed force, and the imprisoning and torturing of those implicated in the first revolt. All this is part of the absurd fable that we are absolute masters, not only of the consciences of the people, but of the Archipelago itself; statements contradicted by the very men who make them, when they declare in the Cortes that we have lost all influence and all prestige in the islands.
CAUSE OF THE REBELLION.
The utter want of religion to be found among a great number of the Spanish residents, the facility with which the ancient laws of the Archipelago were changed, the instability of the public functionaries, a fruitful source of abuses, contributed for several years to discredit the Spanish name. But Freemasonry, as the world knows, has been the principal cause of the social disorganization of the Philippines. The Hispano-Philippine Association of Madrid was Masonic; the Masons were almost alone in the work of urging on the natives to make war on the clergy and the Spanish residents; they authorized the founding of lodges in the Archipelago. It was the Masons, too, who formed the “Katipunan” society, so essentially Masonic that in the terrible “compact of blood” they make, they are actually imitating the Carbonari of Italy.
In consequence of the teaching of the Freemasons, thevoice of the parish priest has no longer any effect on numbers of the natives, especially at Manila and in the neighboring provinces, where they are accustomed to give themselves airs of importance and independence; and the prestige of the Spanish name has grown considerably less, and disappeared entirely in many places. What wonder, then, if the powerful instincts of race awoke, and that, pondering on the fact that they had a language and climate and territory of their own, the rebels should try to build a wall of separation between the Spaniards and the Malays? Is it not natural that having been brought to believe that the friar is neither their father nor the pastor of their souls, nor their friend and enthusiastic defender, but, on the contrary, a spoiler, and that the Spanish resident is only a money-grubber, having more or less power and authority, they should have desired to free themselves from the Spanish authority?
Six months ago the “Katipunan” society was limited to the mountains of Langua and Bulacan, where the rebel chiefs had taken refuge, and also counted some adherents among certain tribes in touch with the insurgents. But now the plague is widespread; the insurgents violating the promise made to the gallant Marquis of Estella, and at the call of a secret signal, have scattered themselves over the central provinces, and by means of cruelty and terrorism have succeeded in enrolling in their ranks a great number of natives who after the submission at Biac-na-Bato gave pledges of fidelity to Spain. They have also succeeded in intrenching themselves at Capiz and in other parts of the Viscayas. The rising in Zambaies, Pagasinan, Iloco, and Cebu are all of recent origin; and the same may be said of the “Katipunans” discovered at Manila.
However, the greater part of the country is not yet perverted; a wave of hallucination and fanaticism has passedover it, but the heart of the people is still sound, and with careful management they will return to their usual habits of peace and submission. The move wealthy classes are also sound, and are against the rebellion.
We frankly tell the Government that if it does not aid the Church, the revolutionary movement will increase every day, and it will be morally impossible for the religious to remain here any longer. What good is it for us to do our duty to the people when others are allowed to undo our work at the same time? Of what use is it for us to teach the people to be docile and submissive when their worst passions are excited by others, who tell them to make nothing of our teaching? What professor could teach successfully if his pupils were met outside the classroom by respectable persons who told them to despise his lessons? The civil authority, according to the teaching of the Church, ought as far as possible to be a bulwark to religion and morality. If the Government, therefore, does not protect us from the avalanche of insults hurled against us; if it does not root out the secret societies; if it allows our sacerdotal character to be trodden under foot while our enemies destroy the fruit of our labors,—we regret to say that we cannot continue our ministry in the islands.
Spain has bound herself very stringently to obligations of this nature. One of the laws of the Code of the Indies says expressly on this point: “We command the Viceroys, the Presidents, the Auditors, the Governors, and the other functionaries of the Indies, to favor, and aid, and encourage the religions orders who are occupying themselves in the conversion of the natives to our entire satisfaction.”
The spirit that moved Philip II. was seen in the answer he made to those who advised him to abandon the Archipelago, in view of the little revenue they brought to theCrown. He said: “For the conversion of only one of the souls that are there I would willingly give all the treasures of the Indies, and if they were not enough I would add those of Spain. Nothing in the world would make me consent to cease sending preachers and ministers of the Gospel to all the provinces that have been discovered, even if they are barren and sterile, for the Holy Apostolic See has given to us and our heirs the apostolic commission of publishing and preaching the Gospel. The Gospel can be spread through these islands, and the natives can be drawn from the worship of the demon by making known to them the true God, in a spirit alien to that of temporal greed.”
UNJUST CONTEMPT SHOWN TOWARDS THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN THE PHILIPPINES.
An idea has spread since the Revolution in Spain of 1868 that the Philippine Friars are a necessary evil, an out-of-date institution which has to be kept up for reasons of state. This unworthy idea, manifested sometimes with frankness, sometimes with a certain reticence, and which wounds us to the quick, has been constantly brought forward by our enemies. The natives who have been to Spain are fully aware of it; without leaving the Philippines, a great number of natives have observed it, and are at present trying to propagate it in the Archipelago. Very numerous, too are the Spanish residents who are hostile to us, owing to an anti-clerical spirit or to jealousy; in fact, we have enemies in all classes of society.
Many people, in consequence, think that our very existence in the country is simply owing to pity and condescension on the part of the Government; that we are merely tolerated, and are of less value in the eyes of thecivil authorities than the members of any lay profession. With a marvellous facility all the evils that affect the country are laid at our door; and every time a governor makes a gross blunder in dealing with the natives, the evil consequences which flow from it are put down to us. Now, every class of society has a right to ordinary respect and fair treatment; we receive neither one nor the other, but are treated with absolute contempt. This humiliating situation, as individuals obliged to greater perfection than other Christians, we patiently bear with; but as religious orders we cannot put up with it any longer, for we see only too well how this treatment injures our ministry, and destroys our influence with the people committed to our care.
If the Government through an error to which we cannot give unqualified respect, since it is contrary to the real interests of religion and of our country, believes that the mission of the Orders in the islands has come to an end, we nevertheless say to them: “We await your dispositions with sincerity, but do not flatter yourselves that in adopting measures against our religious professions you can burn a light both before Christ and before Belial.” If, on the contrary, we are to remain in the islands, no one can deny that it is necessary to protect our persons, our prestige, and our ministry; our country must show that she is pleased with us, and treat us as her children; we must not be abandoned to our enemies as a thing of no value, and made victims of the resentment of the Freemasons. We do not fear martyrdom, which is an honor we do not feel ourselves worthy of; on the other hand, we do not wish to die as criminals abandoned by their friends and protectors, and deprived of all honor.
It is incredible that religious men placed in our position could be the cause of the woes of the Archipelago. Weprefer to resign our ministry, and see ourselves expelled, rather than continue our mission in the islands, if the situation does not better itself before long. We have done our work well in these islands, and we feel sure that we shall be able to do our duty quite as well elsewhere with the grace of God.
1In theAdministration, of Madrid, one of the leading reviews in Spain.
1In theAdministration, of Madrid, one of the leading reviews in Spain.
Chapter IV.The Rebels and Their Grievances.We cannot view without grave misgivings the unexpected turn that affairs have taken since the war, and the second war which has broken out between the rebels and the Americans. It is now plain that it was entire independence from all control that the promoters of the rebellion were looking for from the very beginning; this being well known to the Friars all along, and clearly indicated in their memorial to the Spanish Government. Aguinaldo and his companions have unlimited confidence in themselves, and aspire to form a civilized republic. The character of this pure-souled patriot may be judged from a transaction he had with the Spanish Government. After the armistice of Biac-na-Bato, he was bought out by them, and took thousands of dollars as his price for leaving the country for aye, never to return. He pocketed the money, and went off to Hongkong; but when the Americans came to Manila, and destroyed the Spanish fleet, this worthy returned to the Philippines, and once more raisedthe standard of rebellion. As a result the Americans are apt to find themselves burdened with a war expenditure, even heavier than that borne by Spain in her effort to prevent a repetition in the Philippines of the gruesome story of San Domingo and Hayti. All colored and tropical races have a tendency to revert to their original type and the barbarous customs of their ancestors. The blacks got possession of Hayti nearly a century ago, at which time they were at least domesticated, and partially civilized, having been in contact with the white man for the two previous centuries. They have gone back, and not forward, ever since. The history of the black republic is a bloody revolution every two or three years, distinguished by acts of barbarous ferocity. Life there at the present day is a hideous caricature of civilization and Christianity. Incredible as it may seem, there has been a revival in the remote villages of the old African serpent-worship, and child sacrifices, followed by cannibalism.Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.Archbishop of Nueva Segovia.Ten Spanish Augustinian Friars recently came to San Francisco from the Philippines (seeAppendix IV.). In an interview with the representative of theSan Francisco Monitorthey stated that it was not through fear of the Americans that they had left Manila, but, on the contrary, they believed that the Church would prosper under American rule. They said that the respectable element in the Philippines, though they had been quite contentwith the Spanish rule, and deeming it all that could be expected under the circumstances, are yet welcoming the Americans as a relief from insurgent atrocities. “The insurgents,” they said, “are an undisciplined mob of rioters, led by a demagogue. They are the riff-raff of the islands, men without principle or property in most instances. Aguinaldo has them pretty well in hand to-day, but to-morrow they may disintegrate into fifty gangs. Aguinaldo is an ungrateful renegade, who was fed, clothed, and educated by Catholic priests. He is a mere puppet in the hands of the Freemasons.1It is to these worthies and organizedanarchy in Europe that we may trace the origin of the trouble in the Philippines. Soon after the destruction of the Spanish fleet, the insurgents wrecked our schools, robbed and despoiled our missions and churches, and drove us into Manila. About fifty priests were brutally killed by them. As our field of work was thus laid bare, we decided to leave the Philippines. What made us depart was the discouragement of seeing the work of years destroyed by the men we had gone to teach, and the improbability of being able to build up the work again immediately.”The Filipinos have already shown proof how far removed they are from civilized ideals, and how dangerous it would be to leave them to themselves, by their inhuman treatment of their Spanish prisoners. Besides ordinary Spanish civilians, they have kept in captivity for several months hundreds of Friars, including one hundred Dominicans, and the Dominican Bishop of Neuva Segovia, Mgr. Joseph Hevia, whose portrait we give. Numbers of the Friars have lately died of the hardships to which they were subjected. A letter, received some time ago from one of them by a friend in Manila, describes the ferocious and satanic hatred shown towards them by the rebel chiefs. They were stripped of their clothes, hats, and shoes, robbed of their money, spat upon, tied to trees, and flogged several times. Daily they were forced to work on the public roads frommorning to evening, under a broiling sun, receiving food and drink barely sufficient to support life. The leaders mocked at and jested over their sufferings. Though violent threats were held out against all who succored them, their parishioners seized opportunities of coming to visit them, and alleviate their miseries. From other sources we learn that the noses of some of the prisoners were slit, and a cord passed through the aperture, to be used as a leading-string by their guards. The venerable Bishop was subjected to the grossest indignities. One aged Friar was placed on a saddle, and jumped upon till blood flowed from his mouth and nose. Another, it is said, clothed only in a rain-coat, was carried in triumph for two hundred yards, and then cudgelled to death amid savage cries. Some were crushed to death between boards. Nuns in the convents were subjected to shameful treatment. In the name of common sense, we ask if men who encourage or permit such atrocities are fit to control and guide the destinies of eight millions of people. (SeeAppendix V.)Of course the policy of the Press in general has been to keep these atrocities from the eyes of the public. As it did not suit political purposes to publish them, they have been kept concealed. Owing to this careful management, the sympathies of the world have been enlisted on the side of the “poor downtrodden Filipinos.” An impartialexamination of the grievances of the latter, and of the catch-cries by which the leaders have seduced a considerable portion of the simple natives, will not reveal very much against either the civil or the ecclesiastical rule of the Spaniard. As in everything human, we may suppose that neither was absolute perfection; but, all things considered, there was less to justify rebellion in the Philippines than in most parts of the world where the black is ruled by the white man.One of the grievances of the rebels is that nearly all the ecclesiastics in the Archipelago have been Spaniards, and they demand an entirely native clergy. Now, the Catholic Church has been always most anxious to form a native clergy in missionary countries, but insuperable difficulties have often prevented the realization of this idea. Among colored races there is a paucity of real vocations; it is hard enough to get the people to live up to the Christian ideal without adding thereto the grave responsibilities and life of self-sacrifice of the priesthood. An example in point is the Black Republic of Hayti. It is a Catholic country, nominally at least. The people have retained the Faith taught them by the white man, though preserving such a dislike to him that no white man can own a yard of land in the country. Yet such is their inability to provide themselves with priests of their own blood that they are forced to fall back on the services of a FrenchBishop and French missionary priests, who do all the spiritual work of the island. Another case in point is that of Cuba, an island containing a million and a half of inhabitants, Cubans and Spaniards, of which only forty-three of the former are to be found in the ranks of the priesthood. There has never been any distinction made between Cubans and Spaniards in the two Seminaries of Havana and Santiago de Cuba; all are received alike, and treated alike if they have a vocation; of the forty-three priests, twenty-eight hold parishes, and the rest have other positions of trust, which shows that it is simply owing to lack of vocations and not to any other cause that we must ascribe their fewness in number. In the Philippines, as far back as two centuries ago, the experiment was made of forming a native priesthood, with doubtful success, however, as Dampier informs us that the natives generally held the native priests in contempt, while holding the Spanish clergy in the greatest esteem. We must, perforce, conclude that in the Philippines, as in other countries, it is simply lack of vocations that keeps the number of the native clergy at such a low ebb.Another grievance, brought well to the front by those who have written on behalf of the Filipinos, is the taxation, which is alleged to have been excessive. The writer is informed by one who lived many years there that it was not. However this may be, all taxation is odious to primitiveand half-civilized communities, who are inclined to look upon the most necessary taxes, without which no stable government could be carried on, in the light of oppression. The Americans will have the same difficulties to face with regard to taxation as the Spaniards had, though not in the same degree maybe, as the country will be opened to trade in a freer way than formerly. In the interests of order, and also to protect the people from unjust imposts, the Friars were in the habit of acting as their counsellors in these matters, and used to exhort their parishioners publicly and privately to pay the necessary taxes. A passage from Blumentritt, whom we have quoted more than once in our previous chapters, will go to show that all this was done in the interests of the people: “In the following centuries the Friars continued to extend their protecting hand over the natives, preventing, as far as possible, any oppression on the part of the Government employés.” Yet this action of the Friars, good, charitable, and necessary under the circumstances, has been used by the promoters of the rebellion as a fulcrum to raise the Friars, in the eyes of the poorer classes, into the invidious position of tax-gatherers, tyrants, and abettors of oppression. Without doubt, cruel methods, for which, however, the Friars were not responsible, were in vogue in dealing with defaulters, as we may see in Dean Worcester’s lately published work on the Philippines; but it is nothingless than downright hypocrisy to raise a chorus of condemnation against the Spaniard on this score, when it is well known that no other nation, in trying to solve the eternal difficulty about the taxation of colored and subject races, has emerged from the conflict with clean hands. We remember reading some years ago of very cruel methods employed in the gathering of the taxes in British India, in some of the up-country districts; and within the present year of grace, 1899, two books have appeared dealing with the English and the Dutch in South Africa,2both of which, in describing the punishment inflicted on those refusing to pay taxes to the ruling powers, could easily give points to the colonial Spaniard for cruelty. What is very remarkable about the Protestant missionary is that, instead of condemning the barbarities described in his book, of which he was an eye-witness, he approves of them, even to the extent of giving his sanction to the inhuman crime of blowing up with dynamite the caves in which four hundred men, women, and children had taken refuge. The Rev. Mr. Rae’s opinion of the campaign against Malaboch for his refusal to pay taxes, a campaign in which women and children, and men bearing flags of truce were fired upon recklessly, is that “the Transvaal Government was doing a muchbetter work than any Christian missionary has yet accomplished.” God help the Filipinos if Protestant missionaries of this description are going to overrun the field of labor left vacant by the deaths and expulsion of the Spanish Friars. One great test of the mild rule of the Spaniard in that country is that the native population has increased since the conquest, instead of being almost exterminated, as is the case in North America and in many of the colonies of European States. We hope that the American rule will be characterized by clemency and justice. A hypocritical cry has been raised in the States about the tyranny and oppression under which the natives are said to be groaning. The rule of the Spaniard has indeed been imperfect enough; but America should approach the question of reform with becoming modesty, seeing that her own record in dealing with the Indians has been stained by many a crime against human rights. They have been robbed of the country which once was their own, and driven back from reservation to reservation, while even the rights guaranteed to them by Government as compensation for what they lost have been often filched from them by unscrupulous officials. The light recently thrown on the case of the Pillager Indians has disclosed cruelty, open robbery, and a disregard of solemn obligations. In the Philippines the Americans will find the natives still in possession of their country;a people, once wild and nomadic like the Indians, brought into settled habits of life by three centuries of missionary effort; a people, in fine, who, whatever is said to the contrary by noisy declaimers and demagogues, have been on the whole well pleased with their lot.Tagalogs planting rice to the sound of music.Tagalogsplanting rice to the sound of music.It is quite evident from the words and acts of the rebels that they have been casting envious eyes on the large landed estates of the Friars, hoping, on their expulsion, to have a division of the spoils among themselves. Already, before the war, an iniquitous plan of confiscation was boldly advocated in Spain itself. We now learn to our surprise, from theChurch News(Washington, D.C.), that this cry has found an echo across the Atlantic from Protestant pulpits in the States. Besides the fact that confiscation would be robbery pure and simple, as the estates are not national property, and have not been given by the Government, but have been acquired in the usual way by purchase, and in the course of three centuries have naturally grown large, confiscation of the estates would mean a great calamity to the country, even if the Friars were allowed to go back quietly to their parishes, and resume their spiritual ministrations among the people. For it was by means of the estates that the Friars introduced agriculture and settled habits of life among tribes originally nomadic; it was by means of the estates that they got them to live in villages, andintroduced amongst them the arts of civilized life; it was by means of the estates that they acquired the power of inducing them to labor with a certain amount of regularity and method, the great safeguard against a relapse into a state of savagery. Giraudier, who was director of the “Diario” of Manila, and spent thirty years in the Archipelago, says something very much to the point: “The natives, with some rare exceptions, are in need of tutelage, without which they would fall back to the customs of their ancestors, a tutelage that no one can exercise better than the Friars.” The latter, in truth, made themselves all in all to the people. Within the precincts of the monasteries were to be found workshops for teaching carpentry, forges for teaching the natives the working of iron, brick and tileyards,—in fact, most of the mechanical arts were fostered and encouraged by the Friars. The villages they formed around them presented a pleasing picture of happiness and content, in startling contrast to the homes of those who were still pagan and uncivilized.A former British consul thus describes them: “Orderly children, respected parents, women subject but not oppressed, men ruling but not despotic, reverence with kindness, obedience with affection—these form a lovable picture by no means rare in the villages of the Eastern Isles.” Will such a happy state of things exist under new conditions? We are very much inclined to doubtit. The experiment tried in some of the islands of the West Indies of making the blacks small freeholders, and planting them on the bankrupt planters’ estates, has not been attended by such beneficial results to the land as to justify our hoping that a similar experiment in the Philippines will prove a success. The natives of the tropics in general are like overgrown children, blessed with the virtues and cursed with the faults of children, rejoicing in present abundance, and destitute of that measure of forethought for the morrow, without which there can be no human progress. What a contrast at the present day do the civilized villages under the paternal care, and, if you will, government, of Friars present to the wild nomadic life still led by the natives of Mindanao, whom the Jesuit fathers are trying to bring under civilizing influences. We find, from letters written lately by some of the fathers there, that human sacrifice is still in vogue, and murder, pillage, and slave-catching extremely common. We fear that self-government, bringing in internal conflicts between the various parts of the Archipelago, would gradually reduce most of it to this deplorable state of things, and that the Philippine Republic would be as great a travesty on civilization as Hayti.1One may hardly be surprised that men who have been robbed of their all—reputation, home, and field of work—are apt to be plain-spoken and severe when commenting upon those who have upset their lives, and destroyed the sacred interests of the religion to which they had devoted themselves unreservedly. Friends, on the other hand, of the persons who have been the instruments of such ruin, are sure to uphold the destroyers as heroes, great of character and great of deed. Hence we need not be surprised at such different estimates of Aguinaldo as those referred to in a sketch of him published in the AmericanReview of Reviewsfor February, 1899.“Friends and enemies agree that he is intelligent, ambitious, far-sighted, brave, self-controlled, honest, moral, vindictive, and at times cruel. He possesses the quality which friends call wisdom, and enemies call craft. According to those who like him he is courteous, polished, thoughtful, and dignified; according to those who dislike him he is insincere, pretentious, vain, and arrogant. Both admit him to be genial, generous, self-sacrificing, popular, and capable in the administration of affairs. If the opinion of his foes be accepted he is one of the greatest Malays on the page of history. If the opinion of his friends be taken as the criterion he is one of the great men of history, irrespective of race.”2“Rhodesia and its Government,” by H. C. Thomson. “Malaboch; or Notes from my Diary on the Boer Campaign of 1894 against the Chief Malaboch,” by the Rev. Colin Rae.
Chapter IV.The Rebels and Their Grievances.
We cannot view without grave misgivings the unexpected turn that affairs have taken since the war, and the second war which has broken out between the rebels and the Americans. It is now plain that it was entire independence from all control that the promoters of the rebellion were looking for from the very beginning; this being well known to the Friars all along, and clearly indicated in their memorial to the Spanish Government. Aguinaldo and his companions have unlimited confidence in themselves, and aspire to form a civilized republic. The character of this pure-souled patriot may be judged from a transaction he had with the Spanish Government. After the armistice of Biac-na-Bato, he was bought out by them, and took thousands of dollars as his price for leaving the country for aye, never to return. He pocketed the money, and went off to Hongkong; but when the Americans came to Manila, and destroyed the Spanish fleet, this worthy returned to the Philippines, and once more raisedthe standard of rebellion. As a result the Americans are apt to find themselves burdened with a war expenditure, even heavier than that borne by Spain in her effort to prevent a repetition in the Philippines of the gruesome story of San Domingo and Hayti. All colored and tropical races have a tendency to revert to their original type and the barbarous customs of their ancestors. The blacks got possession of Hayti nearly a century ago, at which time they were at least domesticated, and partially civilized, having been in contact with the white man for the two previous centuries. They have gone back, and not forward, ever since. The history of the black republic is a bloody revolution every two or three years, distinguished by acts of barbarous ferocity. Life there at the present day is a hideous caricature of civilization and Christianity. Incredible as it may seem, there has been a revival in the remote villages of the old African serpent-worship, and child sacrifices, followed by cannibalism.Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.Archbishop of Nueva Segovia.Ten Spanish Augustinian Friars recently came to San Francisco from the Philippines (seeAppendix IV.). In an interview with the representative of theSan Francisco Monitorthey stated that it was not through fear of the Americans that they had left Manila, but, on the contrary, they believed that the Church would prosper under American rule. They said that the respectable element in the Philippines, though they had been quite contentwith the Spanish rule, and deeming it all that could be expected under the circumstances, are yet welcoming the Americans as a relief from insurgent atrocities. “The insurgents,” they said, “are an undisciplined mob of rioters, led by a demagogue. They are the riff-raff of the islands, men without principle or property in most instances. Aguinaldo has them pretty well in hand to-day, but to-morrow they may disintegrate into fifty gangs. Aguinaldo is an ungrateful renegade, who was fed, clothed, and educated by Catholic priests. He is a mere puppet in the hands of the Freemasons.1It is to these worthies and organizedanarchy in Europe that we may trace the origin of the trouble in the Philippines. Soon after the destruction of the Spanish fleet, the insurgents wrecked our schools, robbed and despoiled our missions and churches, and drove us into Manila. About fifty priests were brutally killed by them. As our field of work was thus laid bare, we decided to leave the Philippines. What made us depart was the discouragement of seeing the work of years destroyed by the men we had gone to teach, and the improbability of being able to build up the work again immediately.”The Filipinos have already shown proof how far removed they are from civilized ideals, and how dangerous it would be to leave them to themselves, by their inhuman treatment of their Spanish prisoners. Besides ordinary Spanish civilians, they have kept in captivity for several months hundreds of Friars, including one hundred Dominicans, and the Dominican Bishop of Neuva Segovia, Mgr. Joseph Hevia, whose portrait we give. Numbers of the Friars have lately died of the hardships to which they were subjected. A letter, received some time ago from one of them by a friend in Manila, describes the ferocious and satanic hatred shown towards them by the rebel chiefs. They were stripped of their clothes, hats, and shoes, robbed of their money, spat upon, tied to trees, and flogged several times. Daily they were forced to work on the public roads frommorning to evening, under a broiling sun, receiving food and drink barely sufficient to support life. The leaders mocked at and jested over their sufferings. Though violent threats were held out against all who succored them, their parishioners seized opportunities of coming to visit them, and alleviate their miseries. From other sources we learn that the noses of some of the prisoners were slit, and a cord passed through the aperture, to be used as a leading-string by their guards. The venerable Bishop was subjected to the grossest indignities. One aged Friar was placed on a saddle, and jumped upon till blood flowed from his mouth and nose. Another, it is said, clothed only in a rain-coat, was carried in triumph for two hundred yards, and then cudgelled to death amid savage cries. Some were crushed to death between boards. Nuns in the convents were subjected to shameful treatment. In the name of common sense, we ask if men who encourage or permit such atrocities are fit to control and guide the destinies of eight millions of people. (SeeAppendix V.)Of course the policy of the Press in general has been to keep these atrocities from the eyes of the public. As it did not suit political purposes to publish them, they have been kept concealed. Owing to this careful management, the sympathies of the world have been enlisted on the side of the “poor downtrodden Filipinos.” An impartialexamination of the grievances of the latter, and of the catch-cries by which the leaders have seduced a considerable portion of the simple natives, will not reveal very much against either the civil or the ecclesiastical rule of the Spaniard. As in everything human, we may suppose that neither was absolute perfection; but, all things considered, there was less to justify rebellion in the Philippines than in most parts of the world where the black is ruled by the white man.One of the grievances of the rebels is that nearly all the ecclesiastics in the Archipelago have been Spaniards, and they demand an entirely native clergy. Now, the Catholic Church has been always most anxious to form a native clergy in missionary countries, but insuperable difficulties have often prevented the realization of this idea. Among colored races there is a paucity of real vocations; it is hard enough to get the people to live up to the Christian ideal without adding thereto the grave responsibilities and life of self-sacrifice of the priesthood. An example in point is the Black Republic of Hayti. It is a Catholic country, nominally at least. The people have retained the Faith taught them by the white man, though preserving such a dislike to him that no white man can own a yard of land in the country. Yet such is their inability to provide themselves with priests of their own blood that they are forced to fall back on the services of a FrenchBishop and French missionary priests, who do all the spiritual work of the island. Another case in point is that of Cuba, an island containing a million and a half of inhabitants, Cubans and Spaniards, of which only forty-three of the former are to be found in the ranks of the priesthood. There has never been any distinction made between Cubans and Spaniards in the two Seminaries of Havana and Santiago de Cuba; all are received alike, and treated alike if they have a vocation; of the forty-three priests, twenty-eight hold parishes, and the rest have other positions of trust, which shows that it is simply owing to lack of vocations and not to any other cause that we must ascribe their fewness in number. In the Philippines, as far back as two centuries ago, the experiment was made of forming a native priesthood, with doubtful success, however, as Dampier informs us that the natives generally held the native priests in contempt, while holding the Spanish clergy in the greatest esteem. We must, perforce, conclude that in the Philippines, as in other countries, it is simply lack of vocations that keeps the number of the native clergy at such a low ebb.Another grievance, brought well to the front by those who have written on behalf of the Filipinos, is the taxation, which is alleged to have been excessive. The writer is informed by one who lived many years there that it was not. However this may be, all taxation is odious to primitiveand half-civilized communities, who are inclined to look upon the most necessary taxes, without which no stable government could be carried on, in the light of oppression. The Americans will have the same difficulties to face with regard to taxation as the Spaniards had, though not in the same degree maybe, as the country will be opened to trade in a freer way than formerly. In the interests of order, and also to protect the people from unjust imposts, the Friars were in the habit of acting as their counsellors in these matters, and used to exhort their parishioners publicly and privately to pay the necessary taxes. A passage from Blumentritt, whom we have quoted more than once in our previous chapters, will go to show that all this was done in the interests of the people: “In the following centuries the Friars continued to extend their protecting hand over the natives, preventing, as far as possible, any oppression on the part of the Government employés.” Yet this action of the Friars, good, charitable, and necessary under the circumstances, has been used by the promoters of the rebellion as a fulcrum to raise the Friars, in the eyes of the poorer classes, into the invidious position of tax-gatherers, tyrants, and abettors of oppression. Without doubt, cruel methods, for which, however, the Friars were not responsible, were in vogue in dealing with defaulters, as we may see in Dean Worcester’s lately published work on the Philippines; but it is nothingless than downright hypocrisy to raise a chorus of condemnation against the Spaniard on this score, when it is well known that no other nation, in trying to solve the eternal difficulty about the taxation of colored and subject races, has emerged from the conflict with clean hands. We remember reading some years ago of very cruel methods employed in the gathering of the taxes in British India, in some of the up-country districts; and within the present year of grace, 1899, two books have appeared dealing with the English and the Dutch in South Africa,2both of which, in describing the punishment inflicted on those refusing to pay taxes to the ruling powers, could easily give points to the colonial Spaniard for cruelty. What is very remarkable about the Protestant missionary is that, instead of condemning the barbarities described in his book, of which he was an eye-witness, he approves of them, even to the extent of giving his sanction to the inhuman crime of blowing up with dynamite the caves in which four hundred men, women, and children had taken refuge. The Rev. Mr. Rae’s opinion of the campaign against Malaboch for his refusal to pay taxes, a campaign in which women and children, and men bearing flags of truce were fired upon recklessly, is that “the Transvaal Government was doing a muchbetter work than any Christian missionary has yet accomplished.” God help the Filipinos if Protestant missionaries of this description are going to overrun the field of labor left vacant by the deaths and expulsion of the Spanish Friars. One great test of the mild rule of the Spaniard in that country is that the native population has increased since the conquest, instead of being almost exterminated, as is the case in North America and in many of the colonies of European States. We hope that the American rule will be characterized by clemency and justice. A hypocritical cry has been raised in the States about the tyranny and oppression under which the natives are said to be groaning. The rule of the Spaniard has indeed been imperfect enough; but America should approach the question of reform with becoming modesty, seeing that her own record in dealing with the Indians has been stained by many a crime against human rights. They have been robbed of the country which once was their own, and driven back from reservation to reservation, while even the rights guaranteed to them by Government as compensation for what they lost have been often filched from them by unscrupulous officials. The light recently thrown on the case of the Pillager Indians has disclosed cruelty, open robbery, and a disregard of solemn obligations. In the Philippines the Americans will find the natives still in possession of their country;a people, once wild and nomadic like the Indians, brought into settled habits of life by three centuries of missionary effort; a people, in fine, who, whatever is said to the contrary by noisy declaimers and demagogues, have been on the whole well pleased with their lot.Tagalogs planting rice to the sound of music.Tagalogsplanting rice to the sound of music.It is quite evident from the words and acts of the rebels that they have been casting envious eyes on the large landed estates of the Friars, hoping, on their expulsion, to have a division of the spoils among themselves. Already, before the war, an iniquitous plan of confiscation was boldly advocated in Spain itself. We now learn to our surprise, from theChurch News(Washington, D.C.), that this cry has found an echo across the Atlantic from Protestant pulpits in the States. Besides the fact that confiscation would be robbery pure and simple, as the estates are not national property, and have not been given by the Government, but have been acquired in the usual way by purchase, and in the course of three centuries have naturally grown large, confiscation of the estates would mean a great calamity to the country, even if the Friars were allowed to go back quietly to their parishes, and resume their spiritual ministrations among the people. For it was by means of the estates that the Friars introduced agriculture and settled habits of life among tribes originally nomadic; it was by means of the estates that they got them to live in villages, andintroduced amongst them the arts of civilized life; it was by means of the estates that they acquired the power of inducing them to labor with a certain amount of regularity and method, the great safeguard against a relapse into a state of savagery. Giraudier, who was director of the “Diario” of Manila, and spent thirty years in the Archipelago, says something very much to the point: “The natives, with some rare exceptions, are in need of tutelage, without which they would fall back to the customs of their ancestors, a tutelage that no one can exercise better than the Friars.” The latter, in truth, made themselves all in all to the people. Within the precincts of the monasteries were to be found workshops for teaching carpentry, forges for teaching the natives the working of iron, brick and tileyards,—in fact, most of the mechanical arts were fostered and encouraged by the Friars. The villages they formed around them presented a pleasing picture of happiness and content, in startling contrast to the homes of those who were still pagan and uncivilized.A former British consul thus describes them: “Orderly children, respected parents, women subject but not oppressed, men ruling but not despotic, reverence with kindness, obedience with affection—these form a lovable picture by no means rare in the villages of the Eastern Isles.” Will such a happy state of things exist under new conditions? We are very much inclined to doubtit. The experiment tried in some of the islands of the West Indies of making the blacks small freeholders, and planting them on the bankrupt planters’ estates, has not been attended by such beneficial results to the land as to justify our hoping that a similar experiment in the Philippines will prove a success. The natives of the tropics in general are like overgrown children, blessed with the virtues and cursed with the faults of children, rejoicing in present abundance, and destitute of that measure of forethought for the morrow, without which there can be no human progress. What a contrast at the present day do the civilized villages under the paternal care, and, if you will, government, of Friars present to the wild nomadic life still led by the natives of Mindanao, whom the Jesuit fathers are trying to bring under civilizing influences. We find, from letters written lately by some of the fathers there, that human sacrifice is still in vogue, and murder, pillage, and slave-catching extremely common. We fear that self-government, bringing in internal conflicts between the various parts of the Archipelago, would gradually reduce most of it to this deplorable state of things, and that the Philippine Republic would be as great a travesty on civilization as Hayti.
We cannot view without grave misgivings the unexpected turn that affairs have taken since the war, and the second war which has broken out between the rebels and the Americans. It is now plain that it was entire independence from all control that the promoters of the rebellion were looking for from the very beginning; this being well known to the Friars all along, and clearly indicated in their memorial to the Spanish Government. Aguinaldo and his companions have unlimited confidence in themselves, and aspire to form a civilized republic. The character of this pure-souled patriot may be judged from a transaction he had with the Spanish Government. After the armistice of Biac-na-Bato, he was bought out by them, and took thousands of dollars as his price for leaving the country for aye, never to return. He pocketed the money, and went off to Hongkong; but when the Americans came to Manila, and destroyed the Spanish fleet, this worthy returned to the Philippines, and once more raisedthe standard of rebellion. As a result the Americans are apt to find themselves burdened with a war expenditure, even heavier than that borne by Spain in her effort to prevent a repetition in the Philippines of the gruesome story of San Domingo and Hayti. All colored and tropical races have a tendency to revert to their original type and the barbarous customs of their ancestors. The blacks got possession of Hayti nearly a century ago, at which time they were at least domesticated, and partially civilized, having been in contact with the white man for the two previous centuries. They have gone back, and not forward, ever since. The history of the black republic is a bloody revolution every two or three years, distinguished by acts of barbarous ferocity. Life there at the present day is a hideous caricature of civilization and Christianity. Incredible as it may seem, there has been a revival in the remote villages of the old African serpent-worship, and child sacrifices, followed by cannibalism.
Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.Archbishop of Nueva Segovia.
Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.
Archbishop of Nueva Segovia.
Ten Spanish Augustinian Friars recently came to San Francisco from the Philippines (seeAppendix IV.). In an interview with the representative of theSan Francisco Monitorthey stated that it was not through fear of the Americans that they had left Manila, but, on the contrary, they believed that the Church would prosper under American rule. They said that the respectable element in the Philippines, though they had been quite contentwith the Spanish rule, and deeming it all that could be expected under the circumstances, are yet welcoming the Americans as a relief from insurgent atrocities. “The insurgents,” they said, “are an undisciplined mob of rioters, led by a demagogue. They are the riff-raff of the islands, men without principle or property in most instances. Aguinaldo has them pretty well in hand to-day, but to-morrow they may disintegrate into fifty gangs. Aguinaldo is an ungrateful renegade, who was fed, clothed, and educated by Catholic priests. He is a mere puppet in the hands of the Freemasons.1It is to these worthies and organizedanarchy in Europe that we may trace the origin of the trouble in the Philippines. Soon after the destruction of the Spanish fleet, the insurgents wrecked our schools, robbed and despoiled our missions and churches, and drove us into Manila. About fifty priests were brutally killed by them. As our field of work was thus laid bare, we decided to leave the Philippines. What made us depart was the discouragement of seeing the work of years destroyed by the men we had gone to teach, and the improbability of being able to build up the work again immediately.”
The Filipinos have already shown proof how far removed they are from civilized ideals, and how dangerous it would be to leave them to themselves, by their inhuman treatment of their Spanish prisoners. Besides ordinary Spanish civilians, they have kept in captivity for several months hundreds of Friars, including one hundred Dominicans, and the Dominican Bishop of Neuva Segovia, Mgr. Joseph Hevia, whose portrait we give. Numbers of the Friars have lately died of the hardships to which they were subjected. A letter, received some time ago from one of them by a friend in Manila, describes the ferocious and satanic hatred shown towards them by the rebel chiefs. They were stripped of their clothes, hats, and shoes, robbed of their money, spat upon, tied to trees, and flogged several times. Daily they were forced to work on the public roads frommorning to evening, under a broiling sun, receiving food and drink barely sufficient to support life. The leaders mocked at and jested over their sufferings. Though violent threats were held out against all who succored them, their parishioners seized opportunities of coming to visit them, and alleviate their miseries. From other sources we learn that the noses of some of the prisoners were slit, and a cord passed through the aperture, to be used as a leading-string by their guards. The venerable Bishop was subjected to the grossest indignities. One aged Friar was placed on a saddle, and jumped upon till blood flowed from his mouth and nose. Another, it is said, clothed only in a rain-coat, was carried in triumph for two hundred yards, and then cudgelled to death amid savage cries. Some were crushed to death between boards. Nuns in the convents were subjected to shameful treatment. In the name of common sense, we ask if men who encourage or permit such atrocities are fit to control and guide the destinies of eight millions of people. (SeeAppendix V.)
Of course the policy of the Press in general has been to keep these atrocities from the eyes of the public. As it did not suit political purposes to publish them, they have been kept concealed. Owing to this careful management, the sympathies of the world have been enlisted on the side of the “poor downtrodden Filipinos.” An impartialexamination of the grievances of the latter, and of the catch-cries by which the leaders have seduced a considerable portion of the simple natives, will not reveal very much against either the civil or the ecclesiastical rule of the Spaniard. As in everything human, we may suppose that neither was absolute perfection; but, all things considered, there was less to justify rebellion in the Philippines than in most parts of the world where the black is ruled by the white man.
One of the grievances of the rebels is that nearly all the ecclesiastics in the Archipelago have been Spaniards, and they demand an entirely native clergy. Now, the Catholic Church has been always most anxious to form a native clergy in missionary countries, but insuperable difficulties have often prevented the realization of this idea. Among colored races there is a paucity of real vocations; it is hard enough to get the people to live up to the Christian ideal without adding thereto the grave responsibilities and life of self-sacrifice of the priesthood. An example in point is the Black Republic of Hayti. It is a Catholic country, nominally at least. The people have retained the Faith taught them by the white man, though preserving such a dislike to him that no white man can own a yard of land in the country. Yet such is their inability to provide themselves with priests of their own blood that they are forced to fall back on the services of a FrenchBishop and French missionary priests, who do all the spiritual work of the island. Another case in point is that of Cuba, an island containing a million and a half of inhabitants, Cubans and Spaniards, of which only forty-three of the former are to be found in the ranks of the priesthood. There has never been any distinction made between Cubans and Spaniards in the two Seminaries of Havana and Santiago de Cuba; all are received alike, and treated alike if they have a vocation; of the forty-three priests, twenty-eight hold parishes, and the rest have other positions of trust, which shows that it is simply owing to lack of vocations and not to any other cause that we must ascribe their fewness in number. In the Philippines, as far back as two centuries ago, the experiment was made of forming a native priesthood, with doubtful success, however, as Dampier informs us that the natives generally held the native priests in contempt, while holding the Spanish clergy in the greatest esteem. We must, perforce, conclude that in the Philippines, as in other countries, it is simply lack of vocations that keeps the number of the native clergy at such a low ebb.
Another grievance, brought well to the front by those who have written on behalf of the Filipinos, is the taxation, which is alleged to have been excessive. The writer is informed by one who lived many years there that it was not. However this may be, all taxation is odious to primitiveand half-civilized communities, who are inclined to look upon the most necessary taxes, without which no stable government could be carried on, in the light of oppression. The Americans will have the same difficulties to face with regard to taxation as the Spaniards had, though not in the same degree maybe, as the country will be opened to trade in a freer way than formerly. In the interests of order, and also to protect the people from unjust imposts, the Friars were in the habit of acting as their counsellors in these matters, and used to exhort their parishioners publicly and privately to pay the necessary taxes. A passage from Blumentritt, whom we have quoted more than once in our previous chapters, will go to show that all this was done in the interests of the people: “In the following centuries the Friars continued to extend their protecting hand over the natives, preventing, as far as possible, any oppression on the part of the Government employés.” Yet this action of the Friars, good, charitable, and necessary under the circumstances, has been used by the promoters of the rebellion as a fulcrum to raise the Friars, in the eyes of the poorer classes, into the invidious position of tax-gatherers, tyrants, and abettors of oppression. Without doubt, cruel methods, for which, however, the Friars were not responsible, were in vogue in dealing with defaulters, as we may see in Dean Worcester’s lately published work on the Philippines; but it is nothingless than downright hypocrisy to raise a chorus of condemnation against the Spaniard on this score, when it is well known that no other nation, in trying to solve the eternal difficulty about the taxation of colored and subject races, has emerged from the conflict with clean hands. We remember reading some years ago of very cruel methods employed in the gathering of the taxes in British India, in some of the up-country districts; and within the present year of grace, 1899, two books have appeared dealing with the English and the Dutch in South Africa,2both of which, in describing the punishment inflicted on those refusing to pay taxes to the ruling powers, could easily give points to the colonial Spaniard for cruelty. What is very remarkable about the Protestant missionary is that, instead of condemning the barbarities described in his book, of which he was an eye-witness, he approves of them, even to the extent of giving his sanction to the inhuman crime of blowing up with dynamite the caves in which four hundred men, women, and children had taken refuge. The Rev. Mr. Rae’s opinion of the campaign against Malaboch for his refusal to pay taxes, a campaign in which women and children, and men bearing flags of truce were fired upon recklessly, is that “the Transvaal Government was doing a muchbetter work than any Christian missionary has yet accomplished.” God help the Filipinos if Protestant missionaries of this description are going to overrun the field of labor left vacant by the deaths and expulsion of the Spanish Friars. One great test of the mild rule of the Spaniard in that country is that the native population has increased since the conquest, instead of being almost exterminated, as is the case in North America and in many of the colonies of European States. We hope that the American rule will be characterized by clemency and justice. A hypocritical cry has been raised in the States about the tyranny and oppression under which the natives are said to be groaning. The rule of the Spaniard has indeed been imperfect enough; but America should approach the question of reform with becoming modesty, seeing that her own record in dealing with the Indians has been stained by many a crime against human rights. They have been robbed of the country which once was their own, and driven back from reservation to reservation, while even the rights guaranteed to them by Government as compensation for what they lost have been often filched from them by unscrupulous officials. The light recently thrown on the case of the Pillager Indians has disclosed cruelty, open robbery, and a disregard of solemn obligations. In the Philippines the Americans will find the natives still in possession of their country;a people, once wild and nomadic like the Indians, brought into settled habits of life by three centuries of missionary effort; a people, in fine, who, whatever is said to the contrary by noisy declaimers and demagogues, have been on the whole well pleased with their lot.
Tagalogs planting rice to the sound of music.Tagalogsplanting rice to the sound of music.
Tagalogsplanting rice to the sound of music.
It is quite evident from the words and acts of the rebels that they have been casting envious eyes on the large landed estates of the Friars, hoping, on their expulsion, to have a division of the spoils among themselves. Already, before the war, an iniquitous plan of confiscation was boldly advocated in Spain itself. We now learn to our surprise, from theChurch News(Washington, D.C.), that this cry has found an echo across the Atlantic from Protestant pulpits in the States. Besides the fact that confiscation would be robbery pure and simple, as the estates are not national property, and have not been given by the Government, but have been acquired in the usual way by purchase, and in the course of three centuries have naturally grown large, confiscation of the estates would mean a great calamity to the country, even if the Friars were allowed to go back quietly to their parishes, and resume their spiritual ministrations among the people. For it was by means of the estates that the Friars introduced agriculture and settled habits of life among tribes originally nomadic; it was by means of the estates that they got them to live in villages, andintroduced amongst them the arts of civilized life; it was by means of the estates that they acquired the power of inducing them to labor with a certain amount of regularity and method, the great safeguard against a relapse into a state of savagery. Giraudier, who was director of the “Diario” of Manila, and spent thirty years in the Archipelago, says something very much to the point: “The natives, with some rare exceptions, are in need of tutelage, without which they would fall back to the customs of their ancestors, a tutelage that no one can exercise better than the Friars.” The latter, in truth, made themselves all in all to the people. Within the precincts of the monasteries were to be found workshops for teaching carpentry, forges for teaching the natives the working of iron, brick and tileyards,—in fact, most of the mechanical arts were fostered and encouraged by the Friars. The villages they formed around them presented a pleasing picture of happiness and content, in startling contrast to the homes of those who were still pagan and uncivilized.
A former British consul thus describes them: “Orderly children, respected parents, women subject but not oppressed, men ruling but not despotic, reverence with kindness, obedience with affection—these form a lovable picture by no means rare in the villages of the Eastern Isles.” Will such a happy state of things exist under new conditions? We are very much inclined to doubtit. The experiment tried in some of the islands of the West Indies of making the blacks small freeholders, and planting them on the bankrupt planters’ estates, has not been attended by such beneficial results to the land as to justify our hoping that a similar experiment in the Philippines will prove a success. The natives of the tropics in general are like overgrown children, blessed with the virtues and cursed with the faults of children, rejoicing in present abundance, and destitute of that measure of forethought for the morrow, without which there can be no human progress. What a contrast at the present day do the civilized villages under the paternal care, and, if you will, government, of Friars present to the wild nomadic life still led by the natives of Mindanao, whom the Jesuit fathers are trying to bring under civilizing influences. We find, from letters written lately by some of the fathers there, that human sacrifice is still in vogue, and murder, pillage, and slave-catching extremely common. We fear that self-government, bringing in internal conflicts between the various parts of the Archipelago, would gradually reduce most of it to this deplorable state of things, and that the Philippine Republic would be as great a travesty on civilization as Hayti.
1One may hardly be surprised that men who have been robbed of their all—reputation, home, and field of work—are apt to be plain-spoken and severe when commenting upon those who have upset their lives, and destroyed the sacred interests of the religion to which they had devoted themselves unreservedly. Friends, on the other hand, of the persons who have been the instruments of such ruin, are sure to uphold the destroyers as heroes, great of character and great of deed. Hence we need not be surprised at such different estimates of Aguinaldo as those referred to in a sketch of him published in the AmericanReview of Reviewsfor February, 1899.“Friends and enemies agree that he is intelligent, ambitious, far-sighted, brave, self-controlled, honest, moral, vindictive, and at times cruel. He possesses the quality which friends call wisdom, and enemies call craft. According to those who like him he is courteous, polished, thoughtful, and dignified; according to those who dislike him he is insincere, pretentious, vain, and arrogant. Both admit him to be genial, generous, self-sacrificing, popular, and capable in the administration of affairs. If the opinion of his foes be accepted he is one of the greatest Malays on the page of history. If the opinion of his friends be taken as the criterion he is one of the great men of history, irrespective of race.”2“Rhodesia and its Government,” by H. C. Thomson. “Malaboch; or Notes from my Diary on the Boer Campaign of 1894 against the Chief Malaboch,” by the Rev. Colin Rae.
1One may hardly be surprised that men who have been robbed of their all—reputation, home, and field of work—are apt to be plain-spoken and severe when commenting upon those who have upset their lives, and destroyed the sacred interests of the religion to which they had devoted themselves unreservedly. Friends, on the other hand, of the persons who have been the instruments of such ruin, are sure to uphold the destroyers as heroes, great of character and great of deed. Hence we need not be surprised at such different estimates of Aguinaldo as those referred to in a sketch of him published in the AmericanReview of Reviewsfor February, 1899.
“Friends and enemies agree that he is intelligent, ambitious, far-sighted, brave, self-controlled, honest, moral, vindictive, and at times cruel. He possesses the quality which friends call wisdom, and enemies call craft. According to those who like him he is courteous, polished, thoughtful, and dignified; according to those who dislike him he is insincere, pretentious, vain, and arrogant. Both admit him to be genial, generous, self-sacrificing, popular, and capable in the administration of affairs. If the opinion of his foes be accepted he is one of the greatest Malays on the page of history. If the opinion of his friends be taken as the criterion he is one of the great men of history, irrespective of race.”
2“Rhodesia and its Government,” by H. C. Thomson. “Malaboch; or Notes from my Diary on the Boer Campaign of 1894 against the Chief Malaboch,” by the Rev. Colin Rae.