1See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186, where it is dated June 20, 1686.↑2Tomás G. del Rosario, cited often in these notes, says (Census of Philippines, iii, pp. 594, 595): “A decree of the general government, issued October 6, 1885, provided for a competition to be followed by prizes for the best grammars written in Visayan, Cebuano, Ilocano, Bícol, Pangasinán, and Pampango, there being one already in Tagálog. Naturally these grammars, which were written in different dialects and taught in the public schools, made it more difficult (and that was the object) for the Spanish language to become general. Matters reached such a stage that teachers were punished and threatened with deportation, and some were actually deported, for teaching Spanish.”Speaking on the same subject, LeRoy (“Friars in Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterly, for December, 1903, p. 673) says: “In proclaiming the law of 1893 [the Maura law], Governor-general Blanco instructed the municipal councils to employ ‘the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language.’ The common assertion that the friars did teach the natives Spanish is contradicted by these provisions and by the numerous decrees from 1585 on; those who frankly admit that they did not spread Spanish, and who hold that it is impracticable to make the natives accept either Spanish or English, have a fair argument to present.”↑3See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186.↑4This is given by Barrantes,Instrucción primaria, pp. 69–71.↑5For this and following citations of the regulations, seeante.↑6Speaking of the legislation of 1863, LeRoy (Philippine Life, pp. 202, 203) says: “Most significant of all, local school boards of a civil and lay character were ordered established, a feature of the decree which had not by any means been realized when the municipal reform of 1893 was decreed, and which that reform itself did not accomplish. Theoretically, the friars were left in supervision only of religious instruction in the public schools; practically, in four towns out of five, they managed everything about the schools to suit their own will, down almost to the last hours of Spanish rule.”↑7The Tagálog insurrection broke out prematurely through betrayal of the plot in August, 1896.↑8Patricio de la Escosura, formerly minister and ambassador in Berlin, member of the Royal Spanish Academy, went to the Philippines about 1863, as royal commissary. HisMemoriais important and worth consultation for the history of the islands. It has a prologue by Cañamaque. The first chapter on the teaching of Spanish argues that Spanish be taught the Filipinos. Chapter viii is on the creation of a school of physicians and surgeons. The various chapters of this book, although written as letters to the President of the Council of Ministers, in 1863, were not published until 1882. See Pardo de Tavera’sBiblioteca filipina.↑9SeeVOL. XVII, p. 333. The Cuadrilleros occupied in a certain sense, the position occupied now by the constabulary.↑10The author of this book was Manuel del Rio, who went to the Philippines in 1713, where he labored many years in various villages of Pangasinán. He was procurator-general of his order, definitor, and provincial; and was bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia at his death. A fuller title of his book is as follows: “Instrucciones morales y religiosas para el govierno, direccion, y acierto en la practica de nuestros ministerios. Que deben observar todos los religiosos de esta nuestra Provincia de el Santo Rossario de Philipinas del Orden de Predicadores.” See Peréz and Güemes’sAdiciones y continuacion(Manila, 1905), p. 114.↑11The opening of the Suez Canal, as much probably as any other factor promulgated modern ideas in the Philippines, because of the vastly shorter route thus brought about between them and the mother country.↑12The above citation is from Daniel Grifol y Aliaga’s prologue to his bookLa instrucción primaria en Filipinas(note by Zamora, p. 235).↑13Fray Hilarion Diez, O.S.A., who was consecrated archbishop of Manila, October 21, 1827. His death occurred May 7, 1829. See Ferrando’sHistoria, vi, pp. cliii, cliv.↑14Zamora, speaking in his chapter ix of the intervention of the friar, and discussing in general the accusations against the religious orders, says (pp. 408–452): “The Spaniards in admiration of the sanity of life, of the austerity and purity of the morals of the religious; thankful for their good offices as intermediaries among themselves in their disputes, and among the Indians during rebellions; convinced of the efficacy of their word, and of their intervention in all things; of the necessity of their active and diligent coöperation for the conservation and consolidation of the colony: began to respect, venerate, and recognize in them spontaneously, a certain right to intervene in their affairs, to settle their differences, submit to their judgment their quarrels, and respect their decisions with more submission and conformity than would proceed from the legitimately constituted authority. The governors themselves could not leave the religious out of account in all that they undertook.” The Indian learned to distinguish, says Zamora, between the peaceful and helpful friar, who sought only his welfare, and the often brutal and harsh encomendero. “Not otherwise was the origin of the prestige of the religious among Indians and Spaniards;” and the lapse of time furthered it. The governors made use of the friars as ambassadors, counsellors, and in other capacities connected with the government. “The religious were the ones who formed the villages and made a record of their parishioners on the tribute and citizen list.” As the friars were the only ones who understood the native dialects and the natives were ignorant of Spanish, the authorities were forced to work through the former, and consequently, the friars had the right of “visé” of the tribute and citizen lists. They became the presiding officers of all local boards, and so had all the power. In the provinces the dwelling of the parish priest was open to strangers who lodged there as in a hotel. The envy and maliciousness of certain people, however, conspired to take away the power of the parish priest, a reform that was rather agreeable than otherwise to him, as it left him more time for his ministry; but he deplored it as it seemed to threaten the country at no distant future. “The vigilant, noble, and disinterested intervention of the parish priests in all matters was the chief and necessary wheel of the gubernatorial, administrative, and judicial mechanism, in their multiple and complicated attributes and duties. That was exercised with regularity, until, in the last years of Spanish dominion in that country, the impelling force restrained the impulse.” The fruit of the “reform” was the contempt of the natives for the Spaniards. “If the religious orders were the cause for the loss of these islands, they were so unconsciously and ignorantly, or consciously and maliciously.” Zamora argues that they were not in any way the cause for the loss of the country. “The religious communities knew that the ruin of the country was their own ruin, the end of the Spanish domination, the end even of their existence in Filipinas.” “On three bases rested the Spanish domination in Filipinas with its institutions and organisations: religion; the prestige of the parish-priest regulars; and the superiority of race in so great accord with Spanish nobility.” To freemasonry was due the destruction of the high ideal of religion, and also the idea of the superiority of race; and to freemasonry is due, then, the loss of the colony. The friars have not committed the abuses with which they have been credited, and were not the cause of the revolution. They were always the upholders of Spanish sovereignty, and protected the natives.↑15The municipal reform of 1893, the “Maura law,” in conferring a considerable degree of local autonomy on Philippine towns, made the newly created municipal councils also school boards. It was a further step in taking from thepadrethe power to “visé” and supervise everything done, small and great, in a town. In promulgating the law, Governor-general Blanco (popular with the Filipinos for his liberal measures) took pains to explain that the priest’s school-inspecting powers, so far as religious teaching went, were to be the same as ever. As a matter of fact, this reform of Minister Maura, sent forth amid much accompaniment ofproclamasin Spain and the islands, was virtually made a dead-letter under succeeding governors. Its non-enforcement, except in a few towns, was one of the complaints of the insurgents in 1896. See LeRoy “Friars in the Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterlyfor December, 1903, pp. 672, 673.↑16Victor S. Clark (Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, no. 58, May, 1905;Labor Conditions in the Philippines), says (p. 854): “Practically all the Christian population of Mindanao spoke Spanish in 1883, which indicates that the statistics probably did not cover the remoter Jesuit mission stations among the Moros. In that year about 21 per cent of the total population reported for the islands could read, but less than 5½ per cent could speak Spanish. In other words, 75 per cent of the persons able to read could do so only in the Malay dialects.”↑17Estadismo, chapter xiv (Retana’s ed.; note by Zamora).↑18Zúñiga (Estadismo, Retana’s ed., i, pp. 299, 300), says of the natives of Tondo province: “The language of these Indians is somewhat corrupted, because a great number of Spanish words have been introduced. That is the only benefit which they have derived from living near Manila, since there are very few who know Spanish. In the suburbs themselves, as well as in Binondo and Santa Cruz, the Tagálog language is spoken. The Spaniards cast the blame on the religious for the Indians not knowing the Spanish language. But let them examine the villages of the seculars, and they will find whether they know more than those of the regular curacies. We cannot succeed in getting them to learn the doctrine, and it is wished that we teach them the Spanish language. There are some Spaniards who believe that we are opposed to them learning it, but this calumny was clearly destroyed in the time of Señor Anda, when it was ordered that no one could become a gobernadorcillo unless he knew Spanish; and it was necessary in almost all the villages to take the servants of the fathers. Now even, if there is any Indian who knows Spanish in the villages, it is because he has served some religious or some Spaniard in Manila. I know very well the method of introducing the Spanish language into Filipinas; but since I know that my plan will not be observed, I shall say only that hitherto, certain absurd means which would not have been used among barbarians, have been taken.”↑19Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora). This citation is from vol. ii, pp. 59*, *60.↑20The issue of June 5, 1891 (note by Zamora).↑21An expression used in ridicule, like the English folderols. It might be translated “utter nonsense.”↑22The Spanish for this invitation is as follows: “El día diecinueve de su mañana y del presente plenilunio tendrá lugar la misa de mi vara en esta Iglesia de mi cargo que Dios gratuitamente me ha concedido esta carga honorosa. Invito á Vd. tanto como á mi casa que desde luego se llenará el vacio acendrado de mi corazón en su asistencia hasta resonar mi última hora en el relox del Eterno.” Some of the words are taken in the wrong acceptation.↑23This letter is given by Retana in his edition of Zúñiga’sEstadismo, ii, pp. *60–63*.↑24Literally, “I ordain and command”—the form of opening often used in decrees, edicts, etc.↑25This last paragraph is not a part of Retana’s letter to Becerra, but it is taken from Retana’s words following the letter in his edition of theEstadismo, ii, pp. 63*, *64.↑26The friars virtually controlled secondary and higher instruction in the islands until they were lost to Spain in 1898. The reaction that followed the liberal measures (some of them practical, some foolish) of 1863 to 1870 really strengthened the hold of the friars upon superior education (though one must take into account the competition from the Jesuits in Manila with which the disturbed Dominicans had to deal in increased degree each year). See LeRoy’sPhilippine Life, p. 205.↑27“The friars maintained control of secondary and higher instruction till the islands were lost to Spain in 1898. A reaction from the liberal policy of 1863 to 1868 was stimulated by the appearance of a radical party in the Philippines, and by an insurrectionary movement at Cavite, in 1872. The friar party declared these to be the natural consequences of ‘reform’ and when the government changed, as it soon did, the projects of educational reorganization were speedily nullified.” James A. LeRoy inPolitical Science Quarterly, December, 1903, pp. 673, 674.↑28i.e., “Take and read.”↑29The comments of Victor S. Clark, in hisLabor Conditions in the Philippines(Bulletin no. 58, of Bureau of Labor), in regard to Filipino workmen, are interesting, and show a somewhat different side than that presented by Zamora.Zamora has left out of account the Filipino patriot, Dr. José Rizal, who was executed by order of the Spanish government, December 30, 1896. Rizal was a pure-blooded Tagálog, and attained highest rank in the Orient as an eye specialist. In addition he was a poet, a sculptor, and a novelist of more than average ability, a wonderful linguist, a widely-read man, and a clear thinker. He studied in the Ateneo Municipal and in Santo Tomás. The two following selections, the first from his novelNoli me tangere, often called the “Filipino bible,” and the second fromEl Filibusterismo(both taken from LeRoy’sPhilippine Life in town and country, pp. 210–213, and 207, 208) are interesting criticisms of the education of the friars. The first is the reflections of the village philosopher, the second apropos of the teaching of physics in the University of Santo Tomás.“The country is not the same today as it was twenty years ago.... If you do not see it, it is because you have not seen the former state, have not studied the effect of the immigration of Europeans, of the entrance of new books, and of the going of the young men to study in Europe. It is true that the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas still exists, with its most wise cloister, and certain intelligences still busy themselves in formulating the distinctions and threshing out to the final issue the subtleties of scholasticism. But where will you now find that metaphysical youth of our times, with an archaic education, who tortured his brain and died in full pursuit of sophistries in some remote part of the provinces, without ever having succeeded in understanding the attributes ofbeing, or settling the question ofessenceandexistence, concepts so lofty that they made us forget what was essential in life, our own existence and individuality? Look at the youth of today. Full of enthusiasm at the view of wider horizons, it studies History, Mathematics, Geography, Literature, Physical Science, Languages, all subjects that in our time we heard of with horror as though they were heresies; the greatest freethinker of my time declared all these things inferior to the classifications of Aristotle and the laws of the syllogism. Man has finally comprehended that he is man; he refuses to give himself over to the analysis of his God, to the penetration of the imperceptible, into what he has not seen, and to give laws to the phantasms of his brain; man comprehends that his inheritance is the vast world, dominion over which is within his reach; weary of a task that is useless and presumptuous, he lowers his gaze to earth, and examines his own surroundings.... The experimental sciences have already given their firstfruits; it needs Only time to perfect them. The lawyers of today are being trained in the new teachings of legal philosophy; some begin to shine in the midst of the shadows which surround our courts of justice, and point to a change in the course of affairs.... Look you: the press itself, however backward it might wish to be, is taking a step forward against its will. The Dominicans themselves do not escape this law, but are imitating the Jesuits, their implacable enemies; they givefiestasin their cloisters, erect little theatres, write poesies, because, as they are not devoid of intelligence in spite of believing in the fifteenth century, they comprehend that the Jesuits are right and will continue yet to play a part in the future of the young peoples that they have educated.“But are the Jesuits the companions of Progress? Why, then, are they opposed in Europe?”“I will answer you like an old scholastic.... One may accompany the course of Progress in three ways, ahead of her, side by side with her, and behind her. The first are those who guide the course of Progress; the second are those who are borne along by her; the last are dragged along, and among them are the Jesuits. Well would they like to direct her course, but, as they see her in the possession of full strength and having other tendencies, they capitulate, preferring to follow rather than be smothered or be left in the middle of the road without light. Well now, we in the Philippines are traveling along at least three centuries behind the car of Progress; we are barely commencing to emerge from the Middle Ages. Hence, the Jesuits, reactionary in Europe, when seen from our point of view represent Progress; the Philippines owe to them their dawning system of instruction, and to them the Natural Sciences, the soul of the nineteenth century, as it has been indebted to the Dominicans for Scholasticism, already dead in spite of Leo XIII—no Pope can revive what common sense has judged and condemned.... The strife is on between the past, which cleaves and clings with curses to the waning feudal castle, and the future, whose song of triumph may be faintly heard off in the distant but splendorous glories of a dawn that is coming, bringing the message of Good-News from other countries.”“The walls were entirely bare; not a drawing, nor an engraving, nor even any kind of arepresentationof an instrument of physics. On occasions there would be lowered from heaven an instrumentlet to be shown from afar to the class, like the Holy of Holies to the prostrate faithful: ‘Look at me, but don’t touch me.’ From time to time, some complacent professor came, a day of the year was assigned for visiting the mysterious ‘cabinet,’ and admiring from afar the enigmatic apparatus arranged inside the cases. Then no one could complain; that day there were seen much brass, much glass, many tubes, disks, wheels, bells, etc. And the show stopped there, and the Philippines were not turned upside down. For the rest, the students are convinced that these instruments were not bought for them; merry fools would the friars be! The ‘cabinet’ was made to be shown to foreigners and to high officials from Spain, that, on seeing it, they may nod in approbation, while their guide smiles as if saying: ‘You have been thinking you were going to find a lot of backward monks, eh? Well, we are at the height of the century; we have a cabinet!’“And the foreigners and high officials, obsequiously entertained, afterward wrote in their voyages or reports: ‘The Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas, of Manila, in charge of the illustrious Dominicans, possesses a magnificent cabinet of physics for the instruction of youth.... There annually take this course some two hundred and fifty students; but, be it on account of the apathy, indolence, scanty capacity of the natives, or through any other cause whatsoever, ethnological or unperceivable, up to date there has not developed a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a Tyndall, even in miniature, from the Philippine-Malay race!’”↑30See p. 801 of Victor S. Clark’s article in Bulletin no. 58,ut supra, for a comparison between the Filipino and the Central and South American Indians.↑31Retana’s praises of Rizal, a full-blooded Tagálog, in all these lines, as seen in hisVida y escritos del Dr. José Rizal, a series just concluded (October, 1906), in the Madrid review,Nuestro Tiempo, are the best answer to his own question.↑32See Retana’sEstadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora).↑33According to Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., the first freemason lodge established in the Philippines was the one called Luz Filipina, about 1860, which was established in Cavite under the Gran Oriente Lusitano. It was in immediate correspondence with the Portuguese lodges of Macao and Hongkong. Shortly after another lodge was created in Zamboanga of Peninsulars and creoles resident in Mindanao. Some time after 1868, must have occurred the creation of another lodge composed of foreigners and dependents of the lodge of Hongkong, of the Scottish rite. Into this lodge were admitted some Peninsulars and Filipinos. Shortly after this many other lodges were created under the Grañ Oriente de España. See Navarro’sAsuntos filipinos(Madrid, 1897), pp. 221–277. Manuel Sastron (Insurrección en Filipinas, Madrid, 1901, p. 41), who represents the friar standpoint, says: “We believe and affirm in good faith, that, in our opinion, the origin, the primitive cellule of the insurrection of 1896 in Filipinas, is to be found in masonry.” The masonic movement was by 1890 widespread in the islands. See also Sawyer’sInhabitants of Philippines, pp. 79–83.↑34St. Anthony the Great, who was an Egyptian, born A.D. 356. His day is January 17. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, i, pp. 249–272.↑35St. Basil the Great was a native of Cappadocian Cæsarea. His death occurred A.D. 379. His day is celebrated on June 14, except by the Greeks who keep January 1 in his memory. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, vi, pp. 192–202.↑36Referring to the Katipunan, orKataas-taasan Kagalang-gálang Katipunan Nang Mañga Anac Nang Bayan, “Sovereign Worshipful Association of the Sons of the Country.” This society, of which it is yet too early to have definite and detailed information, was due in the main to Andrés Bonifacio, a warehouse keeper in the employ of Fressel and Co., of Manila, who became its third president, although primarily founded by Marcelo Hilario del Pilar. This society enrolled in its ranks the common people among the Tagálogs. It is more than likely that the plan of the organization was copied from the masonic lodges, but the analogy stops here. The Katipunan was not masonry. See Sastron’sInsurrección, pp. 51–59; Sawyer’sInhabitants, pp. 82, 83; andThe Katipunan(Manila, 1902), purporting to be by one Francis St. Clair, although it is claimed by some to have been written by or for the friars.↑
1See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186, where it is dated June 20, 1686.↑2Tomás G. del Rosario, cited often in these notes, says (Census of Philippines, iii, pp. 594, 595): “A decree of the general government, issued October 6, 1885, provided for a competition to be followed by prizes for the best grammars written in Visayan, Cebuano, Ilocano, Bícol, Pangasinán, and Pampango, there being one already in Tagálog. Naturally these grammars, which were written in different dialects and taught in the public schools, made it more difficult (and that was the object) for the Spanish language to become general. Matters reached such a stage that teachers were punished and threatened with deportation, and some were actually deported, for teaching Spanish.”Speaking on the same subject, LeRoy (“Friars in Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterly, for December, 1903, p. 673) says: “In proclaiming the law of 1893 [the Maura law], Governor-general Blanco instructed the municipal councils to employ ‘the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language.’ The common assertion that the friars did teach the natives Spanish is contradicted by these provisions and by the numerous decrees from 1585 on; those who frankly admit that they did not spread Spanish, and who hold that it is impracticable to make the natives accept either Spanish or English, have a fair argument to present.”↑3See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186.↑4This is given by Barrantes,Instrucción primaria, pp. 69–71.↑5For this and following citations of the regulations, seeante.↑6Speaking of the legislation of 1863, LeRoy (Philippine Life, pp. 202, 203) says: “Most significant of all, local school boards of a civil and lay character were ordered established, a feature of the decree which had not by any means been realized when the municipal reform of 1893 was decreed, and which that reform itself did not accomplish. Theoretically, the friars were left in supervision only of religious instruction in the public schools; practically, in four towns out of five, they managed everything about the schools to suit their own will, down almost to the last hours of Spanish rule.”↑7The Tagálog insurrection broke out prematurely through betrayal of the plot in August, 1896.↑8Patricio de la Escosura, formerly minister and ambassador in Berlin, member of the Royal Spanish Academy, went to the Philippines about 1863, as royal commissary. HisMemoriais important and worth consultation for the history of the islands. It has a prologue by Cañamaque. The first chapter on the teaching of Spanish argues that Spanish be taught the Filipinos. Chapter viii is on the creation of a school of physicians and surgeons. The various chapters of this book, although written as letters to the President of the Council of Ministers, in 1863, were not published until 1882. See Pardo de Tavera’sBiblioteca filipina.↑9SeeVOL. XVII, p. 333. The Cuadrilleros occupied in a certain sense, the position occupied now by the constabulary.↑10The author of this book was Manuel del Rio, who went to the Philippines in 1713, where he labored many years in various villages of Pangasinán. He was procurator-general of his order, definitor, and provincial; and was bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia at his death. A fuller title of his book is as follows: “Instrucciones morales y religiosas para el govierno, direccion, y acierto en la practica de nuestros ministerios. Que deben observar todos los religiosos de esta nuestra Provincia de el Santo Rossario de Philipinas del Orden de Predicadores.” See Peréz and Güemes’sAdiciones y continuacion(Manila, 1905), p. 114.↑11The opening of the Suez Canal, as much probably as any other factor promulgated modern ideas in the Philippines, because of the vastly shorter route thus brought about between them and the mother country.↑12The above citation is from Daniel Grifol y Aliaga’s prologue to his bookLa instrucción primaria en Filipinas(note by Zamora, p. 235).↑13Fray Hilarion Diez, O.S.A., who was consecrated archbishop of Manila, October 21, 1827. His death occurred May 7, 1829. See Ferrando’sHistoria, vi, pp. cliii, cliv.↑14Zamora, speaking in his chapter ix of the intervention of the friar, and discussing in general the accusations against the religious orders, says (pp. 408–452): “The Spaniards in admiration of the sanity of life, of the austerity and purity of the morals of the religious; thankful for their good offices as intermediaries among themselves in their disputes, and among the Indians during rebellions; convinced of the efficacy of their word, and of their intervention in all things; of the necessity of their active and diligent coöperation for the conservation and consolidation of the colony: began to respect, venerate, and recognize in them spontaneously, a certain right to intervene in their affairs, to settle their differences, submit to their judgment their quarrels, and respect their decisions with more submission and conformity than would proceed from the legitimately constituted authority. The governors themselves could not leave the religious out of account in all that they undertook.” The Indian learned to distinguish, says Zamora, between the peaceful and helpful friar, who sought only his welfare, and the often brutal and harsh encomendero. “Not otherwise was the origin of the prestige of the religious among Indians and Spaniards;” and the lapse of time furthered it. The governors made use of the friars as ambassadors, counsellors, and in other capacities connected with the government. “The religious were the ones who formed the villages and made a record of their parishioners on the tribute and citizen list.” As the friars were the only ones who understood the native dialects and the natives were ignorant of Spanish, the authorities were forced to work through the former, and consequently, the friars had the right of “visé” of the tribute and citizen lists. They became the presiding officers of all local boards, and so had all the power. In the provinces the dwelling of the parish priest was open to strangers who lodged there as in a hotel. The envy and maliciousness of certain people, however, conspired to take away the power of the parish priest, a reform that was rather agreeable than otherwise to him, as it left him more time for his ministry; but he deplored it as it seemed to threaten the country at no distant future. “The vigilant, noble, and disinterested intervention of the parish priests in all matters was the chief and necessary wheel of the gubernatorial, administrative, and judicial mechanism, in their multiple and complicated attributes and duties. That was exercised with regularity, until, in the last years of Spanish dominion in that country, the impelling force restrained the impulse.” The fruit of the “reform” was the contempt of the natives for the Spaniards. “If the religious orders were the cause for the loss of these islands, they were so unconsciously and ignorantly, or consciously and maliciously.” Zamora argues that they were not in any way the cause for the loss of the country. “The religious communities knew that the ruin of the country was their own ruin, the end of the Spanish domination, the end even of their existence in Filipinas.” “On three bases rested the Spanish domination in Filipinas with its institutions and organisations: religion; the prestige of the parish-priest regulars; and the superiority of race in so great accord with Spanish nobility.” To freemasonry was due the destruction of the high ideal of religion, and also the idea of the superiority of race; and to freemasonry is due, then, the loss of the colony. The friars have not committed the abuses with which they have been credited, and were not the cause of the revolution. They were always the upholders of Spanish sovereignty, and protected the natives.↑15The municipal reform of 1893, the “Maura law,” in conferring a considerable degree of local autonomy on Philippine towns, made the newly created municipal councils also school boards. It was a further step in taking from thepadrethe power to “visé” and supervise everything done, small and great, in a town. In promulgating the law, Governor-general Blanco (popular with the Filipinos for his liberal measures) took pains to explain that the priest’s school-inspecting powers, so far as religious teaching went, were to be the same as ever. As a matter of fact, this reform of Minister Maura, sent forth amid much accompaniment ofproclamasin Spain and the islands, was virtually made a dead-letter under succeeding governors. Its non-enforcement, except in a few towns, was one of the complaints of the insurgents in 1896. See LeRoy “Friars in the Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterlyfor December, 1903, pp. 672, 673.↑16Victor S. Clark (Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, no. 58, May, 1905;Labor Conditions in the Philippines), says (p. 854): “Practically all the Christian population of Mindanao spoke Spanish in 1883, which indicates that the statistics probably did not cover the remoter Jesuit mission stations among the Moros. In that year about 21 per cent of the total population reported for the islands could read, but less than 5½ per cent could speak Spanish. In other words, 75 per cent of the persons able to read could do so only in the Malay dialects.”↑17Estadismo, chapter xiv (Retana’s ed.; note by Zamora).↑18Zúñiga (Estadismo, Retana’s ed., i, pp. 299, 300), says of the natives of Tondo province: “The language of these Indians is somewhat corrupted, because a great number of Spanish words have been introduced. That is the only benefit which they have derived from living near Manila, since there are very few who know Spanish. In the suburbs themselves, as well as in Binondo and Santa Cruz, the Tagálog language is spoken. The Spaniards cast the blame on the religious for the Indians not knowing the Spanish language. But let them examine the villages of the seculars, and they will find whether they know more than those of the regular curacies. We cannot succeed in getting them to learn the doctrine, and it is wished that we teach them the Spanish language. There are some Spaniards who believe that we are opposed to them learning it, but this calumny was clearly destroyed in the time of Señor Anda, when it was ordered that no one could become a gobernadorcillo unless he knew Spanish; and it was necessary in almost all the villages to take the servants of the fathers. Now even, if there is any Indian who knows Spanish in the villages, it is because he has served some religious or some Spaniard in Manila. I know very well the method of introducing the Spanish language into Filipinas; but since I know that my plan will not be observed, I shall say only that hitherto, certain absurd means which would not have been used among barbarians, have been taken.”↑19Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora). This citation is from vol. ii, pp. 59*, *60.↑20The issue of June 5, 1891 (note by Zamora).↑21An expression used in ridicule, like the English folderols. It might be translated “utter nonsense.”↑22The Spanish for this invitation is as follows: “El día diecinueve de su mañana y del presente plenilunio tendrá lugar la misa de mi vara en esta Iglesia de mi cargo que Dios gratuitamente me ha concedido esta carga honorosa. Invito á Vd. tanto como á mi casa que desde luego se llenará el vacio acendrado de mi corazón en su asistencia hasta resonar mi última hora en el relox del Eterno.” Some of the words are taken in the wrong acceptation.↑23This letter is given by Retana in his edition of Zúñiga’sEstadismo, ii, pp. *60–63*.↑24Literally, “I ordain and command”—the form of opening often used in decrees, edicts, etc.↑25This last paragraph is not a part of Retana’s letter to Becerra, but it is taken from Retana’s words following the letter in his edition of theEstadismo, ii, pp. 63*, *64.↑26The friars virtually controlled secondary and higher instruction in the islands until they were lost to Spain in 1898. The reaction that followed the liberal measures (some of them practical, some foolish) of 1863 to 1870 really strengthened the hold of the friars upon superior education (though one must take into account the competition from the Jesuits in Manila with which the disturbed Dominicans had to deal in increased degree each year). See LeRoy’sPhilippine Life, p. 205.↑27“The friars maintained control of secondary and higher instruction till the islands were lost to Spain in 1898. A reaction from the liberal policy of 1863 to 1868 was stimulated by the appearance of a radical party in the Philippines, and by an insurrectionary movement at Cavite, in 1872. The friar party declared these to be the natural consequences of ‘reform’ and when the government changed, as it soon did, the projects of educational reorganization were speedily nullified.” James A. LeRoy inPolitical Science Quarterly, December, 1903, pp. 673, 674.↑28i.e., “Take and read.”↑29The comments of Victor S. Clark, in hisLabor Conditions in the Philippines(Bulletin no. 58, of Bureau of Labor), in regard to Filipino workmen, are interesting, and show a somewhat different side than that presented by Zamora.Zamora has left out of account the Filipino patriot, Dr. José Rizal, who was executed by order of the Spanish government, December 30, 1896. Rizal was a pure-blooded Tagálog, and attained highest rank in the Orient as an eye specialist. In addition he was a poet, a sculptor, and a novelist of more than average ability, a wonderful linguist, a widely-read man, and a clear thinker. He studied in the Ateneo Municipal and in Santo Tomás. The two following selections, the first from his novelNoli me tangere, often called the “Filipino bible,” and the second fromEl Filibusterismo(both taken from LeRoy’sPhilippine Life in town and country, pp. 210–213, and 207, 208) are interesting criticisms of the education of the friars. The first is the reflections of the village philosopher, the second apropos of the teaching of physics in the University of Santo Tomás.“The country is not the same today as it was twenty years ago.... If you do not see it, it is because you have not seen the former state, have not studied the effect of the immigration of Europeans, of the entrance of new books, and of the going of the young men to study in Europe. It is true that the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas still exists, with its most wise cloister, and certain intelligences still busy themselves in formulating the distinctions and threshing out to the final issue the subtleties of scholasticism. But where will you now find that metaphysical youth of our times, with an archaic education, who tortured his brain and died in full pursuit of sophistries in some remote part of the provinces, without ever having succeeded in understanding the attributes ofbeing, or settling the question ofessenceandexistence, concepts so lofty that they made us forget what was essential in life, our own existence and individuality? Look at the youth of today. Full of enthusiasm at the view of wider horizons, it studies History, Mathematics, Geography, Literature, Physical Science, Languages, all subjects that in our time we heard of with horror as though they were heresies; the greatest freethinker of my time declared all these things inferior to the classifications of Aristotle and the laws of the syllogism. Man has finally comprehended that he is man; he refuses to give himself over to the analysis of his God, to the penetration of the imperceptible, into what he has not seen, and to give laws to the phantasms of his brain; man comprehends that his inheritance is the vast world, dominion over which is within his reach; weary of a task that is useless and presumptuous, he lowers his gaze to earth, and examines his own surroundings.... The experimental sciences have already given their firstfruits; it needs Only time to perfect them. The lawyers of today are being trained in the new teachings of legal philosophy; some begin to shine in the midst of the shadows which surround our courts of justice, and point to a change in the course of affairs.... Look you: the press itself, however backward it might wish to be, is taking a step forward against its will. The Dominicans themselves do not escape this law, but are imitating the Jesuits, their implacable enemies; they givefiestasin their cloisters, erect little theatres, write poesies, because, as they are not devoid of intelligence in spite of believing in the fifteenth century, they comprehend that the Jesuits are right and will continue yet to play a part in the future of the young peoples that they have educated.“But are the Jesuits the companions of Progress? Why, then, are they opposed in Europe?”“I will answer you like an old scholastic.... One may accompany the course of Progress in three ways, ahead of her, side by side with her, and behind her. The first are those who guide the course of Progress; the second are those who are borne along by her; the last are dragged along, and among them are the Jesuits. Well would they like to direct her course, but, as they see her in the possession of full strength and having other tendencies, they capitulate, preferring to follow rather than be smothered or be left in the middle of the road without light. Well now, we in the Philippines are traveling along at least three centuries behind the car of Progress; we are barely commencing to emerge from the Middle Ages. Hence, the Jesuits, reactionary in Europe, when seen from our point of view represent Progress; the Philippines owe to them their dawning system of instruction, and to them the Natural Sciences, the soul of the nineteenth century, as it has been indebted to the Dominicans for Scholasticism, already dead in spite of Leo XIII—no Pope can revive what common sense has judged and condemned.... The strife is on between the past, which cleaves and clings with curses to the waning feudal castle, and the future, whose song of triumph may be faintly heard off in the distant but splendorous glories of a dawn that is coming, bringing the message of Good-News from other countries.”“The walls were entirely bare; not a drawing, nor an engraving, nor even any kind of arepresentationof an instrument of physics. On occasions there would be lowered from heaven an instrumentlet to be shown from afar to the class, like the Holy of Holies to the prostrate faithful: ‘Look at me, but don’t touch me.’ From time to time, some complacent professor came, a day of the year was assigned for visiting the mysterious ‘cabinet,’ and admiring from afar the enigmatic apparatus arranged inside the cases. Then no one could complain; that day there were seen much brass, much glass, many tubes, disks, wheels, bells, etc. And the show stopped there, and the Philippines were not turned upside down. For the rest, the students are convinced that these instruments were not bought for them; merry fools would the friars be! The ‘cabinet’ was made to be shown to foreigners and to high officials from Spain, that, on seeing it, they may nod in approbation, while their guide smiles as if saying: ‘You have been thinking you were going to find a lot of backward monks, eh? Well, we are at the height of the century; we have a cabinet!’“And the foreigners and high officials, obsequiously entertained, afterward wrote in their voyages or reports: ‘The Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas, of Manila, in charge of the illustrious Dominicans, possesses a magnificent cabinet of physics for the instruction of youth.... There annually take this course some two hundred and fifty students; but, be it on account of the apathy, indolence, scanty capacity of the natives, or through any other cause whatsoever, ethnological or unperceivable, up to date there has not developed a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a Tyndall, even in miniature, from the Philippine-Malay race!’”↑30See p. 801 of Victor S. Clark’s article in Bulletin no. 58,ut supra, for a comparison between the Filipino and the Central and South American Indians.↑31Retana’s praises of Rizal, a full-blooded Tagálog, in all these lines, as seen in hisVida y escritos del Dr. José Rizal, a series just concluded (October, 1906), in the Madrid review,Nuestro Tiempo, are the best answer to his own question.↑32See Retana’sEstadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora).↑33According to Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., the first freemason lodge established in the Philippines was the one called Luz Filipina, about 1860, which was established in Cavite under the Gran Oriente Lusitano. It was in immediate correspondence with the Portuguese lodges of Macao and Hongkong. Shortly after another lodge was created in Zamboanga of Peninsulars and creoles resident in Mindanao. Some time after 1868, must have occurred the creation of another lodge composed of foreigners and dependents of the lodge of Hongkong, of the Scottish rite. Into this lodge were admitted some Peninsulars and Filipinos. Shortly after this many other lodges were created under the Grañ Oriente de España. See Navarro’sAsuntos filipinos(Madrid, 1897), pp. 221–277. Manuel Sastron (Insurrección en Filipinas, Madrid, 1901, p. 41), who represents the friar standpoint, says: “We believe and affirm in good faith, that, in our opinion, the origin, the primitive cellule of the insurrection of 1896 in Filipinas, is to be found in masonry.” The masonic movement was by 1890 widespread in the islands. See also Sawyer’sInhabitants of Philippines, pp. 79–83.↑34St. Anthony the Great, who was an Egyptian, born A.D. 356. His day is January 17. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, i, pp. 249–272.↑35St. Basil the Great was a native of Cappadocian Cæsarea. His death occurred A.D. 379. His day is celebrated on June 14, except by the Greeks who keep January 1 in his memory. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, vi, pp. 192–202.↑36Referring to the Katipunan, orKataas-taasan Kagalang-gálang Katipunan Nang Mañga Anac Nang Bayan, “Sovereign Worshipful Association of the Sons of the Country.” This society, of which it is yet too early to have definite and detailed information, was due in the main to Andrés Bonifacio, a warehouse keeper in the employ of Fressel and Co., of Manila, who became its third president, although primarily founded by Marcelo Hilario del Pilar. This society enrolled in its ranks the common people among the Tagálogs. It is more than likely that the plan of the organization was copied from the masonic lodges, but the analogy stops here. The Katipunan was not masonry. See Sastron’sInsurrección, pp. 51–59; Sawyer’sInhabitants, pp. 82, 83; andThe Katipunan(Manila, 1902), purporting to be by one Francis St. Clair, although it is claimed by some to have been written by or for the friars.↑
1See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186, where it is dated June 20, 1686.↑2Tomás G. del Rosario, cited often in these notes, says (Census of Philippines, iii, pp. 594, 595): “A decree of the general government, issued October 6, 1885, provided for a competition to be followed by prizes for the best grammars written in Visayan, Cebuano, Ilocano, Bícol, Pangasinán, and Pampango, there being one already in Tagálog. Naturally these grammars, which were written in different dialects and taught in the public schools, made it more difficult (and that was the object) for the Spanish language to become general. Matters reached such a stage that teachers were punished and threatened with deportation, and some were actually deported, for teaching Spanish.”Speaking on the same subject, LeRoy (“Friars in Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterly, for December, 1903, p. 673) says: “In proclaiming the law of 1893 [the Maura law], Governor-general Blanco instructed the municipal councils to employ ‘the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language.’ The common assertion that the friars did teach the natives Spanish is contradicted by these provisions and by the numerous decrees from 1585 on; those who frankly admit that they did not spread Spanish, and who hold that it is impracticable to make the natives accept either Spanish or English, have a fair argument to present.”↑3See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186.↑4This is given by Barrantes,Instrucción primaria, pp. 69–71.↑5For this and following citations of the regulations, seeante.↑6Speaking of the legislation of 1863, LeRoy (Philippine Life, pp. 202, 203) says: “Most significant of all, local school boards of a civil and lay character were ordered established, a feature of the decree which had not by any means been realized when the municipal reform of 1893 was decreed, and which that reform itself did not accomplish. Theoretically, the friars were left in supervision only of religious instruction in the public schools; practically, in four towns out of five, they managed everything about the schools to suit their own will, down almost to the last hours of Spanish rule.”↑7The Tagálog insurrection broke out prematurely through betrayal of the plot in August, 1896.↑8Patricio de la Escosura, formerly minister and ambassador in Berlin, member of the Royal Spanish Academy, went to the Philippines about 1863, as royal commissary. HisMemoriais important and worth consultation for the history of the islands. It has a prologue by Cañamaque. The first chapter on the teaching of Spanish argues that Spanish be taught the Filipinos. Chapter viii is on the creation of a school of physicians and surgeons. The various chapters of this book, although written as letters to the President of the Council of Ministers, in 1863, were not published until 1882. See Pardo de Tavera’sBiblioteca filipina.↑9SeeVOL. XVII, p. 333. The Cuadrilleros occupied in a certain sense, the position occupied now by the constabulary.↑10The author of this book was Manuel del Rio, who went to the Philippines in 1713, where he labored many years in various villages of Pangasinán. He was procurator-general of his order, definitor, and provincial; and was bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia at his death. A fuller title of his book is as follows: “Instrucciones morales y religiosas para el govierno, direccion, y acierto en la practica de nuestros ministerios. Que deben observar todos los religiosos de esta nuestra Provincia de el Santo Rossario de Philipinas del Orden de Predicadores.” See Peréz and Güemes’sAdiciones y continuacion(Manila, 1905), p. 114.↑11The opening of the Suez Canal, as much probably as any other factor promulgated modern ideas in the Philippines, because of the vastly shorter route thus brought about between them and the mother country.↑12The above citation is from Daniel Grifol y Aliaga’s prologue to his bookLa instrucción primaria en Filipinas(note by Zamora, p. 235).↑13Fray Hilarion Diez, O.S.A., who was consecrated archbishop of Manila, October 21, 1827. His death occurred May 7, 1829. See Ferrando’sHistoria, vi, pp. cliii, cliv.↑14Zamora, speaking in his chapter ix of the intervention of the friar, and discussing in general the accusations against the religious orders, says (pp. 408–452): “The Spaniards in admiration of the sanity of life, of the austerity and purity of the morals of the religious; thankful for their good offices as intermediaries among themselves in their disputes, and among the Indians during rebellions; convinced of the efficacy of their word, and of their intervention in all things; of the necessity of their active and diligent coöperation for the conservation and consolidation of the colony: began to respect, venerate, and recognize in them spontaneously, a certain right to intervene in their affairs, to settle their differences, submit to their judgment their quarrels, and respect their decisions with more submission and conformity than would proceed from the legitimately constituted authority. The governors themselves could not leave the religious out of account in all that they undertook.” The Indian learned to distinguish, says Zamora, between the peaceful and helpful friar, who sought only his welfare, and the often brutal and harsh encomendero. “Not otherwise was the origin of the prestige of the religious among Indians and Spaniards;” and the lapse of time furthered it. The governors made use of the friars as ambassadors, counsellors, and in other capacities connected with the government. “The religious were the ones who formed the villages and made a record of their parishioners on the tribute and citizen list.” As the friars were the only ones who understood the native dialects and the natives were ignorant of Spanish, the authorities were forced to work through the former, and consequently, the friars had the right of “visé” of the tribute and citizen lists. They became the presiding officers of all local boards, and so had all the power. In the provinces the dwelling of the parish priest was open to strangers who lodged there as in a hotel. The envy and maliciousness of certain people, however, conspired to take away the power of the parish priest, a reform that was rather agreeable than otherwise to him, as it left him more time for his ministry; but he deplored it as it seemed to threaten the country at no distant future. “The vigilant, noble, and disinterested intervention of the parish priests in all matters was the chief and necessary wheel of the gubernatorial, administrative, and judicial mechanism, in their multiple and complicated attributes and duties. That was exercised with regularity, until, in the last years of Spanish dominion in that country, the impelling force restrained the impulse.” The fruit of the “reform” was the contempt of the natives for the Spaniards. “If the religious orders were the cause for the loss of these islands, they were so unconsciously and ignorantly, or consciously and maliciously.” Zamora argues that they were not in any way the cause for the loss of the country. “The religious communities knew that the ruin of the country was their own ruin, the end of the Spanish domination, the end even of their existence in Filipinas.” “On three bases rested the Spanish domination in Filipinas with its institutions and organisations: religion; the prestige of the parish-priest regulars; and the superiority of race in so great accord with Spanish nobility.” To freemasonry was due the destruction of the high ideal of religion, and also the idea of the superiority of race; and to freemasonry is due, then, the loss of the colony. The friars have not committed the abuses with which they have been credited, and were not the cause of the revolution. They were always the upholders of Spanish sovereignty, and protected the natives.↑15The municipal reform of 1893, the “Maura law,” in conferring a considerable degree of local autonomy on Philippine towns, made the newly created municipal councils also school boards. It was a further step in taking from thepadrethe power to “visé” and supervise everything done, small and great, in a town. In promulgating the law, Governor-general Blanco (popular with the Filipinos for his liberal measures) took pains to explain that the priest’s school-inspecting powers, so far as religious teaching went, were to be the same as ever. As a matter of fact, this reform of Minister Maura, sent forth amid much accompaniment ofproclamasin Spain and the islands, was virtually made a dead-letter under succeeding governors. Its non-enforcement, except in a few towns, was one of the complaints of the insurgents in 1896. See LeRoy “Friars in the Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterlyfor December, 1903, pp. 672, 673.↑16Victor S. Clark (Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, no. 58, May, 1905;Labor Conditions in the Philippines), says (p. 854): “Practically all the Christian population of Mindanao spoke Spanish in 1883, which indicates that the statistics probably did not cover the remoter Jesuit mission stations among the Moros. In that year about 21 per cent of the total population reported for the islands could read, but less than 5½ per cent could speak Spanish. In other words, 75 per cent of the persons able to read could do so only in the Malay dialects.”↑17Estadismo, chapter xiv (Retana’s ed.; note by Zamora).↑18Zúñiga (Estadismo, Retana’s ed., i, pp. 299, 300), says of the natives of Tondo province: “The language of these Indians is somewhat corrupted, because a great number of Spanish words have been introduced. That is the only benefit which they have derived from living near Manila, since there are very few who know Spanish. In the suburbs themselves, as well as in Binondo and Santa Cruz, the Tagálog language is spoken. The Spaniards cast the blame on the religious for the Indians not knowing the Spanish language. But let them examine the villages of the seculars, and they will find whether they know more than those of the regular curacies. We cannot succeed in getting them to learn the doctrine, and it is wished that we teach them the Spanish language. There are some Spaniards who believe that we are opposed to them learning it, but this calumny was clearly destroyed in the time of Señor Anda, when it was ordered that no one could become a gobernadorcillo unless he knew Spanish; and it was necessary in almost all the villages to take the servants of the fathers. Now even, if there is any Indian who knows Spanish in the villages, it is because he has served some religious or some Spaniard in Manila. I know very well the method of introducing the Spanish language into Filipinas; but since I know that my plan will not be observed, I shall say only that hitherto, certain absurd means which would not have been used among barbarians, have been taken.”↑19Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora). This citation is from vol. ii, pp. 59*, *60.↑20The issue of June 5, 1891 (note by Zamora).↑21An expression used in ridicule, like the English folderols. It might be translated “utter nonsense.”↑22The Spanish for this invitation is as follows: “El día diecinueve de su mañana y del presente plenilunio tendrá lugar la misa de mi vara en esta Iglesia de mi cargo que Dios gratuitamente me ha concedido esta carga honorosa. Invito á Vd. tanto como á mi casa que desde luego se llenará el vacio acendrado de mi corazón en su asistencia hasta resonar mi última hora en el relox del Eterno.” Some of the words are taken in the wrong acceptation.↑23This letter is given by Retana in his edition of Zúñiga’sEstadismo, ii, pp. *60–63*.↑24Literally, “I ordain and command”—the form of opening often used in decrees, edicts, etc.↑25This last paragraph is not a part of Retana’s letter to Becerra, but it is taken from Retana’s words following the letter in his edition of theEstadismo, ii, pp. 63*, *64.↑26The friars virtually controlled secondary and higher instruction in the islands until they were lost to Spain in 1898. The reaction that followed the liberal measures (some of them practical, some foolish) of 1863 to 1870 really strengthened the hold of the friars upon superior education (though one must take into account the competition from the Jesuits in Manila with which the disturbed Dominicans had to deal in increased degree each year). See LeRoy’sPhilippine Life, p. 205.↑27“The friars maintained control of secondary and higher instruction till the islands were lost to Spain in 1898. A reaction from the liberal policy of 1863 to 1868 was stimulated by the appearance of a radical party in the Philippines, and by an insurrectionary movement at Cavite, in 1872. The friar party declared these to be the natural consequences of ‘reform’ and when the government changed, as it soon did, the projects of educational reorganization were speedily nullified.” James A. LeRoy inPolitical Science Quarterly, December, 1903, pp. 673, 674.↑28i.e., “Take and read.”↑29The comments of Victor S. Clark, in hisLabor Conditions in the Philippines(Bulletin no. 58, of Bureau of Labor), in regard to Filipino workmen, are interesting, and show a somewhat different side than that presented by Zamora.Zamora has left out of account the Filipino patriot, Dr. José Rizal, who was executed by order of the Spanish government, December 30, 1896. Rizal was a pure-blooded Tagálog, and attained highest rank in the Orient as an eye specialist. In addition he was a poet, a sculptor, and a novelist of more than average ability, a wonderful linguist, a widely-read man, and a clear thinker. He studied in the Ateneo Municipal and in Santo Tomás. The two following selections, the first from his novelNoli me tangere, often called the “Filipino bible,” and the second fromEl Filibusterismo(both taken from LeRoy’sPhilippine Life in town and country, pp. 210–213, and 207, 208) are interesting criticisms of the education of the friars. The first is the reflections of the village philosopher, the second apropos of the teaching of physics in the University of Santo Tomás.“The country is not the same today as it was twenty years ago.... If you do not see it, it is because you have not seen the former state, have not studied the effect of the immigration of Europeans, of the entrance of new books, and of the going of the young men to study in Europe. It is true that the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas still exists, with its most wise cloister, and certain intelligences still busy themselves in formulating the distinctions and threshing out to the final issue the subtleties of scholasticism. But where will you now find that metaphysical youth of our times, with an archaic education, who tortured his brain and died in full pursuit of sophistries in some remote part of the provinces, without ever having succeeded in understanding the attributes ofbeing, or settling the question ofessenceandexistence, concepts so lofty that they made us forget what was essential in life, our own existence and individuality? Look at the youth of today. Full of enthusiasm at the view of wider horizons, it studies History, Mathematics, Geography, Literature, Physical Science, Languages, all subjects that in our time we heard of with horror as though they were heresies; the greatest freethinker of my time declared all these things inferior to the classifications of Aristotle and the laws of the syllogism. Man has finally comprehended that he is man; he refuses to give himself over to the analysis of his God, to the penetration of the imperceptible, into what he has not seen, and to give laws to the phantasms of his brain; man comprehends that his inheritance is the vast world, dominion over which is within his reach; weary of a task that is useless and presumptuous, he lowers his gaze to earth, and examines his own surroundings.... The experimental sciences have already given their firstfruits; it needs Only time to perfect them. The lawyers of today are being trained in the new teachings of legal philosophy; some begin to shine in the midst of the shadows which surround our courts of justice, and point to a change in the course of affairs.... Look you: the press itself, however backward it might wish to be, is taking a step forward against its will. The Dominicans themselves do not escape this law, but are imitating the Jesuits, their implacable enemies; they givefiestasin their cloisters, erect little theatres, write poesies, because, as they are not devoid of intelligence in spite of believing in the fifteenth century, they comprehend that the Jesuits are right and will continue yet to play a part in the future of the young peoples that they have educated.“But are the Jesuits the companions of Progress? Why, then, are they opposed in Europe?”“I will answer you like an old scholastic.... One may accompany the course of Progress in three ways, ahead of her, side by side with her, and behind her. The first are those who guide the course of Progress; the second are those who are borne along by her; the last are dragged along, and among them are the Jesuits. Well would they like to direct her course, but, as they see her in the possession of full strength and having other tendencies, they capitulate, preferring to follow rather than be smothered or be left in the middle of the road without light. Well now, we in the Philippines are traveling along at least three centuries behind the car of Progress; we are barely commencing to emerge from the Middle Ages. Hence, the Jesuits, reactionary in Europe, when seen from our point of view represent Progress; the Philippines owe to them their dawning system of instruction, and to them the Natural Sciences, the soul of the nineteenth century, as it has been indebted to the Dominicans for Scholasticism, already dead in spite of Leo XIII—no Pope can revive what common sense has judged and condemned.... The strife is on between the past, which cleaves and clings with curses to the waning feudal castle, and the future, whose song of triumph may be faintly heard off in the distant but splendorous glories of a dawn that is coming, bringing the message of Good-News from other countries.”“The walls were entirely bare; not a drawing, nor an engraving, nor even any kind of arepresentationof an instrument of physics. On occasions there would be lowered from heaven an instrumentlet to be shown from afar to the class, like the Holy of Holies to the prostrate faithful: ‘Look at me, but don’t touch me.’ From time to time, some complacent professor came, a day of the year was assigned for visiting the mysterious ‘cabinet,’ and admiring from afar the enigmatic apparatus arranged inside the cases. Then no one could complain; that day there were seen much brass, much glass, many tubes, disks, wheels, bells, etc. And the show stopped there, and the Philippines were not turned upside down. For the rest, the students are convinced that these instruments were not bought for them; merry fools would the friars be! The ‘cabinet’ was made to be shown to foreigners and to high officials from Spain, that, on seeing it, they may nod in approbation, while their guide smiles as if saying: ‘You have been thinking you were going to find a lot of backward monks, eh? Well, we are at the height of the century; we have a cabinet!’“And the foreigners and high officials, obsequiously entertained, afterward wrote in their voyages or reports: ‘The Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas, of Manila, in charge of the illustrious Dominicans, possesses a magnificent cabinet of physics for the instruction of youth.... There annually take this course some two hundred and fifty students; but, be it on account of the apathy, indolence, scanty capacity of the natives, or through any other cause whatsoever, ethnological or unperceivable, up to date there has not developed a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a Tyndall, even in miniature, from the Philippine-Malay race!’”↑30See p. 801 of Victor S. Clark’s article in Bulletin no. 58,ut supra, for a comparison between the Filipino and the Central and South American Indians.↑31Retana’s praises of Rizal, a full-blooded Tagálog, in all these lines, as seen in hisVida y escritos del Dr. José Rizal, a series just concluded (October, 1906), in the Madrid review,Nuestro Tiempo, are the best answer to his own question.↑32See Retana’sEstadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora).↑33According to Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., the first freemason lodge established in the Philippines was the one called Luz Filipina, about 1860, which was established in Cavite under the Gran Oriente Lusitano. It was in immediate correspondence with the Portuguese lodges of Macao and Hongkong. Shortly after another lodge was created in Zamboanga of Peninsulars and creoles resident in Mindanao. Some time after 1868, must have occurred the creation of another lodge composed of foreigners and dependents of the lodge of Hongkong, of the Scottish rite. Into this lodge were admitted some Peninsulars and Filipinos. Shortly after this many other lodges were created under the Grañ Oriente de España. See Navarro’sAsuntos filipinos(Madrid, 1897), pp. 221–277. Manuel Sastron (Insurrección en Filipinas, Madrid, 1901, p. 41), who represents the friar standpoint, says: “We believe and affirm in good faith, that, in our opinion, the origin, the primitive cellule of the insurrection of 1896 in Filipinas, is to be found in masonry.” The masonic movement was by 1890 widespread in the islands. See also Sawyer’sInhabitants of Philippines, pp. 79–83.↑34St. Anthony the Great, who was an Egyptian, born A.D. 356. His day is January 17. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, i, pp. 249–272.↑35St. Basil the Great was a native of Cappadocian Cæsarea. His death occurred A.D. 379. His day is celebrated on June 14, except by the Greeks who keep January 1 in his memory. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, vi, pp. 192–202.↑36Referring to the Katipunan, orKataas-taasan Kagalang-gálang Katipunan Nang Mañga Anac Nang Bayan, “Sovereign Worshipful Association of the Sons of the Country.” This society, of which it is yet too early to have definite and detailed information, was due in the main to Andrés Bonifacio, a warehouse keeper in the employ of Fressel and Co., of Manila, who became its third president, although primarily founded by Marcelo Hilario del Pilar. This society enrolled in its ranks the common people among the Tagálogs. It is more than likely that the plan of the organization was copied from the masonic lodges, but the analogy stops here. The Katipunan was not masonry. See Sastron’sInsurrección, pp. 51–59; Sawyer’sInhabitants, pp. 82, 83; andThe Katipunan(Manila, 1902), purporting to be by one Francis St. Clair, although it is claimed by some to have been written by or for the friars.↑
1See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186, where it is dated June 20, 1686.↑2Tomás G. del Rosario, cited often in these notes, says (Census of Philippines, iii, pp. 594, 595): “A decree of the general government, issued October 6, 1885, provided for a competition to be followed by prizes for the best grammars written in Visayan, Cebuano, Ilocano, Bícol, Pangasinán, and Pampango, there being one already in Tagálog. Naturally these grammars, which were written in different dialects and taught in the public schools, made it more difficult (and that was the object) for the Spanish language to become general. Matters reached such a stage that teachers were punished and threatened with deportation, and some were actually deported, for teaching Spanish.”Speaking on the same subject, LeRoy (“Friars in Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterly, for December, 1903, p. 673) says: “In proclaiming the law of 1893 [the Maura law], Governor-general Blanco instructed the municipal councils to employ ‘the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language.’ The common assertion that the friars did teach the natives Spanish is contradicted by these provisions and by the numerous decrees from 1585 on; those who frankly admit that they did not spread Spanish, and who hold that it is impracticable to make the natives accept either Spanish or English, have a fair argument to present.”↑3See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186.↑4This is given by Barrantes,Instrucción primaria, pp. 69–71.↑5For this and following citations of the regulations, seeante.↑6Speaking of the legislation of 1863, LeRoy (Philippine Life, pp. 202, 203) says: “Most significant of all, local school boards of a civil and lay character were ordered established, a feature of the decree which had not by any means been realized when the municipal reform of 1893 was decreed, and which that reform itself did not accomplish. Theoretically, the friars were left in supervision only of religious instruction in the public schools; practically, in four towns out of five, they managed everything about the schools to suit their own will, down almost to the last hours of Spanish rule.”↑7The Tagálog insurrection broke out prematurely through betrayal of the plot in August, 1896.↑8Patricio de la Escosura, formerly minister and ambassador in Berlin, member of the Royal Spanish Academy, went to the Philippines about 1863, as royal commissary. HisMemoriais important and worth consultation for the history of the islands. It has a prologue by Cañamaque. The first chapter on the teaching of Spanish argues that Spanish be taught the Filipinos. Chapter viii is on the creation of a school of physicians and surgeons. The various chapters of this book, although written as letters to the President of the Council of Ministers, in 1863, were not published until 1882. See Pardo de Tavera’sBiblioteca filipina.↑9SeeVOL. XVII, p. 333. The Cuadrilleros occupied in a certain sense, the position occupied now by the constabulary.↑10The author of this book was Manuel del Rio, who went to the Philippines in 1713, where he labored many years in various villages of Pangasinán. He was procurator-general of his order, definitor, and provincial; and was bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia at his death. A fuller title of his book is as follows: “Instrucciones morales y religiosas para el govierno, direccion, y acierto en la practica de nuestros ministerios. Que deben observar todos los religiosos de esta nuestra Provincia de el Santo Rossario de Philipinas del Orden de Predicadores.” See Peréz and Güemes’sAdiciones y continuacion(Manila, 1905), p. 114.↑11The opening of the Suez Canal, as much probably as any other factor promulgated modern ideas in the Philippines, because of the vastly shorter route thus brought about between them and the mother country.↑12The above citation is from Daniel Grifol y Aliaga’s prologue to his bookLa instrucción primaria en Filipinas(note by Zamora, p. 235).↑13Fray Hilarion Diez, O.S.A., who was consecrated archbishop of Manila, October 21, 1827. His death occurred May 7, 1829. See Ferrando’sHistoria, vi, pp. cliii, cliv.↑14Zamora, speaking in his chapter ix of the intervention of the friar, and discussing in general the accusations against the religious orders, says (pp. 408–452): “The Spaniards in admiration of the sanity of life, of the austerity and purity of the morals of the religious; thankful for their good offices as intermediaries among themselves in their disputes, and among the Indians during rebellions; convinced of the efficacy of their word, and of their intervention in all things; of the necessity of their active and diligent coöperation for the conservation and consolidation of the colony: began to respect, venerate, and recognize in them spontaneously, a certain right to intervene in their affairs, to settle their differences, submit to their judgment their quarrels, and respect their decisions with more submission and conformity than would proceed from the legitimately constituted authority. The governors themselves could not leave the religious out of account in all that they undertook.” The Indian learned to distinguish, says Zamora, between the peaceful and helpful friar, who sought only his welfare, and the often brutal and harsh encomendero. “Not otherwise was the origin of the prestige of the religious among Indians and Spaniards;” and the lapse of time furthered it. The governors made use of the friars as ambassadors, counsellors, and in other capacities connected with the government. “The religious were the ones who formed the villages and made a record of their parishioners on the tribute and citizen list.” As the friars were the only ones who understood the native dialects and the natives were ignorant of Spanish, the authorities were forced to work through the former, and consequently, the friars had the right of “visé” of the tribute and citizen lists. They became the presiding officers of all local boards, and so had all the power. In the provinces the dwelling of the parish priest was open to strangers who lodged there as in a hotel. The envy and maliciousness of certain people, however, conspired to take away the power of the parish priest, a reform that was rather agreeable than otherwise to him, as it left him more time for his ministry; but he deplored it as it seemed to threaten the country at no distant future. “The vigilant, noble, and disinterested intervention of the parish priests in all matters was the chief and necessary wheel of the gubernatorial, administrative, and judicial mechanism, in their multiple and complicated attributes and duties. That was exercised with regularity, until, in the last years of Spanish dominion in that country, the impelling force restrained the impulse.” The fruit of the “reform” was the contempt of the natives for the Spaniards. “If the religious orders were the cause for the loss of these islands, they were so unconsciously and ignorantly, or consciously and maliciously.” Zamora argues that they were not in any way the cause for the loss of the country. “The religious communities knew that the ruin of the country was their own ruin, the end of the Spanish domination, the end even of their existence in Filipinas.” “On three bases rested the Spanish domination in Filipinas with its institutions and organisations: religion; the prestige of the parish-priest regulars; and the superiority of race in so great accord with Spanish nobility.” To freemasonry was due the destruction of the high ideal of religion, and also the idea of the superiority of race; and to freemasonry is due, then, the loss of the colony. The friars have not committed the abuses with which they have been credited, and were not the cause of the revolution. They were always the upholders of Spanish sovereignty, and protected the natives.↑15The municipal reform of 1893, the “Maura law,” in conferring a considerable degree of local autonomy on Philippine towns, made the newly created municipal councils also school boards. It was a further step in taking from thepadrethe power to “visé” and supervise everything done, small and great, in a town. In promulgating the law, Governor-general Blanco (popular with the Filipinos for his liberal measures) took pains to explain that the priest’s school-inspecting powers, so far as religious teaching went, were to be the same as ever. As a matter of fact, this reform of Minister Maura, sent forth amid much accompaniment ofproclamasin Spain and the islands, was virtually made a dead-letter under succeeding governors. Its non-enforcement, except in a few towns, was one of the complaints of the insurgents in 1896. See LeRoy “Friars in the Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterlyfor December, 1903, pp. 672, 673.↑16Victor S. Clark (Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, no. 58, May, 1905;Labor Conditions in the Philippines), says (p. 854): “Practically all the Christian population of Mindanao spoke Spanish in 1883, which indicates that the statistics probably did not cover the remoter Jesuit mission stations among the Moros. In that year about 21 per cent of the total population reported for the islands could read, but less than 5½ per cent could speak Spanish. In other words, 75 per cent of the persons able to read could do so only in the Malay dialects.”↑17Estadismo, chapter xiv (Retana’s ed.; note by Zamora).↑18Zúñiga (Estadismo, Retana’s ed., i, pp. 299, 300), says of the natives of Tondo province: “The language of these Indians is somewhat corrupted, because a great number of Spanish words have been introduced. That is the only benefit which they have derived from living near Manila, since there are very few who know Spanish. In the suburbs themselves, as well as in Binondo and Santa Cruz, the Tagálog language is spoken. The Spaniards cast the blame on the religious for the Indians not knowing the Spanish language. But let them examine the villages of the seculars, and they will find whether they know more than those of the regular curacies. We cannot succeed in getting them to learn the doctrine, and it is wished that we teach them the Spanish language. There are some Spaniards who believe that we are opposed to them learning it, but this calumny was clearly destroyed in the time of Señor Anda, when it was ordered that no one could become a gobernadorcillo unless he knew Spanish; and it was necessary in almost all the villages to take the servants of the fathers. Now even, if there is any Indian who knows Spanish in the villages, it is because he has served some religious or some Spaniard in Manila. I know very well the method of introducing the Spanish language into Filipinas; but since I know that my plan will not be observed, I shall say only that hitherto, certain absurd means which would not have been used among barbarians, have been taken.”↑19Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora). This citation is from vol. ii, pp. 59*, *60.↑20The issue of June 5, 1891 (note by Zamora).↑21An expression used in ridicule, like the English folderols. It might be translated “utter nonsense.”↑22The Spanish for this invitation is as follows: “El día diecinueve de su mañana y del presente plenilunio tendrá lugar la misa de mi vara en esta Iglesia de mi cargo que Dios gratuitamente me ha concedido esta carga honorosa. Invito á Vd. tanto como á mi casa que desde luego se llenará el vacio acendrado de mi corazón en su asistencia hasta resonar mi última hora en el relox del Eterno.” Some of the words are taken in the wrong acceptation.↑23This letter is given by Retana in his edition of Zúñiga’sEstadismo, ii, pp. *60–63*.↑24Literally, “I ordain and command”—the form of opening often used in decrees, edicts, etc.↑25This last paragraph is not a part of Retana’s letter to Becerra, but it is taken from Retana’s words following the letter in his edition of theEstadismo, ii, pp. 63*, *64.↑26The friars virtually controlled secondary and higher instruction in the islands until they were lost to Spain in 1898. The reaction that followed the liberal measures (some of them practical, some foolish) of 1863 to 1870 really strengthened the hold of the friars upon superior education (though one must take into account the competition from the Jesuits in Manila with which the disturbed Dominicans had to deal in increased degree each year). See LeRoy’sPhilippine Life, p. 205.↑27“The friars maintained control of secondary and higher instruction till the islands were lost to Spain in 1898. A reaction from the liberal policy of 1863 to 1868 was stimulated by the appearance of a radical party in the Philippines, and by an insurrectionary movement at Cavite, in 1872. The friar party declared these to be the natural consequences of ‘reform’ and when the government changed, as it soon did, the projects of educational reorganization were speedily nullified.” James A. LeRoy inPolitical Science Quarterly, December, 1903, pp. 673, 674.↑28i.e., “Take and read.”↑29The comments of Victor S. Clark, in hisLabor Conditions in the Philippines(Bulletin no. 58, of Bureau of Labor), in regard to Filipino workmen, are interesting, and show a somewhat different side than that presented by Zamora.Zamora has left out of account the Filipino patriot, Dr. José Rizal, who was executed by order of the Spanish government, December 30, 1896. Rizal was a pure-blooded Tagálog, and attained highest rank in the Orient as an eye specialist. In addition he was a poet, a sculptor, and a novelist of more than average ability, a wonderful linguist, a widely-read man, and a clear thinker. He studied in the Ateneo Municipal and in Santo Tomás. The two following selections, the first from his novelNoli me tangere, often called the “Filipino bible,” and the second fromEl Filibusterismo(both taken from LeRoy’sPhilippine Life in town and country, pp. 210–213, and 207, 208) are interesting criticisms of the education of the friars. The first is the reflections of the village philosopher, the second apropos of the teaching of physics in the University of Santo Tomás.“The country is not the same today as it was twenty years ago.... If you do not see it, it is because you have not seen the former state, have not studied the effect of the immigration of Europeans, of the entrance of new books, and of the going of the young men to study in Europe. It is true that the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas still exists, with its most wise cloister, and certain intelligences still busy themselves in formulating the distinctions and threshing out to the final issue the subtleties of scholasticism. But where will you now find that metaphysical youth of our times, with an archaic education, who tortured his brain and died in full pursuit of sophistries in some remote part of the provinces, without ever having succeeded in understanding the attributes ofbeing, or settling the question ofessenceandexistence, concepts so lofty that they made us forget what was essential in life, our own existence and individuality? Look at the youth of today. Full of enthusiasm at the view of wider horizons, it studies History, Mathematics, Geography, Literature, Physical Science, Languages, all subjects that in our time we heard of with horror as though they were heresies; the greatest freethinker of my time declared all these things inferior to the classifications of Aristotle and the laws of the syllogism. Man has finally comprehended that he is man; he refuses to give himself over to the analysis of his God, to the penetration of the imperceptible, into what he has not seen, and to give laws to the phantasms of his brain; man comprehends that his inheritance is the vast world, dominion over which is within his reach; weary of a task that is useless and presumptuous, he lowers his gaze to earth, and examines his own surroundings.... The experimental sciences have already given their firstfruits; it needs Only time to perfect them. The lawyers of today are being trained in the new teachings of legal philosophy; some begin to shine in the midst of the shadows which surround our courts of justice, and point to a change in the course of affairs.... Look you: the press itself, however backward it might wish to be, is taking a step forward against its will. The Dominicans themselves do not escape this law, but are imitating the Jesuits, their implacable enemies; they givefiestasin their cloisters, erect little theatres, write poesies, because, as they are not devoid of intelligence in spite of believing in the fifteenth century, they comprehend that the Jesuits are right and will continue yet to play a part in the future of the young peoples that they have educated.“But are the Jesuits the companions of Progress? Why, then, are they opposed in Europe?”“I will answer you like an old scholastic.... One may accompany the course of Progress in three ways, ahead of her, side by side with her, and behind her. The first are those who guide the course of Progress; the second are those who are borne along by her; the last are dragged along, and among them are the Jesuits. Well would they like to direct her course, but, as they see her in the possession of full strength and having other tendencies, they capitulate, preferring to follow rather than be smothered or be left in the middle of the road without light. Well now, we in the Philippines are traveling along at least three centuries behind the car of Progress; we are barely commencing to emerge from the Middle Ages. Hence, the Jesuits, reactionary in Europe, when seen from our point of view represent Progress; the Philippines owe to them their dawning system of instruction, and to them the Natural Sciences, the soul of the nineteenth century, as it has been indebted to the Dominicans for Scholasticism, already dead in spite of Leo XIII—no Pope can revive what common sense has judged and condemned.... The strife is on between the past, which cleaves and clings with curses to the waning feudal castle, and the future, whose song of triumph may be faintly heard off in the distant but splendorous glories of a dawn that is coming, bringing the message of Good-News from other countries.”“The walls were entirely bare; not a drawing, nor an engraving, nor even any kind of arepresentationof an instrument of physics. On occasions there would be lowered from heaven an instrumentlet to be shown from afar to the class, like the Holy of Holies to the prostrate faithful: ‘Look at me, but don’t touch me.’ From time to time, some complacent professor came, a day of the year was assigned for visiting the mysterious ‘cabinet,’ and admiring from afar the enigmatic apparatus arranged inside the cases. Then no one could complain; that day there were seen much brass, much glass, many tubes, disks, wheels, bells, etc. And the show stopped there, and the Philippines were not turned upside down. For the rest, the students are convinced that these instruments were not bought for them; merry fools would the friars be! The ‘cabinet’ was made to be shown to foreigners and to high officials from Spain, that, on seeing it, they may nod in approbation, while their guide smiles as if saying: ‘You have been thinking you were going to find a lot of backward monks, eh? Well, we are at the height of the century; we have a cabinet!’“And the foreigners and high officials, obsequiously entertained, afterward wrote in their voyages or reports: ‘The Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas, of Manila, in charge of the illustrious Dominicans, possesses a magnificent cabinet of physics for the instruction of youth.... There annually take this course some two hundred and fifty students; but, be it on account of the apathy, indolence, scanty capacity of the natives, or through any other cause whatsoever, ethnological or unperceivable, up to date there has not developed a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a Tyndall, even in miniature, from the Philippine-Malay race!’”↑30See p. 801 of Victor S. Clark’s article in Bulletin no. 58,ut supra, for a comparison between the Filipino and the Central and South American Indians.↑31Retana’s praises of Rizal, a full-blooded Tagálog, in all these lines, as seen in hisVida y escritos del Dr. José Rizal, a series just concluded (October, 1906), in the Madrid review,Nuestro Tiempo, are the best answer to his own question.↑32See Retana’sEstadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora).↑33According to Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., the first freemason lodge established in the Philippines was the one called Luz Filipina, about 1860, which was established in Cavite under the Gran Oriente Lusitano. It was in immediate correspondence with the Portuguese lodges of Macao and Hongkong. Shortly after another lodge was created in Zamboanga of Peninsulars and creoles resident in Mindanao. Some time after 1868, must have occurred the creation of another lodge composed of foreigners and dependents of the lodge of Hongkong, of the Scottish rite. Into this lodge were admitted some Peninsulars and Filipinos. Shortly after this many other lodges were created under the Grañ Oriente de España. See Navarro’sAsuntos filipinos(Madrid, 1897), pp. 221–277. Manuel Sastron (Insurrección en Filipinas, Madrid, 1901, p. 41), who represents the friar standpoint, says: “We believe and affirm in good faith, that, in our opinion, the origin, the primitive cellule of the insurrection of 1896 in Filipinas, is to be found in masonry.” The masonic movement was by 1890 widespread in the islands. See also Sawyer’sInhabitants of Philippines, pp. 79–83.↑34St. Anthony the Great, who was an Egyptian, born A.D. 356. His day is January 17. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, i, pp. 249–272.↑35St. Basil the Great was a native of Cappadocian Cæsarea. His death occurred A.D. 379. His day is celebrated on June 14, except by the Greeks who keep January 1 in his memory. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, vi, pp. 192–202.↑36Referring to the Katipunan, orKataas-taasan Kagalang-gálang Katipunan Nang Mañga Anac Nang Bayan, “Sovereign Worshipful Association of the Sons of the Country.” This society, of which it is yet too early to have definite and detailed information, was due in the main to Andrés Bonifacio, a warehouse keeper in the employ of Fressel and Co., of Manila, who became its third president, although primarily founded by Marcelo Hilario del Pilar. This society enrolled in its ranks the common people among the Tagálogs. It is more than likely that the plan of the organization was copied from the masonic lodges, but the analogy stops here. The Katipunan was not masonry. See Sastron’sInsurrección, pp. 51–59; Sawyer’sInhabitants, pp. 82, 83; andThe Katipunan(Manila, 1902), purporting to be by one Francis St. Clair, although it is claimed by some to have been written by or for the friars.↑
1See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186, where it is dated June 20, 1686.↑
2Tomás G. del Rosario, cited often in these notes, says (Census of Philippines, iii, pp. 594, 595): “A decree of the general government, issued October 6, 1885, provided for a competition to be followed by prizes for the best grammars written in Visayan, Cebuano, Ilocano, Bícol, Pangasinán, and Pampango, there being one already in Tagálog. Naturally these grammars, which were written in different dialects and taught in the public schools, made it more difficult (and that was the object) for the Spanish language to become general. Matters reached such a stage that teachers were punished and threatened with deportation, and some were actually deported, for teaching Spanish.”
Speaking on the same subject, LeRoy (“Friars in Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterly, for December, 1903, p. 673) says: “In proclaiming the law of 1893 [the Maura law], Governor-general Blanco instructed the municipal councils to employ ‘the most practical means for the diffusion of the Spanish language.’ The common assertion that the friars did teach the natives Spanish is contradicted by these provisions and by the numerous decrees from 1585 on; those who frankly admit that they did not spread Spanish, and who hold that it is impracticable to make the natives accept either Spanish or English, have a fair argument to present.”↑
3See this decree inVOL. XLV, pp. 184–186.↑
4This is given by Barrantes,Instrucción primaria, pp. 69–71.↑
5For this and following citations of the regulations, seeante.↑
6Speaking of the legislation of 1863, LeRoy (Philippine Life, pp. 202, 203) says: “Most significant of all, local school boards of a civil and lay character were ordered established, a feature of the decree which had not by any means been realized when the municipal reform of 1893 was decreed, and which that reform itself did not accomplish. Theoretically, the friars were left in supervision only of religious instruction in the public schools; practically, in four towns out of five, they managed everything about the schools to suit their own will, down almost to the last hours of Spanish rule.”↑
7The Tagálog insurrection broke out prematurely through betrayal of the plot in August, 1896.↑
8Patricio de la Escosura, formerly minister and ambassador in Berlin, member of the Royal Spanish Academy, went to the Philippines about 1863, as royal commissary. HisMemoriais important and worth consultation for the history of the islands. It has a prologue by Cañamaque. The first chapter on the teaching of Spanish argues that Spanish be taught the Filipinos. Chapter viii is on the creation of a school of physicians and surgeons. The various chapters of this book, although written as letters to the President of the Council of Ministers, in 1863, were not published until 1882. See Pardo de Tavera’sBiblioteca filipina.↑
9SeeVOL. XVII, p. 333. The Cuadrilleros occupied in a certain sense, the position occupied now by the constabulary.↑
10The author of this book was Manuel del Rio, who went to the Philippines in 1713, where he labored many years in various villages of Pangasinán. He was procurator-general of his order, definitor, and provincial; and was bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia at his death. A fuller title of his book is as follows: “Instrucciones morales y religiosas para el govierno, direccion, y acierto en la practica de nuestros ministerios. Que deben observar todos los religiosos de esta nuestra Provincia de el Santo Rossario de Philipinas del Orden de Predicadores.” See Peréz and Güemes’sAdiciones y continuacion(Manila, 1905), p. 114.↑
11The opening of the Suez Canal, as much probably as any other factor promulgated modern ideas in the Philippines, because of the vastly shorter route thus brought about between them and the mother country.↑
12The above citation is from Daniel Grifol y Aliaga’s prologue to his bookLa instrucción primaria en Filipinas(note by Zamora, p. 235).↑
13Fray Hilarion Diez, O.S.A., who was consecrated archbishop of Manila, October 21, 1827. His death occurred May 7, 1829. See Ferrando’sHistoria, vi, pp. cliii, cliv.↑
14Zamora, speaking in his chapter ix of the intervention of the friar, and discussing in general the accusations against the religious orders, says (pp. 408–452): “The Spaniards in admiration of the sanity of life, of the austerity and purity of the morals of the religious; thankful for their good offices as intermediaries among themselves in their disputes, and among the Indians during rebellions; convinced of the efficacy of their word, and of their intervention in all things; of the necessity of their active and diligent coöperation for the conservation and consolidation of the colony: began to respect, venerate, and recognize in them spontaneously, a certain right to intervene in their affairs, to settle their differences, submit to their judgment their quarrels, and respect their decisions with more submission and conformity than would proceed from the legitimately constituted authority. The governors themselves could not leave the religious out of account in all that they undertook.” The Indian learned to distinguish, says Zamora, between the peaceful and helpful friar, who sought only his welfare, and the often brutal and harsh encomendero. “Not otherwise was the origin of the prestige of the religious among Indians and Spaniards;” and the lapse of time furthered it. The governors made use of the friars as ambassadors, counsellors, and in other capacities connected with the government. “The religious were the ones who formed the villages and made a record of their parishioners on the tribute and citizen list.” As the friars were the only ones who understood the native dialects and the natives were ignorant of Spanish, the authorities were forced to work through the former, and consequently, the friars had the right of “visé” of the tribute and citizen lists. They became the presiding officers of all local boards, and so had all the power. In the provinces the dwelling of the parish priest was open to strangers who lodged there as in a hotel. The envy and maliciousness of certain people, however, conspired to take away the power of the parish priest, a reform that was rather agreeable than otherwise to him, as it left him more time for his ministry; but he deplored it as it seemed to threaten the country at no distant future. “The vigilant, noble, and disinterested intervention of the parish priests in all matters was the chief and necessary wheel of the gubernatorial, administrative, and judicial mechanism, in their multiple and complicated attributes and duties. That was exercised with regularity, until, in the last years of Spanish dominion in that country, the impelling force restrained the impulse.” The fruit of the “reform” was the contempt of the natives for the Spaniards. “If the religious orders were the cause for the loss of these islands, they were so unconsciously and ignorantly, or consciously and maliciously.” Zamora argues that they were not in any way the cause for the loss of the country. “The religious communities knew that the ruin of the country was their own ruin, the end of the Spanish domination, the end even of their existence in Filipinas.” “On three bases rested the Spanish domination in Filipinas with its institutions and organisations: religion; the prestige of the parish-priest regulars; and the superiority of race in so great accord with Spanish nobility.” To freemasonry was due the destruction of the high ideal of religion, and also the idea of the superiority of race; and to freemasonry is due, then, the loss of the colony. The friars have not committed the abuses with which they have been credited, and were not the cause of the revolution. They were always the upholders of Spanish sovereignty, and protected the natives.↑
15The municipal reform of 1893, the “Maura law,” in conferring a considerable degree of local autonomy on Philippine towns, made the newly created municipal councils also school boards. It was a further step in taking from thepadrethe power to “visé” and supervise everything done, small and great, in a town. In promulgating the law, Governor-general Blanco (popular with the Filipinos for his liberal measures) took pains to explain that the priest’s school-inspecting powers, so far as religious teaching went, were to be the same as ever. As a matter of fact, this reform of Minister Maura, sent forth amid much accompaniment ofproclamasin Spain and the islands, was virtually made a dead-letter under succeeding governors. Its non-enforcement, except in a few towns, was one of the complaints of the insurgents in 1896. See LeRoy “Friars in the Philippines,” inPolitical Science Quarterlyfor December, 1903, pp. 672, 673.↑
16Victor S. Clark (Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, no. 58, May, 1905;Labor Conditions in the Philippines), says (p. 854): “Practically all the Christian population of Mindanao spoke Spanish in 1883, which indicates that the statistics probably did not cover the remoter Jesuit mission stations among the Moros. In that year about 21 per cent of the total population reported for the islands could read, but less than 5½ per cent could speak Spanish. In other words, 75 per cent of the persons able to read could do so only in the Malay dialects.”↑
17Estadismo, chapter xiv (Retana’s ed.; note by Zamora).↑
18Zúñiga (Estadismo, Retana’s ed., i, pp. 299, 300), says of the natives of Tondo province: “The language of these Indians is somewhat corrupted, because a great number of Spanish words have been introduced. That is the only benefit which they have derived from living near Manila, since there are very few who know Spanish. In the suburbs themselves, as well as in Binondo and Santa Cruz, the Tagálog language is spoken. The Spaniards cast the blame on the religious for the Indians not knowing the Spanish language. But let them examine the villages of the seculars, and they will find whether they know more than those of the regular curacies. We cannot succeed in getting them to learn the doctrine, and it is wished that we teach them the Spanish language. There are some Spaniards who believe that we are opposed to them learning it, but this calumny was clearly destroyed in the time of Señor Anda, when it was ordered that no one could become a gobernadorcillo unless he knew Spanish; and it was necessary in almost all the villages to take the servants of the fathers. Now even, if there is any Indian who knows Spanish in the villages, it is because he has served some religious or some Spaniard in Manila. I know very well the method of introducing the Spanish language into Filipinas; but since I know that my plan will not be observed, I shall say only that hitherto, certain absurd means which would not have been used among barbarians, have been taken.”↑
19Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora). This citation is from vol. ii, pp. 59*, *60.↑
20The issue of June 5, 1891 (note by Zamora).↑
21An expression used in ridicule, like the English folderols. It might be translated “utter nonsense.”↑
22The Spanish for this invitation is as follows: “El día diecinueve de su mañana y del presente plenilunio tendrá lugar la misa de mi vara en esta Iglesia de mi cargo que Dios gratuitamente me ha concedido esta carga honorosa. Invito á Vd. tanto como á mi casa que desde luego se llenará el vacio acendrado de mi corazón en su asistencia hasta resonar mi última hora en el relox del Eterno.” Some of the words are taken in the wrong acceptation.↑
23This letter is given by Retana in his edition of Zúñiga’sEstadismo, ii, pp. *60–63*.↑
24Literally, “I ordain and command”—the form of opening often used in decrees, edicts, etc.↑
25This last paragraph is not a part of Retana’s letter to Becerra, but it is taken from Retana’s words following the letter in his edition of theEstadismo, ii, pp. 63*, *64.↑
26The friars virtually controlled secondary and higher instruction in the islands until they were lost to Spain in 1898. The reaction that followed the liberal measures (some of them practical, some foolish) of 1863 to 1870 really strengthened the hold of the friars upon superior education (though one must take into account the competition from the Jesuits in Manila with which the disturbed Dominicans had to deal in increased degree each year). See LeRoy’sPhilippine Life, p. 205.↑
27“The friars maintained control of secondary and higher instruction till the islands were lost to Spain in 1898. A reaction from the liberal policy of 1863 to 1868 was stimulated by the appearance of a radical party in the Philippines, and by an insurrectionary movement at Cavite, in 1872. The friar party declared these to be the natural consequences of ‘reform’ and when the government changed, as it soon did, the projects of educational reorganization were speedily nullified.” James A. LeRoy inPolitical Science Quarterly, December, 1903, pp. 673, 674.↑
28i.e., “Take and read.”↑
29The comments of Victor S. Clark, in hisLabor Conditions in the Philippines(Bulletin no. 58, of Bureau of Labor), in regard to Filipino workmen, are interesting, and show a somewhat different side than that presented by Zamora.
Zamora has left out of account the Filipino patriot, Dr. José Rizal, who was executed by order of the Spanish government, December 30, 1896. Rizal was a pure-blooded Tagálog, and attained highest rank in the Orient as an eye specialist. In addition he was a poet, a sculptor, and a novelist of more than average ability, a wonderful linguist, a widely-read man, and a clear thinker. He studied in the Ateneo Municipal and in Santo Tomás. The two following selections, the first from his novelNoli me tangere, often called the “Filipino bible,” and the second fromEl Filibusterismo(both taken from LeRoy’sPhilippine Life in town and country, pp. 210–213, and 207, 208) are interesting criticisms of the education of the friars. The first is the reflections of the village philosopher, the second apropos of the teaching of physics in the University of Santo Tomás.
“The country is not the same today as it was twenty years ago.... If you do not see it, it is because you have not seen the former state, have not studied the effect of the immigration of Europeans, of the entrance of new books, and of the going of the young men to study in Europe. It is true that the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas still exists, with its most wise cloister, and certain intelligences still busy themselves in formulating the distinctions and threshing out to the final issue the subtleties of scholasticism. But where will you now find that metaphysical youth of our times, with an archaic education, who tortured his brain and died in full pursuit of sophistries in some remote part of the provinces, without ever having succeeded in understanding the attributes ofbeing, or settling the question ofessenceandexistence, concepts so lofty that they made us forget what was essential in life, our own existence and individuality? Look at the youth of today. Full of enthusiasm at the view of wider horizons, it studies History, Mathematics, Geography, Literature, Physical Science, Languages, all subjects that in our time we heard of with horror as though they were heresies; the greatest freethinker of my time declared all these things inferior to the classifications of Aristotle and the laws of the syllogism. Man has finally comprehended that he is man; he refuses to give himself over to the analysis of his God, to the penetration of the imperceptible, into what he has not seen, and to give laws to the phantasms of his brain; man comprehends that his inheritance is the vast world, dominion over which is within his reach; weary of a task that is useless and presumptuous, he lowers his gaze to earth, and examines his own surroundings.... The experimental sciences have already given their firstfruits; it needs Only time to perfect them. The lawyers of today are being trained in the new teachings of legal philosophy; some begin to shine in the midst of the shadows which surround our courts of justice, and point to a change in the course of affairs.... Look you: the press itself, however backward it might wish to be, is taking a step forward against its will. The Dominicans themselves do not escape this law, but are imitating the Jesuits, their implacable enemies; they givefiestasin their cloisters, erect little theatres, write poesies, because, as they are not devoid of intelligence in spite of believing in the fifteenth century, they comprehend that the Jesuits are right and will continue yet to play a part in the future of the young peoples that they have educated.
“But are the Jesuits the companions of Progress? Why, then, are they opposed in Europe?”
“I will answer you like an old scholastic.... One may accompany the course of Progress in three ways, ahead of her, side by side with her, and behind her. The first are those who guide the course of Progress; the second are those who are borne along by her; the last are dragged along, and among them are the Jesuits. Well would they like to direct her course, but, as they see her in the possession of full strength and having other tendencies, they capitulate, preferring to follow rather than be smothered or be left in the middle of the road without light. Well now, we in the Philippines are traveling along at least three centuries behind the car of Progress; we are barely commencing to emerge from the Middle Ages. Hence, the Jesuits, reactionary in Europe, when seen from our point of view represent Progress; the Philippines owe to them their dawning system of instruction, and to them the Natural Sciences, the soul of the nineteenth century, as it has been indebted to the Dominicans for Scholasticism, already dead in spite of Leo XIII—no Pope can revive what common sense has judged and condemned.... The strife is on between the past, which cleaves and clings with curses to the waning feudal castle, and the future, whose song of triumph may be faintly heard off in the distant but splendorous glories of a dawn that is coming, bringing the message of Good-News from other countries.”
“The walls were entirely bare; not a drawing, nor an engraving, nor even any kind of arepresentationof an instrument of physics. On occasions there would be lowered from heaven an instrumentlet to be shown from afar to the class, like the Holy of Holies to the prostrate faithful: ‘Look at me, but don’t touch me.’ From time to time, some complacent professor came, a day of the year was assigned for visiting the mysterious ‘cabinet,’ and admiring from afar the enigmatic apparatus arranged inside the cases. Then no one could complain; that day there were seen much brass, much glass, many tubes, disks, wheels, bells, etc. And the show stopped there, and the Philippines were not turned upside down. For the rest, the students are convinced that these instruments were not bought for them; merry fools would the friars be! The ‘cabinet’ was made to be shown to foreigners and to high officials from Spain, that, on seeing it, they may nod in approbation, while their guide smiles as if saying: ‘You have been thinking you were going to find a lot of backward monks, eh? Well, we are at the height of the century; we have a cabinet!’
“And the foreigners and high officials, obsequiously entertained, afterward wrote in their voyages or reports: ‘The Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas, of Manila, in charge of the illustrious Dominicans, possesses a magnificent cabinet of physics for the instruction of youth.... There annually take this course some two hundred and fifty students; but, be it on account of the apathy, indolence, scanty capacity of the natives, or through any other cause whatsoever, ethnological or unperceivable, up to date there has not developed a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a Tyndall, even in miniature, from the Philippine-Malay race!’”↑
30See p. 801 of Victor S. Clark’s article in Bulletin no. 58,ut supra, for a comparison between the Filipino and the Central and South American Indians.↑
31Retana’s praises of Rizal, a full-blooded Tagálog, in all these lines, as seen in hisVida y escritos del Dr. José Rizal, a series just concluded (October, 1906), in the Madrid review,Nuestro Tiempo, are the best answer to his own question.↑
32See Retana’sEstadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora).↑
33According to Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., the first freemason lodge established in the Philippines was the one called Luz Filipina, about 1860, which was established in Cavite under the Gran Oriente Lusitano. It was in immediate correspondence with the Portuguese lodges of Macao and Hongkong. Shortly after another lodge was created in Zamboanga of Peninsulars and creoles resident in Mindanao. Some time after 1868, must have occurred the creation of another lodge composed of foreigners and dependents of the lodge of Hongkong, of the Scottish rite. Into this lodge were admitted some Peninsulars and Filipinos. Shortly after this many other lodges were created under the Grañ Oriente de España. See Navarro’sAsuntos filipinos(Madrid, 1897), pp. 221–277. Manuel Sastron (Insurrección en Filipinas, Madrid, 1901, p. 41), who represents the friar standpoint, says: “We believe and affirm in good faith, that, in our opinion, the origin, the primitive cellule of the insurrection of 1896 in Filipinas, is to be found in masonry.” The masonic movement was by 1890 widespread in the islands. See also Sawyer’sInhabitants of Philippines, pp. 79–83.↑
34St. Anthony the Great, who was an Egyptian, born A.D. 356. His day is January 17. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, i, pp. 249–272.↑
35St. Basil the Great was a native of Cappadocian Cæsarea. His death occurred A.D. 379. His day is celebrated on June 14, except by the Greeks who keep January 1 in his memory. See Baring Gould’sLives of the Saints, vi, pp. 192–202.↑
36Referring to the Katipunan, orKataas-taasan Kagalang-gálang Katipunan Nang Mañga Anac Nang Bayan, “Sovereign Worshipful Association of the Sons of the Country.” This society, of which it is yet too early to have definite and detailed information, was due in the main to Andrés Bonifacio, a warehouse keeper in the employ of Fressel and Co., of Manila, who became its third president, although primarily founded by Marcelo Hilario del Pilar. This society enrolled in its ranks the common people among the Tagálogs. It is more than likely that the plan of the organization was copied from the masonic lodges, but the analogy stops here. The Katipunan was not masonry. See Sastron’sInsurrección, pp. 51–59; Sawyer’sInhabitants, pp. 82, 83; andThe Katipunan(Manila, 1902), purporting to be by one Francis St. Clair, although it is claimed by some to have been written by or for the friars.↑