Catholic Church frankly recognize the abuses which led to his bitterness, and address themselves to their removal, will they win the approval of thoughtful men.

With what perfect fitness the ancient reproof of Ezekiel comes to these men who have done good, who have pioneered civilization, and have cleansed heathenism out of the Islands, but who have lost their first love, and wandered from their first paths of humility and service:

"Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds: Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered." (Ezek. xxxiv, 2-5.)

CHAPTER VIII.

THE INSURRECTION OF 1896.

THE Insurrection of 1896 was only the culmination of a long series of efforts on the part of the Filipino people to throw off the hated yoke of mediæval despotism imposed upon them by the Spanish government, and made unendurable by the oppressive administration of friars. As far back as 1622 the tyranny of the Church and frightful cruelties inflicted upon the "Indios" by Spanish offi,cials to compel them to perform labor without pay, drove the natives into a revolt that was only put down by the utmost efforts of the government. In 1660 the natives of the province of Pampanga revolted because they were compelled to perform service without remuneration in erecting churches, convents, and government arsenals. The greatest cruelties were committed upon them. If they refused to work they were tortured horribly. The whole population was reduced to a condition of serfdom, and ` they rose as one man, and wrung from the government some slight mitigation of their miseries.

In 1744 a Jesuit priest in the island of Bohol caused an uprising by his long-continued despotism and cruelties. He used force to herd the people to church to hear mass. If they were absent for any cause, he had the civil authorities put them under arrest, and they were fined, imprisoned, or publicly flogged. A man who had been particularly hard for the friar to manage in the matter of attendance at church died. The friar refused him

burial, and when his friends would have interred their father and brother in unconsecrated ground, the friar compelled them to leave the body unburied, to rot in the sun. A brother of the dead man led in an uprising in which the offending friar was paid in his own coinflogged, imprisoned, killed, and his body left to rot in the sun. So successful were the leaders of this revolt that they maintained an independent government in that entire island for thirty-five years, and only yielded their independence when they were satisfied that no Jesuit priest or other friar could again enter the island to live.

Other insurrections there have been, in 1823, 1827, 1844, and the one already mentioned, that in Cavite in 1872, which was put down with such ferocity that it made certain another and more widespread movement for liberation from such bloodthirsty rule as soon as native leaders could prepare the way. Such as survived the massacre that followed that rising, and had any means, fled to Spain. There they started the first systematic agitation against friar rule in their native islands. A newspaper named La Solidaridad was started, having for its object the enlightenment of the thoughtful classes of Filipinos on affairs of government. This paper circulated extensively in the Philippines, although it was forbidden entrance. Some wise utterances were contained in it, but much that was crude and passionate abuse of a personal nature. However, it stirred the natives to thought. It showed them that other peoples were not so bound down by priestly tyranny. It exploded the falsehoods of the friar leaders. It suggested reforms, and did a little something toward unifying public feeling in and about Manila against continual submission to the injustice of the friars.

Freemasonry played a part in the agitation which went before the insurrection. Only in circles, every individual of which was under a binding oath of secrecy, was it possible to discuss questions of reform. If discussions were carried on elsewhere, the friars would certainly worm out the facts as to what was said and what was planned, through the confessional, or through torture. In Manila it was possible for some of the more wealthy Filipinos, or those of the best families, to secure membership in the regular Masonic lodge. There they mingled with Spaniards on equal footing. There they saw the advantage which an oath-bound society would give them in the agitation which they had determined in their hearts to carry on until the time was ripe for striking a blow for the betterment of their conditions. For they had not the most remote idea of attempting to throw off the Spanish sovereignty; and the idea of political independence was not only not discussed, it was not thought of. Out of this conviction as to the advantage of an oath-bound society the members of which would not divulge its plans to priest or official on pain of death at the hands of other members, the KATIPUNAN was formed. The word simply means "league." The significant step in becoming a member, aside from taking its oath, was to sign its constitution in blood drawn from the arm or leg of the signer. From this the society has been sometimes called the Bloody League. The growth of this society was phenomenal. Membership lists were made up, and lodges organized in nearly every city in central Luzon, and in some places farther north.

Entire secrecy was impossible. Add the confessional to all other means of ferreting out hidden social forces and factors, and you have an almost irresistible enginery

of investigation. Rumors of something wrong were in the air. Stern orders went from the archbishop in Manila to all parish priests to get information as to these "Free Masons." Denunciations and deportations by the hundred quickly followed. Parish priests, knowing that this presented a chance to settle old scores and get in line for promotion at the same time, sent in lists of names, which were acted upon, and banishments became common. In Malolos, Father Moises Santos secured the banishment of the entire list of municipal officials to African colonies. Trials were not even mentioned. Let a parish priest send in a list of alleged "Free Masons," and they were promptly deported. Hundreds of families were deprived of father and husband and brother without warning, without even the semblance of judicial process. Excitement and burning resentment were felt everywhere.

An acquaintance of mine living in the province of Tarlac was one of the thousands who were tortured with the hope of getting evidence as to the plans of the "Free Masons" in his pueblo. He was a member of the Katipunan, and one of its leading officers, being a man of much native ability and unusual force of character. He was invited to the convento, or parsonage, of the friar for a friendly visit. While seated in an upper room awaiting the friar's entrance from his room adjoining, a posse of armed men rushed in and compelled him to submit to be searched. The friar came at the exact moment that the soldiers entered, and personally conducted the search of his person for incriminating papers. Nothing was found. He was then told that he must tell all he knew of the society, or be so punished that his life would not be worth a centavo's purchase. He refused, and was tied by the soldiers to a heavy hardwood bench, and the friar ordered him flogged on the bare back. He was so beaten