10 'Cbe Conservative *
wore to be found throughout the Philip
pine islands before oar recent war with
Spain , and great care was bestowed upon
elementary education , and the common
schools for boys and girls , all well con
ducted and organized , were all estab
lished by the Spanish friars , Jesuits ,
priests and Catholic nuns.
Notwithstanding the fact that we find
these statements quoted above in the
article signed by Mr. Evans in THE CON
SERVATIVE , of October 11 , 1900 , which
clearly tend to disprove the following
slander on these orders , nevertheless ,
strange to relate , we find the following
statement in this same article which
only covers a little more than one page
of THE CONSERVATIVE :
"The real sovereigns of the archipelago
were the Augnstines , ' Dominioians ,
Franciscans and Jesuits , who soon be
came in many provinces the great land
owners and reduced the natives to a
state of vassalage and practical serfdom.
They did nothing to promote and every
thing to prevent , the education of the
natives. Even the law prescribing that
Spanish should be taught in the com
mon schools was easily evaded because
the persons who acted as school inspec
tors belonged to the monastic orders.
The ground of this strange opposition
to instruction in Spanish was that the
monks might keep the control of affairs
in their own hands by acting as inter
preters between the Filipinos and the
civil and military authorities fresh from
Madrid and frequently changed in con
sequence of ministerial crises and shifts
in the colonial office. With the collapse
of Spanish supremacy , the detested
friars fled from the country , but Arch
bishop Ghappolle of Manila , is now en
deavoring to have them recalled and re
stored to their former privileges. "
Not Familiar with Catholic Orders.
Whether the statements which we
quote here are those of Mr. Evans , or
those of Yon Ferdinand Blnmentritt , in
either case they show the utter recklessness -
ness of the author ; he displays such
ignorance of the very orders of priests
which he condemns that he refers to the
ancient and well-known orders of Aug-
ustinians as " Augustines" and of Domin
icans as "Dominicians. "
As a matter of fact the Philippines
were discovered by Megallen , as Gemelli
notes in his history of the Ladrone
islands , in 1521 , and such was the zeal of
the Roman Catholio missionaries in pro
pagating the Catholic faith that before
the close of the sixteenth century , as
Argensola tells us , more than 6,000 Cath
olics had been martyred in a single prov
ince ; and the very Augustinians , Dom
inicans , Franciscans , and Jesuits which
this article , containing its own refuta
tion , chooses to gratuitously abuse , were
among those very men who proved their
zeal and sincerity in giving their lives
for the faith which they held and finally
established in the Philippines , to the ex
tent that , as the article signed by Mr.
Evans admits , at the present time 8,000-
000 out of the 9,000,000 people in the
Philipines are Christians , educated and
cultivated , and in every way fit for self-
government.
If Mr. Evans , or any of the readers of
your valuable paper , many of whom ,
like myself , are Homan Catholics , choose
to inform themselves about the facts
concerning the various orders of Roman
Catholic priests in the Philippines , I
would recommend them to read an arti
cle written by the Rev. Joseph M.'Algue ,
director of the observatory of Manila ,
which article is dated at Washington
City , April 2 , 1900 , and is published on
page 6 ( editorial page ) of the New York
Sun of Wednesday , April 4 , 1900. I
have a copy of the paper containing
that article and will be happy to send
yon or Mr. Evans a copy of the same
should yon desire to have it. The Rev.
Joseph M. Algne is a member of one of
these very orders abused in the article
written by Mr. Evans , and I have no
doubt that any inquiry at Washington
City will bring forth ail about the Rev.
Joseph M. Algue , and then they will
know , among other things , that he is
not only a most zealous Catholio priest ,
but a most highly educated gentleman
and one of the great scientists of this
age. I would also recommend a little
book published in 1899 entitled "The
Friars in the Philippines , " written by
Rev. Ambrose Coleman , O. P. , and pub
lished at Boston by Marlier , Oallanan &
Company. Rev. Ambrose Coleman , O.
P. , the author of this book , is one of the
very much abused friars referred to in
the article signed by Mr. Evaus. I gave
a copy of this little book of the Rev.
Ambrose Coleman , O. P. , entitled "The
Friars in the Philippines , " to Judge Taft
before his departure for the Philippines ,
which he read with much interest and
1 believe , with great profit.
Church Property Not Held Individually.
To illustrate how unfair this charge
in Mr. Evans' article is , I desire to state ,
as statistics will readily show , that the
whole number of Augustinians ( "Au-
gustines , " he calls them ) in the Philip
pines in 1896 was 327 , and the Catholio
population which this number of Augus
tinians assisted in supplying with re
ligious instruction and' education was
2,300,000 , about one priest to every
7,000 Catholics. That the so-called friars
possessed , or now possess , large estates
in the Philippine islands is not correct ;
the individual friars possess nothing ,
and the only property held by the order
is attached to hospitals or colleges , or
other charitable institutions.
It is not true that the real
sovereigns of the archipelago ore
now , or ever were , the Augustin
ians , . Dominicans , Franciscans or
Jesuits ; the three important depart
ments of Government , the department
of justice , the department of finance ,
and the department of military affairs ,
were always entirely out of the province
of any orders of the clergy , as these
were purely secular matters that they
never touched.
I desire to here quote from volume 1
of Marshall's Book of Missions , 4th.
edition , published by D. and J. Sadler
Company , my brief quotation being
taken from pages 478 and 480 of that
book. This work is particularly inter
esting because the important statements
made in this work by Mr. Marshall are
all based upon the authority of Protes
tant writers :
"In the Philippines , the success of the
missionaries was so complete that even
at the close of the sixteenth century
Mendoza could say : 'according unto the
common opinion , at this day , there is
converted and baptised more than four
hundred thousand souls , ' In 1598 , as an
ardent protestant observes , in his ac
count of the voyage of Oliver Nort , and
speaking of what he calls the 'Lus-
son' islands , 'there are few Spaniards ,
and but one priest , which is of great
esteem ; and had they priests enough all
the neighbor nations would be subject
to the Spaniards , ' for , he adds , 'the
Jesuits are in reputation with their con
verts as demi-gods. ' ( Purchas' Pilgrims ,
vol. I lib. II , ch v , pp. 75-76. )
"And this work continued , until , as
later protestant writers will presently
tell us , the four million inhabitants of
these islands had embracedthat , Catho
lic faith from which they have never
since swerved. Such is the first chapter
in the history of Polynesian missions.
How far it resembles the same apostolic
work in the lands which we have already
visited , and especially in characteristic
solidity and permanence , we shall now
learn from Protestant witnesses , whom
Providence seems to have employed to
this end , that their co-religionists might
the more readily accept their testimony.
"The Rev. David Abeel , a protestant
missionary , who seems to have wander
ed over the lands beyond the Ganges ,
searching for something to do and find
ing nothing , and whose book is simply a
record of triumphs of Catholics and of
the choleric disgust with which he wit
nesses them , thus writes of the Philip
pines : 'The church of Rome has here
proselyted to itself the entire population.
The natives have become bigoted papists.
The influence of the priests is unbound
ed. ' It is only fair , however , to this
gentleman to add that he considers the
conversion of the Philippines , accom
plished by such men as Medina and
Sanvitores , a remarkable example of 'the
power of the beast. ' ( Journal of a resi
dence in China , oh xvi. , p. 328. )
"In the year 1858 Mr. Ore wford , whose
writings are well known in this country ,
and who was formerly governor of Sing
apore , made the following declaration
at a public missionary meeting : 'In the
Philippine islands the Spaniards have
converted several millions of people to
the Roman Oatholio faith , and an im
mense improvement in their social con
dition has been ' the consequence. '
( Times , 2nd December , 1858. )
" 'Much credit , ' says Sir Henry Ellis ,
in spite of incurable prejudice , 'is due