The hierarchy of the colony consists of an Archbishop, resident in Manila, and four bishops. The Archbishop lives in a Palace, and has a salary of $12,000 a year, while the annual expenses of the Cathedral in Manila are not less than $60,000. It was not till several years after the founding of Manila, in 1578, that the first bishop was consecrated and a Cathedral was built. Not long afterward, the Manila See was raised to an Archbishopric.

The present hierarchy costs the Government about $800,000 a year. The salaries of the priests range from $500 to $2500 per annum; but, in addition, they derive a large income from the sale of masses, indulgences, marriage, burial and baptismal-fees, and from the various commissions incident to their calling. They receive all, and give nothing.

The several orders have immense revenues from investments in the islands and in Hong-Kong. They possess magnificent estates; but, notwithstanding their enormous wealth, they are hard task-masters, grinding the poor to the paying of the last penny. Their injustice and tyranny have of late aroused bitter complaint, and are a chief cause of the late insurrection.

And yet the picture has its lights as well as its shadows. The friars have, also, in many places, the confidence of the natives, and, on the whole, surely influence them for the repression of their vicious and brutal instincts. A half-barbarous people can be led only by superstition, and a semi-sacerdotal government is most effective among an ignorant people.

The friar is usually from a lowly family, and is, therefore, able at once to enter into sympathy with the humble life of the people. He is doctor, architect, engineer, and adviser; in all things truly the father of the community, the representative of the white race and of social order. Such is the ideal village-curate, and many such—good men and true—are to be found. There, are, however, many black sheep among them. And the gross immorality of those that should be examples in virtue, has been a great impediment to the work of the Church among the thinking natives. There are, also, some Chinese and native friars; but, owing to the various insurrections, in which some of these were involved, they are no longer trusted; in fact, a native can no longer become a priest.

So great is the paternal influence of the priests, that I have often seen delinquent parishioners flogged for non-attendance at mass.

The Chinese often adopt Christianity for social or business reasons, or that they may marry the daughter of a native.

All over the islands are shrines to which the people make long pilgrimages; such pilgrimages, however, partaking more of the character of feasts than of fasts. The self-denial and the self-imposed hardships of the European devotee have never found fruitful soil in the native character. He is never so glad as when a holy-day furnishes him with a pretext for an elaborate feast, and, in truth, the feast-days alone relieve the gloom of his monotonous life. Two of the most famous shrines are the Holy Child of CebÚ and the Virgin of Antipolo,—thousands visiting them yearly.

A book might be written, and an interesting one, too, about the various contests between Church and State during this period of the colony’s history.

The Archbishops—with an exaggerated idea of their own importance—soon became exceedingly troublesome to the Civil Power, by reason of their excessive claims. This was never more manifest than in their pretended immunity from all State-control. Upon one occasion the Governor demanded of the Archbishop to produce several persons charged with capital and other crimes, who had found asylum in a convent. The Archbishop promptly refused, claiming the prerogative of Sanctuary. The accused not only openly defied the Governor, but armed themselves, intending to resist, should he endeavor to apprehend them. The Governor, learning this, arrested the Archbishop, and confined him and the priests that had been his abettors in prison, charging them with conspiracy against the Government.

The news spread over the province with incredible swiftness, and hundreds of priests, collecting hordes of natives on the way, marched with riotous demonstrations and violent clamor to the Palace. Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians forgot their fierce rivalry and joined together in the shout, “Long live the church!” “Long live King Philip V!”

The mob burst open the doors of the Palace, and, the terror-stricken guards having fled, they forced their way to the Governor, who calmly awaited them, standing with a loaded musket in his hand. He then ordered the rabble to retreat, but with wild shrieks, incited by the priests that accompanied them, they rushed on him. The Governor pulled the trigger, but his flint failing to strike fire he defended himself with his bayonet. He was finally surrounded; and insulted, beaten, and stabbed, he was dragged to jail.

The son of the Governor, running to his father’s aid, was severely wounded by the rebels. Attempting, nevertheless, to cut his way through, he was killed, and his body horribly mutilated.

The mob then broke open the door of the fortress where the Archbishop was confined, and liberated him. This worthy was then escorted with much acclamation to the Palace, and assumed charge of the Government, which he held for four years.

This is only one of many exciting conflicts between these two factions, sometimes one, sometimes the other, being victorious. On four different occasions the Governorship of the colony was vested in the Archbishop.

Every Governor-General that has attempted to introduce a liberal policy has been recalled; for the friars’ combined influence is all-powerful. Not even the Archbishop has been able to prevail over the corporation of the friars; and if he would retain his see, he must not oppose their traditional prerogatives, nor work for that reform that would mean the decline of the orders. Indeed, only a few years ago, one Archbishop, who had made several ineffectual attempts to correct the abuses in the orders, was one morning found dead in his bed. His successors have taken good care to profit by his example.

Interesting is the story of the bitter rivalries between the different orders, who, though of one religion, were extremely jealous of one another, showing little of that charity and forbearance that Christianity, above all, is supposed to inculcate.

On account of several clashes with the civil power, a priest had early been sent to Spain by the Church party to gain redress of grievances. Chief of these was their inability to guide the entire affairs of the colony into a narrow ecclesiastical groove. The result was, the introduction of new laws so favorable to the clergy, that, within three or four years, the colony swarmed with mendicant friars, whose habits, say the old chroniclers, placed the Spaniards and their vaunted religion in a most ridiculous light before the natives.

As most of these monks belonged to a different order from the bishop, who was an Augustinian, and as they often boldly defied his authority, he became greatly alarmed at their expanding power. But, after a fierce struggle, he succeeded in so curtailing their privileges that he still retained his pre-eminence in the colony.

Urdaneta and his Austin friars were the pioneers in the islands, and following them came a horde of Dominicans and Franciscans, and the Recoletos, or bare-foot monks. As the saving of souls was the chief policy of Philip II., the co-operation of the friars was eagerly welcomed by the early Colonial Government, and it must be admitted that without their influence the lot of the natives would have been a far harder one. For the substitution of the rites of paganism for those of Christianity, even in so crude a form as taught by the friars, was, in the main, beneficial. Religion—though not of a very exalted kind—was put on an ethical basis, and the self-denial, obedience, and sacrifice that formed the foundation of the new doctrine, somewhat reconciled the conquered races to the loss of their primal freedom.

These orders, presenting the united front of a corporation, were extremely powerful, and practically unassailable. When arrayed against an individual, it always resulted in his defeat,—that is, his expulsion or imprisonment. They practically had their way in all things and under all circumstances. Nothing could withstand them; for, to attack one friar was to attack his whole order. Thus, much injustice was occasioned. I have known a highly respectable man, possessed of great wealth, cheated out of house and home—yes, his very liberty—through the intrigues of a friar that desired to enrich his order. Such societies are a cancer in the body politic,—a constant enemy to good government, a menace to justice, and a foe to liberty.

In the future history of the islands, this will be found one of the hardest problems to solve. The easiest and most effective plan, it seems to me, is to cut the Gordian knot—that is, to expel the whole body of friars from the islands. By so doing, much shedding of blood will be saved. For I do not believe that these good brethren will soon cease to foment insurrection against the hated Protestant conqueror. They have ever been breeders of mischief under the congenial rule of Catholic Spain: what won’t they do under the rÉgime of enlightened America, whose first thought is the liberty that means death to extortion and oppression—the cardinal principles of their order. By this, I do not mean a propaganda against the Catholic Church; for I am a Catholic myself, and firmly believe that this religion is far better suited to the character of our people than any form of Protestantism. But the appointment of secular Spanish or American priests to the parishes would do away with the evils of the other system, without doing violence either to the Church or to the conscience of the natives.

The monks have opposed every attempt at reform. Their policy has ever been the policy of ignorance, knowing that their livelihood depended upon its perpetuation. It has been their aim chiefly to limit public instruction to the mere rudiments of knowledge—giving to every subject a religious bias. Even the colleges and the University of Manila are not free from their narrow supervision; while they have ever maintained a rigid censorship over the press.

The natives, however, are gradually breaking through the network of superstition that centuries of priestcraft have woven round them. That they are open to conviction,—to the light of reason and the hope of truth,—deeds bear witness.

None but the most enlightened natives, of course, recognize, as yet, their spiritual wants or desire a higher moral state, but many of them, privately, attest their waning belief in the Church monopoly of all things temporal in their lives.

Still, owing to the reasons previously stated, those that thus impugn and combat ecclesiastical preponderance, do so rarely except by secret word or in a limited conclave.

But the enlightening and invigorating effects incidental to American occupation will inevitably loose their tongues and rally recruits to their new standard of thought.

Of this I hope and expect great results.