ndoza,
the parish priest of Santa Cruz; Dr. Jose Burgos, also a native priest;
Maximo Paterno, the father of Pedro A. Paterno; Ambrosio Rianzares
Bautista; and others still living (some personally known to me), under
the presidency of Jose Maria Basa (now residing in Hong-Kong). This
Secret Society demanded reforms, and published in Madrid their organ,
_Eco de Filipinas_, copies of which reached the Islands. The copy for
the paper was the result of the society's deliberations. The monks,
incensed at its publication, were, for a long time, puzzled to find
out whence the information emanated. Many of the desired reforms
closely affected the position of the regular clergy, the Philippine
priests, led by Dr. Burgos, urging the fulfilment of the Council of
Trent decisions, which forbade the friars to hold benefices unless
there were no secular priests available.

It appears that the friars, nevertheless, secured these ecclesiastical
preferments by virtue of Papal Bulls of Pius V. and subsequent Popes,
who authorized friars to act as parish priests, not in perpetuity,
but so long as secular clergymen were insufficient in number to attend
to the cure of souls. The native party consequently declared that
the friars retained their incumbencies illegally and by intrusion, in
view of the sufficiency of Philippine secular priests. Had the Council
of Trent enactments been carried out to the letter, undoubtedly the
religious communities in the Philippines would have been doomed to
comparative political impotence. The friars, therefore, sought to
embroil Dr. Burgos and his party in overt acts of sedition, in order
to bring about their downfall and so quash the movement. To this end
they contrived to draw a number of Manila and Cavite natives into a
conspiracy to subvert the Spanish Government. The native soldiers of
the Cavite garrison were induced to co-operate in what they believed
to be a genuine endeavour to throw off the Spanish dominion. They
were told that rockets fired off in Manila would be the signal for
revolt. It happened, however, that they mistook the fireworks of a
suburban feast for the agreed signal and precipitated the outbreak
in Cavite without any support in the capital. The disaffected
soldiers seized the Arsenal, whilst others attacked the influential
Europeans. Colonel Sabas was sent over to Cavite to quell the riot,
and after a short, but stubborn resistance, the rebels were overcome,
disarmed, and then formed