diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

the altar itself asses spelled out fully those who had not fulfilled their Easterduty," threatening them with "non-burial in consecrated ground."'" But themost serious of the priest's accusation was based on Somoza's havingpublished a book containing false, temerarious, and scandalous propositionsharmful to the authority of the Church, etc. This hostility between Somozaand the priest and his bishop "caused much sorrow and led to his quickdeath." The town's arch-priest refused to grant him ecclesiastical burial, evenif he later absented himself after leaving the pertinent orders for his Christianburial to his vicar. Somoza's dramatic end, and the tensions occasioned by hisburial were widely divulged all over Spain by the contemporary press withpicked up the story from El Clamor Pablico and Revista lberica much later."2Rizal may not have read Somoza's story published by Benito Vicens in1883, but he could have at least heard it being talked about. In any case, thesimilarities between the two lives of Somoza and Ibarra are numerous. DonRafael, like Don Jose, was accused of "not going to confession" and"subversion and heresy." Fray Damaso "alluded to him from the pulpit," andreproached him for subscribing to El Correo de Ultramar and other papersfrom Madrid, for having sent his son to study in Gennany, as well as "hivingbeen found to keep letters and the picture of a condemned priest." Like theparish priest of Piedrahita, Fray Damaso in the pulpit apostrophized hislisteners with insulting phrases, like "you will die unrepentant and ushriven,you race of heretics! Already God is punishing you on this earth in dungeonsand prisons . . . barbarians . . . you have lost all shame!" After Don Rafaeldied, which happened "when Fray Damaso was away . . . his vicar allowedhis Christian burial . . . ." But on returning, the former ordered the remainstransferred to the Chinese cemetery where it was later disinterred to bethrown into the lake.Are these merely coincidences, or something else?13. Antonio Gil y Zdrate. Carlos II, el Hechlzado (Madrid: Imp. de JoseMaria Reptalles, 1844)While in Madrid, Rizal had plenty of occasions to attend varioustheatrical presentations, a literary genre he particularly enjoyed. Did hewatch the stage presentation of this work we are now discussing? His novelcontains many things in common with that drama.Antonio Gil, a free-thinker and politician of some stature, died in 1861,leaving behind the name of liberal, progressive, and anticlerical, not99