diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

egards to the Franciscans particularly, he was the one who resolved in adrastic manner the dispute in Morong between the parish priest and thepolitico-military commander which we mentioned above.On 6 September 1869, de la Torre wrote the Provincial that, since insteadof being settled this conflict had aggravated to the consequent loss of prestigeof civil authority, "I recommend to Your Reverence that you deign to assignthis Fray Francisco Arriaga to administer a parish of another province.""Five days later Arriaga received his orders. The latter refused to obey, and dela Tone wrote again to Madridejos on 23 October demanding that hecommand the pastor of Morong to present himself at once to the Manilaconvent "to receive orders from my authority."" Madridejos forwarded thecommunication to Arriaga. Arrived in Manila, the latter notified de la Tonehe awaited the Governor's pleasure. But far from admitting he was in on thecase, the Governor ordered Madridejos to infom Arriaga not to think of..communicating with him (de la Torre) directly, but with his superiors."Francisco Arriaga's problematic situation will be even more embroiledwith the involvement in the affair of another Franciscan, Mariano Pardo, asyoung as the first, and also sharing his ideas and his restlessness. The conflictwill be settled a few months later with the expulsion of both from theFranciscan order and from the Philippines mutually agreed on between thegovernor and the Franciscan Provincial." As a result, Arriaga and Pardowere forced to leave the Islands in February 1870.On the other hand, like his predecessors, de la Torre unequivocallysought the help of both the secular and the regular clergy to carry out hiscolonial policies. For example, on 9 August 1869, he sent to the FranciscanProvincial a reform decree on primary instruction, with a covering letterasking Franciscan cooperation, since it will be "very easy to spread moral andreligious education by basing it on the eternal principles of the gospel," andin this manner the country "will gradually be more religious, more principled,and more educated." He also asked from the Provincial a Franciscan totranslate his circular into Bicol. And finally, with the reappearance of theconfraternity of Saint Joseph founded by Apolinario de la Cruz, aphenomenon he attributed to "ignorance, fanaticism, and excessivecredulity" while qualifying it as a "heretical association," he approved acontrolled freedom of its members, but asking the Provincial to order the"pastor who enjoyed the greatest reputation to convince them of their error."And this request the Provincial took care to attend to immediately."Fray Sebastian Moraleda de Almonacid will succeed Fray Benito, butthis change seems not to have especially affected the basic relations between155