diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

To be sure, Spain or Madrid in the mid-1880s was not an el dorado ofliberal ideas. Intellectual freedom was not completely unrestrained, as Rizalfound• out. In November 1884, Dr. Morayta, one of his liberal-mindedprofessors, talked about academic freedom in his inaugural speech at the startof the school year 1884-1885, but the Spanish bishops banned the publicationof that speech. When the students protested, the campus was stormed bysoldiers and police. The rector was apprehended, professors were insulted,riots left many students and others wounded or on their way to prison.These scenes of violence described by Rizal in a letter to his family dated26 November 1884 made him decide to leave the university after theappointment of a new rector, "a man detested by all, without dignity," whomhe did not want to sign his diploma.° Thus Rizal was ready to leave Madrid"which is not very distinguished for its culture and enlightenment's' tocontinue his studies elsewhere, in France and Germany first and in otherEuropean countries.Nevertheless the enlightenment in Spain was bright enough to bringabout a major change in Rizal's religious outlook. The naive beliefs of hischildhood and early youth were set aside. Reminded of his duties as aChristian by his suspecting mother, he replied in 1885 that he had "notstopped a moment in believing in the fundamental principles of religion." Hecontinued:A belief that cannot withstand examination and the test of time ought to pass onto memory and leave the heart ... . What I believe now, I believe rationally andit is because my conscience cannot accept more than is compatible with thought.I can bow my head before an act that is mysterious to me . .. but never before anabsurdity nor before a probability . . . I believe God would not punish me if intrying to approach him I should use reason and intelligence, his most preciousgifts . .This was the basis of his intellectual grasp of religion up to the end of hislife, reflected in his later theological discussions with Fr. Pastells. But incritical hours—not only shortly before his execution when he signed hismuch debated "retractation'" —there were occasionally emotional returns tothe beliefs of his childhood, almost identifying his own sufferings with thoseof Christ, after all hope was gone that reforms from Spain might bring reliefto the Philippine problem.This hope was still strong when he slatted writing the Noll me tangere. Inthis novel, the topic of our interest finds, for the first time, closer attention.206