diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

attempt to refute the views presented to him by Rizal? Furthermore, didBlumentritt attempt to lead Rizal back to the fold of the Church?In the relationship between the two, the Austrian was the older and wiser,and often called "father" by Rizal. It therefore does seem unlikely that hewould have accepted a picture from Rizal without his own thorough investigation.It must be surmised that Blumentritt arrived at his own conclusionafter his own research. What Rizal did was to draw his friend's attention tothe problem. On the other had, given Blumentritt's position as the moremature—the adviser—it may be doubted whether Blumentritt made a seriouseffort to lead Rizal back into the Church after some initial attempts had failed.In the end it seems that the two men respected each other's point of view. Thebasis of their friendship was their love for the Filipino, their hope to attainfreedom and justice for him. That was the decisive norm. Whatever furtheredthis aim was supported. Whoever helped towards it was their friend. Andwhoever hindered it or persecuted the Filipino became their enemy.From this standpoint, it becomes clear that Blumentritt would commithimself to support the Noli from the first moment of its appearance. Thisinvolvement had a special character because his word carried more weightand went farther than that of any other Spaniard or Filipino. He was adistinguished scientist of international fame. He was foreigner who could notbe accused of ulterior motives, of seeking personal gains, or of fostering hisown position. On the contrary, his concern could only lead to results detrimentalto his reputation. It was difficult to ignore a man selflessly championingthe cause of a budding nation seeking freedom from the fetters of colonialdomination. Even his enemies could not brush aside the claim that his actionswere governed entirely by his sense of justice and his concern for humanrights and self-determination. That is why the only counter-attack his enemiescould think of was to try and accuse Blumentritt of being a Germanagent, a Protestant, a Socialist, as we shall see later, notwithstanding the factthat all these charges contradicted one another. Nor could he be accused ofrushing with unprepared statements, of being carried away by emotionbecause significantly his critique of the Noli appeared in print only in 1889.This means that he had pondered it well for over two years before finallydeciding to put his thoughts on paper. And it cannot be denied that from thebeginning Blumentritt's attitude towards the publication of the book hadbeen positive. He was as a matter of fact instrumental in arranging for itsprinting at the Setzerinnungsschule des Letter-Vereins, Berliner BuchdrukereiAG (Berlin). But since no less a literary giant than Vicente Blasco232