diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

their respective creeds. A true respect for the good faith of one's adversaryand of the most diverse ideas necessarily due to race, education, and agealmost always led us to the conclusion that religion, whatever its form, shouldnot make men enemies of one another, but brothers, good brothers. Fromthese exchanges which we repeated almost daily tot:more than three months,I think I have gotten no other thing, unless I am wrong, than a deep respect forevery idea sincerely held and carried out with conviction. Almost everymonth, a Catholic priest from one of the little towns along the Rhine, anintimate friend of the Protestant, used to visit him, giving me an example ofChristian brotherhood. They considered themselves as two. servants of thesame God and, instead of using the time quarreling, each one fulfilled hisduties, leaving to the Lord the judgment of who interpreted His will better":EJR, 11-4, 222-223. See also Raul J. Bonoan's essay elsewhere in thisvolume.24. Rizal's faith is deep, alive, and nourishes him in moments of despair.For example, on r29 March 1891, he wrote from Biarritz to Blumentritt:"What has become of my family? When I think of them, I am overwhelmedwith so much pain that had I a lesser faith in God, I would have committedsomething foolish": EJR, 11-2, 723.25. There is a sketch of a bishop in Rizal's diary. The only bishop aboardthe boat with Rizal was Volonteri, but the drawing is of a Franciscan. SeeEJR, I, 242.26. In answer to Rizal, Pastells wrote: "The Catholic priest on the bankof the Rhine who was giving you an example of Christian brotherhood whileconsidering himself, with the Protestant pastor, one of two servants of God.. . . If so, he would be utterly naive, ignorant, one who must have lost thecommon Catholic sense, for one has to be such to consider the Protestant asthe servant of the Catholics' God. This only he can say who like you,believes that the differences between Catholics and Protestants are merely inmatters of opinion, not of fiaith; that one can carry out his religiousobligations without knowing how God's will is interpreted. This isinterpreted, in the Catholic faith, well and better, in the Protestant, neitherbetter nor well, but bad and worse": EJR, 11-4, 229. The Jesuit was apparentlynot fully informed when he wrote that Rizal believed the differences betweenthe Protestants and the Catholics were only on matters of opinion., Rizal'sidea of religious toleration concerned rather accessory and externally formalthan basic tenets. In a letter dated at Ghent, 23 August 1891, he wrote to258