diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

ut not denying its liberal monarchical leanings;" El Imparcial, the mostprestigious daily of Madrid, with its abundant information and moderateideological views." Which paper had the greatest influence on the mind ofthe young student from the Philippines is easy to gather from a simple readingof his letters and the Noli.Of course, neither the books nor the daily newspapers were decisivefactors in the mental change that took place in Rizal within the short space oftwo years, perhaps a few months. Much more influential were his contactswith the outstanding figures of the political and intellectual world of Spain,namely, men like Rafael Maria de Labra, Francisco Pi y Margall, MiguelMorayta, and others less known whom we shall discuss below. One easilyreaches this conclusion without any great effort from a quiet' reading ofRizal's correspondence and worts. Much less did he ever hide it. On thecontrary, he confessed it more than once with absolute sincerity to, amongothers, Ricardo Carnicero, head of the district of Dapitan, during his exile inthat Mindanao town:In Madrid they know perfectly well what the friars do here [in the Philippines], somuch so that in the first talks I had with Pi and [Aurelian] Linares Rivas, whenthe latter belonged to the Liberal Party, they made me realize things which I, bornin that country, did not know. Like them I could mention to you many who areequally well informed of the lives and miracles of the friars in the Philippines .26Those liberals were the ones who taught Rizal, as he admitted to hisformer teachers, the Jesuits—if we are to believe Fr. Francisco Foradada,S. J.—that, among others, "The liberties of nations are besought not onone's knees before thrones, but with weapons in one's hands?'" To theJesuits, Rizal's meeting with some of the heroes of the September 1868Revolution was the turning point in his life: "He arrived in Spain, alreadywith the seed of pernicious ideas which reached full development until theywere transformed into subversive ideas after [Rizal] in Madrid came to knowMorayta and the other persons and leaders of Freemasonry about whom headmitted in his final hours that their mutual contact had made him a filibuster,'because'—quoting his exact words= they made me want the independenceof my country' . . 28We do not intend with this kind of reasoning to show that the influenceexercised on Rizal by the above persons—below we shall discuss theirwritings—was entirely negative; rather, the tremendous impact they had onhis values, his beliefs, and his faith. Without perhaps realizing it, Rizal had63