diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

duties, just as the hunger to possess what both the State and the Church havedeclared do not belong to them, are the principal cause for their loss of prestigewhich we all notice.The number of articles and notes submitted to the press, as well as the factthat he joined in the public competition for the chair of Tagalog in theUniversidad Central (he was nominated for the chair) give a clear idea ofArriaga's strong personality and energy. He was, nevertheless, a restless manincapable of staying put in the same place and doing the same work for a longtime. In 1872, he sailed for Cuba, where more than once he supported, or atleast, sympathized with the revolutionary cause, got involved in numerousconflicts with the civil and religious authorities, more than once earning forhim exile and even the suspensio a &minis. We do not know the place and dateof his death. I have added these details about the life and personality ofFrancisco Aniaga in order to understand better the link between his writingsand Rizal's novel.Given his mental agility and facility for putting his thoughts on paper,Arriaga must have published a hundred articles in Spain and Cuba. Of thosewe have seen up to the present, what is of most interest is without doubt hisarticles in La Armonk. Although the first ones are general observations inconnection with various problems in the Philippines, soon, in Number 30,mention will be made of a debate between Joaquin de Coria and Jose Burgos.Arriaga's bias in the latter's favor is clear from the denuntiation he begins tomake against the irgular clergy in the Philippines—more strongly against theFranciscans—and the praise he makes of the secular clergy. This is seenabove all in the publication in the issue for 11 February 1871 of Jose Burgos'letter answering another one published in Altar y Trono; 65 (5 September1871) — probably written by a Dominican—which attacks the secular clergyin the Philippines, but particularly Fr. Burgos. Burgos' letter is of interestsince, besides revealing at least indirectly his friendship with Arriaga, it isone of the last, if not the last that Coria's writings had provoked. It notesbesides the number of articles he sent to La DiscusiOn.Issue after issue, Arriaga kept up a review of the problematical situationof the Philippine Church: tensions between the regular and the secular clergy;the wealth of the Franciscans who, despite their profession of the "rule of theleast brethren of Saint Francis own in Manila itself under the name ofProfessed House a true commercial house for the sale in their own name ofmerchandise in the Peninsula," and "although unshod friars" they make ashow of "very luxurious carriages to prove doubtless their poverty and75