by José Rizal
CHAPTER XXVII
THE FRIAR AND THE FILIPINO
Vox populi, vox Dei
We left Isagani haranguing his friends. In the midst of his enthusiasman usher approached him to say that Padre Fernandez, one of the higherprofessors, wished to talk with him.
Isagani's face fell. Padre Fernandez was a person greatly respectedby him, being the _one_ always excepted by him whenever the friarswere attacked.
"What does Padre Fernandez want?" he inquired.
The usher shrugged his shoulders and Isagani reluctantly followed him.
Padre Fernandez, the friar whom we met in Los Banos, was waitingin his cell, grave and sad, with his brows knitted as if he werein deep thought. He arose as Isagani entered, shook hands with him,and closed the door. Then he began to pace from one end of the roomto the other. Isagani stood waiting for him to speak.
"Senor Isagani," he began at length with some emotion, "from thewindow I've heard you speaking, for though I am a consumptive I havegood ears, and I want to talk with you. I have always liked the youngmen who express themselves clearly and have their own way of thinkingand acting, no matter that their ideas may differ from mine. Youyoung men, from what I have heard, had a supper last night. Don'texcuse yourself--"
"I don't intend to excuse myself!" interrupted Isagani.
"So much the better--it shows that you accept the consequences of youractions. Besides, you would do ill in retracting, and I don't blameyou, I take no notice of what may have been said there last night,I don't accuse you, because after all you're free to say of theDominicans what seems best to you, you are not a pupil of ours--onlythis year have we had the pleasure of having you, and we shallprobably not have you longer. Don't think that I'm going to invokeconsiderations of gratitude; no, I'm not going to waste my time instupid vulgarisms. I've had you summoned here because I believe thatyou are one of the few students who act from conviction, and, as Ilike men of conviction, I'm going to explain myself to Senor Isagani."
Padre Fernandez paused, then continued his walk with bowed head,his gaze riveted on the floor.
"You may sit down, if you wish," he remarked. "It's a habit of mineto walk about while talking, because my ideas come better then."
Isagani remained standing, with his head erect, waiting for theprofessor to get to the point of the matter.
"For more than eight years I have been a professor here," resumedPadre Fernandez, still continuing to pace back and forth, "and inthat time I've known and dealt with more than twenty-five hundredstudents. I've taught them, I've tried to educate them, I've tried toinculcate in them principles of justice and of dignity, and yet inthese days when there is so much murmuring against us I've not seenone who has the temerity to maintain his accusations when he findshimself in the presence of a friar, not even aloud in the presenceof any numbers. Young men there are who behind our backs calumniateus and before us kiss our hands, with a base smile begging kind looksfrom us! Bah! What do you wish that we should do with such creatures?"
"The fault is not all theirs, Padre," replied Isagani. "The faultlies partly with those who have taught them to be hypocrites,with those who have tyrannized over freedom of thought and freedomof speech. Here every independent thought, every word that is not anecho of the will of those in power, is characterized as filibusterism,and you know well enough what that means. A fool would he be who toplease himself would say aloud what he thinks, who would lay himselfliable to suffer persecution!"
"What persecution have you had to suffer?" asked Padre Fernandez,raising his head. "Haven't I let you express yourself freely in myclass? Nevertheless, you are an exception that, if what you say istrue, I must correct, so as to make the rule as general as possibleand thus avoid setting a bad example."
Isagani smiled. "I thank you, but I will not discuss with you whetherI am an exception. I will accept your qualification so that youmay accept mine: you also are an exception, and as here we are notgoing to talk about exceptions, nor plead for ourselves, at least,I mean, _I'm not_, I beg of my _professor_ to change the course ofthe conversation."
In spite of his liberal principles, Padre Fernandez raised his headand stared in surprise at Isagani. That young man was more independentthan he had thought--although he called him _professor_, in realityhe was dealing with him as an equal, since he allowed himself tooffer suggestions. Like a wise diplomat, Padre Fernandez not onlyrecognized the fact but even took his stand upon it.
"Good enough!" he said. "But don't look upon me as your professor. I'ma friar and you are a Filipino student, nothing more nor less! NowI ask you--what do the Filipino students want of us?"
The question came as a surprise; Isagani was not prepared for it. Itwas a thrust made suddenly while they were preparing their defense,as they say in fencing. Thus startled, Isagani responded with aviolent stand, like a beginner defending himself.
"That you do your duty!" he exclaimed.
Fray Fernandez straightened up--that reply sounded to him like acannon-shot. "That we do our duty!" he repeated, holding himselferect. "Don't we, then, do our duty? What duties do you ascribe to us?"
"Those which you voluntarily placed upon yourselves on joiningthe order, and those which afterwards, once in it, you have beenwilling to assume. But, as a Filipino student, I don't think myselfcalled upon to examine your conduct with reference to your statutes,to Catholicism, to the government, to the Filipino people, and tohumanity in general--those are questions that you have to settlewith your founders, with the Pope, with the government, with thewhole people, and with God. As a Filipino student, I will confinemyself to your duties toward us. The friars in general, being thelocal supervisors of education in the provinces, and the Dominicansin particular, by monopolizing in their hands all the studies of theFilipino youth, have assumed the obligation to its eight millionsof inhabitants, to Spain, and to humanity, of which we form a part,of steadily bettering the young plant, morally and physically,of training it toward its happiness, of creating a people honest,prosperous, intelligent, virtuous, noble, and loyal. Now I ask youin my turn--have the friars fulfilled that obligation of theirs?"
"We're fulfilling--"
"Ah, Padre Fernandez," interrupted Isagani, "you with your hand on_your_ heart can say that you are fulfilling it, but with your handon the heart of your order, on the heart of all the orders, you cannotsay that without deceiving yourself. Ah, Padre Fernandez, when I findmyself in the presence of a person whom I esteem and respect, I preferto be the accused rather than the accuser, I prefer to defend myselfrather than take the offensive. But now that we have entered uponthe discussion, let us carry it to the end! How do they fulfill theirobligation, those who look after education in the towns? By hinderingit! And those who here monopolize education, those who try to mold themind of youth, to the exclusion of all others whomsoever, how do theycarry out their mission? By curtailing knowledge as much as possible,by extinguishing all ardor and enthusiasm, by trampling on all dignity,the soul's only refuge, by inculcating in us worn-out ideas, rancidbeliefs, false principles incompatible with a life of progress! Ah,yes, when it is a question of feeding convicts, of providing for themaintenance of criminals, the government calls for bids in orderto find the purveyor who offers the best means of subsistence,he who at least will not let them perish from hunger, but when itis a question of morally feeding a whole people, of nourishing theintellect of youth, the healthiest part, that which is later to be thecountry and the all, the government not only does not ask for any bid,but restricts the power to that very body which makes a boast of notdesiring education, of wishing no advancement. What should we say ifthe purveyor for the prisons, after securing the contract by intrigue,should then leave the prisoners to languish in want, giving them onlywhat is stale and rancid, excusing himself afterwards by saying thatit is not convenient for the prisoners to enjoy good health, becausegood health brings merry thoughts, because merriment improves the man,and the man ought not to be improved, because it is to the purveyor'sinterest that there
be many criminals? What should we say if afterwardsthe government and the purveyor should agree between themselves thatof the ten or twelve cuartos which one received for each criminal,the other should receive five?"
Padre Fernandek bit his lip. "Those are grave charges," he said,"and you are overstepping the limits of our agreement."
"No, Padre, not if I continue to deal with the student question. Thefriars--and I do not say, you friars, since I do not confuse youwith the common herd--the friars of all the orders have constitutedthemselves our mental purveyors, yet they say and shamelessly proclaimthat it is not expedient for us to become enlightened, because someday we shall declare ourselves free! That is just the same as notwishing the prisoner to be well-fed so that he may improve and get outof prison. Liberty is to man what education is to the intelligence,and the friars' unwillingness that we have it is the origin of ourdiscontent."
"Instruction is given only to those who deserve it," rejoined PadreFernandez dryly. "To give it to men without character and withoutmorality is to prostitute it."
"Why are there men without character and without morality?"
The Dominican shrugged his shoulders. "Defects that they imbibe withtheir mothers' milk, that they breathe in the bosom of the family--howdo I know?"
"Ah, no, Padre Fernandez!" exclaimed the young man impetuously. "Youhave not dared to go into the subject deeply, you have not wishedto gaze into the depths from fear of finding yourself there in thedarkness of your brethren. What we are, you have made us. A peopletyrannized over is forced to be hypocritical; a people denied thetruth must resort to lies; and he who makes himself a tyrant breedsslaves. There is no morality, you say, so let it be--even thoughstatistics can refute you in that here are not committed crimeslike those among other peoples, blinded by the fumes of theirmoralizers. But, without attempting now to analyze what it is thatforms the character and how far the education received determinesmorality, I will agree with you that we are defective. Who is toblame for that? You who for three centuries and a half have had inyour hands our education, or we who submit to everything? If afterthree centuries and a half the artist has been able to produce onlya caricature, stupid indeed he must be!"
"Or bad enough the material he works upon."
"Stupider still then, when, knowing it to be bad, he does not giveit up, but goes on wasting time. Not only is he stupid, but he isa cheat and a robber, because he knows that his work is useless,yet continues to draw his salary. Not only is he stupid and a thief,he is a villain in that he prevents any other workman from tryinghis skill to see if he might not produce something worth while! Thedeadly jealousy of the incompetent!"
The reply was sharp and Padre Fernandez felt himself caught. To hisgaze Isagani appeared gigantic, invincible, convincing, and for thefirst time in his life he felt beaten by a Filipino student. Herepented of having provoked the argument, but it was too late toturn back. In this quandary, finding himself confronted with sucha formidable adversary, he sought a strong shield and laid hold ofthe government.
"You impute all the faults to us, because you see only us, who arenear," he said in a less haughty tone. "It's natural and doesn'tsurprise me. A person hates the soldier or policeman who arrests himand not the judge who sends him to prison. You and we are both dancingto the same measure of music--if at the same note you lift your foot inunison with us, don't blame us for it, it's the music that is directingour movements. Do you think that we friars have no consciences andthat we do not desire what is right? Do you believe that we do notthink about you, that we do not heed our duty, that we only eat tolive, and live to rule? Would that it were so! But we, like you,follow the cadence, finding ourselves between Scylla and Charybdis:either you reject us or the government rejects us. The governmentcommands, and he who commands, commands,--and must be obeyed!"
"From which it may be inferred," remarked Isagani with a bitter smile,"that the government wishes our demoralization."
"Oh, no, I didn't mean that! What I meant to say is that there arebeliefs, there are theories, there are laws, which, dictated withthe best intention, produce the most deplorable consequences. I'llexplain myself better by citing an example. To stamp out a smallevil, there are dictated many laws that cause greater evils still:'_corruptissima in republica plurimae leges,_' said Tacitus. Toprevent one case of fraud, there are provided a million and a halfpreventive or humiliating regulations, which produce the immediateeffect of awakening in the public the desire to elude and mocksuch regulations. To make a people criminal, there's nothing moreneeded than to doubt its virtue. Enact a law, not only here, buteven in Spain, and you will see how the means of evading it will besought, and this is for the very reason that the legislators haveoverlooked the fact that the more an object is hidden, the more asight of it is desired. Why are rascality and astuteness regardedas great qualities in the Spanish people, when there is no other sonoble, so proud, so chivalrous as it? Because our legislators, withthe best intentions, have doubted its nobility, wounded its pride,challenged its chivalry! Do you wish to open in Spain a road among therocks? Then place there an imperative notice forbidding the passage,and the people, in order to protest against the order, will leave thehighway to clamber over the rocks. The day on which some legislator inSpain forbids virtue and commands vice, then all will become virtuous!"
The Dominican paused for a brief space, then resumed: "But you maysay that we are getting away from the subject, so I'll return toit. What I can say to you, to convince you, is that the vices fromwhich you suffer ought to be ascribed by you neither to us nor to thegovernment. They are due to the imperfect organization of our socialsystem: _qui multum probat, nihil probat_, one loses himself throughexcessive caution, lacking what is necessary and having too much ofwhat is superfluous."
"If you admit those defects in your social system," replied Isagani,"why then do you undertake to regulate alien societies, instead offirst devoting your attention to yourselves?"
"We're getting away from the subject, young man. The theory inaccomplished facts must be accepted."
"So let it be! I accept it because it is an accomplished fact, butI will further ask: why, if your social organization is defective,do you not change it or at least give heed to the cry of those whoare injured by it?"
"We're still far away. Let's talk about what the students want fromthe friars."
"From the moment when the friars hide themselves behind the government,the students have to turn to it."
This statement was true and there appeared no means of ignoring it.
"I'm not the government and I can't answer for its acts. What dothe students wish us to do for them within the limits by which weare confined?"
"Not to oppose the emancipation of education but to favor it."
The Dominican shook his head. "Without stating my own opinion, thatis asking us to commit suicide," he said.
"On the contrary, it is asking you for room to pass in order not totrample upon and crush you."
"Ahem!" coughed Padre Fernandez, stopping and remainingthoughtful. "Begin by asking something that does not cost so much,something that any one of us can grant without abatement of dignityor privilege, for if we can reach an understanding and dwell in peace,why this hatred, why this distrust?"
"Then let's get down to details."
"Yes, because if we disturb the foundation, we'll bring down thewhole edifice."
"Then let's get down to details, let's leave the region of abstractprinciples," rejoined Isagani with a smile, "and _also without statingmy own opinion,_"--the youth accented these words--"the studentswould desist from their attitude and soften certain asperities ifthe professors would try to treat them better than they have up tothe present. That is in their hands."
"What?" demanded the Dominican. "Have the students any complaint tomake about my conduct?"
"Padre, we agreed from the start not to talk of yourself or of myself,we're speaking generally. The students, besides getting no greatbenefit out of the years spent in the classes, ofte
n leave thereremnants of their dignity, if not the whole of it."
Padre Fernandez again bit his lip. "No one forces them to study--thefields are uncultivated," he observed dryly.
"Yes, there is something that impels them to study," replied Isaganiin the same tone, looking the Dominican full in the face. "Besidesthe duty of every one to seek his own perfection, there is the desireinnate in man to cultivate his intellect, a desire the more powerfulhere in that it is repressed. He who gives his gold and his life to theState has the right to require of it opporttmity better to get thatgold and better to care for his life. Yes, Padre, there is somethingthat impels them, and that something is the government itself. It isyou yourselves who pitilessly ridicule the uncultured Indian and denyhim his rights, on the ground that he is ignorant. You strip him andthen scoff at his nakedness."
Padre Fernandez did not reply, but continued to pace about feverishly,as though very much agitated.
"You say that the fields are not cultivated," resumed Isagani in achanged tone, after a brief pause. "Let's not enter upon an analysisof the reason for this, because we should get far away. But you,Padre Fernandez, you, a teacher, you, a learned man, do you wish apeople of peons and laborers? In your opinion, is the laborer theperfect state at which man may arrive in his development? Or is itthat you wish knowledge for yourself and labor for the rest?"
"No, I want knowledge for him who deserves it, for him who knows howto use it," was the reply. "When the students demonstrate that theylove it, when young men of conviction appear, young men who know howto maintain their dignity and make it respected, then there will beknowledge, then there will be considerate professors! If there arenow professors who resort to abuse, it is because there are pupilswho submit to it."
"When there are professors, there will be students!"
"Begin by reforming yourselves, you who have need of change, and wewill follow."
"Yes," said Isagani with a bitter laugh, "let us begin it, becausethe difficulty is on our side. Well you know what is expected ofa pupil who stands before a professor--you yourself, with all yourlove of justice, with all your kind sentiments, have been restrainingyourself by a great effort while I have been telling you bitter truths,you yourself, Padre Fernandez! What good has been secured by him amongus who has tried to inculcate other ideas? What evils have not fallenupon you because you have tried to be just and perform your duty?"
"Senor Isagani," said the Dominican, extending his hand, "although itmay seem that nothing practical has resulted from this conversation,yet something has been gained. I'll talk to my brethren about whatyou have told me and I hope that something can be done. Only I fearthat they won't believe in your existence."
"I fear the same," returned Isagani, shaking the Dominican's hand. "Ifear that my friends will not believe in your existence, as you haverevealed yourself to me today." [57]
Considering the interview at an end, the young man took his leave.
Padre Fernandez opened the door and followed him with his gaze untilhe disappeared around a corner in the corridor. For some time helistened to the retreating footsteps, then went back into his celland waited for the youth to appear in the street.
He saw him and actually heard him say to a friend who asked where hewas going: "To the Civil Government! I'm going to see the pasquinadesand join the others!"
His startled friend stared at him as one would look at a person whois about to commit suicide, then moved away from him hurriedly.
"Poor boy!" murmured Padre Fernandez, feeling his eyes moisten. "Igrudge you to the Jesuits who educated you."
But Padre Fernandez was completely mistaken; the Jesuits repudiatedIsagani [58] when that afternoon they learned that he had beenarrested, saying that he would compromise them. "That young man hasthrown himself away, he's going to do us harm! Let it be understoodthat he didn't get those ideas here."
Nor were the Jesuits wrong. No! Those ideas come only from God throughthe medium of Nature.