PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



PHYSICS, PROGRESS OP, IN 1902. 543 



eat majority of the secular priests were natives, 

 ut the regular clergy held the important cures, 

 11 those to which an endowment or a Government 

 ipend of any value was attached. During the 

 surrection the native priests, some of whom were 

 ctive leaders in the revolution, settled them- 

 ilves in the vacant livings. After the establish- 

 ent of civil government under American auspices 

 a large number of them, choosing Father Aglipay, 

 one of the chiefs of the revolution, for their bishop 

 organized what they called an Independent Catho- 

 lic Church, independent of Rome, because the 

 Curia sustained the Spanish hierarchy and monas- 

 tic orders in the Philippines. Negotiations were 

 proceeding between Gov. Taft and Mgr. Guidi for 

 the transference to the Government of churches 

 and the determination of what part was Govern- 

 ment and what monastic property. The growth 

 of the schism interrupted these negotiations, and 

 at the beginning of 1902 led the apostolic delegate 

 and the archbishop to appeal to the Governor-Gen- 

 eral to place the authorized priests at once in 

 possession of the Church property with the aid of 

 the constabulary. Bishop Aglipay and his fol- 

 lowers, who continued to seize church property 

 throughout the archipelago, asserted that the 

 churches, having been built by public subscription 

 and gratuitous labor, belonged to the people of 

 the different towns, who had seceded from the Ro- 

 man Catholic Church and joined the Independent 

 Catholic Church. Gov. Taft considered that it 

 was not a function of the executive, but of the 

 judiciary, to settle the controversy, and declined 

 to place the constabulary at the service of the 

 Church authorities unless they appealed to the 

 courts and obtained decrees affirming their legal 

 ownership and rights in the disputed property. 

 The Filipinos were not actuated by any desire to 

 abandon the Roman Catholic faith, although some 

 of them at one time spontaneously launched a 

 Protestant moA'ement, which had, however, no re- 

 ligious basis. Their object was not to be placed 

 again under the authority of the Spanish monks. 

 In June Gov. Taft went to Rome to arrange a set- 

 tlement of the question with the Vatican. He 

 presented to a commission of cardinals appointed 

 for the negotiation a proposition of the United 

 States Government to purchase the lands held by 

 the friars in the Philippines at a valuation to be 

 fixed by two commissioners representing the Uni- 

 ted States, two appointed by the Vatican, and one 

 to be nominated by the Viceroy of India. These 

 itates are believed to have a value of about $10,- 

 ',000. In return for this offer the Pope was 

 asked to recall from the Philippines within two 

 years the friars of the Dominican, Franciscan, Au- 

 gustinian, and Recoleto orders. The Vatican did 

 not see the way to the recall of the friars within 

 a fixed time because their rights there were guar- 

 anteed by the treaty of Paris, and such action on 

 its part in the absence of force majeure would 

 bring the Holy See into conflict with Spain; fur- 

 thermore, it would be equivalent to an admission 

 of their unworthiness. However, the Vatican 

 promised to replace the friars little by little with 

 clergy of other nationalities, instructing them 

 meanwhile to occupy themselves with religion 

 only, leaving politics alone. While willing to 

 agree to the elimination of friars from parishes 

 where they are really obnoxious, the Vatican 

 trusted that the American authorities would not 

 permit any to be kept from their religious minis- 

 trations by factious minorities. Secretary Root 

 could not see how the recall of the friars by 

 the spontaneous act of the highest aiithority of 

 their Church could violate the engagements of 

 the United States to Spain, or how the interest 



of the United States in restoring religious peace 

 for the welfare of the Filipinos could conflict 

 with that of the Vatican in retaining them, 

 as faithful Roman Catholics. He pointed out that 

 the United States sought not a forcible, but a vol- 

 untary withdrawal of certain persons who happen 

 to be Spaniards and whose previous experiences 

 in the islands had fortuitously thrown them into- 

 antagonistic relations with the people, the Catho- 

 lic laity, and the native clergy. Many of them 

 had left their parishes, and could not beVeinstated 

 without using material force, which the United 

 States could not permit. Their voluntary recall 

 by their religious superior in the interest of the 

 whole people of the Philippines, who were bitterly 

 opposed to their presence, which was the only mo- 

 tive the United States as well as the Holy See 

 could have, would not be a violation of the treaty 

 of Paris and could not be regarded as affirming 

 or admitting any accusations against the friars,, 

 because the American Government made no such 

 accusations. Besides the purchase of lands held 

 by the religious congregations or their representa- 

 tives at a price to be fixed by a tribunal of arbi- 

 tration the United States offered to settle by 

 agreement or arbitration indemnities to be paid 

 for the use of churches and rectories by American 

 troops during the insurrection and to convey to the 

 Vatican the sites of churches and rectories to 

 which the Vatican has no legal title, while chari- 

 table institutions and public trusts would be di- 

 vided, by arbitration if necessary, between the 

 Church and the Government according as their 

 character or origin justifies their administration 

 by the ecclesiastical or the civil authorities. Car- 

 dinal Rampolla accepted the offer for the purchase 

 of the monastic estates, suggesting that the fifth 

 commissioner to appraise their value be selected 

 by the four others. This offer was withdrawn, 

 since the main proposal, that of the gradual with- 

 drawal of the friars within two years, was reject- 

 ed. Gov. Taft left Rome to continue the negotia- 

 tions later with the apostolic delegate to be ap- 

 pointed to Manila. The money that the United 

 States may pay for the friars' lands and for in- 

 demnities is very necessary to the Church in the is- 

 lands, as the Philippine Government does not pay 

 stipends to the clergy, as it did under the Span- 

 iards, when every friar in charge of a parish re- 

 ceived from $600 to $1,500 Mexican a year. Secre- 

 tary Root requested the Vatican to send to Manila 

 lists of the property claimed as belonging to the 

 Church and to the religious congregations, with 

 proofs of title. The lands formerly controlled by 

 the friars are now tenanted by Filipinos, who no- 

 longer give any returns to them in rent or serv- 

 ices. A small number of friars have remained in 

 their parishes and continue to minister acceptably 

 to the Filipinos. The Church authorities were 

 asked by Mr. Root to furnish full and definite 

 lists, first, of the property the congregations claim 

 to own and desire to sell, with the precise relations 

 they hold to the title; second, of details of dam- 

 ages done by troops to churches and convents, 

 and of indemnities claimed; third, of Church prop- 

 erties to which formal title remained in the Span- 

 ish Crown at the time of its cession; fourth, of 

 charitable and educational trusts which it is 

 said devolve on the Church rather than on the 

 state. 



PHYSICS, PROGRESS OF, IN 1902. Cos- 

 mogony. S. Arrhenius, in Archives Neerland- 

 aises, 6, 1901, endeavors to infer from natural 

 laws that the universe has continued materially 

 unchanged for an indefinite time, and that it will 

 so continue indefinitely in the future. He shows 

 that for the bulk of existing gaseous matter 



