Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot
political references. They say that Rizal objected only to a disavowal
of Freemasonry, stating that in England, where he held his membership,
the Masonic institution was not hostile to the Church. After some
argument, he waived this point and wrote out, at a Jesuit's dictation,
the needed retraction, adding some words to strengthen it in parts,
indicating his Catholic education and that the act was of his own
free will and accord.
The prisoner, the priests, and all the Spanish officials present knelt
at the altar, at Rizal's suggestion, while he read his retraction
aloud. Afterwards he put on a blue scapular, kissed the image of
the Sacred Heart he had carved years before, heard mass as when
a student in the Ateneo, took communion, and read his a-Kempis or
prayed in the intervals. He took breakfast with the Spanish officers,
who now regarded him very differently. At six Josefina entered and
was married to him by Father Balanguer.
Now in this narrative there are some apparent discrepancies. Mention is
made of Rizal having in an access of devotion signed in a devotionary
all the acts of faith, and it is said that this book was given to one
of his sisters. His chapel gifts to his family have been examined,
but though there is a book of devotion, "The Anchor of Faith," it
contains no other signature than the presentation on a flyleaf. As
to the religious controversy: while in Dapitan Rizal carried on with
Father Pio Pi, the Jesuit superior, a lengthy discussion involving the
interchange of many letters, but he succeeded in fairly maintaining
his views, and these views would hardly have caused him to be called
Protestant in the Roman Catholic churches of America. Then the
theatrical reading aloud of his retraction before the altar does not
conform to Rizal's known character. As to the anti-Masonic arguments,
these appear to be from a work by Monsignor Dupanloup and therefore
were not new to Rizal; furthermore, the book was in his own library.
Again, it seems strange that Rizal should have asserted that his
Masonic membership was in London when in visiting St. John's Lodge,
Scotch Constitution, in Hongkong in November of 1891, since which
date he had not been in London, he registered as from "Temple du
honneur de les amis francais," an old-established Paris lodge.
Also the sister Lucia, who was said to have been a witness of the
marriage, is not positive that it occurred, having only seen the
priest at the altar in his vestments. The record of the marriage
has been stated to be in the Manila Cathedral, but it is not there,
and as the Jesuit in officiating would have been representing the
military chaplain, the entry should have been in the Fort register,
now in Madrid. Rizal's burial, too, does not indicate that he died
in the faith, yet it with the marriage has been used as an argument
for proving that the retraction must have been made.
The retraction itself appears in two versions, with slight
differences. No one outside the Spanish faction has ever seen
the original, though the family nearly got into trouble by their
persistence in trying to get sight of it after its first publication.
The foregoing might suggest some disbelief, but in fact they are only
proofs of the remarks already made about the Spanish carelessness in
details and liking for the dramatic.
The writer believes Rizal made a retraction, was married canonically,
and was given what was intended to be Christian burial.
The grounds for this belief rest upon the fact that he seems never
to have been estranged in faith from the Roman Catholic Church,
but he objected only to certain political and mercenary abuses. The
first retraction is written in his style and it certainly contains
nothing he could not have signed in Dapitan. In fact, Father Obach
says that when he wanted to marry Josefina on her first arrival there,
Rizal prepared a practically similar statement. Possibly the report of
that priest aided in outlining the draft which the Jesuits substituted
for the Archbishop's form. There is no mention of evasions or mental
reservations and Rizal's renunciation of Masonry might have been
qualified by the quibble that it was "the Masonry which was an enemy
of the Church" that he was renouncing. Then since his association
(not affiliation) had been with Masons not hostile to religion,
he was not abandoning these.
The possibility of this line of thought having suggested itself to
him appears in his evasions on the witness-stand at his trial. Though
he answered with absolute frankness whatever concerned himself and in
everyday life was almost quixotically truthful, when cross-examined
about others who would be jeopardized by admitting his acquaintance
with them, he used the subterfuge of the symbolic names of his Masonic
acquaintances. Thus he would say, "I know no one by that name," since
care was always taken to employ the symbolic names in introductions
and conversations.
Rizal's own symbolic name was "Dimas Alang"--Tagalog for "Noli
Me Tangere"--and his nom de plume in some of his controversial
publications. The use of that name by one of his companions on the
railroad trip to Tarlac entirely mystified a station master, as appears
in the secret report of the espionage of that trip, which just preceded
his deportation to Dapitan. Another possible explanation is that, since
Freemasonry professes not to disturb the duties which its members owe
to God, their country or their families, he may have considered himself
as a good Mason under obligation to do whatever was demanded by these
superior interests, all three of which were at this time involved.
The argument that it was his pride that restrained him suggested to
Rizal the possibility of his being unconsciously under an influence
which during his whole life he had been combating, and he may have
considered that his duty toward God required the sacrifice of this
pride.
For his country his sacrifice would have been blemished were any
religious stigma to attach to it. He himself had always been careful
of his own good name, and as we have said elsewhere, he told his
companions that in their country's cause whatever they offered on the
altars of patriotism must be as spotless as the sacrificial lambs of
Levitical law.
Furthermore, his work for a tranquil future for his family would be
unfulfilled were he to die outside the Church. Josefina's anomalous
status, justifiable when all the facts were known, would be sure
to bring criticism upon her unless corrected by the better defined
position of a wife by a church marriage. Then the aged parents and
the numerous children of his sisters would by his act be saved the
scandal that in a country so mediaevally pious as the Philippines
would come from having their relative die "an unrepentant heretic."
Rizal had received from the Jesuits, while in prison, several religious
books and pictures, which he used as remembrances for members of his
family, writing brief dedications upon them. Then he said good-by to
Josefina, asking in a low voice some question to which she answered
in English, "Yes, yes," and aloud inquiring how she would be able to
gain a living, since all his property had been seized by the Spanish
government to satisfy the 20,000 pesetas costs which was included in
the sentence of death against him. Her reply was that she could earn
money giving lessons in English.
The journey from the Fort to the place of execution, then Bagumbayan
Field, now called the Luneta, was on foot. His arms were tied tightly
behind his back, and he was surrounded by a heavy guard. The Jesuits
accompanied him and some of his Dapitan schoolboys were in the crowd,
while one friendly voice, that of a Scotch merchant still resident
in Manila, called out in English, "Good-by, Rizal."
The route was along the Malecon Drive where as a college student he
had walked with his fiancee, Leonora. Above the city walls showed the
twin towers of the Ateneo, and when he asked about them, for they were
not there in his boyhood days, he spoke of the happy years that he
had spent in the old school. The beauty of the morning, too, appealed
to him, and may have recalled an experience of his '87 visit when he
said to a friend whom he met on the beach during an early morning walk:
"Do you know that I have a sort of foreboding that some such sunshiny
morning as this I shall be out here facing a firing squad?"
Troops held back the crowds and left a large square for the tragedy,
while artillery behind them was ready for suppressing any attempt at
rescuing the prisoner. None came, however, for though Rizal's brother
Paciano had joined the insurrectionary forces in Cavite when the death
sentence showed there was no more hope for Jose, he had discouraged
the demonstration that had been planned as soon as he learned how
scantily the insurgents were armed, hardly a score of serviceable
firearms being in the possession of their entire "army."
The firing squad was of Filipino soldiers, while behind them, better
armed, were Spaniards in case these tried to evade the fratricidal
part assigned them. Rizal's composure aroused the curiosity of a
Spanish military surgeon standing by and he asked, "Colleague, may
I feel your pulse?" Without other reply the prisoner twisted one of
his hands as far from his body as the cords which bound him allowed,
so that the other doctor could place his fingers on the wrist. The
beats were steady and showed neither excitement nor fear, was the
report made later.
His request to be allowed to face his executioners was denied as being
out of the power of the commanding officer to grant, though Rizal
declared that he did not deserve such a death, for he was no traitor
to Spain. It was promised, however, that his head should be respected,
and as unblindfolded and erect Rizal turned his back to receive their
bullets, he twisted a hand to indicate under the shoulder where the
soldiers should aim so as to reach his heart. Then as the volley came,
with a last supreme effort of will power, he turned and fell face
upwards, thus receiving the subsequent "shots of grace" which ended his
life, so that in form as well as fact he did not die a traitor's death.
The Spanish national air was played, that march of Cadiz which should
have recalled a violated constitution, for by the laws of Spain itself
Rizal was illegally executed.
Vivas, laughter and applause were heard, for it had been the social
event of the day, with breakfasting parties on the walls and on
the carriages, full of interested onlookers of both sexes, lined up
conveniently near for the sightseeing.
The troops defiled past the dead body, as though reviewed by it,
for the most commanding figure of all was that which lay lifeless,
but the center of all eyes. An officer, realizing the decency due to
death, drew his handkerchief from the dead man's pocket and spread
the silk over the calm face. A crimson stain soon marked the whiteness
emblematic of the pure life that had just ended, and with the glorious
blue overhead, the tricolor of Liberty, which had just claimed another
martyr, was revealed in its richest beauty.
Sir Hugh Clifford (now Governor of Ceylon), in Blackwood's Magazine,
"The Story of Jose Rizal, the Filipino; A Fragment of Recent Asiatic
History," comments as follows on the disgraceful doing of that day:
"It was," he writes, "early morning, December 30, 1896, and the bright
sunshine of the tropics streamed down upon the open space, casting
hard fantastic shadows, and drenching with its splendor two crowds
of sightseers. The one was composed of Filipinos, cowed, melancholy,
sullen, gazing through hopeless eyes at the final scene in the life of
their great countryman--the man who had dared to champion their cause,