The Philippine Revolution and the Geography of Schism

Author(s): Daniel F. Doeppers

Source: Geographical Review , Apr., 1976, Vol. 66, No. 2 (Apr., 1976), pp. 158-177
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

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 THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION AND
THE GEOGRAPHY OF SCHISM*

DANIEL F. DOEPPERS

HE Philippine Revolution of 1898 was fought to secure indep

Spain. The revolutionaries succeeded in expelling Spanish troops from most of
the archipelago but were ultimately defeated by the military forces of the
United States. A major component and outgrowth of the revolutionary fervor of the
era was a movement to transfer leadership in the Roman Catholic church in the
Philippines from Spaniards to Filipinos. In 1902 this led to schism. The nationalist
religious movement diffused rapidly but unevenly, assuming a far-flung and complex
pattern of adherence. By I918 a similar distribution of Protestant adherence had
emerged as a result of proselytism by American missionaries.
The major themes of the geography of religion have much to contribute to an un-
derstanding of these phenomena: analysis of expansion and transfer, regionalization
of nominal adherence patterns over time, and the role of religion in ordering circula-
tion and reinforcing regional identities.1 Even greater insight can be achieved by
employing various measures that elicit regional variations in the intensity of conven-
tional religious practice.2 In this essay I adopt such an approach, and use the relative
rates at which provincial bodies of Catholics produced priests in the late nineteenth
century as well as the varied regional nature of the Hispanic colonial church to un-
derstand the peculiar geography assumed by the schismatic movement. The
methodology and the nature of the insights reached should prove useful in other
cultural geographical contexts.
The social geographical base on which the changes of the 1898-1918 period were
enacted was formed during the 330 years of Spanish rule. Hispanic administrative and
religious colonialism restricted Islam to the southwestern portion of the archipelago
and established among the highly localized lowland societies of Luzon and the
Visayas (the central islands) an extensive system of mission settlements. Outliers of
this system were located on the northern coast of Mindanao. Along with improve-
ments in communications and economic change, the mission-cum-parish system
ultimately produced an increasingly well articulated Christianized society. In the

* The author acknowledges with appreciation the aid of Bruce Cruikshank, who kindly shared fugitive
historical materials, and the salary support received from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
1 Wilbur Zelinsky: An Approach to the Religious Geography of the United States: Patterns of Church
Membership in 1952, Annals Assn. of Amer. Geogrs., Vol. 51, 1961, pp. 139-193; D. W. Meinig: The Mormon
Culture Region: Strategies and Patterns in the Geography of the American West, 1847-1964, ibid., Vol. 55,
1965, pp. 191-220; Edwin S. Gaustad: Historical Atlas of Religion in America (Harper & Row, New York,
1962); Andrew H. Clark: Old World Origins and Religious Adherence in Nova Scotia, Geogr. Rev., Vol. 50,
1960, pp. 317-344; and David E. Sopher: Pilgrim Circulation in Gujarat, ibid., Vol. 58, 1968, pp. 392-425.
This list is not meant to be exhaustive and does not include studies of religious landscapes.
2 F. Boulard: An Introduction to Religious Sociology (Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd., London, 1960);
Sopher, Pilgrim Circulation [see footnote I above], pp. 416 and 420; and idem, Geography of Religions
(Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1967), pp. 107-112.
* DR. DOEPPERS is an associate professor of geography at the University of Wiscon-
sin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.

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 GEOGRAPHY OF SCHISM
I59

closing years of their rule the Spanish established missions in so

the southern fringe of Mindanao, and in the uplands of nor
The Revolution terminated three centuries of gradual Rom
and radically changed the character, number, and distributi
The most dramatic of these changes was the schism that pr
Independent Church (PIC, or the Iglesia Filipina Independie
threatened to undercut thoroughly the Roman Catholic chur
subsequent Philippine-American War opened the way for Pr
and for the creation of another new dimension in the geography
Some Filipinos, especially in the lowland provinces, converte
the same time Protestantism began to flow beyond the bounds o
Catholic society to link up village enclaves of hill folk with the
Christian worlds.

RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION

The most profound dimension of religious change in the Philippines since the ini-
tial Christian conversion was the schism that culminated the long accumulation of
popular resentment against what were seen as the abuses of some Catholic religious
orders and friar-prelates. The Spanish kings not only promoted the propagation of the
faith in their colonial realms but also provided a considerable subsidy for religious
work. The royal government financed the transportation of missionaries to the Philip-
pines and provided a small annual allowance for each mission and parish. The
religious orders, however, had to raise their own funds for building and operating col-
leges (unless a special subsidy was available) and for many other aspects of the mis-
sion. Donations and bequests produced funds, which were frequently turned into en-
dowments by investing the money in landed estates. Unfortunately, the estates were
acquired by applying Spanish laws regarding private ownership of land to societies
that had previously held land communally by village. When the descendants of the
village chiefs sold communal lands for private gain, they created classes of Filipinos
who no longer had assured access to land.4 As the lowland population continued to
grow and as additional arable land in some long-settled areas became scarce, the ex-
tensive estates of the religious corporations became conspicuous symbols of their
wealth and power. The most important of these estates were in the provinces within
the Tagalog language area to the south and north of Manila. In 1896 and 1898 these
provinces were the center of the Revolution.
An alien clergy and its temporal role were at the heart of the larger problem. The
roots of this situation may be traced to sixteenth-century Mexico (New Spain), where
the failure of initial efforts to train indigenous priests had led first to a prohibition of
and later to an atmosphere prejudicial to the training of a native clergy in the Spanish
colonies.5 Unlike the Portuguese in India and the early church in Japan, the Spanish
3 D. F. Doeppers: The Evolution of the Geography of Religious Adherence in the Philippines before
1898, Journ. Hist. Geogr., Vol. 2, 1976, in press.
4 Nicholas P. Cushner, S.J.: Meysapan: The Formation and Social Effects of a Landed Estate in the
Philippines, Journ. Asian Hist., Vol. 7, 1963, pp. 30-53; and H. de la Costa, S.J.: The Jesuits in the Philip-
pines, 1581-1768 (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1967), pp. 133, 149-150, 272-273, and 366-367.
5Horacio de la Costa, S.J.: The Development of the Native Clergy in the Philippines, in Studies in
Philippine Church History (edited by Gerald H. Anderson; Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1969), pp.
65-104; and Robert Ricard: The Spiritual Conquest of Mexico (Univ. of California Press, Berkeley and Los
Angeles, 1966), pp. 217-235.

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 120
/ -20
PHILIPPINE 20-
PARISH ADMINSTRATION AREAS
OF THE RELIGIOUS
AND SECULAR CLERGY, 1895

I SECULAR CLERGY
RELIGIOUS CLERGY

Augustinan

-15 I Recollect

Franciscan

'r'l Dominican

Jesuit

15-

120
I

-10

10-

130

i00 200 300 Kilometers

125 130
I

FIG. i-Parish administration areas of the religious and secular clergy in the Philippines,
1895. Scattered single parishes are not depicted. Compiled from data in: "Guia oficial de las islas
Filipinas para 1895" (Secretaria del Gobierno General, Manila, 1895), pp. 541-840; B. Romero
de Madridejos, O.F.M.: Pastorales y Demas Disposiciones Circuladas a los Parrocos de Esta
Diocesis de Cebu . . . (Tipografico del Colegio de Santo Tomas, Manila, 1884), pp. 289-293; and
"Provincia de San Nicolas de Tolentino" [see text footnote 24], pp. 347-348.

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 GEOGRAPHY OF SCHISM I6i

colonialists preferred European priests. In Manila the Je

founded colleges where they trained both their own members ar
and sons of the local Spanish community. More than a cent
before the training of an indigenous clergy became a regular fu
and mestizo Filipinos graduated and became secular (diocesan
Because few were admitted to the religious orders, the secu
creasingly to mean the native clergy as opposed to the Spanis
Because of an agreement between king and pope which gav
clesiastical authority within all Spanish dominions, the tran
secular clergy became a political question. The royal dec
segregated mission fields on the several religious orders and
thus prevented the operation of the normal church policy,
religious missionaries had charge of the doctrinas [missions] whi
only for the purpose of building them up into regular parishes;
been accomplished, these pioneers were to give way to the
proper role was parish work] and push on to the frontier."8
applied in Mexico during the seventeenth century. However,
orders laboriously built their missions into parishes and then he
generations passed, the orders became increasingly preoccupied w
prerogatives and with conserving their exclusive position in the several regional
language areas (Fig. i). Those bishops in the Philippines who wanted to challenge the
conservative power of the orders found their efforts largely frustrated.9
In contrast to other Spanish administrations, Carlos III took radical measures to
alter this status quo. He suppressed the Jesuits and in I767 sent a court prelate as the
new archbishop of Manila. Archbishop Sancho vigorously asserted the bishop's right
to supervise the parish work within his see and to replace recalcitrant (religious)
pastors with an enlarged but too hastily trained secular clergy. This precipitous ac-
tion magnified the strain between religious and secular priests and tended to debase
the indigenous clergy. The reversal of these policies in the nineteenth century further
intensified the conflict. During the political turmoil of the I820's and I830's the orders
in Spain were directed to dissolve, except for those segments engaged in training friars
for service in the Philippines. Through the vicissitudes of a long anti-friar reaction in
Spain, a continuing flow of religious arrived in the Philippines, though in numbers in-
adequate to avoid a severely deteriorating ratio of priests to Catholics. Some of these
were assigned to parishes to replace native and mestizo curates."? The attempt by

6 Diocesan clergy or seculars are priests who have not taken vows in a religious order. They are
"secular" in the sense that their role is the parish ministry, and they are thus expected to live scattered
among the laity.
7 Religious are priests who have taken vows in an order or congregation. Since friars and Jesuits have
vowed to live by the rule (regula, in Latin) of their institute, they are also known as regulars.
8 De la Costa, Development of the Native Clergy [see footnote 5 above], p. 72.
9John Leddy Phelan: The Hispanization of the Philippines: Spanish Aims and Filipino Responses,
1565-1700 (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1959), pp. 32-40; de la Costa, Development of the Native
Clergy [see footnote 5 above]; and John N. Schumacher, S.J.: The Propaganda Movement: 1880-1895
(Solidaridad Publishing House, Manila, i973), pp. 12-13.
10 In 18o10 seculars had been assigned as pastors in 41 percent (184) of 444 parishes. In the i870's seculars
occupied 23 percent (181) of 792 pastorates. By the latter date they had been displaced from Negros, Pam-
panga, and parts of Cavite and had been reassigned, for the most part, to the least populous parishes. In
1895 only i6i Filipinos were parish curates. See Tomas de Comyn: State of the Philippines in 1810o [1820]
(Filipiniana Book Guild, Manila, 1969), pp. 161-168; and A. de la Cavada y Mendez de Vigo: Historia,
geografica, geologica y estadistica de Filipinas (2 vols.; Ramirez y Giraudier, Manila, 1876), Vol. 1, p. 371,
and Vol. 2, pp. 353 and 402.

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I62 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

members of the highly Hispanicized Filipino elite to secure equi

priests was suppressed by the secret court martial and subsequent ex
seculars on unproven charges of sedition (1872)." Thus, in the late ni
European religious priests still outnumbered the indigenous sec
monopolized the administration of parishes.
From the first, the clergy in the Philippines explicitly served as ag
as well as the church. Indeed, in return for their subsidies and encou
faith in the colonies the Spanish kings were granted the right to no
for episcopal positions and for other religious benefices. Since m
were long restricted to residence in a handful of designated towns,
who learned the several regional languages and who were in day-to-d
Filipinos at the county-parish level. Thus, the religious helped to
control and offered direction in secular affairs. Until the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury, this authority was exercised without, and indeed in lieu of, local contingents of
the tiny Spanish military force.
Having lost Mexico and the South American colonies, the Spanish governments
of the nineteenth century feared that secularizing hundreds of parishes would lead to
the end of their hold on the Philippines. As it turned out, the opposite policy not only
helped precipitate revolution but also seriously undermined the church. During the
i88o's and I89o's the Filipino intellectual propagandists and revolutionaries were ex-
plicitly and vociferously anti-friar, and the revolution fought to establish a Philippine
republic ultimately caused a religious revolution as well.12
Both the successful struggle to throw off Spanish rule in i898 and the Philippine-
American War, which ended in the imposition of a new colonial government, severely
disrupted the established church. Anti-friar attitudes, though not universal, were
widely held. During I898 hundreds of friars and several bishops fled their posts or
were rounded up and incarcerated by the Filipino forces. Numerous parishes were left
without priests, and hundreds of others were served by seculars trained only for the
secondary role of assisting a religious curate. Many Filipino priests supported the
Revolution, and some of them openly opposed their Spanish bishops. Most
remarkable among these was Gregorio Aglipay, a secular priest of the Archdiocese of
Manila, who accepted from the revolutionary Philippine government the ec-
clesiastical position of military vicar general (October, I898). In this capacity Aglipay
attempted to persuade the Filipino clergy to rally to the support of the Revolution and
to seek the Holy See's recognition of a reconstituted church with a Filipino hierarchy.
Had the United States (or some other imperial power) not forestalled Philippine
independence, a Filipinized church, under the Holy See, might well have been
realized, though not without great difficulty. As it was, institutional tension continued

" John Schumacher, S.J., and Nicholas Cushner, S.J.: Burgos and the Cavite Mutiny, Philippine Studies,
Vol. 17, 1969, pp. 457-529; and John N. Schumacher, S.J.: Father Jose Burgos: Priest and Nationalist
(Ateneo de ,Manila Univ. Press, Quezon City, 1972).
12 These complex issues have been explored by several authors: de la Costa, Development of the Native
Clergy [see footnote 5 above]; idem, Episcopal Jurisdiction in the Philippines during the Spanish Regime, in
Studies in Philippine Church History [see footnote 5 above], pp. 44-64; Le6n Ma. Guerrero: Nozaleda and
Pons: Two Spanish Friars in Exodus, in ibid., pp. 172-202; Cesar Adib Majul: Anticlericalism during the
Reform Movement and the Philippine Revolution, in ibid., pp. 152-171; James A. Robertson: The Aglipay
Schism in the Philippine Islands, Catholic Hist. Rev., Vol. 4, 1918, pp. 315-318; and Schumacher, Propaganda
Movement [see footnote 9 above]. For an early American Protestant view see Homer C. Stuntz: Why the
Friars Are Hated, in his The Philippines and the Far East (Jennings and Pye, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1904), pp.
91-1i8.

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 GEOGRAPHY OF SCHISM i63

TABLE I-FILIPINO PRIESTS BY DIOCESE, 1895-1896

FILIPINOS AS A "CIVILIZED"
PERCENTAGE OF FILIPINO POPULATION (1903) PER
ALL CURATES, PRIESTS, FILIPINO PRIEST,
DIOCESE 1895a I896b i896C
Nueva Caceres 50.5 148 5,205
Manila 12.0 198 9, o6
Nueva Segovia 6.7 131 9,223d
Cebu 23.3 I25e 14,866
Jaro 19.6 73 18,464
MEAN 20.2 10,352
Sources: "Guia oficial de las i
pp. 277-279 and 541-840; J. A
Islands [see text footnote 2
(U.S. Bur. of the Census, Was
a Filipinos held 161 of 797 oc
The number of Filipino pr
Philippine Commission 1900
ambiguity in this source the ac
about 825. Nevertheless, the
in 1 899-19oo confirm a total o
p. 315; and D. Mariano Sevilla
Records, U.S. National Archiv
J. N. Schumacher, S. J.).
c These ratios are only a rou
of mortality during the Revol
on Samar in the Diocese of Cebu.

d In 1902 there were twenty-five Filipino priests in Ilocos Norte, or 7,071 "civilized" persons
priest (Achutegui and Bernad, op. cit. [see text footnote 15], Vol. i, pp. 194-195).
Between 1867 and 1896, 107 Filipino secular priests were produced by the discesan seminar
Cebu (Resefa histbrica [see text footnote 30], pp. 175-177).

to mount during the years immediately following the Revolution. On one han
large delegation of secular clergy expressed to the apostolic delegate "the need
Filipino coadjutor bishops with right of succession" and the inadvisability of return
ing friars to parish work January, Igoo).'3 On the other hand, the Spanish bish
accused their Filipino diocesan clergy not only of ineptitude, avarice, and a "n
rowness of soul" but also of inciting anti-friar opinion.14 They recommended
return of parishes previously assigned to religious curates. While Filipino nationalis
and self-esteem produced passion, the intransigence of the friar-prelates exacerbate
the situation. One product of this tension was the rapid spread of the schism heade
by Gregorio Aglipay. The result was a radically new dimension in the geograph
religious adherence.

THE PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT CHURCH

The schismatic Philippine Independent Church was launched in the northern part
of the Ilocano language region and by Ilocanos in Manila. Isabelo de los Reyes (from

13 Domingo Abella: Bikol Annals (published by the author, Manila, 1954), pp. 198-199; and I. M.:
Causes of the Dislike of the Filipino for the Friars [1900], in John R. M. Taylor: The Philippine Insurrec-
tion Against the United States (5 vols.; E. Lopez Foundation, Pasay City, 1971), Vol. i, exhibit 8.
14 Quintin M. Garcia, O.P., and Jose Arcilla, S.J.: Acts of the Conference of the Bishops of the Philip-
pines 1900 . . , Philippiniana Sacra, Vol. 9, 1974, pp. 308-351, reference on pp. 314-325.

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164 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Ilocos Sur), an irrepressible radical journalist, publicly propose

church in Manila in August, 1902. He was soon joined by Grego
supreme bishop. Aglipay was a native of Ilocos Norte and had return
the Revolution. In addition to his other wartime positions, he served
governor of the Ilocos area (I898-I899) and thus developed exten
with the native clergy of the area. After the demise of the Filipino f
vigorous guerrilla action against the American occupation troo
province (1899-I9OI). In short, Aglipay was an authentic and widely k
the struggle for independence. In October, i902, most of the Filipino
Norte joined the schism, bringing with them their parishioners and
of all but one of the elaborate cathedral churches of the provinc
Church historians have tended to focus on the roles of Aglipay, d
Pedro Brillantes (the first PIC bishop of Ilocos Norte) in explaining w
and its clergy surged so precipitously into schism. But there wer
reasons, too. First, the seminary in Vigan, Ilocos Sur (Diocese of
the only one of the five diocesan seminaries that had not been
Vincentians or otherwise upgraded. Schumacher concludes, ther
average the Ilocano clergy may have been the least well grounde
theology.16 Second, despite their substantial numbers relative
Catholic population, the indigenous priests of the Diocese of Nuev
most deprived, that is, the least likely to be allowed to serve as pari
I). Finally, during the same early post-"pacification" period a Spa
pointed ecclesiastical governor of the Ilocos region. The priests of Ilo
that their parishes would be returned to Augustinian control and they themselves
reduced to the secondary status of assistants. Because of their nationalism and self-
interest they determined to resist. The depth of these factors in the public con-
sciousness in Ilocos Norte is suggested by the high percentage of both elite and
average citizens who joined the new church (Fig. 2).
Adherence to the new church diffused rapidly.'7 Its progress was aided by popular
indignation about the Holy See's failure to provide a Filipino hierarchy and to
withdraw the friars.18 Several priests in provinces adjoining Ilocos Norte came over to
the movement, as did thousands of Ilocanos, especially those in the frontier areas of
heavy Ilocano in-migration. Independiente parishes were soon established in the
larger centers of neighboring Pangasinan. At the same time crowds attended early

15 Mary Dorita Clifford, B.V.M.: Iglesia Filipina Independiente: The Revolutionary Church, in Studies
in Philippine Church History [see footnote 5 above], pp. 223-255; and Pedro S. de Achutegui, S.J., and
Miguel A. Bernad, S.J.: Religious Revolution in the Philippines (4 vols.; Ateneo de Manila, Manila, 1960),
Vol. I, pp. 25-142, and Vol. 3, pp. 112-117.
16 Letter from John N. Schumacher, S.J., Jan. 23, 1975. Also, whereas Vigan (in central Ilocos Sur) had
long been a bishop's seat and major center of Hispanization, the more northerly portions of the coastal
Ilocano language group had periodically revolted against the established order. See Sinibaldo de Mas: In-
forme sobre el estado de las islas Filipinas en 1842 (3 vols.; Madrid, 1843), Vol. 2, "Historia," pp. 60-64 in
Readings in Philippine History (edited by H. de la Costa, S.J.; Bookmark, Manila, 1965), pp. 182-183; and
Felix Keesing: The Ethnohistory of Northern Luzon (Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, Calif., 1962), pp. 16o
and 329.
17 On the early diffusion of the Independiente movement, see Achutegui and Bernad, op. cit. [see foot-
note 15 above], Vol. 1, pp. 210-233; Lewis B. Whittemore: Struggle for Freedom: History of the Philippine
Independent Church (Seabury Press, Greenwich, Conn., and London, 1961), pp. 125-135; and Josef
Schmitz, S.V.D.: The Abra Missions in Northern Luzon, Philippines, 1598-1955, Univ. of San Carlos Occas.
Monograph, Ser. D, No. 2, Cebu City, 1971, pp. 125-128.
18 Robertson, op. cit. [see footnote 12 above], pp. 330-334; and Clifford [see footnote 15 above], reference
on pp. 245-246.

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 120 125 -20
Ilocos N, 20

PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT
CHURCH ADHERENCE, 1918

PERCENT INDEPENDIENTE

- 75.0-84.9

- 50.0-74.9

E 25.0-49.9

10.0-24.9

E 5.0-9.9
E 3 1.0-4.9
i

I <1.0

Southern Limit 15-

of llocano
Pluralities, 1939

I
- - Provincial Boundary
-. *.*... Lesser Statistical
Boundary

AMAR

Surigao

10-

\ /I 130

t100 200 300 Kilometers

5,5 125
I .. l~~~~~~~~~~~
130

FIG. 2-The distribution of Philippine Independent Church adherence, 1918. Compile

data in: Census of the Philippines, 1918 [see text footnote 20], Vol. 2, pp. 50 and 39
"Census of the Philippines, 1939" (Commission of the Census, Philippine Common
Manila, 1940), Vol. i.

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166 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

PIC masses in Manila, whence the movement quickly spread

In the Visayas, many Filipino priests on Panay no longer
bishop. Although few of them became Independientes, man
pecially in Antique Province. The Independent Church also drew
numerous municipalities of Negros and in northern Mindanao.
of the early Independent Church did not reach substantiall
areas (although a few early members were hill folk from north
not well received in southern Luzon (Bicol) or in the eastern Vi
information on local shifts in religious adherence is lacking, bu
for 1918 indicates that the diffusion of higher magnitudes of
did not closely follow a hierarchical pattern.
Participation in the new church continued to increase rap
The impelling force of the movement was religious nationalism
church led by a Filipino hierarchy, but it also canonized severa
The Independent Church "became a protest against abuses r
that sense brought on a reformation.'9
In many towns Independientes took over the parish chur
venerable images and rich local spiritual attachments, but in
Court ordered these buildings returned to Roman Catholic cont
a critical juncture; thereafter interest in a national church beg
census was taken in I918, 1,413,506 persons, 15 percent of th
identified themselves as members of the PIC.20
The fortunes of the new church receded for a number of reasons in addition to the
loss of church buildings. As many religious departed and as the friars' lands were
purchased by the colonial government and resold to Filipino interests (beginning in
1908), much of the cause for vehement anti-friar opinion was removed. Furthermore,
the PIC lacked governmental subsidy. Like the Roman Catholic leadership, the
Independientes had no prior experience in financial self-support. There were internal
problems as well, such as maintaining a continuity of Catholic ritual form while the
early leaders of the new church and a few of the Ilocano clergy moved into unitarian
belief. Also, the flock of the new church grew much more rapidly than new clergy
could be adequately trained. Finally, the Independiente leadership's strong advocacy
of Philippine independence damaged their early working relationship with the
American authorities.
The Philippine Independent Church did not win a universal national following;
rather, it retained from the stage of rapid diffusion a complex and discontinuous pat-
tern arching from northwestern Luzon to northeastern Mindanao (Fig. 2). The
reasons underlying this distribution are complex. The first involves a regional factor
of shared communications, attitudes, and loyalties. The anchor of the Independiente
distribution was Ilocos Norte. Nowhere else did priests join the movement in such
numbers. ~ithough the new church enjoyed only a modest following along the rest of
the long-settled Ilocos coast, it nevertheless developed a strong appeal among
Ilocanos who had migrated to the inner Central Plain of Luzon, to neighboring Zam-

'9 Robertson, op. cit. [see footnote 12 above], p. 343. See also Clifford, op. cit. [see footnote 15 above]; and
Peter G. Gowing: Islands Under the Cross (Natl. Council of Churches in the Philippines, Manila, 1967), pp.
133-142 and i62-168.
20 Roman Catholics accounted for 83.5 percent of the enumerated Christian population in 1918 and
Protestants for 1.3 percent. Calculated from data in "Census of the Philippines, 1918" (Census Office of the
Philippine Islands, Manila, 1920), Vol. 2, pp. 394-395.

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 GEOGRAPHY OF SCHISM i67

bales, and to the long Cagayan Valley of northeastern Luzon.

"uprootedness" peculiar to migrants may have led to high rates
settler areas. In any case, the sharp contrast along the language
the middle of the Central Plain illustrates the ethnic dimension.21
Second, the Independent Church existed because of hostility toward both the
Spanish friars and the apparent early decision of the Holy See to keep the Church un-
der foreign (that is, American) control. Thus, the pattern of adherence to the PIC
may be interpreted as an expression of the varying regional intensity of that hostility.
One-third of the population of Manila, long a hotbed of nationalist activity, identified
with the new church in 1918. The region of modest adherence south of the city in
Tagalog Cavite and Laguna reflects the location of the most troublesome of the friar
estates as well as the revolutionary leadership in the area.
The larger pattern of hostility strikingly reflects the distribution and differences in
the character of the major religious orders. Variations in institution, discipline, and
effectiveness among the orders in various epochs were notable. In the late nineteenth
century the Franciscans and the newly returned Jesuits owned no landed estates, and
thus neither had that basis of conflict with their parishioners-in marked contrast to
the other three major orders. There were also differences in approach to parish
ministry and of effectiveness in demonstrating and inculcating high standards of faith
and practice. Phelan, writing about the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
declares that in their Ilocos and Visayan stations the Augustinians were the least
effective teachers of doctrine.22 Whether that was also true in the nineteenth century is
problematical. Certainly the disproportionately large size of the Augustinian parishes
in the later part of that century suggests a population less than adequately reached.23
The Recollects are more closely linked to the pattern of reaction. It was they who had
charge of Zambales, Negros, Mindoro, Romblon, most of Cavite, and Misamis on the
northern coast of Mindanao. Virulent anti-friar sentiment directed at Recollects in
some of these places has been documented.24 It is striking how many provinces under
Recollect care became fertile grounds for the Independent Church. The Franciscan
pastoral area illustrates exactly the opposite case.
Independiente diffusion also involved a "boondocks factor"-a tendency for the
PIC to be more successful in out-of-the-way places. Zambales, for example, was a
marginal area throughout the Spanish period, largely unoccupied by any of the major
lowland language groups until the nineteenth century. Twenty years after the Revolu-
tion the archbishop of Manila reported that for lack of priests "sometimes Mass is not
celebrated in the towns of [Zambales] oftener than once or twice a year."25 Antique
was also difficult to reach, and like lowland Mindoro, it recovered slowly from the

21 To avoid masking this pattern, the inner Central Plain provinces of Tarlac and Nueva Ecija have been
roughly divided along the linguistic transition zone that runs through both, with Ilocano speakers to the
north and Pampangans and Tagalogs, respectively, to the south (Fig. 2).
22 Phelan, op. cit. [see footnote 9 above], p. 60.
23 In 1870 the 196 Augustinian parishes averaged 9,367 souls each. The next largest parishes were those
staffed by the Dominicans on Luzon, which averaged only 6,144 (Cavada, op. cit. [see footnote lo above],
Vol. i, p. 371, and Vol. 2, pp. 353 and 402).
24 Some of this animosity may have been engendered by the rapid mid-nineteenth century expansion in
the number of parishes under Recollect care, often at the expense of Filipino diocesan clergy (Achutegui
and Bernad, op. cit. [see footnote 15 above], Vol. I, pp. 530-532; and "Provincia de San Nicholas de Tolen-
tino de Agustinos descalzos . . .", in The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 [edited by Emma H. Blair and
James A. Robertson; 55 vols.; A. H. Clark and Co., Cleveland, Ohio, 1903-1909], Vol. 28, pp. 300-348).
25 M. J. O'Doherty: The Religious Situation in the Philippines, Amer. Ecclesiastical Rev., Vol. 74, 1926, pp.
129-138, reference on pp. 134-135.

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 120 125 20
llocos Norte 20
Nueva
Segovia ROMAN CATHOLIC ADHERENCE
(Vigan)j IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1918
PERCENT

,- E i ROMAN CATHOLIC

-15 I i :!'~:'i::i:i!!::i?'iii:~ii . . 85.0-94.9

.'. .... ....I . 75.0-84.9

I .
I % I - 50.0-74.9
MANILA*EZ i 2 B 25.0-49.9
(55%) 9Nueva
XN ueva Ia.: 10.0-24.9
aceres 5.0- 9.9
-. '.. (Naga) 5.0-9.9
I :.I L 0-4.9 _
2 \ 0 1 , , %it^^ * Episcopal Seat
/\ ^^ ^---- Diocesan Boundary

p P_ | t _ ^ y \ ---- Provincial Boundary

] ^ f \ .. 'Lesser Statistical
%ni u 1 ^Boundary
Antique
SAMAR

10 Ja
BU
Negros Occidental LEYT

Negro I
Oriental_ , BOHOL

10-

- 0 100 200 300 Kilometers

.5 o

5 125 130

from data in the Census of the Philippines, 1918 [see text

433.

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 GEOGRAPHY OF SCHISM i69

devastating slave raids by Muslims from Sulu and Mindanao

eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. All of these provinces as w
Mindanao remained remote from the mainstream of colonial life in 1
qualified personnel to carry out an adequate program of religious inst
doubt critical to the later religious reaction in these areas. The sam
also among the last to receive new priests to replace the departed fri
that the early gains of the Independent Church would be relativ

ROMAN CATHOLIC REACTION AND NASCENT RECOVERY

The Revolution, the advent of American rule, disestablishment, and the Aglipayan
schism and its causes combined to erode substantially the position of the Catholic
church in the Philippines from 1898 to about 1920. Church leaders presided over a
religious institution "reduced to the status of a foreign mission, dependent in every
way-for funds, for men, for leadership-on foreign aid."26 Grave as the difficulties
were, they were not all permanent or everywhere apparent.
Soon after the formal Independiente movement began, steps were taken to deal
with the crisis of Catholic leadership, and by 1903 all five Spanish prelates had
resigned. They were quickly replaced by four American bishops and a Filipino
apostolic administrator. Despite some administrative success, these church leaders
continued to be faced with the challenge posed by the Independent Church. Indepen-
dientes on their own initiative or by invitation of various local authorities and elites
continued to appropriate Catholic parish churches, many of which had stood little
used since 1898. Until the issue was definitely resolved by court decision in 1906, the
prelates faced a deteriorating state of affairs in a number of provinces. Thereafter, the
situation began to stabilize.
In the Christian lowlands the map of Roman Catholic adherence in 1918 is
primarily a reciprocal of the pattern of Independiente membership (Fig. 3). The pat-
tern of continued adherence is dramatically regionalized. In the east central Philip-
pines, 95 percent or more of the inhabitants remained at least nominally identified
with the Catholic church. Strong adherence also characterized the outer Tagalog
provinces and southernmost Ilocos. Elsewhere a substantial shift in religious al-
legiance is evident.
No single strategy or set of conditions characterizes the areas of highest continued
allegiance to Catholicism. Furthermore, a matter as complex as the decision to
change religious affiliation in such a society is generally the product of several related
factors involving individuals, families, larger webs of social communication, and es-
pecially the actions of local authority figures. An examination of the situations in
three dioceses illustrates these themes.
The Diocese of Nueva Caceres, which then included all of the Bikol language area,
was peripheral in the Revolution. Nevertheless, in 1896 eleven of its citizens, including
three Filipino priests, were arrested and subsequently executed. In 1898, as the
Revolution spread from the Tagalog area, the regional Spanish government was
overthrown and the friars placed under arrest. Despite these events, the Indepen-
diente movement made little headway in Bicol. Part of the explanation of this may lie
in the nature of the institution of the Spanish Franciscans (Discalced branch), who
provided pastoral care for extensive areas of Bicol during the three centuries
26 H. de la Costa, S.J.: Asia and the Philippines (Solidaridad Publishing House, Manila, 1967), p. 144.

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I70 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

preceding 1898. Perhaps their particular approach to the faith

century (said to be more emotional and less intellectual t
orders) was more in keeping with Filipino culture patterns an
transmitted.27 More importantly, a sizable native clergy was
in Bicol. Two of the last three Spanish bishops of the dio
emphasis to education in general and to encouraging voca
among the indigenous population in particular. In I895 Nu
Philippine diocese in which Filipino curates held a majority of
ratio of Catholics per Filipino priest was roughly half that of
cellent clue to the vitality of the faith and relative degree of c
(Table I). Furthermore, the last Spanish bishop had the f
Barlin, a Bicolano secular, vicar of Sorsogon, a province staffe
digenous priests. Unlike Aglipay, Barlin rejected an offer
Independiente movement, and in I903 he was named aposto
diocese. Two years later he became the first Filipino bishop
Thus, not only did the Diocese of Nueva Caceres have the mos
digenous clergy, but with only one exception that clergy rem
obedient to its native prelate.28
Events in the larger Diocese of Cebu provide a contrast. Wh
assumed the see of Cebu in I 904, he encountered greater d
Nueva Caceres. First, the people of the island of Cebu had part
the struggle to throw off Spanish rule, and as a result the
Church had some initial appeal, particularly in the environs o
Samar island had been thoroughly ravaged the year before by
cation" campaign. Finally, the Filipino governor of Misamis and many political
figures at the municipal level in that province were actively promoting the Indepen-
dent Church. Bishop Hendrick faced these problems with a diocesan clergy which
was considerably less numerous in relation to population than that available to
Bishop Barlin.
Hendrick and his mestizo successor assigned as pastors the Filipino seculars who
had administered the former Augustinian and Recollect parishes of eastern Cebu dur-
ing the Revolution. Almost 60 percent of the clergy ordained following graduation
from the diocesan seminary were from that island.30 Thus there were enough ordained
natives of the island to staff most of Cebu's parishes. Likewise, Cebuano and
Boholano seculars took over the former Recollect parishes in Bohol. Most of the
balance of the secular clergy was assigned to Leyte, including priests from all of the
other islands of the diocese. With all his Filipino priests thus committed and scores of
parishes still vacant, the bishop chose to send thirty Spanish Franciscans back to care
for some of their former parishes in Samar. Twenty other friars were quietly sent to

27 Phelan (op. cit. [see footnote 9 above], p. 61) argues that during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies catechismal "instruction in the Franciscan parishes was of the highest quality in the islands."
28 Abella, op. cit. [see footnote 13 above], pp. 171-208 and 222; Pablo Fernandez, O.P., andJose Arcilla,
S.J.: A Report on the Diocese of Nueva Caceres from 1895-1908, Philippiniana Sacra, Vol. 7, 1972, pp.
270-309; James B. Rodgers: Forty Years in the Philippines (Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America, New York, 1940), p. 118; and Achutegui and Bernad, op. cit. [see
footnote 15 above], Vol. 1, p. 229. Even in Caceres twelve parishes (io percent) remained vacant in 1908.
29 Achutegui and Bernad, op. cit. [see footnote 15 above], Vol. I, pp. 214-229.
30 Calculated for I867-1903 from data in "Resefia hist6rica del Seminario-colegio de San Carlos de
Cebu, 1867-1917" (E. C. McCullough & Co., Manila, 1917), pp. 133-178.

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 GEOGRAPHY OF SCHISM 171

scattered posts elsewhere in the diocese.31 Despite the oppositi

governor of the colony, Bishop Hendrick correctly judged that
would be acceptable to the relatively isolated Samarefios, where
taken in central Cebu would probably have led to civil disruption a
cess for the Independent Church. Unlike Cebu or Ilocos Norte
produced a numerous indigenous clergy. Furthermore, the need fo
in the extensive Samar-Leyte language area in eastern Leyte wa
was no substantial body of nationalistic Samarefo clergy to feel be
by the returning Franciscans. Moreover, the carnage of the 1903 p
foredoomed any American Protestant efforts at proselytism on
the scattered Independiente attempts were also turned back, even i
parishes.32
Misamis Province (in northern Mindanao) illustrates the role of local authority
figures in crystallizing and directing a broader urge for change. From the beginning of
the Independiente movement in I902, Misamis was one of its strongholds. Bishop
Hendrick found that the Filipino governor of the province, as well as a great many
municipal presidentes and councilors, were encouraging this religious expression of
their nationalism. He also found menacing and officially approved demonstrations of
opposition during his pastoral visits. Hendrick laid the troubles of the Catholic
Church in Misamis primarily at the feet of these officials and cited instances of
persons who became Independientes through fear and intimidation.33 That explana-
tion is not sufficient. There was a deep reaction to the Recollect friars in Misamis, and
the lack of an indigenous clergy there was a fact of long standing-an adverse reflec-
tion on the state of the faith. Between i867 and 1903 Misamis produced only one or-
dained graduate of the diocesan seminary. During the same period, with twice as
many inhabitants, Bohol and Samar produced ten and fourteen secular priests
respectively.34 It was under Jesuit care that the faith was rebuilt in eastern Misamis. A
few Recollect priests remained as curates in western Misamis until 191g8.
The problems of the Diocese of Jaro were similar to those of Misamis Province, but
of greater scale; that is, the fewest indigenous clergy relative to population of any
Philippine diocese, reaction to Recollect and Augustinian friars, and a substantial
group of Filipino officials who led the way to the Independent Church or to Protestant-
ism. The impact of these factors during the first years of the schism was compounded
by the unified (temporary) disobedience of many secular priests and by the apparent
antipathy of the first American bishop to Filipino nationalists.35 The low rate of

31 Frederick J. Zwierlein: Theodore Roosevelt and Catholics, 1882-1919 (Victor T. Suren, St. Louis,
Mo., 1956), pp. 257-258; and Rodgers, op. cit. [see footnote 28 above], pp. 93-94. Arcilla contends that the
friars could have returned safely to "most" of their former parishes (Jose S. Arcilla, S.J.: The Taft Commis-
sion and the Catholic Church, Philippiniana Sacra, Vol. 8, 1973, pp. 455-484, reference on pp. 466-467).
32 Zwierlein, op. cit. [see footnote 31 above], pp: 261-262 and 301-302; Achutegui and Bernad, op. cit. [see
footnote 15 above], Vol. 1, p. 214. The lack of defection does not mean that Samarefio attitudes toward
church and friars were not altered during the Revolution (Bruce Cruikshank: An Essay on the History of
Samar Island in the Philippines, I768-i898 [unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of History, Univ. of
Wisconsin-Madison, 1975], conclusion).
33 See Hendrick's letters in Zwierlein, op. cit. [see footnote 31 above], pp. 103, 147, 155-160, 163, and 165,
as well as Achutegui and Bernad, op. cit. [see footnote 15 above], Vol. 1, pp. 214-215, 220-221, and 529-532.
Bishop Hendrick depicted the Independientes as "an insurrectionary movement under the guise of
religion," anti-American as well as schismatic (Zwierlein, op. cit., pp. 147 and i6o).
R4 Resefna hist6rica [see footnote 30 above], pp. 173-178.
36 Zwierlein, op. cit. [see footnote 31 above], pp. io8-i 13, 118, 129, and 181; and Achutegui and Bernad,
op. cit. [see footnote 15 above], Vol. i, pp. 229-230.

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I 72 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

generating indigenous clergy is a clue that of all the extensive

areas the western Visayas was least involved in the full expr
Catholic practice. Some of the reasons for this state of affairs em
of two nineteenth-century prelates. Just before the new Dioce
from his territory in I865, Bishop Romualdo Jimeno of Cebu w
Recollect and secular curates in his diocese were neglectin
ticularly in Panay: "This island above all the rest gives me
farther the parishes are from the mother town [then
pronounced is the relaxation of morals [of the clergy]. Th
greater shines their holiness. "36 In 1875 the first bishop of Ja
felicitous behavior of some of the secular priests and religious
In most instances the two bishops were unable to compel high s
behavior because of the general shortage of priests and, in the
obstacles to removal. Poor moral leadership, occasional fail
doctrine in some parishes, and a shortage of clergy were all pro
Combined with the anticolonialist Zeitgeist they provided the p
scale defection. As in several other areas, the spatial pattern of
provinces of Panay was one of scattered concentrations in p
Since there is little correlation between these municipalit
parishes administered in Capiz Province on the eve of the
Filipino or Spanish priests, one is led again to the role of loc
precipitation of schism: the actions of a municipal presidente a
tials, a particularly disliked friar, and/or the work of a has
Filipino PIC priest.
The eventual recovery of the Catholic church was due to several factors in addition
to those already discussed. One of the most important among these was the gradual
identification of the Catholic church in the Philippines as a Filipino institution-for
many, a central element of Philippine culture. Actually the Catholic church had been
an integral part of a heavily Hispanicized "great culture tradition" in the Philippines
in the first place. Unlike Mexico, where missionaries and conquerors had attempted
to replace a long-established religious and political tradition, in the Philippines the
Spanish religion and administrative arrangements were variously reinterpreted and
added to less-developed local cultural traditions. Although many friars and Spanish
bishops were vilified by the propagandists, the nationalist movement in the Philip-
pines was not broadly antichurch. The provinces around Manila that were most in-
volved in the Revolution went over to the Aglipayans only in moderate numbers, not
en masse. Thus the Catholic church had less opposition to overcome after the Philip-
pine Revolution than it did after each Mexican revolution.38 The departure of most of

36 Pablo Fernandez, O.P., and Jose Arcilla, S.J.: The Diocese of Cebu in 1865, Philippiniana Sacra, Vol. 6,
1971, PP. 304-343, reference on p. 331. This "holiness gradient" was also evident in the origins of persons
who entered the priesthood. Between 1867 and 1901 a third of the secular priests of the Diocese of Cebu
trained at the diocesan seminary were from Cebu-San Nicolas-Mandawe, the single important urban
center of that see (Resefna hist6rica [see footnote 30 above] pp. 175-177). Thus the late establishment of a
diocese and seminary centered in Panay was partly responsible for the poor state of the faith in that area.
37 Pablo Fernandez, O.P., and Jose Arcilla, S.J.: The Diocese of Jaro in 1875, Philippiniana Sacra, Vol. 7,
1972, pp. 114-145, reference on pp. 136-139.
38 Phelan, op. cit. [see footnote 9 above]; Ricard, op. cit. [see footnote 5 above]; Wilfrid Hardy Callcott:
Church and State in Mexico, 1822-1857 (Octagon Books, Inc., New York, 1965); and Robert E. Quirk: The
Mexican Revolution and the Catholic Church, 1910-1929 (Indiana Univ. Press, Bloomington, 1973).

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 GEOGRAPHY OF SCHISM 173

the friars and all of the Spanish bishops and the sale of friar
mitigate the stigma, if not among Independientes, at least for m
Philippine society. Equally important, the great majority of th
(with the single exception of that of Ilocos Norte) stood fast
vocational commitments to the Catholic church. The creation of
and the eventual appointment of an overwhelmingly Filipino episco
appropriate and widely recognized symbols of an indigenous chu
provided the substance of indigenous control. By 1920 Filipinos held
dioceses. Foreign missionary priests arriving from Europe and Nort
the 1920's and before helped to reverse the direction of religiou

EARLY PROTESTANT PROSELYTISM

The advent of American rule in the Philippines led swiftly to the imposition of such
American traditions as the separation of church and state and the freedom to adhere
to any religion or to none. It also led to the immediate arrival of missionaries from
several Protestant denominations whose members tended to see the "opening" of the
Philippines as a God-given opportunity to fulfill America's destiny as a "civilizing and
Christianizing power" (notwithstanding the fact that most Filipinos were already
Christians).39 Reflecting the plethora of American Evangelical denominations,
Methodist, Presbyterian, American Baptist, United Brethren, Disciples of Christ, and
Congregational representatives were in the field by 1901. They were soon joined by a
variety of other groups, including Episcopalians and Adventists. By that same year
the missionaries of most of the main-line Protestant denominations had joined in an
Evangelical Union, which made possible an evolving agreement to divide the country
into mission fields and thereby minimize competition and duplication. Thus almost
from the first several major Protestant organizations had adopted a geographical mis-
sion strategy which was strongly reminiscent of that formally imposed on the Catholic
religious orders in I594. Because of several differences in approach by the various
denominations, the comity arrangements strongly shaped the early geography of
Protestantism in the Philippines (Fig. 4).40
Mission activity also varied from group to group. The Presbyterian and Baptist
approach stressed education as well as the religious message. The Presbyterians
emphasized medical service as well. The Methodists, in contrast, were more
singleminded, with a "concentration on evangelism; soul-saving is the single aim. The
message is simple and it is warmly emotional, gripping hearts first and minds
afterwards. "41

39 For this reason several Protestant denominations played a role in affirming President William
McKinley's policy of annexation (Gerald H. Anderson: Providence and Politics behind Protestant Mis-
sionary Beginnings in the Philippines, in Studies in Philippine Church History [see footnote 5 above], pp.
279-300).
40 Rodgers, op. cit. [see footnote 28 above], pp. 163-165; Walter N. Roberts: The Filipino Church
(Foreign Missionary Society . . . , United Brethren in Christ, Dayton, Ohio, 1936), pp. 2-3, 11-14, and
57-60; and Enrique C. Sobrepefia: That They May Be One (United Church of Christ in the Philippines,
Manila, 1964), pp. 28-46. The timely translation of the Gospels into the major regional languages was a
notable aspect of interdenominational cooperation and greatly aided evangelization. By 1904 Protestants
were distributing major Bible portions in Tagalog, Ilocano, Pangasinan, Capampangan, Spanish, and
Chinese (Stuntz, op. cit. [see footnote 12 above], pp. 394-408).
41 Frank C. Laubach: The People of the Philippines (G. H. Doran Co., New York, 1925), pp. 184 and
221.

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 125 20
20-

PROTESTANT MISSION TERRITORIES

IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1901-1923

Presbyterian

United Brethren

m Congregationalist
:I3 Disciples (1923)
-15. X
S Methodist
Baptist
MANILA--
Christian and Missionary

_
Alliance

|*

120

PAN

(to Baptists, 1925) &<& liliHSAMAR

-10 i to Presbyterians, 1925)

II?1I

DANAO N
-/ " 3
/\ \ ft0 3X)iom*r13

?\ } O } 2@ 3 liilometers

0 100 200 300 Kilometers

125 130
-
t

Fio. 4-Protestant mission territories in the Philippines, 1901-1923. Sources: Rodgers, op. cit.
[see text footnote 28] pp. I63-165; Gowing, op. cit. [see text footnote 191, pp. 127-128; and
Laubach, op. cit. [see text footnote 41], p. 204.

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 120 125 20
20-

PROTESTANT ADHERENCE
IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1918

PERCENT PROTESTANT

- 2.0-4.9

1.0-1.9
-15
I[ 0-0.9

MANILA
(6.6%)

120

-Provincial Boundary
-........ Lesser Statistical
Boundary

-10

10-

130
/

inn
v IW VV >W)rn Ann
u RiometersllU

125 130

FIG. 5-The distribution of Protestant adherence in the Philippines, 1918. Compiled

from data in Census of the Philippines, 1918 [see text footnote 20], Vol. 2, pp. 5o and 394-
433.

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 i76 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

Variations in the degree to which the several missionary

resulted both from style of approach and from the relativ
regional populations. In October, 1899, a Presbyterian deleg
sance by steamer of possible sites for a school. Both Iloilo an
in the Revolution and had fought against the American occupa
there was considerable anti-imperialist sentiment in those citie
to begin mission work. Likewise, Zamboanga and Musli
favorable. Only in Dumaguete, the small principal town of
the governor wanted a school, were the missionaries well recei
Oriental became a focus of considerable Presbyterian missio
tivity. Along with the Independientes, the Presbyterians also f
Antique (western Panay), where entire villages were said to
church."42 In other provinces attachment to the Catholic c
Diligent Presbyterian mission and medical work in Bohol,
Peninsula, and, after 1925, in Samar resulted in only limit
persecution, and even occasional violence were encountered
The Methodists, on the other hand, adapted the circuit-
revival techniques that they had used so effectively in the
soon were meeting what they considered to be high success on
of the Revolution in Luzon. By I907 they had organized mor
tions, each with several indigenous exhorters and preachers, and were conducting
leadership training in six dispersed Bible schools." The Methodist campaign style
was further aided by the introduction of automobiles and by the general improvement
of provincial roads during the 1920's.
The 1918 census reported almost I23,000 Protestants. These were distributed
primarily in the Methodist territory (nearly two-fifths of the total), Ilocos, the central
Tagalog provinces, Panay, and Negros (Fig. 5).45 Although substantial progress had
been made (compared to contemporary Evangelical missionary efforts in Latin
America), there were no provinces in which Protestants were more than a small
minority. Only in Manila, common territory for the evangelization efforts of all
denominations, did Protestants exceed 5 percent of the population. In that sense the
early pattern was unlike that of the Independent Church, although both were well
represented in several of the same regions.

42 Ibid., p. 186. The relationship between the two churches was not accidental. Rodgers (op. cit. [see foot-
note 28 above], pp. 45-46) credited the PIC with breaking down "the old superstition that outside
the Roman Church, there [is] no salvation." See also Stuntz, op. cit. [see footnote 12 above], pp. 494-
495.
43 Rodgers, op. cit. [see footnote 28 above], p. 103, also pp. 93, 10o1, i io-lI , and 114-118; and Stuntz, op.
cit. [see footnote 12 above], pp. 403-406. Nationally, the burden of interdenominational persecution and
violence does not fall on any one group. See John A. Larkin: The Pampangans (Univ. of California Press,
Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972), p. 181; Achutegui and Bernad, op. cit. [see footnote 15 above], Vol. i, pp.
216-221; and Schmitz, op. cit. [see footnote 17 above], p. 163.
44 Richard L. Deats: The Story of Methodism in the Philippines (Natl. Council of Churches in the
Philippines, Manila, 1964), pp. 12-17; and Stuntz, op. cit. [see footnote 12 above], pp. 420-455.
45 Census of the Philippines, 1918 [see footnote 20 above], Vol. 2, pp. 394-395. By 1922, the 65,301
Methodists outnumbered the Presbyterians, who were the next largest Evangelical group, by four to one
(Laubach, op. cit. [see footnote 41 above], pp. 482-483). Episcopalian missionaries declined to proselytize
among the Catholic population and began a series of schools and missions in the highlands of northern
Luzon, but the present pattern of non-Roman Catholic Christian adherence in the uplands emerged after
1918.

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 GEOGRAPHY OF SCHISM
I 77

CONCLUSIONS

During the Spanish period the Catholic church played

emergence of a reasonably well articulated Filipino lowl
"centralizing processes must remain sedulously at work to h
together as a nation.""46 The capacity of the Philippine segment
to function in this manner during the nineteenth century was
the lack of well-trained priests in numbers sufficient to kee
growth and by the rising tension between nascent Philippin
political role of friar-pastors. At the root of both problems
general tradition of training and entrusting responsibility to a
clergy. Inadequately trained Filipino priests tended to propagate
tions and practices of the "little traditions." Also, the nature
during the long interaction between the several major region
ticular religious orders and resulting from the interplay with p
forces was not uniform. Great differences in the numbers of F
priest point to strong regional variation in the degree of involv
The result by 1898 was a regionally and locally variegated re
with marginal millennial movements. This regionalization un
lowland distributions developed by both the Philippine Indep
Protestants as well as the resultant pattern of Catholic persi
Schism resulted from the institutional conflicts brought into
tion. As a popular movement it began with the mass defection o
and laity of Ilocos Norte Province. It spread rapidly among
munities, among Philippine nationalists in the central core regio
of-the-way provinces which had been under the care of the Rec
which had long been under Franciscan care (Bicol and S
developed and employed a substantial native clergy (Bicol an
over. Although the Philippine Independent Church aspired to un
spread was abruptly terminated when it had to give up all f
church structures. In i918, the PIC was predominant in Ilocos
a most important element of the religious diversity of the north
provinces.
Various forms of Protestantism were introduced during th
stitutional change which began with the Revolution and continu
years of American rule. Regionalization of these forms began
agreements on mission territory. In the lowlands Protestants wo
adherents in those provinces where the PIC had first gained a f
successful in the same regions which the Independientes found d
Unlike the PIC, however, main-line Evangelical churches con
rapidly than the population as a whole until the eve of Wo

46 Philip L. Wagner: Environments and Peoples (Prentice-Hall, Inc., Engl

P- 95.

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