The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

THE SPANISH REGIME 115
venture outside the walled city to officiate in the Manila
churches. Mr. Arthur Prautch together with numerous
Filipinos held Protestant services in six Roman Catholic
churches in the city of Manila which had been deserted by
the terrified friars. If the case had not been so conclusively
proven by official records one could write pages of similar
instances from almost all parts of the Islands, showing that
the Island-wide rebellion was more anti-friar than antiSpanish.
The hatred of the friars did not mean hatred of the Roman
Catholic Church. To the pontificate the Filipino priests were
still loyal. In Leyte, which had never had any friars, and
where there had been no Jesuits for one hundred and fifty
years, but where all the churches were under the Filipino
clergy, there never was a break from Rome, and to this day
Protestantism finds it practically impossible to gain a foothold.
Where, on the other hand, the friars were particularly autocratic, the advance of other communions has been easy and
rapid. The friars had become an anachronism, seeking to
perpetuate a despotism which had gone out of date.