RIVINQTON
94
RIZAL
Rivingrton, Luke, b. in London, May, 1838; d.
in London, 30 May, 1899; fourth son of Francis
Ri\-ington, a well-kno\rn London publisher. He was
educated at Highgate Grammar School and Magdalen
College, Oxford. After his ordination as an Anglican
clerg>-man in 1862, he became curate of St. Clement's,
Oxford, leaving there in 1867 for All Saints's, Mar-
garet Street, London, where he attracted attention as
a preacher. Faihng in his efforts to found a rehgious
community at Stoke, Staffordshire, he joined the
Cowley Fathers and became superior of their house
in Bombay'. Becoming unsettled in his religious
con\'ictions he \nsited Rome, where in 1888 he was
received into the Church. His ordination to the
priesthood took place on 21 Sept., 1889. He re-
turned to England and settled in Bayswater, not
undertaking any parochial work, but devoting
himself to preaching, hearing confessions, and writing
controversial works. The chief of these were "Au-
thoritv; or a plain reason for joining the Church
of Rome" (1888); "Dust" a letter to the Rev.
C. Gore on his book "Roman Catholic Claims"
(1888); "Dependence; or the insecurity of the
Anglican Position" (1889); "The Primitive Church
and the See of Peter" (1894); "Anglican Fallacies;
or I^rd Halifax on Reunion" (1895); "Rome and
England or Ecclesiastical Continuity" (1897); "The
Roman Primacj' a. d. 430-51" (1899) which was
practically a new edition of "The Primitive Church
and the See of Peter". He also wrote several
pamphlets and brought out a new edition of Bishop
Milner's "End of Religious Controversy". This
was for the Catholic Truth Society of which he was
long a member of the committee, and a prominent
figure at the annual conferences so successfully or-
ganized by the society. His pamphlets include
" Primitive and Roman " (1894) a reply to the notice
of his book "The Primitive Church" in the "Church
Quarterly Review"; "The Conversion of Cardinal
Newman" (1896) and "Tekel" (1897) in which he
criticized the reply of the Archbishops of Canterbury
and York to Pope Leo XIII after the condemnation
of Anglican Orders. In 1897 the pope conferred on
him an honorar>' doctorate in divinity. During his
latter years he lived near St. James church, Spanish
Place, devoting himself to his literary work and the
instruction of inquirers in the Catholic Faith.
The Tablet (3 and 10 June, 1899) ; Catholic Book Notes (15 June, 1899): GiLLOW, BM. Diet. Eng. Cath.; Annual Register (London,
1899). Edwin Burton.
Rizal, Jos6 Mercado, Filipino hero, physician, poet, novelist, and sculptor; b. at Calamba, Province of La Lagima, Luzon, 19 June, 1861; d. at Manila, 30 Df'cember, 1896. On his father's side he was dcat'cndoA from Lam-co, who came from China to settle in the Philippines in the latter part of the sevent^-enth century. His mother was of P'ilipino- ChineH<vSpani.sh origin. Rizal studied at the Jesuit College of the At^;nc<j, Manila, where he received the d^KFce of Ba^;helor of Arts with highest honours before he ha^^i cx)mpleUid his sixteenth year. He con- tinufjd his studies in Manila for four years and then proceeded to Spain, where he devoted himself to philosfiphy, literature, and medicine, with ophthal- mology an a speciality. In Madrid he became a Freemason, and thus became associated with men like Zorilla, Sagasta, Ca«telar, and Balaguer, promi- nent in Spanish politics. Here and in France he bf^an to imbibe the political ideas, which later cost him his life. In Gennany he was enrolled as a law student in the University of Heidelburg and became acquainU^ with Virchow and Blumentritt. In Berlin was published his novel "Noli me tangere" (1886) charar;t/'rized, perhaps too extravagantly, by W. D. Howfllfi as "a great novel" written by one "bom with a gift m far beyond that of any or all
of the authors of our roaring Uterary successes".
Several editions of the work were published in
Manila and in Spain. There is a French translation
(" Bibhotheque sociologique", num. 25, Paris, 1899),
and two abbre\dated Enghsh translations of little
value: "An Eagle's Flight" (New York, 1900), and
"Friars and FUipinos (New York, 1902). The
book satirizes the friars in the Philippines as well as
the Filipinos. Rizal's animosity to the friars was
largely of domestic origin. The friars were the land-
lords of a large hacienda occupied by his father;
there was vexatious litigation, and a few years later,
by Weyler's order, soldiers destroyed the buildings
on the land, and various members of the family were
exiled to other parts of the Islands.
Rizal returned to the PhiUppines in 1887. After a stay of about six months he set out again for Europe, passing through Japan and the United States. In London he prepared his annotated edi- tion of Morga's "Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas" which he completed in Paris (1890). In Belgium he pub- Ushed (Ghent, 1891; Manila, 1900) "El FiUbus- terismo", a sequel to "NoU me tangere". Its animus may be judged from its dedication to three Filipino priests who were executed for complicity in the Cavite outbreak of 1872. In 1891 he arrived in Hong-Kong, where he practised medicine. The following year he came to Manila, but five days before his arrival a case was filed against him for ' ' anti-rehgious and anti-patriotic propaganda " . On 7 July the governor-general ordered Rizal's deporta- tion to Mindanao. The reasons given were the finding in his baggage of a package of leaflets, "satir- izing the friars and tending to de-catholicize and so de-nationahze the people"; and the "publication of 'El Filibusterismo' dedicated to the memory of three traitors — condemned and executed by com- petent authority — and whom he hails as martyrs". Rizal spent four years in peaceful exile in Dapitan, Mindanao, when he volunteered his services to the governor to go to Cuba as a surgeon in the Spanish Army. The offer was accepted. When he arrived in Spain, he was arrested and brought back to Manila, where he was charged with founding unlawful associa- tions and promoting rebellion, and .sentenced to be shot.
Rizal had given up the practice of his religion long years before. But now he gladly welcomed the minis- trations of the Jesuit Fathers, his former professors, and he wrote a retractation of his errors and of Masonry in particular. On the morning of his execution he assisted at two Masses wath great fervour, received Holy Communion and was married to an Irish half- caste girl from Hong-Kong with whom he had co- habited in Dapitan. Almost the last words he spoke were to the Jesuit who accoinpariicd him: "My great pride, Father, ha-s brought me here." SO December, the day of his execution, has been made a national holiday by the American (jovcirninent and .S50,000 appropriated for a monument to his memory; a new province, adjacent to Manila, is called Rizal; the two centavo postage stamp and two peso bill — the denominations in most common use — bear his picture. Whether he was unjustly executed or not, is dis- puted; his plea in his own defen.sc is undoubtedly a strong one (cf. Retana). The year of his death was a year of great uprising in the Islands and feeling ran high. Whatever may be said about his sentence, its fulfilment was a political mistake. Rizal, it is said, did not favour separation from Spain, nor the expul- sion of the friars. Nor did he wish to accompli.sh his ends — reforms in the Ciovernment — by revolutionary methods, but by the education of his countrymen and their formation to habits of industry.
liesides the works mentioned above, Rizal wrote a number of poems and essays in Spanish of literary merit, some translations and short papers in German, PYench, English, and in his native dialect, Tagalog.
