Revolutionary Clergy

Schumacher’s provocative reassessment restores the clergy to a central position by portraying them “not merely as victims of 1872, but as the ones who brought nationalism to birth, who nurtured it, who, when they had to yield leadership to others, continued to support the revolution made by others, even when it was betrayed or abandoned by many of its leaders” Journal of Asian Studies, David Sturtevant, Association for Asian Studies, 1983

Basing his account primarily on neglected archival materials in the Philippines, Spain, the Vatican and the United States, Schumacher reconstructs the kaleidoscopic difficulties facing Filipino priests at the turn of the century. Among them were: the anti-friar thrust of the Katipunan, the anti-clericalism and secularism of influential members of the Malolos government, the spiritual discord emanating from Gregorio Aglipay and the Philippine Independent Church and the strict separation of Church and State of the American colonial regime.- Journal of Asian Studies, David Sturtevant, Association for Asian Studies, 1983

Originally published in 1981, it won a Gintong Aklat Award, for History. in 1982.