Trading center during American period
Religious Situation The departure on August 11, 1898 of the last Spanish bishop, Jose Hevia y Campomanes, and the Augustinian faculty of the Colegio-Seminario of Vigan, left the province ripe for the taking by the Iglesia Filipina Independiente or the Philippine Independent Church. On October 20, 1898, Gregorio Aglipay was appointed by Emilio Aguinaldo as Military Vicar General, making him the religious leader of the revolutionary movement. Previous to this appointment, Aglipay was appointed by the Catholic Church in the Philippines as Ecclesiastical Governor of the Diocese of Nueva Segovia. In effect, Aglipay had one foot in the revolutionary cause, and another in the Catholic hierarchy. One day after his appointment as Military Vicar, Aglipay issued a letter to the
Filipino clergy “urging them to organize themselves into a cohesive body and urged the creation of a cabildo or council which would ask the Pope to appoint Filipinos in all church positions from archbishop to the lowest parish priest.�8 On October 22, 1898, Aglipay issued a manifesto asking the Filipino clergy to occupy the vacant parishes. Invoking his position as Ecclesiastical Governor of Nueva Segovia, Aglipay urged the priests under his jurisdiction to rally to the revolutionary cause. Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda charged Aglipay with usurpation of power on April 29, 1899, and urged the Ecclesiastical Tribunal to punish the priest with excommunication. The idea of a forming a national church came from Apolinario Mabini. While vaca-
8 Teodoro Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People. Quezon City: Garotech Publishing, 1990, p.234.
Under the Stars and Stripes 101