It was immediately followed by the arrest of a large number of Filipinos who had been conspicuous in La Torre's time and who were advocates of reform. This number included the three priests, Fathers Burgos, Zamora, and Gomez, besides Don Antonio Regidor, Don Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, Don Pedro Carillo, and others. A council of war condemned to death forty-one of the participants in the Cavite riot, and these were shot on the morning of the 27th of January, 1872, on the Field of Bagumbayan. On the 6th of February a council of war condemned to death eleven more soldiers of the regiment of artillery, but this sentence was commuted by the governor to life imprisonment. On the 15th of February the same council of war sentenced to death upon the garrote, the priests Burgos, Zamora, Gomez, and a countryman, Saldua; and this sentence was executed on the morning of the 17th. The Spread of Secret Organizations.--Masonry.--New ground for fear was now found in the spread of secret organizations, which were denounced as Free Masonry. This is a very ancient institution which, in Protestant countries like England and America, has a very large membership, and in these countries its aims are wholly respectable. It has never in any way been connected with sedition or other unworthy movements. Its services are, in fact, largely of a religious character and it possesses a beautiful and elaborate Christian ritual; but in Latin countries Masonry has been charged with political intrigue and the encouragement of infidelity, and this has resulted in clerical opposition to the order wherever found. The first Masonic lodge in the Philippines was established about 1861 and was composed entirely of Spaniards. It was succeeded by others with Filipino membership, and in one way or another seems to have inspired many secret organizations. The "Liga Filipina," and Dr. Rizal.--Large numbers of Filipinos were now working, if not for independence, at least for the expulsion of the friars; and while this feeling should have been met by a statesmanlike and liberal policy of reform, the government constantly resorted to measures of repression, which little by little changed the movement for reformation into revolution. In 1887 the "Liga Filipina," was formed by a number of the younger Filipino patriots, chief among whom was Dr. José Rizal y Mercado. Rizal, by his gifts, his noble character, and his sad fate, has gained a supreme place in the hearts of Filipinos and in the history of the Islands. He was born in 1861 at Calamba, on Laguna de Bay, and even as a child he was affected with sadness at the memory of the events of 1872 and with the backward and unhappy condition of his countrymen. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Ateneo Municipal in Manila, and his family having means, he was enabled to study in Spain, where he took a degree in medicine, and later to travel and study in France, England, and Germany.