None the less, Rizal and Josephine continued to regard themselves as plighted, and after a time in Hong-Kong Mr. Taufer was won over to consent to their union. Josephine went to Manila, where she made the acquaintance of Rizal’s mother and sisters. She was about to start for Dapitan to renew the attempt to gain the sanction of the church when in a conversation Mrs. Mercado reminded her that there were two views of this proceeding. It was doubtful if the bishop could be induced to think well of the marriage; but even if he could his permission would then be regarded as evidence of compromise on Rizal’s part. In the opinion of many of his countrymen he enlisted against the church when he enrolled against the friars; since the religious orders had come to control the ecclesiastic as well as the political administration, the distinction between church and friar was to some minds fairly vague. Mrs. Mercado desired that nothing should weaken her son’s influence; a constancy from which we may surmise of what fighting stock she came. She knew that anything that looked like compromise would hearten his enemies and dismay his friends. Therefore, she suggested a civil marriage, the church to be ignored. Civil marriages and even common-law marriages were now authorized by the laws of Spain, and, if not yet decreed in the islands, were legally binding there. [193] This advice the lovers deemed good when Josephine reached Dapitan and reported it; there was no more talk of a dispensation from the bishop of Cebu. A marriage ceremony was performed by the simple device of the taking of hands before witnesses and the registering of their mutual vows.