But instead of being dissipated the storm appears to be increasing daily. The treaty of Biac-na-bató [183] has again placed in the mouth of many the crafty assertion, made now by the rebel leaders that the institutes of the regulars have been the only cause of the insurrection. The secret society [184] of the Katipunan, which is extending itself throughout the islands like a terrible plague, has established by order of its Gran Oriente, [185] the extinction of the religious as one of the first articles of their program of race hatred. In the Peninsula and here, the masons, and all those who, in one way or another, second them, have rejuvenated [recrudecido] their war against us. Manifestos have been published in Madrid, in which misusing the names of Filipinas, measures highly disrespectful and vexatious to the clergy are demanded. Even in the ministry of the colonies, although officiously, persons have managed to introduce themselves, who, pursued by the tribunals of justice as unfaithful do not hide their animadversion to the religious corporations. Now, if we were to continue silent in view of all these circumstances, our silence would be taken with reason as cowardice, or as an argument of guilt; our patience would be qualified as weakness; and even firm and sensible Catholics who recognize the injustice of the attacks directed upon us, could with reason infer that we were stained, or that we had come to such a prostrate condition that one could with impunity insult and mock us, as if in downright truth we were old and decayed entities whose decadence is the last symptom of death. Prius mori, quam foedari, [186] said the ancients; and the most loyal Maccabæans, "It is better to die in the battle than to see the extermination of our nation and of the sanctuary." [187] As long as the corporations exist, they will glory, as they ought, in repeating with St. Paul: "Quamdiu sum Apostolus, ministerium meum honorificabo." [188] We have always endeavored to honor our ministry, and we shall always continue to honor it, now and in the future, by the grace of God, which we trust will not fail us. Consequently, we do not vacillate in addressing ourselves today to the exalted authorities of the nation, taking shelter in our confidence, that, though we are poor and helpless, and have no other protection than our spotless history, our immaculate honor, and our secure rights, we are talking to those in whom intelligence and good sense are brothers to nobility of thought, who are always ready to listen, especially to the poor and weak, and in whom their respect and love to Catholic institutions and to the so eminently glorious and meritorious title "Regular Clergy of Filipinas," shelter them from the suggestions of sects and the prejudice of anticlerical and separatist parties.