Among the members of this confraternity were Father Agustin Mendoza, the parish priest of Santa Cruz; Dr. Jose Burgos, also a native priest; Maximo Paterno, the father of Pedro A. Paterno; Ambrosio Rianzares Bautista; and others still living (some personally known to me), under the presidency of Jose Maria Basa (now residing in Hong-Kong). This Secret Society demanded reforms, and published in Madrid their organ, _Eco de Filipinas_, copies of which reached the Islands. The copy for the paper was the result of the society's deliberations. The monks, incensed at its publication, were, for a long time, puzzled to find out whence the information emanated. Many of the desired reforms closely affected the position of the regular clergy, the Philippine priests, led by Dr. Burgos, urging the fulfilment of the Council of Trent decisions, which forbade the friars to hold benefices unless there were no secular priests available. It appears that the friars, nevertheless, secured these ecclesiastical preferments by virtue of Papal Bulls of Pius V. and subsequent Popes, who authorized friars to act as parish priests, not in perpetuity, but so long as secular clergymen were insufficient in number to attend to the cure of souls. The native party consequently declared that the friars retained their incumbencies illegally and by intrusion, in view of the sufficiency of Philippine secular priests. Had the Council of Trent enactments been carried out to the letter, undoubtedly the religious communities in the Philippines would have been doomed to comparative political impotence. The friars, therefore, sought to embroil Dr. Burgos and his party in overt acts of sedition, in order to bring about their downfall and so quash the movement. To this end they contrived to draw a number of Manila and Cavite natives into a conspiracy to subvert the Spanish Government. The native soldiers of the Cavite garrison were induced to co-operate in what they believed to be a genuine endeavour to throw off the Spanish dominion. They were told that rockets fired off in Manila would be the signal for revolt. It happened, however, that they mistook the fireworks of a suburban feast for the agreed signal and precipitated the outbreak in Cavite without any support in the capital. The disaffected soldiers seized the Arsenal, whilst others attacked the influential Europeans. Colonel Sabas was sent over to Cavite to quell the riot, and after a short, but stubborn resistance, the rebels were overcome, disarmed, and then formed up in line. On Colonel Sabas asking if there were any one who would not cry, "_Viva Espana!_" one man stepped forward a few paces out of the ranks. The Colonel shot him dead, and the remainder were marched to prison.