Note 7 — THE FRIAR MEMORIAL OF 1898

The first Filipino freemason lodge in the Philippines was founded in Cavite about 1860 by two Spanish naval officers under the name of Luz Filipina. It was established under the auspices of the Gran Oriente Lusitana, and was in correspondence with the Portuguese lodges at Macao and Hong-Kong. Gradually other lodges were established and natives and mestizos were admitted to membership. The “Gran Oriente” of the text is the Spanish division of the order, Spain and Portugal having split into two divisions after 1860. It is claimed by Catholics that the Katipunan was the fighting branch of the masonic order. It is probably true that it borrowed some few things from freemasonry in matters of form, but there the analogy seems to end. For the friar viewpoint of masonry in Spain and the Philippines, see Navarro’s Algunos asuntos de actualidad (Madrid, 1897), pp. 221–277; and Pastells’s La masonización de Filipinas. Sawyer’s account (Inhabitants of the Philippines, pp. 79–81) is very inadequate. ↑