He began his studies in a private house while waiting for an
opportunity to enter the Ateneo, as the Jesuit school is called,
and while there he saw one of his tutors, Padre Burgos, haled to
an ignominious death on the garrote as a result of the affair of
1872. This made a deep impression on his childish mind and, in fact,
seems to have been one of the principal factors in molding his ideas
and shaping his career. That the effect upon him was lasting and that
his later judgment confirmed him in the belief that a great injustice
had been done, are shown by the fact that his second important work,
El Filibusterismo, written about 1891, and miscalled by himself a
"novel," for it is really a series of word-paintings constituting a
terrific arraignment of the whole regime, was dedicated to the three
priests executed in 1872, in these words: "Religion, in refusing
to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime imputed to you; the
government, in surrounding your case with mystery and shadow, gives
reason for belief in some error, committed in fatal moments; and all
the Philippines, in venerating your memory and calling you martyrs,
in no way acknowledges your guilt.
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