AGLIPAYANISM. - Under this name and that of the "Philippine Independent Church," the sect founded by the apostate priest Gregorio Aglipay y Labayan, b. at Batao (Philippines) on 7 May 1870, is designated. We know of him that with the help of the Recollect Friars of Manila, after his early studies, he entered the seminary where he was ordained a priest in 1889. A fiery partisan of Philippine independence from Spain, he aided the leader of the insurrection, Aguinaldo, serving as military chaplain of the revolutionary government, without heeding the warnings and censures of the Archbishop of Manila, Nozaleda.
When the Philippines were occupied by the Americans in 1898 and the latter had not granted independence to the islands, Aglipay continued the struggle against them; but he had to surrender in 1901. In August 1902, disgusted at not having been able to obtain the political independence of his homeland, he claimed to give it religious independence and instituted the "Philippine Independent Church," of which he constituted himself "pontifex maximus," appointing as bishops certain priests who had followed him in the rebellion.
In its beginnings Aglipay did not depart greatly from Catholic doctrine and worship, and when some Protestants, with whom he was on excellent terms, urged him to go further, he replied "that it was better that the break with the Catholic Church should appear as little as possible." Asked by a Protestant what he thought of the future of his Church, he replied that the first step was separation from Rome, and to the question what the second would be, he answered without mincing words: "Protestantism." Indeed he went as far as the extreme of anti-Trinitarianism. In a public speech, attended by many of his followers and Protestants, speaking of the Magdalene and the Apostles he said: "It was they who deified the Master with that legend (of the Resurrection), but modern man, progressive by nature, has rejected these puerile illusions..." and at the end he concluded: "Jesus, gentlemen, neither died on the cross nor rose again."
The a. had at first many followers among Philippine nationalists, and prepared the ground for the American sects that flooded the archipelago; these, however, although at first they praised him greatly because by his break with Rome "he had broken through the barrier of fear and liberated some who wished to find the open road to God," now do not even mention him in the list of Philippine Protestant Churches.
Bibliography4 works
Camillo Crivelli