This document is a Bachelor of Divinity dissertation submitted by Donald Dean Parker to the Faculty of the Divinity School at The University of Chicago in June 1936. The work provides a critical historical examination of the complex, often conflict-ridden relationship between the Church and the State in the Philippines from the initial Spanish settlement in 1565 to the Philippine Revolution of 1896. It details the Spanish colonial system's structure, the economic and political power wielded by the religious orders (friars) , the resulting abuses of power, and the 19th-century reform and insurrectionary movements that sought to secularize the curacies and restrict ecclesiastical influence. It is an academic study situating the political and social unrest in the Philippines within the context of Spanish colonial policy and the immense influence of the Catholic Church.
Church and State in the Philippines, 1565-1896