Basilio Manuel Arillaga
Basilio Manuel Arillaga [1]
superior of the Jesuits in Mexico, and rector of the College of San Ildefonso, of whose early life we have no record, died in the prison of San Ildefonso, Aug. 25,1867, of the privations to which he was subjected. Dr. Arillaga was over eighty years of age, and was arrested by the Liberal authorities, together with bishop Ormalchea of Vera Cruz. He was probably the most erudite scholar that Mexico ever produced; and had, at one time or another, under his tutorship the most prominent and eminent men of his country. In 1865 the abbe Testory, head-chaplain of the French forces, wrote a pamphlet in defence of the nationalization of Church property, characterizing the Mexican clergy as ignorant and corrupt; to which Dr. Arillaga replied in three pamphlets, a masterpiece of learning, statistics, wit, and sarcasm, bringing upon the abbe Testory the indignation of all uninterested foreigners then in Mexico, and contributing more to the estrangement between the native Imperialists and foreign interventionists, and to the downfall of the empire, than any. other power. The memory of Dr. Arillaga will ever be revered by Mexicans, without distinction of party. See Appletons' Annual Cyclop. 1867, p. 597.
