Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/126

 THE MARRIAGE OF THE GOVERNOR OF ILOCOS NORTE throughout the province would become edu cated to the idea that the Church was not as all-powerful as it once had been, and that the people under a free government like the American, could be lawfully and happily married and enjoy the blessings of the Almighty through life even though not married by a priest. Three weeks after that the Governor died of the cholera, and a few weeks later the judge vho had performed the ceremony fell sick with tropical dysentery and was invalided to the United States desperately

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ill, in which condition he remained for more than six months. Whether or not the blessings of God may rest upon a civil marriage, it is quite likely that the priests of the province of Ilocos Norte made the most of the untoward circumstance above described, and told their parishioners what happened to the Governor and the judge who ignored the laws of the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church as expounded by its constituted respresentatives. MACON, GA., January, 1908.