ARRILLAGA, BASILIO

Jesuit defender of the Church in Mexico; b. Mexico City, June 1, 1791; d. there, July 28, 1867. After completing his studies in the humanities, philosophy, and law, and being ordained, Arrillaga joined the Jesuits (July 28, 1816). He was first appointed assistant to the master of novices, and from then on he held various important offices in the order, including dean of the college in Puebla and in Mexico City and later Jesuit provincial. During much of his life the Jesuits lived a precarious existence in Mexico, for the order was dissolved on occasion and persecuted frequently. Arrillaga was a dynamic and competent protagonist in the political-religious debates between the Church and the State. In 1821 he was named an alternate deputy to the Cortes and in December of that year he was one of the supporters of iturbide. From 1822 to 1825 he was rector of the Colegio Carolino in Puebla, but left there to go to Mexico City. He served briefly as a pastor, but even while carrying on pastoral duties he engaged actively in political discussion. He represented the Federal District in the congress in the mid-1830s and was president of the congress several times. He worked on a commission to plan a new educational system and was one of the founders of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua and the Academia Nacional de la Historia. Santa Anna included him in a national legislative junta in 1842. From 1844 to 1849 he was rector of the University of Mexico. He was an honorary councilor of state under Maximilian, for which he was briefly imprisoned on the restoration of the republic. Arrillaga was a militant defender of the Church against liberal Catholicism and against the antireligious actions of those in charge of the government. He spoke and wrote vehemently and frequently, publishing in books and periodicals. He collected a library of thousands of volumes principally in philosophy, law, and history, which he used in writing his books, refuting his critics, and preparing his polemics.

Bibliography: g. decorme, Historia de la Compañía de Jesús en la República mexicana durante el siglo XIX, 3 v. (Guadalajara, Mex. 1914–21; Chihuahua City 1959). e. valverde tÉllez, Biobibliografía eclesiástica mexicana, 1821–1943, 3 v. (Mexico City 1949).

[f. zubillaga]