Ricardo Lacson is a lay inquisitor of the Roman and Universal Inquisition. He was born on 13 May 1848 in the city of Bacolor in the autonomous province of La Pampanga in the Spanish East Indies. In 1862, he joined other young men at age 14 for annual intakes for studies in Spain. Two years later, he joined the lay inquisitor training program in Honoria while keeping correspondence with his university, and graduated from academics and training in 1866. His first mission was in Japan, where he aided the Choushuu and Satsuma domains to overthrow the Shougunate through political then military maneuvers. The Inquisition supported this action to reopen Japan for evangelization.
He then visited the Spanish East Indies to pressure Governor-General Rafael de Izquierdo to exonerate or even pardon the three priests scapegoated for the Cavite Mutiny. The governor refused, so Lacson attempted to rescue the priests himself as he was directed. Izquierdo’s Freemasonic allies ambushed him, delaying him enough to let the execution commence.
Lacson was granted leave, which he used to visit Japan in 1874. Because of the Imperial government’s toleration of Christianity, Buddhist and animist sects plotted a conspiracy to massacre Catholics in Kyushu. This conspiracy became entangled with a rebellion in Saga Domain, led by Etou Shinpei and Shima Yoshitake. Lacson, with the help of a Chinese merchant’s daughter Yú Yàn, uncovered the conspiracy, helped the Imperial government defeat the rebellion, and defeated the conspiracy’s heads. Lacson and Yú would marry afterwards.
In 1876, Lacson was sent by the Inquisition to aid investigate the Marpingen Apparitions. He came into conflict with the Prussian authorities, who promptly barred him from entering Honoria. Prince Wilfred Johansen has announced that Lacson would find sanctuary in Honoria if he manages to enter, but no word has come from Lacson so far.
Character History
Early Life
Studies in Spain
The Inquisition
The Boshin War
Mission in the Philippines
The Kyushu Conspiracy
Marpingen
Fugitive
Current Events
Tales from Ehrenland
Flame of Rebellion
In 1895, Lacson met with Cardinal Giussepe Sarto to discuss happenings in the Spanish East Indies. Intelligence reports suggested that Freemasonic activity had been spiking there, and Cardinal Sarto requested that Lacson investigate. In early August 1896, Lacson confirmed the existence of a rebel Tagalog group and promptly dispatched telegrams to Rome and Manila. However, the Spanish bureaucracy kept the army’s hands tied and the rebels began their uprising on 28th August. Lacson assisted Civil Guards from Ilocos and Pampanga to pacify Manila and surrounding towns.
Rebel activity reached its peak in Cavite, with Spanish forces being completely pushed out. Lacson canoed to Cavite Viejo to join a Kapampangan field army deployed to defeat the rebels in Novaleta. He warned the Spanish commander that entrenchments needed fire and maneuver tactics to defeat, but was promptly ignored. The loyalist forces mindlessly charged into the entrenchments, momentarily pushing the rebels back with Lacson’s combat prowess. However, the attacking force remained expose to counter-fire by rebel riflemen, musketeers, and archers, and sustained 1000 casualties. With Emilio Aguinaldo’s forces repelling the Spanish offensive in Binakayan, Lacson took charge and ordered a retreat.
Governor-General Ramon Blanco would step down at the request of religious orders whose lands were devastated by the rebellion. Camilo de Polavieja took up the Indies’ reins and requested Lacson to survey La Pampanga. No rebels had mustered, yet the province remained uneasy for many had joined the Spanish army. Lacson returned in time to oversee Jose Rizal’s execution.
By February, 20000 cazadores had come from Spain as reinforcements. Lacson assisted Major General Jose de Lachambre in a lightning offensive across Cavite and Batangas. The first battle at Zapote Bridge saw Lacson assassinate General Edilberto Evangelista, causing a rebel rout. Lacson’s forces headed the Spanish vanguard, fighting in victory after victory. Leading a platoon of Spanish eidokrasers, Lacson engaged Aguinaldo’s forces in Talisay, Batangas. The rebel leader’s rearguard was decimated, although the former was able to retreat. Aguinaldo would split his forces to distract the Spanish while he and selected men evaded Spanish checkpoints to escape into Morong and eventually Bulacan.
Lacson moved to Pampanga and aided provincial defenses against Aguinaldo’s forces camped in San Miguel de Mayumu, from where many Kapampangans had fled as refugees because of Tagalog pogroms. Lacson also aided authorities snuff out infiltrators and Freemasons. By then, rebel forces had entirely surrounded Pampanga, Tarlac, and Manila. Lacson was training a new Kapampangan detachment to invade Bulacan when Governor-General Primo de Rivera announced an armistice with the rebels. Lacson warned sternly not to pursue it, but the Governor-General wanted peace and clemency to reign over force of arms. Aguinaldo and his men fled to Hong Kong afterwards.
Lacson was right, however, and rebel forces began a terrorist campaign across Pampanga. Infiltrators massacred Spaniards, kidnapped prominent Kapampangans, and forced protection money from natives. Lacson strained his health dealing with covert cells.
By May 1898, the United States had figured into a war with Spain. American naval forces entered Manila Bay and decisively defeated the Spanish fleet. At the same time, rebel forces began an offensive into Pampanga. Lacson commanded militias and volunteers to defend, but lack of Spanish support forced him to retreat to Tarlac. He watched with horror as Jose Alejandrino personally oversaw the execution of the parish priest of San Fernando.
Rebel forces claimed victory in Pampanga in July. Alejandrino forced Kapampangans to pay cash, land, or property in reparations for aiding Spain and to aid the Republic. Kapampangans became destitute and broke. Meanwhile, Lacson had entered Manila secretly. He had met with Cardinal Sarto on an Austrian warship, the latter ordering Lacson to convince the Americans to fight the Philippine Republic and contain the spread of Freemasonry. Lacson requested a meeting with General Arthur McArthur. The latter explained that the American Congress wanted to let Spain keep the southern parts of the Philippines. However, the southern nobles had rallied behind Aguinaldo and began their own rebellions. In December 1898, Spain sold the entire Philippines to America on Lacson’s advice. Spain also demanded compensation for three centuries of infrastructure and economic development, which the United States accepted on Lacson’s advice. A month later, Lacson returned to Manila aboard an American warship, ready for another round with rebel forces.
War erupted once more in February when Tagalog soldiers began an altercation with American servicemen. General Antonio Luna led a massive army to invest and besiege Manila. Lacson infiltrated enemy lines and ruined supply lines and rations, while the Americans broke out using fire and advance tactics against the rebel entrenchments. The Americans advanced rapidly, stalled only by General Gregorio del Pilar’s defenses in Bulacan. By May 1899, Pampanga was within the Americans’ sights.
Lacson came to the town of Macabebe and singlehandedly defeated the tired garrison. He spread word of the American forces, and promised the locals that they could avenge their fallen sons, brothers, fathers, and properties ruined in the rebellion. The first Kapampangans who enlisted with the Americans thus became known as Macabebes, and all Kapampangans who fought for America would be known as such.
Lacson led Kapampangan soldiers in battles across Pampanga and Tarlac, encircling and defeating rebel troops in the German way. By this time, a spat between Luna and the Kawit batallion led to the former’s death at the latter’s hands. Aguinaldo refused to punish the latter for he could not spare any more men in the war. He and his men led the American charge into Pangasinan and La Union, enlisting local Igorots who detested the Tagalogs. At Tirad Pass, an Igorot by the name of Januario Galut alerted Lacson to a hidden pass to the rebel position. American and Kapampangan forces stormed the passage and outflanked Gregorio del Pilar, allowing passage into the Ilocos provinces.
Aguinaldo now disbanded the regular army and commenced a guerrilla campaign across Luzon. Lacson and a company of Kapampangan soldiers assisted two American officers into Palanan, Isabela. There, Lacson himself subdued Aguinaldo, quipping that La Pampanga had been finally avenged, and Freemasonry defeated for now.
Later Life
Lacson returned to Honoria after six years overseas. He lived quietly until his death in 1921, just before the Weimar Republic experienced hyperinflation. He lived through the Inquisition’s disbandment under Cardinal Sarto, elected as Pope Pius X. He experienced famine and starvation grip Honoria in the latter stages of World War I. He saw the land he had fought bitterly for collapse and merge with the Grand Duchy of Baden to form the Republic of Baden after the war. He saw the death of eidokrasy and the lost of mystery and wonder which had marked Honoria for four centuries.
Lacson’s sons would journey to La Pampanga with their German wives, their children, grandchildren, and whatever possessions they could bring. By this time, Pampanga languished in economic depression. The Lacson brothers each built fluorishing enterprises, never knowing the depth of their father’s exploits beyond memoirs and chronicles. During the Japanese occupation, the Lacsons remained beneath suspicion. The Lacson descendants are still extant in Pampanga, never having once known of eidokrasy.
The remains of Lacson and his wife were re-interred in San Jose, Tarlac, where the Lacson family are known for being well-off, educated, classy Catholics among Protestatns.