Summary

In the seventeenth century, the Archbishop of Manila becomes stranded on a deserted after first a band of pirates "loot" (131) his ship and then a storm drowns "all that were on board, save only the Archbishop" (131). He remains on the island for a year, until he is rescued by a passing ship and brought back to his city. Upon his return, marked by a celebration with such revery for the Archbishop that it would "stun the eye and seize the soul" (132), the Archbishop realizes he has been living in irony and hypocrisy. He realizes that the power he held as a holy figure was treated as more valuable than his piety, and as a result "felt under no more obligation to show himself in public" (135) and decides to retreat into solitude and become a hermit, with his servant Gaspar as his...