Máximo was exiled to Guam (then also part of the Spanish East Indies) for ten years following the 1872 Cavite mutiny and died on July 26, 1900, leaving behind considerable wealth.

In 1876, he wrote his first opus entitled Influencia Social del Cristanismo wherein it shows how he consciously located himself in the metropolitan stream of Spanish Culture.

It also unveiled the major themes of Paterno's works to come: law of social evolution, value of reason, human perfectability, and a synthesis of an essentialized "Orient" and "Occident" in Christianity.

[7]: 412  In March 1894, he was appointed as the Director of Museo Biblioteca de Filipinas (now National Library of the Philippines); he was the first Filipino to hold that position.

[11] In late July 1897, Paterno presented himself to Governor-General Fernando Primo de Rivera, whom he had known while living in Spain, and offered his services as a mediator.

This began a three-month-long series of talks which saw Paterno constantly traveling between Manila, Biak-na-Bato, and some areas in Southern Luzon where a number of revolutionary chiefs held sway.

Paterno returned to Manila on January 11, 1898, amidst great celebration, but was spurned by Primo de Rivera and other authorities when he asked to be recompensed by being granted a dukedom, a seat in the Spanish Senate, and payment for his services in Mexican dollars.

[7]: 504 With the Philippine–American War after the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1898, he was among the most prominent Filipinos who joined the American side and advocated the incorporation of the Philippines into the United States.

"Reconstructing a Filipino past, however glorious in appearance, on false pretenses can do nothing to build a sense of national identity, much less offer guidance for the present or the future.

He was first on the Spanish side, then when the declaration of independence was made in 1898, he "wormed his way to power" and became president of the Malolos Congress in 1899, then sensing the change in political winds after the establishment of the American colonial government, he became a member of the First Philippine Assembly.