Among the reforms initiated by the leaders of the new administration, that of checking the clergy was foremost; and as a matter of course, the patronato question was a prominent one.[1] A law of November 23, 1855, deprived the clergy of several of their old privileges, against which the archbishop protested on the 27th, without effect.[2]
The new federal constitution created much cominotion among the ecclesiastics. They would not give up the contest, but kept constantly agitating from the pulpit, in the press, and, of course, the confessional. Conspiracies were in order among the reactionists, the women being also made the docile instruments of their spiritual advisers.[3] All efforts of the government to allay the trouble, even through an ambassador accredited to the pope, proved unavailing. The clergy forbade their supporters from taking the oath to support the constitution, alleging that it contained articles hostile to religion or the church.[4] The pope issued a declaration to the effect that the church was persecuted, and would have to suffer still more under the new constitution.[5] This was all untrue. Neither religion nor its priests were assailed. It is a fact, however, that a very large number of faithful catholics desired mortmain on church property removed,
- ↑ At the time of Santa Anna's overthrow, negotiations in Rome for a concordat were in an advanced state. Under that arrangement, the church was to have restored to it all its former prerogatives.
- ↑ Mex., Legis. Mej., vi. 559-60, 565,589-91; Garza, Pastoral, no. 5; Apuntam. sobre derecho púb. ecles., 8; Id., Nuevas Contest., 7.
- ↑ In the midst of all this, the archbishop and the bishop of San Luis Potosí, a see created in 1854, assured the govt that their clergy were taking no part in illegal acts. Vigil, Ensayo Hist., 7-10; La Bandera de Ayutla, Feb. 16, 1816; Archivo Mex., Col. Ley., iii. 250-3.
- ↑ The diocesan of Guadalajara enumerated their: the 3d establishing freedom of public instruction; the 5th proclaiming man's inalienable right of freedom, which was not to be curtailed by reason of labor, education, or monastic vows; the 6th and 7th on free speech and free press; the 27th declaring civil and ecclesiastical corporations incompetent to hold or administer real estate; the 123d conferring on the general govt exclusively such intervention in ecclesiastical affairs as the laws might designate. This was merely intended to secure public peace. The bishop also protested against the omission in the constitution of the Roman catholic faith as that of the state.
- ↑ This enabled the reactionists to pose before the country as the defenders of the true faith. Buenrostro, Hist. Seg. Cong. Constituc., i. 56-9.
