The War Upon Religion Part 26

"After this, it is indeed to be wondered at, that the Roman Pontiff himself is in that law a.s.serted to be, as it were, the centre of the Church, since room for communication with him is not left, save by the license and under the inspection of the government.

"Desiring then to restrain, as much as in us lies, the evils, which in this great perturbation of the Catholic religion throughout Spain are growing more heavy; and to give our a.s.sistance to those most dear of the faithful, who, long since, are stretching forth suppliant hands towards us, we have determined, after the example of our predecessors, to resort to the prayers of the universal Church, and most studiously to excite the piety of all Catholics toward that nation.

"Therefore, while we renew and confirm, by these letters apostolic, the complaints and expostulations published in the allocutions before mentioned, and abrogate and declare to be of no force all acts. .h.i.therto done by the government of Madrid against the rights and dignity of the Church and of this most Holy See, we again exhort all ... to implore the mercy of the omnipotent G.o.d for the unhappy Spanish nation."

_BALMES AND CORTES._

The government in turn endeavored to suppress the Encyclical, but its efforts in that direction only resulted in spreading it the more throughout the land. A veritable awakening followed. Both clergy and people publicly demonstrated their loyalty to the persecuted Church, whose defence was ably taken up by such writers and orators as the celebrated Father James Balmes and Donoso Cortes. In 1843, the young Isabella, then being thirteen years of age, was declared of age, and made independent of any regency. The reign of Espartero was, for the time at least, at an end.

Espartero, during his ascendancy, proved himself a scourge to the Catholic Church in Spain. When he fell, the Catholics began to breathe more freely. A stop was put to the sale of ecclesiastical property. In 1845, whatever remained was used to give some little maintenance to the clergy, but the real and personal estate had already been disposed of in great part, and could not be recalled. To arrange matters a concordat was drawn up, and Castillo y Ayensa was sent to Gregory XVI. for that purpose. But the good will of the government evaporated before anything definite could be concluded, and the concordat was rejected by the Cortes.

_CONCORDAT OF 1851._

However, after the Spanish government had aided the Pope in his exile at Gaeta, and helped to restore him to Rome, more definite proceedings towards a concordat were begun. The new concordat was concluded on March 16, 1851.

It was just before the conclusion of this concordat that Donoso Cortes delivered a remarkable address to the Spanish Chamber of Deputies, in which he said:

"Do not tell me that in Spain, in Italy, in France and in Hungary the Revolution is conquered; that is not true. All the social forces united and driven to their utmost have only driven the Revolution under cover. The people can no longer govern, and the true cause of this is that there is no true conception of divine or of human authority. This is the disease that is strangling Europe, society and the world.

This is the reason why the people can no longer govern. When Revolution in Europe shall have destroyed the standing armies, when Socialism shall have exterminated patriotism, when we shall see only two parties, the spoilers and the despoiled, then shall Russia quietly send its armies into our land, and the world will behold the greatest chastis.e.m.e.nt recorded in history."

The new concordat contained among its articles the following: "The Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion, will be as in the past, the religion of the State, to the exclusion of all others. The Church shall conserve the rights and prerogatives which belong to her according to divine law and the sacred canons; in public and private inst.i.tutions, education shall be conformable to the Catholic religion; the bishops in the exercise of their ministry and of their mission shall enjoy that entire liberty demanded by the sacred canons; the Church shall continue to possess, and to acquire new properties, under whatsoever legitimate t.i.tle; and this her right of possession shall remain inviolable."

_ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF QUEEN ISABELLA._

The concordat was signed at Rome, by Pope Pius IX., who in the consistory of September 5, 1851, proclaimed its publication in terms of the greatest gratification. But the joy of the Catholic people upon this return to Spain to better sentiments was not long lived. On February 2, 1852, Queen Isabella, as she was speaking on the street with the Papal Nuncio, was attacked by a ruffian, who attempted to plunge a dagger into her side. The would-be a.s.sa.s.sin was arrested and thrown into prison. He was one of the conspirators under Espartero.

As the unhappy man had once been an ecclesiastic and had apostatized under the fury of the revolutionary propaganda, the revolutionary journals made capital of the fact to cast aspersions on the clergy, declaring that the a.s.sa.s.sin belonged to the clerical party. The government comprehended that it was necessary to put a restraint upon the press, and in consequence, many journals were compelled to stop publication. At the same time a spirit of conversion began to touch the hearts of the people. Everywhere the missionaries were active, and out of the religious houses the words of new life were heard to echo into the homes, the factories, the army and the navy. The revolutionists began to be alarmed, and set to work to destroy what the preaching of Catholic doctrine had effected.

The Liberals, haters of G.o.d and of country, commenced a series of barbarities. With the intention of destroying the monasteries and convents, they set fire to the Jesuit houses in Valladolid, Huesca, Barbastro, Saragossa and Valencia. At Valladolid in one day they burned three convents, and among them the celebrated and magnificent Trinidad.

And these same incendiaries when they came into power in Spain two years later, dared to cry out against the barbarities of the Catholic Church.

_REVOLUTION OF 1854._

In 1854 the revolution again broke out. Many of Spain's best generals, among them Leopold O'Donnell, went over to the party of rebellion, whose object was the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic. The people, misled by a thousand rumors, knew not to whom to turn, but finally took as their leader that Espartero who had already proven himself a danger to Spain, hostile to the Church, and a slave to the secret societies.

On July 18, 1854, the royal palace at Madrid was sacked by the mob, though the Queen succeeded in escaping to safety. Though the Revolution called for a republic, with Espartero at its head, yet that general preferred rather to lead the ministry under royalty, and so contrived to restore Isabella to her throne. Under this second regime of Espartero the Church suffered even more cruelly than before. The agents of the secret societies, which controlled the Cortes, began to demand the revocation of the concordat, the suppression of the religious orders, and a general persecution of the Church. The minister Alonzo set the example by driving out of the Escurial the monks of St. Jerome.

_PERSECUTION AND CALUMNY._

To persecution the anti-Christians added calumny against the bishops and clergy of Spain, accusing them of desertion in the time of danger, of abandoning the victims of the cholera. These open falsehoods aided somewhat in stirring up a spirit of hostility even in places where the devotion of the clergy was known to be most heroic. Stories then were circulated of arms hidden in the sanctuary of Loyola; as a consequence, the Jesuits were driven from this shrine, even though it was well known that their only occupation at Loyola was the maintenance of a college for the education of missionaries to Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ISABEL II., QUEEN OF SPAIN.]

At the same time certain deputies in the Chamber complained that the journal, "The Catholic", had dared to publish the Bull of Pius IX. on the Immaculate Conception without governmental permission. One of the ministers, Madoz, proposed restoring the ruined treasury by the sale of all ecclesiastical property without exception. Another deputy, Escosura, a furious and fanatic anti-Christian, insulted, in a session of the Chamber on March 24, 1855, the Bishop of Osma, whom he called a butcher because of his defence of the church property; the Minister of Grace and Justice, Aguirre, demanded the punishment of those bishops who dared to preach religious unity. For this "crime" the Bishop of Osma was exiled to the Canary Islands. The same Aguirre caused the Bishop of Barcelona to be exiled to Carthagena.

It was in vain that the Holy See strove to compose matters. Appeals to the ancient piety of Spain, and to the well known virtue of the nation were alike unheeded. It was not the nation that ruled, but a clique who had gained control by force of arms, and it was this clique that sent back the appeals of the Holy Father with contempt and derision. The Cortes was filled with irreligious enemies of the Catholic name; it was these who set aside the concordat, from its first article to the last.

It was these who forbade bishops to ordain priests, who forbade monasteries of nuns to receive new novices; and who converted to State use all chapels and religious schools. In the deliberations of the Cortes, on January 12, 1855, it was determined that the seminaries might no longer teach philosophy and theology, and that all ordinations of the clergy should be suspended.

_PROTESTS FROM THE HOLY SEE._

The Holy Father in the consistory of July 6, 1855, protested vigorously against the evils and spoliation of the Church in Spain. His words were useless, since Espartero and his followers continued in their way despite all claims of reason and right. They had driven the Bishop of Osma into exile, they had closed the Seminary of Toledo, they had forbidden the priests of Saragossa to leave the limits of their parish without governmental permission, they had dispersed the Society of St.

Vincent de Paul, they had prevented the bishops from uniting in council, the Bishop of Urgel was exiled as a Carlist, the Bishop of Plasenza was persecuted because he had refused to give an inventory of church property, the Bishop of Avila would have been imprisoned but for fear of the people who threatened to intervene.

The persecutions became so rabid and frequent that Monsignor Franchi, the Papal Nuncio, left Madrid, and diplomatic relations were severed with the Holy See. Moreover, Zavala, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, dared to write to the various governments that the concordat was being faithfully executed, that the contract made with the Holy See was observed, and that the government was religious and pious. The Pontifical Allocution unmasked the falsehood, but did not change the condition of affairs.

_ESPARTERO GOVERNMENT FALLS._

The government of Espartero, capable of every evil, incapable of good, finally fell into odium with the people. In 1856 Spain shook off the yoke imposed upon her by the rebels, who had enslaved the Queen and fettered the Church. On September 15, the country returned to its former government, and restored the Const.i.tution of 1845. The new Minister of Grace and Justice recognized the necessity of restoring to honor a clergy vilified by the pa.s.sions and impetuous discords of the times. The elections to churches were made according to the customs of Catholic Spain, and peace began to smile again upon the religious inst.i.tutions of the land.

The appointment in October 1856, of Marshal Narvaez, to the presidency of the Council, was an act that promised the restoration of law and order. Narvaez, the Duke of Valencia, was one who knew the meaning of conspiracy, civil war, and revolution. He had seen with his own eyes the sad results of them, and how they impoverished, weakened, and strangled the State. A man of character and firm will, he knew how to form a a cabinet in harmony with his own ideas, and with them he set to work to re-establish order.

The Jesuits, expelled in 1854, were permitted to return; the concordat was again put into execution; all orders and decrees contrary to it were annulled, and on October 15, De Seijas Lozano, Minister of Justice, represented to the Queen that it was time to render to the bishops full liberty to confer sacred orders. In his brief he spoke in the highest terms of the Spanish episcopate, and of the piety and heroic devotion of the priesthood. It was a new note in contrast to the chorus of infamy that had been heard for the last two years. The end of the year 1856 beheld a serene heaven brooding over Spain, and a people who sighed with relief as they thought of the nights of horror and iniquity through which they had so lately pa.s.sed.

_THE CAMPAIGN OF 1867._

For a decade at least the Church in Spain enjoyed comparative peace. The war then broke out again and continued with new vigor. The masonic General Prim, returning from Mexico disappointed because he had failed to create a position for himself, brought back to Spain a new batch of conspiracies. In 1867 the Moderates were in control with Narvaez at their head. They were not altogether unjust, and were somewhat friendly to the Church and the Catholic Party, which was then represented in the Cortes by Candido Nocidal and other ill.u.s.trious men of Spain. At the same time the Cortes numbered among its members the Progressists, who were hostile to the Church and to the Queen, and who united in many measures with the Socialists, a party which was most dangerous and most opposed to the nature and to the traditions of the Spanish people.

General Prim was the recognized leader of this union. He was a man of most extravagant ambition, who in the hope of becoming President of a future Iberian republic, or first minister of the Queen, gathered together all the forces of disorder which had lain dormant since the last revolution.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ESPARTERO.]

Prim first addressed himself to the King of Portugal, proposing to unite that country with Spain under the crown of Portugal. Being refused, he turned to the Duke of Montpensier, who rejected his proposals in the conviction that the time was not ripe for a revolution. He was not, however, disconcerted, and in union with O'Donnell, gave himself up to the problem of betraying his country to some foreign ruler. The first skirmishes of the followers of Prim were abortive owing to the vigilance of Narvaez, and many of the conspirators were driven out of the country.

_TRICKERY OF NAPOLEON III._

Narvaez, however, died in 1868, and was succeeded as President of the Council, by Gonzalis Bravo. The policy of the latter was built upon an imprudent confidence in the friends.h.i.+p of the French Emperor, Napoleon III. Trusting to the promises of that crafty prince, both Bravo and the Queen remained inactive, while the forces of the enemy under General Serrano pushed forward.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LEOPOLD O'DONNELL, Duke of Tetuan.]

Bravo in turn relinquished the government to Joseph Concha, an old conspirator, in whose heart the hatred toward the Church had never completely died out. In the meantime the rebels forced their way through the country, and gained as they went forward the favor of a populace whose spirits were inflamed by the l.u.s.t of bloodshed and plunder. With a nondescript army Serrano took possession of Madrid in September, 1868.

The Queen, despairing of her own safety, fled into France, and left the entire country in the hands of the revolutionists. On September 30, she protested against the treachery of Napoleon III., but no one would or could listen to her. It was only another of the unholy acts of the French Sovereign who had thrown ruin into various countries of Europe.

Rome had seen the Holy Father betrayed by him; Florence, Naples, Parma, and Modena fell under his treachery; the Emperor of Austria had trusted him and found him wanting; he had cajoled the folly of Maximilian in that unfortunate prince's adventure into Mexico; and now he had betrayed Spain. One more piece of treachery remained in his conduct toward the Holy See--then came the reward of his double-dealing in the Franco-Prussian war, when he was himself cast down from his throne and driven into disgraceful exile.

_SPAIN A REPUBLIC._

General Prim, whose usual tactics were to raise a great cry, stir up revolt, and then when the danger came, to disappear, had been missing through all the fighting. Now that the danger was over he suddenly re-appeared. But both he and the Duke of Montpensier came too late.

Serrano was in control with a mob of irreligious ruffians gathered together from Paris and Brussels and filled with a mortal hatred of the Catholic religion. The proofs of this spirit were not long in coming.

The Jesuits were the first to be hunted down, and after them the other religious; and while the revolutionists were raising the cry of "freedom of wors.h.i.+p for all," they sacked and profaned monasteries and churches.