The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1910. SPAIN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

New Zealand Tablet, 15 December 1910, Page 2063

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1910. SPAIN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

ANY are much surprised when they read in Nirvvw/MJi tlieil news P a P er or the Spanish Government fol VW/flin showing signs of revolt against the CathJluOhOlLL lic Church, persecuting the religions Or-C—>Mw-j' tiers, and treating the Pope with scant Jjf)vM courtesy. Many people, have the idea that &i^Jffir ( Spain is a Catholic country, with all her old < £%o\ religious traditions and customs intact, with the whole population imbued with a thoroughly Catholic spirit, obedient to Bishops and parish priests and receiving its education in religious schools directed by monks and nuns.' Those who so think are startled by the cable news conveying summaries of Seiior Cahalejas' speeches, just as they would be startled and puzzled if they heard of such speeches being delivered in Dublin or Galway by .John Redmond or John Dillon. This perplexity comes from the fact that Spain is outside the beaten track of English-speaking people. These know little of her history. Did they know Spain's history for the last 100 years, there would appear little to cause surprise in the anti-Catholic attitude of the present " Liberal' Spanish Government. As a matter of fact, leaving France out of consideration, no country in Europe has been for a century so shaken by revolutionary and infidel ideas as Spain— is no country, except mayhap Portugal, where secret societies and radical organisations have worked so violently and so persistently. * Why, so early as 1750 the Spanish King Charles 111 and his Court had already taken up the ideas of the Trench infidel leaders, Voltaire, D'Alembert, and Diderot. Charles led the way in carrying out one of Voltaire's most cunning church-destroying plans— suppression of the Jesuits During the reign of Charles IV. (1788-1808) the Prime Minister of Spain, Godoy, imitated, as far as the temper

of the times permitted, the anti-Christian revolutionary movement in France. He worried the religious Orders, confiscated to State purposes many religious and charitable endowments, introduced ' liberal ' professors into the Universities, and withdrew the schools, as far as he could do so, from the influence of the Bishops and clergy. During the reign of Ferdinand VII. (1808-1833) coalitions of Freemasons, Revolutionaries, and Radicals held the reins of Government for the most part. The persecution of the Church was an engrossing mania with them. In 1820 they expelled the Jesuits, suppressed the other religious Orders, drove the Papal Nuncio across the border, broke off communications with Rome, and commanded the Bishops to compel the parish clergy to preach submission to an infidel regime !

To Ferdinand succeeded his infant daughter, Isabella 11. _ _ During her reign (1833-1868) vials idled with all calamities were unceasingly poured out upon this unhappy and restless country in the shape of dynastic wars and revolutions. During those 35 years it was all turmoil and confusion. According to the old Salic law, no female could ascend the Spanish throne. Ferdinand abrogated the law in favor of his daughter, but Carlos, his brother, declared the abrogation invalid. So commenced the fierce Carlist wars. Unfortunately for religion, most of the Bishops and clergy, of the old nobility, and of the solid conservative and Catholic portion of the population, sided with Don Carlos. This circumstance .compelled the Queen Regent Maria Cristina to fall back on the ' Liberals,' who included not merely the moderate Liberals, but also the Progressists or Masons, infidels, radicals, and revolutionaries of various colors. The Cristino, or Court, party defeated the Carlists; hence the Liberals, sometimes Moderados and sometimes Progressistas (as they called themselves), were in power. From 1833 to 1843 the priest-hater Espartero, leader of the extreme Progressistas, was Prime Minister and practically ruler of Spain. Every encouragement was given to the infidel propaganda. Tons of French infidel books, translated into Spanish, were introduced monthly and circulated amongst the people. Every calumny was poured out against the clergy—against the religious Orders in particular. Every national woe was attributed to the monks. It was said that they were the cause of the cholera epidemic in 1834! Mobs attacked the convents and monasteries; the helpless inmates were murdered; the authorities stood by and took no notice ! Nay, when the Government considered that the public mind was ripe it joined in the onslaught. The Cortes passed laws closing 3000 monasteries and convents, and putting up for sale their lands and houses. Even the libraries, chalices, monstrances, and sacred vestments were sold, necessarily at a ridiculously low figure. Then the Government turned to the secular clergy. All church property was confiscated at one swoop. Some provision was indeed made for Bishops and parish priests from the public taxes. Suspended and renegade clerics were appointed to benefices as vacancies occurred. Finally, a body of Jansenistic clergymen was employed to draw up a code of regulations in view of setting* up a national church independent of Home. Things went so quickly to the bad that when Espartero ruled the kingdom as sole Regent in 1841 only six of the forty Spanish Bishops were left, and a monk or nun, in monastic dress, had not been seen on the street of a Spanish city or town for eight years! Of course, the truly Catholic "portion of the people could not tolerate this state of things, and revolution followed revolution, and overthrow of Government followed overthrow, until the Queen, in despair and disgust, fled in 1868 across the border into France—fled to return no more. * Then for six years they had hell on earth in the country. They had a persecuting Regency under the anticlerical Marshal Serrano; they had a republic wherein everybody fought to be uppermost; they had a monarchy under Amadeo, son of Victor Emmanuel, who consented to wear the ancient Spanish crown refused by half a dozen European princes to whom it was offered. Stung to exertion by so many injuries and by the insult to Spanish Catholic and national pride given by the introduction of Amadeo, the son of the robber of the Papal States, Catholics, both Conservatives and moderate Liberals, combined and brought back Alphonso XII., the son of Isabella He proved a wise and tactful ruler. With much prudence he maintained peace in the country from 1874 to 188-j' when he died. His motto was, 'To be Catholic as his fathers, and to be liberal as the Age.' He fulfilled it His infant son, Alphonso XIII., born after his death succeeded him. The chivalric sympathy of the whole nation went out to the son of the good Alphonso and to the helpless Queen Regent; and the balanced state of things established by the late King continued until Alphonso XIII came of age. In 1901 the old anti-clerical, or, rather anti

Christian, spirit began to show itself afresh, with Sefior Uanalejas as its mouthpiece. Canalejas is now First Minister, and confusion and disorder are on foot again Let us hope and pray that the two great principles which have m the past given dignity, stability, and prosperity to the grand old Spanish nation—viz., fidelity to the Catholic Church and loyalty to the Monarchy within the lines of the present excellent Spanish constitution—will prevail with the vast majority of her people. Then Spain will walk once more m the paths of true and genuine process —saved from the civil wars, the revolutions, and the administrative confusion which have been her misfortune for the past hundred years.