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The Spanish Church and The Revolutionary Republican Movement, 1930–1931*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

José M. Sánchez
José M. Sánchez
Affiliation:
Saint Louis University
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Extract

Few subjects in recent history have lent themselves to such heated polemical writing and debate as that concerning the Spanish Church and its relationship to the abortive Spanish revolution of 1931–1939. Throughout this tragic era and especially during the Civil War, it was commonplace to find the Church labelled as reactionary, completely and unalterably opposed to progress, and out of touch with the political realities of the twentieth century.1 In the minds of many whose views were colored by the highly partisan reports of events in Spain during the nineteen thirties, the Church has been pictured as an integral member of the Unholy Triumvirate— Bishops, Landlords, and enerals—which has always conspired to impede Spanish progress. Recent historical scholarship has begun to dispel some of the notions about the right-wing groups,2 but there has been little research on the role of the clergy. Even more important, there has been little understanding of the Church's response to the radical revolutionary movements in Spain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , December 1962 , pp. 430 - 439
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1962

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References

1. See, for example, Manuel, Frank E., The Politics of Modern Spain (New York, 1938)Google Scholar, a work by a competent historian, yet given over to glaring generalities on the Spanish Church.

2. Payne, Stanley G., Falange: A History of Spanish Fascism (Stanford, 1961)Google Scholar is noteworthy in this respect.

3. For works on this period see Germain, André, La Révolution Espagnol en Vingt-cinq Tableaux (Paris, 1931)Google Scholar; Canals, Salvador, La Caída de la Monarquía, Problemas de la República, Instalación de un Régimen (Madrid, 1931)Google Scholar; Galiano, Álvaro Alcalá, La Caída de un Trono (Madrid 1933)Google Scholar; Berenguer, Dámaso, De la Dictadura a la República (Madrid, 1946)Google Scholar; and Iribarren, Joaquín Arrarás, Historia de la Cruzada Española (Madrid, 1940), I, 214–275.Google Scholar

4. Román, Jesús Requejo San, El Cardenal Segura (Madrid, 1933?)Google Scholar is the only biography of Segura. Oliviera, Antonio Ramos, Politics, Economics and Men of Modern Spain, 1808–1946, trans. Hall, T. (London, 1946), p. 438Google Scholar, says Segura was a “good example of a thirteenth century churchman, and a glaring anachronism in 1931, even in Spain.”

5. Published in El Siglo Futuro (Madrid), 03 10, 1930.Google Scholar

6. “Los Deberes Christianos de Patria” (03 13, 1930)Google Scholar in Tomás, Isidro Cardenal Gomáy, Antilaicismo (Barcelona, 1935), II, 53–102.Google Scholar

7. Informaciones (Madrid), 04 15, 1930.Google Scholar

8. Arrarás, I, 222.

9. Azaña, Manuel, Una Politica, 1930–1932 (Madrid, 1932), p. 27.Google Scholar

10. El Socialista (Madrid), 04 10, 1931.Google Scholar

11. In a speech at the Ateneo, Albornoz called for a profound revolution which would include radical action against the Church as well as the monarch. The Church, he said, “exploits the basest political passions of the streets.” El Liberal (Madrid), 04 5, 1931.Google Scholar

12. It is interesting to note that the lower clergy were disturbed about the uneven distribution of Church wealth, and many felt bitter toward the bishops and some of the regular clergy. See Aizpún, Father L., “Hemos Fracasado,” Revista Eclesiástica, Núm. 86 (04, 1936), pp. 361–372Google Scholar (this article was originally published in 1928), and Palau, Father Gabriel S. J., ed., Diario Intimo de un Cura Español (1919–1931) (Barcelona, 1932).Google Scholar

13. El Liberal, 04 10, 1931.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., April 8, 1931. Marcelino Domingo, a republican leader, appealed to Catholics to vote republican if they believed that the law had a sacred value, because the king had deliberately violated the constitution and the law since 1923. Ibid., April 11, 1931.

15. El Debate (Madrid), 04 4, 1931.Google Scholar

16. Monarpuía o República (Madrid, 1931).Google Scholar

17. “La Última Crísis Política en España” (unsigned), Razón y Fe, Núm. 408 (03 25, 1931), pp. 536–553.Google Scholar The article went on to an extreme monarchist position in stating that Alfonso “has been the only person, who in the difficult moments of September, 1923, January, 1930, and February, 1931, has maintained in his position the loftiness of his august mission and serenity in the midst of the violent storm; [he has been] the immovable axis of the national life, which he has saved from the disasters of…civil war, national degradation and anarchy.”

18. El Debate, 03 31, 1931.Google Scholar

19. Pastoral signed April 7, in the Boletín Eclesiástico del Obispado de Vitoria, Nüm. 10 (04 15, 1931), pp. 243–245.Google Scholar Published in El Siglo Futuro, 04 9, 1931.Google Scholar

20. April 9, 1931.

21. El Sol (Madrid), 04 11, 1931.Google Scholar

22. April 9, 1931.

23. April 10, 1931.

24. El Debate, 04 10, 1931.Google Scholar

25. Speech of November 20, 1930, cited in Arrarás, I, 226.