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The Counter Revolution of Morillo and the Insurgent Clerics of New Granada, 1815–1820

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Brian R. Hamnett*
Affiliation:
University of Strathclyde, Strathclyde, England

Extract

The desire to see a restoration of full corporate privilege for their estate encouraged a group of New Granada’s clergymen to support the attempt of leading Creole families to replace the political predominance of the Spanish peninsulares. This political revolution contained both traditionalist and radical aspects. Most clerics strongly opposed the policies of Charles IV’s ministers, and singled out for especial criticism the favourite, Godoy. A particular cause of resentment in New Granada, as elsewhere in Spanish America, was the Consolidación de Vales Reales legislated on 28 November and 26 December 1804. Grievances extended generally to the metropolitan government’s fiscal policies, for a large measure of taxation fell upon the clergy. As in New Spain the defence of the fuero eclesiástico provided a rallying cry.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1976 

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References

1 The political ideas of Manuel Abad y Queipo, Bishop-elect of the Mexican diocese of Michoacan, although a peninsular from Asturias, closely resemble these views, in particular his Representación sobre la inmunidad personal del clero, 11 December 1799. See Ramírez, Felipe Tena, “El Obispo Abad y Queipo,” Historia Mexicana I (July-Sept. 1951), 6277;Google Scholar Fisher, Lillian E., Champion of Reform, Manuel Abad y Queipo, (New York 1955);Google Scholar and Farriss, N. M., Crown and Clergy in Colonial Mexico, 1159–1821. The Crisis of Ecclesiastical Privilege, (London 1968).Google Scholar

2 The Caicedo family were Antioquia conquistadores and hacendados of Tolima. Though owners of the extensive Hacienda de Saldaña (Tolima), they resided in Bogotá. The Flores family originated from Vélez in Santander (New Granada). Fernando Caicedo appears to have been born either in 1749 (AHN Consejos 21364) or July 1756 ( Quijano, Arturo, El Arzobispo procer, (Bogotá; 1932).Google Scholar His grandfather founded the Convento de Santa Inés de Monte Policiano in Bogotá. His father built a church in the villa de Purificación, described as one of the leading country parishes. Clemencia Caicedo founded the city’s principal convent school for girls of humble origin, endowed and completed by Archbishop Martínez Compañón. Caicedo was Visitor in November 1809. He himself had attended the prominent Colegio del Rosario, from which he received his doctorate in theology. At the city’s University of Santo Tomás he gained a further doctorate in Civil and Canon Law. Ordained in 1779, he served as Vice-rector of his old college from 1779–1781, professor of theology from 1783, and Rector from 1793, when he also became a calificador for the Inquisition of Cartagena. In 1809 his brother, Luis, was involved in an abortive conspiracy against Spanish rule. Leo XII appointed Caicedo Archbishop of Bogotá on 21 May 1827.

3 Research in Madrid and Seville for this and other topics was made possible through a grant from the Research Foundation of the State University of New York. I refer to AHN Consejos 21364.

4 For New Granada’s background, see Restrepo, José Manuel, Historia de la revolución de la república de Colombia en la América meridional, 4 vols. (Besançon 1858);Google Scholar Mitre, Bartolomé, Historia del General San Martín y la emancipación sur-americana, vol. III (Buenos Aires 1887);Google Scholar Groot, José Manuel, Historia eclesiástica y civil de Nueva Granada, 4 vols. (Bogotá 1889);Google Scholar Hoyos, Rafael Gómez, La revolución granadina de 1810. Ideario de una generación y de una época, 1781–1821, 2 vols. (Bogotá 1962).Google Scholar

5 Mitre, ibid, 337–371. The Royalists held the port of Guayaquil, and, with Peruvian support, recovered Quito on 3 November 1812.

6 Ibid. For events in Venezuela, see Fortoul, José Gil, Historia constitucional de Venezuela, (Caracas 1942);Google Scholar King, J. F., “A Royalist View of the Coloured Castes in the Venezuelan War of Independence,” Hispanic American Historical Review 33, no. 4 (Nov. 1953), 526537;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Morón, Guillermo, A History of Venezuela (ed. & tr. by John Street), (London 1964);Google Scholar in particular Pietri, Juan Uslar, Historia de la rebelión popular de 1814, (Paris 1954), 9091, 98, 103, 105, 136144, 180182.Google Scholar

7 Morillo, Pablo, Mémoires du Géneral Morillo, Comte de Carthagène, Marquis de la Puerta, Rélatifs aux principaux évenements de ses campagnes en Amérique de 1815 à 1821, (Paris 1826), 3247.Google Scholar A copy may be found in the British Museum. This work was composed to refute charges of inclemency made by Nariño, then secretary of Quiroga, one of the principal military figures in the Spanish Liberal Revolution of 1820. Like Viceroy Calleja in New Spain (1813–1816), Morillo was a typical product of the Castilian military tradition. Born in Toro in 1777, he had abandoned studies at the University of Salamanca in order to embark upon a career in the armed forces. In 1808 he had rallied to the Supreme Junta of Seville, and served against the French both in the south and in Galicia. After a brief withdrawal to Portugal, he served under Castaños in Extremadura and La Mancha against Suchet, rising finally to the rank of Field Marshall. He was wounded at Vitoria in 1813. In May 1814 he rallied to the cause of Ferdinand VII.

8 Decretos del Rey Fernando VII, año primero de su restitución al Trono de las Españas, Tome 1 (1814), 132–134. The King’s decree of 21 July 1814 re-established the Inquisition throughout the Spanish dominions. For the history of this tribunal in New Granada, see Medina, José Toribio, Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de Cartagena, (Santiago de Chile 1899).Google Scholar

9 Medina, Toribio, ibid., 396398, 407415.Google Scholar Dr. Juan José Oderiz (b. 1773) was a Bachelor of Philosophy and Canons from the University of Salamanca and a Doctor of the University of Oñate. He had departed for Santa Marta after the revolutionary government’s abolition of the Holy Office on 12 November 1812. He remained an Inquisitor of Cartagena until February 1819, when, at his own request, he proceded to the Spanish city of Logroño. Though the personnel of the tribunal had become complete by the end of 1818, its financial position remained precarious. The Inquisition in Santa Marta issued an edict in September 1815 denouncing freemasonry as a crime of faith.

10 Archivo General de Indias (Seville), AGI Santa Fé 668, Sección de gobierno, negociado sobre la sublevación y pacificación de aquel reino 1814–1821, papers concerning the issue of the Royal Order of 28 July 1817 from the Ministry of War in Madrid. The King approved the executions on 12 August 1816. Morillo, Mémoires, 60–61, describes the horrors of the siege and capture of Cartagena.

11 Morillo, ibid., 68 70.

12 Ibid., 75–78. Slaves were offered their freedom and a reward in cash for collaboration.

13 Toribio Medina, ibid, 391–393, 411, 415. This Sotomayor is probably the same Dr. Juan José Sotomayor who preached the sermon on 26 April 1823 as Rector of the Colegio del Rosario when his college and that of San Bartolomé were dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady as part of the celebrations following the consecration of the new Cathedral of Bogotá on 19 April. See Fernando Caicedo y Flores, Memorias para la historia de la Santa Iglesia Metropolitana de Santa Fé de Bogotá, capital de la república de Colombia, (Bogotá 1824), 69. For the college, see Alba Lesmes, Guillermo Hernández de, Crònica del muy ilustre Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario en Santa Fé de Bogotá, 2 vols (Bogotá 1938–1940).Google Scholar

14 Early in 1816 Morillo’s advance forced the Congress of Cundinamarca to appoint Camilo Torres to full dictatorial powers, with Torices of Cartagena as Vice-President. Failure to prevent the Royalist push from the south and the fall of Pamplona, Antioquia and Socorro led to Torres’ resignation. For two studies of this period see Samudio, Nicolás García, La reconquista de Boyacá en 1816, (Tunja 1916)Google Scholar, and Díaz, Osvaldo Díaz, Los Almeydas. Episodios de la resistencia patriótica contra el ejército pacificador de Tierra Firme, (Bogotá 1962).Google Scholar

15 Villanueva, Joaquín Lorenzo, Apuntes sobre el arresto de los vocales de Cortes ejecutado en mayo de 1814, (Madrid 1820), 89, 3132, 154, 453, 492496.Google Scholar

16 Restrepo, ibid., vol. 1, 422–448.

17 Alba Lesmes, Guillermo Hernández de, Recuerdos de la reconquista. El Consejo de Purificación, (Bogotá 1935), 47;Google Scholar Restrepo, ibid, 428; Morillo, ibid, 79–83.

18 Hernández de Alba, ibid, 8–10, Lista de los individuos purificados por este Tribunal con expresión de los destinos que se les han dado y providencias que se han dictado, Consejo de Purificación, Cuartel General de Santa Fé, 14 November 1816. See also Morillo, ibid, 79–83.

19 Ibid.

20 Morillo, ibid., Pièces Justificatives no. 11, Cuartel General de Santa Fé, 6 June 1816, 258–261.

21 Ibid., no. 1, 9 July 1816, 257.

22 AHN Consejos 21364, Lista general de eclesiásticos inculcados en delitos graves de infidencia, no. 3, Pablo Morillo, Instrucciones reservadas que debe observar el capellán … Melgarejo en el viaje que debe verificar para la península con los eclesiásticos que lleva a su cargo, Cuartel General de Santa Fé de Bogotá, 12 September 1816.

23 Ibid., exp. 37 ff. 1–4, Caicedo—SM, Maracaibo 17 November 1816.

24 Ibid., no. 9, Pablo Morillo—Secretario de Estado y del Despacho de Gracia y Justicia, Cuartel General de Santa Fé, 23 October 1816.

25 Ibid., Caicedo, Fernando, Manifiesto en defensa de la libertad é inmunidad eclesiástica, (Santa Fé 1811), 93 ff.Google Scholar, printed at the author’s cost, and dedicated to the clergy of the Vice-royalty. See ff. 6, 9, 12, 63.

26 Ibid., ff. 6, 9, 12, 88–89, 91–92: Godoy was described as one “whose name will be the execration of every century,” a minister guilty of “hypocrisy and malicious intent”; the reign of Charles IV—”the most unfortunate and unhappy era Spain has experienced”; “Charles IV can be compared to a blind man, who, suddenly having lost his sight, anxiously stretches out his hands in all directions until he finds someone to guide him. If he has the misfortune to come upon a dishonest person, surely enough he will be led to the preci pice.”

27 Ibid., ff. 12–17, 21–22, 24–26. For the peninsular background see in particular Herr, Richard, “Hacia el derrumbe del Antiguo Regimen: crisis fiscal y desamortización bajo Carlos IV,” Moneda y Crédito 118 (Sept. 1971), 37100.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., ff. 25–28, 32–33; ibid, Voto que en la sesión de 20 de agosto de 1811 del Supremo Cuerpo Legislativo dió el Dr. D. Fernando Caicedo y Flores en que demuestra la obligación de rigorosa justicia que tiene el Tesorero Público de Santa Fé de pagar los réditos de los principales que reconocía la Real Hacienda y de los caudales amortizados, (Santa Fé 1811), 42 ff. See ff. 6, 20–21. The original borrowers from the funds of pious works and chantries had paid 5% annual interest. The Crown offered 3%. It was getting cheap money. For the Real Cédula of 26 December 1804, see AGI Indiferente General 666.

29 Ibid., Memoria, ff. 34–36, 38–41. Caicedo maintained that such exactions violated the Bull In Coena Domini, first issued in 1254, which in ch. xviii required prior Papal permission, and Urban VIII’s Bull Romanus Pontifex of 1641 against usurpers of ecclesiastical property. These appeals to Papal authority represent a clear tendency towards Ultramontanism as a means of defence against the secular power after the fracture of the old Patronato Real. A brief history of In Coena Domini may be found in the Catholic Encyclopedia vol. VII (New York 1910), 717–718.

30 For the Mexican case, see in particular the political position of Bishops Antonio Joaquín Pérez of Puebla and Ruiz de Cabañas of Guadalajara in 1821. Alamán, Lucas, Historia de Méjico desde los primeros movimientos que prepararon su independencia &c, 5 vols (México 1849–1852), vol. V, (1852), 256261;Google Scholar Robertson, W. S., Iturbide of Mexico, (Duke, N. C. 1952), 133137, 187, 311;Google Scholar Farriss, ibid, 245–253.

31 AHN Consejos 21364, ibid, Voto &c, ff. 11, 13–14; Memoria, ff. 8–9.

32 Ibid., Voto, ff. 11–14, 20–21; Memoria, ff. 7, 9, 40–43, 50 51, 63, 76–77, 80–82. He described these clerics as “desaforados,” and warned of divine punishment of the realm if the rights of the Church were violated. The Junta’s decree faced the prospect of excommunication and censure under Innocent X’s Brief Ad universalis Ecclesiae regimen of 1650.

33 Ibid., Voto, ff. 24–29, 32–34, 41–42. An indication of Creole patriotism was the denunciation of peninsulares as men with no other thought than lining their pockets under the pretext of serving God and King, and taking the proceeds back to Spain.

34 Ibid., Conducta de los Gobernadores de Arzobispado con la Junta de Empréstito, (Bogotá 1814).

35 Ibid., ff. 1–21. They cited Caicedo’s Memoria on f. 16; the parishes in the provinces yielded such low incomes that few persons were willing to serve them; only a few clerics possessed houses or haciendas; almost all such properties were heavily burdened with censo obligations; the consolidación removed the capital in convent and chantry treasuries.

36 Ibid., exp. 35, Causa o proceso de liquidación del Presbítero, D. Pablo Plata, cura de esta Santa Iglesia Catedral, 11 June 1816. Plata had taken office as Rector of the Seminary College of San Bartolomé in Bogotá on 8 April 1815. For a discussion of Mexican “guadalupanismo,” see Hamill, Hugh M. Jr., The Hidalgo Revolt. Prelude to Mexican Independence, (Gainesville, Fla. 1966), 133135.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., no. 9, Pablo Morillo—Secretario de Estado y del Despacho de Gracia y Justicia, Cuartel General de Santa Fé, 23 October 1816, enclosing Lista general y nominal de los eclesiásticos así seculares como regulares, cuyos procesos son entregados al Excmo. Sr, General en Jefe del Ejército Expedicionario, Santa Fé 29 October 1816. On this list were:. 28 parish priests; 5 canons and other Cathedral clergy; 4 Franciscans; 2 Augustinians; 2 Dominicans; 2 patrimonistas; 1 Candelarian, and 1 provisor. With Plata and two others, Talavera and Lozada, the total came to forty.

38 Ibid. Another cleric who had led rebel bands was Andrés Ordóñez, who had, like many Mexican insurgent clergy of the Hidalgo-Morelos periods, abandoned his parish to join the revolution. He had not, however, ceased to exercise his ministry, for he had administered the sacraments to insurgents in Ibagué, Leiva and Tunja, during the time he himself had sat as a member of the Congress of Cundinamarca. For this and for accepting appointment as insurgent Vicar-General of the diocese of Popayán, the Audiencia of Santa Fé denounced him on 31 October 1816 as a disciple of the Jansenist ideas condemned by Pius VI in Auctorem Fidei of 1794. Ibid, exp. 54, Promotor Fiscal de la Audiencia de Santa Fé, 31 October 1816.

39 Ibid., Lista General &c, Melgarejo—Casteldosrius, La Guaira 29 April 1817; Castelldosrius—Ministro de Guerra, Cádiz 22 June 1817.

40 The Royal Decree of 2 July 1814 re-established the Council of the Indies after its abolition by the Cádiz Cortes. As in the years before 1808 there were three permanent chambers (salas), the first two for matters of government, and the third for the administration of justice. Decretos del Rey 1 (1814), 102.

41 Ibid., exp. 37, El Sr. Fiscal con D. Fernando Caicedo y Flores, canónigo penitenciario de la metropolitana de Santa Fé de Bogotá sobre infidencia, 1817, ff. 5–9 vta. Another seven clerics had in the meantime arrived in Santander.

42 Ibid., ff. 10–11 vta, Caicedo, Castillo de San Sebastián, Cádiz, 15 August 1817; ff. 12–13 vta. José Ortiz de Herboso, his agent. For similarly ambiguous political conduct in the revolutionary period, see the cases of Murguía y Galardi and Ibáñez de Corbera in Oaxaca, 1812–1819, in Hamnett, Brian R., Politics and Trade in Southern Mexico, 1750–1821, (Cambridge 1971), 134139, 162163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43 Ibid., exp. 44, Consulta del consejo, 1 July 1818; in exp. 45, Santa Fé 8 July 1818, the Audiencia of Santa Fé sent the council Caicedo’s Relación de Meritos.

44 For a resumé of these events, see Morón, ibid, 124–134. Morillo describes his second period in Venezuela after mid-January 1817 in his Mémoires, 97 et seq. For subsequent events in New Granada, see Bushnell, David, The Santander Régime in Gran Colombia, (Delaware 1954).Google Scholar