The Clergy and the Independence of New Spain

Abstract

T HE ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE of the clergy in the movement for Mexican independence presents many difficulties. Clerics were to be found on both sides of the conflict, engaging in activities that ranged from violence and bloodshed, through preaching and sermonizing, to simple expressions of sympathy. Many took no part whatever, but, long accustomed as they were to submission to authority, accepted the regime in power, whether it were Liberal or Conservative, patriot or royalist. Probably a majority were untouched or unmoved since the violent manifestations of the revolt in fact involved only a small part of the vice-royalty. Before proceeding to a consideration of the respective roles of loyal and insurgent clergy, it is important to understand the organization and composition of the church in New Spain in the closing years of the colonial era. The ecclesiastical government of the viceroyalty consisted of one archdiocese, that of Mexico, and eight suffragan sees. The bishops, the members of the cathedral chapters, the officers of the Inquisition, and the heads of the religious orders and institutions formed the upper clergy. These men, for the most part, were peninsular Spaniards, many of whom never saw the country in which they were to hold such important positions, until they were sent out to enjoy its richest benefices.' The lower clergy, mostly creoles and mestizos,2 were regarded as social inferiors by their clerical superiors. They generally lacked the training and culture of the latter and were, on the whole, subject to local influences and prejudices. Furthermore, they shared in all the disadvantages of their creole countrymen through the jealous policy of the mother country exercised through the Pa* The author is an instructor in the department of history, Niagara University, New York. 1 H. G. Ward, Mexico in 1827 (2 vols., London, 1828), I, 321-322. 2 A. de Humboldt (Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, John Black trans. [2 vols., London, 1811], I, 229-230) estimates the number of the lower clergy at about ten thousand, equally divided between regulars and seculars.