Concordat of 1851
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The Concordat of 1851 was a concordat between the Spanish government of Queen Isabella II and the Vatican. It was negotiated in response to the policies of the anticlerical Liberal government, which had forced her mother out as regent in 1841. Although the concordat was signed on 16 March 1851, its terms were not implemented until 1855. (A second concordat was negotiated in 1859, as a supplement to the Concordat of 1851.)
The concordat remained in effect until it was repudiated by the Second Spanish Republic in 1931. Ten years later, the first three articles were reinstated by Generalissimo Francisco Franco's 1941 Convention with the Vatican. Eventually, a new concordat was signed in 1953.
Relations with the Catholic Church
From 1833 to 1840, civil war raged in Spain over the succession to King Ferdinand VII, who had ruled under the liberal Constitution of 1812 until it was abolished in May 1814. After Ferdinand's death in 1833, the constitution was in force again briefly in 1836 and 1837. The Carlist Wars were fought between supporters of the regent, Maria Christina, acting for her daughter, Isabel II of Spain, and those of the late king's brother, Carlos de Borbón (styling himself Carlos V), who hoped for the return to an absolute monarchy.
"The first Carlist war was fought not so much on the basis of the legal claim of Don Carlos, but because a passionate, dedicated section of the Spanish people favored a return to a kind of absolute monarchy that they felt would protect their individual freedoms (fueros), their regional individuality and their religious conservatism."[1] Aided by the United Kingdom, France and Portugal, the supporters of Isabel were ultimately able to compel the Carlists to come to terms.
Most of the clergy did not support Carlos but were not in favor of many of the reforms. When priests who were found with the rebels were shot, that turned a number of bishops against the government, which then viewed the clergy as disloyal. A period of fierce anticlericalism followed. Rome delayed recognition of the government and the appointment of any new bishops (subject to government approval) until it knew with which government it would be dealing. Isabella's government viewed that as a grave insult.[2] In the summer of 1834, Liberal (Isabeline) forces set fire to the Sanctuary of Arantzazu and a convent of Bera[which?].
Some bishops were in prison and others in exile. As the government was in grave need of money, church property was seized and religious houses[clarification needed] closed. Some larger convents, whose work involved teaching and nursing, remained open until 1837.
The situation had largely stabilised by the late 1840s. A Spanish force assisted Pope Pius IX at Gaeta after his flight from the short-lived revolutionary Roman Republic in November 1848.[2] Despite their anticlericalism, the Moderates concluded a rapprochement with the Church, which agreed to surrender its claim to the confiscated property in return for official recognition by the state and a role in education. That, however, did not win the Moderates conservative rural support.[3]
