Sotanas, Escaños y sufragios. Práctica política y soportes sociales del neo-catolicismo en las provincias castellano-manchegas (1854-1868)

Abstract

In the Spanish Constituent assembly of 1854 some previously unknown issues were raised about Church-State relations, including tolerance of worshipping and religious freedom. The clergy, whose interference in political confrontations was nothing new, placed themselves as a majority alongside one of the factions of the Moderate party, which, in a contradictory way, used the new mechanisms of political representation arisen with the representative State of the citizen (The press and Parliamentary representation) to fight against liberalism. A defense of Church rights directed towards the sacralization of society was undertaken by the pulpit, the press, the parliamentary tribune and the Printing press. These represented the main lines of an analysis which wakes reference to the provinces that nowadays make up Castilla-La Mancha, where the neocatholic brend had a reasonable electoral support and relied on the ideological, numerical and organizational support provided by the Archbishopric of Toledo and the diocese of Cuenca.