I have not time to comment at length on these great measures, which,
independently of their intrinsic interest, are expected to exercise
potential influence toward putting an end to the war in the northern and
northeastern provinces of Spain.
[B.—Inclosure 1 in No.
220.—Translation.]
Circular of the minister of grace and justice to the
clergy.—Dated January 2, 1875.
[From the “Gaceta de Madrid,”
January 7, 1875.]
The regency-ministry being constituted, I have believed it my duty to
give official information to your ——— of the fortunate occurrence to
which it owes its origin. In the relations of the Catholic states with
the church, that which is a prosperous event for the former cannot be
other than a happy augury of success for the latter. If the church has
suffered in common with the Spanish nation the countless ills of sterile
political convulsions, with the advent to the throne of an illustrious
prince, Catholic, like his pre-eminent ancestors, and resolved to repair
of, in so far as may be possible, the injuries which have been caused,
should lead us to hope for days of tranquillity and
[Page 1096]
better fortune. The proclamation of our
King, Don Alfonso XII, being the true end of those disturbances, shall,
for the same reason, be the beginning of a new era, in which shall be
seen the re-establishment of our good relations with the common Father
of the faithful, which have been unfortunately interrupted by the unjust
acts and the excesses of these latter times. All that can affect these
reciprocal relations shall be forthwith carried out with the counsel of
wise prelates and in accord with the Holy See, and the church and her
ministers shall be given all the protection which is due to them in an
eminently Catholic nation like ours. To this end the government counts
upon the efficient co-operation of your———and of your worthy companions
in the episcopate, upon the assistance of the high corporations of the
state, and upon the aid of all good Catholics. I take pleasure in
communicating to your———the happy news of this salutary change in our
political situation, which permits us to hope for more favorable days
for the nation and for an epoch of better fortune for the church.
May God guard your———many years.
Madrid, January 2,
1875.
FRANCIS DE CÁRDENAS.
To the most eminent cardinals, the very reverend archbishops, the
reverend bishops, and the capitular vicars.
[D.—Inclosure 2 in No.
220.—Translation.]
Decree dated January 9, 1875, restoring to the church certain real property held by the
stale.
[From the “Gaceta de Madrid,”
January 10, 1875.]
Decree.
When, in 1860, by agreement with the Holy See, the real estate of the
clergy was transferred to the state, exception was made of such only as
by its nature and conditions could not enter into commerce nor subserve
any economical necessity, remaining in consequence and thenceforth
completely effected the desamortization of all its real property.
Subsequently, and by different authorities, various measures were
adopted, by virtue of which much of the property not comprised in the
transfer returned to the power of the state, some of the buildings
thereon being demolished, others set apart for public uses, and the rest
subsisting in the power of the state.
The regency-ministry desires to remedy, so far as may be possible, the
effect of those measures, because, if it be not done, monuments which to
their religious character add the merit of being artistic and historical
will disappear, as many others have done, to the dishonor of the
nation.
For these considerations it has decreed the following:
- Article 1. The financial
administrators, in accord with the very reverend archbishops and
reverend bishops, shall put at the disposal of the same those
estates of the clergy which, having been excepted from the
transfer agreed upon with the Holy See in 1860, are to-day in
the power of the state in consequence of subsequent measures,
and which are not now applied to public uses.
- Art. 2. If the demolition of any of
the edifices on such estates shall have been begun, the
financial administrators shall order the suspension of work
thereon, reporting the same to the ministry of finance. Likewise
they shall give account of those now employed for the public
service.
- Art. 3. The necessary measures shall
be adopted by the ministry of finance for the execution of this
decree.
Madrid, January 9,
1875.
The president of the regency-ministry,
ANTONIO CANOVAS
DEL CASTILLO.
[F.—Inclosure 3 in No.
220.—Translation.]
Royal decree of January 15, 1875, charging the clerical establishment to the state as
formerly.
[From the “Gaceta de Madrid,”
January 17, 1875.]
Regency Ministry.—Ministry of
Finance.
Preamble.
Señor: The advent of Your Majesty to the
constitutional throne signifies, in the political sphere, concord,
order, and liberty; in the moral sphere, the affirmation of these
sentiments of piety, honor, and highmindedness which ever constitute the
character of the Spanish people; in the economical sphere, the
development of our national wealth and material interests, probity in
the administration, and the fidelity of the state in the fulfillment of
all its obligations.
[Page 1097]
The undersigned minister, being charged with the realization of the great
and just aspirations of Your Majesty, in so far as refers to the
economical adjustment and better management of the public finances,
deems that no measures can be received by Your Majesty with livelier
interest, at the moment of occupying the throne, than these which I,
to-day, have the honor to submit to the high consideration of Your
Majesty.
They aim at demonstrating that the government of Your Majesty aspires, in
its very first acts, to repair the lessons which the turbulences of
these latter times have caused in the rights of the creditors of the
state; to make it patent that no obligation is to remain ignored or
forgotten; that, according to the measure of our present poverty or of
our future prosperity, all these obligations will be equitably
fulfilled, and, in fine, that not for a single moment, or under any
pretext whatever, can doubt or dispute arise respecting the compromises
contracted in the name of the nation by the powers which have
successively governed, constituting, in virtue thereof, obligations/for
the public treasury.
Reducing, señor, these general ideas to determinate cases, the government
of Your Majesty has found it necessary in the first instance to take up
the anomalous situation in which it finds the payment of the
appropriations for worship and the clergy, which are sacred for many
reasons, and which should therefore be punctually satisfied, thus
relieving so venerable a class from the state of abandonment and misery
in which they now are.
Such obligations, by virtue of the laws of the kingdom, and of treaties
with the Holy See, were previously comprised in the general estimates of
the state, and were discharged without interruption for the space of
many years.
The last estimates in which they figured as a whole were those of
1870–’71. But, before then, the law of December 18, 1869, which deprived
of their offices and of their salaries or pensions all those
functionaries who did not swear fidelity to the constitution of that
year, was applied to the clergy, without taking into account the fact
that the sums assigned to them were not the recompense of an
administrative function, but were in compensation of ancient rights and
properties which the church had ceded to the state in the interest of
the general public welfare.
Notwithstanding that measure, the clerical allowances were paid in some
dioceses in part, thus establishing unjust inequalities.
At this stage of the matter there was a government which proposed to the
Cortes to transfer to the provincial and municipal exchequer the
totality of the ecclesiastical obligations; the project, although
discussed by the Cortes, did not go so far as to receive the sanction of
the crown, doubtless because, on better appreciation of its
inconveniences from every point of view, it was abandoned, with the
intention of returning to the regular and just order of things, and of
making the state alone responsible for what was its own and unavoidable
obligation.
The result was, therefore, that at one time, because of the exigency of a
political oath, and at another by reason of the ecclesiastical estimates
being separated from the general estimates, in the expectancy, perhaps,
of the adoption of a definitive form of payment, the obligations of
worship and the clergy were the only ones for which, during the last
five years, no financial appropriation was made, nor payments, except
those made as before stated, to a limited number of dioceses.
The last administration, with the view, doubtless, of putting an end to
such a state of things, embodied in the present budget a provision
according to which the estimates for the ecclesiastical obligations were
to be considered augmented in the amount necessary for their payment, in
conformity to the arrangement between the government and the Holy See;
but the government of Your Majesty deems that it is its duty, in the
fulfillment of laws and solemn stipulations, which cannot be ignored, to
comprise forthwith in the current estimates the necessary credits for
the appropriations for public worship and the clergy, which shall be
payable from the present month, and executing an early liquidation which
shall determine the sum of the particular and general arrears of these
obligations, in order to establish the form in which the treasury may
meet, according as its resources permit, so considerable a deficit.
The government trusts that, at the conclusion of the war, when it becomes
possible to fix the sure and permanent resources upon which the state is
to count for meeting the general expenditures for which it is
answerable, the church, as it has itself shown in past times, will not
be the last to lend its aid, without sparing sacrifices, to placing the
public treasury in a condition to bear, with economy and order, the
weighty burden which has been cast upon it by the political disturbances
of every epoch and the misfortunes of the kingdom.
For these considerations, the undersigned, in accord with the council of
ministers, has the honor to submit to the approbation of Your Majesty
the annexed draught of a decree:
Madrid, January 15,
1875.
Señor: At the royal feet of Your Majesty.
The minister of finance—
PEDRO
SALAVERRÍA.
