Preaching Spanish Nationalism across the Hispanic Atlantic, 1759-1823

Cover

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pp. c-vi

Contents

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pp. vii-viii

Acknowledgments

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pp. ix-xii

Introduction

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pp. 1-16

In 1812, during the War of Independence in Spain, the Capuchin friar Rafael de Vélez warned that “a new revolution of ideas, a war of opinion” had just begun in Spain. “The people,” he feared, would embrace these new principles and “blindly follow those who present themselves as the restorers...

1. The People of God: Patriotism, Enlightenment, and Religion

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pp. 17-44

At the height of the Hispanic Enlightenment, during the reign of Carlos III (1759–88), letrados on both sides of the Atlantic interrogated the essence of identity and the meaning of place. As reformist thinkers challenged political, social, and economic norms and monarchists sought to maintain absolutist prerogative, questions of loyalty became a paramount...

2. Urban Revolt, Nationalist Revolutions: Valencia and Seville, 1808–1814

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pp. 45-68

During the wars of independence, the clergy increasingly directed their sermons and religious instruction to a nation-in-arms in addition to their parishioners, celebrating the people of Spain as the people of God. In Seville in 1808, the priest Manuel María Rodríguez y Romero proudly proclaimed: “This was the happy moment in which the voice of the people was...

3. The Emergence of the Catholic Public Sphere

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pp. 69-93

In spite of early recruitment successes in Valencia and Andalusia, the war dragged on for years. French armies took to the offensive, and clerics openly debated strategy through the medium of print and actively engaged in politics. Juan Constans, a Catholic priest from Catalonia, wrote an impassioned appeal to the Junta Central in June 1809 asking the government...

4. Making the Spanish Catholic Citizen: Inquisition, Race, and Gender

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pp. 94-121

After the success of writing a constitution for the war-torn provinces of the Spanish Monarchy at the height of the conflict with France, the elected deputies of the Cortes engaged in a protracted struggle over the nature and meaning of the Inquisition, one of the most enduring symbols of the Old Regime. The cleric and deputy of the Cortes, Diego Muñoz Torrero,...

5. The Children of the Madre Patria: Revolution in New Spain

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pp. 122-147

At the height of the Spanish uprising against Napoleon in 1811, one prominent Spanish American cleric lamented: “How painful it is to see these machinations and these fraudulent tricks that have been able to separate Spaniards from Spaniards, the American Spaniards from the European Spaniards, with whom they share the strongest bonds of nature and...

6. The Culture and Politics of Hispanic Liberalism

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pp. 148-176

José Bravo, an outspoken liberal Spanish priest, composed a popular anthem of national resistance that paid tribute to Spanish valor in the face of tyranny. He dedicated his song to the “patriotic company . . . of military officials of Seville, brought together under the constitutional system.” While his clarion call to arms, published in Seville in 1821, may...

Epilogue

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pp. 177-180

The bicentennial commemorations of the events of 1808–12 took on increased significance as contemporary governments continued to grapple with the legacy of this defining moment in Atlantic history. From historical reenactments to official ceremonies and speeches, public remembrance tended toward the grandiloquent. Eulogizing the martyrs of “independence”...

Notes

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pp. 181-222

Bibliography

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pp. 223-238

Index

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pp. 239-251