«Sable en mano, con la cruz a cuestas». Las reacciones y los espacios del clero católico ante el Trienio Liberal

Relying on the growing historiographical work on the multifarious political roles played by the Spanish clergy in the first stages of constitutional rule in Spain, this paper explores some key contributions made by relevant members of the Catholic clergy. The text pays attention to the spaces and the media used by those priests who opposed and endorsed the administrative reforms of the Catholic Church during the Liberal Triennium. Second, it highlights the attitudes and political discourses of certain clerics which defied the often over-simplifying labels of ‘reactionary’ and ‘Liberal’. The last section sheds new light on the discursive interventions carried out by outstanding anti-constitutional clergymen within the international context set by the recreation of the counter-revolutionary Holy Alliance, spearheaded by France, Prussia and Russia, which actively opposed the political innovations experienced in Spain between 1820 and 1823.