Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/295

MEXICO. 255 Church, has become very general ; and, in the beginning of this year, motions were made in the Legislatures of Zacatecas and Durango, urging the Congress to assume the right of Patronage, without waiting for a Concordat with the See of Rome. I have little doubt that due attention will be paid to this recommendation in the sessions of 1828, if, indeed, it be not acted upon before the close of the present year. The long interregnum which has taken place in many of the Bishoprics, has facilitated the introduction of many very useful reforms ; but it has encouraged, at the same time, a spirit of innovation, on the part of some of the States, which, but for the intervention of the General Congress, would have been carried very far. In Guadalajara, for instance, the State Legislature decreed the confiscation of the whole of the Church property in that State, pledging itself to make a suitable provision for the Ministers of Religion at the pviblic expense. This project was even sanctioned as an Article oj the Constitution of the State (the 7th) ; but the Clergy, hav- ing refused to take the oath upon such terms, and resisted, by a threat of excommunication, an attempt on the part of the Civil Authorities to oblige them to submit, the question was referred to the General Congress, which, on the 22d of December 1824, issued a Decree " prohibiting the States from taking any measures calculated to diminish the revenues of the Church, without the full concurrence of the Ecclesi- astical Authorities, until the time should arrive, at which the General Congress should think it expedient to enact a law for the regulation of the right of Patronage throughout the Republic." This measure, although it has been much criticised, was undoubtedly productive of the very best effects, as it put a stop to encroachments on the part of the States, for which the country was by no means prepared, and yet left the door open for necessary reforms, wherever there was an attempt to ex- ercise Spiritual jurisdiction, in such a manner as to affect the