Catholic Role in Mexican Independence

They declared from the pulpit that these tyrannical acts must be resisted, that the yoke was no longer to be borne.

Continuing Mexican Independence,
our selection from Notes on Mexico by Joel R. Poinsett published in 1822. The selection is presented in six easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Mexican Independence.

Time: 1817-19
Place: Mexico

Here he mustered eleven hundred men, and marching all night across the country he gained an unfrequented spot called La Mina de la Luz, where he was joined by some further reinforcements; and his little army now amounted to fourteen hundred men. With this force and without artillery he had the temerity to attack the city of Guanajuato, and it is not surprising that he failed. After burning the machinery of the mine of Valenciana, Mina retired from Guanajuato, and dismissed his troops to their several stations, retaining only sixty or seventy men. On September 27th Mina was surprised at the rancho of Venadito, and fell into the hands of Orrantia. Orders for his immediate execution were dispatched by Apodaca, who was then Viceroy of New Spain. He was conducted through Silao to Irrapuato, and finally to the headquarters of Liflan, who commanded the besieging army before Remedios, where, on November 11th, he was shot, pursuant to his sentence. The capture of Mina was considered a matter of so much importance in Spain that Apodaca was created Conde del Venadito, and Lilian and Orrantia received marks of distinction for their services on this occasion.

The siege of Los Remedios was now pressed with renewed vigor, and Torres, finding the place no longer tenable and being without ammunition, resolved to evacuate it. This was effected on the night of January 1, 1818, but was so badly conducted that the greater part of the garrison perished, and the unarmed inhabitants, women and children, were involved in one indiscriminate massacre. The death of Mina and the fall of Los Remedios enabled the Royalists to take active measures to reduce the Independents. The fortress of Xauxilla, where the Government resided, was invested by a body of one thousand men under Don Matias Martin y Aguirre. The garrison defended the place with great courage during three months but were finally obliged to surrender.

The revolutionary Government, compelled to remove from Xauxilla, established itself in the Province of Valladolid. In the month of February, 1818, they were surprised by a party of the enemy, and the President made prisoner. The form of government, however, continued to be kept up, although the members were obliged to move from place to place. Padre Torres, who since his disaster at Los Remedios had rendered himself odious by his capricious and tyrannical conduct, was formally deposed from the chief command, and Don Juan Arago, a French officer, who arrived in the country with Mina, appointed to fill his place. The padre resisted this decree of the Government, and both parties had recourse to arms. The contest between them was terminated only by the advance of a division of Royalists under Donallo; Torres was compelled to submit, and to place himself under the protection of the Government.

From this time, July, 1819, the war languished everywhere. The Royalists occupied all the strong places and every town. General Guerrero, who was distinguished for his courage and enterprise, continued at the head of a formidable guerilla force in the Tierra Caliente of the Province of Valladolid. Arago roamed over the mountains of Guanajuato. Bradburn, another of Mina’s officers, organized a small force in the Cafiadas de Huango, but was overtaken by a division of the Royalists under Lara, and his party cut to pieces. Guadalupe Victoria, after maintaining himself a long time in the Province of Vera Cruz, had been compelled to disband his troops, and to retire to the mountains for refuge. The chiefs and leaders were dispersed throughout the country, waiting until the cause of independence should assume a more favorable aspect.

The termination of the first revolution is principally to be attributed to the opposition of the clergy. The cry of liberty raised by Hidalgo and his brave companions-in-arms was echoed with exultation by all classes of people and from the remotest parts of the empire; and notwithstanding their want of concert, the strenuous opposition of the clergy alone prevented success being secured by a general rising of the Mexican people.

They were exhorted to persevere in their loyalty to the mother country; anathemas were thundered out against the disaffected; the rites of the Church were denied them; and the Inquisition, that powerful instrument of despotism, by denouncing and persecuting the friends of liberty, by alarming the conscientious scruples of some, and by exciting the fears of others, checked the progress of the revolution and aided the arms of the Royalists. By these means the patriots were divided and weakened; creoles were armed against creoles, and despotism triumphed.

The contest for independence, although conducted feebly and unsuccessfully, was protracted for many years, and produced some good effects. The creoles and Indians, who continued firm in the cause of liberty, were soon taught to attribute their ill success to the true causes — their own want of discipline, and the in the revolution in Spain was viewed with dread by the clergy of Mexico; and no sooner had the decrees of the Cortes, confiscating the estates, and reducing and reforming some of the higher orders of the clergy, reached America, than the indignation of the Church burst out against the mother-country. They declared from the pulpit that these tyrannical acts must be resisted, that the yoke was no longer to be borne, and that the interests of the Catholic religion, nay, its very existence in America, demanded that Mexico should be separated from Spain. Rebellion came from the experience of their commanders — rather than to the spiritual weapons of their adversaries.

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