La fidelidad del clero neogranadino durante la transición de la Independencia

Abstract

This article deals with the crisis of the ministers of the New Granada Church during the transition of Independence, faced with the dilemma of obeying the king or the new representatives of the Republic. As is known, since the events unleashed in mid-1810, many clergymen joined the revolution, while others remained loyal to the Crown. Positions that many changed on more than one occasion during the stages that ended with emancipation. Their speeches and actions seem contradictory, but they conform to the logic of the interests at stake, which were none other than their own and those of the institution they represented. This essay reissues this problem from the correspondence of the ecclesiastics and their arguments in defense of their tax jurisdiction and resources. From the facts, it can be concluded that they accepted the two powers alternately, although they finally negotiated and strengthened their institutional role in the new State.