El clero Merideño ante la independencia de la provincia de Mérida (1805-1811)

Abstract

European political phenomena, such as the French revolution, Napoleonic wars, the crisis of the Bourbon monarchy in Spain and the mirandian libertine actions in Tierra Firme, and the consequent development of autonomous and independents praxis in the Province of Mérida, shook, both politically and experientially, the catholic clergy of Mérida; all of which lead it to reclaim and participate in the ideological debate which encompassed, among other thematical axes, the origin of sovereignty, the emergence of a new order by virtue of the popular will, and to disseminate and analyze, in an unusual way, from the pulpits to the farthest places of the Diocese’s’ territory, the most important events which would impact the consciousness of the gray, and which would propel it to the battlefields pursuing liberty, democracy, autonomy for regions, decentralization of the State and, thus, the instauration of Feudalism.