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The ''patronato'' () system in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

(and a similar '' padroado'' system in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

) was the expression of royal patronage controlling major appointments of Church officials and the management of Church revenues, under terms of

concordat A concordat () is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 ...

s with the Holy See. The resulting structure of royal power and Holy See"> ...

s with the Holy See. The resulting structure of royal power and ecclesiastical privileges, was formative in the Spanish Empire">ecclesiastical privileges">Holy See"> ...
s with the Holy See. The resulting structure of royal power and ecclesiastical privileges, was formative in the Spanish Empire. It resulted in a characteristic constant intermingling of trade, politics, and religion. The papacy granted the power of patronage to the monarchs of Spain and Portugal to appoint clerics because the monarchs "were willing to subsidize missionary activities in newly conquered and discovered territories."

''Patronato real'' in Spain and its overseas possessions

The ''patronato'' was a prerogative granted by a competent ecclesiastical authority endowing a person with the permission to take over the obligations of providing for the administration and maintenance of a religious benefice.Weber, Francis J. "Real Patronato de Indias". ''The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly'', vol. 43, no. 2, [University of California Press, Historical Society of Southern California
1961, pp. 215–19, The ''patronato real'' has its foundation in canon law, which recognized the right of laymen to establish and patronize churches and missions, as a means to supplement the efforts of the papacy, the Church, and the religious orders. Such laypersons were recognized as patrons and possessed certain rights and privileges over the churches and missions they established, financed and patronized. In the case of the kings of Spain, they received rights over New World ecclisial appointments and affairs in exchange for their support of evangelization and the establishment of the Catholic Church in America. It was derived from the papal bulls '' Romanus Pontifex'' (1455) and '' Inter caetera'' (1493), granted for the benefit of Portugal on its Atlantic routes, and the so-called Alexandrian Bulls issued in 1493, immediately after the voyage of

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

at the request of the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Isabella I of Castile, Queen Isabella I of Crown of Castile, Castile () and Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand II of Crown of Aragón, Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of ...

. The royal or Indian patronage for the Spanish Crown was confirmed by Pope Julius II in 1508. Religious teaching to the Indians was benefited by the bishoprics. Earlier, on December 13, 1486, Pope

Innocent VIII Pope Innocent VIII (; ; 1432 – 25 July 1492), born Giovanni Battista Cybo (or Cibo), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 August 1484 to his death, in July 1492. Son of the viceroy of Naples, Cybo spent his ea ...

had granted the queen of Castile and her husband, the king of Aragon, at their request, the perpetual patronage of the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

and Puerto Real including also Granada, foreseeing their next conquest. This was stipulated with the bull ''Ortodoxae fidei''. However, it was not until 1505 that the monarchs asked the pope for the full prerogatives of the patronage in the discovered areas and in the Spanish territory under his rule. And only in 1523, Pope Adrian VI granted them.

Development

These royal powers were: the sending and selection of the missionaries to America (Bull ''Inter caetera'', 1493), collection of the tithe (bull

Eximiae devotionis ''Eximiae devotionis'' declared on 3 May 1493 is one of three papal bulls of Pope Alexander VI delivered purporting to grant any and all overseas territories in the west and ocean to kings of Castile and León that were found by the kings of Casti ...

, 1501), power to fix and modify the boundaries of the dioceses in America (bull ''Ullius fulcite praesidio'', 1504) and power to veto the election of archbishoprics or bishoprics, as well as the right of presentation (bull ''Universalis ecclesiae'', 1508). In 1539 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V demanded that the bishops' petitions to the Holy See pass through his hand, imposing the royal pass (regal pass or regium exequatur) on the pontifical documents to be executed. The royal certificate of patronage in the Indies (''real patronato indiano'') that consolidated the institution was issued. In it, under royal authorization, the construction of churches, cathedrals, convents, hospitals, the concession of bishoprics, archbishoprics, dignities, benefits and other ecclesiastical positions. The prelates had to give account to the king of their acts. For the provision of parishes, the bishop was to call a contest and the selected candidates, to submit two to the civil authority for it to decide. In addition, the dispensation of the visit '' ad limina apostolorum'' of the bishops to the Holy See was obtained; the correspondence of the bishops was submitted to the revision of the Council of the Indies; the provincial councils were to be held under the supervision of viceroys and presidents of the royal audiences; to erect convents or religious houses a report should be sent to the king on foundations, haciendas and number of religious in the region and wait for the royal approval; no regular superior could exercise his office without obtaining the real authorization; vigilance was ordered to the convent life, punishing the ecclesiastics who did not fulfill their duties. The Real Hearing is constituted in court for, in the first instance, to settle ecclesiastical conflicts. Finally, some religious orders, such as the Franciscans, were given the figure of the Apostolic Vicar for America, which limited the power of the superior general. The royal patronage allowed the Church to count on numerous missionaries, had the necessary economic and financial resources and, above all, facilitated their mobilization and distribution. However, it also had other consequences less favorable to the papal perspective, such as the submission of the Church to royal assent Institutions such as the ''

encomienda The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish Labour (human activity), labour system that rewarded Conquistador, conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. In theory, the conquerors provided the labourers with benefits, including mil ...

'' and debates such as that of the just titles make clear what was the true importance of religious justification for colonial rule. The control of the Hispanic monarchy over the Church, not only in America, but in the peninsula (presentation of bishops, bull of Crusade, control over the military orders and the Inquisition) caused envy in other European monarchies that are not alien to movements like the Reformation or, in Catholic France, Gallicanism or regalism; to which the Papal

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

responded, among other movements, with the institution of Propaganda Fide (1622).

Eighteenth century

In the 18th century, with Spain and the Indies under the

Bourbon dynasty The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Kingdom of Navarre, Navarre in the 16th century. A br ...

, regalist ideas were added to the Spanish regalist tradition (Chumacero and Pimentel, in the 17th century, Macanaz in the first half of the 18th century). In 1735 the Board of the Royal Board that had Gaspar de Molina y Oviedo as president proclaimed that the kings of Spain were entitled to the universal patronage that implied the assumption of all the benefits of the kingdom. On these bases, in the context of the endless discussions for the Concordat of 1753, the Spanish–Portuguese border conflicts over the territory of Misiones and the

suppression of the Society of Jesus The suppression of the Society of Jesus was the removal of all members of the Jesuits from most of Western Europe and their respective colonies beginning in 1759 along with the abolition of the order by the Holy See in 1773; the papacy acceded ...

from Spain and Spanish overseas territories (1767); Spanish jurists developed a tendency to express royal control over the Church through new doctrinal formulations, which implied that both the ''patronato'' and the submission of the Church to the State did not derive from a concession of the Holy See, but was the result of an inherent right to the sovereignty of kings. The concordat endorsed this idea even though 52 benefits were reserved.

Nineteenth century

In the successor states to the Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires, the conservative establishment of the Church and ruling class continued to be referred to as the ''patronato''.

Current era

The new concordat, signed in 1851, maintained the universal patronage that remained the right of the Spanish Crown until the advent of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...

(1931). The ''patronato real'' was reestablished by the Concordat of 1953 granting it to Spanish dictator

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

until a new convention finally abolished it in 1976 during Spain's transition to democracy. This doctrine, maintained in Spain, was also invoked by the newly formed American republics after the wars of Spanish–American independence (1808–1821). The new American states wanted to maintain the right of patronage, considering themselves as continuators of the historical and legal obligations of the Spanish crown, on the Catholic Church within their territories. The royal patronage was maintained until the Church–State separation at the beginning of the 20th century.

See also

* Advowson * Jus patronatus

References

Further reading

*Ayarragaray, Lucas. ''La Iglesia en América y la Dominación Española''. Buenos Aires 1920. * Bernardino Bravo Lira(1993) ''Historia de las instituciones políticas en Chile e Hispanoamérica'', Editorial Andrés Bello, Santiago de Chile 1993², * de la Hera, Alberto. "El patronato y el vicariato regio en Indias" en Pedro Borges (dir.), ''Historia de la Iglesia en Hispanoamérica y Filipinas'', vol. I, BAC, Madrid 1992 * Fisher, Lillian Estelle. ''Viceregal Administration in the Spanish-American Colonies''. Berkeley, CA. 1926. *Gómez Hoyos, Rafael. ''La Iglesia de América en las Leyes de Indias''. Madrid 1961. *Gómez Zamora, Matías. ''Regio Patronato Español é Indiano''. Madrid 1897. *Legón, Faustino J. ''Doctrina y ejercio del Patronato Nacional''. Buenos Aires 1920. *Leturia, Pedro. ''Relaciones entre la Santa Sede é Hispanoamérica''. Caracas 1959. *Mecham, J. Lloyd. ''Church and State in Latin America: A History of Politico-Ecclesiastical Relations, revised edition''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1966. * Pérez, Angel Gabriel. ''El Patronato Español en el Virreyno del Perú durante el Siglo XVI''. Tournai, Belgium 1937. * Quintín Aldea, voz "Patronato real" en Quintín Aldea – Tomás Marín – José Vives, ''Diccionario de historia eclesiástica de España'', Instituto Enrique Flórez, Madrid 1993, p. 1944-1948 *Ribadeneyra, Antonio Joaquín. ''Manual Compendio de el Regio Patronato Indiano''. Madrid 1755. *Sarfield, Dalmacio Vélez. ''Relaciones del Estado con la Iglesia en la Antigua América Española''. Buenos Aires 1889. *Shiels, W.E. ''King and Church: The Rise and Fall of the Patronato Real''. Chicago 1961. {{div col end, 2 History of Catholicism in Spain Spanish Empire Treaties of the Spanish Empire Treaties of the Holy See