The Ruin of a State is Freedom of Conscience: Religion, (In)Tolerance, and Independence in the Spanish Monarchy

Hispanic clerics, intellectuals, and radicals avidly discussed religious tolerance in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. For most, liberty, political independence, and freedom of the press remained paramount concerns. They agreed that religious liberty could not be implemented in the Spanish Monarchy. In this sense, the collective superseded the individual right of worship. Although Hispanic liberals did not include religious tolerance among their foundational principles, they crafted a heterodox ideology that guided the construction of modern Spanish institutions and represented a rallying cry for many on the left throughout the nineteenth century in Spain, Spanish America, and beyond