Constitution and altar: control of the clergy's behaviour by the political leader during the Liberal Triennium (1820-1823)

The political leader, as the highest civil authority, representing the executive power, was aware from the beginning of the Liberal Triennium that the behaviour of the priests of the archbishopric of Tarragona had to be monitored. Priests, as the spiritual guides and pastors of parishioners, had significant influence on public opinion through their actions, even more so than patriotic societies or spaces of social and politic confluence. This was an ecclesiastic structure generally reluctant to accept liberalism, where most priests would not hear of promoting constitutionalism from the altar. This research shows that as social tensions and clerical disobedience increased, there was greater pressure from the political leader upon the archbishopric of Tarragona.