Page:A history of Chile.djvu/358

 3^6 A HISTORY OF CHILE nomination was fiercely assailed by the church party and the Pope refused to ratify it until the matter had been investigated. The Bishop of Himeria was sent out as an apostolic delegate and after hearing his re- port, the Pope again refused to confirm Taforo. The government then handed the delegate his passports, and he indignantly declared that civil authorities should not administer ecclesiastical patronage. This disavowel of the prerogatives of the state in matters ecclesiastical gave increased force to the discussions of church mat- ters and resulted finally in the passage and approval of the cemetery and matrimonial laws and a law which organized a civil registry. In 1883, the civil marriage law had been passed, and this was from the start as stubbornly resisted by the clericals as the question of separation. The elections of March, 1885, of senators and representatives was a crushing defeat of the opposition, and gave the liber- als increased majorities ; but the manner in which the elections had been carried by government influence caused great dissatisfaction, although there were whole» sale frauds and insolent intimidations practiced by both parties. The organized opposition of the clericals to the civil marriage law produced turbulence throughout the coun- try. The government refused to allow a clerical mar- riage any force in law, and the church refused to allow anj' force in religion to a civil marriage. Women took sides with the church, the men with the government, so that there were few marriages. There was need of reform in this matter, for twenty-three per cent of all children born were illegitimate. The church affixed conditions to marriage sacraments to which men would not submit. The law was intended to curtail the church fees in this respect and to remedy the discord by pro-