Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/730

710 the most patriotic, virtuous, and intelligent citizens should be chosen.

The public recognition of the new constitution was the touchstone for scandal; and as the days appointed for taking the oath happened to be in lent, many preachers assailed it from the pulpit, and its enemies in general made of the oath an occasion for secret meetings, at which the government was called a tyrant that wanted to domineer over consciences, when the constitution said not a word about them; the liberals were branded as atheists because that instrument established no state religion.

Many public officials from conscientious scruples refused to take the oath, and were accordingly dismissed. The archbishop, in a circular to his parish priests, declared the oath illicit, which filled with consternation numberless families whose heads and supporters had been in the necessity of submitting to the law, or losing their only means of livelihood. The priests demanded of those who had taken the oath to make a public retraction. This only lessened the influence of the clergy, and made many turn lukewarm in religious matters, seeing much that was worldly in the conduct of their bishops.

Among the most remarkable documents that emanated from the church was a pastoral of the bishop of Guadalajara, pointing out the articles which were deemed objectionable in the constitution, namely, the 3d, 5th, 6th, 7th, 13th, 27th, and 123d, in all of which the power of the church was more or less curtailed, but they contained nothing against christianity, or Roman catholic dogmas. The pope had also condemned the action of the Mexican government as oppressive to the church, and refused to treat