Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/788

768 This was soon followed by other enactments directly affecting the church, namely, on civil marriage, prescribing the formalities, and declaring null all marriages contracted without having first complied with them; on capellanías, declaring them included in the property to be nationalized under the law of July 12th; on the personal civil status, intended to fully establish independence between church and state; on cemeteries, taking the control of them from the church and giving it to the civil authorities; and finally, a despatch was sent to Manuel Castillo Portugal, attaché having in his charge the archives of the Mexican legation in Rome, apprising him that the president had ordered that legation suppressed, as useless after the independence of state and church had been declared; and directing him to leave Rome and bring with him the archives, to be preserved in the department of relations.

The law of nationalization of the ecclesiastical estates greatly contributed toward the ending of the civil war. The government at Vera Cruz, having staked upon that measure the existence of the liberal party, lost no time in developing its effects by the sale of such property. Against contracts of that nature an energetic protest was made by Miramon's minister, Muñoz Ledo, who addressed himself to the foreign ministers. Similar protests were also filed by reactionary corporations and authorities. Owing to