Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies Journal of the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies Volume 44 Issue 1 Iberia in Entangled and Transnational Article 4 Contexts 2019 The Ruin of a State is Freedom of Conscience: Religion, (In)Tolerance, and Independence in the Spanish Monarchy Scott Eastman
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.asphs.net/bsphs Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Eastman, Scott (2019) "The Ruin of a State is Freedom of Conscience: Religion, (In)Tolerance, and Independence in the Spanish Monarchy," Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies: Vol. 44 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. https://doi.org/10.26431/0739-182X.1328 Available at: https://digitalcommons.asphs.net/bsphs/vol44/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies. It has been accepted for inclusion in Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies by an authorized editor of Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Ruin of a State is Freedom of Conscience: Religion, (In)Tolerance, and Independence in the Spanish Monarchy Scott Eastman During the reign of Charles III (1759-1788), the Bourbon Monarchy, unlike the more reactionary Bourbon regime north of the Pyrenees, allied with partisans of reform, including prominent Jansenists.1 Spaniards read the works of Montesquieu and Adam Smith, and their texts circulated despite censorship and the prying eyes of inquisitors.2 Ministers pushed through educational changes, economic societies were founded to advance agriculture and industry, and prominent women such as Josefa Amar began to have a greater voice in the public sphere, exemplifying an age of experimentation and change that would culminate in a cycle of revolution and reaction.