Manuel Abad y Queipo

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Manuel Abad y Queipo (born August 26, 1751 in Villarpedre ( Asturias ), † September 15, 1825 in Toledo ) was a Spanish canon lawyer and at the time of the Mexican War of Independence from 1810 to 1814 Roman Catholic Bishop of Michoacán , a diocese in the then Viceroyalty New Spain (now part of Mexico ).

Life

Manuel Abad y Queipo was the illegitimate son of an Asturian nobleman. He graduated from the University of Salamanca with a bachelor's degree in law and canon law. In 1779 he went to Guatemala and was ordained a priest . In 1784 he moved to Valladolid (in present-day Mexico) and worked there as a judge at a church court until 1808. In a report to King Charles IV of Spain ( Representación al rey, sobre immunidades del clero ) written in 1799 , he vehemently defended the immunity and privileges of the church, but also advocated socio-economic and political reforms in New Spain. The indigenous population should no longer have to pay tribute and should receive royal and common land free of charge. In addition, fallow land is to be expropriated by large landowners in their favor. Furthermore, Indians should be given the right to found wool and cotton factories. In 1804, Abad y Queipo opposed the order of the influential Spanish statesman Manuel de Godoy , which provided for the transfer of church income to the state.

In 1805 Abad y Queipo received a doctorate in canon law from the University of Guadalajara and became a canon at the Cathedral of Valladolid. After an interim trip to Spain, he returned to America in 1808 with the rank of vicar general . In 1810 he was appointed by the junta fighting against Napoleon's invaded troops in Spain to succeed the late Bishop of Michoacán, Marcos de Moriana y Zafrilla , but Pope Pius VII did not confirm this appointment. When the uprising against Spanish colonial rule broke out in the same year, Abad y Queipo strongly advocated a stand against Mexico's aspirations for independence and excommunicated the priest and leader of the insurgents, Miguel Hidalgo , although he was his friend, as well as other supporters of the struggle against Spain. But through his moderate political position, according to which he continued to demand far-reaching social and economic reforms in New Spain, he also alienated the royalists, who accused him of having betrayed their party. King Ferdinand VII , who returned to the throne after the fall of Napoleon in 1814 , revoked the appointment of Abad y Queipos, who had spoken out publicly against the Inquisition , as bishop.

After Abad y Queipo denounced the viceroy Félix María Calleja's mistakes in a report to Ferdinand VII in 1815 , he returned to Spain to defend himself in an inquisition trial. He was accused of being too liberal and too friendly towards the Mexican insurgents. A conversation with the king helped Abad y Queipo to obtain a pardon. He was appointed Minister of Justice in 1816, but released after three days and imprisoned for two months on the orders of the Grand Inquisitor, who took up his case again.

Abad y Queipo was a supporter of the 1812 constitution . During the liberal triennium (1820-1823), after Ferdinand VII saw himself forced to restore this constitution in March 1820, he was a member of the provisional government junta and then officiated as a member of the Province of Asturias in the Cortes . At his urging, in particular, the king abolished the Inquisition on March 9, 1820. In 1822 Abad y Queipo was appointed Bishop of Tortosa , but again not confirmed by the Pope. After Ferdinand VII regained his absolutist power through the French intervention in 1823 , the old prelate was imprisoned again and sentenced to six years in prison in the monastery of Santa María da la Sisla in Toledo. He died there in September 1825 at the age of 74 before serving his full sentence.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Abad y Queipo, Manuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish canon lawyer and bishop
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1751
PLACE OF BIRTH Villarpedre (Asturias)
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1825
Place of death Toledo