PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Abad Queipo, Manuel (1751-1825)Other forms

Fechas de existencia:

Villarpedre (Grandas de Salime, Asturias, España) 1751-08-26 - Toledo (España) 1825

History:

Priest related to Enlightenment, judge, penitentiary canon and Bishop-elected of Michoacán (México), Minister of Justice in Spain and Tortosa's bishop.

He studied Canon Law in the University of Salamanca. He became a priest in 1778, and later he went to the former Guatemala's Kingdom until 1784 when he moved to Valladolid de Michoacán (México). His parents' origin is unknown, but it is thought that he was an illegitimate son of the Count of Toreno, and that was the main reason of the protection for him to be protected by San Miguel's bishop, who was a close friend of the count. Antonio San Miguel and Manuel Abad y Queipo, supporting the ideas of Jovellanos about the farmland, were the first to suggest the division of the indigenous land. He was appointed bishop by the King in 1810.

As he had a bad relationship with Viceroy Calleja, he collaborated with Viceroy Venegas, in order to subdue the creoles that were in favor of Hidalgo's priest. When Ferdinand VII and the Inquisition returned to Spain, Viceroy Callejas acussed him of treason and liking for rebels. Nevertheless, Ferdinand VII absolved him and named him Minister of Justice, but the Inquisition imprisoned him in a convent. Because of those facts and his perspective of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, the one he saw "as the most liberal, fair and moderate in all human societies", Abad was described as a liberal person, even though he was loyal to absolutism and the House of Bourbon, wrote against the Higaldo revolt and rejected Rousseau and the social contract at his pastoral letter of 1818. He was freed in 1820 with the liberal triumph, and after that he was appointed bishop of Tortosa until 1823, when absolutists took over and condemned him to six years of imprisonment in a convent of Toledo called Santa María de la Sisla, where he passed away.

Liberal Triennium, 1820-1823

Date of the event: 1820 - 1823

Guerras de independencia de Iberoamérica, 1808-1825