“Violare le Tombe e Profanare le Salme”: Vatican Reactions to the Madrid Government at War

This paper investigates the diplomatic correspondences between the Second Spanish Republic and the Holy See during the first eighteen months of the Spanish Civil War. By closely investigating materials from the Secret Vatican Archives, this research will better illuminate the Holy See's anxieties about the Second Republic and its followers in relation to Spanish Catholics, the Catholic hierarchy, and Catholic property in Spain. After the Spanish Nationalists began their Uprising against the Republic in the summer of 1936, Leftist supporters of the Madrid Government frequently initiated violent attacks against symbols of Conservative Spain, namely the Catholic Church. Within the first weeks of the Civil War, numerous Churches and monasteries were burned in Madrid and other major cities, along with the reported deaths of hundreds of clergy at the hands of communist and anarchist militias. This uncontrollable and widespread violence in Republican territory continued to sour the Vatican's view of the Madrid Government and its allies in País Vasco. The devoutly Catholic Basque people had sided with the Republic due to the government's support for regionalism. The communications between the Vatican's representatives and members of the Madrid Government in Republican territories will illuminate the increasing tensions between the two states and explain why the Vatican appeared to be so unwilling to assist the Republic during the Civil War. This research will compliment previous studies of Vatican fears of anti-clericalism during the Republican period by accessing previously unattainable Vatican sources. The goal, therefore, will be to use the Holy See's own communications to establish a clearer image of Vatican diplomatic concerns during this controversial and bloody period of Spanish history.