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Ottr Catlwlic Heritage in Texas
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"either to abandon our homes . . . or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny the combined despotism of the sword and the priest- hood," or that they bad been denied "the right of ,vorshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our conscience." Yoakum, a con- temporary of the Revolution in Texas, wrote, "It is due to truth to say that, among all their grievances, they had little complaint to make on the score of religious intolerance." 10 Religious toleration had, in fact, been granted to the colonists in 1834. In a decree passed by the Legislature of Coahuila and Texas that year in connection with the sale of public lands, it was provided under Article II that "No person shall be molested for political and religious opinions provided the public order is not disturbed." Two other decrees directed to curtail the power of the Church were adopted before the year ended. The first of these forbade the execution or publication of pastorals, decrees, or edicts issued by bishops or other ecclesiastical authorities "without permission from the government." The second prohibited the erection of buildings by any denomination whatsoever with funds derived from charitable donations. 11 Equally unfounded is the allegation that the country, insofar as it concerned Texas, was "priest-ridden." True to the tradition of Anglo-American Catholics established by the followers of Lord Calvert in Maryland when they adopted the first Act of Toleration in America, the framers of the Constitution appended a bill of rights. Article III provided that "No preference shall be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship over another, but every person shall be permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience." More than a dozen of the delegates who adopted the Constitution on that anxious night of March 17, 1836, while the vanguard of Santa Anna thundered nearer and nearer, were Catholics-the same who had helped frame the Declaration of In- dependence. There was one other provision in the main body of the Constitution in regard to religion. Section I of Article V stated that "Ministers of the Gospel, being by their profession dedicated to God and the care of souls, ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions: therefore no minister of the gospel or priest of any other denomination whatever, shall be eligible to the office of the execu- 2 1 1836. Gammel, The Laws of Texas, I, 384-387; Henderson Yoakum, History of Texas from /ts First Settlement in 1685 to Its Annexation to tire UnUed Stales i,s 18 46, II, 220. llGammel, o'}. cu., I, 350, 358, 363. 10 Declaration of Independence, March
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