page_title: Traditionalism (Spain)
section_title: Antecedents
hierarchical_section_title: Traditionalism (Spain) / History / Antecedents
caption_attribution_description: Prelado y apologista español, nacido en Vélez-Málaga
context_page_description: Traditionalism is a Spanish political doctrine, formulated in the early 19th century and developed until today. It understands politics as implementing the social reign of Jesus Christ. In practical terms it advocates a loosely organized monarchy combined with strong royal powers, with some checks and balances provided by organicist representation, and with society structured on a corporative basis. Traditionalism is an ultra-reactionary doctrine; it rejects concepts such as democracy, human rights, constitution, universal suffrage, sovereignty of the people, division of powers, religious liberty, freedom of speech, equality of individuals, parliamentarism and so on. The doctrine was adopted as theoretical platform by a socio-political movement named Carlism, though it appeared also in a non-Carlist incarnation. Traditionalism has never exercised major influence among the Spanish governmental strata, yet periodically it was capable of mass mobilization and at times partially filtered into the ruling practice.
context_section_description: Spanish Traditionalism is almost unanimously considered a doctrine born in the 19th century, though there are vastly different views as to what intellectual phenomena could be viewed as its antecedents. Apart from isolated cases of going back to pre-Christian times, the most far-reaching perspective is the one which identifies the roots of Traditionalism with beginnings of Spanish political tradition, the latter embodied in works of Isidore of Seville. Together with works of other minor Spanish Medieval scholars it reportedly enjoyed its climax in the 16th century, from Fernando de Roa to Antonio de Guevara to Juan de Mariana, and laid foundations for Traditionalist understanding of power and politics, derived from Christian and natural order. In the 17th century it was enriched with concepts related to intermediary bodies, political representation and limitation of royal powers, all thanks to works of Juan Fernández de Madrano, Tomás Cerdán de Tallada, Agustín de Rojas Villandrando, Juan de Madariaga, Francisco de Sánchez de la Barreda, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza and especially Francisco de Quevedo. Other scholars tend to be skeptical of such a far-reaching approach and suggest that it confuses Traditionalism with Spanish political tradition.
  According to a somewhat competitive perspective antecedents of Traditionalism can be identified no sooner than in the 18th century, as their emergence was conditioned by experience of discontinuity between the past and the present. The first manifestations of pre-Traditionalist thought were born – the theory goes - as opposition to modernizing Borbonic reforms imported from France and resulting in buildup of an absolute monarchy. Initially the critics focused on intended homogenization of state; writers and scholars like Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco, Narciso Feliú de la Peña and Manuel Larramendi objected to centralization efforts of Felipe V and voiced in favor of traditional local establishments. In the mid-18th century the criticism shifted to technocratic mode of governing; Andrés Piquer Arrufat, Nuix de Perpiñá brothers and especially Fernando de Ceballos y Mier confronted rising "despotismo ministerial", perceived as a result of arrogant Enlightenment. Indeed, some scholars emphasize the anti-Enlightenment spirit of 18th-century Traditionalists; others prefer to underline rather their anti-absolutist stand. In none of the above cases a concise lecture of competitive political theory was offered; instead, the authors listed consciously exploited multifold differences between the new system and traditional Spanish establishments.
  Both the above perspectives are rejected by scholars sharing perhaps the most popular theory, namely that one can not speak of Traditionalism prior to the French Revolution. It was the 1789 events in France which triggered antecedents of Traditionalism, a theory founded on the concept of counter-revolution. Within this perspective it is the revolution, not Absolutism, that formed the key Traditionalist counterpoint of reference. The proponents listed are Lorenzo Hervás Panduro, Francisco Alvarado y Téllez, Diego José de Cádiz and Rafael de Vélez; their refutations of revolutionary concepts were based on Spanish political tradition and offered first components of what would later become a Traditionalist doctrine. According to some scholars Traditionalism as political option for the first time emerged represented by minority deputies at the 1812 Cortes of Cádiz; a document considered by some the first political lecture of Traditionalism is the 1814 Manifiesto de los Persas, the following ones to be mentioned having been the 1822 Manifiesto del Barón de Eroles and the 1826 Manifiesto de los Realistas Puros. However, discussing the early 19th century most scholars prefer rather to speak of "realistas", "ultras", "apostólicos" or "serviles", and apply the name of Traditionalists to the period starting in the 1830s. Politically, the group tended to swallow their anti-absolutism when supporting Fernando VII in his anti-revolutionary zeal; it was only in the l
caption: Rafael de Velez
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