CHAPTER XXIV

THE COMUNEROS
Lodges of Freemasons had existed in Spain from the time of Charles III (1759—88), but on account of the hostility of the Inquisition they were forced to remain clandestine, and cannot have been very numerous. The invasion of Spain by Napoleon abolished the Inquisition, and the Free¬ masons were able to meet openly; the French soldier Free¬ masons spread a knowledge of the society, and Spanish prisoners were initiated in France; by which means it came about that Spanish Freemasons copied the practice of the French Lodges and took to meddling in political matters, for after the restoration of Ferdinand VII in 1814 they proceeded to make themselves a powerful party in the State.1
The new Freemasonry of Spain probably came from several sources. A branch of it was active at Cadiz in 1812, and attracted attention only on account of its toleration and philanthropy, which would seem to argue a derivation from the pure source of British Freemasonry through the regimental Lodges at Gibraltar or in Wellington’s army. But those Spanish Officers and soldiers who had been prisoners in France and come in contact with Freemasonry there brought back to their country quite another con¬ ception of this society, which was that it could be legiti¬ mately used for furthering political and revolutionary objects. Unfortunately the course of events in Spain was to give the Freemasons every excuse for making what use they could of their organization. The restoration of Ferdinand
1 Vide Memoirs of Ferdinand VII, by an anonymous Spanish author, transla¬ tion by M. J. Quin, London, 1824.
THE COMUNEROS
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meant the re-establishment of the Inquisition, which at once inaugurated a regime of persecution and arrested men in hundreds for the sole crime of being a Freemason.1 It was in these circumstances that the Spanish Freemasons assumed a definitely political and revolutionary tendency.
They formed a central directing body known as the Grand East, which was situated at Madrid in 1816, but must have been active before then, because it was the party of the Freemasons which planned and supported the unsuccessful conspiracies of Porlier in Galicia in September, 1815, and of Lacy in Catalonia in April, 1817. They, too, it was who brought about the successful revolt of the army at Isla in January, 1820, which wrung a constitution from the reluc¬ tant King Ferdinand.
“All the operations of the army which proclaimed the constitution were arranged in the Lodges, and everything done through the medium of Freemasonry.”2
The Freemasons were now for the time being all-powerful in the State as a political party; but it was not long before the men who had been the mainsprings of the Spanish revolution split into two camps, the Constitutionalists who were content when despotism had been curbed, and the Liberals who aimed at giving the fullest possible effect to the constitution. 3
The disagreements seem to have come to a head in July, 1822, when a new Ministry was formed under the leader¬ ship of Evaristo San Miguel, a prominent member of the Freemason party, which had chosen him as political chief. The new Government was not prepared to go far enough to suit its ultra-Liberal supporters, who, led by Ballesteros, Morales, and Palarea, now seceded, and formed a third party in the State.
It was only natural that the dissidents should try to adopt a form of organization similar to that which had
1 Michael Joseph Quin, Voyage to Spain , London, 1824, from which book
much of the following information about the Comuneros is drawn.
3 Quin, Op. cit., p. 61.
3 Its third article ran: “The sovereignty is vested in the nation, to which therefore the right of making its fundamental laws exclusively pertains.” This became a watchword with the Comuneros.
1 88 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
brought them and their friends into power in 1820, so they proceeded to form a new secret society named “The Con¬ federation of the Comuneros.”1
The name was taken from a memorable event of the reign of Charles V, when the comunidades of Castile revolted against their king in order to defend the people’s rights against the burden of taxation imposed by his far-reaching foreign policy and against the employment of foreign favourites. The Comuneros were routed at the battle of Villalar in 1520, when their leader Juan de Padilla was taken prisoner; and although his heroic wife, Maria de Pacheco, continued the struggle for some time longer at Toledo, the revolt was finally crushed and Padilla executed in 1521.
The new society of Comuneros, established just three hundred years later, appealed by its name and avowed objects to the liberal element in Young Spain. It soon acquired a membership of 60,000, women being admitted as well as men, each sex having its own Torres (towers) or Lodges.
It attracted the most advanced section of the Liberals, and some of its members were out-and-out republicans, yet its statutes, oaths, catechism, etc., contained no other profession of political faith than this :
“ The essential object of the Confederation is to support at any sacrifice the rights and liberties of the Spanish people, as laid down in the Political Constitution of the kingdom.”
The aims of the society were: to promote by all means in its power the freedom of mankind; to defend in every way the rights of the Spanish people; and to help the poor and distressed, especially among its own members.
The Lodge was known as a Torre, and consisted of from seven to fifty members; a group of less than seven was known as a Fort , and attached to some particular Torre. The members in each province constituted a Comunidad.
A Supreme Assembly, to which a delegate was elected
1 1 retain the Spanish word instead of translating by communist. Comunero signifies pertaining to or upholding the comunidades, provincial assemblies of Castile. It must be carefully distinguished from comuni-sta and comunismo, meaning communist and communism, in the modern sense.
THE COMUNEROS 189
from each Comunidad, directed the affairs of the society. Its officers were a Commmander, Lieutenant-Commander, Alcaide, Treasurer, and four Secretaries. An important part of their functions was to change periodically the pass-words, signs, and countersigns. This Assembly was divided into three committees charged with affairs of justice, vigilance, and administration.
The place of meeting was entitled the Alcazar (Castlej. In the assembly-room were placed three battlemented towers. “The door shall be fortified by a portcullis and drawbridge, which shall be raised during the sitting, and guarded by five pike-men.”
A similar organization existed for each Comunidad, formed by delegates from the Torres. The place of meeting in this case was termed the Castle of Liberty.
The officers of a Torre were an Alcaide, Treasurer, Secretary, and Captain of the Keys, who was Doorkeeper and Master of Ceremonies combined.
The candidates were known as recruits, and the initiation as enlistment.
The recruit was to be apprised “in a vague manner” of the objects of the Confederation before being proposed as a member. Neither the Torres nor the Comunidades had the power to admit candidates. All names had first to be sub¬ mitted to the Supreme Assembly, where they were considered by the committee of vigilance. Admission was by ballot, and required a majority of six-sevenths in the Supreme Assembly, and a later majority of two-thirds in the province, when the candidate could be admitted to the Torre in which he had been proposed. Here he was blindfolded, and took a preliminary oath of secrecy, and answered certain questions; whereupon the bandage was removed, and he was left alone in a room hung with arms and patriotic inscriptions. Later he was admitted to the presence of the presiding officer, who informed him that he stood beneath the shield of their chief Padilla, and called upon him to repeat an oath whereby he bound himself to fight for constitutional liberty and to avenge every wrong done his country. The recruit was then declared a Comunero,
I go FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
and invested with a scarf; a flag and sword were put into his hands, signifying a readiness to face death in defend¬ ing the liberties of his country; he then covered himself with the shield of Padilla, while the knights present pointed their swords at it with this exhortation: “The shield of our chief Padilla will cover you from every danger, will save your life and honour; but if you violate your oath, this shield shall be removed, and these swords buried in your breast.”
In point of fact, while the statutory punishments for offences ranged from fines to total expulsion, there is no suggestion of a death penalty in the ritual.
Members might freely withdraw from the Confederation, but had to hand over any document that happened to be in their possession, and also had to preserve secrecy, and refrain from any conduct that might reflect on the society.
So far as is disclosed by the statutes and ritual, the society intended to proceed by purely constitutional methods.
The most important centres were New Castile, Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and Murcia, because the real strength of the society was drawn from the barracks and workshops of Madrid, Saragossa, Barcelona, Valencia and Cartagena.
The famous Spanish patriot Rafael Riego y Nunez is said to have been a member of the Saragossa Torre, and to have taken an active part in the councils of the Assembly. Certain it is that when, mainly as the result of Comunero effort, the extreme Liberals gained a majority in the elections of 1822, Riego was chosen President by their votes; but, though in a minority, the Freemasons still clung to office, a circumstance that shows how difficult must have been the path of the constitutional reformer in Spain. ... a path rendered still more thorny by the absolutist tendencies of King Ferdinand and the policy of the Holy Alliance, whose avowed object was the extinction of all forms of constitutional government in Europe.
Metternich had proposed at the Congress of Troppau that a Russo-Austrian army should be sent by water to Spain to restore Ferdinand as absolute monarch, but England protested against this so forcibly that an alternative scheme had to be devised by which France was jostled into
THE COMUNEROS
191
the unenviable role of policeman of reactionary Europe. On the 30th November, 1822, at the Congress of Verona, Russia, Austria, Prussia and France agreed to send separate notes to the Court of Madrid protesting against the “thraldom imposed on the monarch of Spain” and the general unsatisfactory state of affairs in that country. All but France did so forthwith, and withdrew their am¬ bassadors. Then after lengthy and futile diplomatic pro¬ ceedings, in which England made a half-hearted attempt to effect a compromise, France set about invading Spain.
The Spanish Carbonari1, who had hitherto been dis¬ countenanced by both the Freemasons and the Comuneros, now made common cause with them against external enemies, and attempted to raise a mutiny among the French Carbonari who were numerous in the regiments now massing on the frontiers for the invasion of Spain. This attempt had no success, and the mutual contest of Freemasons and Comuneros for office prevented the Spanish Constitutionalists from presenting a united front at home. Riots occurred at Cadiz and elsewhere. Civil war seemed imminent.
Then in February, 1823, the Comuneros approached the king with a warning that the party in office, the Freemasons, were about to proclaim a regency and remove his person from Madrid, and declared that they as a party would oppose any such plan. 2 Ferdinand thereupon dismissed his Ministry, and formed a more Liberal one, in which General Torrijos, an ardent Comunero, was Minister of War, and Morales, a reputed Comunero, Minister of the Interior. The Comuneros, however, were not satisfied with the new Government, and the new ministers soon resigned, all save Torrijos and one other.
In April, 1823, ^e French armies began their march into Spain. The Court withdrew to Seville, and little opposition was offered to the invaders. On the 23rd May the Duke of Angouleme entered Madrid, and a Provisional Government was established. The last stand of the Constitutionalists
1 This society had been established in Spain by Italian refugees in 1821 See p. 154.
2 Quin, Op. cit., p. 246.
I92 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
was made at Cadiz, which, however, was forced to surrender on the 1st October, whereupon Ferdinand was restored as an absolute monarch. His first act as such was to have Riego arrested and hanged. Torrijos escaped for the time being, but on entering Spain again in 1831 was captured, and shot after a drum-head court-martial.
Angouleme had induced Ferdinand to declare a general amnesty, but the exceptions to it included nearly everyone who had ever worked for the cause of the Constitution. The return to the old order meant the immediate suppression of all secret societies in Spain, and both the Freemasons and the Comuneros ceased to exist as organized bodies, the former for a time, the latter for ever.