Religious Education and Clerical Power. United States of Colombia, 1863-1886

Abstract

The 1863 Political Constitution of the United States of Colombia and the 1870 Organic Decree regarding Elementary Public Education included articles that seemed to limit the control of education by the Catholic Church. Through the analysis of some school textbooks representative of the period, the article shows how despite the aforementioned regulations, religious education was widespread in schools and remained practically untouched by the attempts to impose limits on it. The pages of those textbooks clearly show the gap between the laws and the lessons taught in schools.