ABSTRACT
This chapter illuminates the monarchy's efforts at nationalizing the Catholic Church in Spain proper, the resistance it faced in the process from different sides, and the consequences such efforts would have for the Spanish political and religious landscape entering the nineteenth century. Restoration in the person of Ferdinand VII, the Bourbon monarchy would resume this regalist policy where it had left off in order restoring absolutism and aristocratic privilege in Spain, much to the chagrin of liberals holding out for constitutional monarchy. The regalism of Charles III intersected with what many consider to be the pinnacle of Enlightenment in Spain. During his monarchy, the political jurisdiction of the Spanish crown was pushed to new frontiers in the name of progress. A major consequence of the expulsion was that now the monarchy and clergy sought the wealth and social influence the Jesuits had enjoyed as well as the territory which the Jesuits had occupied in education and pastoral work.
