Herrera, Bartolomé (1808–1864)

Bartolomé Herrera (b. 1808; d. 10 August 1864), one of a group of Roman Catholic Church leaders at the time of independence in Peru who sought to retain for the church the same privileged position it had held in colonial society. He was the leading advocate of the continuation of Rome's dominance over the Peruvian church. A man of humble origins who became an orphan at the age of five, Herrera later studied and taught philosophy. But he did his best work as a priest, among people in poor parishes. Basically he believed in leadership of republics by intelligent, moral elites, be they Inca or Spanish, and respect for faith and legitimate authority. He served the government of José Rufino Echenique (1851–1855) at the head of two ministries, and later he acted as Peru's ambassador to Rome. In 1860 he presided over a constitutional convention and was disappointed that the delegates did not restore to the church the privileges it had lost in 1855. He then served as bishop of Arequipa until his death.

See alsoAnticlericalism; Catholic Church: The Modern Period; Echenique, José Rufino.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jeffrey L. Klaiber, Religion and Revolution in Peru, 1824–1976 (1977) and The Catholic Church in Peru, 1821–1985: A Social History (1992), esp. pp. 64-70.

Additional Bibliography

García Jordán, Pilar. Iglesia y poder en el Perú contemporaneo, 1821–1919. Cusco: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos "Bartolomé de Las Casas," 1993.

Pérez Quiroz, Tito. Iglesia y Estado: 180 años de discriminación religiosa en el Perú. Lima: Fondo Editorial del Pedagógico San Marcos, 2004.

                                    Vincent Peloso