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        new Spanish territories were to be conquered in the name of the cross as
        well as the crown. Since those early days, the Roman Catholic Church has
        always been present, playing different roles, some of which have led to
        violent confrontations. The history of the relationship between church and state following
        independence involves a series of efforts on the part of the government
        to curtail the church's influence. Nineteenth-century liberals, trained
        in the law and influenced by the French Revolution, were anticlerical. Liberals, who also were federalist and favored free competition, were
        highly concerned that the Roman Catholic Church, by owning between
        one-quarter and one-half of the land and by controlling most schools,
        hospitals, and charitable institutions, was practically a state within
        the Mexican state. Between 1833 and the early 1840s, the Mexican government produced
        various pieces of legislation to limit the power of the church. In 1833
        the government adopted several anticlerical measures, including one
        providing for the secularization of education and another declaring that
        the payment of the ecclesiastical tithe was not a civil obligation. The first major confrontation between the church and the state
        occurred during the presidency of Benito Juárez (1855-72). The 1855 Juárez
        Law drastically reduced traditional ecclesiastical privileges. On March
        11, 1857, a new constitution was adopted that denied all ecclesiastical
        entities the right to own real estate and abolished most remaining
        ecclesiastical privileges.