The consolidation of modern national states involved multiple combinations of secular rationalism and Christian mentalities. Nevertheless, relations between temporal and spiritual powers were not always congruent and harmonious. Nor were they limited to institutional frameworks. In Brazil many clerics combined in a peculiar way pastoral and intellectual formation and the political action in favor of their own interests, seeking benefits from their social networks to resist the normatization enacted directed by the state since 1822. Aiming at preserving or even increasing attributes that were guarantors of distinction, wealth and power, and acting especially through informal channels, these clerics staged some of the conflicts which occurred in the Minas Gerais 'sertão', which as this article examines, challenged government competence to ensure strict observance of the law.
politician priests; constitutionalism; Minas Gerais