The bishops of Olinda and Belém (in the provinces of Pernambuco and Pará, respectively) were two of the new generation of educated, zealous Brazilian clerics. They had been influenced by the Ultramontanism which spread among Catholics in this period. In 1872 they ordered Freemasons expelled from lay brotherhoods. While European Masonry often tended towards atheism and anti-clericalism, things were much different in Brazil where membership in Masonic orders was common—although Pedro II himself was not a Freemason. The government headed by the Viscount of Rio Branco tried on two separate occasions to persuade the bishops to repeal, but they refused. This led to their trial and conviction by the Superior Court of Justice. In 1874 they were sentenced four years at hard labor, although the Emperor commuted this to imprisonment only.