The new Constitution, among other laws, is described as having been anticlerical. While it afforded broad civil liberties and democratic representation, it abolished privileges associated with the Catholic Church, and did not explicitly protect Roman Catholic interests or rights. As anticlerical sentiment had been growing for decades, it culminated in escalating mob violence against the Church which the new government was unable to curb. This resulted in severely strained church-state relations, noted as a significant cause of the breakdown of the Republic and of the Spanish Civil War.