 The violence consisted of the killing of tens of thousands of people (including 6,832 Roman Catholic priests, the vast majority in the summer of 1936 in the wake of the military coup), attacks on the Spanish nobility, industrialists, and conservative politicians, as well as the desecration and burning of monasteries and churches.A process of political polarisation had characterised the Second Spanish Republic; party divisions became increasingly embittered and questions of religious identity came to assume political significance.Electorally, the Church had identified itself with the right, which had set itself against social reform.