 One legal commentator has stated plainly "the gravest mistake of the Constitution of 1931—Spain's last democratic Constitution prior to 1978—was its hostile attitude towards the Catholic Church".The historian Mary Vincent, in her study of the Church in Salamanca in the 1930s, believes the Republican legislation, in affecting the devotional lives of ordinary Catholics, "greatly eased the task of its opponents".Following the general election of February 16, 1936, political bitterness grew in Spain.