The Act of September 25, 1874 elevated to constitutional status the Reform Laws at the insistence of President Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. The laws had been enacted through a decree on September 25, 1873, a series of additions and amendments to the Mexican Constitution of 1857, mandating the separation of church and state. Through this law the reform process that secularized two acts previously faced the church and marriage oath and consolidated as civil actions where the State was the guarantor of compliance was completed.