This article explores the gender meanings that emerged in the debate about the reform of masculine religious orders during the Cortes de Cádiz. I focus on analysing the masculinity defended by the antiliberal regular clergy against the proposals for their reform. To counteract the criticisms they faced, which questioned both their manhood and their authority, the regular clergy represented themselves as the true patriots, for the guardianship exercised over the religion of the threatened nation, as well as the true virtuous men, for living in the rejection of the world that Catholicism prescribed for everyone. As the main sources, I use the proposals of some of the most prominent reactionary clergy in the public arena, taking Francisco Alvarado as their paradigmatic representative. I intend to contribute to the study of the relationship between masculinity and religion and to a deeper understanding of the tensions on which modern masculinities were built.