Changes in the ecclesiastical hierarchy.—Motives forsubordinating the lesser clergy.—The displacement ofassistant priests.—Increase of episcopal authority.—Holdof Napoleon over the bishops.
Thus is a conquered country treated. He is, in relation to the Church, as in a conquered country.5194Like Westphalia or Holland, she is a naturally independent country which he has annexed by treaty, which he has been able to include but not absorb in his empire, and which remains invincibly distinct. The temporal sovereign, in a spiritual society, especially such a sovereign as he is,—nominally Catholic, scarcely Christian, at best a deist and from time to time as it suits,—will never be other than an external suzerain and a foreign prince. To become and remain master in such an annexed country it is always advisable to exhibit the sword. Nevertheless, it would not be wise to strike incessantly; the blade, used too often, would wear out; it is better to utilize the constitution of the annex, rule over it indirectly, not by an administrative bureau (régie), but by a protectorate, in which all indigenous authorities can be employed and be made responsible for the necessary rigors. Now, by virtue of the indigenous constitution, the governors of the Catholic annex—all designated beforehand by their suitable and indelible character, all tonsured, robed in black, celibates and speaking Latin—form two orders, unequal in dignity and in number; one inferior, comprising myriads of curés and vicars, and the other superior, comprising some dozens of prelates.
Let us turn this ready-made hierarchy to account; and, the better to use it, let us tighten the strings. In agreement with the upper clergy and the Pope, we will increase the subjection of the lower clergy; we will govern the inferiors through the superiors; whoever has the head has the body; it is much easier to handle sixty bishops and archbishops than forty thousand vicars and curés; in this particular we need not undertake to restore primitive discipline; we must not be either antiquaries or Gallicans. Let us be careful not to give back to the second-class clergy the independence and stability they enjoyed before 1789, the canonical guarantees which protected them against episcopal despotism, the institution of competition, the rights conferred by theological grades, the bestowal of the best places on the wisest, the appeal to the diocesan court in case of disgrace, the opposing plea before the officialité, the permanent tie by which the titular curé, once planted in his parish, took root there for life, and believed himself bound to his local community like Jesus Christ to the universal Church, indissolubly, through a sort of mystic marriage. "The number of curés," says Napoleon,5195"must be reduced as much as possible, and the number of assistants (desservans) multiplied who can be changed at will," not only transferable to another parish, but revocable from day to day, without formalities or delay, without appeal or pleading in any court whatsoever. Henceforth, the sole irremovable curés are the four thousand; the rest, under the name of succursalists, numbering thirty thousand,5196are ecclesiastical clerks, surrendered to the discretionary power of the bishop. The bishop alone appoints, places and displaces all belonging to his diocese at his pleasure, and with a nod, he transfers the most competent from the best to the worst post, from the large borough or small town, where he was born and has lived at ease near his family, to some wretched parish in this or that village buried in the woods or lost on a mountain, without income or presbytery; and still better, he cuts down his wages, he withdraws the State salary of five hundred francs, he turns him out of the lodgings allowed him by the commune, on foot on the highway, with no viaticum, even temporary, excluded from ecclesiastical ministries, without respect, demeaned, a vagabond in the great lay world whose ways are unknown to him and whose careers are closed to him. Henceforth, and forever, bread is taken out of his mouth; if he has it to-day, it is lacking on the morrow. Now, every three months, the list of succursalists at five hundred francs drawn up by the bishop, must be countersigned by the prefect. In his upper cabinet, near the mantelpiece on which the visiting-cards of every considerable personage in the department are displayed, facing the emperor's bust, the two delegates of the emperor, his two responsible and judicial managers, the two superintended overseers of the conscription, confer together on the ecclesiastical staff of the department. In this as in other matters, they are and feel themselves kept in check from on high, curbed and forced, willingly or not, to come to some agreement. Compulsory collaborators by institution, each an auxiliary of the other in the maintenance of public order, they read over article by article the list of appointments of their common subordinates; should any name have bad notes, should any succursalist be marked as noisy, undesirable, or suspect, should there be any unfavorable report by the mayor, gendarmerie or upper police, the prefect, about to sign, lays down his pen, quotes his instructions and demands of the bishop against the delinquent some repressive measure, either destitution, suspension or displacement, removal to an inferior parish, or, at least, a comminatory reprimand, while the bishop, whom the prefect may denounce to the minister, does not refuse to the prefect this act of complacency.
Some months after the publication of the Concordat,5197Mademoiselle Chameron, an opera-dancer, dies, and her friends bear her remains to the church of Saint-Roch for internment. They are refused admittance, and the curé, very rigid, "in a fit of ill-humor," orders the doors of the church to be shut; a crowd gathers around, shouts and launches threats at the curé; an actor makes a speech to appease the tumult, and finally the coffin is borne off to the church of Les Filles-Saint-Thomas, where the assistant priest, "familiar with the moral of the gospel," performs the funeral service. Incidents of this kind disturb the tranquility of the streets and denote a relaxation of administrative discipline. Consequently the government, doctor in theology and canon law, intervenes and calls the ecclesiastical superior to account. The first Consul, in an article in the Moniteur, haughtily gives the clergy their instructions and explains the course that will be pursued against them by his prelates. "The Archbishop of Paris orders the curé of Saint-Roch into retirement for three months, in order that he may bear in mind the injunction of Jesus Christ to pray for one's enemies, and, made sensible of his duties by meditation, may become aware that these superstitious customs..., which degrade religion by their absurdities, have been done away with by the Concordat and the law of Germinal 18." From now on all priests and curés are prudent, circumspect, obedient, and reserved,5198because their spiritual superiors are so as well, and could not be otherwise. Each prelate, posted in his diocese, is maintained there in isolation; a watch is kept on his correspondence; he may communicate with the Pope only through the Minister of Worship; he has no right to act in concert with his colleagues; all the general assemblies of the clergy, all metropolitan councils, all annual synods are suppressed. The Church of France has ceased to exist as one corps, while its members, carefully detached from each other and from their Roman head, are no longer united, but juxtaposed. Confined to a circumscription, like the prefect, the bishop himself is simply an ecclesiastical prefect, a little less uncertain of his tenure of office; undoubtedly, his removal will not be effected by order, but he can be forced to send in his resignation. Thus, in his case, as well as for the prefect, his first care will be not to excite displeasure, and the next one, to please. To stand well at court, with the minister and with the sovereign, is a positive command, not only on personal grounds, but for the sake of Catholic interests. To obtain scholarships for the pupils of his seminary,5199to appoint the teachers and the director that suits him, to insure the acceptance of his canons, cantonal curés, and candidates for the priesthood, to exempt his sub-deacons from military service, to establish and to defray the expenses of the chapels of his diocese, to provide parishes with the indispensable priest, with regular services and the sacraments, requires favors, which favors cannot be enjoyed without an affectation of obedience and zeal and, more important still, devotion. Moreover, he is only a human being. If Napoleon has selected him, it is on account of his intelligence, knowing what he is about, open to human motives, not too rigid and of too easy conscience; in the eyes of the master, the first quality is an obedient personality attached to his system and person.51100Moreover, with his candidates, he has always taken into consideration the hold they give him through their weaknesses, vanity and needs, their ostentatious ways and expenditure, their love of money, titles and precedence, their ambition, desire for promotion, enjoyment of credit, and right of obtaining places for protégés and relations. He avails himself of all these advantages and finds that they answer his purpose. With the exception of three or four saints, like Monsignor d'Aviau51101or Monsignor Dessolles, who he has inadvertently put into the episcopate, the bishops are content to be barons, and the archbishops counts. They are glad to rank higher and higher in the Legion of Honor; they loudly assert, in praise of the new order of things, the honors and dignities it confers on these or those prelates who have become members of the legislative corps or been made senators.51102Many of them receive secret pay for secret services, pecuniary incentives in the shape of this or that amount in ready money. In sum, Napoleon has judged accurately; with hesitation and remorse, nearly the whole of his episcopal staff, Italian and French, 66 prelates out of 80, are open to "temporal influences". They yield to seductions and threats; they accept or submit, even in spiritual matters, to his positive ascendancy.51103
Moreover, among these dignitaries, nearly all of whom are blameless, or, at least, who behave well and are generally honorable, Napoleon51104finds a few whose servility is perfect, unscrupulous individuals ready for anything that an absolute prince could desire, like Bishops Bernier and De Pancemont, one accepting a reward of 30,000 francs and the other the sum of 50,000 francs51105for the vile part they have played in the negotiations for the Concordat; a miserly, brutal cynic like Maury, archbishop of Paris, or an intriguing, mercenary skeptic like De Pradt, archbishop of Malines; or an old imbecile, falling on his knees before the civil power, like Rousseau, bishop of Orleans, who writes a pastoral letter declaring that the Pope is as free in his Savona prison as on his throne at Rome. After 1806,51106Napoleon, that he may control men of greater suppleness, prefers to take his prelates from old noble families—the frequenters of Versailles, who regard the episcopate as a gift bestowed by the prince and not by the Pope, a lay favor reserved for younger sons, a present made by the sovereign to those around his person, on the understood condition that the partisan courtier who is promoted shall remain a courtier of the master. Henceforth nearly all his episcopal recruits are derived from "members of the old noble stock." "Only these," says Napoleon, "know how to serve well."
Political use of the episcopacy.—The imperial catechism.—Pastoral letters.
From the first year the effect arrived at is better than could be expected. "Look at the clergy,"51107said the First Consul to Roederer; "every day shows that in spite of themselves their devotion to the government is increasing, and much beyond their anticipation. Have you seen the pastoral declaration of Boisgelin, archbishop of Tours?... He says that the actual government is the legitimate government, that God disposes of thrones and kings as he pleases and that he adopts the chiefs whom the people prefer. Your yourself could not have said that better." But notwithstanding that this is said in the pastoral letter, it is again said in the catechism. No ecclesiastical publication is more important: all Catholic children are to learn this by heart, for the phrases they recite will be firmly fixed in their memories. Bossuet's catechism is good enough, but it may be improved,—there is nothing that time, reflection, emulation, and administrative zeal cannot render perfect! Bossuet teaches children "to respect all superiors, pastors, kings, magistrates, and the rest." "But these generalities," says Portalis,51108"no longer suffice. They do not give the proper tendency to the subject's submission. The object is to center the popular conscience on the person of Your Majesty." Accordingly, let us be precise, make appointments and secure support.
The imperial catechism, a great deal more explicit than the royal catechism, adds significant development to the old one, along with extra motives:
"We specially owe to our Emperor, Napoleon the First, love, respect, obedience, fidelity, military service, and tributes ordained for the preservation of the empire and his throne... For God has raised him up for us in times of peril that he might restore public worship and the holy religion of our fathers and be its protector."
Every boy and girl in each parish recite this to the vicar or curé after vespers in their tiny voices as a commandment of God and of the Church, as a supplementary article of the creed. Meanwhile the officiating priest in the pulpit gravely comments on this article, already clear enough, at every morning or evening service;51109by order, he preaches in behalf of the conscription and declares that it is a sin to try to escape from it, to be refractory; by order, again, he reads the army bulletins giving accounts of the latest victories; always by order, he reads the last pastoral letter of his bishop, a document authorized, inspired and corrected by the police. Not only are the bishops obliged to submit their pastoral letters and public instructions to the censorship; not only by way of precaution, are they forbidden to print anything except on the prefecture presses, but again, for still greater security, the bureau of public worship is constantly advising them what they must say. First and foremost, they must laud the Emperor. But in what terms, and with what epithets, without indiscretion or mistake, in order not to meddle with politics, not to appear as a party managed from above, not to pass for megaphones, is not explained, and is therefore a difficult matter. "You must praise the Emperor more in your pastoral letters," said Réal, prefect of police, to a new bishop. "Tell me in what measure." "I do not know," was the reply. Since the measure cannot be prescribed, it must be ample enough. There is no difficulty as regards other articles.—On every occasion the Paris offices take care to furnish each bishop with a ready-made draft of his forthcoming pastoral letter—the canvas on which the customary flowers of ecclesiastical amplification are to be embroidered. It differs according to time and place. In La Vendée and in the west, the prelates are to stigmatize "the odious machinations of perfidious Albion," and explain to the faithful the persecutions to which the English subject the Irish Catholics. When Russia is the enemy, the pastoral letter must dwell on her being schismatic; also on the Russian misunderstanding of the supremacy of the Pope. Inasmuch as bishops are functionaries of the empire, their utterances and their acts belong to the Emperor. Consequently he makes use of them against all enemies, against each rival, rebel or adversary, against the Bourbons, against the English and the Russians, and, finally, against the Pope.
Similar to the Russian expedition, this is the great and last throw of the dice, the decisive and most important of his ecclesiastical undertakings, as the other is in political and military affairs. Just as, under his leadership, he forces by constraint and, under his lead, a coalition of the political and military powers of his Europe against the Czar,—Austria, Prussia, the Confederation of the Rhine, Holland, Switzerland, the kingdom of Italy, Naples, and even Spain,—so does he by constraint and under his lead coalesce all the spiritual authorities of his empire against the Pope. He summons a council, consisting of eighty-four bishops that are available in Italy and in France. He takes it upon himself to drill them, and he makes them march. To state what influences he uses would require a volume51110—theological and canonical arguments, appeals to Gallican souvenirs and Jansenist rancors, eloquence and sophisms, preparatory maneuvers, secret intrigues, public acting, private solicitations, steady intimidation, successful pressures, thirteen cardinals exiled and deprived of their insignia, two other cardinals confined in Vincennes, nineteen Italian bishops conveyed to France under escort, without bread or clothes. Fifty priests of Parma, fifty of Plaisance, besides one hundred other Italian priests, sent away or confined in Corsica. All congregations of men in France—Saint-Lazare, Mission, Christian Doctrine, Saint-Sulpice—dissolved and suppressed. Three bishops of the council seized in bed at daylight, put into a cell and kept in close confinement, forced to resign and to promise in writing not to carry on correspondence with their dioceses; arrest of their adherents in their dioceses; the Ghent seminarists turned into soldiers, and, with knapsack on their backs, leaving for the army; professors at Ghent, the canons of Tournay, and other Belgian priests shut up in the citadels of Bouillon, Ham and Pierre-Chatel.51111Near the end, the council suddenly dissolved because scruples arise, because it does not yield at once to the pressure brought to bear on it, because its mass constitutes its firmness, because men standing close together, side by side, stand all the longer. "Our wine in the cask is not good," said Cardinal Maury; "you will find that it will be better in bottles." Accordingly, to make it ready for bottling, it must be filtered and clarified, so as to get rid of the bad elements which disturb it and cause fermentation. Many Opponents are in prison, many have retired from their dioceses, while the rest are brought to Paris and cunningly worked upon, each member in turn, apart and confined, téte-à-téte with the Minister of Worship, until all, one by one, are brought to sign the formula of adhesion. On the strength of this, the council, purged and prepared, is summoned afresh to give its vote sitting or standing, in one unique session; through a remnant of virtue it inserts a suspensive clause in the decree, apparently a reservation,51112but the decree is passed as ordered. Like the foreign regiment in an army corps which, enlisted, forced into line, and goaded on with a sharp sword, serves, in spite of itself, against its legitimate prince, unwilling to march forward to the attack, meaning at the last moment to fire in the air, so does it finally march and fire its volley notwithstanding.
Napoleon, on the other hand, treats the Pope in the same fashion, and with like skill and brutality. As with the Russian campaign, he has prepared himself for it long beforehand. At the outset there is an alliance, and he concedes great advantages to the Pope as to the Czar, which will remain to them after his fall; but these concessions are made only with a mental reservation, with the instinctive feeling and predetermination to profit by the alliance, even to making an independent sovereign whom he recognizes as his equal, his subordinate and a tool; hence, quarrels and war. This time also, in the expedition against the Pope, his strategy is admirable,—the entire ecclesiastical territory studied beforehand, the objective point selected,51113all disposable forces employed and directed by fixed marches to where the victory is to be decisive, the conquest extended and the seat of the final dominion established; the successive and simultaneous use of every kind of means—cunning, violence, seduction and terror. Calculation of the weariness, anxiety and despair of the adversary; at first menaces and constant disputes, and then flashes of lightning and multiplied claps of thunder, every species of brutality that force can command; the States of the Church invaded in times of peace, Rome surprised and occupied by soldiers, the Pope besieged in the Quirinal, in a year the Quirinal taken by a nocturnal assault, the Pope seized and carried off by post to Savona and there confined as a prisoner of state almost in cellular seclusion,51114subject to the entreaties and manoeuvres of an adroit prefect who works upon him, of the physician who is a paid spy, of the servile bishops who are sent thither, alone with his con-science, contending with inquisitors relieving each other, subject to moral tortures as subtile and as keen as old-time physical tortures, to tortures so steady and persistent that he sinks, loses his head, "no longer sleeps and scarcely speaks," falling into a senile condition and even more than senile condition, "a state of mental alienation."51115Then, on issuing from this, the poor old man is again beset; finally, after waiting patiently for three years, he is once more brusquely conducted at night, secretly and incognito, over the entire road, with no repose or pity though ill, except stopping once in a snow-storm at the hospice on Mount Cenis, where he comes near dying; put back after twenty-four hours in his carriage, bent double by suffering and in constant pain; jolting over the pavement of the grand highway until almost dead and landed at Fontainebleau, where Napoleon wishes to have him ready at hand to work upon. "Indeed," he himself says, "he is a lamb, an excellent, worthy man whom I esteem and am very fond of."51116
An improvised tête-a-tête may probably prove effective with this gentle, candid and tender spirit. Pius VII., who had never known ill-will, might be won by kindly treatment, by an air of filial respect, by caresses; he may feel the personal ascendency of Napoleon, the prestige of his presence and conversation, the invasion of his genius. Inexhaustible in arguments, matchless in the adaptation of ideas to circumstances, the most amiable and most imperious of interlocutors, stentorian and mild, tragic and comic by turns, the most eloquent of sophists and the most irresistible of fascinators, as soon as he meets a man face to face, he wins him, conquers him, and obtains the mastery.51117In effect, after seeing the Pope for six days, Napoleon obtains by persuasion what he could not obtain afar by constraint. Pius VII. signs the new Concordat in good faith, himself unaware that, on regaining his freedom and surrounded by his cardinals, who inform him on the political situation, he will emerge from his bewilderment, be attacked by his conscience, and, through his office, publicly accuse himself, humbly repent, and in two months withdraw his signature.
Such, after 1812 and 1813, is the duration of Napoleon's triumphs and the ephemeral result of his greatest military and ecclesiastical achievements—Moskow, Lutzen, Bautzen and Dresden, the Council of 1811 and the Concordat of 1813. Whatever the vastness of his genius may be, however strong his will, however successful his attacks, his success against nations and churches never is, and never can be, other than temporary. Great historical and moral forces elude his grasp. In vain does he strike, for their downfall gives them new life, and they rise beneath the blow. With Catholic institutions,51118as with other powers, not only do his efforts remain sterile, but what he accomplishes remains inverse to the end he has in view. He aims to subjugate the Pope, and he led the Pope on to omnipotence He aims at the maintenance and strength of the Gallican spirit among the French clergy, and yet brings them under the rule of the ultramontane spirit.51119With extraordinary energy and tenacity, with all his power, which was enormous, through the systematic and constant application of diverse and extreme measures, he labored for fifteen years to rend the ties of the Catholic hierarchy, take it to pieces, and, in sum, the final result of all is to tie them faster and hasten its completion.
5101 (return)[ Se preface to "The Modern Régime," Vol. I.]
5102 (return)[ On some of the ideas above indicated see "The Modern Régime," Vol. I. p.120.]
5103 (return)[ An allusion to Malthusianism, practiced by many heads of families in France. M. Taine would probably have shown this practice contrary to national welfare.—Tr.]
5104 (return)[ Idolizing of children. (SR.)]
5105 (return)[ Cf. "Les carnets de voyage."]
5106 (return)[ On this idea see Volume I of "The Modern Régime," page 332, to the end of the chapter. (Ed. Laff. II. pp. 592 to 605).]
5107 (return)[ Today this would probably be the media especially television.]
5108 (return)[ Memorial, IV.,259 (June 7 and 8, 1816); V., 323 (Aug. 17, 1816).]
5109 (return)[ Thibaudeau, p. 152 (Prairial 21, year X.]
5110 (return)[ Idem, IV.,259, (June 7 and 8, 1816).—Pelet de la Lozere, "Opinions de Napoléon au conseil d'état," p 223, (March 4, 1806).]
5111 (return)[ "Discours, rapports et travaux sur le Concordat de 1801," by Portalis (published by Fréderick Portalis), p.10.—In his speech on the organization of cults (Germinal 15, year X), Portalis, although a good Catholic, adopts the same idea, because he is a legist and one of the ancient Régime. "Religions, even false, have this advantage, that they are an obstacle to the introduction of arbitrary doctrines. Individuals have a center of faith; governments have no fear of dogmas once known and which do not change. Superstition, so to say, is regulated, circumscribed and kept within bounds which it cannot, or dare not, go outside of."]
5112 (return)[ Thibaudeau, p. 151 (Prairial 21, year X). "The First Consul combated at length the different systems of the philosophy on cults, natural religions, deism, etc. All that according to him, was mere ideology."]
5113 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p. 208 (May 22, 1804).]
5114 (return)[ Thibaudeau, p. 152 (Prairial 21, year X).]
5115 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p, 223 (March 4, 1806).]
5116 (return)[ Roederer, "Oevres complètes," III., 334 (Aug. 18, 1800).]
5117 (return)[ What impression could this have made on Lenin? Could he not have felt: "Perhaps Napoleon's logic was good at that time but now with electricity, the steam engine and modern industrialism it will be possible to do without the efficiency of capitalism and hence with its inequalities and egoism? If so then we can recreate the equality dreamt of by Babeuf, Robespierre, Saint Just and the other ancient revolutionaries!!"]
5118 (return)[ Ref.: "Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will either be extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, and despotism will come from either of these excesses." Aristotle. (SR.)]
5119 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p. 205 (February 11, 1804).]
5120 (return)[ Ibid., p. 201.]
5121 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p. 206, (Feb. 11, 1804).]
5122 (return)[ Mémorial, V., 323 (Aug. 17, 1816).]
5123 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p 201.]
5124 (return)[ Mémorial, V., 353 (Aug. 17, 1816). Notes on "Les Quatre Concordants," by M. de Pradt (Correspondence of Napoleon I., xxx., p.557).]
5125 (return)[ Bourrienne, "Mémoires," V., 232.]
5126 (return)[ Notes on "Les Quatre Concordats," by M. de Pradt (Correspondence of Napoleon I., XXX., 638 and 639).]
5127 (return)[ Thibaudeau, p. 152 (Prairial 21, year X).]
5128 (return)[ Notes on "Les Quatre Concordats," by M. de Pradt (correspondence, XXX., 638).]
5129 (return)[ Count Boulay de La Meurthe, "Négotiations du concordat." (Extract from the correspondant, "1882, on the religious state of France in November, 1800, and particularly on, the condition of the constitutional church, the latter being very poor, disunited, with no credit and no future.) The writer estimates the number of active priests at 8000, of which 2000 are constitutionnels and 6000 orthodox."]
5130 (return)[ Thibaudeau, p.152.]
5131 (return)[ Thibaudeau, p. 154 (words of the First consul) "What makes the government liked is its respect for worship.... The priests must be connected with the government."]
5132 (return)[ Ibid., p.154: "Is it not better to organize worship and discipline the priests rather than let things go on as they are?"]
5133 (return)[ La Fayette, "Mémoires, II.", 200. ("Mes rapports avec le Premier consul.")]
5134 (return)[ D'Haussonville, "l'Église romaine et la Premier Empire," II.. 78 and 101. Napoleon's letters to Cardinal Fesch, Jan. 7, 1806; to the Pope, Feb.22, 1806 and to cardinal Fesch, of the same date. "His Holiness will have the same consideration for me in temporal matters as I have for him in spiritual matters.... My enemies will be his enemies."—"Tell people (in Rome) that I am Charlemagne, the sword of the church, their emperor; that I must be treated the same; that they should not know that there was a Russian empire.... If the Pope does not accept my conditions, I shall reduce him to the condition he was in before Charlemagne."]
5135 (return)[ Decree, May 17, 1809. "Whereas, when Charlemagne, emperor of the French, and out august predecessor, donated several counties to the bishops of Rome, he gave them only under the title of fiefs and for the welfare of his own states, and as by the said donation Rome did not thereby cease to form part of his empire,... the states of the Pope are now reunited to the French empire."]
5136 (return)[ Sénatus-consulte, Feb. 17, 1810, title II., article XII. "Any foreign sovereignty is incompatible with the exercise of any spiritual sovereignty within the empire."]
5137 (return)[ D'Haussonville, ibid., IV.,344. (Decree of the National Council, Aug. 5, 1811.—Concordat of Fontainebleau, Jan. 25, 1813, article 14.—Decree on the execution of this Concordat, March 23, 1813, art. 4.)]
5138 (return)[ Sénatus-consulte, Feb.17, 1810, articles 13 and 14.]
5139 (return)[ Mémorial, Aug.17, 1816.]
5140 (return)[ Sénatus-consulte, Feb.17, 1810.]
5141 (return)[ Notes by Napoleon on the "Les Quatre Concordats de M. de Pradt" (correspondence, XXX., 550). Lanfrey, "Histoire de Napoléon," V., 214. (Along with the Vatican archives, there were brought to Paris the tiara and other insignia or ornaments of Pontifical dignity.)]
5142 (return)[ Sénatus-consulte, Feb. 17, 1810.]
5143 (return)[ Notes by Napoleon on "Les Quatre Concordats" (Correspondence, XXX., 548).]
5144 (return)[ Cf. Roman laws on the Collegia illicita, the first source of which is the Roman conception of religion, the political and practical use of augurs, auspices and sacred fowls.—It is interesting to trace the long life and survivorship of this important idea from antiquity down to the present day; it reappears in the Concordat and in the Organic Articles of 1801, and still later in the late decrees dissolving unauthorized communities and closing the convents of men.— French jurists, and in particular Napoleon's jurists, are profoundly imbued with the Roman idea. Portalis, in his exposition of the motives for establishing metropolitan seminaries (March 14, 1804), supports the decree with Roman law. "The Roman laws," he says, "place every thing concerning the cult in the class of matters which belong essentially to public rights."]
5145 (return)[ Thibaudeau, p.152.]
5146 (return)[ "Discours, rapports et travaux sur le Concordat de 1801," by Portalis, p.87 (on the Organic Articles), p.29 (on the organization of cults). "The ministers of religion must not pretend to share in or limit public power.... Religious affairs have always been classed by the different national codes among matters belonging to the upper police department of the State... The political magistrate may and should intervene in everything which concerns the outward administration of sacred matters.... In France, the government has always presided, in a more or less direct way, over the direction of ecclesiastical affairs."]
5147 (return)[ "Discours, rapports, etc.," by Portalis, p. 31.—Ibid., p.143: "To sum up: The Church possesses only a purely spiritual authority; the sovereigns, in their capacity of political magistrates, regulate temporal and mixed questions with entire independence, and, as protectors, they have even the right to see to the execution of canons and to repress, even in spiritual matters, the infractions of pontiffs."]
5148 (return)[ Articles Organiques. 1st. Catholic cult, articles 3, 4, 23, 24, 35, 39, 44, 62. 2nd. Protestant cults, articles 4, 5, 11, 14, 22, 26, 30, 31, 32, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43.—Israelite cult, decree of March 17, 1808, articles 4, 8, 9, 16, 23. Decree of execution, samedate, articles 2 to 7.]
5149 (return)[ Decree of March 17, 1808, articles 12, 21.]
5150 (return)[ Articles Organiques (Protestant cults), 12 and 13.]
5151 (return)[ Articles Organiques (Catholic cult), 24. Teachers selected for the seminaries "will subscribe the declaration made by the clergy of France in 1682; they will submit to teaching the doctrine therein set forth."]
5152 (return)[ "Dsicours, rapports, etc," by Portalis, p. 101.]
5153 (return)[ Ibid, p. 378.]
5154 (return)[ Abbé Sicard, "Les Dispensateurs des bénéfices ecclésiastiques" (in the "Correspondant," Sep.10, 1889, p.883). A benefice was then a sort of patrimony which the titulary, old or ill, often handed over to one of his relatives. "A canonist of the eighteenth century says that the resignation carried with it one third of the income."]
5155 (return)[ "Souvenirs", by Pasquier (Etienne-Dennis, duc), Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. Vol. I. p. 415.: "The nomination of Cardinal Maury as arch-bishop of Paris was published on the same day that I had been appointed prefect of police. The new arch-bishop had made too much noise in the past for him not to have become known to me. He was as happy with his appointment as I was unhappy with mine. I met him in the chateau Fontainebleau and I have ever since been haunted by the noisy expression of his happiness. He constantly repeated this sentence: "The Emperor has just satisfied the two greatest requirements of his capital. With a good police and a good clergy he can always be sure of public order, since an arch-bishop is also a prefect of the police."]
5156 (return)[ Report of Siméon to the tribunat on presenting to it the Concordat and Organic Articles, Germinal 17, year X.—Henceforth "the ministers of all cults will be subject to the influence of the government which appoints or confirms them, to which they are bound by the most sacred promises, and which holds them in its dependence by their salaries."]
5157 (return)[ "Discours, rapports, etc.," by Portalis, p. 40.—Emile Ollivier, "Nouveau manuel de droit ecclésiastique," P.193. (Reply by Portalis to the protests of the Holy See, Sep. 22, 1803.) Before 1789 Portalis writes: "The spectacle presented by the monks was not very edifying.. .. The legislature having decided that religious vows could not be taken up to twenty-one years of age,... this measure keeps novices away; the monastic orders, sapped by the state of morals and by time, could obtain no recruits; they languished in a state of inertia and of disfavor which was worse than annihilation.... The era for monastic institutions had passed."]
5158 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p.146. (Words of Napoleon, March 11, 1806.)]
5159 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p.207 (May 22, 1804).]
5160 (return)[ Decree of Messidor 3, year XII (June 22, 1804).—Letter of Napoleon to the King of Naples, April 14, 1807, on the suppression of convents at Naples: "You know that I don't like monks, as I have uprooted them everywhere." To his sister Elisa, May 17, 1806: "Keep on and suppress the convents."]
5161 (return)[ "État des congrégations, communantés et associations religieuses," drawn up in execution of article 12 of the law of Dec. 12, 1876 (Imprimerie nationale, 1878): 1st. congregations of women with a general superior, nurses and teachers, authorized from Prairial 28, year XI, to January 13, 1813, total, 42; 2nd. communities of women without a general superior, nurses and teachers, authorized from April 9, 1806, to Sept. 28, 1813, total, 205.]
5162 (return)[ Ibid., Brethren of the Christian Schools, namely, of Saint Yon, authorized March 17, 1808.]
5163 (return)[ Ibid., congregation of the Mission of Saint-Lazare, authorized Prairial 17, year XI.—Congregation of the Seminary of Foreign Missions, authorized Germinal 2, year XIII.]
5164 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p.208 (May 22, 1804).]
5165 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, P.209]
5166 (return)[ Decree of March 17, 1808, article 109.]
5167 (return)[ Alexis Chevalier, "Les Frères des écoles chrétiennes après la Révolution," p. 93. (Report by Portalis approved by the First consul, Frimaire to, year XII.) "Henceforth," says Portalis, "the superior-general at Rome abandons all inspection of the Christian Brothers. In France, it is understood that the Brothers will have a superior general resident at Lyons."]
5168 (return)[ D'Haussonville, V., p. 148.]
5169 (return)[ Fortress in the Italian Alps. (SR.)]
5170 (return)[ D'Haussonville, V., p. 148. Letter of Napoleon to the Minister of Worship, March 3, 1811 (omitted in the published correspondence).]
5171 (return)[ Ibid., IV.,p.133. (Letter by Napoleon, Sep. 2, 1809, omitted in the "Correspondence.")]
5172 (return)[ Concordat, articles 4, 5, 16.]
5173 (return)[ Articles Organiques, I., pp. 2, 6.]
5174 (return)[ Code pénal, decree of Feb. 16-20, 1810, article 207.]
5175 (return)[ Napoleon's own expressions: "I may regard myself as the head of the Catholic ministry, since the Pope has crowned me." (Pelet de la Lozère, p. 210, July 17, 1806.)—Note the word crowned (sacré). Napoleon, as well as former kings, considers himself as clothed with ecclesiastical dignity.]
5176 (return)[ On the sense and bearing of Gallican maxims cf. the whole of the answer by Portalis to Cardinal Caprara. (Émile Ollivier, "Nouveau manuel de droit ecclésiastique," p.150.)]
5177 (return)[ Decree of Feb.25, 1810. (The edict of Louis XIV. is attached to it.) Prohibition to teach or write "anything opposed to the doctrine contained" in the declaration of the French clergy. "Every professor of theology must sign and submit to teaching the doctrine therein set forth."—In establishments where there are several professors "one of them will be annually directed to teach the said doctrine."—In colleges where there is but one professor "he will be obliged to teach it one of three consecutive years."—The professors are required to hand in to the competent authority "their minutes dictated to the pupils."—None of them can be "licensed, whether in theology or in canon law, nor graduated as doctor, without having maintained the said doctrine in one of his theses."]
5178 (return)[ Cf., for details, d'Haussonville, I., p.200 et seq.]
5179 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p. 205. (Words of Napoleon, Feb. 4, 1804.)]
5180 (return)[ A procedure used by Stalin and copied by all his satellite states. (SR.)]
5181 (return)[ Thibaudeau, p.157 (Messidor 2, year X).]
5182 (return)[ Roederer, III., pp. 535, 567.]
5183 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p.203. (Napoleon's words, Feb. 4, 1804.)—Law of March 14, 1804.]
5184 (return)[ Cf. "Letters of Mgr. Claude Simon, bishop of Grenoble, April 18, 1809, and October 6, 1811."]
5185 (return)[ Articles Organiques, p.68.]
5186 (return)[ Bercastel and Henrion, "Histoire générale de l'Église," XIII., p.32. (Speech by M. Roux-Laborie, deputy in 1816.)—At the present day, the ordinations oscillate between 1200 and 1700 per annum.]
5187 (return)[ Decree of November 15, 1811, articles 28, 29, 32. "On and after July 1, 1812, all secondary ecclesiastical schools (small seminaries) which may not be situated in towns possessing a lycée or college shall be closed. No secondary ecclesiastical school shall be placed in the country. In all places where there are ecclesiastical schools the pupils of these schools shall pursue their studies in the lycée or college classes."]
5188 (return)[ "Correspondence of Napoleon (notes for the Minister of Worship), July 30, 1806." In order to be curé of the first class, chanoin, vicar-general or bishop one must henceforth be bachelor, licencié, doctor in the university grades, "which the university may refuse in case the candidate shall be known to entertain ultramontane ideas or ideas dangerous to authority."]
5189 (return)[ D'Haussonville, V., p.144 et seq. (Letter of Napoleon to the Minister of Worship, Oct.22, 1811, omitted in the "correspondence.") The letter ends with these words: "This mode of working must be kept secret."]
5190 (return)[ "Histoire de M. Emery," by Abbé Elie Méric, II., p. 374. The order of expulsion (June 13, 1810) ends with these words: "Immediate possession is to be taken of the house which might belong to some domain and which, at least in this case, could be considered as public property, since it might belong to a congregation. If it is found to be private property belonging to M. Emery or to any other person, the rents might first be paid and then afterwards it might be required, save indemnity, as useful for the public service." This shows in full the administrative and fiscal spirit of the French State, its heavy hand being always ready to fall imperiously on every private individual and on all private property.]
5191 (return)[ Letter of Napoleon, Oct. 8, 1811.]
5192 (return)[ Ibid. Nov. 22, 1811.]
5193 (return)[ D'Haussonville, V., p.282. (Letter of Napoleon, Aug. 14, 1813, omitted in the correspondence.)—"Mémoires" du Chancelier Pasquier, II." pp. 88-91.]
5194 (return)[ Roederer, III., p.430 (Germinal 19, year X): "The legate was received today in the consular palace; in making his speech, he trembled like a leaf."]
5195 (return)[ Pelet de la Lozère, p.206 (May 22, 1804).]
5196 (return)[ Decrees of May 31, 1804, Dec.26, 1804, and Sep.30. 1807, with the list of succursals by departments.—Besides the succursalists paid by the State, there were vicars not less dependent on the bishop and maintained by allowances from the communes or by private donations. (Bercastel et Henrion, XIII., p.32, speech by M. Roux-Laborie in the chamber of Deputies, 1816.) "In his re-composition of the Church of France the usurper established 12,000 vicars dependent on alms, and it will not surprise you that, instead of 12,000, there were only 5000 who were courageous enough to die of starvation or implore public charity.... Thus are 4000 country churches without worship or minister."]
5197 (return)[ Thibaudeau, p. 166, and article of Brumaire 30, in the Moniteur.]
5198 (return)[ Roederer, III., p. 479 et seq. (Report on the Senatorerie of Caen.) The priests everywhere feel that they are watched and set aside. "Most of those I encounter exclaim, Poor curé, an unfortunate curé. The functionaries are devoted to the Emperor as their sole support against the nobles, whom they dread, and against the priests, whom they slightly esteem.... The military, the judges, the administrators when alluding to the priests or to religion merely smile; the priests, on the other hand, express very little confidence in the functionaries."]
5199 (return)[ Decree of Sept. 30, 1804 (with allotment of 800 scholarships and 1600 demi-scholarships to each diocesan seminary). These will be allowed us on being presented by the bishops.]
51100 (return)[ D'Haussonville, II., p. 227.]
51101 (return)[ Idem. IV. Order of arrest of M. d'Avian, archbishop of Bordeaux, as one of the opponents of the Council (July 11, 1811). Savary himself, Minister of Justice, raises objections. "Sire, do nothing with M. d'Avian. He is a saint and we shall have everybody against us."]