THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 13001907
 
 CHURCH AND STATE 
 IN FRANCE 
 
 1300-1907 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR GALTON 
 
 VICAR OF EDENHAM AXD CHAPLAIN TO THE EARL OF ANCASTER 
 
 LONDON 
 EDWARD ARNOLD 
 
 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, BOND STREET, W. 
 1907 
 
 [All rights reserved]
 
 College 
 Library 
 
 DC 
 -5" 
 
 TO 
 
 FRANCIS GALTON 
 
 F.R.S., LL.D., ETC., ETC. 
 WITH 
 
 AFFECTION AND GREAT RESPECT
 
 PREFACE 
 
 A BOOK on a foreign country by a foreigner might seem 
 to require a two-fold apology. At any rate, it imposes an 
 explanation. To begin with, the subject here treated is 
 not altogether foreign. I aim at describing the relations 
 between the French State and the Court of Rome ; and the 
 Roman Curia professes to be an international organization. 
 Its procedure, therefore, towards one nation must be studied 
 as a possible precedent for its dealings with another. 
 Every State is thus interested in the present quarrel 
 between France and the Vatican, and has not only the 
 right but the duty to understand it. Such an understanding 
 can only be gained by some knowledge of the past; and 
 some guidance for the attainment of this knowledge is all 
 that is attempted in the present essay. 
 
 The writer has no wish to interfere with the internal 
 concerns of our French neighbours and friends, or to take 
 any side in their party politics. That was the grievous 
 error of our own Tory party in 1793, and grievous penalties 
 were exacted for it : not only the penalty of a tremendous 
 and probably an avoidable war, but the penalty of reaction 
 and long stagnation in our domestic affairs. Parliamentary 
 Reform, Roman Catholic Emancipation, and a statesmanlike 
 settlement of the Irish Question might have been carried by 
 Pitt before the end of the eighteenth century, if our country, 
 misled by Burke, had not interfered with the domestic 
 policy of the new French Republic. Such errors will 
 not be repeated by England, and we must hope that the 
 new Germanic Empire, which still has so much to learn, 
 may take warning by our example. 
 
 Putting these aspects of the question aside, the qualifica- 
 tions or the competence of a foreigner to deal with the 
 affairs of another country may be challenged. I lay no
 
 viii PKEFACE 
 
 claim to any special competence, though I venture to think 
 I may have some qualifications. During a studious life, 
 which is beginning to approach a term that may be described 
 as long, I have managed to read a very large amount of 
 theology and history. France has always had a singular 
 attraction for me, and I have been familiar with the country 
 for almost fifty years. I cannot remember when I did not 
 know some French words, and I could read French almost 
 as soon as English. These beginnings fostered a taste for 
 French which amounts to a passion : a passion extending not 
 only to the language, but to that absorbing drama which is 
 called French history, and to the splendid achievements of 
 French civilization. I do claim, then, to have a tolerably 
 wide acquaintance with French history and literature ; and 
 I have always tried, so far as it can be done through current 
 literature and journalism, to keep in touch with French 
 affairs. 
 
 In addition, I have had ten years' experience, as an 
 ecclesiastic, of the Roman Catholic Church in England ; so 
 that the matters, or at any rate the principles, dealt with 
 in this volume, are quite familiar. One result of such an 
 experience is an understanding of the game, so that it is 
 generally possible to anticipate the course of it some way in 
 advance of the actual moves. 
 
 With regard to the present work, my first notion was to 
 translate the sturdy volumes of M. Debidour. I was per- 
 suaded, however, to write instead of translating ; and this 
 volume is the result. I owe it, both to my readers and to 
 myself, to say that, with the exception of certain books 
 which have appeared within the last three or four months 
 I have not read up this subject with a view to writing. Nor 
 did my interest in it begin with the Separation Law, or 
 even with the Ministry of M. Combes. I venture to write, 
 because I have read in it long and habitually for its own 
 sake. If I had been asked for a list of books on the subject, 
 when Separation began to be talked about, I should have 
 given, with very few exceptions, the bibliography which is 
 now appended to this volume. 
 
 The last six months have modified my views in only one
 
 PEEFACE ix 
 
 direction. I have been led by more careful reading to 
 alter my previous judgment about the Constitution Civile 
 du Clerge. That particular incident of the Revolution had 
 not interested me much. I had accepted the current views 
 of it blindly, and I must own that I was misled by all the 
 usual authorities in English, and by many of the standard 
 writers in French. The earlier Separation, in 1794, led me 
 to reconsider the whole question when the present Separa- 
 tion was effected ; and so I went back to the history and 
 origin of the Constitution Civile. I need not do more here 
 than refer my readers to the chapter which deals with it, 
 and to what I have said in detail there (Chapter IV, section 2, 
 pages 78-93). I look upon that chapter as the most solid 
 part of my volume ; and, in its bearing upon several of our 
 own ecclesiastical problems, I hope it may not be the least 
 interesting to some of my readers. The Constitution Civile 
 itself, the Committee which framed it, the Assembly which 
 voted it, and the clergy who accepted it, have all been 
 strangely, shamefully, and persistently vituperated. Many 
 English readers appear to know it only in Burke's rhetoric, 
 or in two sentences by Mr. John Morley, which occur in his 
 Life of Burke (page 227). The fuller treatment of Jervis is 
 both unfair and unsatisfactory. It has the farther dis- 
 advantage of resting upon an inadequate foundation. 
 Jervis had not sufficient knowledge to deal justly either 
 with the church or with the Eevolution, and fuller investiga- 
 tions have rendered much of his work obsolete. He has 
 also the more serious disadvantage of being inconsistent 
 with himself. In his ' Gallican Church and the 
 Revolution', Mr. W. S. Lilly quotes him l as saying of the 
 Constitution Civile, 'It was a high-handed invasion of 
 the traditional discipline, and even of the constitution, of 
 the church, under the specious pretext of recalling it to the 
 standard of primitive antiquity '; but, in his larger ' History 
 of the Church of France ' (vol. ii, page 402) Jervis writes, 
 ' The spirit in which many of its regulations were conceived 
 was clearly that of a return to the primitive principles of 
 
 1 The Times, January 11, 1907.
 
 x PREFACE 
 
 church government, anterior to the usurpations both of the 
 Papacy and despotic royalty.' This view is undoubtedly 
 truer to facts ; but the two views are incompatible with one 
 another, and therefore I cannot agree with Mr. Lilly in 
 accepting Jervis as a ' high authority '. 
 
 For obvious reasons, general histories of the Revolution 
 cannot deal adequately with any part of it. The general 
 statements of Thiers and Michelet, for instance, cannot be 
 set against the conclusions of minute and detailed investi- 
 gators. Even Taine must be read with a great deal of 
 caution. Prince Napoleon has shown, in a most brilliant 
 and charming essay, how inaccurate Taine has been in his 
 treatment of the great Emperor. MM. Langlois and Sei- 
 gnobos, in discussing ' interpretative criticism ' and the 
 scientific use of documents, speak thus of Taine, ' He had 
 made extracts from unpublished documents, and inserted a 
 great number of them in his work, but it would seem that 
 he did not first methodically analyse them in order to 
 determine their meaning.' * The two critics point especially 
 to Taine's work on the Revolution, as liable to these 
 charges; and it must be owned that his account of the 
 Constitution Civile is demolished at once if it be confronted 
 with the document itself. The best, and indeed the indis- 
 pensable, interpreters of the Constitution, especially for 
 English readers, are M. Aulard in his various Etudes sur 
 la Revolution Francaise and M. Edme Champion in La 
 France d'apres les Cahiers de 1789, and La Separation de 
 r$glise et de VJStat en 1794. There is also a clear and strong 
 account of the whole subject, in its causes and consequences, 
 by M. Debidour in his Histoire des Rapports de I'Jfiglise et 
 de I'fitat en France de 1789 a 1870. 
 
 Mr. "W. S. Lilly has taken it upon himself to dispose of 
 these authorities as ' mostly partizan', but, among their many 
 excellences, a dispassionate handling of facts is perhaps the 
 most conspicuous. I will end this subject, however, by 
 referring Mr. Lilly to an author whose partizanship he 
 cannot blame. M. Paul Pisani, Docteur es Lettres, Docteur 
 
 1 ' Introduction to the Study of History, 1 p. 143.
 
 PEEFACE xi 
 
 en Theologie, Chanoine de Paris, has published since the 
 beginning of this year an admirable and much-needed 
 Repertoire Biographique de Vfipiscopat Constitutionnel (1791- 
 1802). His biographies dispose of a great deal of calumny. 
 In his Preface, he discusses the documents and the evidence, 
 remarking that even the long and careful work of Sciout, 
 published from 1872 to 1881, was 'trop tot', was 'premature'; 
 because so large a mass of evidence was then unclassified 
 and inaccessible. It may be remarked here that Jervis pub- 
 lished his longer history in 1872, and the shorter in 1882. 
 As one History ended when Sciout was beginning, and 
 the other coincides with Sciout's ending, he is naturally 
 even more incomplete and premature ; and so of the other 
 ' authorities ' whom mere controversialists have set up 
 against the facts. M. Pisani goes on to say farther ' La 
 constitution civile du clerge ne rut pas, comme on 1'a dit 
 a tort, une conception artificielle, sortie du cerveau de 
 quelques jansenistes, elaboree dans d'obscurs conciliabules, 
 et violemment imposee a la France indignee et fremis- 
 sante, grace a des manoeuvres machiaveliques. II me semble, 
 tout au contraire, qu'elle a ete la consequence rigoureuse- 
 ment logique de la situation que je viens d'analyser ' : * and 
 he goes on to explain how the prizes of the church had been 
 monopolized by the noblesse, how the lower clergy were 
 humilie's et parfois reduits d la misere. These abuses, he 
 proceeds to argue, were caused by Gallican principles, by 
 want of submission to the Sovereign Pontiff, by obstructing 
 the papal jurisdiction. But I have anticipated this line of 
 argument, as an explanation of, or an apology for, the 
 abuses of the old regime ; and I have shown that these abuses 
 were increased habitually in many places by papal mis-use 
 of patronage, and that they were even more flagrant where 
 the papal administration was supreme. 2 
 
 I am sorry that this excellent and interesting volume only 
 reached me when I had written about the Constitution 
 Civile. I was too busy to read it until I had a few days 
 
 1 Op. tit., page 8. 
 
 1 See Chapter III, section 2, The Gallican Church of the Eighteenth 
 Century, pages 56, 57.
 
 xii PEEFACE 
 
 of leisure between the departure of my manuscript and the 
 return of proofs, and so I could not utilize it in the body of 
 my work. I may point out, however, that M. Pisani agrees 
 substantially with the authorities on whom I have relied, 
 and that his general estimate of the situation bears out 
 what I have said in Chapter IV. At the same time, M. 
 Pisani is an ultramontane who is loyal to his cause, and 
 there are many points on which we must agree to differ. It 
 is refreshing, however, to find on that side so candid, 
 courteous, chivalrous an adversary. For all these reasons I 
 commend him to the attention of Mr. Lilly. 
 
 There is another book which, to my extreme regret, has 
 come to my knowledge too late. I refer to the Rome et 
 Napoleon III, 1849-1870, by MM. Bourgeois and Clermont. 
 The volume itself has not reached me as yet, and I know it 
 only through The Times reviewer. 1 I don't profess to have 
 studied the second empire exhaustively, but I have read 
 about it minutely, and extensively ; and so I can appreciate 
 the excellence of the review, in its knowledge of the period, 
 though I cannot judge about its presentation of the volume. 
 So far, however, as that presentation be sound, I may re- 
 mark that my own sketch and explanation of the second 
 empire, and of Napoleon the Third, seem to be justified in 
 every particular by the researches of MM. Bourgeois and 
 Clermont. 2 
 
 "With regard to the main subject of this volume, there has 
 been little change in the general position since I finished 
 writing my Conclusion. The latest effort of M. Briand to 
 conciliate the Vatican has apparently failed, as I expected. 
 The Vatican does not wish to be conciliated. It wishes, if 
 possible, to provoke troubles in France, and to throw the 
 responsibility on the Government. In its first aim, it has 
 failed hitherto ; and, unless the French Government blunder 
 grievously, it will be less and less likely to succeed. And 
 as to responsibility for the present situation, neither the 
 French people nor any impartial and instructed foreigners 
 
 1 The Times Literary Supplement, March 1, 1907. 
 
 2 See Chapter IX, The Second Empire, pages 181-200.
 
 PEEFACE xiii 
 
 are likely to be deceived by the clumsy manoeuvres and the 
 sophistical representations of Cardinal Merry del Val. In 
 the particular matter of the leases, which is the latest phase 
 of the negotiation, the Vatican demands a full and free 
 possession of every church for eighteen years, while the 
 State and the local authorities are to have no option about 
 the tenants of their property, and no guarantee for the 
 usage or the dilapidations. In other words, the Vatican is 
 to possess every French church for a period of eighteen years, 
 to put in any occupier whom it may choose, and to incur no 
 responsibility for maintenance. Under cover of this blind 
 agreement, the Congregation is to be installed gradually in the 
 parishes of France. Another calculation has evidently con- 
 tributed to the rejection of M. Briand's offer. It was pro- 
 posed that the leases should be granted to the cures, and that 
 they should be renewable at every change of incumbency 
 before the full term expired. This proposal was refused ; and 
 the Vatican demanded, in effect, that the bishops, not the 
 cures, should be the recognized lessees. The reason for this is 
 obvious to those who understand the papal system, though it 
 is not so apparent to outsiders. I have had occasion to point 
 out, more than once, that the ecclesiastical authorities have 
 obstructed every proposition which seemed likely to give 
 security of tenure and possibilities of freedom to the lower 
 clergy or to the members of religious orders. The leases, 
 as projected by M. Briand, would have given the curds an 
 assured, and a more independent, position for at least 
 eighteen years. Such a possibility is terrifying both to the 
 Vatican and to the episcopate, for the reasons which I have 
 explained already. Everything in the papal system is 
 sacrificed to obedience and authority ; and, in this case, the 
 interests of the clergy and the possibility of a settlement 
 are both sacrificed, to say nothing about the larger interests 
 of the laity, in order that the Vatican may dominate the 
 French episcopate, and that the parochial clergy may 
 depend helplessly upon the representatives of the Vatican. 
 So the situation remains at present ; and, in this volume 
 at any rate, I can deal with it no farther. I anticipate, 
 however, that a great many liberating forces are working
 
 xiv PKEFACE 
 
 and germinating below the surface in the French church, 
 and that they will work out in directions which are not 
 likely to re-assure the Vatican. 
 
 I cannot leave this Preface without drawing attention to 
 a couple of letters which have appeared in The Times by 
 ' A French Catholic '.* My readers will find that his presen- 
 tation of the case is both a general and a detailed endorse- 
 ment of my essay. I do not write this as an appraisement 
 of my own work, but as an appeal to the confidence of my 
 readers. I would impress upon them, also, the contrast 
 between this ' French Catholic ' and the various English 
 ultramontanes who have discussed Separation in our news- 
 papers and magazines. This Frenchman, who at least knows 
 what he is talking about, and who is not biassed in favour 
 of the liberals, does not accuse his Government either of 
 violence or of sinister designs ; but he does charge the 
 personnel of the Curia, the directing forces of certain 
 religious orders, and the representatives of political reaction 
 in France, with mis-managing French catholic affairs, and 
 sacrificing the vital interests of the church to their own 
 political aims and methods. Among those methods, he 
 makes a special reference to 'delation', which I have 
 already branded as perhaps the greatest scourge among the 
 French clergy, and the gravest blot in the present ecclesias- 
 tical system. 2 
 
 On one point only do I venture to dissent from the 
 opinions of ' A French Catholic ' ; not in his facts, but in 
 his forecast. He thinks the religious orders will carry 
 everything before them, and possess all that remains of 
 French Catholicism. I believe the orders may, and will, 
 give a great deal of trouble, both to moderate French 
 catholics and to the Government; but the same causes 
 which have produced and are producing defections from 
 the ministry, and a diminution of its numbers, will produce 
 similar results in the recruiting of the religious orders. 
 Education, in the long run, must tell. It is the key to the 
 
 1 The Times, February 28, and March 2, 1907. 
 8 Chapter X, section 9, p. 262.
 
 PREFACE xv 
 
 whole position. The liberals possessed themselves of this 
 key about twenty years ago. The results are that the Pope 
 cannot stir up a rebellion in the republic, as he could have 
 done in the second empire, and the numbers of clergy are 
 falling off. In like manner, as I think, the numbers of the 
 Congregation will decline, though the papacy is likely 
 to depend more and more upon the declining religious 
 orders, until it ceases to have any intellectual or political 
 influence in a progressive world. 
 
 There is one other matter outstanding in the quarrel 
 between France and the Vatican, and it is worth con- 
 sidering. The papacy is, among other things, a diplomatic 
 organization. Its chief prizes have hitherto gone very 
 largely to diplomatists. The Pope sends out his nuncios, 
 as other sovereigns send out their ambassadors. They claim 
 all the rights and immunities of ambassadors ; but they also 
 claim, and exercise, functions which would not be tolerated 
 for a day in other diplomatic agents. Not so long ago, 
 a British ambassador had to leave Washington for expressing 
 an opinion about American party politics. But what should 
 we think or do if, let us say, the German ambassador in 
 London manipulated the War Office or the Admiralty, and 
 practically managed all the high appointments. That is 
 what the Papal nuncio did in Paris, in the Department of 
 Public Worship, and he intrigued in various other depart- 
 ments of the public service. Under the pretence and cover 
 of diplomacy, he meddled, on behalf of the papacy, with 
 French subjects and the internal concerns of France. When 
 relations were broken off, and there was no longer a 
 nunciature, an agent of the papacy still remained in Paris, 
 and the proceedings of this unrecognized nuncio went on 
 as usual. That is the case of Monsignor Montagnini, about 
 whose papers the Vatican is making such an outcry. 
 Neither he nor his documents had any rights, nor any 
 official position, nor any immunity by diplomatic usage. 
 He was in the position of an ambassador who refused to go 
 after the rupture of relations and the declaration of war. 
 An ordinary ambassador in such a case would be liable 
 to the usual treatment of a spy. It is, surely, not exces-
 
 xvi PEEFACE 
 
 sive that Monsignor Montagnini should be conducted to 
 the frontier, and that documents which have no right 
 to exist should be seized by the Government of a country 
 whose territory and hospitality have been violated. It 
 remains to be seen what the documents may reveal. From 
 the denials and the evident anxiety of the Vatican, it is 
 probable that they contain some damaging exposures.
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 IN drawing up the following list, I have not proposed 
 to give a bibliography of French historians or of French 
 literature. 
 
 I mention a few general historians of France, who may 
 give pleasure to those who have not read them, and I wish 
 to draw particular attention to the admirable Histoire 
 de France, edited by M. Lavisse, which is now almost 
 finished. 
 
 I have not given authorities for the matters treated 
 before the eighteenth century, as my earlier chapters are 
 only preludes to the main subject of the essay. In the 
 eighteenth century itself, I have put aside all those delight- 
 ful Memoires and Correspondances, which are indispensable 
 for really understanding the history, and which are the 
 most delightful reading in the world, especially the volumes 
 of Correspondance in M. Moland's monumental thick -paper 
 edition of Voltaire. 
 
 I have kept studiously away from the interminable 
 Napoleonic literature which is so dangerous to enter, and 
 so difficult to leave. I have mentioned only one Napoleonic 
 book, the brilliant essay by Prince Napoleon, Napoleon et 
 ses de'tracteurs. I don't accept his presentation of Napoleon 
 unreservedly, but his exposure of Taine's methods should 
 certainly be read. The Life of Napoleon still remains to 
 be written. In English, we have some reliable accounts 
 of him, but no biography that is readable, except Lord 
 Eosebery's fascinating fragment. 
 
 In the bibliography, then, I have aimed solely at giving 
 a list of books which may serve to illustrate the later 
 portion of my essay, especially with reference to ecclesias- 
 tical affairs and personages. 
 
 My readers will see how largely I am indebted to 
 
 b
 
 xviii BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 
 
 M. Debidour's two volumes, L'Histoire des Rapports de 
 I'figlise et de Vfitat en France de 1789 a 1870 and L'figlise 
 catholique et Vtat sous la Troisieme R6publique (1870-1889). 
 I look forward with pleasure to his promised third volume, 
 which is to continue the subject to the Separation. I am 
 only sorry the volume was not available for my essay. 
 I have quoted M. Debidour so frequently for several reasons, 
 which seem to me good. In the first place, his volumes 
 are a strong, clear, impartial presentation of the whole 
 period from 1789 to 1889, based on an almost exhaustive 
 reading. Secondly, by confining my quotations rigorously 
 to M. Debidour, I avoided a danger and a difficulty which 
 are both obvious in the case of a writer who was strictly 
 limited by considerations of space. Thirdly, by so limit- 
 ing myself I trust that I have served the convenience 
 of my readers. If they wish to test me, they have only 
 to consult M. Debidour ; and if they desire to explore 
 farther, they cannot enter the wide field of French history 
 under a sounder or a more learned guide. 
 
 In conclusion, I venture to borrow once more from 
 M. Debidour, by quoting the end of the Preface to his 
 earlier volume. ' J'ai dit la verite, sans reticence, et sans 
 faiblesse. S'il y a dans cet ouvrage des inexactitudes (et 
 je n'ose pas croire qu'il en soit exempt) elles sont involon- 
 taires, et je serai heureux qu'on me les signale. On pourra 
 contester ma sagacite ; mais personne, je 1'espere, ne doutera 
 de ma sincerite.' 
 
 LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 ' Histoire de France ' : Michelet. 
 
 ' Histoire de France ' : Guizot. 5 vols., 4to, 1877. 
 
 ' Histoire de France ' : Henri Martin. 
 
 ' Histoire de France ' : Lavisse. 
 
 ' History of France ' : Dean Kitchin. 
 
 ' CEuvres ' : De Tocqueville. 
 
 ' Histoire du Regne de Louis XVI ' : Droz. 
 
 ' Travels in France ' : Arthur Young.
 
 LIST OF BOOKS xix 
 
 ' La France et le Grand Schisme ' : N. Valois. 
 
 ' Les Originee de la France Contemporaine ' : Taine. 
 
 ' Le Cardinal de Bernis ' : F. Masson. 
 
 ' Talleyrand ' : Memoires. 5 vols. 
 
 'Talleyrand, eveque d'Autun ' : Lacombe. 
 
 ' Souvenirs Intimes sur M. de Talleyrand ' : Pichot. 
 
 1 M. de Talleyrand ' : Sainte-Beuve. 
 
 1 Essai sur Talleyrand ' : Lytton Bulwer. 
 
 ' Talleyrand ' : McCabe. 
 
 ' Correspondance de Talleyrand avec Louis XVIII.' 
 
 ' L'Esprit Revolutionnaire avant la Revolution ' : Rocquain. 
 
 ' L'Etat de la France au 18 Brumaire : ' Rocquain. 
 
 ' La Societe Fran$aise pendant le Consulat ' : Stenger. 
 
 ' Discours et Opinions ' : Mirabeau. 
 
 'Revolution': 'Consulat': 'Empire': Thiers. 
 
 ' Histoire de la Revolution Francaise ' : Michelet. 
 
 ' Histoire du Pape Pie VII ' : Artaud. 
 
 ' Memoires ' : Consalvi. 
 
 ' Memoires ' : Pacca. 
 
 ' Recollections of the Last Four Popes ' : Wiseman. 
 
 ' Le Pape et 1'Empereur ' : Welschinger. 
 
 ' Le Concordat ' : Le Cardinal Mathieu. 
 
 ' L'Ancien Regime en Lorraine ' : Le Cardinal Mathieu. 
 
 ' Histoire de la Constitution Civile du Clerge ' : Sciout. 
 
 'Repertoire Biographique de 1'Episcopat Constitutionnel ' : 1791- 
 
 1802. Pisani. 
 
 ' Les Quatre Concordats ' : De Pradt. 
 
 ' Easai Historique sur les Libertes de 1'^glise Gallicane ' : Gregoire. 
 ' L'Eglise et la Revolution ' : E. de Pressense. 
 ' La Revolution ' : Quinet. 
 'Du Pape' : J. de Maistre. 
 ' CEuvres ' : De Lamennais. 
 ' CEuvres ' : Paul Louis Courier. 
 'CEuvres': Beranger. 
 ' Les Jesuites ' : Genin. 
 ' Ou 1'Eglise ou 1'^tat ' : Genin. 
 ' L'Expulsion des Jesuites ' : Martin. 
 ' Le Clericalisme ' : Depasse. 
 ' Le Clericalisme ' : Paul Bert. 
 ' La Morale des Jesuites ' : Paul Bert. 
 ' Discours ' : Paul Bert. 
 ' Lettres Provinciales ' : Pascal. 
 ' Discours ' : Portalis. 
 'Memoires': Montlosier. 
 ' La Congregation ' : Grandmaison. 
 ' La Congregation ' : Brisson.
 
 xx LIST OF BOOKS 
 
 ' Association et Congregation ' : Waldeck-Eousseau. 
 
 ' Histoire du Second Empire ' : De la Gorce. 
 
 ' L'Empire Liberal ' : Ollivier. 
 
 ' L'Eglise et 1'Etat au Concile du Vatican ' : Ollivier. 
 
 ' True History of the Vatican Council ' : Manning. 
 
 ' The Pope and the Council ' : Janus. 
 
 ' La Papaute ' : Dollinger. 
 
 1 Letters on Vatican Decrees ' : Dollinger. 
 
 ' Chapters in European History ' : Dollinger. 
 
 ' Le Secret de 1'Empereur ' : Thouvenel. 
 
 4 Le Vatican ' : Goyau. 
 
 ' Letter to the Duke of Norfolk ' : Newman. 
 
 ' Life of Cardinal Manning ' : Purcell. 
 
 NapoWonlH': Blot. 
 
 ' Souvenirs du Second Empire ' : De Cassagnac. 
 
 4 Memoires du Second Empire ' : Maupas. 
 
 ' Jeunesse de Napoleon III ' : Stlfane-Pol. 
 
 ' CEuvres ' : Napoleon III. 
 
 ' Dupanloup ' : Lagrange. 
 
 ' Victor Duruy ' : Lavisse. 
 
 ' Notes et Souvenirs ': Duruy. 
 
 ' Montalembert ' : De Meaux. 
 
 ' Monsignor Freppel ' : Ricard. 
 
 ' Histoire du Cardinal Pie ' : Baunard. 
 
 ' Histoire de la Trance Contemporaine ' : Hanotaux 
 
 ' Le Gouvernement de M. Thiers ' : J. Simon. 
 
 ' M. Thiers ' : De Mazade. 
 
 'Gambetta': Depasse. 
 
 ' Le Ministere Gambetta ' : J. Reinach. 
 
 ' Discours ' : Jules Ferry. 
 
 ' Joachim Pecci ' : Henri des Houx. 
 
 ' Souvenirs d'un Journaliste ' : Henri des Houx. 
 
 4 Guerre au Papisme ' : Henri des Houx. 
 
 ' Rome ' : Zola. 
 
 ' Leon XIII d'apres ses Encycliques ' : D'Arros. 
 
 ' Autour de la Politique de Leon XIII ' : Boudin. 
 
 4 Leon XIII Intime ' : Narfou. 
 
 ' Lettres Encycliques de Leon XIII.' 
 
 ' Lettres Encycliques de Pie IX, Gregoire XVI, Pie VII, Pie VI.' 
 
 ' Lourdes et ses Tenanciers ' : Bonnefon. 
 
 ' L'Arsenal de la Devotion ' : Paul Parfait. 
 
 4 Le Dossier des Pelerinages ' : Paul Parfait. 
 
 4 La Foire au Reliques ' : Paul Parfait. 
 
 ' L' Affaire Dreyfus ' : J. Reinach. 
 
 4 The Dreyfus Case ' : Conybeare. 
 
 ' L'Eglise de France sous la Troisieme Republique ' : Lecannet.
 
 LIST OF BOOKS xxi 
 
 ' La France Noire : ' Desachy. 
 
 ' L'Eglise et la Republique ' : Anatole France. 
 
 ' Supplique d'un Groupe de Catholiques Francais au Pape Pie X ': Anon. 
 
 ' Les Le9ons de la Defaite ' : Abbe de Bonnefoy. 
 
 ' Pourquoi les Catholiques ont perdu la Bataille ' : Abbe Naudet. 
 
 ' Catbolicisme et Critique ' : Desjardins. 
 
 ' La Reforme Intellectuelle du Clerge ' : Saintyves. 
 
 ' Les Catholiques ' : Peccadut. 
 
 ' Modern Rome in Modern England ' : Philip Sidney. 
 
 ' La France ' : J. C. Bodley. 
 
 1 La Separation de 1'tfglise et de 1'^Itat en 1794 ' : Champion. 
 
 ' La France d'apres les Cahiers de 1789 ' : Champion. 
 
 ' L'^lglise et I'll! tat au xviii 8 Siecle ' : Crousaz-Cretet. 
 
 'L'^ducation Morale et Civique avant et pendant la Revolution': 
 
 Abbe Sicard. 
 
 ' Church of France ' : Jervis. 2 vols. 
 ' Gallican Church and Revolution ' : Jervis. 1 vol. 
 ' Disestablishment in France ' : Sabatier.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 1 
 
 I. THE ORIGINS OF GALLICANISM ..... 9 
 
 1. Philip the Fair and Boniface .... 9 
 
 2. The Schism and the Councils .... 15 
 
 3. The Pragmatic of Bourges .... 18 
 
 4. The Concordat of Bologna .... 19 
 
 II. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 22 
 
 1. The Keformation 23 
 
 2. The Kenaissance ...... 24 
 
 3. The Council of Trent 25 
 
 4. The Society of Jesus 27 
 
 5. The New Komanism ..... 32 
 
 III. GALLICANISM 36 
 
 1. The Four Articles . . . . . . .36 
 
 2. The Galilean Church of the Eighteenth Century 41 
 
 IV. THE KEVOLUTION 59 
 
 1. The Keformation of the Old Regime . . 59 
 
 2. La Constitution Civile du Clerge .... 78 
 
 3. The Counter-Revolution 93 
 
 4. Talleyrand 108 
 
 V. THE CONCORDAT OF 1802 115 
 
 1. The Constructive Work of the Revolution . 115 
 
 2. Napoleon and Italy . . . . . .120 
 
 3. The Negotiation of the Concordat . . . 125 
 
 4. Pius the Seventh 139 
 
 VI. THE RESTORATION 144 
 
 VII. Louis PHILIPPE 158 
 
 VIII. THE SECOND REPUBLIC 167 
 
 IX. THE SECOND EMPIRE 181
 
 xxiv CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 X. THE THIRD KEPUBLIC 201 
 
 1. National Defence 201 
 
 2. Thiers and the Commune ..... 205 
 
 3. MacMahon 218 
 
 4. The Kepublic : Education ; the Keligious Orders 232 
 
 5. Pius the Ninth and Leo the Thirteenth . . 242 
 
 6. Dreyfus: Nationalism . . . . .247 
 
 7. The Kepublican Eally 250 
 
 8. Separation 253 
 
 9. Conclusion 259 
 
 APPENDIX. Loi DU 9 DECEMBKE 1905 .... 269 
 
 INDEX . 285
 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE AND THE 
 CHURCH IN FRANCE FROM 1300-1907 
 
 THE subject of this volume is the relation between the 
 State and the church in France. The matters which we 
 are to consider have occupied about six hundred years of 
 stirring and eventful history. They begin with the reign 
 of Philip the Fourth, and they end, so far as the present 
 volume is concerned, with the official Separation between 
 the Roman See and the French republic. The history of 
 their connexion brings before us the two most interesting 
 and influential factors in the evolution of mediaeval and 
 modern Europe. Without the romantic splendours of the 
 papacy, European history would lose much of its pic- 
 turesqueness, many of its most striking figures, a great deal 
 of its worst crime, and the larger part of its comedy. The 
 history of France is the most attractive and chivalrous, and 
 in some ways the most important, since the Hellenistic 
 civilization and the Roman empire disappeared. We may 
 remember, too, with pride and pleasure, how closely for many 
 centuries French history was interwoven with our own. 
 It was doubtful for several generations whether England 
 was to be a province in some Angevin or Norman empire, 
 or whether English kings were to rule in Paris. Our early 
 wars with France were mere family quarrels among 
 branches of the same ruling House. French was the official 
 tongue of Court and Government. Such architecture and 
 civilization as we had were French in form and spirit. 
 Many of the chief actors in our history would have been 
 puzzled to say if they were descended from Scandinavians 
 who had come here through what is now modern Germany, 
 or from Scandinavians who had been settled and civilized 
 in France. We have, then, more than the interest of 
 
 B
 
 2 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 strangers and aliens in the events of French, history. 
 Without presuming to interfere as partizans in matters of 
 French politics, we may profess the liveliest interest and 
 sympathy in all that concerns the French people, who are 
 not only our kinsmen but our closest friends. 
 
 But no question in which the papacy is involved can be 
 a domestic matter, or be the concern of any single govern- 
 ment. The Roman Curia not only admits, it asserts, that 
 it is an international organization. Its procedure towards 
 any one nation must be taken as a precedent for its dealing 
 with them all. Every nation, therefore, is interested in the 
 present quarrel between the papacy and the French re- 
 public, and has not only the right but the duty to under- 
 stand it. That quarrel is not so much between the State 
 and the church, or between the French government and 
 the French episcopate, as between the French nation and 
 the Court of Rome. Its causes go far back into French 
 history, and its course has been determined by the logical 
 and consistent evolution of the papacy. 
 
 If we would understand the existing position, we must 
 begin by a brief examination of the past. French Chris- 
 tianity goes back to the times when Gaul was a Roman 
 province ; but all the evidence shows that the earliest 
 Christians were Hellenistic Jews, and that the new teach- 
 ing came directly from the east. The name of Irenaeus 
 illustrates the ecclesiastical history of Gaul ; the martyrs of 
 Vienne and Lyons prove the traditional valour of its in- 
 habitants. Very little, however, is known definitely of 
 early Christianity, either in Gaul or elsewhere. That it 
 came from Syria, and began as a Jewish schism, is the 
 traditional account, and possibly it is true. That it ab- 
 sorbed a great deal of Hellenistic thought and Italian 
 superstition is demonstrable. That it had various rivals, 
 also of Asiatic origin, which ran it very closely, is now 
 admitted. But Christianity, in Gaul and Britain, is mingled 
 inextricably with the earlier Celtic religions ; as it is every- 
 where with survivals of prehistoric and naturalistic beliefs. 
 Little, perhaps, can now be added to the history of what is 
 called the church, that is to the political and social aspects
 
 INTRODUCTORY 3 
 
 of the Christian organizations ; but the evolution of Chris- 
 tian theology, or the real history of the Christian origins, 
 still remains for some future enquirer to explore. That 
 which the French did not know about their ecclesiastical 
 history was imagined for them by mediaeval chroniclers. 
 
 Lazarus and his sisters came to Marseilles, and he ended 
 his life in Gaul, if we may use that phrase of a man 
 whose lives and deaths are so unlike those of other people. 
 Denys the Areopagite wandered to Paris, and became the 
 national Saint. These legends, however, and others like 
 them, though so familiar to mediaeval ecclesiastics, were 
 unknown to the age of Ausonius and Sidonius Apollinaris, 
 when some vestiges of scholarship still remained, and men 
 were nearer to the supposed beginnings of Christianity. 
 As England indulged its pious vanity with Joseph of 
 Arimathaea, we need not grudge Lazarus to France and to 
 the see of Autun, where he became the predecessor of 
 M. de Talleyrand. 
 
 French ecclesiastical history really begins in those dark 
 ages which followed the break up of the western empire. 
 In those dim and terrible centuries, a church was built up 
 in the ruined province of Gaul by missionary bishops and 
 colonizing monks. The former inherited and preserved 
 whatever was left of Roman organization. The latter 
 began the re-settlement and cultivation of the wasted 
 country. To no single body of men, perhaps, does early 
 Europe owe more than to the Benedictines. Under the 
 Roman empire, the church had been a civil institution: 
 under the Barbarians, it became a feudal and military 
 organization. Bishops were not only magistrates but 
 warriors. The sword and the crozier were in the same 
 hand : mitres and casques were on the same head. Church 
 towers were beacons, and conventual buildings were for- 
 tresses. The new society was military. Its chiefs were 
 conquerors. Its people were soldiers. The nation was the 
 army. Organization was feudal : that is, it was based on 
 military service, on the tenure and defence of land. It was 
 under these conditions that the Gallican church emerged 
 out of the disorders which lasted from the fifth century to 
 
 B 2
 
 4 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 the ninth ; and the character which was then stamped on 
 its form and fabric endured long after the spirit of feudalism 
 was dead : it lasted, indeed, with increasing abuses and 
 diminished usefulness, until the hour of retribution in 1789. 
 The mediaeval church was literally the church militant, 
 and that aspect of it must never be forgotten by those who 
 wish to understand the evolution of the papacy. 
 
 Though the bishopric of Rome was influential and strong, 
 even towards the end of the second century, the papacy, as 
 we understand it now, did not exist in the time of the 
 Roman emperors. The attempted claims of the papacy 
 were repudiated, so far as they were known, by all the 
 Fathers. The Bishop of Rome was one among several great 
 patriarchs: as he was bishop of the imperial metropolis, 
 he was the leading one. It was in the decadence of the 
 empire, when the Barbarians were threatening Rome itself, 
 that Leo the First and his entourage formulated the pre- 
 rogatives of Peter and the claim to his succession. "When 
 the western empire fell, the Bishop of Rome, in default 
 of other authorities, took over the administration of the 
 City and its environs: that proceeding was entirely nor- 
 mal, and in accordance with the functions of bishops under 
 the empire. At the same time, he acknowledged, as was 
 right, the jurisdiction of the emperors in Constantinople ; 
 he ruled as a delegate, and not as a sovereign. As late as 
 Gregory the First, the patriarchal jurisdiction of the Roman 
 bishops was asserted, and the title of universal bishop was 
 repudiated. In reproving the ambitions of his rival at 
 Constantinople, Gregory condemned the usurpations of his 
 successors in Rome. But everything was working for the 
 invention of a papacy, especially in the west. The Bar- 
 barian invaders were settling down as military occupiers of 
 their conquests. They were envying and copying what 
 remained of the imperial organization, of which the bishops 
 were the only surviving representatives. Moreover, mis- 
 sionary enterprises were being pushed among the new 
 peoples. The missionaries, in many cases, were sent from 
 Rome ; and in all cases, they had recourse to the Roman 
 patriarch for advice and help. The new and struggling
 
 INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 churches depended largely on the more settled church of 
 Rome. The missionaries, also, who were often monks, relied 
 more on the Pope than on the local bishops. Disputes 
 between monasteries and bishops, or between bishops and 
 their metropolitans, were referred to the patriarchal See ; 
 as were differences between ecclesiastics and the secular 
 authorities, or between one ruler and another. Thus there 
 grew up a habit of appeal to Rome ; and the courtesies of 
 one age' were hardened into the customs of another, which 
 were enforced by law, and fortified by spurious documents. 
 The genuine decretals and letters of the Roman bishops 
 were increased by forgeries, which magnified the papal 
 jurisdiction ; and, out of all these circumstances and ele- 
 ments, the mediaeval papacy emerged. The unity of the 
 nations and the authority of Rome were developed by the 
 resuscitation of the imperial office. At first, the Popes 
 were subjects of the Frankish emperors, as they had been 
 of the genuine Caesars. By degrees, they became in theory 
 their superiors. The real gifts of Pepin and Charlemagne 
 inspired the fable of Constantino's donation. The arms of 
 the Normans and the legacy of the Countess Matilda 
 increased the Pope's dominions : and thus the States of the 
 Church came into being, and the theory of temporal power 
 assumed a concrete form. Neither the donation of Constan- 
 tino nor the Petrine claims will bear a critical investigation ; 
 but these legends had a momentous influence in the child- 
 hood of the mediaeval world. 
 
 The victories of the papacy, however, were not won with- 
 out strenuous fighting. Gregory the Seventh, in the eleventh 
 century, conceived and initiated the papal monarchy. He 
 may be said to have feudalized the church : that is to say. 
 he applied to the church the analogy of the feudal system. 
 An ecclesiastical State was formed alongside, and even 
 within, the secular State. Of that organization the Pope 
 was head. He sent out his legates into all countries. He 
 encouraged, and when he could enforced, appeals to Rome. 
 He asserted rights of ecclesiastical taxation and patronage. 
 The jurisdiction of the bishops was curtailed : the monks 
 first, and then the friars, were exempted from episcopal
 
 6 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 control and subjected only to the Pope. The monasteries 
 became a papal army of occupation in every country ; and 
 the friars from the first were an international militia for 
 the papacy. The secular clergy were withdrawn from the 
 jurisdiction of the common law, and were subject only to 
 the ecclesiastical courts ; and the term 'clergy' was extended 
 far beyond those who exercised ministerial functions, so as 
 to include a large body of the population. 
 
 This ecclesiastical State, for it was nothing less, reached 
 its culmination under Innocent the Third, who realized every- 
 thing which Gregory the Seventh had planned. The papacy 
 grew up under the shadow of the empire. Its evolution 
 was only possible as a deduction from the imperial theory. 
 As long as men acknowledged one civil over-lord, or one 
 temporal head, who was the sole representative of human 
 sovereignty, it was natural that they should accept the 
 possibility of one spiritual chief, the centre and symbol of 
 ecclesiastical unity. The civil power is really the cause of 
 Roman catholic cohesion. Even in modern times, with all 
 the divisions of existing Christendom, the uniformity of the 
 Roman church has only been maintained, and that with 
 difficulty, through the influence of the papal diplomacy on 
 the various governments. That is why Rome clings so 
 tenaciously to Concordats, which weigh so heavily on the 
 national churches. That is also why Rome dreads such 
 movements as Americanism, and detests even to hear of 
 a free church in a free State. By undermining first, and 
 then by overthrowing, the imperial supremacy, the Popes 
 seemed to have won a final victory, and to be masters of the 
 world; but their triumph carried with it, inevitably, the 
 seeds of retribution and defeat. The mediaeval papacy of 
 Innocent the Third fell to pieces in less than a century 
 under Boniface the Eighth. There had been a premature 
 Renaissance in the twelfth century, especially in France,, 
 and through the genius of Abelard. Scholasticism was 
 assailed with wit, and with such scholarship as was attain- 
 able. Theology never quite recovered from that first and 
 brilliant attack. Among Abelard's pupils was Arnold of 
 Brescia, who carried the fire of his master into Italy, and
 
 INTRODUCTORY 7 
 
 used it to revive Italian patriotism, and to attack the abuses 
 of the papal government. The study of Roman law had 
 also been revived at Padua ; and, under that splendid fabric 
 of jurisprudence, the notion of lay rights and lay society 
 was restored to western Europe. Our modern nations were 
 also taking form. Their monarchies were consolidating, 
 at the expense of feudalism on one side, and at the expense 
 of the papacy on another. In our own country, Henry the 
 Second lost his battle against clerical privilege ; and that 
 abuse went on growing till the sixteenth century, when it 
 became no longer tolerable. King John fell even lower, 
 and made himself a vassal of the Holy See, accepting his 
 crown from Innocent the Third, and subjecting his kingdom 
 to a tribute. 
 
 But, when the monarchy revived, barriers were set up 
 against the encroachments of the papacy, both in spiritual 
 and temporal affairs. The same process went on in France. 
 Indeed, the French kings were more strenuous than our 
 own in resisting papal usurpations. Philip Augustus, in 
 his contests with Innocent the Third, never sank to the 
 degradation of King John. Saint Louis, in spite of his 
 piety, never gave way to papal aggressions. Indeed, by 
 virtue of his pious reputation, he made a better fight than 
 many violent and lawless kings. He stood always on the 
 firm ground of morality and justice, and so carried public 
 opinion with him. The misfortune is that so few pious 
 sovereigns can be trusted to oppose clerical manoauvres. 
 Our own Henry the Third is a warning. Saint Louis, how- 
 ever, was as unbending as his grandson Philip the Fourth. 
 the Fair. Under this great king, ecclesiastical matters came 
 to a crisis ; and, in many ways, his reign begins a new era. 
 He resisted firmly the growing papal usurpations of taxation 
 and patronage. The Popes not only claimed the right to 
 tax national churches at their will, but they forbad church- 
 men to pay taxes to the civil government. Both claims, if 
 allowed, would have dissolved civil society, and have made 
 government impossible. Both claims, also, are a perfectly 
 logical deduction from the premisses of Gregory the Seventh 
 and Innocent the Third. The papal claims are incompatible
 
 8 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 with any rival or independent sovereignty ; and Innocent 
 was only carrying his theories to their necessary conclusion 
 when he declared some sovereigns his vassals and all his 
 subjects. The theories of Innocent, however, could no 
 longer be realized. The laity had become educated. The 
 civil law had become a strong and organized profession. 
 The servants of Philip the Fair could meet the ecclesiastics 
 on their own ground, and beat them. It was a battle of 
 Bulls and Pragmatics, as between the Pope and the King. 
 It was also a battle of the laity for a voice and position in 
 matters of government. The laity won ; and the State, as 
 we conceive of it now, began to be revived after its long 
 burial under the ruins of the Roman empire. Philip the 
 Fourth and his ministers have thus a great importance in 
 the evolution of modern society. As an immediate con- 
 sequence of the strife, Boniface the Eighth closed his reign 
 in ignominy and violence : ' He went out like a dog.' His 
 successor was removed to Avignon. For many years, the 
 Popes were instruments of the French kings ; and when 
 they were re-established in Rome, after the Great Schism, 
 they were little more than Italian princes, intriguing with 
 and against their neighbours for territory in the Peninsula. 
 With Boniface the Eighth the mediaeval papacy ends, as 
 with Philip the Fair the modern State begins. And these 
 events must be the starting-point of our enquiry.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE ORIGINS OF GALLICANISM 
 1. PHILIP THE FAIR AND BONIFACE THE EIGHTH. 
 
 GALLICANISM was not, as is too often thought, an invention 
 of Louis the Fourteenth, or of Bossuet ; a courtier's theology, 
 designed to match the new absolutism, a theological decora- 
 tion added to the other splendours of Versailles. It is the 
 embodiment and expression of that dislike, even among 
 churchmen, for those ultramontane theories against which 
 the French nation has always protested throughout the long 
 course of its history. Gallicanism in the church is the 
 counterpart of nationalism or patriotism in the State ; and, 
 as was natural, it became more definite when the French 
 monarchy and people began to realize their national aspira- 
 tions. As the theory of the empire denied all complete 
 sovereignty, except that of the emperor himself, so the 
 papal theory sterilizes all initiative and stifles all genuine 
 vitality in a national church. The Popes themselves 
 shattered the mediaeval empire, so far as it had ever been 
 a reality ; and they aimed at the domination of Christen- 
 dom, not only in spirituals, but in temporals, by reducing 
 the European sovereigns to vassalage. Their aim was to 
 mediatize the kings ; but their policy reacted against them- 
 selves, by bringing the papacy into collision, both in practice 
 and theory, with the expanding and centralizing monarchies 
 of the twelfth century. 
 
 After a long period of friction, in other countries as well 
 as in France, these inevitable differences reached their 
 crisis at the end of the thirteenth century and the opening 
 of the fourteenth. Even Louis the Ninth, with all his 
 piety, was a firm upholder of the royal prerogative and 
 the Gallican liberties. A Pragmatic Sanction of 1268 is 
 attributed to him, which restrained the encroachments of
 
 10 CHURCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 the papacy in matters of ecclesiastical property and 
 appellate jurisdiction ; both of which were impoverishing 
 the church and the realm. "Whether this document be 
 genuine or spurious, there is no doubt as to the policy he 
 maintained. The French clergy remembered well that they 
 had once been free from these exactions, and they were 
 bent on recovering their old freedom. The protagonists in 
 the quarrel were Philip the Fourth and Boniface the Eighth. 
 Both of them have been described in harsh and violent 
 words by partizans of either side. Perhaps in both cases, 
 the colouring has been too dark, and the atmosphere too 
 lurid. As to Philip, his minister, William of Nogaret, 
 wrote about him as follows : 
 
 ' Our Lord the King is of that race of the sovereigns 
 of France who have all of them, since the days of Pepin, 
 been religious men, zealous champions of the faith, and 
 vigorous defenders of Holy Mother Church. . . . He has 
 always been, before, during, and after his marriage, chaste 
 and humble, modest in look and speech. He never gets 
 angry. He neither hates nor envies any one ; and loves the 
 whole world. He is full of kindliness and charity. He 
 is pious, merciful, and is always just and truthful. He is 
 no detractor. . . . He is handsome in features and charm- 
 ing in expression, of delightful manners to everybody, even 
 to his enemies when they are with him.' l Another con- 
 temporary said of him, ' He is the handsomest man in the 
 world, but he can only stare at people without talking. He 
 is neither a human being nor even a beast, but only a statue.' 2 
 
 It was a common accusation that he was in the hands 
 of his advisers, who led him blindly; that he was only 
 a majestic figure-head. From all this, we may infer that 
 he was not a violent or an impulsive ruler: but, at any 
 rate, he chose his ministers himself ; choosing wisely, since 
 his conflict was with the clergy, lawyers, and self-made 
 men, so that law and reason was on his side and he carried 
 the middle classes with him. Benedict Gaetani, afterwards 
 Boniface the Eighth, was born at Anagni, a place dominated 
 
 1 Lavisse, Histoire de France, tome iii. 2, p. 120. 2 Ibid. p. 121.
 
 PHILIP THE FAIR AND BONIFACE THE EIGHTH 11 
 
 by his family. He was a nephew of Alexander the Fourth, 
 brought up in the Curia, beneficed, employed in papal 
 diplomacy, made rich by fees and salaries. Out of his 
 emoluments, he acquired a large estate among the Volscian 
 hills. He has been accused of every crime which has been 
 attributed even to a Pope. His unbelief and his immorality, 
 though not proven, are not incredible ; but he was certainly 
 ambitious, probably simoniacal, and beyond any doubt 
 violent in speech and temper. At the height of his power, 
 he seems to have lost all modesty and balance. He was 
 ' God-intoxicated ' ; not in the sense of Spinoza, but of 
 Caligula. He became Pope in 1294, after the sinister 
 episode of Celestine the Fifth's election and resignation. 
 Now the Popes owed much to the French kings, especially 
 in their Italian policy ; and the sovereigns of the House of 
 Capet had earned their precedence as Eldest Sons of the 
 Church ; but the papal theory was fragile, and might burst 
 easily if inflated. Boniface inflated it beyond the bursting 
 point, so that Gallicanism ran out and then solidified. 
 
 The first quarrel was over money. The successors of 
 Innocent the Third had claimed a right to tax the national 
 clergies, and to usurp patronage. Boniface went farther, 
 and asserted that the clergy had no power to grant supplies 
 to their sovereigns without leave of the Pope. The results 
 of such a claim need not be set forth. They are self- 
 evident ; and they were all the more serious in times when 
 the temporalities of ecclesiastics were an indispensable part 
 of the military system. This claim was a natural extension 
 of the older papal demand about Investitures. In 1294 
 Philip was at war with England, and his clergy voted him 
 a tenth, as they also did in 1296. The Cistercians, being 
 the most wealthy order, complained the most ; and Boniface 
 issued the Bull Clericis Laicos, forbidding all secular 
 authorities to require or receive any extra subsidies from 
 the clergy, and forbidding the clergy to pay them without 
 the Pope's approval. Philip's answer was to forbid the 
 export of money, which impoverished the Roman Court. 
 The French clergy, indeed, feared a worse result ; for the 
 arch-bishop of Rheims and his suffragans wrote to the Pope,
 
 12 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 saying they were bound, both by the tenure of their fiefs 
 and by their oaths, to aid in defending the monarchy. 
 They added that the king threatened to withdraw his pro- 
 tection, without which neither their lives nor their property 
 would be safe, and that the policy of Boniface would ruin 
 the church. 1 "We may remember that Edward the First, 
 equally affected by the Bull, resorted to the same weapons 
 of defence, and that his threat to out-law his clergy pro- 
 duced the supplies he wanted. As the Pope was not 
 supported by the national clergies, he was forced to yield, 
 and he explained away his previous utterance by the 
 Encyclical Ineffdbilis Amor. 
 
 The most interesting and significant part of the whole 
 controversy is the assertion of lay rights which it produced. 
 There is a document in the records of the French Exchequer 
 which says 'Before there were any clergy, the Kings of 
 France had the guardianship of their kingdom, and the right 
 to legislate for its security. . . . Holy Mother Church, the 
 Bride of Christ, is not made up solely of clerics, the laity 
 also are members of her. It is not only for the clergy that 
 Christ was raised. . . . The clergy have as much interest as 
 laymen in the public safety ; because, if foreigners conquer 
 us, they will be equally spoiled and harmed.' 2 And then 
 the writer goes on to describe the clergy as 'fattened, gorged 
 and swelled by the generosity of princes, whom they will 
 not aid in their necessities.' (incrassati, impinguati, dilatati). 
 Even Boniface admits unconsciously the strength and 
 antiquity of lay feeling against the clergy. The first words 
 of his Bull are taken from Gratian, where it is written 
 Clericis laicos infestos oppido trad.it antiquitas. The grievance, 
 then, was old. It is the ability and resolution to deal with 
 it which distinguish the fourteenth century. The whole 
 episcopate of France, assembled in Paris, drew up a firmer 
 remonstrance to the Pope ; and this was followed by a third 
 Bull, Etsi de Statu, which withdrew the pretensions of the 
 Clericis Laicos. The first contest ended in the king's 
 favour ; and the renewed friendship was ratified by the 
 canonization of Louis the Ninth, Philip's grandfather. 
 1 Lavisse, iii. 2, p. 132. 2 ibid. p. 134.
 
 In 1300 Boniface proclaimed the first jubilee, though 
 certain old men of Rome, having had their hazy memories 
 cleared, related that they had heard, in their extreme 
 youth, vague rumours and echoes of a jubilee in 1200, as to 
 which there is no extant evidence. Thus the dotage of one 
 century, inspired by the first childhood of another, estab- 
 lished a precedent for the advantage of the Roman clergy. 
 Boniface filled his treasury, and lost his head, through the 
 celebrations of 1300. His next assertions of papal abso- 
 lutism surpassed all previous utterances, and were not 
 equalled again till the definitions of Pius the Ninth. In 
 the Bull Ausculta fili, he said the papacy was set by God 
 above all kings and kingdoms 'to build, to plant, to pull 
 down, and to destroy '. He asserted his right ' to use arms 
 against the King of France, the bow and the quiver '. For 
 the two powers had quarrelled again. To these vapour- 
 ings the king sent a dignified answer, saying that his 
 ancestors, who had built up the realm of France, after 
 winning it from the barbarians, owed their sovereignty to 
 God and not to the Pope. 1 Boniface replied by the noto- 
 rious Bull Unam Sanctam, which formulates the highest 
 claims of the papacy to dominate mankind in temporals as 
 well as spirituals. The Pope says, in brief, that the church 
 is a body with one head, not a monster with two ; that its 
 chief is Christ's Vicar, the successor of Peter ; that there 
 are two swords, the spiritual and temporal, both belong- 
 ing to the church. The spiritual sword is in the Pope's 
 hand : the temporal, in the power of kings ; but they can 
 only use it for the church, according to the will and con- 
 venience of the priesthood. Boniface, in conclusion, set 
 forth a pretension, which he issued as an article of belief. 
 ' We declare, assert, define and pronounce it necessary for 
 the salvation of every human being that he must yield 
 obedience to the Roman Pontiff.' After some hesitation, 
 since Philip was disheartened by the battle of Courtrai 
 (July 11, 1302), William of Nogaret was allowed to attempt 
 his plan of capturing the Pope, by means of his discontented 
 vassals in the Romagna, before whom the greatest pontiffs 
 1 Lavisse, iii. 2, p. 150.
 
 14 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 were generally impotent, even while they were humili- 
 ating emperors and kings. Boniface was surprised and 
 arrested at Anagni on September 7, 1303, and he died on 
 October 11. 
 
 The details of this event have been exaggerated, and 
 Dante has immortalized the exaggeration. A contemporary 
 says, ' The Lord Pope was neither bound, nor put in irons, 
 nor driven from the palace, but Nogaret kept him guarded 
 in his rooms with a numerous company/ x Personal outrage 
 seems to have amounted to a blow from Colonna's glove, 
 which was presumably a formal act renouncing fealty. 
 And thus the contest ended as between Philip and Boniface. 
 Renan says the extraordinary thing in this adventure is 
 that its results were permanent ; that the papacy fell under 
 this blow, and actually made reparation to the aggressor. 
 * Such a thing has only happened once ; and the victory of 
 Philip the Fair is an isolated fact in history.' "We might, 
 perhaps, urge that the policy of Henry the Eighth has been 
 permanent during nearly four centuries, and that his blow 
 was more staggering than the assault of Philip. Neverthe- 
 less, that mild and quiet sovereign obtained a solid victory 
 where greater men, like Barbarossa, Frederic the Second, 
 Henry the Second of England, had failed completely. 
 ' Obedience to the king in matters political was henceforth 
 absolute in the church of France, as it became later in 
 England. And everything seems to show that if urged the 
 Gallican church would have been obedient to Philip the 
 Fair, even as the Anglican church obeyed Henry the Eighth, 
 even to the point of schism.' 2 
 
 The relations between Philip the Fourth and the papacy 
 establish the antiquity and nature of Gallicanism, and so it 
 has been worth while to examine them in detail. They are 
 the real starting-point of our enquiry. The victory of 
 Philip, as we have said, brought the middle ages to a close, 
 in the sense that it displayed the failure of the mediaeval 
 papacy ; and that failure was a swift and just retribution 
 upon the destroyers of the imperial polity. The political 
 unity of Europe, so far as it had existed, was no longer 
 
 1 Lavisse, iii. 2, p. 165. * Ibid. p. 240.
 
 PHILIP THE FAIR AND BONIFACE THE EIGHTH 15 
 
 practicable ; but the ecclesiastical unity of Europe, as it 
 had been conceived through the empire, was equally im- 
 possible in a world of vigorous and conflicting nations. 
 The attempt to realize it led only to those frictions and 
 separations which are the inevitable consequences of a false 
 position. The Popes forgot that they could not have the 
 benefits without the realities of the Holy Roman Empire. 
 That empire was an attempt to consolidate and unite Europe 
 under a lay, though a theocratic, sovereignty. The Popes 
 aimed at capturing that sovereignty, and making it clerical. 
 By straining their jurisdiction, and mingling the two 
 spheres of politics and religion, they provoked a reaction, 
 in which the mediaeval papacy was wrecked. The church, 
 as Boniface said, is not a monster, and it has only one Head ; 
 but the error of the papacy has been that it has entangled 
 the church so inextricably in politics that every State, which 
 accepted the papal jurisdiction, has become of necessity 
 a monster with two heads; and history is a monotonous 
 record of the strife between them. It may also be recorded 
 here, as a coincidence, that Philip the Fair was not only 
 the first sovereign who resisted the Pope successfully, in the 
 cause of the growing nations ; but he was the first French 
 king who assembled the States General. By so doing, he 
 associated the nation with his policy; and he unites the 
 monarchical resistance to the papacy with that popular 
 resistance, which only germinated at the Revolution, but 
 which is the deciding factor of our own days in the long 
 battle with Romanism. That new papacy, which has been 
 evolved since the restoration of Pius the Seventh and the 
 revival of the Jesuits, is in conflict with a new social and 
 political order, which has been produced by the Revolution. 
 Education has now disseminated the ideals of 1789, and 
 they are consolidated in the minds and hearts of a large 
 and intelligent population. Against this bulwark the old 
 papal weapons are obsolete and harmless. 
 
 2. THE SCHISM AND THE COUNCILS. 
 
 The Bull Unam Sanctam led, not to a consolidation of the 
 papal monarchy, but to a collapse of the mediaeval papacy ;
 
 16 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 which, over and above this check, had to submit, more than 
 any other sovereignty, to a series of attempts at conciliar or 
 parliamentary control. After Boniface the Eighth, there 
 followed the ' captivity ' at Avignon, where the Popes lived 
 in splendour, though in dependence on the French kings. 
 The obvious effects of that dependence were most compro- 
 mising to the papal authority in other nations. France 
 underwent the invasions and disasters inflicted on her by 
 Edward the Third. Thanks to the wisdom of Charles the 
 Fifth, she regained her strength, and endured the strain 
 better than her invader. We should not delay over Charles 
 the Fifth, though he is the most interesting and perhaps 
 the most remarkable statesman of the fourteenth century. 
 "Weak and even defective in body, of necessity no soldier, 
 he held his position in an age of violence, and won more by 
 policy than his predecessors and contemporaries had ever 
 gained by war. His great palace of Saint Paul, with its 
 baths, and library, and chapel, and menagerie, and gardens, 
 was the admiration and wonder of his time. He was not 
 less devout than Saint Louis, and was even more zealous in 
 resisting papal breaches of the law. His resistance, and his 
 whole policy, were founded on a reverence for law, and 
 a hatred of tyranny, which is expressed finely and clearly 
 in the remarkable Songe die Verger. It would have been 
 well for the French monarchy and nation if all the successors 
 of King Charles had been imbued with his principles of 
 justice and moderation. The struggle against papal absolu- 
 tism and clerical preponderance would have been waged 
 with more success if the laity had always had leaders with 
 the high principles, the tactful policy, and the unassailable 
 character of Charles the Fifth (1360-1380). Those who 
 know little more of French history than the names of Crecy 
 and Poitiers, as the events connected with those names are 
 presented by English writers, cannot realize how Charles 
 restored his country, in spite of battles lost, while England 
 was being drained of blood and money ; but France was 
 raised up only to fall again, through faction and the weak- 
 ness of Charles the Sixth, which alone made possible the 
 unjustifiable campaigns and the deceptive conquests of
 
 THE SCHISM AND THE COUNCILS 17 
 
 Henry the Fifth. The reign of Charles the Sixth has been 
 described as ' the tomb of good laws and public morality '.* 
 
 Urban the Fifth returned to Rome in 1367, but left again 
 in 1370. Seven years later, Gregory the Eleventh also went 
 to Rome, and died the next year. Then came the Schism, 
 which produced two rival Popes, and finally three. The 
 various Popes and cardinals had their councils, and no one 
 could say where legitimate ecclesiastical authority was to be 
 found. At length, after difficulties and delays, a repre- 
 sentative council met at Constance in 1414. It decided that 
 the authority of the church in council was superior to Popes. 
 It proved that superiority by deposing all three Popes, and 
 electing Martin the Fifth. It enacted that councils should 
 meet frequently, to regulate the church. In fact, it tried 
 to make the papacy constitutional, and to establish a parlia- 
 ment of bishops ; but the matters to be dealt with were too 
 intricate, the various interests were too conflicting, the 
 episcopate was too scattered and divisible, for such a scheme 
 to work ; and the papal authority, by infinite patience and 
 unceasing diplomacy, managed to baffle the opposition, and 
 to reconstruct the church as an absolute monarchy, at the 
 disposal of the Roman Court, instead of as a constitutional 
 federation under the national episcopates. It played kings 
 against ecclesiastics, one episcopate against another, and the 
 regular clergy against them all. It knew how to divide, 
 and reign. The Popes feared councils for obvious reasons, 
 and hated reform because its chief victim would be the 
 Curia ; and the successors of Martin the Fifth impeded 
 both, until the storm fell on Leo the Tenth and Clement 
 the Seventh. 
 
 At Constance, besides dealing with the papacy, they burnt 
 Huss and Jerome of Prague. That mistaken policy aggra- 
 vated the evils it was meant to cure, and produced the 
 religious wars in Bohemia ; and that unity of the faith, 
 such as it was, which the mediaeval churches present to 
 superficial historians, was never again restored over the 
 whole of western Europe. Even that ecclesiastical unity, 
 
 1 Sully, Memoires. 
 C
 
 18 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 which was revived under Martin the Fifth, was maintained 
 only for a century. 
 
 3. THE PEAGMATIC OP BOUEQES. 
 
 The Schism, the rival Popes and councils, the growing 
 abuses in the church, and the hopelessness of reform, led to 
 much free speaking. In England, we had had Wyclif ; and 
 his teachings inspired the reforming leaders in Bohemia. 
 France produced G-erson, and the various theologians of the 
 University who did so much to formulate those Gallican 
 theories which corresponded to the political evolution of the 
 French State. One of these doctors wrote to Charles the 
 Seventh, ' You are not a mere lay person, but an ecclesiastical 
 prelate, and the first in your kingdom. After the Pope, you 
 are the right arm of the church ' ; * meaning obviously, the 
 confederation of churches, not the national church of France. 
 In fact Charles administered his church without consulting 
 the papacy, and his great influence was not confined within 
 his own kingdom. The Council of Basle prayed him to 
 carry out its decrees in his realm. For that purpose he 
 called an assembly of his bishops at Bourges, in 1438 ; and 
 they drew up an assertion of Gallican rights which was 
 adopted by the king in his Pragmatic Sanction. 
 
 The Pragmatic Sanction was a joint act of the French 
 church, speaking through its lawful authorities, and of the 
 Crown as representing the supreme will of the nation. 2 It 
 begins with protesting against the abuses committed or 
 tolerated by the Holy See. It laments the spoiling of the 
 French church, the usurpation of patronage, the papal 
 reservations, the jobberies and simonies, the non-residence, 
 and other evils which were habitual in France, and else- 
 where. Then it asserts the superiority of councils to Popes 
 in all matters of doctrine and discipline. It ordains the 
 meeting of a general council every ten years. It enume- 
 rates various excesses and scandals, which must be reformed. 
 It resumed a great deal of patronage which the Popes had 
 created or usurped, and it restrained the flow of taxation 
 1 Lavisse, iv. 2, p. 261. 2 Ibid. p. 267.
 
 THE PRAGMATIC OF BOURGES 19 
 
 and appeals to Rome. It restored the election of bishops to 
 their chapters, and of abbots to their communities. No 
 papal Bulls might circulate in France without the king's 
 permission. And, on these lines, the Gallican church was 
 administered until the reign of Francis the First. The 
 papacy never ceased objecting to the Pragmatic of Bourges, 
 and intriguing against the decrees of Constance. Louis the 
 Eleventh, after his manner, made use of the Pragmatic by 
 alternately withdrawing and modifying it, always with 
 some advantage to himself. Under Charles the Eighth and 
 Louis the Twelfth it was restored to its original terms, at the 
 petition of the French clergy. It was attacked strenuously 
 by the papal council of the Lateran, which succeeded the 
 episcopal council of Pisa ; and, as Francis the First wanted 
 money, and papal support for his designs in Italy, he made 
 a bargain with the Pope. 
 
 4. THE CONCORDAT OF BOLOGNA. 
 
 That bargain is dignified as a Concordat, and is named 
 from Bologna, where it was arranged. It was, in reality, 
 a deal for patronage, that is for the market value of 
 patronage. The king sacrificed the rights of his clergy, 
 and gained in return many solid advantages for himself. 
 Without appearing to diminish the prerogatives of his 
 crown, he admitted a very dangerous principle, which the 
 papacy has never ceased to utilize and stretch. In ex- 
 change for that advantage, and for certain material benefits, 
 the Pope did not hesitate to bind the French clergy to the 
 crown, and to prejudice the interests of the Gallican 
 church. The Pragmatic of Bourges, by upholding the 
 supremacy of councils, by restraining papal abuses, and by 
 restoring the power of election to the Chapters, had created 
 a church that was comparatively free in relation both to 
 the crown and the papacy. The Concordat of Bologna 
 practically destroyed that freedom. It exacted that the 
 king should nominate to all bishoprics, to most abbacies 
 and priories, to all dignities of wealth and importance. 
 Certain of the richest abbeys had obtained special Bulls, 
 
 c 2
 
 20 CHURCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 no doubt well paid for, which guaranteed them the right 
 of election, and these were excepted from the Concordat ; 
 though most of them were sacrificed afterwards by a special 
 Bull. To the papacy, the king conceded the important and 
 dominating right of institution to these great offices. The 
 national clergy thus lost their ancient powers of election 
 to the highest offices in their church. It was ordained that 
 persons chosen by the king must be graduates ; but again 
 exceptions were made in favour of ' great personages ', and 
 of friars, and there was always a papal dispensation to 
 sophisticate any irregularity. Smaller benefices were left 
 to their natural patrons, though the Pope acquired powers 
 of nominating to a large proportion of them, and he re- 
 tained the nomination to benefices when the occupant died 
 in Rome. He gave up the right to expectatives : the abuse 
 which we dealt with by the Statute of Provisors. Ordinary 
 appeals were to be heard in France ; but the Pope still 
 reserved all great causes to himself, and with them the 
 proportionate fees and profits, with unlimited possibilities 
 of interference and encroachment. Annates are not men- 
 tioned in the Concordat, as they were unpopular ; but, by 
 a subsequent Bull, the Pope quietly resumed them. The 
 king, having need of papal assistance, allowed the usurp- 
 ation, and gave up the article in the Pragmatic which 
 had abolished them. 1 There was great opposition to the 
 Concordat on the part of the clergy, of the University and 
 of Parliament. The latter saw dangerous possibilities in 
 the reservation of ' great causes ' to the papal congregations ; 
 and it protested violently against the loss of elective rights. 
 Parliament, indeed, ignored the Concordat for six years, 
 and treated it as a dead letter. Its opposition was only 
 ended by a lit de justice in 1527 ; but protests continued 
 in the provincial assemblies right through the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 The king gained by this agreement the nomination to ten 
 arch-bishoprics, eighty-two bishoprics, 527 abbeys, and an im- 
 mense number of priories and canonries. 2 The Pope made 
 a serious breach in the Pragmatic Sanction, and obtained 
 1 Lavisse, vi, p. 254. 2 Ibid. p. 258.
 
 THE CONCORDAT OF BOLOGNA 21 
 
 a base for future operations. He also won a victory over 
 the hated councils and those who favoured them. Not 
 least, he was able to deal henceforth with a monarchical 
 and aristocratic clergy, instead of with a free and constitu- 
 tional body. In France itself, the effects were even more 
 deplorable. The clergy were split in two. On one side, in 
 all the great offices, including those of the religious houses, 
 were royal nominees, usually absentees, performing their 
 functions by deputy, piling up those moral and social abuses 
 which accumulated until the Revolution. On the other 
 side were the lesser clergy, out of all sympathy with 
 their chiefs, hating, envying and despising them, foil of 
 grievances and of democratic longings. These latter found 
 some vent in the wars of religion ; but they smouldered on, 
 suppressed, till the Revolution ; and the parochial clergy 
 had more influence in preparing that deliverance than has 
 usually been realized. In its political effects, the Concordat 
 of Bologna transformed the clergy into an Order, of which 
 the chiefs were an aristocracy, with all those privileges and 
 prejudices that produced their inevitable consequences in 
 1789 and the following years. 
 
 It is worth noting that Leo the Tenth, in the Lateran 
 council, denounced the canons of Basle and Bourges. He 
 reaffirmed ' the doctrine of Scripture, of the Popes, and of 
 the constitution Unam Sanctam ', that all human beings are 
 subject to the Roman Pontiff. Finally, he cancelled the 
 Pragmatic of Bourges ' in the plenitude of his apostolic 
 authority', and also without informing the council of his 
 previous arrangement with Francis the First. The Con- 
 cordat, instead of appearing, as it really was, a sordid and 
 commercial bargain, was made to do extra duty as a triumph 
 and acknowledgement of the papal supremacy. It is by con- 
 tinual precedents of this nature that the Popes' authority 
 has been constructed and extended.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 1. THE REFORMATION. 
 
 THE Concordat of Bologna has brought us to an age of 
 ripened thought and decisive action. The fourteenth 
 century may be described as the period of councils. The 
 church made a commendable, though futile, effort to 
 restrain the papal absolutism, to restore constitutional 
 government, and to initiate reform. In all these attempts, 
 it failed practically, for obvious reasons ; though, in the 
 political sphere, the monarchs held their ground with more 
 success against the papacy. The fifteenth century, however, 
 while intent on other matters, forged those weapons which 
 were used so decisively in the sixteenth. For a new and 
 a larger world had opened, in many senses, as the fifteenth 
 century developed. Constantinople had fallen in 1453; 
 and its Greek treasures, imprisoned and isolated for so long, 
 were scattered over western Europe. Printing enabled all 
 this fresh and vivifying knowledge to be circulated broad- 
 cast. Greek literature disclosed a buried treasure of 
 experience and thought. It not only revived scholarship 
 and taste, but it gave men a broader conception of life, and 
 a higher view of its possibilities. Not least, it bestowed 
 that free, flexible, reasonable state of mind which was 
 the secret of Hellenic civilization, and the antithesis of 
 mediaeval Christianity. Europe escaped at last out of its 
 mediaeval nursery. Thinkers were able to deal with living 
 and concrete facts, instead of playing with syllogisms and 
 spinning idle theories. Politicians were able to judge the 
 present by the past ; that is, by a standard larger and 
 truer than the mediaeval. The whole outlook of mankind 
 was changed : its perspective was corrected and enlarged. 
 Students could meditate the philosophy of Plato and
 
 THE REFORMATION 23 
 
 Plutarch ; and men of the world could study and emulate 
 the lives which Plutarch has recorded. They realized what 
 individuals had done, and what the State had been, under 
 a better civilization. They understood that public order 
 and private worth did not depend necessarily on the 
 church. They found that Aristotle was something more 
 than a logician, and they looked with re-opened eyes at the 
 material world. Columbus had actually been to another 
 hemisphere, though the Inquisition had proved it could 
 not exist. Copernicus widened men's conception of the 
 universe, which a false theology had narrowed. Froude has 
 summed up the age, of which he is the great English 
 historian, in the most beautiful prose that he ever 
 wrote : 
 
 ' The paths trodden by the foot-steps of ages were 
 broken up ; old things were passing away, and the faith 
 and the life of ten centuries were dissolving like a dream. 
 Chivalry was dying; the abbey and the castle were soon 
 together to crumble into ruins ; and all the forms, desires, 
 beliefs, convictions of the old world were passing away, 
 never to return. A new continent had risen up beyond the 
 western sea. The floor of heaven, inlaid with stars, had 
 sunk back into an infinite abyss of immeasurable space ; 
 and the firm earth itself, unfixed from its foundations, was 
 seen to be but a small atom in the awful vastness of the 
 universe. In the fabric of habit in which they had so 
 laboriously built for themselves, mankind were to remain 
 no longer. And now it is all gone, like an unsubstantial 
 pageant faded.' And he ends this moving passage with 
 some words about * the sound of church bells, that peculiar 
 creation of mediaeval age, which falls upon the ear like the 
 echo of a vanished world '.* 
 
 For our present enquiry, we may ignore the theological 
 aspects of the Reformation, and everything which has to 
 do with Germany. This is an immense relief. It is our 
 pleasanter duty to follow the course of the New Learning, 
 and to see how scholars and politicians dealt with the 
 church among more civilized and agreeable races. After 
 1 History of England, Vol. i, chapter I, p. 61.
 
 24 CHURCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 the papacy had been discredited by the Schism, and while 
 it was being advertised by the Renaissance Popes, Lorenzo 
 Valla undermined the foundations of its authority, through 
 a simple appeal to grammar, by exposing the forgeries on 
 which the mediaeval absolutism had been erected. Valla 
 was followed by Erasmus, his admiring and loyal defender. 
 He carried on the attack by printing the Greek Testament 
 and several of the Fathers. The wit of Erasmus was a more 
 deadly weapon than his scholarship, and clerical folly was 
 overwhelmed by shouts of laughter. The attitude of the 
 papacy towards the Reformation was very simple. The 
 Court of Rome could not reform itself, and it would not 
 submit to being reformed. Towards the New Learning its 
 policy was complex and significant. If it be grasped 
 thoroughly, we have a key to the whole problem of Roman 
 Catholic history, and especially to those phases of it towards 
 which these pages are gradually tending. 
 
 2. THE RENAISSANCE. 
 
 The Humanist Popes welcomed and patronized the tastes 
 of the Renaissance. They were not averse from the archi- 
 tecture and decorations of Imperial Rome, or even from 
 the titles of the heathen pontiffs. The Breviary, though 
 sadly expurgated, still shows they had no prejudice against 
 the phraseology of the old Pantheon. Jewish worthies and 
 Christian divinities must have been bewildered at their 
 metamorphoses by the Ciceronians. The papal Court admired 
 many things which were truly admirable in the manners 
 and society of ancient Rome, but it practised others which 
 it should not even have mentioned. The papacy is credited, 
 however, too easily and commonly, with a genuine zeal for 
 the New Learning ; with being its chief patron and pro- 
 moter. Certain Popes did, in truth, employ sculptors, and 
 jewellers, and painters, and stately builders, and honeyed 
 Latinists. The Court of Rome played and rioted with the 
 toys of the Renaissance : yet the very same Popes, and still 
 more their successors, opposed all the serious fruits and 
 consequences of the recovered knowledge ; that is, the
 
 THE EENAISSANCE 25 
 
 application of the New Learning to biblical scholarship, to 
 theology, to church history and government, to the natural 
 sciences, to political and social questions, to intellectual and 
 individual freedom. Scholars like Erasmus were alternately 
 caressed and slandered by upholders of the papacy and of 
 mediaeval ignorance. The intellectual murdering of Italy, 
 and the suppression of its growing proficiency in all the 
 natural sciences, delayed human progress by three cen- 
 turies, and is a far worse crime than the political and social 
 emasculation of the Italians, or the prolonged agony of 
 Spain. 
 
 3. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 
 
 The Council of Trent was the final answer of the papacy 
 to the demands of Europe for a reformation. It met in 
 1545, and sat, on and off, during eighteen years. Though 
 it was nominally a council, it was not representative of the 
 European churches. During the final sessions there were 
 present 189 Italians, mostly dependents of the papacy, and 
 not conspicuous for learning. There were, besides, thirty- 
 one Spaniards, who were the best theologians in the papal 
 church, but its worst advisers. There were six Portuguese, 
 twenty-six Frenchmen, one Englishman, two Flemings, and 
 two prelates from Germany. The sixty-eight cis-alpine 
 bishops were outnumbered by the Italians, who were neither 
 free nor competent ; and the committees were so shuffled that 
 a papal majority was assured in each of them. The general 
 sessions were presided over and manipulated by diplomatic 
 agents of the papacy, whose theologians permeated the 
 whole assembly. Even so, the Roman Court was often 
 embarrassed and alarmed. The Council refused to vote that 
 bishops received their commission mediately through the 
 Pope, which would have destroyed genuine and historical 
 episcopacy. A dubious compromise left this question open ; 
 but the Popes have since gained their point effectually, and 
 throughout the Latin Church its nominal bishops are merely 
 delegates, acting 'by favour of the Apostolic See', and 
 wholly dependent on its good-will, as interpreted through
 
 26 CHURCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 various powerful and wealthy organizations, who are now 
 the real masters of the Curia. The chief object of the 
 council was to maintain the papal absolutism, so it could 
 not go behind the middle ages, when that authority was 
 built up. As the New Learning, through its revived scholar- 
 ship and recovered knowledge, undermined the mediaeval 
 papacy, the theologians of Trent dared not accept it. Beliefs 
 and practices, which the middle ages had received in ignor- 
 ance and good faith, were re-affirmed and even extended 
 when ignorance could no longer be alleged. Since the 
 exposures of Valla, the papal claims can only be accepted 
 by an act of faith, in which reasoning has no concern, and 
 which history cannot discuss. But few people are, perhaps, 
 aware how modern the whole body of so-called catholic 
 theology is, especially that part of it which relates to the 
 various Sacraments. A great many of those beliefs and 
 practices, which are now denoted by the term catholic, owe 
 their final establishment and expression only to a most un- 
 catholic and very modern assembly. 
 
 Besides the defensive policy of examining and formu- 
 lating belief, the council met ostensibly to draw up 
 measures of reform, as a prelude for aggressive war ; but, 
 though it issued many decrees, there was more talk than 
 reality in their execution. The Curia lost its former 
 revenues from those churches which had renounced its 
 authority. England went, and a large part of Germany, 
 Scotland and Holland soon followed. France was regulated 
 by the Concordat of Bologna. Even in the countries that 
 were left, the pecuniary exactions of Rome were limited. 
 The precedents of Sixtus the Fourth, Innocent the Eighth, 
 Alexander the Sixth, Julius the Second, Leo the Tenth, 
 were no longer followed so ostentatiously, either in morals 
 or expenditure ; but the names of the Farnese, the Aldobran- 
 dini, the Borghese, the Ludovisi, the Barberini, the Pamfili, 
 the Albani, the Corsini, and of many other families, whose 
 fortunes and palaces were quarried out of Saint Peter's rock, 
 show that the affections and methods of Christ's Vicars 
 were neither chastened by misfortune nor checked by the 
 so-called counter-reformation, and that the papacy had
 
 THE COUNCIL OF TEENT 27 
 
 altered very little even at tlie close of the eighteenth 
 century. Nor had the regulations of Trent any more effect 
 on the episcopate and the religious orders. "We shall 
 examine both in detail, so far as France is concerned, in 
 a following chapter. If their state, as it has come down to 
 us, is to be considered a * Reformation ', we can infer what 
 mediaeval prelates and convents must have been before they 
 were reformed. 
 
 4. THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 
 
 It was not reformation, but reaction, upon which the 
 papacy embarked ; and the efficient soldiery in that warfare 
 were neither the old religious orders, nor the wealthy episco- 
 pate, nor the parochial clergy, but the new Society of 
 Jesus, which was the real driving power of the Tridentine 
 assembly ; and before we pass on again to distinctly 
 French matters, we should give an account of that organi- 
 zation, which was initiated in France, though not by 
 a Frenchman, and which has occupied so large and active 
 a place in her political and ecclesiastical affairs. The 
 Society of Jesus was originated by a Spaniard, then 
 studying in Paris. He gathered some friends round him, 
 and formed a little company, to fight the reformation, to 
 serve the Pope absolutely, and to save his falling monarchy. 
 One of its chief weapons was to be education. Ignatius 
 and his brethren went to Rome, and their plans, after 
 some hesitating fears, were approved by Paul the Third, 
 in 1540. 
 
 So rapid was their progress and so convincing were their 
 proposals, that within five years they were manipulating 
 the Council of Trent, and moulding the Roman policy. 
 From that day to this, even during their suppression, they 
 have never ceased to influence the Holy See. Like many 
 confidential servants, they became the real masters of the 
 establishment. During the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries, they directed many Sovereigns, and guided many 
 Cabinets, and manipulated a large number of the bishops. 
 The latter is not surprising, as so much of the highest 
 patronage depended on their favour. Since their restora-
 
 28 CHUBCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 tion, they have permeated the whole Roman church. Its 
 present condition is chiefly the result of Jesuit policy ; 
 and its future prospects depend on the continuance 
 or the ending of that predominance. That they should 
 alter, is impossible; for they would cease to be Jesuits. 
 Mended, they cannot be. Ended, they have been once, 
 and may be again. In spite of all that has happened, the 
 Society still has great influence, and it is fatuous to ignore 
 its undoubted power. The Jesuits are numerous. They 
 are in all countries, and belong to none. In every sense of 
 the term, they are an International Society, more centralized 
 and highly organized than any other, and ruled by a small 
 bureaucracy at the centre, which is in touch with the 
 Vatican and all the papal congregations. 
 
 The Jesuits are very wealthy. Their real and funded 
 property must be enormous ; and their annual revenues 
 are far in excess of their ostensible requirements. Their 
 influence is in proportion to their wealth. It is exercised 
 through innumerable schools, which they provide for the 
 upper and middle classes. They do not overlook the 
 education of the poor, though such ministrations are 
 not their favourite pursuit, and that work is usually 
 delegated to inferior associations. They always have an 
 advantage over lay-teachers, because their scholars are 
 also their penitents; and the Jesuits are the masters 
 and inventors of ' direction ', v of that extended con- 
 fessional system, which was itself only made obligatory 
 in the thirteenth century. In many countries, the pick of 
 the laity are in their hands, so far as they are practising 
 Roman Catholics. They are compassed about with a crowd 
 of devout women, their open supporters and sometimes 
 their secret agents. The spiritual training of the secular 
 clergy is now altogether on the Jesuit model ; and their 
 moral theology is learnt either directly from Jesuit manuals 
 or indirectly through Alphonso of Liguori. Many high 
 ecclesiastics have been their pupils, and are still their 
 devotees. A great number of modern orders and congre- 
 gations are in open sympathy with the Jesuits, or secretly 
 under their control.
 
 THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 29 
 
 In modern times, they work largely through the Press, 
 not only by their avowed organs, but by their unsuspected 
 allies on the staff of ordinary papers. From the Stock 
 Exchange to the manipulation of history, there is no instru- 
 ment which they have neglected. Both in commerce and 
 scholarship their accounts should be rigorously audited. 
 When they were founded, they set themselves to capture 
 education, as a means of regaining the lost predominance 
 of Rome, and many of their hardest battles have been to 
 retain that indispensable position. As teachers, up to a 
 certain point, they have always been successful. They can 
 turn out pretty stylists and facile rhetoricians, and their 
 pupils can pass examinations with flying colours. Beyond 
 this, their teaching powers are baffled ; because the Jesuit 
 teachers cannot convey that of which they have deprived 
 themselves. 
 
 Mark Pattison, in his portraits of Scaliger and Casaubon, 
 contrasts the simulated erudition of the Society with the 
 genuine scholarship of the later Humanists ; and justly. 
 More than this, the Jesuit advocates too often dissimulated 
 those truths which they should have acknowledged. Their 
 scholarship, besides being artificial, was untrustworthy. 
 They were libellers both of dead authors and of living 
 men ; and manufactories of slander were among the most 
 prolific of their industries. It was not for want of talent 
 or of training that the Jesuits failed. They have always 
 had plenty of the one, and too much of the other. I do 
 not mean that their education has been in excess of their 
 abilities ; but that their very training itself, and the whole 
 spirit of their institution, is destructive to such abilities 
 as may be drawn into it. The Society would be irresistible, 
 if its training did not inevitably hamper its own subjects. 
 Its machinery is so minute that nothing escapes it, and 
 very little is left after its application. So long and so 
 thorough is the discipline which every Professed Father 
 must undergo that his finest and most individual qualities 
 are ground away. The individual is sacrificed to the in- 
 stitution. The discipline is more destructive than con- 
 structive. The Ignatian method can forge a dangerous
 
 30 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 and marvellous weapon for obedience, as keen and hard 
 as steel ; but it not only cannot bring out, it even destroys, 
 that initiative by which alone a weapon can be put to its 
 highest use. For this reason, no Jesuit, except the Founder, 
 has attained the first rank as a man of action ; and that 
 old soldier has had no superior in strategy or tactics. 
 
 In the sphere of thought, the Society has failed even 
 more : it has never produced a philosopher or an original 
 thinker, for men ' can't think in batches ' ; but only fluent 
 writers, too subtil casuists, and pitiless logicians. Indeed, 
 the Jesuits have generally been the dupes of their own 
 logic. In their political calculations, they have failed 
 continually through not allowing for that ordinary human 
 nature, mingled of good and evil, which they have warped 
 in themselves, and mis-judged in others through their 
 casuistry. It is here that they are so inferior to Machiavelli, 
 and so much more destructive to morality. Machiavelli saw 
 men as they really are, and acted accordingly. He is not 
 immoral, only non-moral; but the Jesuits have always 
 imagined men as they ought not to be, judging them 
 presumably by themselves or by their system, and very 
 often, to the honour of human nature, they have been 
 miserably deceived. Even their General is a victim to the 
 organization which he is supposed to rule. No official, 
 with so much nominal authority and so much theoretical 
 power, counts for so little personally as that mysterious 
 and hidden leader. He is more than a Veiled Prophet; 
 and, like most unknown things, he is credited with unlimited 
 power, and inspires an unreasonable fear. But in the first 
 place, he is a Jesuit like all his subjects, and has been 
 intellectually emasculated, and perverted morally, by the 
 system. Next, he is bound by rules and constitutions, 
 which he dare not modify, and beyond which he cannot 
 stir. 
 
 More than this, these rules and constitutions are not only 
 dead writings ; they are embodied and ever present with 
 him, in the shape of living men. The General is watched, 
 and guarded, and probably reported at every turn by officials 
 who represent the various interests of the Society. Its
 
 THE SOCIETY OF JESUS 31 
 
 continuity and stability are thus provided for, but again 
 at the expense of individuality, and at the sacrifice of 
 everything approaching to initiative and power. It was 
 for this reason that I described the Society as a bureaucracy, 
 and not an autocracy, as it is generally considered. It has 
 made all the mistakes of a bureaucratic institution, and 
 will probably end through the defects which are inherent 
 in that form of administration; that is to say, it will 
 become first intolerable, and then inefficient. Meanwhile, 
 failure is writ large and continuously over the annals of 
 the Society, in spite of its heroic labours and its superb 
 devotion ; and that failure will be the penalty exacted from 
 the papal church, so long as it allows the Jesuits to direct 
 its policy, and dominate its personnel. 
 
 No organization, not even the Roman church, can afford 
 to be guided by men whose thoughts are always bound 
 in by an iron rule, and whose natural talents are always 
 repressed to the dead level of a Society. If mediocrity 
 could overcome the world, it would have succumbed to the 
 Jesuits within a century of their foundation. Their history 
 shows how dangerous even mediocrity can be, if only it 
 be disciplined. But the Jesuit discipline is so thorough 
 that it destroys the material it has to work with ; and even 
 the directing force of the Society is weakened by the same 
 destructive process. Both rulers and ruled are reduced to 
 the same level, and it is only so that the general efficiency 
 and the marvellous obedience of the Society have been 
 maintained ; but institutions, like men, must have the 
 defects of their qualities, and the defect of Ignatius' system 
 is that it represses and sterilizes all that is most valuable 
 in the individual. Since Ignatius, with the exceptions of 
 Laynez and Acquaviva, there have been no individuals, 
 but only an impersonal machine. Father Parsons might 
 be added to the list ; for he was a sturdy rebel, not only 
 against his Sovereign, which would be no singularity in 
 a Jesuit, but even against the Pope and the General himself 
 when their policy would not bend to his.
 
 32 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 5. THE NEW ROMANISM. 
 
 The first work of the Jesuits was the Council of Trent, 
 which re-fortified the papal stronghold ; and from that 
 position they carried war successfully in their enemies' 
 country, and regained many parts of it. Education fell 
 into Jesuit hands, or followed Jesuit methods ; and the 
 Society raised up a new generation, submissive to the 
 papacy. Where persuasion failed, repression was applied 
 without scruple or remorse. Thought and freedom were 
 killed out of Italy. Spain sacrificed everything to a barren 
 orthodoxy. Europe was devastated by religious wars, for 
 which the Society is largely responsible. Sovereigns were 
 excommunicated, deposed, invaded, assassinated. Queen 
 Elizabeth's life was attempted many times. For the aims 
 and methods of the Jesuits in England, Father Taunton's 
 admirable history may be consulted l . The Prince of Orange 
 and two kings of France were murdered. Jesuit theology 
 advocated these methods, and inflamed the agents of them, 
 though Jesuits themselves did not perpetrate the acts of 
 violence. The campaign in the field of letters should not 
 be forgotten. Baronius composed church history to order, 
 and coloured it to suit Roman tastes. Bellarmine con- 
 structed that theology which is the link between Boniface 
 the Eighth and Pius the Ninth ; he connects the mediaeval 
 papacy with modern ultramontanism. He taught that the 
 Pope is infallible by direct illumination of Christ; and 
 the Council of Trent, before it separated, condemned both 
 Gallicanism and the decrees of Constance, by saying that 
 its own canons would only be valid after the papal con- 
 firmation. 
 
 In this new warfare, the attitude of France has seemed 
 to many observers dubious and hesitating; but she acted, 
 as usual, with logical clearness, and with fidelity to her own 
 principles. Luther, with all his noise, was not a more 
 strenuous opponent of Rome than the French monarchy; 
 and, after all, the papal jurisdiction was excluded from 
 
 1 History of the Jesuits in England, by Ethelred L. Taunton. i vol. 
 (Methuen).
 
 THE NEW KOMANISM 33 
 
 France until 1802, though it continued to be exercised in 
 more than half of Germany. That other part, which was 
 reformed, only effected its release by destroying the whole 
 national fabric of religion. Such reformations of religion 
 are easy, and usually have another name. They are not 
 statesmanship, but they are Teutonic and taurine. Henry 
 the Eighth made a clean sweep of the papal jurisdiction 
 and the religious orders; but he preserved, and indeed 
 enlarged, the existing fabric of his church. The French 
 kings did not exclude the orders, but they did exclude the 
 papal jurisdiction; while they never ceased protesting 
 against the encroachments of the Curia, and the anti- 
 monarchical theology of Bellarmine and Mariana. These 
 teachers insisted that the Pope was not only infallible nead 
 of the church, but also king of kings, and the disposer of 
 all other crowns. His temporal sovereignty was asserted 
 no less than his spiritual supremacy. The decrees of Trent 
 about discipline were considered so aggressive, and so 
 dangerous both to the property of the French church and 
 the prerogatives of the Crown, that these canons were never 
 admitted into the kingdom. At. the beginning of the Re- 
 formation, the French prelates had little prejudice against 
 the movement ; and the first Valois kings vacillated ac- 
 cording to their political necessities. When church pro- 
 perty was threatened and the king was inclined to the 
 reformation, the prelates became furiously conservative. 
 The bitterness of their opposition is shown in the wars of 
 the League ; and these wars enabled the papacy to give 
 a striking example of its power. The heir to the Crown, 
 being a Huguenot, was excommunicated in 1585 ; and he 
 was held in check for ten years by papal and clerical 
 opposition. Though Henry the Fourth said lightly that 
 Paris was worth a mass, yet he only mounted his throne 
 by submitting to Clement the Eighth, by utilizing the 
 papal influence over French subjects, and recognizing all 
 the decrees of Trent. The Bourbons thus began their 
 sovereignty by endangering those Gallican liberties which 
 the Capets and the Valois had always maintained success- 
 fully, and on which depended all that was left of constitu- 
 
 D
 
 34 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 tional government in the Latin Church. Notwithstanding 
 his submission, Henry the Fourth was never forgiven his 
 Huguenot origin and his edict of toleration. Of that 
 salutary measure, so indispensable for the peace and pros- 
 perity of France, the Pope said ' This edict crucifies me ; 
 this most cursed edict, by which liberty of conscience, the 
 very worst thing of all in the world, is allowed to every one*. 
 Ultramontane protests were not confined to words. There 
 were three immediate attempts at assassination; and on 
 the 27th of December, 1594, John Chatel, a pupil of the 
 Jesuits, succeeded in wounding Henry. The Parliament 
 of Paris banished the Jesuits, within three days, from all 
 towns where they had colleges, as corrupters of youth, 
 disturbers of the public peace, enemies to the king and the 
 State. In fifteen days, they were ordered to leave the 
 realm. One of their number, Guignard, was condemned 
 to death, as a reparation for his outrageous and slanderous 
 writings against the honour of the late and present kings, 
 found in his study, written in his own hand, and composed 
 by him. 1 In a few years, Ravaillac did effectually that 
 which Chatel had bungled. 
 
 Though Henry the Fourth, pressed hard by his difficulties, 
 entered his kingdom through the Pope, yet the French 
 lawyers and parliaments were firm upholders of the national 
 honour and the Gallican liberties. The States General in 1 614, 
 and the theological Sorbonne in 1663, protested against ultra- 
 montane aggression, and condemned the dangerous theology 
 of Bellarmine. The latter, in the interests of the papacy, 
 not of liberty as Mr. Lilly insinuates, was an opponent of 
 the Divine Right of kings. Aquinas had said ' The secular 
 power is subject to the spiritual, as the soul to the body '. 
 Bellarmine went on to say ' Secular power has not been 
 given directly to any one in particular, therefore it belongs 
 to every one, and so is vested in the people '. From this, he 
 deduced, not our current theories of liberty and representa- 
 tion, but that the papal authority alone is of divine right, 
 and in consequence the Popes are superior to all secular 
 monarchs. By dissimulating the real point of Bellarmine's 
 1 Lavallee, Hist, des Fratif. iii. 37.
 
 THE NEW ROMANISM 35 
 
 thesis, some apologists of the Jesuits have asserted that 
 they alone were the vindicators of popular freedom in a 
 servile age : but the only freedom they asserted was that of 
 rebellion and assassination, if kings were displeasing to the 
 Pope, whose divine authority they maintained at all costs, 
 and against all the rights of society. The Divine Right of 
 kings was not a doctrine of tyrants imposed on slaves. It 
 was a legal and necessary theory, as society then was, devised 
 for the protection of civil governments against the theo- 
 cratic assumptions of the papacy. To the papal theories of 
 Bellarmine, Bossuet replied by saying that 'the royal power 
 was a reflection from the god-head, and a species of divine 
 providence'. We have now come, at length, to Louis the 
 Fourteenth, and the famous Articles of 1682, which are the 
 fortress and armoury of Gallicanism, as the Tridentine 
 decrees were of ultramontanism. 
 
 D2
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 GALLICANISM 
 1. THE FOUR ABTICLES. 
 
 THE first of these Articles was a protest against the 
 doctrines of Bellarmine, which we have just explained. It 
 declares that the Pope has no authority in temporal con- 
 cerns; that neither directly nor indirectly can he depose 
 Sovereigns. The remaining Articles assert the constitu- 
 tional rights of the whole church. Article Two says the 
 decrees of Constance, on the supremacy of councils, are still 
 valid and in force. Thirdly, the Sovereign Pontiff can only 
 govern the church according to the canons, and especially 
 he may not make any attempt against the constitutions 
 and admitted rights of the Gallican church. Lastly, his 
 decisions in matters of belief are questionable so long as 
 they have not been confirmed by a judgment of the 
 church. This, then, was the Gallican position in the last 
 quarter of the seventeenth century. It not only re-affirmed 
 the positions laid down at Constance, but it ignored, or 
 even denied, the canons of Trent; and it opposed the 
 Jesuits both in their policy and their theology. About the 
 latter they were very touchy; or Pascal and the Port 
 Royalists would not have goaded them into madness. The 
 ecclesiastical history of France, from 1682 to 1764, resolves 
 itself into a battle over the Gallican liberties, in which the 
 Jesuits were the assailants, and the majority of the nation, 
 represented and seconded by their Parliaments, were the 
 successful defenders. As long as Gallicanism stood in the 
 way, the Council of Trent was inoperative in the most 
 important member of the Roman communion ; and that 
 farther papal development, which Bellarmine had clearly 
 outlined, and towards which all the machinations of the 
 Society were directed, was blocked. The progress of the
 
 THE FOUR ARTICLES 37 
 
 battle is an illustration of Jesuit policy, and of its 
 results. 
 
 Louis the Fourteenth had stepped into power, in 1660, 
 saying literally, L'tat cest Moi. He said no less effectively 
 L'glise Gallicane c'est Moi ; and he asserted his full right 
 to dispose of all church property. The revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes, though most acceptable to Rome, was 
 much more an application of the royal autocracy, both in 
 church and State, than a concession to theological intoler- 
 ance. In this matter, as in so many other matters, Macaulay 
 plays over the surface of his documents, and misses the 
 vraie vdritd, in spite of his verbal accuracy, and so is a 
 deceptive guide. It was ordered by the king that the 
 Four Articles should be taught in all seminaries and 
 colleges. According to a phrase which the late Education 
 Bill has made current, the clergy were to be trained in 
 a Gallican 'atmosphere'. As Ultramontanism is apparently 
 a tender plant, the Pope objected strongly, and refused to 
 institute bishops, until thirty sees were vacant. In 1693, 
 the king yielded in the matter of the seminaries ; but he 
 held to the Four Articles, and even extended his royal 
 jurisdiction, two years later, by giving his bishops a larger 
 authority over the monastic orders, and subjecting the 
 clergy more stringently to the civil courts. But in his 
 declining age, battered by many wars, with diminishing 
 popularity and a starving population, Louis gave in 
 to Jesuit pertinacity. By their incentive, the Jansenists 
 were persecuted : Port Royal was destroyed and dese- 
 crated. The next move in the campaign was the Bull 
 Unigenitus, issued by Clement the Eleventh in 1713. 
 It condemned the Reflexions morales sur le Nouveau 
 Testament, by Father Quesnel, of the Oratory, which had 
 been written in 1671. It was a pious work, dedicated to 
 the Cardinal of Paris, praised and used by Clement himself; 
 as it had been allowed more than forty years of popularity, 
 no one suspected it was un-orthodox. The Jesuit Le Tellier 
 was more penetrating than the official censors. He was 
 the king's confessor, and began by denouncing the book 
 to him. The intrigues of the Society then procured its
 
 38 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 condemnation at Rome. So hard was it to find the errors, 
 that the enemies of the volume had to compare it to an 
 abscess ' dont la pourriture ne pent sortir quapres qu'on y 
 a fait des incisions '. ' At a first perusal,' the Bull goes on, 
 1 the reader finds himself drawn by a seeming piety : the 
 style is more caressing and insinuating than oil ; but the 
 matter, like an arrow shot from an insidious bow, is 
 designed to wound secretly those who are simple and 
 candid.' l The friends of the book said its condemnation 
 would compromise Augustine and the New Testament 
 itself. The attack on Quesnel was only a pretext to heal 
 a difference between the Jesuits and the papacy, to 
 inflame the Jansenists, and to make a breach in Gallicanism 
 by fomenting discords. In all these purposes it succeeded 
 admirably, and France was seething with theological 
 rancour for the next half century. 
 
 The publication of the Bull, and of the letters patent 
 which authorized it, caused such an opposition as Louis 
 had never experienced. The anxieties which followed 
 worried him literally to death. 'Ce Prince s'etait, a 1'in- 
 stigation du Pere Le Tellier, affreusement tourmente au 
 sujet de cette maudite Constitution, au point qu'il n'en 
 avait de repos ni jour, ni nuit; c'est ce qui lui a ote la 
 vie.' 2 The trouble went on through the Regency, and 
 almost through Louis the Fifteenth. In the progress of 
 it, the Court fell more and more under Jesuit influence; 
 and, as a consequence, the bishoprics were given generally 
 to their nominees. The Jansenists were cruelly harried; 
 and over thirty thousand lettres de cachet were issued 
 against them in thirty years. The bulk of the nation, the 
 lower clergy, the lawyers, and the Parliaments were staunch 
 against the Bull ; they judged, by a sound instinct, that 
 their Gallican liberties depended on rejecting it. The 
 Regent gave in through fear and laziness; Louis the 
 Fifteenth, through inexperience ; Dubois, because he wished 
 to be Cardinal ; and Fleury, because he wanted to be Pope ; 
 
 1 Rocquain, L'Esprit Rtvolutionnaire avant la Revolution, p. 4. 
 
 1 La Princesse Palatine, Ducbesse d'Orleans, Correspondance, ii. 169.
 
 THE FOUR ARTICLES 39 
 
 and thus the Court and most of the hierarchy lent them- 
 selves to the Jesuits' design. 
 
 So violent was the national feeling, however, towards the 
 end of this long struggle, that Louis recoiled, and let the 
 Parliaments have their way; and they made short work 
 of ultramontanes and Jesuits alike. On August 6, 1762, 
 the Jesuits were condemned by the Parliament of Paris. 
 In two years more, the king suppressed them throughout 
 France, and banished them from his territory. The other 
 Bourbon Governments and Portugal had followed the same 
 policy and they united with France in urging Clement 
 the Fourteenth to dissolve the Society in 1773. This was 
 an unexpected result of Father Le Tellier's conspiracy. 
 There were two other consequences, which should not be 
 overlooked. The bigotry which was let loose, the prosecu- 
 tions which it led to, the absurdities which it paraded, 
 the hypocrisies which it set in high relief, were acceptable 
 material for those who disliked the current theology. 
 Voltaire and Montesquieu lost no opportunity of ridiculing 
 the fanaticism and the abuses of the clergy. The Encyclo- 
 pedia and the Philosophical Dictionary were published 
 during these years ; and, before the end of the controversy, 
 France possessed an active party of critics and thinkers, 
 who, under a show of raillery, felt and disseminated a 
 profound hatred for the pervading injustice of church and 
 State. The course, and still more the end, of the quarrel 
 showed the Parliaments their power in a discontented 
 nation ; and the Crown never recovered the position it had 
 occupied before the surrender of 1762. Gallicanism, on the 
 other hand, was never so strong as in the few years that 
 elapsed before the Revolution. 
 
 During that period, the Crown, seconded zealously by 
 the Parliaments, carried out the full intention of the Four 
 Articles, and revived the traditions of the fourteenth 
 century. The legate could not act without the royal 
 license. No Bull had any force until it had been approved 
 and registered. No ecclesiastical cause might be taken to 
 Rome; and all sentences passed by the church courts in 
 France were liable to revision and reversal by the king's
 
 40 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 judges. Such, was the Galilean church on the eve of the 
 Revolution. It had many faults, both of spirit and ad- 
 ministration, as we shall demonstrate. But it had come 
 triumphantly, on the whole, through all the storms and 
 trials of the middle ages, and the fiercer conflicts of the 
 sixteenth century. It offered a strenuous and successful 
 opposition to the various encroachments of the papacy. In 
 spite of its betrayal by Francis the First, its nationalism 
 was not overborne by that fierce reaction which alone 
 explains the papal victory of Trent and the Jesuit suc- 
 cesses. The fanatics of the League did much harm to 
 French liberty, by relying on the Pope and admitting his 
 influence into national affairs. That injury was carried 
 still farther by the necessities and submission of Henry 
 the Fourth, which brought the Crown itself under papal 
 authority. From all these repulses, Gallicanism recovered 
 itself; and it was never more independent of Rome than 
 in the last twenty years of its existence. Though the bulk 
 of the lower clergy and some of the bishops were firm 
 nationalists, the hierarchy, by the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, had been largely captured by the Jesuits ; and 
 the episcopate was more ultramontane under Louis the 
 Fifteenth than it had been in the vigorous times of 
 Richelieu and Bossuet. This change of spirit was often 
 modified by other considerations. On the eve of the Revo- 
 lution, not a single bishop was a commoner. They were 
 all nobles, and most of them from the greatest families. 
 The dignity and tradition of their Order did not allow 
 them to be servile to the papal administration, or to accept 
 the infallible authority of a mere Italian ; and their corre- 
 spondence with the papacy often shows that the aristocrat 
 in them was stronger than the ecclesiastic. It was not 
 until the privileges of the aristocracy were first threatened 
 and then abolished, that the French episcopate became 
 ultramontane. Even men who had only known the at- 
 tenuated monarchy of the Restoration were staunch to the 
 Gallican traditions, long after they could be practised ; and 
 the process of Romanizing the French clergy was not 
 completed until the Vatican council.
 
 41 
 
 But the aristocratic origin and traditions of the hierarchy 
 had other consequences, which were ruinous to the church, 
 and lamentable for the nation. As ecclesiastics, the bishops 
 belonged to the First Order; as nobles, their sympathies 
 were with the Second, and they were opposed to any 
 aggrandizement of the Third. Both as churchmen and as 
 nobles, they were out of sympathy with the national 
 aspirations for reform, and liberty, and progress. Talleyrand 
 is the honourable exception which proves the rule. Though 
 many of them were sceptical, they were all ferocious oppo- 
 nents of toleration. They were thus wholly incapable of 
 dealing with that new era, which was driven by official 
 incapacity and selfishness into revolutionary courses. For 
 these misfortunes, the French episcopate is very largely 
 responsible. They not only failed to appreciate the move- 
 ment, and to estimate its gravity, or even its necessity, 
 but they aggravated it first by obstinate though futile 
 resistance, and then they passed on to rebellion and treason 
 against the State. They were fomentors of civil war, and 
 encouragers of foreign invasion. A farther examination 
 of the Gallican church, as it existed through the eighteenth 
 century, will explain the feeling of the nation towards the 
 higher clergy, and may perhaps excuse a great deal that 
 happened during the Revolution. The church was not the 
 sole cause of the Revolution, but it had a large and a guilty 
 share in precipitating it. A bare recital of facts and figures 
 w a sufficient justification of this view. 
 
 2. THE GALLICAN CHTJECH OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Under the old regime, the French clergy were an Order 
 of the body politic, or as we should say an Estate. They 
 were a corporation, holding enormous properties, exercising 
 innumerable rights, and mis-using invidious privileges. 
 They were not only an Order, but the First and also the 
 richest Order in the Kingdom. Their real property has 
 been estimated at four milliards. 1 Now a milliard is a 
 
 1 M. Debidour estimates the domains of the clergy at three milliards 
 ' au bos mot '. The higher estimate is from the Report of Treilhard to the
 
 42 CHURCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 thousand million francs or limes ; in other words, as 
 a million francs is 40,000, a milliard is 40,000,000 
 sterling, and four milliards is equal to 160,000,000. The 
 real property, or the domains of the clergy, including land, 
 forests, and buildings, produced a revenue estimated by all 
 authorities, at from eighty to one hundred million livres. 
 The clergy had another source of revenue in tithes, which 
 are estimated variously. M. Debidour gives them at the 
 same figure as the rents; that is, from eighty to ninety 
 millions. 1 M. Briand rates them higher, at one hundred 
 and twenty-three millions. 2 In this calculation he follows 
 Taine. 3 M. Briand thus calculates the clerical revenue 
 from property and tithes at something over two hundred 
 millions. 
 
 There was yet a third source of income for the clergy ; 
 namely fees and alms. The amount from these is not easy 
 to calculate, as no official return was ever made. Fees are 
 always lucrative in Roman catholic populations, where 
 many of the Sacraments are rated, and masses, which are 
 in continual demand for the living and the dead, are 
 marketable : but it is not possible to give an exact estimate 
 of the money which was derived from the casuel and the 
 quete. The following account, however, may be of interest, 
 for it shows the extent and nature of these payments. It is 
 the scale of charges for a wedding in the family of a peasant : 
 ' Bans 10 livres ; Fiangailles 2 livres 7 sols ; Billet de Con- 
 fession 3 livres ; Messe 15 livres ; Pourboire au Cure 6 livres 
 (au minimum) ; Cierges 48 sols : ' 4 total 36 francs 55 
 
 Constituent Assembly ; and it is adopted by Taine as well as by 
 M. Briand in his Report to the Chamber of Deputies, in 1905, on the 
 Separation Bill. As this is my first reference to M. Debidour, I cannot 
 refrain from expressing my admiration for his weighty and impartial 
 work on 'The Relations between Church and State in France, from 
 1789-1870'. My present reference is to this volume, p. 21. In future 
 references, I shall quote the book shortly as ' Debidour ', giving the 
 pages ; until the course of our enquiry leads us into his second volume, 
 which continues the subject from 1870-89. 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 21. 2 Briand, Support, p. 2. 
 
 s Ancien Regime, vol. i. p. 22. 
 
 * Jean-Bernard, Hist. Anecdot. de la Revolution Frangaise, p. 3G7.
 
 THE CHUECH OF THE XVIIlTH CENTURY 43 
 
 centimes. These figures should be multiplied by at least 
 two and a half to realize the actual burden on a peasant 
 under Louis Quinze. If such a sum were extorted from 
 the poorer class, and for one only of the necessary events 
 in most lives, it may be imagined what was yielded to the 
 clergy by a mixed population of twenty-six millions, 
 including many rich towns and a vast number of wealthy 
 individuals. Baptisms, first communions, confirmations, 
 death beds, funerals, all brought their toll to the clergy, as 
 well as marriages. It must be remembered that none of 
 these things could be performed civilly, or by any dissenting 
 minister, so that all Frenchmen were compelled to subsidize 
 the established clergy. Moreover, the billet de confession 
 was indispensable as a passport to all employments ; and 
 education was a clerical monopoly, as well as various 
 other acts of life which have now been resumed by civil 
 governments. 
 
 Putting aside this large and unverifiable source of 
 income, the revenues of the clergy from their rents and 
 tithes amounted to more than 200,000,000 livres, or 8,000,000 
 sterling annually. The budget of the State, at this period, 
 was generally a little below 500,000,000 livres. These 
 amounts, and all others with which we are dealing in 
 this chapter, should be multiplied by two and a half to 
 estimate their current and spending value. In 1887, the 
 budget es cultes amounted to 45,649,563 francs, at which 
 approximate figure it has remained since. In our money, 
 the French clergy have been receiving about 1,823,000 
 a year, while the budget of the State, for 1899, was returned 
 at 145,000,000. These figures may show the relative 
 positions of the church and State at the close of the 
 eighteenth century and the opening of the twentieth, as 
 well as the enormous wealth and power of the clergy 
 during the former period. It has been estimated that 
 the clergy possessed a third of the wealth of France, 
 and a fifth of its land. In some Provinces, it owned 
 half the land ; in others, three quarters ; and in some 
 districts, all. 
 
 The clerical and ecclesiastical body, living on church
 
 44 CHUBCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 property, amounted to 130,000 persons, divided as follows : 
 70,000 secular or parochial clergy, including 2,800 prelates, 
 vicars general, and cathedral chapters ; 5,000 canons of 
 collegiate foundations ; 60,000 curds and vicaires, and 3,000 
 unbeneficed ecclesiastics. The regular clergy numbered 
 about 23,000 men in 2,500 monasteries ; and there were 
 37,000 women in 1,500 convents. 1 The division of clerical 
 property was, to say the least of it, unequal. The 298 
 Benedictines of Cluny enjoyed a revenue of 1,800,000 livres. 
 The 1672 Benedictines of Saint-Maur practised poverty on 
 8,000,000 livres a year, or about 700,000 of our current 
 money. Their estates gave as much again to various abbes 
 and priors in commendam ; and they estimated the move- 
 able property of their houses and churches at 24,000,000 
 livres? The Canons of Saint-Claude in the Jura owned 
 12,000 serfs, by which number the extent of their acreage 
 can be inferred ; and the Dominicans of Toulouse, besides 
 a revenue of 200,000 livres and much real property in 
 France, owned in the colonies a large number of black 
 slaves and other chattels. 3 As might be supposed, the lives 
 of these great proprietors were not austere. The Abbot of 
 Clairvaux ' always polite to men and galant to women, 
 never travelled without a coach and four, with an out-rider 
 in front '. 4 ' The Charterhouse of the Val-Saint-Pierre was 
 a palace in a vast domain, where the Father Procurator 
 gave up his days to hospitality.' 5 The Abbess of Saint- 
 Quentin ' gave dinners to men in her private rooms '. The 
 Abbess of Remiremont and her lady Canonesses were nearly 
 always travelling, and when at home ' on s'amuse a 1'abbaye '. 
 The Canonesses of Alix were dressed in fashionable hoops, 
 ' comme dans le monde,' for their offices in choir. Convents 
 of this kind were agreeable, and some of them were decent, 
 retreats for widows and unmarried women of good family, 
 or for young wives whose husbands were at the wars. 
 Even more splendid were the lives and revenues of the 
 
 1 Taine, Anden Regime, i. 20, and Briand, Rapport, p. 1. 
 
 2 Taine, i. 23. * Ibid. 
 
 4 Ibid. i. 185. 6 Ibid. 186.
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE XVIIlTH CENTURY 45 
 
 hundred and forty l bishops and arch-bishops. There is no 
 doubt as to the aggregate wealth of these prelates ; but there 
 are differences in the estimate of their several incomes. 
 
 Mr. Bodley asserts that only eleven of them received 
 4,000 a year; and that the richest, the arch-bishop of 
 Strasbourg, had merely 16,000. ' These figures,' he says, ' in 
 their French equivalents, are found in the Almanack Royal 
 of 1780.' But the highest French authorities have demon- 
 strated the inaccuracy of this Almanack. Taine has pointed 
 out that the arch-bishop of Strasbourg is credited with 
 400,000 livres in La France eccldsiastique, and another 
 contemporary witness gives it at 600,000. 2 The Abbe 
 Sicard, also, in his admirable Histoire de I'ancien clerg6 t 
 credits the See of Strasbourg with 400,000 livres, 3 and his 
 account of all the episcopal revenues is very different from 
 Mr. Bodley's. The latter gives a mean allowance of 8,000 
 to the arch-bishop of Paris, while Sicard says that his ample 
 revenues amounted to 600,000 livres, about 24,000, or 
 between 50,000 and 60,000 a year in current value. 
 Sicard points out how and why the estimate of the Almanack 
 Royal is incorrect or misleading ; and Taine, going into 
 the question at some length, proves the inaccuracy of the 
 Almanack, In giving the amount at 8,000, as Mr. Bodley 
 does, following the Almanack, he not only relies on a dis- 
 credited authority, without warning his readers, but he 
 omits to inform them that all sums should be doubled, at 
 least, if their current values are to be stated fairly. Mr. 
 Bodley seems to overlook the pertinent fact, which is not 
 one of the secrets of history, that benefices were accumulated 
 in the hands of bishops and other courtiers. This accounts 
 for the 400,000 livres amounting, with the episcopal revenues 
 of Strasbourg, to the income ' plus d'un million ', squandered 
 by the Cardinal de Rohan, the hero of the Diamond Neck- 
 lace, who was always in debt. The benefices of Lomenie de 
 Brienne, Arch-bishop of Toulouse, were even more lucrative, 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 22 ; but M. de Lanessan, L'Etat et les Eglises en France, 
 reckons them at 132. 
 * Taine, L'Ancien Regime, i. p. 331. 
 1 Sicard, Hist, de I'ancien dergt, p. 106.
 
 46 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 and amounted to 678,000 livres, besides the revenues of his 
 diocese and his ministerial salaries. It is true that certain 
 episcopal endowments and properties were small, especially 
 in some districts ; but opportunities for utilizing patronage 
 were considerable, and episcopal attendance on the Court 
 was generally sedulous. 
 
 A frenzy for promotion swayed too many of the bishops. 
 Some were always intriguing for translation, and others for 
 the red hat. These were the goals of their ambition, and 
 the aims of all their policy. It was these ambitions which 
 put so many of them at the disposal of the Jesuits, who 
 were frequently the dispensers of court patronage and always 
 the conduits of papal favour. M. Debidour admits the in- 
 equality of bishops' incomes ; but he says they received 
 'chacun en moyenne de 80 a 100,000 livres par an': that is 
 from seven to ten thousand pounds of our money, so we need 
 not commiserate their poverty. As all the French authorities 
 are agreed in this matter, and give their reasons, Mr. Bodley 
 owes an explanation to his English readers for informing 
 them that ' The great majority of the Bishops received from 
 1,000 1. to 1,500 L ' \ and no more. 
 
 Many of the bishops, as M. Debidour points out, did not 
 mis-use their revenues. There were among them prelates 
 who were conspicuous for their learning, their charity, and 
 the propriety of their lives : men who played their part 
 worthily in the Constituent Assembly. 'But good living 
 has no history. Bishops without vices were never pro- 
 minent. The other sort were too much so, and they dis- 
 honoured the whole Bench in the eyes of the nation.' Such 
 men as Dillon, Lomenie de Brienne, and Rohan gave 
 catholic France a very sad notion of its chief pastors. ' It 
 could only see in the episcopal body selfishness, frivolity 
 and corruption.' 2 We read of a bishop of Troyes, who 
 quilted his confessional in white satin, and only admitted 
 penitents of a roguish countenance (au minois fripon) ; of 
 an abbot of Clairvaux, whose dances were not stopped by 
 the matin bells ; of a bishop of Nancy, whose balls in Lent 
 
 1 The Church in France, p. 78. a Debidour, p. 23.
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE XVIIIra CENTURY 47 
 
 scandalized his cathedral town, so that the citizens begged 
 him to respect the convictions of others if he had none of 
 his own ; of a bishop of Arras, ' surprised ' at four in the 
 morning, by an officer of the Guards whom he had antici- 
 pated, and the two men adjourned from the bed-room to a 
 duel in the garden ; of a bishop of Toul, ' qui s'entourait de 
 chanoines frais et roses, recrutes a Paris, et que le peuple 
 avait surnommes : les Mignons du Camail.' The hospitalities 
 of the abbot of Berny were dispensed by M lle Leduc, ' la 
 celebre ballerine de 1'Opera ' ; and the arch-bishop's palace 
 in Bordeaux was presided over by a mistress of the same 
 description, who did the honours of his elaborate dinners, 
 his receptions, and his fetes. 1 Apart from such incidents as 
 these, the luxury and splendour of the prelates were an out- 
 rage both to their profession and to the grinding misery of 
 the population. 
 
 The bishops hunted, built, lived as provincial grandees, and 
 held their courts in imitation of Versailles. The bishopric 
 of Strasbourg was hereditary, passing from uncle to nephew 
 among the de Rohans. Their palace had 700 beds, stabling 
 for 180 horses, 14 maitres-d' hotel, 25 valets de chambre. All 
 the Province met there. His Eminence could entertain 
 two hundred guests, besides their servants. At all times one 
 found at home with him twenty or thirty most charming 
 women of the Province, and their number was often in- 
 creased by others from Paris and Versailles. The whole 
 company supped together at nine, and this meal was always 
 like a, fete. De Rohan himself was the chief ornament of 
 it : splendidly attired, handsome, chivalrous, of exquisite 
 politeness ; his lightest smile was enchanting. 2 These 
 suppers were the production of the Cardinal's ' innombrable 
 batterie de cuisine en argent massif'. 3 
 
 The dignitaries next in order to the bishops gave a 
 similar example, according to their means. ' As the canon- 
 ical Chapters were also too well endowed, and as some of 
 their members were not more edifying, [than the bishops] 
 
 1 La France Noire, pp. 292-3. * Taiae, Ancien Rr'gim*, i. 187-8. 
 
 8 Ibid. i. 117.
 
 48 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 this portion of the clergy, veritable Mat-major des dioc&ses, 
 had not a better reputation than the episcopate itself.' * 
 
 The eighteenth century was literally the golden age of 
 the higher clergy, not in France alone, but in all Roman 
 catholic countries, and not less in Georgian England. 
 When we turn, however, to the lower clergy, we find a 
 different picture. Those upon whom the work of the 
 churches fell were inadequately paid. The French clergy 
 have groaned at their pittances under the Concordat, and 
 have attributed their poverty to a niggardly or tyrannical 
 State. Nevertheless, they were far worse off under the 
 rule of their bishops than they have been under the protec- 
 tion of the laity. The prelates were harder task-masters 
 than any politicians. The facts and figures which we have 
 now to consider are hardly credible. They are really more 
 scandalous than those which we have examined ; and the 
 enormity of them will appear still greater by comparison 
 with the lives and revenues which we have been surveying. 
 While the hundred and forty bishops, the two thousand 
 and odd prelates, the swarm of commendataires and gros 
 de"cimateurs (that is, beneficed laymen and various diverters 
 of the great tithes) enjoyed life as we have seen, the vast 
 majority of the sixty thousand cures and vicaires were 
 experiencing a different lot. Their life was more difficult 
 than the regulated and sheltered ease of those wealthy 
 corporations which are described ironically as religious 
 orders. Most of the secular clergy have been compelled 
 to practise that poverty which all friars and monks profess. 
 The landed estates of the church had been appropriated 
 by the higher clergy ever since feudal times. Even tithes, 
 which were meant as a sustenance for the working clergy 
 and a help to the poor, were diverted from their proper 
 use. They, too, were swallowed up by the dignitaries, or 
 squandered by lay impropriators. These beneficed idlers 
 of the Court and the salons described themselves as cures 
 primitifs, or as we should say Rectors, and they delegated 
 their pastoral functions to vicaires perpetuels, our perpetual 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 23.
 
 THE CHUECH OF THE XVHlTH CENTUEY 49 
 
 curates. These poor drudges of the church would have 
 been starved out of existence if the State had not come 
 to their help, and forced their masters to give them a bare 
 living wage. 
 
 Before 1786, the vicaires perpttuels received only five 
 hundred livres a year, or in our money from forty to fifty 
 pounds. The lower class of vicaires temporaires were paid 
 only two hundred and fifty livres. Three years before the 
 Eevolution, the Government fixed the minimum rate at 
 seven hundred livres for one class, and three hundred and 
 fifty for the other, and made the payment of these increased 
 salaries obligatory. And further, besides not being helped 
 by the tithes, it was the starving lower clergy who were 
 compelled, out of their penury, to find a large part of those 
 sums which the ecclesiastical Order condescended now and 
 then to offer, as a don gratuit to their king. ' I commise- 
 rate the lot of a cure de campagne, obliged to quarrel over 
 a blade of wheat with his miserable parishioners, to go 
 to law with them, to exact the tithe * of peas and lentils, 
 to waste his wretched life in perpetual disputes.' 2 The 
 accounts of neglected churches, of ruined presbyteries, unfit 
 for habitation, of curte begging from house to house for 
 necessary meals, are abundant and precise. 
 
 Even when the raised salary was enforced, though a man 
 could make both ends meet on it, yet, as Taine says, ' He 
 lived among wretched beings to whom he owed material 
 help; and he accumulated a store of hidden bitterness 
 against the wealthy drone with full pockets who sent him 
 with empty ones to fulfil the obligations of charity.' This 
 duty was even more neglected by the prelates and the 
 religious houses than the payment of their substitutes. In 
 one parish, the arch-bishop of Toulouse, who took half the 
 tithe, gave eight livres a year in alms ; in a second, the 
 canons, who took half of some tithes and three quarters 
 of others, gave ten livres : and so on, wherever monks and 
 
 1 These petty tithes in kind must not be confused with the great 
 tithes on land, a heavy and an exhausting charge under which the 
 whole French society groaned except the privileged First Order. 
 
 2 Voltaire, Diet. Phil., Art. Curt de Campagne. 
 
 E
 
 50 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 prelates held the parochial endowments. It is not sur- 
 prising, when the Revolution came, that the peasants were 
 hostile to the higher clergy, to the monastic foundations, 
 and to the whole existing system of the church; or that 
 the entire population, nobles and peasantry alike, were 
 anxious to be freed from the intolerable abuse of tithes, 
 and the burden of the religious orders. 
 
 The Concordat of Bologna had put all higher patronage 
 into the king's hands. The policy of Louis the Fourteenth 
 augmented an evil which was made customary by Francis 
 the First, though it had been practised irregularly before. 
 The wealth of the church and its government had become 
 a monopoly of the noblesse. Its prizes were not open to the 
 great body of the clergy. Their interests were separated 
 from those of the hierarchy ; and, naturally, they threw in 
 their lot with the people and the reformers. In describing 
 their poverty, we have not filled up the measure of their 
 wrongs. Not only were they excluded from all hope of 
 advancement or reward in their profession, and condemned 
 for life to its menial and almost murderous drudgery, but 
 they had practically no redress against aristocratic and 
 influential bishops. They could be suspended and inter- 
 dicted at their bishop's whim. Appeals to the tribunals 
 were dear, and generally went against the poor. Besides, 
 bishops who stood well at Court were able to procure lettres 
 de cachet. By means of these, a complaining or inconvenient 
 cleric might be snatched away, untried, and imprisoned in 
 the Bastile or in some convent, at the irresponsible caprice 
 or the irreversible decree of his ordinary. ' Instances of 
 this abuse of power were frequent during the eighteenth 
 century.' l 
 
 The inmates of religious houses were equally defenceless 
 against their superiors. As they had no existence in the 
 eyes of the civil law, they had not even the right of appeal 
 and of complaint. In joining a community, they had re- 
 nounced all the natural and civil rights of man. Though 
 laxity must have been almost immune from chastisement, 
 
 1 Debidour, 26.
 
 THE CHUECH OF THE XVHIra CENTURY 51 
 
 any desire for liberty or reformation was dealt with 
 sternly. 
 
 In 1790, when an examination of convents l was ordered 
 by the Assembly ' monstrous discoveries were made. The 
 commissioners found at the bottom of horrid dungeons 
 among the foundations, manacled with iron, crouching in 
 filth, trembling with cold, pinched with hunger, various 
 Religious, thus treated by order of their superiors because, 
 tired of the cloister, they wished to regain their freedom 
 and the inalienable prerogatives of human beings.' 2 
 
 The lower clergy, then, wished every ecclesiastical office 
 to be elective, bishoprics, canopries, and parochial cures 
 alike. In the State, they welcomed, as a body, any change 
 which would abolish privilege and equalize taxation. ' Let 
 us not forget/ says M. Debidour impressively 3 , ' that it was 
 the alliance of the inferior clergy with the Third Estate 
 which made the Revolution possible.' 
 
 But the church has other members besides the clergy, 
 and other duties than towards its ministers. The extent 
 and the mis-use of its property have shown how it fulfilled 
 its more indirect obligations to the country, and what return 
 it made for its gigantic privileges and possessions. We 
 must now examine how it performed some of these duties 
 which may be termed direct and positive. Besides their 
 ministerial functions among the people, the clergy of the 
 past have had special obligations towards the young, the 
 suffering, and the poor. 
 
 The church has always claimed a monopoly of education, 
 while its advocates never cease to proclaim its devotion and 
 labour in that cause. It also undertook the management of 
 hospitals, and the distribution of public charity. ' These 
 great national services were perishing under its care, or at 
 any rate were not progressing. The Universities, founded 
 originally by the church, were still under its surveillance 
 and control; and orthodoxy alone gave access to them. 
 There were still more than twenty, but some had only a 
 
 1 The term convent is applied properly to any monastic institution. 
 It is only in recent times that it has been usurped, quite improperly, by 
 houses of women. 2 La France Noire, p. 300. 3 p. 27. 
 
 E2
 
 52 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 nominal existence. All of them, including Paris, were 
 sterilized by exclusive bigotry, and had long ceased to have 
 any share in the intellectual progress of the nation. They 
 clung to obsolete methods, from which liberty and reason 
 were banished. They consecrated such vitality as they 
 had to scholastic exercises ; and they had not intelligence 
 enough to perceive how vain and ridiculous they were. 
 Youths from the noblesse or the middle classes obtained 
 their secondary teaching in a number of colleges, nearly all 
 managed by priests or religious. It was a formal teaching, 
 mostly Latin. French literature, modern languages, history, 
 geography, philosophy, science, and everything which de- 
 velops thought or independence, hardly found a place in 
 it. Girls went only to the convents. As to primary in- 
 struction, by law it could only be given under episcopal 
 authority. Defenders of the old regime are fond of saying 
 there were a sufficient number of these petites ecoles ; but 
 in truth they were little frequented, and they taught almost 
 nothing. In 1789, the vast majority of the French could 
 not read ; and, in the eloquent denunciation of Michelet, the 
 church had neglected its most sacred duty, the education of 
 the people.' 1 Moreover it spent nothing on education. 
 The Universities were endowed. The primary schools cost 
 little, and that little was provided locally. Secondary 
 education brought in a profit to the teachers. And, what 
 was worse, the church would not allow others to undertake 
 its neglected work. It invariably obstructed popular and 
 genuine education. In 1776, it helped to drive Turgot from 
 office, chiefly because he had contemplated a system of 
 national education under lay control. Even in 1789, it only 
 favoured education so long as it was in clerical hands. 
 
 As to charity, the assistance given by the clerical Order 
 may be inferred from what has been described in the 
 payment of the cures, and the pittances allowed for poor 
 relief out of the abundant tithes. Over and above this, 
 clerical alms-giving amounted to various basins of soup 
 doled out among tramps and idlers at the convent gates : 
 
 1 Debidour, 15-16.
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE XVIIIxH CENTURY 53 
 
 a method of charity, not only insufficient for the misery of 
 the times, but calculated to increase that pauperism which 
 was destroying the whole body politic. 
 
 In the matter of hospitals, of which the clergy had sole 
 charge, there appear to have been about two thousand in 
 a population of twenty-six millions. Only forty million 
 livres were expended on them ; so that not two livres, or 
 less than eighteen-pence, a head, was available for those 
 who required nursing. And of these forty millions, seven- 
 teen were provided by the towns ; leaving twenty-three 
 millions, as the contribution of the clergy, out of their 
 enormous wealth, to this branch of the national necessities. 
 Necker has enlightened us about the want of proper care, 
 the squalor, the insanitary conditions, in which the sick 
 lived or died under clerical management. 1 Education, 
 charity, nursing were thus all in clerical hands, and were 
 all neglected. 
 
 The attitude of the clergy towards the national finances 
 was the culmination of those abuses which accumulated 
 round their Order. This was a corporate, not an individual 
 defect ; but it was caused by a spirit and tradition which 
 are ineradicable from the papal system. The First and 
 the Second Estates, the clergy and the nobles, were 
 privileged in the matter of taxation. The nobles did not 
 escape all their obligations towards the Treasury, as they 
 contributed a small share of the faille, and they paid both 
 poll-tax and twentieths. Like the rest of the nation, they 
 also paid tithes to the clergy. But the First Order escaped 
 scot-free. They received their tithes, and paid nothing. 
 They got all the rent from their own lands, and a large 
 share from the rent of other people's. In the midst of 
 a nation crushed with taxes, they were practically exempt 
 from payment. Even when the condition of the State was 
 desperate, they offered only a grudging and a paltry con- 
 tribution. Whenever there was a question of their money 
 privilege, they^cried aloud, quoted scripture and the Fathers, 
 and complained of sacrilege. Church revenues were avail- 
 
 1 Debidour, 16.
 
 54 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 able for the most profane uses, and individual clergy might 
 use them in the freest way upon their pleasures ; but if 
 they were asked as a corporation to give money for public 
 purposes, their wealth then became the inalienable property 
 of the poor, and clerical expenditure might not even be 
 discussed by laymen. Monseigneur Dillon, the disreputable 
 arch-bishop of Narbonne, spoke thus to Louis the Sixteenth : 
 ' Our conscience and our honour will not let us consent to 
 a change which would convert into a forced tax that which 
 should be the gratuitous offering of our affection.' Under 
 these unctuous phrases, an arrogant claim was dissembled, 
 which amounted to nothing less than a rival sovereignty. 
 In money matters, the church was independent of the 
 crown. It treated with the State as an equal and indepen- 
 dent power. It was a State both within the State, and 
 alongside of it. It could not be taxed, by any national 
 authority ; but it condescended to give occasionally, of its 
 pleasure, a free gift, the amount of which depended solely 
 on itself. Towards the end of the monarchy, which indeed 
 survived the church by a few years, this don gratuit 
 averaged about three million livres a year, some 250,000 ; 
 and this was all the clergy would do for the king or the 
 nation, out of their gigantic revenues, when the State was 
 bankrupt, and nothing but sound finance could have post- 
 poned the Revolution. Even that small contribution was 
 given unwillingly ; and it was compensated either by 
 money concessions of a greater value, or by sterner 
 measures of intolerance against protestants and philo- 
 sophers, or by new privileges and exemptions. Though it 
 was called a free gift, it was never bestowed gratis. In 
 addition, as we have pointed out, the burden fell, not on 
 those who could afford it, but on those who could not. To 
 the high dignitary, his contribution to the don gratuit 
 meant a trifling payment, which he never felt ; but to a 
 curd de campagne or a still poorer vicaire perpdtuel it meant 
 a tenth or a sixth of his inadequate salary. It is no wonder 
 that the lower clergy united with the body of the nation 
 against privilege and tyranny. It was by an historic justice 
 that this alliance produced the Revolution.
 
 THE CHUECH OF THE XVIIIra CENTURY 55 
 
 We have now some conception of that imposing Gallican 
 church, which goes far back into the dim and romantic 
 origins of the monarchy, which was consolidated during 
 the seventeenth century, but only to collapse, without much 
 dignity, at the end of the eighteenth. With all its faults, 
 it has a roll of glorious names ; and, amid all its corruption, 
 individual goodness was able to emerge. The Kings of 
 France performed a real service to Christendom by setting 
 up their church as a material and political barrier against 
 the papacy ; but they only held their ground by exalting 
 the royal prerogative as against the papal absolutism. Like 
 all other French institutions, the church was sacrificed to 
 the crown ; that is, to the national craving for unity and 
 order, of which the crown was for many centuries the 
 instrument and symbol. In the end, the church perished 
 through the decadence and corruption of that authority 
 which alone had maintained it. With regard to the nation 
 itself, the record of the church is not so good. Though 
 it was hostile to the papal encroachments, in its own 
 interests, it too often opposed and thwarted the nation 
 for the same reason. It was not an unifying but a dividing 
 force. Though the church abhors theological schism, it 
 has always been a disintegrating element in politics, from 
 the age of the Antonines onwards ; and its social influence 
 has always been of dubious value to the State. 
 
 In France it was answerable for the League and the 
 religious wars of the sixteenth century ; for the persecutions 
 of the seventeenth ; for the interminable quarrels and the 
 hypocritical intolerance of the eighteenth ; while its re- 
 sponsibility for the excesses of the Revolution can hardly 
 be over-stated. All these deplorable and unpardonable 
 proceedings were due to the alliance of disloyal or timorous 
 Gallicans with Rome. Such people, in times of danger or 
 trouble, clung to the papacy by which they were invariably 
 utilized and then betrayed, instead of trusting generously 
 to their own countrymen. We shall find the same error 
 repeated, with fatal consequences, during the Revolution. 
 The same policy was continued throughout the nineteenth 
 century, under every change of government, and with the
 
 56 CHUBCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 same result; and it is being continued now, -with such 
 results as we shall see. So monotonous is the lesson, and 
 so invariable in its effects, that even the stupidity of a 
 clerical party might have acquired it in less than four 
 centuries of repeated experience and disillusionment. 
 
 In politics, the influence of the French church has not 
 been good, for many centuries. Since the Concordat of 
 Bologna, it has never made for liberty, at least never 
 through its official leaders, but quite the contrary. It is 
 needless, therefore, to say that it has consistently opposed 
 intellectual movements and progress of every kind. Socially, 
 no church except the Spanish has been a more guilty and 
 wretched failure than the Gallicanism of the eighteenth 
 century. Its glories ended in the previous age, with Louis 
 the Fourteenth. Under Louis the Fifteenth it no longer 
 produced genius, but only provoked it. Pascal was able 
 to remain in the church though he was sorely tried. 
 Voltaire was forced out of it, implicitly, by his passion for 
 truth and justice. Though his verdict is sweeping, it cannot 
 be set aside. He described the ecclesiastical system of his 
 day, with its abuses, its odious hypocrisy, its ferocious 
 intolerance, its social injustices, as L'lNFiME. It may be 
 inferred, so far as we may judge from analogy, that the 
 Founder of Christianity would himself have adopted 
 Voltaire's phrase, if he could have re-appeared in the France 
 of Louis Quinze. To the Court, to the prelates, to the 
 religious orders of men and women, he would certainly 
 have said ficrasez I'Infdme; as that was the sum of his 
 message to the worldly prelates and the theological casuists 
 of his own day. 
 
 Before we pass on to the Revolution and the Civil 
 Constitution of the Clergy, there is another accusation 
 against Gallicanism which we must not overlook. In 
 considering the Gallican point of view, we must not forget 
 what is due in justice to the papal. Advocates of the 
 papacy would not arraign the Gallican church for repressing 
 liberty. They would accuse it, on the other hand, of having 
 had too much ; and they would go on to attribute its faults 
 to the curtailing of the papal jurisdiction, and the con-
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE XVIIlTH CENTUEY 57 
 
 sequent lack of discipline. Such reasoning may sound 
 plausible, but it won't bear examination. The chief moral 
 plague of the middle ages was the nominal celibacy of the 
 clergy, because its ill effects re-acted on the whole popula- 
 tion. After this, the two chief clerical vices were pluralities 
 and simony. In each, the papacy was the leading and the 
 most incorrigible offender. Both Rome and Avignon were 
 open markets for the sale of benefices. The Roman church 
 was doing in Italy, and encouraging elsewhere, from the 
 twelfth century onwards, those very things which only 
 reached their height in France towards the end of the 
 seventeenth. Enormous as were some of the pluralities 
 which we have described, they were exceeded by the 
 number and wealth of the many benefices which the Popes 
 accumulated on their relations and favourites. For instance, 
 Calixtus the Third made his youthful nephew Roderick 
 Borgia, the future Alexander the Sixth, a cardinal. He 
 gave and procured him benefices to the amount of 70,000 
 ducats a year. If we estimate the ducat at half a sovereign, 
 his income was 35,000 ; and we should multiply that sum 
 by a figure between twelve and fifteen to represent its 
 current value. 
 
 Again, during the same generation, Julian della Rovere, 
 afterwards Julius the Second, obtained from his question- 
 able relative, Sixtus the Fourth, the arch-bishopric of 
 Avignon, and the six bishoprics of Ostia, Bologna, Lausanne, 
 Constance, Viviers, Mende, besides two rich abbeys. This 
 was the example set by the Popes themselves ; and though 
 their opportunities were curtailed by the Reformation, and 
 perhaps their effrontery was diminished, yet the spirit and 
 practice of the mediaeval Curia were continued until the 
 Revolution swept away Pius the Sixth and the papacy of 
 the old regime. With the restoration of Pius the Seventh, 
 a new epoch begins ; but with that we shall have to deal 
 somewhat later. Pluralities, courtiership, excessive in- 
 comes, and non-residence always produce the same evils. 
 These evils were at their very worst under the personal 
 administration of the Popes, that is in the churches of their 
 own dominions. Similar abuses in the Gallican church
 
 58 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 cannot, then, be attributed to its freedom from papal inter- 
 ference. At any rate, the prizes of the French church went 
 to Frenchmen, and not to Italians. To the influence and 
 support of the papacy, however, we must attribute the 
 political troubles which were too frequently caused or 
 fomented by the church ; and the papacy is implicated in 
 the more serious and fatal consequences which resulted 
 from the open war declared against France by the French 
 hierarchy, even before the Emigration. We may now pass 
 on to that Revolution which was a natural sequence to the 
 abuses of the old regime in church and State. Theocracy 
 and monarchy had both come to a disastrous and a dis- 
 graceful failure. The old regime was bankrupt, and all its 
 authorities were discredited. The new leaders of the French 
 People made an effort to re-build society on reason and the 
 rights of man.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE REVOLUTION 
 1. THE REFOBMATION OP THE OLD REGIME. 
 
 THE seeds of the Revolution were sown by Louis the 
 Fourteenth, who saw his kingdom almost in revolt on 
 several occasions ; and he always feared his capital even 
 more than he disliked it. /The chief causes of its discontent 
 were impoverishment and misery, the consequences of reck- 
 less and in the end disastrous wars, which ruined the sound 
 and constructive statesmanship of Colbert. The burden of 
 war added to the pervading and grinding injustice of the 
 old regime, since it increased that taxation which fell most 
 heavily on those least able to bear it. The accumulation of 
 wealth and power in the hands of the monarch weakened 
 the country both materially and morally, and undermined 
 the bases of local government. The king's mis-use of power 
 deprived the nation of many valuable assets, which cannot 
 be estimated in figures. The dissolution and destruction 
 of Port Royal was a crime ; but the moral decadence of 
 Jansenism was a disaster for the higher life of the nation. 
 The decline from Pascal and Racine to the convulsionnaires 
 who believed in the Abbe Paris is evident. Disastrous, also, 
 was the loss of good citizens and thriving industries which 
 followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the 
 inhuman policy of the Court. (The system, invigorated by 
 Richelieu, elaborated by Louistne Fourteenth, and con- 
 secrated by Bossuet, was grandiose, and for a time effective ; 
 but it had no secure foundation, and was destructive both 
 to church and StateAeven before the opening of the eigh- 
 teenth century. Tne theory of divine right was able to 
 resist papal encroachments. It was, indeed, an appeal to 
 morality and nationality, against the illimitable ambitions 
 of Rome, the pernicious casuistry of her militia, and the 
 disintegrating effects of her policy; but the remedy was
 
 60 CHURCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 only less fatal than the disease, and the history of France in 
 the last century of the old regime bears witness to its evils. 
 
 There is a treatise by Bossuet, La Politique tiree de 
 I'Ecriture Sainte, which is an apotheosis or canonization, 
 not only of the old regime, but of all its inherent vices. 
 ' The king appears in it as a God, whose presence rejoices 
 the people like the Sun, and whose inscrutable wishes must 
 be accepted on bended knees : a God, it is true, rather like 
 the Homeric divinities, liable to every human passion, and 
 too easily inclined to yield.' x This divinity has duties, but 
 he is not accountable to man. His people have no rights 
 against him. All the property of the nation is his, except 
 that of the Levites. Le droit du pretre alone may be opposed 
 to the king, either in moral or material affairs. There are 
 no rights of conscience, except those approved by eccle- 
 siastical authority. ' Those who don't admit that the prince 
 may use force in matters of religion, and the pretence that 
 religion should be free, are guilty of an impious error.' 2 
 And so this bishop builds up his theory, in golden phrases, 
 appropriated from the Jews; and he applies to modern 
 society the methods of an oriental theocracy, aggravated 
 by the relics of a pre-historic barbarism. 
 
 /This catechism of Bossuet may be described as the Sacred 
 Law of the old regime, which had all the political vices of 
 a theocracy. It was based on privilege and favouritism, it 
 culminated in tyranny, and it was compelled to be intolerant. 
 The system became detestable, even under Louis the Four- 
 teenth, who expiated the sins of his own youth by condemn- 
 ing France to hypocrisy and gloom through his closing 
 years.] Some of these evils were increased and aggravated 
 under Louis the Fifteenth, especially the hypocrisy of the 
 ruling ecclesiastics. Persecution is at all times odious ; but 
 the stem logic of a zealot may be explained by his own 
 sincerity. Nothing can excuse the cruelties of those who 
 disbelieve the theories for which they make others suffer. 
 The sceptical abbes, the voluptuous bishops and jesting friars, 
 of the eighteenth century made religion itself intolerable to 
 thinking men. A sceptical clergy made war on books and 
 1 Preesense, L'Eglise et la Revolution, p. 7. 2 Bossuet.
 
 REFORMATION OF THE OLD REGIME 61 
 
 authors. Nearly everything by which France lived intel- 
 lectually had to come through Holland, to avoid theological 
 censures, and the hangman's fire. If paper only were burnt, 
 writers were liable to fines and prison. Though the author- 
 ities believed little enough, the populace were roused easily 
 to fanatical excesses. Even Voltaire was not safe within 
 the frontiers of Louis Quinze ; and he lived in exile until 
 his European fame compelled the respect of the French 
 Court. The tragedies of Galas, of Sirven, and of La Barre, 
 show the intolerance of their persecutors and the peril of 
 those who advocated truth and justice. Intellectual honesty 
 was driven out of the church, and the philosophy of the 
 eighteenth century was rejected by its authorities. While 
 the nation progressed, the ecclesiastics were stationary, and 
 resisted movement in others. They clung to the system of 
 Bossuet and the Grand Monarqite, while other men had been 
 learning from Newton, and Leibnitz, and Locke, and Hume, 
 and Rousseau and Diderot. The winged words of Montes- 
 quieu and Voltaire had spread the teaching of the Encyclo- 
 pedia. The world had gone out to seek for truth, and had 
 come back to nature, as it thought. It had also come back, 
 paradoxical as it may sound, to the Gospel, for there was 
 a great deal of it in the teaching of the eighteenth century. 
 And it was this new adaptation of the Gospel which found 
 itself confronted by the old regime, when the States General 
 met in 1789. 
 
 If Gallicanism had become stronger in its closing years, 
 it had also become more intolerant ; and its last petition to 
 the State was for a greater severity of persecuting laws. ' The 
 Inquisition grows in extent and power,' wrote d'Argenson, 
 in 1752, 'woe betide honest men who don't bridle their 
 tongues ' ; and again, two years later, ' the sacerdotal party 
 have influence enough to make his Majesty a tyrant.' Even 
 Diderot was imprisoned for his opinions. A certain Abbe 
 de Prades was banished for comparing the cures in the New 
 Testament to those of Aesculapius. In 1757, a law was 
 passed sentencing to death authors, printers, and distributors 
 of books even tending to discredit religion. In 1766, La 
 Barre was tortured, beheaded and burnt for ' walking before
 
 62 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 the Host without kneeling or uncovering'. As to protestants, 
 the kings swore to exterminate them at their coronation; 
 and Louis the Sixteenth was exhorted to this intolerance 
 by his anointer. They had no rights in law, and could be 
 legally neither parents nor married people. Their ministers 
 were liable to death ; and those who harboured them, to the 
 galleys. 1 Protestants were forced to observe the innumer- 
 able church holidays by abstaining from their work. This 
 consecrated idleness was a serious burden on trade and 
 labour, and was most oppressive to the peasantry. So far 
 did intolerance go that doctors might not visit the sick who 
 had not called a confessor ; and the irritation caused among 
 the working classes by the enforced billets de confession 
 provoked much of that ominous discontent which heralded 
 the Ee volution. As late as 1774, the bishop of Laon sup- 
 pressed a medical course in the college there as ' dangerous 
 to faith '. 2 The most galling disabilities of the protestants 
 were not removed by the mitigating edict of 1787. The 
 tyranny of the church weighed heavily both on catholics 
 and dissenters, on the living and the dead. Voltaire lived 
 in terror lest his corpse should be outraged, and his first 
 burial was only managed by stratagem and secrecy. In 
 the face of all the evidence it is extraordinary that the 
 Cambridge Modern History should minimize, 3 to say the 
 least of it, the atrocities which were practised under Louis 
 the Fifteenth, and which were only removed when the 
 church had been separated from the State. The last 
 corporate act of the Gallican church was to increase the 
 extent and rigour of its claim to tithes. Under Louis the 
 Sixteenth, it not only demanded the ordinary tithe on 
 cereals, but the lesser tithes (menues dimes), levied on seeds 
 newly imported and cultivated, such as special fodders, 
 millet, and potatoes. The unfortunate peasants went to law ; 
 
 1 All these examples are quoted from M. Champion's Separation de 
 VEglise et de VEtat en 1794, pp. 5-7. They could be added to in multi- 
 tudes by every one who has read French memoirs of the eighteenth 
 century. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 5. 
 
 3 Cambridge Modern History, viii. 56.
 
 REFORMATION OF THE OLD RfiGIME 63 
 
 but the judges were Men pensants, the king was timorous in 
 church matters, and they lost their cases. The clergy 
 demanded and got new decisions in 1783 and 1784 ; so that 
 the burden of tithe, instead of diminishing, increased by 
 several millions * ; and there were 40,000 suits before the 
 Courts when tithes were debated by the National Assembly. 2 
 It was in these moral and material conditions that the States 
 General assembled ; with a groaning country, a discredited 
 administration, and a treasury almost bankrupt. 
 
 The desire of the Court was not for genuine reforms, but 
 only for monetary relief. The emptiness of the treasury 
 alone had compelled it, most unwillingly, to summon the 
 States General, after the lapse of one hundred and seventy-five 
 years, and also after various other expedients had failed. 
 Turgot, who was in office from 1774-76, might have rendered 
 the administration solvent, but he was never in power. The 
 king mistrusted him: he was thwarted and thrown out 
 by the privileged Orders, and especially by the bishops. 
 Necker, an able and an honest man, though not a statesman 
 like Turgot, had a similar fate. The two convocations of 
 Notables, in 1787 and 1788, were useless ; as were the 
 administrations of Calonne and Lomenie de Brienne. The 
 insuperable barriers to reform were always the privileged 
 Orders ; and with them the nation was now resolved to deal, 
 driven by hunger and necessity. On April 28, 1789, occurred 
 the first serious riot in Paris ; and the States General met 
 on the 5th of May, at Versailles. 
 
 The object of the Court was to get supplies from the 
 privileged Orders. To effect this, it doubled the representa- 
 tives of the Third Order ; but it did not take the farther 
 step, which was logical and indispensable, that the three 
 Orders should sit and vote together. After much discussion 
 and many intrigues, the Third Order began business alone. 
 Isolated reformers from the nobles and the clergy joined it ; 
 and in the end, the three Orders coalesced, and the reformers 
 were secure of a majority. On the 17th of June, they turned 
 themselves into the National Assembly, by the 23rd they 
 had united and they became henceforth a fairly homogeneous 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 25. 2 Carnot, Revolution Frangaise, p. 65.
 
 64 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 body, though with many dissentients. These proceedings 
 were most unwelcome to the Court. The sympathies of the 
 king were always with the nobles, and still more with the 
 clergy. In the Queen, he had the worst possible adviser. 
 The bad effects of her temerity and ignorance were aggravated 
 by the insincerity of Louis ; and, as we shall see, every act 
 of popular violence was preceded by a royal act of duplicity 
 or folly. It is the custom to defend Louis the Sixteenth by 
 saying he meant well ; but he meant far from well, if he be 
 judged, as he must, not only by his policy towards the 
 Eevolution, but by his ministerial appointments, and his 
 correspondence with foreign rulers. He was never honest 
 with any of the reformers, using them only as decoys and 
 dupes. He was guilty of treason against the nation, by 
 intriguing with armed enemies. Above all, he was in the 
 hands of the papacy, and of the irreconcilables among his 
 own bishops. His own mendacity, and clerical recklessness, 
 brought him to his fate. Like Charles the First, he was the 
 chief agent in his own execution ; and falsehood was the 
 instrument which effected it. Like Charles, also, he might, 
 under normal circumstances, have gone through life as 
 a blameless man, and a comparatively harmless king. It 
 is true that he expiated the sins of his predecessors, and was 
 not responsible for the system which he inherited ; but he 
 was responsible, to an unforgivable extent, for the fatal 
 issues of the Eevolution. 
 
 Events moved quickly during the first months of the 
 National Assembly. Only three days after it assumed that 
 name, royal violence compelled the members to take the 
 solemn oath of the Jeu de Paume. Farther coercion led to 
 a defiance of the Crown, and the majority were welded into 
 a compact body, zealous for the welfare of the nation. 
 On July the llth, Necker was dismissed for the third time, 
 a reactionary Cabinet was appointed, and soldiers threatened 
 the freedom of the Assembly, if not the lives of the 
 members. To these machinations, Paris answered by taking 
 the Bastile, on the memorable 14th of July. Necker was 
 recalled. Louis was reconciled to his capital, in which 
 a municipality was now established, and the National Guard
 
 REFORMATION OF THE OLD REGIME 65 
 
 was enrolled. In historic words, the Revolution had come. 
 'C'est done une revolte?' dit Louis XVI. au due de Lian- 
 court : ' Sire, c'est une revolution ' ; but so blind was Louis, 
 that the sole entry in his journal for the 14th of July is 
 the word Rien : l nothing has occurred ; yet the capture 
 of the Bastile was a pledge that the nation had thrown 
 down the monarchy of Louis the Fourteenth. Not only 
 France, but all Europe, was filled with joy. 'It is the 
 greatest event in the world,' said Fox ; and the French 
 were pleased to think they had laboured for humanity as 
 well as for themselves. The Revolution was inspired by 
 a passion for universal justice, and it produced a wild out- 
 burst of charity and fraternity. 
 
 The States General contained nominally twelve hundred 
 members, and eleven hundred and ninety-three assembled. 
 There were three hundred each in the First and Second 
 Orders, and six hundred in the Third. Of the nobles, 
 only twenty-eight were of the robe : the remainder were 
 all gentilshommes d'epee. In the Third Order were two 
 hundred and fifty lawyers, sixty magistrates, about two 
 hundred farmers and traders, eighteen maires, sixteen 
 doctors, two ecclesiastics, and eleven nobles. The First 
 Order was represented by forty bishops and thirty-five 
 abbots or canons. The remainder were cures. The great 
 body of the cures, for reasons which we have explained, 
 wished for reform, and sympathized with those who advo- 
 cated it. Their active sympathy made the Revolution 
 possible, and frustrated all the reactionary manoeuvres of 
 the Court. The noblesse were largely Voltairians : that is 
 to say they were deists, but with no prejudice against 
 a reformed and reasonable Christianity, though bitterly 
 opposed to the established, corrupt, and oppressive cleri- 
 calism, the Infdme of their great master. They hoped that 
 ' reform ' would mean the abolition of tithe, and that the 
 national credit would be restored by resuming church 
 property. So far, they were eager to go ; but, beyond that, 
 their plans and aspirations were divided. Few of them 
 wished to abolish their Order. Many of them were willing 
 
 1 Carnot, Revolution Fmnfaise, p. 59. 
 F
 
 66 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 to abate its notorious privileges, and to accept a more 
 equitable position in the State. The majority were opposed 
 to all genuine reform at the expense of their Order. Still 
 more irreconcilable were the higher clergy; and their 
 objections were expressed, as always, in the terms of piety. 
 The lower clergy, almost to a man, were with the Third 
 Order, at first. It was only later that in too many of them 
 the ecclesiastic prevailed over the citizen, and their forces 
 were divided. It is not too much to say that the lower 
 clergy saved the State, at the opening of the Eevolution ; 
 though it must be added that clerical opposition wrecked 
 its fair progress, and provoked its worst violence and tragedy. 
 In the beginning, however, the Eevolution was not only 
 Christian but catholic ; and the majority in all the Assemblies 
 down to 1794 wished that it should remain so. ' Le Tiers 
 et les cures patriotes marchaient la main dans la main, les 
 eglises servaient a des manifestations patriotiques, les pre- 
 miers autels de la patrie furent des autels catholiques, ou on 
 disait la messe.' 1 
 
 It is beyond the scope and the space of this volume to 
 follow the Eevolution in detail. The present enquiry must 
 be limited to its connexion with the church. More general 
 questions will only be recorded so far as they are necessary 
 to show a certain relation of cause and effect, which must 
 not be overlookedif_the church and the Eevolution are to 
 be judged fairly. ]I desire to show, in the first place, that 
 neither the Eevolution nor its leaders were anti-christian, 
 or even anti-clerical. Their deliberate intention was to 
 remove clerical abuses, which were causing the gravest 
 social and political injustice. So far from wishing to destroy 
 or even to dis-establish the church, they aimed at making 
 it more national than it had been, and even more closely 
 identified with the State. They wanted toleration, but no 
 more, for dissenters. There was no question of establishing 
 or subsidizing any religion except that which was recognized 
 in the civil constitution of the clergy. In the second place, 
 I aim at proving that the breach between the clergy and 
 the Eevolution was caused entirely by the former ; and that 
 1 Aulard, Etudes, b me Sdrie, p. 66.
 
 REFORMATION OF THE OLD REGIME 67 
 
 it was their reckless policy which compelled the Revolution 
 to coercive and protective measures. Thirdly, as following 
 from this, it requires no proof, but only a statement of dates 
 and facts, to show that every step towards violence on the 
 revolutionary side was preceded either by a reactionary 
 move of the Court, or by some evident insincerity of the 
 king, or by incitations to civil war and foreign invasion, 
 in both of which the fimigrgs and their clerical allies were 
 persistently engaged. In other words, besides the Revolu- 
 tion, of which we hear so much, there was a Reaction, of 
 which most English readers have heard too little. If there 
 were a reign of Terror, it was provoked in the beginning 
 by the outrages of the clergy and the royalists, whose 
 crimes and excesses were far worse than is usually imagined ; 
 and the fears caused by them were aggravated, not only by 
 the threat, but by the fact, of foreign invasion. In the end, 
 no doubt, the Terror became an orgy of blood, an instru- 
 ment of plunder and private revenge, a struggle of maddened 
 partizans who were themselves in perpetual fear. A great 
 deal in the reign of Terror cannot be excused, though much 
 of its violence can be explained. 
 
 However, we are anticipating evils. At the beginning 
 of the Revolution everything went well. The Assembly, 
 at any rate, was harmonious, and its members could differ 
 with good feeling. It not only produced liberty and 
 inaugurated equality, but nothing was done to disturb that 
 fraternity which was not merely a popular phrase, but 
 a genuine sentiment that for a time united the great 
 majority of the people to one another, and inspired their 
 really marvellous operations of reform. "We are still at 
 the 14th of July. Three days after, with many hesita- 
 tions and much bad counsel, the king went to Paris. 
 'Henry the Fourth re-conquered his people,' said Mayor 
 Bailly to him, 'now the people have re-conquered their 
 king.' Louis wore the tricolore, the new patriotic badge, 
 a blending of the royal white with the now popular blue 
 and red, the old heraldry of Paris. Every one hoped the 
 king had left the reactionaries, and would adhere honestly 
 to the Revolution ; but, on that very day, his brothers emi- 
 
 p 2
 
 68 CHUBCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 grated, accompanied by several bishops and many nobles ; 
 and from various parts of France risings and disorders 
 were reported. It should be noted that emigration and 
 rebellion preceded every actual reform. They were an 
 unprovoked attack on the new order, as neither persons nor 
 property had as yet been threatened. 
 
 The Assembly began by postulating the Rights of Man. 
 All men are born free, and cannot lose their right : class 
 distinctions are merely conventional. Society is an associa- 
 tion to preserve the natural rights of the individual. 
 Sovereignty belongs to the nation, from which all authority 
 is derived and delegated. Individual freedom is only 
 limited by law, that is by the necessary protection and 
 definition of other men's rights and liberties. Law can 
 only forbid what is mischievous to society. Law is an 
 expression of the public will : all citizens have the right to 
 legislate, directly or by their representatives ; and also to 
 fulfil public offices, subject to capacity : there must be 
 equality before the law. Legal processes must be according 
 to law. The law must be reasonable, and never retroactive. 
 Every one is innocent until he be proved guilty ; arrested 
 persons, therefore, have the right to humane treatment. 
 Religious opinions are free, so long as they do not disturb 
 public order. Freedom to think, speak, and print is one of 
 the most valuable rights of man. Police and armed forces 
 are necessary, but can only be used for the general good. 
 To maintain these forces, an equal tax may be levied. Con- 
 sent is necessary for the lawful imposing of taxes. All 
 public servants are accountable to the public. Individual 
 property is inviolable, subject always to public necessity, 
 and that must be determined legally, with a due regard for 
 just indemnities. These principles, which no Englishman 
 can reprobate, virtually condemned the whole existing 
 fabric in church and State. The ' Politique tiree de r^cri- 
 ture ' was not compatible with the Rights of Man. Man- 
 kind had developed beyond the crude theocracies of its 
 youth. The Assembly, therefore, went on to abolish all the 
 privileges and abuses of the old regime, some of which we 
 have exhibited. The new constitution established a limited
 
 REFORMATION OF THE OLD REGIME 69 
 
 monarchy, with a veto also limited by time and circum- 
 stance. There was a single Chamber, which alone could 
 initiate legislation. The nation was to legislate, and the 
 king to administer. 
 
 By defining the Rights of Man, and by deducing from 
 them a renewed system of government, the defects of the 
 old system were thrown into high relief; but the incon- 
 venience of reform was also perceived more clearly by 
 those who were interested in continuing the old abuses. 
 From this time onwards, the opposition of the higher clergy 
 begins to harden. ' Why affirm the Rights of Man,' they 
 said, ' since we all know them ' ; forgetting how this con- 
 fession stultified themselves. 'The Rights of Man are 
 sacred, cela va sans dire ' : anything to prevent a definition 
 or a promulgation of them, which ' an ignorant people 
 would abuse'; forgetting, again, their own culpability for 
 the popular ignorance. Several reformers, Gregoire, Camus, 
 and Mounier among them, urged that the Rights of Man 
 should be supplemented by an exposition of his Duties, 
 a fact which Carlyle seems to have overlooked. This pro- 
 posal was rejected, by 570 votes against 433, not because 
 the Assembly was careless about civic and personal duties, 
 but because the motion was being engineered by the pre- 
 lates so as to cover religious duties, which they said further 
 could apply only to Catholicism. There were similar 
 attempts made over the question of religious toleration, 
 and the mention of a Supreme Being in the preamble of 
 the new constitution. 1 
 
 The taking of the Bastile had stirred popular feeling, 
 throughout the country, against the oppressions of feudalism ; 
 houses were sacked in many places, charters burnt, and 
 game killed. The nobles, largely through fear, renounced 
 their feudal rights, on the celebrated 4th of August, in 
 hopes of saving the more solid part of their possessions. 
 We must not, however, forget the enthusiasm which the 
 Rights of Man produced, and which fired the whole 
 Assembly. ' Let us bring here,' said one of the Deputies, 
 ' these charters which outrage humanity and modesty, and 
 1 Debidour, p. 37.
 
 70 QHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 burn them ourselves on the altar of our country.' Then 
 followed a scene of indescribable emotion. 'Speakers 
 crowded the tribune, each one raising a corner of the dark 
 veil by denouncing an injustice, an abomination, or a scandal. 
 The accusation of the old regime was made publicly by 
 witnesses of its abuses ; or by those who had enjoyed, but 
 refused any longer to mis-use, them. There was a com- 
 petition of generosity. One gave up his manorial juris- 
 diction ; another, his sporting monopoly ; a third, his rights 
 of warren and dove-cotes.' These renunciations were con- 
 fined to the Second Order, the Noblesse. As the First Order 
 sat in dumb silence, the President said he would be sorry 
 to close the sitting before they had expressed their senti- 
 ments. ' This ironical observation forced the clergy to 
 imitate the generosity of the nobles.' Some prelates then 
 spoke, but said more about their droits seigneuriaux than 
 their clerical immunities. Many cures, however, offered to 
 renounce their pay ; but the Assembly refused that sacri- 
 fice, though it agreed to redeem the tithes. The enthusiasm 
 spread from the Assembly to the country. Towns, Provinces, 
 and Corporations also renounced their privileges ; and the 
 accumulated evils of centuries were swept away in a few 
 hours. Common law and equality replaced feudal oppres- 
 sion and privilege. Te Deum was ordered in the churches. 
 Louis was proclaimed the Restorer of French Liberty. 
 Nevertheless, he was writing to one of his arch-bishops, ' I 
 do not give myself up to the delirium which has possessed 
 all the Orders, but which does not affect me. I will never 
 consent to the spoiling of my clergy and nobles. I will 
 never sanction laws that pillage them.' As a matter of fact, 
 he did; but he only yielded to the dangerous temper of 
 the Parisians, on the 23rd of September. Their distrust 
 and irritation, which were due largely to hunger, were 
 aggravated by the proceedings at Versailles, when German 
 and Swiss mercenaries were petted by the queen, and 
 violence was preached openly by the courtiers. On October 
 the 4th and 5th, the starving women of Paris marched to 
 Versailles, and brought the royal family back with them 
 to the Tuileries. Thus the palace of the old monarchy was
 
 KEFOBMATION OF THE OLD KfiGIME 71 
 
 stormed, as well as its prison ; and though Versailles remains 
 as a national monument, it was never again lived in by 
 a King of France. The monarchy of Louis the Fourteenth 
 had indeed fallen, and his heir was held in captivity by the 
 hated Parisians. 
 
 Meanwhile supply was not coming in, and bankruptcy 
 came always nearer. Money had to be produced somehow, 
 and church property seemed the only available and immediate 
 resource. As early as the 6th of August, ten days after the 
 renunciation of privileges, the bishops had tried to undo 
 that infectious generosity, and to delay its consequences. 
 Their mano3uvres only re-opened the whole question, and 
 caused it to be debated exhaustively, with disastrous results 
 from the clerical point of view. It had been voted that 
 tithe should be redeemed, while other abuses, the right of 
 deport, the castiel, pluralities, and annates, were abolished. 
 By asking that the vote should be reconsidered, the prelates 
 re-opened the whole question of tithes, their origin, their 
 validity and nature, their original uses, and the existing 
 mis-use. It was pointed out that, though nominally the 
 tenth, a tithe often rose to a seventh, a sixth, even a third 
 of the cultivator's labour ; that it was ruinous to agriculture, 
 and oppressive to the workers. Again, it was urged that 
 tithe had been granted for the subsistence of the clergy, the 
 maintenance of public worship, and the relief of poverty. 
 From all these uses it had been diverted into the pockets of 
 rich pluralists and absentees, of whom the religious houses 
 were among the worst offenders. Only a bare pittance was 
 given to the country cures who did the parochial work, and 
 even less to the wretched substitutes of the absent impro- 
 priators. From this it followed that the parishioners, who 
 paid tithe ostensibly for the support of their clergy and for 
 church expenses, were burdened still farther by extra pay- 
 ments in order that these obligations might be covered. 
 Looking beyond details, and going back to first principles, 
 the Assembly came gradually to the conclusion that church 
 property was national property; that, when there was 
 a predominant religion, the church was the nation. This 
 was the verdict not of mere laymen and reformers, but of
 
 72 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 Bossuet, who said ' J'entends par Eglise toute la societe du 
 peuple de Dieu ' ; l and, ' The Church of France is the whole 
 body of French believers.' As Mirabeau put it, the domaines 
 of the clergy were to a large extent ' property ill-acquired, 
 excessive, badly employed, manifestly diverted from their 
 proper use '. This was in his great speech on bankruptcy ; 
 and he concluded, that such goods might be resumed lawfully 
 by the State, in its necessity. It might be shown again, 
 from precedents, that this was no new or revolutionary 
 doctrine, but that the kings had invariably acted on it. To 
 deny this conclusion is to deny sovereignty to the State, to 
 make the State inferior to an ecclesiastical corporation, 
 a part of itself, which can only exist and enjoy property 
 under State protection. 
 
 Talleyrand also came forward with a luminous report on 
 the first principles and the financial advantages of the whole 
 measure. He said that the necessities of the country would 
 justify appropriation, subject to a due provision for ministers 
 and public worship. The Assembly discussed the motion 
 from the 10th of October to the 2nd of November, hearing 
 all sides, and looking at it from every point of view. On 
 the 12th of October they made two decisions: that the 
 nation have a right of property in clerical possessions, 
 subject to the maintenance of existing claims; and that this 
 maintenance should be so apportioned that no curd is to 
 have less than 1200 livres a year, about 100 in our terms 
 and values. This act of justice secured a large number of the 
 parochial clergy, as it about doubled their incomes. The 
 bishops resisted. Their aim was not only to keep the wealth 
 which they enjoyed, but almost more to keep their position. 
 Under the old regime, the clergy were an Order, a corporation 
 with vast wealth and privileges, and therefore with great 
 influence. The Revolution would make them individual 
 servants of the State, receiving salaries for services rendered 
 to it. They would be henceforth citizens, instead of belong- 
 ing as formerly to a clerical State alongside the lay State, 
 in many ways independent of it, and in some ways its 
 master. This, even more than the question of property, 
 1 Sermon sur les devoirs des rois : 2 me point.
 
 REFORMATION OF THE OLD REGIME 73 
 
 was at the root of episcopal opposition ; but the battle turned 
 on property, and many Deputies, at the beginning not 
 unfriendly to the clergy, and never wavering in their loyalty 
 to religion, were disgusted by the lowering of religious 
 questions into a financial debate. The various arguments 
 may be reduced to two main points: the clergy were not 
 owners of the church property; and therefore no theory 
 which applied to the rights of individual possession and 
 ownership was applicable to them. Secondly, a broad and 
 clear distinction was made between individual ownership 
 and corporate property. It was shown easily that the latter 
 always has stood, and always must stand, in a different 
 position from the former; that corporations can have no 
 existence, no property, no standing, except by the allowance 
 of the State ; and that States have always maintained a full 
 right, extending to dissolution and appropriation, of deal- 
 ing with corporations and their property. In this case of 
 church property, it was a question not so much of appro- 
 priation as of resumption ; because it was all derived 
 originally from the State or from subjects of the State. It 
 was voted finally on the 2nd of November that the properties 
 of the clergy should be placed at the disposal of the nation. 
 In coming to this decision, the Assembly was following 
 precedents on which the French monarchy had always acted, 
 so far as corporate property was concerned, and the church 
 had never been treated otherwise, in matters of property, 
 than as an ordinary corporation. In the matter of privileges 
 and status, the clergy again were in the same position as 
 other Orders and institutions. They had come down from 
 an older world, which was now obsolete. The ecclesiastical 
 fabric was a survival of feudalism, and it was incompatible 
 with that modern society which was being born through 
 Revolution. It might be added that the new society, and 
 all its conceptions, were much nearer to primitive Christianity 
 than was the feudal church system of the middle ages, or 
 its bastard representative, the church of the old regime. The 
 Assembly which made these changes was no anti-Christian, 
 or even anti-catholic, body. Anti-clerical it may have been : 
 the French have always been anti-clerical. The influence of
 
 74 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 the Philosophers was much less than has been thought. 
 The eighteenth century, more especially in France, was 
 steeped in theology, besotted with it. The quarrels over 
 the bull Unigenitus are one proof of this. The animosity 
 against Jansenists and protestants is another. The struggle 
 for and against the Jesuits is a third. These matters filled 
 the whole kingdom with disturbance for about eighty years, 
 to the exclusion of almost everything else. Out of this 
 theological atmosphere, there did not emerge suddenly an 
 Assembly of unbelievers. The abuses of the church inspired 
 the Philosophers, and feathered the arrows of the satirists ; 
 but the cahiers of all the Orders, and from every part of the 
 country, show that the overwhelming majority were sincere 
 catholics, though also sincere reformers. The Assembly 
 was a fair reflection of the country. The Deputies were 
 thoroughly representative of the nation. The professed 
 enemies of the clergy were very few, and of religion still 
 fewer. The ecclesiastical work of the Assembly was not 
 due to fanaticism, or levity, or innovation. It was due, 
 chiefly, to glaring and intolerable abuses, which were 
 damaging the whole country, and most of all the land. The 
 method of reformation was due, no doubt, to those ideals of 
 social justice, of political freedom, and of reason, which the 
 Philosophers had formulated, and for which the great body 
 of the nation was craving, 
 
 The decision about clerical property involved the fate of 
 the religious houses, and their enormous domains. There 
 had long been a wish that the conventual orders should be 
 suppressed. Many of the convents were obviously useless, 
 too many were mis-used, some were decayed and empty, all 
 were unpopular, especially with the parochial clergy, to 
 whom, as always and everywhere, they were causing infinite 
 loss and trouble. The same arguments which applied to the 
 corporate property of the church applied still more to 
 conventual property. The precedents for dealing with it 
 were more numerous and applicable. Though the convents 
 had some friends, no one could defend them without reser- 
 vations and admissions which were more damaging than the 
 attacks of avowed enemies. A very liberal scale of pensions.
 
 REFORMATION OF THE OLD REGIME 75 
 
 was allowed to existing members. Those who re-entered 
 the world received life annuities of 700 to 1000 livres, 
 according to age. Those who remained in the cloister were 
 formed into communities of not less than fifteen, and 850 
 livres a year was allowed for the maintenance of each person. 
 All orders which studied, taught, or nursed, were preserved. 
 The others were to die out, as their members passed away. 
 It was decreed, on February 23, 1790, that ' the law no 
 longer recognized monastic vows; but that all orders and 
 religious congregations were suppressed, and were to con- 
 tinue suppressed in France, so that no others might be 
 established in the future.' l 
 
 It cannot be repeated too often that these opinions, and 
 the acts which resulted from them, were not new. Religious 
 houses were suppressed by the Kings of France and England 
 in the middle ages. Clerical property was discussed freely 
 in our Parliaments during the fourteenth and fifteenth 
 centuries. It was handled freely in the next century. 
 There were many suppressions from the early years of 
 Louis the Fourteenth onwards. Some interesting drafts, of 
 proposed legislation, exist in the hand- writing of d'Argenson, 
 who died in 1721. A clause forbad that any order should 
 allow its members to profess their solemn vows before the 
 age of five-and-twenty. 'Thus the convents would be 
 emptied, and the kingdom re-populated.' 2 Another clause 
 proposed to take away all the feudal rights of ecclesiastics ; 
 ' which would have diminished law-suits by a third, protected 
 the poorer laity, and bring the church back to its primitive 
 condition.' These proposals were relinquished at the time, 
 but were taken up again in 1766. In that year Louis the 
 Fifteenth declared that 'innumerable abuses have been 
 introduced into the monasteries and religious orders, which 
 are equally prejudicial to discipline, to the public edifica- 
 tion, to the welfare of religion or of the State '.* A com- 
 mission of bishops was appointed, and they delivered their 
 report in 1768. In consequence of it more than a thousand 
 communities were dissolved, and some orders abolished. 3 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 57. * Champion, Separation, p. 39. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 40.
 
 76 
 
 The commission went on under Louis the Sixteenth. As 
 we have mentioned already, the French Jesuits were sup- 
 pressed and banished by Louis the Fifteenth, who, in so 
 doing, was executing condemnations of the Society passed 
 by the Sorbonne in 1564, and by an Assembly of the Gallican 
 church in 1561. Pasquier drew up the severe judgment 
 which was adopted by the University : ' The doings of the 
 Jesuits are full of dissimulation and hypocrisy. . . . Their 
 policy tends to the ruin of the State. . . . Every good 
 Christian and loyal French citizen would not only refuse to 
 admit the Jesuits into the corporation of our University, 
 but would hold that they should be banished, expelled, and 
 extirpated.' 1 
 
 In 1790, the only clerical persons treated with severity 
 were certain Emigres, who were plotting with foreign armies, 
 and their goods were confiscated. The bishops filled the 
 country with disturbance and revolt by their pastoral letters. 
 As they had failed to hinder the resumption of church 
 property, they tried to depreciate its value, by saying the 
 purchasers had no sound title or any security of tenure. 
 This attempt was foiled through large purchases being 
 effected by various municipalities, and by the State taking 
 over all ecclesiastical debts, so that the property might be 
 free from burden or litigation. On the 9th of April, Chasset 
 presented his report on providing for the clergy and public 
 worship. A sum of 133 millions (about 7,000,000 in current 
 value) was set apart for these purposes, and for pensions. 
 It diminished, naturally, as lives fell in ; but the budget of 
 the church amounted to never less than from 85 to 90 
 millions. It was paid by the treasury, like every other 
 department of the public service. And this is what re- 
 actionaries describe as ' plundering the church '. 2 The law 
 was voted on the 14th of April. * Here ends the first 
 part of the work accomplished by this great assembly in 
 matters ecclesiastical. It was a work entirely negative, 
 in the sense that the Constituents limited themselves to 
 destructive legislation ; and entirely political, in the sense 
 that they dealt only with the temporalities of the church. 
 1 Champion, Separation, p. 37. a Debidour, p. 60.
 
 .REFORMATION OF THE OLD REGIME 77 
 
 At the end of one year of revolution, the catholic clergy 
 had ceased to enjoy a monopoly of religion ; it no longer 
 had the rights of a privileged Order; it had ceased to be 
 a corporate proprietor : this triple conquest of the nation, 
 achieved in the name of reason and justice, had been entirely 
 bloodless. The Assembly might have been less rigorous 
 and sweeping in its appropriation. In any case it would 
 have been wiser had it restrained its further action, and 
 deferred its reorganization of the ecclesiastical body. But 
 it wished now to re-construct. By entering into a domain 
 not properly its own, it furnished plausible excuses for 
 rebellion to exasperated enemies, who would otherwise 
 have found no one willing to aid them in restoring a regime 
 of intolerance and privilege, or in recovering their forfeited 
 possessions ; but who were able now to set France in a blaze 
 of civil war, in the name of that spiritual authority which 
 was insulted, as they said, by the new constitution.' * 
 
 M. Debidour's judgment is, as usual, theoretically sound 
 but church and State had been so inextricably united for 
 many centuries that neither could move in any direction 
 without trespassing into the domain of the other. ' What 
 interminable disputes,' Voltaire says, ' whenever one tries to 
 define the boundary between the civil authority and eccle- 
 siastical proceedings. Where is that boundary?' In 
 marriages, registrations of births and deaths, burials, wills, 
 sicknesses, medical affairs, the clergy had either a monopoly, 
 or innumerable pretexts for interfering. D'Alembert mocked 
 at Parliaments revising theological decisions, and asking the 
 advice of theologians about inoculation for small-pox. The 
 very privileges and rights of the clergy involved the entrance 
 of the State into their affairs, for the protection of property 
 and persons. The cdhiers show us again that all France was 
 interested in ecclesiastical questions, and that the clergy 
 themselves did not exclude them from the jurisdiction of 
 the national assemblies. The Third Order of Beauvais, for 
 instance, affirmed that ' Religion is undoubtedly the most 
 important of all matters for the general good. ... A people 
 without religion becomes very soon a people without morality.' 
 1 Debidour, pp. 61-4.
 
 78 CHUKCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 The noblesse of Dourdan wished the king should swear to 
 use all his authority to protect the national religion : and it 
 went on to declare that ' the States General were competent 
 in all matters of ecclesiastical discipline, but not in dogmas '.* 
 The clergy of ifrvreux decreed that ' the re-establishment of 
 ecclesiastical discipline is neither indifferent nor alien to 
 the assembly of the nation ',* and it instructed its deputies 
 to ask the States General for church reforms. The lower 
 clergy complained even more bitterly than the other Orders 
 about the Concordat of Bologna, the exactions of the papal 
 Court, of the bishops, and of the religious orders, and many 
 other abuses, praying for their removal. There was no 
 question, then, of Separation in 1790 ; and, in legislating for 
 the church, the Assembly was acting as all French govern- 
 ments had done, as the nation still wished and expected 
 them to do, and this expectation was shared by that part of 
 the clergy which was in closest touch with the traditions 
 and aspirations of the people. We may now consider that 
 ecclesiastical constitution which the Assembly formulated 
 in 1790-91. 
 
 2. LA CONSTITUTION CIVILE DU CLERGE. 
 
 We have come to a subject which impartial writers have 
 misunderstood, by failing to think it out clearly, and which 
 ultramontanes have distorted with more than their habitual 
 cleverness and pertinacity. The Assembly has been mis- 
 judged in this part of its work, both by friends and enemies 
 of the Revolution : the former charging it with cowardice 
 and hesitation ; the latter accusing it of sacrilege, of spolia- 
 tion, and of dealing with affairs in which it had no com- 
 petence. As to the last charge, we have brought evidence 
 to show that the Assembly was not innovating. It did 
 nothing unprecedented, but followed in the ways already 
 prepared by the Kings of France. It is impossible to over- 
 state the jurisdiction claimed and exercised by Louis the 
 
 1 Champion, p. 58.
 
 LA CONSTITUTION CIVILE DU CLEKGfi 79 
 
 Fourteenth in all church affairs. At Mazarin's death, he 
 ordered that all such business, which had been transacted by 
 the cardinal, should henceforth be managed by himself. 
 He held that the king personified the State, and was there- 
 fore sole proprietor of all national possessions, including 
 church property. He never hesitated to act on these 
 principles. He regulated, and in many cases abolished, 
 the old temporal jurisdiction of the clergy, and assumed 
 their mediaeval prerogatives into his own hands. No bishop 
 could correspond with Eome, except through the king. 
 ' The king is much more head of our church than the 
 Pope,' as Fenelon confessed. This royal supremacy was 
 consecrated by Bossuet in the treatise already mentioned. 
 It was never liked by Rome, and still less approved ; but it 
 was admitted in practice, and it led to no charges of heresy 
 or schism. It was not incompatible with orthodoxy, and 
 it did not exclude France from communion with the 
 Apostolic See. 
 
 We have already given instances from the cahiers of the 
 clergy, that they desired the Assembly to reform in matters 
 ecclesiastical, and they never questioned its competence. 
 These documents might be quoted in scores. From every 
 part of France, the clergy petitioned that the king and 
 the States General should deal with questions of tithe, of 
 re-distributing ecclesiastical property, of suppressing some 
 benefices and changing the administration of others, of 
 re-organizing the clergy, and re-adjusting ecclesiastical 
 boundaries. The clergy of the old regime never challenged 
 the competence of the civil power, and they expected 
 the representatives of the nation to remove ecclesiastical 
 abuses. 
 
 Another source of mis-understanding has arisen because 
 both the nature and the intentions of the Assembly have 
 been examined loosely. It has been called godless, or anti- 
 christian ; whereas, in fact, the great majority were sincere 
 catholics. Again, the Constitution Civile has been described 
 as due to Jansenists ; but it had nothing to do with the 
 controversies between Jansenists and the opponents of 
 Jansenism. Certainly it was Gallican ; but the whole church
 
 80 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 of France was Galilean, as against ultramontanism. It was 
 merely a device of reactionaries, and it has since become 
 a necessity for ultramontanes, to distort the truth, and to 
 libel the representatives of historical French Catholicism 
 as Jansenists. Most English writers have not grasped the 
 elementary fact that, though the French were catholics, they 
 were not papists. The Catholicism of old France is incom- 
 patible with the ultramontanism, the Vaticanism, which 
 passes for Catholicism at present. 
 
 Further, the Assembly did not intend to separate the 
 church from the State. No one in those days, not even the 
 Philosophers, had ventured on such a notion as practicable ; 
 though isolated thinkers, here and there, may have fore- 
 seen it as desirable and inevitable. ' The Constituents were 
 as little able to decree Separation as to light their sittings 
 with electricity.' l Separation was not thought of either by 
 the deputies or their electors ; so we cannot blame them for 
 not effecting it. The notion was only reached gradually, 
 unwillingly, after sad experience, when papal and episcopal 
 intractability had made a breach between the Eevolution 
 and the church. The Constituent Assembly did not go 
 farther than a passive toleration. Opinion was to be free 
 under the new regime, subject to the requirements of law 
 and order ; but toleration did not imply the equality of all 
 religions, or the state recognition of any religion except 
 that one which was professed by the nation as a whole. 
 The Assembly desired to make the State religion more 
 national than it had been, if that were possible. ' If the 
 State severed the ancient relations between the church and 
 itself, it must, to a large extent, leave the church to manage 
 its own affairs,' says Dean Kitchin ; a but that severance is 
 just what the State did not intend, and still less did the 
 church desire it. The State intended to reform the church, 
 and to abolish the papal institution of bishops which was 
 only introduced by Francis the First, but it did not wish to 
 sever the connexion. It intended to do precisely what 
 Henry the Eighth did, plus toleration for non-conformists. 
 
 1 Champion, p. 123. Encycl. Brit. ix. 601.
 
 LA CONSTITUTION CIVILE DU CLERGfi 81 
 
 So far the world had moved in two centuries, bui not 
 farther. 
 
 Having dealt with the initial errors and confusions which 
 adhere to this subject, and which theological controversy 
 has aggravated, we may pass on to the Constitution itself. 
 An ecclesiastical commission of fifteen members had been 
 appointed in August 1789 ; and fifteen more were added in 
 February 1790, when the Assembly was confronted by the 
 church problem. Of the new fifteen, seven were clerics and 
 eight were canon lawyers. Out of the thirty, ten were 
 clergymen. There were no Philosophes on the commission. 
 All the members were catholics. There was a minority of 
 ultramontanes, but they were a minority in the church and 
 the country. The Gallican majority had no wish to do 
 anything contrary to the catholic faith, as it had been held 
 and practised in France. The commission was fairly repre- 
 sentative of the nation ; if it erred, it was in being too 
 clerical. By the very title of their report, the Civil Con- 
 stitution of the Clergy, they showed that they had no desire 
 to touch spiritual matters, but that their only aim was to 
 regulate, on behalf of the nation, the relations between the 
 clergy and the lay authorities ; to bring the church into 
 harmony with the new institutions. For the commission, 
 as for the whole Assembly, their reforms were concerned 
 only with temporalities. Neither religion nor theology was 
 in question. It was both the right and the duty of the 
 State to deal with all matters of discipline and funds. In 
 the opinion of all schools in those days, of unbelievers as of 
 believers, religion was a public service, which the State 
 must administer, under legal sanction. The system and the 
 whole spirit of the old regime implied this. The principle 
 was inherent in those privileges which the clergy had 
 enjoyed. 'Qui dit protection, dit controle, et jusqu'a un 
 certain point direction.' l Voltaire had said ' Le Prince 
 doit etre maitre absolu de toute la police ecclesiastique, sans 
 aucune restriction'; 2 and in his Philosophical Dictionary 
 he goes more into detail, applying his principle to all 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 64. 2 La Voix du Sage.
 
 82 CHUKCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 matters of public worship. 1 The Assembly did not per- 
 ceive, as yet, that the Declaration of Rights, by its admission 
 of tolerance, involved logical changes in the older theory. 
 What I wish to establish is that the Assembly was following 
 French precedents; that representatives of old France, 
 differing as widely in many ways as Voltaire and Bossuet, 
 were agreed about the relations which had existed, and 
 should exist, between church and State. It might be added, 
 farther, that no one who accepts the legislation of Henry 
 the Eighth and Elizabeth has a right to object to anything 
 in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. 
 
 The Assembly, it may be, did not recognize that over and 
 above matters of dogma and matters of discipline, which 
 can be separated, there are matieres mixtes, half spiritual, 
 half temporal, which cannot be wholly disentangled ; and 
 that, theoretically, it would have been better to come to an 
 agreement about them with the ecclesiastical authorities 
 before legislating definitely; but there were insuperable 
 difficulties, which made that solution impracticable. Many 
 of the bishops were Emigres : most of them were hostile to 
 the Revolution. The Emigre bishops were plotting with 
 foreign armies, or intriguing at Rome. Those who remained 
 in France were stirring up revolts and inciting the populace 
 to civil war. By pastorals and newspapers, they fomented 
 trouble. They paid and encouraged mob violence. Pro- 
 cessions were organized, and pilgrimages revived. Religion 
 was described as persecuted ; and the king, as a martyr. 
 Miracles were not omitted: weeping virgins and winking 
 Christs expressed their disgust at the Revolution, or their 
 sorrow at the destruction of the old regime. ' On embri- 
 gadait les mendiants et les vagabonds.' Massacre was 
 preached, and battle waged. Three hundred persons were 
 killed in a three days' combat among the streets of Nimes. 2 
 
 Above all, it was against every precedent, and a violation 
 of the Gallican principles, to settle national affairs by means 
 of the Pope. The French never have allowed, and probably 
 never will allow, foreign interference about the details of 
 their national affairs. The supporters of the Constitution 
 1 Art. Droit canonique. 2 Debidour, p. 67.
 
 LA CONSTITUTION CIVILE DU CLERGfi 83 
 
 asked if the Pope could be anything more in the eyes of 
 Frenchmen than bishop of Rome : 1 that is, according to 
 Gallican principles, they acknowledged his primacy, but 
 would not admit his jurisdiction into France. Besides, 
 Pius the Sixth had already shown himself implacable 
 towards the changes in France, before the Revolution had 
 shown any hostility to the church. He was as hostile to 
 the Revolution as were the French bishops. There was no 
 issue this way, and no help to be expected from either papal 
 or episcopal authority. The Assembly alone had to legis- 
 late for the country in the externals of religion. Every 
 Anglican must allow that its action was both excellent and 
 lawful. 
 
 The Constitution was presented by Martineau, its reporter, 
 on the 29th of May, 1790, and was debated for many 
 weeks. Some of the reactionaries moved that it should 
 be referred to a national synod ; others, that negotiations 
 should be opened with Rome. The Assembly rejected both 
 proposals, and considered the measure until the 12th of July, 
 when it was adopted, as an organic law of the new constitu- 
 tion. It was amended in detail until the 24th of August ; 
 but few changes were made in Martineau' s report, except 
 to ensure that the national church should be administered 
 independently of Rome. The document was arranged under 
 four heads. The first is entitled * Des Offices Ecclesiastiques' . 
 Article 1 ordains that each Department shall form a single 
 diocese, and each diocese shall coincide with a Department. 
 The episcopal cities of the 83 Departments are enumerated 
 in Article 2. All other bishoprics are suppressed. The 
 title of arch- bishop is abolished ; but, instead, ten metro- 
 politan areas were organized, of which the capitals were 
 Rouen, Rheims, Besan9on, Rennes, Paris, Bourges, Bordeaux, 
 Toulouse, Aix. Lyon. Article 3 enumerates the dioceses 
 which are subordinated to each metropolis, giving an 
 average of eight Departments to every metropolitan area. 
 Article 4 says ' II est defendu a toute eglise ou paroisse de 
 France, et a tout citoyen fransais, de reconnaitre en aucun 
 cas et sous quelque pretexte que ce soit Pautorite d'un eveque 
 1 Briand, Rapport, p. 45. 
 Q 2
 
 84 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 ordinaire ou metropolitain dont le siege serait etabli sous 
 la domination d'une puissance etrangere, ni celle de ses 
 delegues, residant en France ou ailleurs; le tout sans pre- 
 judice de 1'unite de foi et de la communion qui sera entre- 
 tenue avec le chef visible de 1'figlise universelle, ainsi qu'il 
 sera dit ci-apres '. This Article did not apply exclusively 
 to the Pope. There was much confusion among the old 
 dioceses, which had not been altered with political changes. 
 Some French parishes were in foreign dioceses, and thus 
 foreign bishops were exercising jurisdiction in France. 
 Article 5 : The only appeal from the bishop and his synod 
 shall be to the metropolitan. The remaining Articles of the 
 first Head or Chapter may be condensed. In each diocese 
 the cathedral is also a parish church, of which the bishop is 
 cure, assisted by vicaires who with the superior and the 
 three professors of the seminary shall form his council, with- 
 out which he cannot act. Every town of less than 6,000 
 inhabitants shall form one parish. In the country, the 
 bishops and the Departmental authorities shall re-arrange 
 the parishes. All offices and titles except those of bishops 
 and cures are abolished. 
 
 The Second Chapter, on the ' Nomination aux Benefices ', 
 ordered that popular election should be the sole method of 
 appointment for bishops and cures. The election of bishops 
 is to be on the same basis as for the Departmental councils. 
 It must take place on Sunday, in the principal church of 
 the Department, after mass, at which all the electors must 
 be present. Only cures of fifteen years' standing in the 
 active ministry are eligible. The king must be notified of 
 the election. Within a month the elected bishop must come 
 to his metropolitan, or to the senior bishop of the metro- 
 politan area, for confirmation. He is then instituted if his 
 faith and morals be satisfactory. Article 18 : ' L'eveque a 
 qui la confirmation sera demande'e ne pourra exiger de 1'elu 
 d'autre serment sinon qu'il fait profession de la religion 
 catholique, apostolique et romaine.' Article 19 : ' Le nouvel 
 eveque ne pourra s'adresser au pape pour en obtenir aucune 
 confirmation ; mais il lui ecrira comme au chef visible de 
 1'Eglise universelle, en temoignage de 1'unite de la foi et de
 
 LA CONSTITUTION CIVILE DU CLEEGfi 85 
 
 la communion qu'il doit entretenir avec lui.' The rule for 
 consecration is similar to the Articles about election and 
 confirmation. The consecrator is the metropolitan or the 
 senior bishop, assisted by the two nearest bishops of the 
 metropolitan area. Before consecration, the bishop must 
 swear fidelity to his pastoral duty and to the laws. The 
 bishop may choose his cathedral vicaires from the diocese, 
 but his choice is limited to priests with ten years of service. 
 He can only remove them with the assent of his council. 
 Curds are to be elected on the basis of the commune or 
 administrative district, and with the same procedure as for 
 bishops. Only priests with five years' service are eligible. 
 Institution must be by the bishop, after the due safeguards 
 and formalities. Cures must take the same oath as the 
 bishops. Cures may choose their vicaires, but only from 
 the diocesan clergy. They can only remove them ' pour les 
 causes legitimes ', approved as such by the bishop and his 
 council. In other words, popular election for responsible 
 office ; choice by superiors of subordinates, but with due 
 protection for the latter after the choice has been made. 
 
 Chapter Three deals with the salaries of ministers. Their 
 support is undertaken by the nation. They are also pro- 
 vided with lodging. The bishop of Paris is paid 50,000 
 livres. In towns of fifty thousand people, and over, the 
 bishop has 20,000 livres. Other bishops have 12,000. Cure's 
 in Paris get 6,000; in towns of fifty thousand people, 
 and over, they receive 4,000 ; in towns over ten thousand, 
 3,000 livres ; and so on in a graduated scale, measured by 
 population, down to 1,200 livres, which is the lowest salary 
 for a cure". Vicaires range from 2,400 livres to 700. The 
 cathedral vicaires get from 6,000, in Paris, to a couple of 
 thousand in towns of less than 50,000 persons. Salaries are 
 payable quarterly, and in advance. There is no recovery 
 against a cleric or his heirs if he die or resign before the 
 end of a quarter. During vacancies, salaries are paid into 
 a common fund, to provide pensions. Cure's who are inca- 
 pacitated by age or illness may either have an extra 
 vicaire at the legal salary, or take that salary as a life 
 pension. Chaplains, almoners, the officials of seminaries,
 
 86 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 and other non-parochial workers, may draw a pension of 
 800 limes. 
 
 The last Chapter enforces clerical residence ; a matter 
 which had been scandalously neglected under the old 
 rdgime. 
 
 A. farther decree was passed, supplementing the Con- 
 stitution, and providing for all those who were dispossessed 
 by the new laws, or the re-arrangement of dioceses and 
 parishes. Bishops whose former revenues had exceeded 
 12,000 livres received half their income, up to 30,000. Cures 
 had the same terms up to 6,000. Former abbes, canons and 
 priors received pensions varying from 1,000 to 6,000 livres. 
 ' The nation thus behaved royally to the personnel of the old 
 regime, for which it had no farther use, and which had so 
 long outraged the misery of the people by its luxury and 
 idleness. It believed it had earned a right to expect some 
 recognition for its moderation and generosity.' l 
 
 It may now be helpful to give the Instruction which 
 was issued with the Constitution, as it explains clearly the 
 intentions of the legislators and the limits within which 
 they recognized their lawful competence. 
 
 ' The representatives of the French people, attached firmly 
 to the religion of their ancestors, to that catholic church of 
 which the Pope is visible head on earth, have put in the 
 first place among the expenses of the State that which is 
 due to its ministry and worship. They have respected its 
 dogmas, and assured a continuance of their teaching. Con- 
 vinced that the catholic faith and doctrines are derived 
 from an authority superior to man, they know it is not in 
 their power to tamper with them, nor to innovate in what 
 is wholly spiritual. They know that God himself has 
 established that faith, and commissioned his pastors, for the 
 guidance of souls, to give that help which religion assures 
 to men, to continue the succession of the ministry, to illu- 
 minate and guide human consciences. 
 
 ' But while the National Assembly is penetrated with these 
 great truths, to which it has done formal homage whenever 
 they have been mentioned within it, the Constitution which 
 1 Debidour, p. 75.
 
 LA CONSTITUTION CIVILE DU CLERGfi 87 
 
 the people has demanded requires the promulgation of new 
 laws about the civil status of the clergy. It is therefore 
 necessary to settle their external and material relations 
 with the political institutions of the country.' 1 
 
 And then the document goes on to explain that in a new 
 order of equality, justice, and the public advantage, it was 
 necessary to suppress many privileges and abuses, to sup- 
 press many obsolete and useless offices, and equally necessary 
 to establish election and free discussion as the bases of the 
 new Constitution. 
 
 Such is the famous Civil Constitution of the Clergy, as it 
 left the hands of the Assembly to be worked out in practice. 
 Few measures, even in the sphere of theological disputes, 
 have been so fiercely attacked or so feebly defended. From 
 Anglican attacks, it has the best right to be immune ; for it 
 does not differ from our own establishment in principle ; 
 and such differences as there are in detail seem to me 
 wholly in favour of the French solution of the interminable 
 controversies between church and State, at any rate in the 
 present conditions of the modern world. Instead of being 
 nominated by the Crown, as with us, the French bishops 
 were to be elected; in parochial appointments, election 
 takes the place of royal and private patronage. Promotion 
 was to be by merit, judged from the length and quality of 
 service. The junior clergy were chosen by their superiors, 
 but were only removable after due consideration and a fair 
 judgment. Both parishioners and ministers were protected 
 in this delicate matter. It was intended, wisely and properly, 
 that the cathedrals should attract and secure the superior 
 clergy in each diocese. The same wise provision was made 
 for the teaching staff of the seminaries. The abuses of the 
 ol&regime, both in France and England, justify the limita- 
 tion of a bishop's personal authority by an experienced 
 board of councillors. The exposures and animadversions of 
 our own late Royal Commission show that the need of 
 advice and control did not end with the old regime. They 
 were never more wanted than in these days of increasing 
 prelacy. Finally, the Constitution Civile provided a fair and 
 1 Aulard, fitttdes, 5 me sirie, p. 68.
 
 88 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 sufficient scheme of pensions for retirement through old age 
 or sickness. The legislation of the Assembly would have 
 secured competent and efficient ministers, besides protecting 
 the interests of both clergy and people. 
 
 The English church has always boasted that it is ' primi- 
 tive ' ; but in many essential points the church of France, as 
 re-organized by the Revolution, had a better right to that 
 misused epithet. It shows a symmetry of organization and 
 an equity of administration to which we can lay no claim. 
 The renewed French church was perfectly adapted to the 
 institutions and principles of the renewed society ; and it 
 was organized, with equity and logic, for the existing needs 
 of the population. In both of these matters, our own 
 church leaves very much to be desired ; and whenever it 
 has acted, it has been behind the times. Its diocesan and 
 parochial organization are never adapted quickly enough 
 to actual circumstances ; and the whole machinery of the 
 church is unsuited to modern methods and aspirations. It 
 is an English habit to decry French legislation as theo- 
 retical, or unpractical ; but the National Assembly devised 
 a church more primitive in many ways than any now 
 existing, and thoroughly adapted to the existing wishes and 
 institutions of their country. They knew how to retain, 
 and even to revive, ancient customs without binding their 
 church hand and foot in the fetters of an obsolete legalism, 
 or keeping its eyes fixed on a past which never can be 
 revived and is inevitably mis-conceived. 
 
 With regard to the Pope, the Civil Constitution would 
 not recognize any papal jurisdiction in France, though it 
 secured courteous relations with the Roman patriarch, and 
 a formal communion with him as the bond of unity among 
 the churches. Here, again, it approached nearer than we 
 do to customs and traditions which are so early that it 
 is pedantic to ignore them. It was thoroughly sound both 
 in what it allowed to the Apostolic See, and in what it 
 withheld from the papal Curia. Besides being primitive 
 again in this matter, it was thoroughly Gallican. 
 
 As we have seen, the institution of French bishops by the 
 Pope was an innovation, secured by Leo the Tenth in the
 
 LA CONSTITUTION CIVILE DU CLERGfi 89 
 
 Concordat of Bologna. In other ways, the Constitution Civile 
 did not go beyond the practice of the monarchy during the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Saint-Simon, who 
 knew the old administration, says 'It was never allowed 
 that any bishop or ecclesiastic should write about any matter 
 to the Court of Rome, nor receive letters from it, without 
 express leave of the King in each instance ; and the Secretary 
 of State for foreign affairs must always see the correspond- 
 ence, and be in a position to comment on it. Otherwise, 
 correspondence with Rome was criminal ' ; l so jealous was 
 France of papal encroachment, and so carefully had the 
 Vatican to be watched. 
 
 The ultramontanes of 1790, like the ultramontanes of 
 to-day, revile the Constitution. The Emigre bishops and 
 the suppressed dignitaries relied on the Vatican to combat, 
 and if possible to undo, the Revolution. Their reasons 
 explain themselves. Modern ultramontanes are forced to 
 dislike the Constitution, because it stultifies their present 
 positions and beliefs. So also does Gallicanism. They 
 write, always, as though Gallicanism had been an innovation 
 upon a pre-existing ultramontanism ; whereas the precise 
 contrary is true. The papal claims and jurisdiction have 
 grown continually. They are the innovation. Gallicanism 
 bears witness to a church system which preceded them, and 
 which was gradually disintegrated by the papacy and its 
 instruments the religious orders. There was no doubt in the 
 mind of old France as to its relations with the papacy. 
 * The French nation has not broken the bonds which held it 
 a captive in its own territory only to submit itself after all 
 to a foreign power. Has it only raised its head above other 
 nations in order to cringe before the bishop of Rome ? And 
 our church, which is glorious for having always maintained 
 its liberties against ultramontane encroachments, is it going 
 to lose that freedom at the very moment when the nation 
 has vindicated its liberties ? Our fathers have the glory of 
 preserving some relics of liberty in the Gallican church ; 
 and we, are we to abandon these liberties by declaring we 
 can accomplish nothing valid or good except by leave of the 
 
 1 Quoted by Champion, p. 142.
 
 90 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 Pope ? ... If the Assembly should ask for the papal assent, 
 or should recognize the necessity of doing so, it would strike 
 a mortal blow at the freedom of the Grallican church.' * So 
 Camus spoke in the Assembly, in November 1790. He bears 
 witness to the past, and was a true prophet of the future. 
 The Concordat of Napoleon, which only differed in principle 
 from the Constitution Civile by admitting the papal jurisdic- 
 tion, has led to an utter destruction of the Gallican liberties, 
 as the old regime had received them and handed them on. 
 
 Firm as the Assembly was in maintaining the immemorial 
 positions against the papacy, it was equally firm in preserv- 
 ing the historical Catholicism of the French people. So far 
 from being irreverent or reckless innovators, the Constituents 
 might have been a society of ecclesiologists. They clung to 
 antiquity with a nervous fear, and were almost as timid as 
 an English Convocation. ' Assuredly they sometimes relied 
 upon strange authorities. It makes us impatient when we 
 hear them chatter without ceasing of what was done among 
 the African churches of the fourth and fifth centuries ; when 
 we find them discussing the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of 
 Alexandria; or founding arguments on the legend that 
 Peter (sic) presided over a council in Jerusalem. We forget 
 that this dubious or spurious erudition, that these disserta- 
 tions so tedious to ourselves, were not out of harmony with 
 the cause which they had to defend. It was necessary they 
 should prove they were not falling into heresy : Hence their 
 tenacity in searching for examples out of a distant antiquity, 
 in establishing precedents, in showing that they were only 
 reviving usages which were practised formerly, and con- 
 secrated by high authorities." 2 As Martineau said, in his 
 report, 'The catholic, apostolic and Eoman religion is 
 unalterable. It cannot change its rules of faith. If it 
 require the pruning hand of legislation, it can only be for 
 its external discipline ; and even in this your Committee 
 does not take upon itself to innovate. Its plan of reforma- 
 tion consists only in returning to the discipline of the 
 primitive church.' 
 
 This was the temper, and these were the utterances of the 
 1 Champion, p. 8. 2 Ibid., p. 138.
 
 LA CONSTITUTION CIVILE DU CLERGfi 91 
 
 Assembly which drew up the Civil Constitution of the 
 Clergy. From an Anglican point of view, they are irre- 
 proachable. I have proved, surely, that the Assembly was 
 not violent or Jacobinical in its proceedings. Neither can 
 it be described truly as Jansenist. It made a logical applica- 
 tion of those principles by which the Gallican church had 
 been administered for many centuries. To sum up shortly, 
 it effected a piece of legislation in complete agreement 
 with the national traditions, and equally well adapted to 
 the necessities of the time. It substituted a body of clergy, 
 well paid by the State, and chosen so far as possible fairly, 
 for ' une collectivite d'hommes vivant du commerce de leurs 
 croyances '* It is undeniable that the Constitution improved 
 the whole state of the parochial clergy. It gave them ade- 
 quate pay ; it ensured them a sufficient pension ; it secured 
 them a fair chance in their profession. The bishoprics were 
 no longer the monopoly of nobles, but were open to merit. 
 In spite of all these advantages, and of its theoretical sound- 
 ness, the Constitution was a miserable failure. 
 
 The fault was not with the Constitution itself, nor with 
 the clergy who accepted it, nor with the majority of the 
 nation, but with the old episcopate directly, with their dupe 
 the king and their tool the Pope indirectly; with those 
 among the lower clergy whom they were able in the long 
 run to frighten, and with such of the people as they managed 
 by all these influences to deceive. The Assembly hoped 
 it had made a concordat between Catholicism and liberty. 
 In July 1790, it celebrated the feast of the Federation, when 
 Talleyrand and three hundred clergy prayed before the 
 altar of patriotism for the blessing of heaven on the con- 
 stitutional work of the Revolution. The King, the Deputies, 
 the National Guards, all Paris, and the whole of France by 
 its representatives, were present. On that happy day ' one 
 might imagine for a passing hour that the old regime had 
 abandoned its regrets and laid aside its bitterness. A breath 
 of fraternity passed through the multitudes : but it passed, 
 merely ; and the celebration of national concord was hardly 
 finished when there broke out in all quarters that inexpiable 
 1 Briand, Rapport, p. 42.
 
 92 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 war of which even the remembrance, after a whole century 
 is told, still inflames French hearts with anger, controversy, 
 and hatred \ l 
 
 The re-constituted church was more successful and popular 
 at first than is usually supposed. Only five bishops en- 
 couraged it out of one hundred and thirty-five ; but the 
 prelates were nobles as well as ecclesiastics, and they were 
 opposed to everything done by the Revolution. Their class 
 prejudices were aggravated by their personal losses as feudal 
 and ecclesiastical dignitaries. Of the lower clergy, a con- 
 siderable majority accepted the constitution at first, and 
 began to work under it. The great bulk of the population 
 was friendly and satisfied, until they were incited to re- 
 bellion. It was not long before troubles were produced. 
 There were disputes between the clergy who repudiated the 
 Constitution, and the new intruded clergy, as they were 
 called, who accepted it; and these clerical disputes soon 
 caused factions and riots among their various partizans. 
 Even more obstinate was the resistance of the old bishops, 
 who ignored the law, and continued to act in their former 
 dioceses. In November, the Assembly ordered that all 
 clergy among its members should take an oath of civic 
 obedience, and in January 1791 the oath was required from 
 ecclesiastics throughout France. This oath is generally 
 described as an acknowledgement of the Civil Constitution, 
 and it was so mis-represented by the reactionaries. 'Le 
 serment des pretres n'est que le serment civique. C'est ce 
 serment qui centre 1'attente des legislateurs est devenu le 
 pretexte des troubles.' 2 The country was divided between 
 those who took the oath, and those who refused ; or, if we 
 may borrow a term from our own Revolution, into Jurors 
 and Non-Jurors. 
 
 Except by partizans of reaction, no harm was suspected at 
 first in the civic oath. M. fimery, whose honesty is beyond 
 suspicion, went into the whole question with the staff of 
 Saint- Sulpice. He examined ministers and deputies about 
 their intention when framing the law. He concluded the 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 76. 
 
 2 Champion, pp. 164, 165.
 
 LA CONSTITUTION CIVILE DU CLERGfi 93 
 
 oath was lawful, and took it. l His example was followed 
 by most of the Parisian clergy. It was so difficult to say 
 what was unorthodox in the oath, that Maury has to confess 
 ' its perfidy is evident, since it seduces even the elect '. 
 Like the errors in Quesnel's book, its heresy was intangible 
 to experts, and quite invisible to lay observers. 
 
 3. THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Revolution intended to 
 be Christian, and that its moving spirits never suspected 
 there would be any quarrel between religion and liberty. 
 It is indisputable, in my opinion, that France wanted both 
 the Revolution and religion. Even when there was war 
 between them, the great mass of Frenchmen would not 
 recognize their incompatibility, and clung obstinately to 
 both. 
 
 We have now to examine that warfare, and if possible to 
 explain its real causes. As the Reformation produced a 
 counter-Reformation, which was unscrupulous in its methods 
 and murderous in its results, so the Revolution led to 
 a counter-Revolution, which is chiefly responsible for the 
 Terror and all the other excesses with which the movement 
 of 1789 has been, and still is, so unjustly, charged. We are 
 justified in holding, with the best authorities, that the 
 alliance between the Third Order and the lower clergy 
 made the Revolution possible. A similar impartiality forces 
 us to say that an alliance between the Emigre nobles and 
 the higher clergy fomented and organized the counter- 
 Revolution. The parties to this alliance were all aristocrats, 
 with the natural prejudices. of their class, and irritated by 
 what they held to be injustice and spoliation. Into the 
 merits of that question, we need not enter. Perhaps our 
 sketch of the old regime is a sufficient apology for the 
 Revolution. For my own part, I acknowledge frankly that 
 I hold with the Roman lawyers, when they pronounce the 
 salvation of the State supreme over all ordinary law. The 
 
 1 Champion, p. 160.
 
 94 CHUKCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 French State was manifestly foundering. It was over- 
 weighted and top-heavy with those privileged Orders who 
 had for too long enjoyed the spoils of their country. If 
 there be any question of restitution or compensation, it is 
 owing not to but from those who had exhausted the 
 prosperity as well as the patience of the nation. By their 
 sacerdotal character, which gave them so many opportunities 
 of influence and mischief, those nobles who were also 
 ecclesiastics were able not only to rouse the French popu- 
 lation in many districts, but to utilize the Vatican, and 
 all its influence abroad, in their crusade against French 
 liberties. 
 
 Trouble had been brewing for a long while. The Emigra- 
 tion began in July 1789, before any property or privilege 
 had been touched. From that time onwards, foreign govern- 
 ments were incited against France, and the bishops excited 
 popular feeling in the country. The king, unfortunately, 
 lent his ear to the reaction, while professing to accept the 
 Revolution. He went so far in his dalliance with armed 
 foreign intervention, that he cannot be absolved from 
 treachery to France. As the French army was officered 
 and administered solely by nobles, who were all hostile to 
 the Revolution, it is not surprising that the rank and file 
 mis-trusted their officers, and that the patriots had every 
 cause to mis-trust the army as an instrument of royalty and 
 reaction. This feeling was aggravated by the employment 
 of Swiss and German mercenaries about the person of the 
 king. If Louis cannot be absolved from treason against his 
 country, he could, alas, be absolved far too easily from 
 his engagements to the nation. That odious and perfidious 
 weapon, which destroys all public morality and personal 
 confidence, was utilized by the reactionary bishops. They 
 persuaded the dull and timid mind of Louis that he might 
 promise anything to save himself in his necessities, and 
 that their absolution would loose him from his obligations. 
 In a letter dated September 1792, the writer says ' The king 
 would not have dared to break his word, if the clergy had 
 not assured him of pardon and absolution. The nobles 
 would not have gone crusading, if the clergy had not
 
 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 95 
 
 preached a crusade. The Prussians and Austrians would 
 not have attacked us if they had not known that we were 
 divided into factions by the priests.' l Such were the tactics 
 of the reactionaries with the unfortunate king. They did 
 not hesitate to bring forward violent and irritating pro- 
 posals in the Assembly, so that the Revolution might be dis- 
 credited. "Writings might be quoted in which reactionaries 
 boasted that they had incited the Jacobins, impeded the 
 moderates, and urged the Revolution to extremes. 1 One of 
 these writers admits that everything possible had been done 
 by intrigues and plots, and calumnies, and bribes, to cause 
 atrocities and crimes of every sort. 1 He thinks ' there may 
 be some exaggeration when these boasters assert that by 
 means of foreign gold they secured the death of Louis, so 
 that the Revolution might perish with him.' 1 Similar 
 accusations were made openly in the Parliaments of Louis 
 Philippe, when people were discussing the crimes and 
 follies of the Restoration ; and they are recorded in memoirs 
 and writings of that time. The Duke Decazes says ' The 
 Royalists might have saved French royalty, if they had 
 defended it honestly, instead of trying to find a desperate 
 remedy by aggravating revolutionary excesses.' 1 The Count 
 of Lanjuinais wrote 'Horrible violences, massacres, pro- 
 scriptions, pillage have soiled our records. We have 
 experienced revolutionary and anti-revolutionary crimes, 
 caused often, both one and the other, by the methods of the 
 counter-Revolution. We have seen the wars, as much 
 political as religious, in La Vendee, and among the CTiouans ; 
 and assassinations organized, sometimes for theological pre- 
 texts, sometimes for the legitimist cause, throughout nearly 
 all the south.' l Saint-Just and Condorcet bring the same 
 accusations against the clericals. ' You commit atrocities 
 to accuse the Revolution of them.' 2 ' Do you dare say you 
 have not yourselves contributed by your gold and your 
 intrigues to the continuance of these disorders and crimes 
 against which you are protesting with an hypocritical 
 philanthropy ? ' 2 Even Mallet du Pan confessed that the 
 Revolution owed a large part of its horrors ' to the migr4s, 
 1 Champion, pp. 245, 220, 217. 2 Ibid., pp. 219, 220.
 
 96 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 to the alliance of royalists and foreigners, to the threats 
 and promises of pamphleteers '- 1 Montlosier asserted 
 'that the worst enemies of royalty were the royalists, 
 and that everything was wrecked by them during the 
 Revolution '.* 
 
 Foreign invasions and royalist plots were the business of 
 the nobles. The old clergy managed the religious troubles. 
 For these, the Civil Constitution was an obvious pretext. 
 The civic oath was described as a betrayal of the church. 
 The clergy who took it were blackened in their characters, 
 and decried in the office. Their masses were said to be 
 heretical, and their sacraments invalid. Thousands of 
 marriages were libelled as concubinage. Since all registra- 
 tions were still in the hands of the clergy, they were able 
 to disturb the peace of families all over the country. The 
 non-juring clergy posed as martyrs, while constitutional 
 clergy were apostates and criminals. The State was wonder- 
 fully patient. It continued the salaries and pensions of the 
 recalcitrant. Though it suppressed disorder, it allowed 
 the non-jurors to say mass in the churches. Provided the 
 building were marked by an inscription, to distinguish it 
 from a State church, it allowed congregations to attend the 
 services of the dissentients. Both sides waited anxiously 
 for the Pope to declare himself, but Pius the Sixth would 
 not be hurried. His caution was not due to spiritual 
 anxieties, but to the much graver question of Avignon and 
 the Venaissin, two provinces of the Papal States which 
 were on the French border. In both of them, the papal rule 
 was hated, the Revolution was infectious, and the people 
 wished to benefit by the French liberties. Pius was eager 
 to oblige the king, he was hard pressed by the Emigres in 
 Rome, and still harder by the militant bishops in France, 
 but he dared not risk Avignon by angering the National 
 Assembly. He practised a good deal of that duplicity which 
 he condoned in Louis the Sixteenth. Nor was his double 
 dealing limited to French matters and the hazardous 
 problems of the Revolution. 
 
 Pius the Sixth had been elected in February, 1775, to 
 1 Champion, pp. 219, 220.
 
 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 97 
 
 succeed Clement the Fourteenth. The absorbing question 
 at that time was the suppressed Society of Jesus and its 
 imprisoned General. The Bourbon governments wanted 
 a Pope who would confirm and continue the suppression. 
 The Jesuit faction were strong enough to exclude a declared 
 enemy; and Cardinal Braschi, though a Zelante, was 
 thought to be fairly moderate and reasonable, so he was 
 accepted by the Bourbon Courts, and chosen by the 
 conclave. 
 
 Cardinal de Luynes, in announcing the election to Louis 
 the Sixteenth, described Braschi as ' Born of an old noble 
 family established at Cesena, a town of the Romagna. He 
 is the last of his name ; thus there is no nepotism to be 
 feared. He is edifying in life and manners. He has aimed 
 at getting the requisite knowledge to govern well. . . . He 
 is not yet a bishop.' l Bernis adds to the dispatch, more 
 cautiously, ' The reign of the new Pope will show whether, 
 before his election, we saw his face or his mask.' 2 Pius 
 had a beautiful face, but he always wore a mask. He was 
 never sincere. He played a double game over the Jesuits : 
 pretending to keep them suppressed in catholic countries, 
 to please the Bourbons, while recognizing them in Russia 
 and Prussia; and explaining away in private his own public 
 utterances. 3 Louis the Sixteenth could not have had a more 
 unfortunate adviser, or a worse example. Pius was emi- 
 nently fitted to be an accomplice or a tool of the counter- 
 Revolution. 
 
 Masson describes him at greater length than Bernis. 
 ' John- Angel Braschi was only fifty-seven and a few months 
 when he was raised to the pontifical throne. He is tall, 
 robust, and in perfect health. His head is fine, his bearing 
 stately, the movements of his body leisured and almost 
 rhythmical. His morals are irreproachable, and his diet 
 moderately frugal : his vices are not there. His weakness 
 
 1 Masson, Le Card. Bernis, 1758-94, p. 314. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 Nielsen, Hist, of Papacy, vol. i, chap. vii. In the description of Pius, 
 Dr. Nielsen might have indicated that he was making a very free use of 
 Masson's text, which he professes to quote. 
 
 H
 
 98 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 is vanity. He desires and longs to be admired. To display 
 his pontifical grace in ceremonials, to exhibit himself to 
 the Romans and to foreigners in all his glory as Christ's 
 Vicar, to delight them by his facile motions, and charm 
 them by his clear ringing voice, to entrance them by the 
 beauty of his face, to act the Pope as other princes play at 
 royalty, voila son gotit dominant. He is a dandy, but with 
 a papal dandyism : a dandy over his baldness, and his long, 
 white, silky hair, which rolls backwards on each side from 
 his temples ; a dandy in his pontifical dress, which he arranges 
 with minute care, and always raises a little to show his well 
 turned leg. 
 
 ' He revels in laudatory inscriptions, multiplies objects 
 on which he may carve his titles, and undertakings to 
 immortalize his reign. He believes himself a great architect, 
 a great engineer, a great connoisseur and patron of arts and 
 letters. He emulates Leo the Tenth and even Julius the 
 Second. With what, indeed, does he not flatter and enjoy 
 himself, ce glorieux ? He was not even satisfied with his 
 ancestral coat, but has assumed a new and almost prophetical 
 blazon.' 1 But what lover of Rome is not indulgent and 
 even grateful to the kindly arms of Pius the Sixth : three 
 stars in heaven, a little boy with rosy cheeks blowing 
 a silver north wind out of a silver cloud on to a white and 
 bowing lily. How numberless and naive are the inscrip- 
 tions Munificentid Pii Sexti, on great things and on small. 
 Nothing was forgotten by his paternal and sanitary care. 
 He inscribed the very farms and vineyards where he deigned 
 to alight and taste wine, as the labouring horses conveyed 
 him in state from the Ponte Molle over the heights of 
 Monte Mario. And some of his achievements are really fine. 
 To him we owe the symmetrical and charming sacristy of 
 Saint Peter's, a necessary tribute from the eighteenth 
 century to complete the greatest of modern buildings ; and 
 the long galleries of the Museo Pio-Clementino, populated 
 with shining Gods, and the little court-yard of the Belve- 
 dere, the vestibule of Apollo, with its bath of gold and 
 purple fish. 
 
 1 Masson, Bernis, pp. 319-20.
 
 THE COUNTEE-KEVOLUTION 99 
 
 Peregrinus apostolicus was the doom which fell to him 
 in Malachy's mystic roll: the wandering apostle. The 
 storm of the Revolution caught him, and whirled him away 
 from his exquisite Rome, northwards over the Alps to 
 Valence, where he died in exile. By leave of Napoleon he 
 was carried back, and deposited in Saint Peter's. His figure 
 by Canova kneels at the entrance to the Confession, ad 
 limina apostolorum, where Pius occupies the most favoured 
 place. His wanderings led him nearer than any other 
 Pope to the apostles' shrine. And the statue itself is Pius 
 to the life. It gives us back his curls, and his model 
 hands, and his careful draperies which suggest his undu- 
 lating grace. The marble assures us of his beauty, as we 
 look at the benignant features ; and by some wonderful 
 subtilty it has caught the pontifical satisfaction which 
 lingers evermore in the face of Pius, as he enjoys his statue, 
 and flatters himself on its coveted position. And so he 
 kneels through the centuries, among the votive lamps and 
 the choicest marbles, in the shadow of Bernini's canopy, 
 right under the stupendous dome, acting the devotional 
 Pope, a mark or symbolic figure of the papacy, as the devout 
 conceive it, and in the attitude which its adversaries have 
 experienced as its most dangerous weapon. No wonder he 
 is satisfied, ce glorieux; occupying the place which belongs 
 of right to Julius the Second, to which the magnificent 
 Borghese and Barberini Popes have a better claim ; and 
 symbolizing in that comely form of his, which he loved so 
 well, the finer spirit of the papacy. He was the last of 
 those comfortable and easy-going Popes whose charm lingers 
 about the eighteenth century monuments of Rome, and 
 whose pretty human world can never die so long as the 
 industry and genius of Piranesi are discernible. 
 
 In dealing with the Revolution, Pius was a failure, from 
 every point of view. His duplicity was helpless before the 
 uncompromising and irresistible facts. A strong Pope might 
 have rallied the counter- Revolution effectively, and have led 
 the coalition of sovereigns and vested interests. A really 
 able and honest Pope might have come to a workable agree- 
 ment with the Revolution, which would have been grateful 
 
 H> 
 tt>
 
 100 CHURCH AND STATE IN FKANCE 
 
 for help and ballast. For the former policy, courage was 
 necessary, and of that Pius had little ; for the latter, honesty 
 was indispensable, and in this he was entirely wanting. 
 He is responsible, to a very large extent, for the fate of the 
 king, for the activity and violence of the reactionaries, and 
 so for the excesses of the revolutionary factions. Pius had 
 condemned the principles of the Revolution as early as 
 March 1790, when he made an allocution ; and though this 
 was not issued as an official document, its contents were 
 published. Its only effect was to inflame and stiffen the 
 reactionaries. The attitude of the papacy towards popular 
 liberties is instructive ; and the general principles expressed 
 in the allocution preceded the publication of the Constitu- 
 tion Civile. The Pope 'not only rebuked as sacrilegious 
 attacks the establishment in France of liberty of conscience, 
 the suppression of ecclesiastical privileges, the confiscation 
 of clerical property, the abolition of monastic orders ; but 
 he also described as devilish proceedings the substitution 
 of national sovereignty for the royal absolutism, the declara- 
 tion of equality before the law, the eligibility of all citizens 
 for public employment '- 1 It is very much what Innocent 
 the Third had said about our English Charter, and what 
 Pius the Ninth was going to say in the Syllabus. The 
 papacy was and is opposed to all the principles of modern 
 society. It is under no illusion itself, and has the cynicism 
 of its convictions. It is only its dupes who won't see, and 
 its casuists who explain away, what its attitude implies. 
 
 The allocution of 1790 encouraged the reactionaries, and 
 assured French reformers that Rome would be an enemy. 
 When the Constitution Civile was promulgated, the non- 
 juring clergy urged the Pope to condemn it. Pius hesitated 
 long, for the reasons explained ; and many earnest catholics, 
 who were also reformers, by no means despaired of his 
 approval, though perhaps with reservations. They did not 
 expect a sweeping and uncompromising condemnation. The 
 king was of the same opinion, and did not interpose his 
 veto ; though he accepted the Constitution reluctantly, and 
 under pressure. The Minister for Foreign Affairs was led 
 1 Debidour, p. 86.
 
 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 101 
 
 by his correspondents to expect a compromise. ' The Pope 
 asks the bishops for a plan of conciliation, and will decide 
 nothing till they have answered.' l Still Pius wavered ; 
 and the Constitution Civile was promulgated in July 1790. 
 
 In August, Pius formed a commission to examine it. Only 
 in March 1791 did he issue the brief Quod aliquantum. 
 Like many papal utterances, this document is ambiguous. 
 It is adverse in general, but room is left for compromise 
 in details. Though the Constitution is described as ' denying 
 the most sacred beliefs, abolishing the most holy services 
 (i. e. the choral offices of the monks) and producing calami- 
 ties which would be incredible if they had not been 
 experienced', yet the Pope says that ' urgent affairs' have 
 delayed his answer a little (quelque peu). For eight months, 
 he took no steps to mitigate evils which in his eyes were 
 so destructive ; he calls that a ' little ', and he subordinated 
 the spiritual interests of a whole nation to his own temporal 
 interests in two petty districts. As to details, he asked for 
 more time and information; so far as his words conveyed 
 his meaning, the Constitution was not irremediably con- 
 demned. The Revolution, however, was : ' it had wrecked 
 the obedience due to kings ; and, worse, it had established 
 that liberty which not only guarantees the right of not 
 being interfered with in religious matters, but grants a full 
 permission of thinking, speaking, and writing ; a monstrous 
 liberty which violates the sovereignty of the creator.' a 
 
 The Revolution and the papacy were thus brought face 
 to face, and they have been battling ever since. There was 
 not then, and there is not now, any possibility of com- 
 promise between them. They are Incompatibles. A truce 
 may be patched up. A temporary arrangement can be 
 agreed upon, and it may work, more or less well, even for 
 a century or so, as Napoleon's Concordat did ; but behind 
 and below there is always the sullen conflict of irrecon- 
 cilable principles. Neither side can really compromise 
 without being untrue to its past, and obstructive to its 
 future. The Revolution cannot submit to the papacy with- 
 out becoming reactionary. ' Men who profess to govern 
 1 Champion, p. 177. a Ibid., pp. 182-3.
 
 102 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 the world in the name of heaven are the most dangerous 
 enemies of liberty.' The papacy cannot accept the Revolu- 
 tion without stultifying its history, and renouncing all its 
 saecular claims and aspirations. Politicians have been 
 deceived by papal casuistry; but the papacy itself has 
 never been duped by its own professions. It knows that 
 it must dominate human liberty, or abdicate and disappear. 
 It is a battle of life and death. 
 
 "We cannot, and we need not, follow the Revolution in 
 detail, but only as it affects the relations between church 
 and State. We have seen the kind of church that grew up 
 under the monarchy. It was a church always national in 
 spirit, and fairly representative of national aspirations. It 
 was always firm in its resistance to the papacy, but it was 
 disintegrated from within by the corruptions of the old 
 regime. The Constitution Civile is a touching and an in- 
 teresting episode in church history, which deserves more 
 sympathy and attention than it has received. It was an 
 attempt to harmonize the church and the Revolution, or 
 to bring the church nearer to primitive and evangelical 
 standards. It was the work of loyal catholics, as Catholicism 
 had always been understood in France. The vast majority 
 of the nation were catholic, and wished to remain so. 
 Nearly all the revolutionary leaders were in agreement 
 with the majority. Those of them who differed were rather 
 non-catholic than anti-catholic, and very few indeed were 
 anti-christian until the liberties and existence of the country 
 were threatened by the counter-Revolution and monarchical 
 interference. They could see no incompatibility between 
 the Gospels and the Rights of Man ; though the papacy, 
 it seems, is irreconcilable with the New Testament. The 
 Constitutional church was wrecked by the extreme section 
 of the non-juring bishops, who were able to influence many 
 of the lower clergy, and through them to stir up large 
 portions of the country. The bloodshed and disturbance 
 which Mr. Morley, Jervis, and other English writers 
 attribute to the Constitution Civile were caused by the 
 plots and agitations of the ultramontane clergy. These 
 reactionaries were more papal than the Pope, and they
 
 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 103 
 
 forced on the inevitable conflict. The civil wars were 
 aggravated by foreign invasions. The king was known to 
 be on the side of the non-juring clergy; and the Pope, 
 to be intriguing with foreign enemies, and fimigrfe. The 
 Constitution Civile was the pretext which the reactionaries 
 utilized eagerly to attack and if possible destroy the Revo- 
 lution. Under this pressure, and in the extreme danger 
 caused by it, the revolutionary leaders and the country 
 itself became permanently anti-clerical, and temporarily 
 anti-christian. The excesses and the internecine struggles 
 of the revolutionary factions do not concern us. We need 
 only follow the gradual separation of church and State, 
 which was a necessary consequence of their antagonism. 
 The churches, and still more the re-organized monasteries, 
 were the hotbeds of insurrection, and the citadels of re- 
 action. War was made against religion, out of hatred to 
 priests : not war on priests, out of hatred to religion. 
 
 After the papal utterance, affairs moved fast and logically. 
 When its contents were known in Paris, the Pope's effigy 
 was burnt in the Palais Royal, and the brief itself shared 
 a similar fate in many places. Its effect on Louis was 
 disastrous. He vetoed henceforth every legislative act 
 dealing with the church and the insurgent clergy, and his 
 attempted migration to Saint Cloud was for the sake of 
 being within reach of non-juring clergy for his Easter 
 duties. Soon after, came his more serious journey to 
 Varennes, in June, to get in touch with the invading 
 armies. In May, the papal territory of the Venaissin was 
 annexed, relations were broken off with the Papal States, 
 and the publication of all papal documents was forbidden 
 unless they had been approved by the legislature. In May 
 also a public funeral in the Pantheon was accorded to 
 Voltaire. So pertinacious was the clerical resistance, and 
 so menacing were its effects, that severer measures had to 
 be taken against the disloyal clergy. Even yet, their pay 
 and pensions were continued, except in flagrant cases, 
 thanks chiefly to Talleyrand. The constitution of 1789 
 had so manifestly failed, that another was drawn up, which 
 Louis professedly accepted on September the 4th ; and on
 
 104 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 the 30th the Constituent Assembly disappeared. Its chief 
 work was the reformation of the church. The ecclesiastical 
 organization of the old regime was swept away, with all its 
 abuses, never to return; but its leading members were 
 strong enough to oppose the Revolution, and to deluge 
 France with civil blood. 
 
 The Legislative Assembly met on October the 1st, 1791. 
 It was less catholic than its predecessor, though it contained 
 an influential minority of churchmen. Separation, which 
 had been the visionary project of a few theorists in 1789, 
 was forced into practical politics gradually, by the progress 
 of events, and against the wishes of the Legislative. Soon 
 after the new Assembly opened, Andre Chenier advocated 
 Separation in the Moniteur. ' Is it by enabling a body of 
 priests to describe themselves as martyrs that you expect 
 to render them less dangerous? ... Is it for a national 
 Assembly to reconcile sects and compose differences? We 
 shall never be free from such men till the Assembly secures 
 every man the freedom to hold or invent whatever religion 
 he chooses ; when every one pays for the worship he desires, 
 and when the courts punish persecutors and rebels im- 
 partially. ... In a word, clergies only trouble States when 
 the government concerns itself with their affairs ; and they 
 invariably give trouble in that case, whatever be done for 
 them.' That is admirable doctrine for normal times, and 
 for most religions. It was an impossible policy when the 
 clergy were fomenting civil war and encouraging invasion. 
 When the papacy and its allies were at open war with us, 
 from 1570 onwards, Queen Elizabeth's government did not 
 hesitate to treat English adherents of the Pope as traitors 
 to the State. They were not only justified in their policy, 
 but they could not have done less. Nor could the French 
 government in 1791. To have yielded to the insurgent 
 clergy would have united all the reactionaries in France, 
 and have precipitated invasion. The results would con- 
 ceivably have been more deplorable than the Terror. The 
 Legislative, therefore, voted sterner measures against the 
 non-jurors. For flagrant offences, they were to be im- 
 prisoned or forfeit their salaries. The Communes were held
 
 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 105 
 
 responsible for the clergy in their districts. This law was 
 vetoed by the king, and only aggravated the offenders 
 without checking the offence. 
 
 The refractory clergy hindered the collection of taxes, the 
 transport of corn, the enrolment and drill of national soldiers, 
 while they organized their own adherents for war. All this 
 was done in collusion with Louis. Hitherto, registration of 
 births, deaths and marriages had been in clerical hands ; 
 and the non-jurors had utilized their opportunities, especially 
 with regard to marriages, both to discredit the constitutional 
 clergy and to disturb the populace. The Assembly, therefore, 
 decreed that these registrations must in future be civil acts, 
 as they are now. 'Henceforth, it was not through the 
 sacristy that men entered society: the keys of the city 
 passed from the priesthood to the magistracy.' * It also 
 made divorce a civil process, instead of leaving it to be 
 a matter of fees and casuistry, denied in name, but practised 
 systematically by the rich in the golden ages of Catholicism. 
 The Legislative Assembly thus advanced a stage nearer to 
 the secular administration of the State. Its own life ended 
 in September 1792, and it was replaced by the national 
 Convention. 
 
 In this body, there were forty-four clergymen, including 
 sixteen bishops. The Republic was proclaimed on the 
 motion of Gregoire, the most interesting of the constitu- 
 tional prelates. He was a philanthropist whose sympathies 
 had no bounds. He was always loyal both to liberty and 
 to Christianity. He never yielded to menace or unpopularity. 
 In the worst days of the Terror, he never disguised his 
 person or dissembled his work ; and he won the good 
 opinion of all men, except the implacable advocates of ultra- 
 montanism. In November 1792, Cambon proposed to dis- 
 continue payments to the clergy, solely for financial reasons, 
 through sheer want of funds ; and thus the first Separation 
 between church and State was effected almost accidentally. 
 
 France was now in the agony of civil war, and was 
 actually invaded. We hear much of the invasions of the 
 Tuileries, the September massacres, the deposition of the 
 1 Champion, p. 205.
 
 106 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 king, the persecution of the clergy. They are all deplorable. 
 But, before condemning them absolutely, we must consider 
 the provocation. In August 1792, there were thousands 
 of armed peasants, encouraged by priests and nobles, in 
 many districts. Prussia had declared war in August, and 
 Brunswick had issued his manifesto. As Michelet says, 
 'While the country was again in danger, and facing the 
 enemy, traitors stabbed it in the back.' By February 1793, 
 Austria, Prussia, Piedmont, England, Germany, Holland, 
 Spain and Portugal were attacking France : and ten Depart- 
 ments were in revolt, for the reactionaries. These movements 
 were attended by the worst atrocities. La Vendee, Anjou, 
 and Brittany ' were fired and ran with blood. Constitutional 
 cures were tortured and massacred with unimaginable re- 
 finements of cruelty. The pious insurgents (Brigands, as 
 they came to be described so justly) massacred patriots with 
 a ferocious joy. They fastened their prisoners to trees of 
 liberty, and made targets of them, or chained them in 
 festoons and shot them, or gave themselves the treat of 
 burning them alive while they chanted catholic hymns.' 
 When they took a town they completed the delight of 
 plunder by massacre. In one place, their tribunal condemned 
 not less than five hundred and forty-two persons to death 
 in six weeks. It was against this, that France had to 
 struggle at home, while she was fighting abroad. These 
 crimes preceded, we must remember, the Reign of Terror. 
 They do not lessen its excesses, but they do explain them. 
 They also go far to explain the deposition of Louis, and his 
 tragic fate : he was the victim of ancestral errors and sacer- 
 dotal casuistry. 
 
 The Convention was turned into a Committee of Public 
 Safety in April 1793. The Girondists were overthrown. 
 The allies took Valenciennes and Mayence, Kleber was 
 beaten in La Vendee, and then the Terror was organized. 
 A dictatorship was established, a lev ee en masse decreed, and 
 a law passed against suspects. The constitutional clergy 
 were implicated in the fall of the Girondins. All Catholicism 
 was involved, in the popular mind, with tyranny and 
 treason. Sheer panic, aggravated by treason and treachery,
 
 THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION 107 
 
 caused the Terror ; and, driven by panic, France became for 
 a while bitterly anti-christian. Even the calendar was 
 changed, the sabbatical reckoning of weeks abolished, and 
 every reminder of the traditional belief was purged away. 
 The process was carried out in many places with violence 
 and aggression ; but it is only fair to record that the leaders 
 discouraged popular manifestations, and individual excesses. 
 Danton said in the Convention, ' If we have not honoured 
 the priests of error and fanaticism, we do not choose either 
 to acknowledge the priests of unbelief. We desire to serve 
 the people. I demand that there shall be no anti-religious 
 masquerades in the Convention.' l Danton, we should re- 
 member, was a deist, broad and vague, it may be, in his 
 conceptions. He was not an atheist. 
 
 Robespierre was more definite in his convictions. His 
 theology was dogmatic and authoritative. In fact, his 
 religion was the impelling cause of his terrorism. He was 
 a fanatic of the most dangerous kind, because his fanaticism 
 was the logical consequence of his theological beliefs. His 
 theology was not that of a papal Inquisitor, but his reason- 
 ing and his procedure were the same. If a Torquemada can 
 be absolved by sophistry, so can Robespierre. They must 
 stand or fall together. The Reign of Terror was exactly 
 parallel to the Inquisition : it was an attempt to suppress 
 opposition by killing out opponents. Robespierre's worship 
 of the fitre Supreme must never be confounded with the 
 wild excesses of those who set up the Goddess of Reason. 
 The Convention, and Robespierre with it, repudiated atheism. 
 They were fervent theists. Hence their theological and 
 political ferocity. They decreed, as an inscription for the 
 churches, this profession of faith : ' The French People 
 recognize the existence of the Supreme Being, and the 
 immortality of the soul.' The milder Girondins were nearer 
 to agnosticism than the theological Jacobins; and hence 
 their larger tolerance. It was this tolerance, both in 
 theology and politics, which ruined them. ' The kingdom 
 of heaven is taken by force ' ; and the Jacobins, the logical 
 extremists, carried everything before them: the execution 
 1 Debidour, p. 131.
 
 108 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 of the King, of the Queen, of the Girondins, of Danton, of 
 the attractive and pathetic Desmoulins. The Terror relaxed 
 as the invasion was beaten back, and the rebellions were 
 quelled. Liberty of worship was decreed again in May 
 1794. But the possibility of tolerance, and the defeat of 
 the invading armies, led to the fall of Eobespierre. His 
 victories were fatal to himself. He was hated as a political 
 dictator, and feared still more as a religious tyrant. He was 
 ended on July the 27th, 1794 ; and we may pass from his 
 stormy period, through the Directory, to the Consulate and 
 the Concordat. 
 
 4. TALLEYKAND. 
 
 It is a relief to turn away from the tragic scenes of the 
 Eevolution, and to consider a personage who took a fore- 
 most part in French history during the momentous and 
 variable years between 1789 and 1838. The Constitution 
 Civile is connected indissolubly with the name of Talley- 
 rand. As he was even more prominent during the Consulate 
 and the Empire, this is perhaps a convenient place to give 
 an outline of his character and his career. 
 
 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand was born in 1754. He 
 was descended on both sides from families which, in rank 
 and antiquity, were among the most distinguished of the 
 noblesse. His father had been gentleman (menin) to the 
 Dauphin, son of Louis the Fifteenth ; and both his parents 
 held positions at the Court. Immediately he was born, he 
 was put out to nurse, ' dans un faubourg de Paris.' 1 When 
 he was four, the careless woman dropped him, dislocated 
 his foot, made the damage incurable by concealing it, and 
 the child was crippled for life. The other foot suffered 
 also from overwork, and was always feeble. This accident 
 decided Talleyrand's profession. As he could not look for- 
 ward to the army, a conseil de famille was held; his 
 primogeniture was set aside, and he was destined for the 
 church. As he says, he was sacrificed to the family. 
 
 1 Memoires dn Prince de Talleyrand, p. 7.
 
 TALLEYRAND 109 
 
 Before going to school, he was sent to his great-grand- 
 mother, Madame la Princesse de Chalais, in Perigord. The 
 account which he gives of her and of the household is full 
 of interest, full of charm, and should be remembered when 
 the French noblesse and the old regime are condemned en 
 bloc. ' Madame de Chalais etait une personne fort distin- 
 guee ; son esprit, son langage, la noblesse de ses manieres, 
 le son de sa voix, avait tin grand charme. . . . Elle me 
 fit connaitre un genre de douceurs que je n'avais pas encore 
 eprouve. C'est la premiere personne de ma famille qui 
 m'ait temoigne de 1'affection, et c'est la premiere aussi qui 
 m'ait fait gouter le bonheur d'aimer.' 1 He goes on to 
 describe the stately and kindly life of the grands seigneurs 
 in their Provinces : how they respected themselves, and so 
 gained the respect of others, and the affection of the country, 
 1 Les rnceurs de la noblesse en Perigord ressemblaient a ses 
 vieux chateaux ; elles avaient quelque chose de grand et 
 de stable ; la lumiere penetrait peu, mais elle arrivait 
 douce V ' There was no more tyranny among these petty 
 sovereigns,' he says. He describes the little Court at Chalais, 
 and how the Princess was attended by certain old gentle- 
 men of ancient race ' remplissant chacun aupres d'elle des 
 fonctions que la haute politesse ennoblissait.' l After the 
 parish mass on Sundays, they adjourned to the dispensary 
 of the castle, where the poor were solaced by Madame and 
 all her courtiers. ' Ma grand'mere etait dans un fauteuil 
 de velours ; elle avait devant elle une table noire de vieux 
 laque ; sa robe etait de soie, garnie de dentelles ; elle por- 
 tait une echelle de rubans et des nceuds de manche 
 analogues a la saison V Talleyrand says about this tending 
 of the poor that greater doctors and more skilful remedies 
 would have lacked some of the healing power which this 
 great lady was able to convey, by her position, and her 
 relation to those whom she assisted. 'L'homme est com- 
 pose d'une ame et d'un corps, et c'est la premiere qui 
 gouverne 1'autre'; 2 and he points out how comfort, hope, 
 confidence must be helpful to the material cure. Let us 
 
 1 Mtmoires, pp. 8-11. 2 Ibid. pp. 22, 23.
 
 110 CHUKCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 note in passing that, under Louis Quinze, a coach occupied 
 17 days in going from Bordeaux to Paris. 
 
 Thither Talleyrand returned, to begin his schooling at the 
 College d'Harcourt ; and, soon after, nearly died of small- 
 pox, or of the fashionable remedies which were more violent 
 than the disease. Then, to reconcile him to his profession, 
 he was sent to his uncle, coadjutor to the arch-bishop of 
 Rheims, afterwards himself arch-bishop-duke, and finally 
 cardinal arch-bishop of Paris. They gave him the memoirs 
 of de Retz. of Richelieu, of Ximenes, of Hincmar, to de- 
 monstrate how the church was the high-road of politics. 
 In due time, he went to Saint- Sulpice, accomplished his 
 studies, and proceded to the Sorbonne, where he meditated 
 again by the noble monument of Richelieu. He witnessed 
 the coronation of Louis the Sixteenth : ' a youthful king, 
 scrupulously moral, of a singular modesty ; with ministers 
 remarkable for enlightenment and probity ; a queen, whose 
 affability, grace, and goodness tempered the austerer virtues 
 of her consort. . . . Never did so bright a spring herald so 
 tempestuous an autumn or so murderous a winter.' Look- 
 ing back over his life, to the opening years of Louis the 
 Sixteenth, when philosophy and philanthropy added a finer 
 grace to the manners of the eighteenth century, Talleyrand 
 said ' Qui n'a pas vecu avant 1789, ne connait pas la douceur 
 de vivre '. 
 
 Talleyrand, then, went through his studies, and was 
 ordained ; not without much repugnance, and serious in- 
 ternal struggles. He tells us how he never spent a week 
 under his parents' roof, or knew them except in a formal 
 way. He was naturally good hearted and affectionate, but 
 his feelings were starved, and he was thrown in upon him- 
 self. It is wonderful that he was not soured and spoiled. 
 Reading was his only solace : ' une bonne bibliotheque offre 
 des secours a toutes les dispositions de Fame.' l Talleyrand 
 was forced into the church, against his will, against his 
 beliefs. He was, probably, a deist, a theist ; certainly, not 
 an atheist. Like most philosophes of the time, like Voltaire 
 
 1 Memoiws, p. 21.
 
 TALLEYRAND 111 
 
 himself, he distinguished clearly between religion and that 
 outrage to religion which was established and dominant in 
 France. In these days, a youth of Talleyrand's disposition 
 and convictions would not have been forced into the church, 
 or would not have yielded. In those days, everything was 
 different ; and a young noble would not be discouraged, 
 either by the philosophes, or by the dignitaries of the 
 church, or by his teachers, from becoming an ecclesiastic. 
 It was the natural way to a career, when the army was 
 impossible. 
 
 Talleyrand soon had a benefice. He lived a gay life in 
 Paris, like many other abbes. Unlike most of them, he was 
 a student and a scholar, not of books only, but of men. He 
 filled various clerical offices, with distinction, and became 
 bishop of Autun, just before the Revolution. He took the 
 popular side from the first, and soon became a leading 
 member of the States General. He always advocated justice, 
 toleration, concession. Patriotism was more important to 
 him than his privileges as a noble and a prelate. He 
 accepted the Revolution with all his heart. At the same 
 time, he always advocated mildness and conciliation. He 
 was never for repression, persecution, or retaliation. He 
 stands out, almost alone, among the contending parties, for 
 his adherence to the gentler virtues. 
 
 He officiated as bishop at the National Fete, and he was 
 one of the few bishops to countenance the Constitution Civile, 
 which he helped to inaugurate by consecrating the new 
 prelates. This was his last episcopal act, and he resigned 
 his see. ' J'avais donne ma demission de 1'eveche d' Autun, 
 qui avait ete acceptee par le pape, par qui j'ai depuis ete 
 secularise. Je me croyais libre, et ma position me prescri- 
 vait de chercher ma route.' l This resignation, in spite of 
 the Pope's concurrence and authorization, has condemned 
 Talleyrand to undying calumny. But his opponents might 
 be asked what they would recommend for a man in his 
 position ? Which is better ; an honest resignation, or 
 a dishonest profession ? There is no middle course. Talley- 
 
 1 Me'moires: preface, p. ii.
 
 112 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 rand was forced into the service of a church in which he 
 never believed. The world round him took the clerical 
 profession easily, as he also did. His calumniators ignore 
 the facts of his entrance into the church, they talk as though 
 his way of life were exceptional, and they misrepresent his 
 exit from the clerical profession. 
 
 Talleyrand left France before the Terror. He returned 
 under the Directory, was Minister for Foreign Affairs under 
 the Consulate and Empire ; and procured for Napoleon the 
 full diplomatic value of his military successes. He was 
 faithful to Napoleon until he saw that the imperial policy 
 was ruinous to France. Then he resigned his place, as he 
 had resigned his bishopric. In 1814, he served the Restora- 
 tion ; and, at the Congress of Vienna, where it was intended 
 that France should be slighted and dis-membered, Talley- 
 rand began by securing her rightful position, and ended by 
 obtaining honourable and advantageous terms. He lived 
 on into the reign of Louis Philippe, and died in 1838, in his 
 eighty-fifth year. Talleyrand goes through history, not 
 only as an apostate, but as a turn-coat. He ' saved his head ', 
 as he remarked, in the Revolution ; and he served every 
 government in turn from the Directory to Louis Philippe : 
 he betrayed every government, say his detractors. 
 
 His own explanation is very simple, and as I think is 
 satisfactory. ' Je m'arretai a 1'idee de servir la France, 
 comme France, dans quelque situation qu'elle fut.' 1 In 
 every combination, he said, was some possibility for useful- 
 ness. Everything which made for stability and order was 
 good. Then he adds ' Of all the governments which I have 
 served, there is not one from which I have received more 
 than I have given.' ' Je n'en ai abandonne aucun avant 
 qu'il se fut abandonne lui-meme.' Time, certainly, has 
 vindicated Talleyrand. We can distinguish clearly between 
 Napoleon the conqueror of Italy, the saviour and organizer 
 of the Revolution, the liberal and incomparable adminis- 
 trator, and that later Napoleon with his mad reckless wars 
 and his dynastic lust. Talleyrand served the one, for the 
 
 1 Memoires : preface, pp. ii, iii.
 
 TALLEYRAND 113 
 
 advantage of France : he would not serve the other, to her 
 ruin, as he foresaw. 
 
 Talleyrand's clearness and length of vision were extra- 
 ordinary. It was by these qualities, and not by duplicity 
 or treachery, that he succeeded : and how great a success. 
 He remains yet as the type of a diplomatist, as the personi- 
 fication of diplomacy. As a wit, he is also supreme ; and as 
 a writer, so far as a foreigner may judge, he is among the 
 finest, the lightest, masters of the best prose in the world, 
 the most delicate instrument of thought and speech that 
 modern civilization has produced. Talleyrand stands out 
 always as the champion of justice, of toleration, of generosity, 
 even to his enemies. Not a single act of revenge or 
 malignity can be attributed to him. He was as placable 
 and magnanimous as Caesar, though he lived through an 
 age of deeper passion and perhaps of worse crimes. No 
 leading personage of the Revolution has a cleaner record 
 than Talleyrand, or served France better. If he had been 
 listened to by the privileged Orders, and especially by the 
 First, the Revolution might have taken another course. If 
 he had had his way, there would have been no Concordat ; 
 not because he was prejudiced, but because he understood 
 the papacy, and he alone foresaw the dangers which it 
 involved. His government of Benevento was enlightened 
 and creditable. If the papal administration had con- 
 descended to follow his principles, it might have been 
 ruling the States of the Church at present; and if the 
 French clergy had followed in the ways of equity and 
 toleration which Talleyrand pointed out to them, they 
 would still be helpful and influential in the development 
 of modern France. Talleyrand exemplifies in his own 
 person all that was best in the social aspects of the old 
 regime as well as those ideals of justice and freedom which 
 the philosophes and philanthropists of the eighteenth 
 century postulated, and which the Revolution hoped to 
 realize. It would have been well for France if more of the 
 noblesse and of the higher clergy had been like Talleyrand. 
 It would also be better for her if her recent history had 
 always been accomplished by men who resembled Talley- 
 
 i
 
 114 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 rand in possessing the exquisite urbanity of the old regime. 
 And both parties might well copy the magnanimity and 
 placability of Talleyrand : his invariable subordination of 
 personalities and party to the higher interests of France. 
 In every sense of the word, he is a splendid Frenchman, 
 and also a typical Parisian, a worthy citizen of la Ville 
 Lumiere.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE CONCORDAT OF 1802 
 1. THE CONSTBUCTIVE WORK OP THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 THE Concordat between Leo the Tenth and Francis the 
 First was dangerous to national independence, unjust to 
 the clergy, destructive to the spiritual functions of the 
 church, and a source of corruption to society by the mis-use 
 of patronage and wealth. Like all treaties with the papacy, 
 it only dissembled the inevitable antagonism between 
 church and State ; or, to be more accurate, between the 
 papal monarchy and all independent kingship. Though it 
 produced continual friction, it was workable until 1789. It 
 could be adjusted to a theocratic government which, in 
 spite of enormous changes, still retained many feudal tradi- 
 tions of the middle ages : it could not, however, be reconciled 
 with the democratic principles which were accepted by 
 revolutionists of every school. It was even less compatible 
 with the non-theocratic ideals held by many of them, and 
 which in the end prevailed. That Concordat was abolished 
 in 1790, by the Civil Constitution. In applying the princi- 
 ples of 1789 to the church, reformers discovered that they 
 were returning towards primitive Christianity, and were of 
 necessity applying the standard of the New Testament to 
 ecclesiastical affairs. Their reform was thus conservative 
 in one aspect, though progressive in another. In both, it 
 was hateful to the Gallican episcopate, and still more to the 
 papacy. Their violent opposition led to implacable war ; 
 not so much between the reformed church and the new 
 State as between the State and those clerical reactionaries 
 who were able to make the new church unworkable. The 
 dead-lock and enmity which were caused by these differences 
 led quickly to Separation. 
 
 From 1794 until 1802, the State and the church were 
 
 i2
 
 116 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 separated. In spite of the terrible events which produced 
 this estrangement, and which continued for some time, in 
 spite also of the singular ineptitude of the Directory, reli- 
 gion did not fare so badly during those trying years as is 
 usually imagined. This ' regime, though disturbed by foreign 
 and civil war, ended by administering quite normally, to 
 the great benefit of the State, and without any damage to 
 individual consciences. Complete freedom only aggravated 
 the schism between non-papal and papal catholics. The 
 latter split up politically into ralltis and non-rallies ; into 
 .those who swore allegiance to the Republic, and those who 
 adhered to Louis the Eighteenth. Thus divided, the 
 catholic church was not strong enough to dominate the 
 other organizations : the reformed, the calvinists, the Jews, 
 the free-thinkers, the theophilanthropists. Between the 
 various religious groups there was competition and balance. 
 Above them all, the State was neutral, lay, free and 
 sovereign. The First Consul presided, with his usual ability 
 and good fortune, over that regime which he had inherited 
 from the Convention and the Directory, and which had 
 procured for France a religious peace through liberty; 
 when he made up his mind to destroy it. And why did he 
 make up his mind to this destruction ? ' l 
 
 M. Aulard's question will be answered presently. Mean- 
 while, we can justify his statement by examining shortly 
 what really was happening in France between the fall of 
 Robespierre and the establishment of Bonaparte. It is too 
 commonly held that nothing happened except confusion 
 and persecution. Both Napoleonic and papal advocates are 
 interested in perpetuating this view, which facts do not 
 sustain ; and most English historians have relied too much 
 on these partizans, instead of going to impartial sources. 
 They have heard one side, and ignored the other. It may 
 be proved, easily and amply, that the Revolution was con- 
 structive. While it was battling for life against foreign 
 invaders and domestic enemies, even while its own factions 
 were exterminating one another, the great work proceeded ; 
 and, if we would be just, we must own that every party and 
 1 Aulard, Etudes, b me Serie, p. 216.
 
 CONSTEUCTIVE WOEK OF THE EEVOLUTION 117 
 
 every leader had a share in the extraordinary progress 
 which was achieved. To the Convention, France owes the 
 Code Civil, which harmonized her law with the conceptions 
 of 1789. ' In the midst of storm, a zeal for right and. 
 dispassionate reason legislated for the society of the future.' x 
 Cambon, by his Grand Livre de la dette publique, placed 
 finance on a sounder and securer footing : ' republicanizing 
 the debt,' as he said. The interests of the poor, the sick, 
 and the helpless were never so well cared for previously. 
 The state of hospitals under the old regime has been 
 described ; under the new regime a separate bed, at least, 
 was assured to every patient. The Directory established the 
 Bureaux de Bienfaisance. ' The unfortunate are the masters 
 of the world, for they have the right to speak as masters to 
 those governments which neglect them.' Education was 
 planned out on a large and enlightened scale. Primary 
 instruction was made free and obligatory. It was 
 suggested that all youths, who did not work on the 
 land, should be apprenticed to some practical or skilled 
 labour. The plan of secondary education drawn up by 
 Daunou comprised arts and letters, the physical and 
 mathematical sciences, philosophy and ethics. The ficoles 
 Normaleswere established: not merely to teach the sciences, 
 but to convey the art of teaching them; and they were 
 provided with the most eminent instructors. The cole 
 Poll/technique organized the application of scientific studies 
 to the needs of the State, especially in the military and 
 naval services. The Comite & Instruction Publique, in its 
 thirteen departments, saw to the whole range of moral and 
 physical training, and did not forget the claims of the 
 blind and deaf. Schools of Navigation, of Engineering and 
 Artillery, of Geography and Mines, of Oriental Languages, 
 were either founded or improved. The Conservatoire des 
 Arts et Metiers prepared for that mechanical development 
 which the nineteenth century was to bring. The whole 
 study of Medicine was re-organized, and schools were 
 founded which soon acquired a reputation. Veterinary 
 medicine was not overlooked. The old Jardin du Roi was 
 1 H. Carnot, La Revolution, pp. 249-61.
 
 118 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 improved into the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle and the 
 Jardin des Plantes ; but the Consulate failed to carry out 
 the whole plan of the revolutionary government. The Con- 
 servatoire de Musique was founded. The Cabinet du JRoi 
 from Versailles was turned into the national collections of 
 the Louvre ; and the archaeological museum of the Monu- 
 ments Francais was initiated. The Eevolution has been 
 credited with much destruction of churches and castles, 
 which was really caused by the religious wars, by Eiche- 
 lieu, and by eighteenth century builders. There was some 
 loss and damage through the revolutionary troubles ; but 
 the governments themselves were stern protectors of art 
 and curiosities. The Convention allotted 605,500 francs a 
 year to artists, men of science, and writers ; more than five 
 times as much as Louis the Fourteenth gave at the height 
 of his prosperity. Education, in its widest and highest 
 sense, has never had two more enlightened exponents than 
 Talleyrand and Condorcet. Such are some of the good works 
 initiated by the Eevolution, and the list of its distinguished 
 men is far longer. 
 
 Its educational plans were resisted furiously by the clergy, 
 who represented the new primary schools as ' hot-beds of 
 atheism, because the catechism was not taught '.* They did 
 their utmost to hinder the pacification of the country, and 
 to disturb the populace. They depreciated the church pro- 
 perty, impeded recruiting, encouraged desertion, and prac- 
 tised terrorism. Through confession and preaching they 
 were able to incite the people. Their papers, pamphlets, 
 and catechisms were all inflammatory. The abominable 
 societies of the Jehu and the Soleil revived their opera- 
 tions. It is not surprising that the Directory saw in 
 clericalism the great enemy of the Eevolution, and the ally 
 of the foreigner. About thirty ecclesiastics were executed 
 in 1796 ; but every one of them ' was taken in the act of 
 complicity with armed rebels '.* Nevertheless, matters were 
 settling down. By the end of 1796, thirty churches of the 
 non-jurors were open in Paris ; and the elections of 1797 
 
 1 Debidour, pp. 157, 160, 171.
 
 CONSTRUCTIVE WORK OF THE REVOLUTION 119 
 
 showed a strong clerical reaction. Partizans of clericalism 
 began to ask for liberty, in the name of philosophy : ' you 
 will give the world an example of a great empire in which 
 all beliefs can be practised under an impartial protection,' 
 said Jordan, the deputy for Lyons. ' His arguments would 
 have been most just if those who were to benefit by them 
 had not been conspirators ' ; l and General Jourdain re- 
 minded the Assembly that the Republic had the right and the 
 duty to defend itself. 2 Lamarque said of the ultramontane 
 clergy 'We don't want the God of their fathers, because 
 their fathers were barbarians. The true God is one of 
 toleration and freedom.' In August, an amnesty was 
 granted to all the non-juring clergy, and large numbers of 
 those who had emigrated came back ; and only an oath 
 was required of them, so loose and vague that no one need 
 refuse it. The Constitutional church met in its first council 
 at Notre-Dame, and set forth a Decree of Pacification, 
 which said ' The Gallican church recognizes the election of 
 bishops by clergy and people as fundamental to its disci- 
 pline. The elections must be confirmed by the metro* 
 politans. It only admits to its ministry those who have 
 shown their fidelity to the Republic, and have given the 
 pledge required by law.' And there are several regulations 
 about filling disputed parishes and dioceses. The Pope and 
 the fimigrS bishops ignored this appeal ; and the non- 
 jurors received it with scurrility. The Republic still hoped 
 that an agreement might be come to with the papacy. It is 
 beyond doubt, apparently, that negotiations did take place 
 between the Directory and an agent of Pius the Sixth, on 
 the basis of the Constitution Civile and its hierarchy, and 
 the draft of a Concordat was printed. 3 Though there was 
 much in the Constitution which the papacy abhorred and 
 feared, there was nothing it would not accept if its 
 jurisdiction were recognized. It objected, above all things, 
 to being ignored ; and the only difference in principle 
 between the Constitution and Napoleon's Concordat is that 
 the former limited its recognition of the Pope to his 
 
 1 Debidour, pp. 157, 160, 171. Ibid. p. 171. 
 
 3 Nielsen, Papacy, i. 180-1.
 
 120 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 metropolitan primacy, while the latter admitted his papal 
 jurisdiction into France. 
 
 2. NAPOLEON AND ITALY. 
 
 The Italian campaigns of the Directory were carried out 
 partly to bring pressure on the Pope, and force him to 
 make terms with the constitutional church. Those cam- 
 paigns also brought Napoleon forward prominently; and 
 he becomes henceforth the leading figure in the events of 
 these years. He joined his army in March 1796, and within 
 a year Lodi, Arcola, Castiglioni, Rivoli, had been fought 
 and won, and Mantua had fallen. The Austrians were 
 swept out of Italy; the Papal States were reduced; and 
 the treaty of Tolentino was signed on February 19, 1797. 
 The Holy See was deprived of Bologna, Ferrara, and 
 Ravenna; and it ratified the possession of Avignon and 
 the Venaissin by France. Napoleon did not carry out his 
 instructions, which were to take Rome and despoil the Pope 
 of everything. He had already calculated on the papacy 
 as a necessary ally for himself. 'His policy towards the 
 Pope was to do him as little harm as possible, without leav- 
 ing him in ignorance of how much he might do. He knew 
 very well that Catholicism was gaining ground continually 
 in France ; and, without openly flouting the Directory, he 
 acted so as to earn the gratitude and obtain at need the 
 help of the church, which might one day be an invaluable 
 assistant for him.' * In a letter to Cacaut on October 24, 
 1796, he wrote about ' gaining time so as to trick the old 
 fox ', the Pope. On the 28th, he wrote ' You can assure the 
 Pope . . . that I covet more the title of saviour than destroyer 
 of the Holy See'. 
 
 ' He was not, indeed, withheld by religious scruples. 
 Wholly detached from every church and every belief, raised 
 from obscurity by the patronage of Robespierre, and Barras, 
 and Carnot, he thought, spoke, and acted the Jacobin ; and 
 had no more affection than his patrons for superstition and 
 fanaticism. He believed, at bottom, only in himself, and 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 163.
 
 NAPOLEON AND ITALY 121 
 
 had no other standard of morals than his own ambition. 
 He would not have hesitated to take the Revolution to 
 Rome, if on those terms only he might retain his command 
 and the favour of the Directory.' x Though he exhorted 
 his soldiers, as he marched Romeward, 'to chastise those 
 who sharpened the swords of civil war in France, and 
 assassinated our Ambassadors,' and urged them to re-estab- 
 lish 'the Capitol and arouse the Roman People, stifled in 
 centuries of bondage ' ; yet he caressed the Italian prelates, 
 did no harm to the French Emigres, whom he might law- 
 fully have shot, and allowed no disrespect to religion. In 
 all these apparent trifles, we can see Napoleon's design, and 
 appreciate his motives. Events were against his policy, for 
 the present; but his purposes were only deferred. In 
 December 1797, General Duphot was murdered in the 
 French Ambassador's house. The Directory ordered its 
 armies to advance. Berthier took Rome on February 10. 
 The Republic was proclaimed on the 15th. Ten days later, 
 Pius the Sixth was carried to Siena, and thence to Florence, 
 Parma, Grenoble, Valence, where he died in August 1799. 
 He is entered in the civil register of deaths as John Braschi 
 who exercised the trade of pontiff. Napoleon, meanwhile, 
 was in Egypt. He left the Directory to blunder, and they 
 blundered effectively. At home they irritated, without 
 hurting, the clergy of both churches. Their armies lost 
 Rome, and the Austrians re-entered Italy. Napoleon's 
 disasters in Egypt and Syria were covered by the defeats 
 of other generals in Europe. He landed at Frejus on 
 October 9, and was welcomed in Paris as a deliverer. 
 A month afterwards, he seized the reins of power. The 
 Consulate replaced the divided and effete Directory in 
 December 1799 ; Pius the Seventh was elected at Venice on 
 March 14, 1800. 
 
 It may be advisable here to examine the motives of 
 Napoleon and Pius, the two chief agents of the Concordat 
 Napoleon was already scheming for the consolidation of his 
 power ; and he had come to see that the papacy was not 
 only an useful but a necessary instrument ' Piety did not 
 1 Debidour, p. 163.
 
 122 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 enter into the question (for he was indifferent in religious 
 matters) ; but his plan was to dominate men's consciences 
 through the Pope, to realize by the papacy his imperial 
 dreams, his vision of universal empire. In de-laicising the 
 State (dans la dela'icisation de 1'fitat), in arranging a Con- 
 cordat, he saw, also, in addition, a gain to himself by getting 
 rid of the so-called Constitutional church, which was demo- 
 cratic by its electoral basis ; as well as in depriving Louis 
 the Eighteenth both of the papal support (he had been 
 recognized by Pius the Seventh), and of his political agents 
 in France, namely the old bishops. Besides, he could pacify 
 La Vendee and Brittany, whose very catholic populations 
 would rally to the Consulate if the Consulate were reconciled 
 to the Pope.' 1 As to Pius, ' The great matter for the Court 
 of Rome was to end the schism. If the schism were advan- 
 tageous to the Republic, it did not help Napoleon's dicta- 
 torial aims. He wanted a catholic church that he imagined 
 he would control. He desired to extinguish the bishops of 
 the noblesse, who remained faithful to Louis the Eighteenth ; 
 and who, even as Emigres, meddled in their dioceses, and 
 maintained throughout France a royalist opposition to the 
 Consulate. The Pope and the Consul were thus agreed in 
 wishing to re-unite the Gallican church. In truth, this was 
 the real aim of their Concordat.' 2 This analysis is pene- 
 trating, simple, and accurate. It explains everything, and 
 throws light on details and negotiations which have been 
 obscured by ultramontane apologists, and mis-understood by 
 non-catholic writers. 
 
 In March 1800, Napoleon crossed the Alps, and he won 
 Marengo in June. On his way to the battle, he had spoken 
 confidentially to Martiniana, the Cardinal of Vercelli, and 
 quite openly to the clergy of Milan. He abused the 
 ' Philosophers ', deplored the ' persecutions ' in France, as- 
 serted that experience had un-deceived the French ; that 
 no society could exist without morals and only religion 
 could ensure morality; that the religion of the Milanese 
 clergy was his. Then he made an assertion, which we 
 should remember ; and a promise, which was full of mean- 
 1 Aulard, hudes, 5 SMe, pp. 216-7. 8 Ibid. p. 233.
 
 NAPOLEON AND ITALY 123 
 
 ing. ' I assure you,' he said to the clergy of Milan, ' that 
 we are re-opening the churches in France, where the catholic 
 religion assumes its ancient splendour ; and the people are 
 full of respect for the holy pastors who return zealously to 
 their abandoned flocks. When I can speak face to face 
 with the new Pope, I trust I may have the good fortune to 
 remove the obstacles which hinder a complete reconciliation 
 between France and the head of the church.' J 
 
 Napoleon was not exaggerating when he said religion 
 was restored in France, though he denied it afterwards, and 
 boasted that the restoration was his own doing. It has 
 suited both imperialists and papists to keep this fiction 
 circulating, and so the public still believes it. In 1796, 
 32,214 churches were already in clerical occupation, and 
 4,571 were about to be re-opened. Next year, at the council 
 of Paris, Bishop Lecoz stated that 40,000 parishes were 
 provided with ministers ; and these figures are increased in 
 a report issued on the eve of the Concordat. 2 The majority 
 of these parishes were served by constitutional clergy. 3 
 The maintenance, and therefore the restoration, of public 
 worship is due chiefly to the church of the Constitution 
 Civile. Separation did not de-christianize France ; though 
 ultramontanism, by its political violence and blunders, 
 nearly did. In the Consulate, France had a government 
 able to command respect, and administer the laws. 
 
 'It might easily have made that religious pacification 
 which the Directory had hindered. To do this, there was 
 no necessity to treat with a foreign power. And no section 
 of the French wanted such a policy. It goes without say- 
 ing, that neither philosophers, nor deists, nor sceptics, wished 
 to re-open official communications between the free and lay 
 society of the Revolution and the papacy which was immov- 
 able in its intolerance and narrowness. The constitutional 
 clergy did not wish it any more, as we need scarcely show. 
 The non-juring clergy and their partizans had almost for- 
 gotten the bishops who, instead of remaining in France to 
 help them through the trials of the Revolution, had prudently 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 193. Ibid. p. 184. 
 
 J Champion, p. 154.
 
 124 CHUECH AND STATE IN FKANCE 
 
 emigrated to conspire with our deadly enemies. They were 
 led by priests who had learned wisdom by experience ; 
 whose only desires were to be guaranteed from persecution, 
 to re-enter their churches and minister in them peacefully, 
 without humiliation or impediment.' l M. Debidour quotes 
 Madame de Stael as recording that the catholics were tired 
 of political adventures, and would have been fully satisfied 
 by tolerance, absence of meddling and persecution, and 
 complete freedom as in America. That might have satisfied 
 the majority of French catholics, as it would satisfy them 
 now ; but then, as now, Rome not only wanted something 
 very different, but is compelled to want it, or her occupation 
 would be gone. The justice of these opinions is shown by 
 the thousands of addresses from restored emigre clergy, 
 thanking the First Consul, and taking the amended oath : 
 Je promets fidelite d la constitution. The nation demanded 
 nothing more than this ; but, unhappily, the First Consul 
 did. 'He wanted a Catholicism disciplined, enregimente, 
 submitting nominally to the Pope, on condition that the 
 Pope submitted humbly to the First Consul.' l And he 
 wanted a Pope with enough territory to be styled a king, 
 but not enough to be strong ; a Pope who required protec- 
 tion, and we know what Bonaparte understood by that. 1 
 Cardinal Mathieu not only accepts this view, but emphasizes 
 it. ' On the ratification of the French copy, the signature 
 of Bonaparte dominates all the others, and fills the page. 
 It is a symbol of the overwhelming part which he occupied 
 in the negotiation. Bonaparte initiated the treaty, willed 
 it personally and autocratically, made it be accepted by 
 the Pope, imposed it on his ministers, on the grands corps 
 de I'Etat, on his generals and armies, none of whom wanted 
 it, and all with a courage and pertinacity which deserves 
 our recognition. Bonaparte est le seul qui desire la reunion 
 avec Rome, Consalvi and Spina have written in a score of 
 memoranda.' 2 Such then were the motives. of the Con- 
 cordat, and of its makers. The motives of Bonaparte were 
 simple : those of Pius were more complicated ; because ' the 
 
 1 Debidour, pp. 185, 189, 190. 
 
 8 Mathieu, Le Concordat, pp. 322-3.
 
 NAPOLEON AND ITALY 125 
 
 remembrance of Henry the Eighth, recalled more than once 
 by the First Consul, impressed itself on the whole negotia- 
 tion as a realizable terror, and forced the papal representatives 
 to give the concessions for which they have been blamed '.* 
 
 3. THE NEGOTIATION OF THE CONCORDAT. 
 
 The causes of the agreement were not really more re- 
 ligious than its motives. The treaty of Tolentino had 
 reduced the Papal States by half. The Roman Republic 
 had been in possession of what was left. Pius the Sixth died 
 a prisoner in France. Though the French had retired from 
 Italy, Austria on one side and Naples on the other were 
 occupying papal territory. Pius the Seventh was, there- 
 fore, enchanted by the overtures of Napoleon, whose alliance 
 would unite him to the first general in Europe, the head of 
 a vigorous and rising nation. After Marengo, Napoleon 
 returned to Martiniana, and he conveyed his wishes to the 
 Pope. Spina, an agent of the papacy, was sent to Vercelli ; 
 and then, at Napoleon's wish, was moved on to Paris. He 
 was an envoy without powers, whose instructions were to 
 wait, to watch, to sound people and gauge public opinion, 
 but to commit himself to nothing. The discussions in Paris 
 began on November 8, 1800. The French negotiator was 
 not Talleyrand, who, like all the ministers, was opposed to 
 a Concordat with the Pope, but the Abbe Bernier, an old 
 Vendden, implicated in royalism and rebellion, and now a 
 Bonapartist. The negotiations dragged for six months ; and 
 then Pius resolved to send his Secretary of State, Consalvi, 
 who went trembling to Paris, expecting to be martyred. 
 He arrived in June, 1801, and had full power to treat. The 
 Pope's delays and hesitations were not all caused by the 
 different aims of the contracting parties, or the interests 
 of the church. They were mainly political. The victory 
 of Marengo was not decisive. The Austrians were still in 
 Italy. It was not clear whether Napoleon or the coalition 
 would be victorious there. The Pope was afraid of being 
 on the wrong side. Moreau's victory at Hohenlinden 
 1 Mathieu, Le Concordat, pp. 322-3.
 
 126 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 (Dec. 1800), the expulsion of Louis the Eighteenth from 
 Russia, the treaty of Luneville between France and Austria, 
 and the further treaty with Naples, all of which left 
 Napoleon master of Italy, settled the doubts of Pius, and 
 negotiations began in earnest. 
 
 Napoleon's plan was symmetrical and simple. The Con- 
 sular government would protect the catholic religion in 
 France, but must organize or police it as the First Consul 
 might arrange. The Republic should be divided into fifty 
 bishoprics and ten arch-bishoprics. All the existing bishops 
 should resign, both jurors and non-jurors. If they refused, 
 the Consul should appoint others, whom the Pope would 
 institute. Bishops should nominate the cures, but the 
 nominees must be approved by government. Cures and 
 bishops must swear fidelity to the constitution and the 
 Consuls. The alienation of church property must be recog- 
 nized, and the holders of it secured. All ministers of 
 worship were to be paid by the State. The First Consul 
 was to have and exercise all the rights of the kings, his 
 predecessors. Married or retired priests were to be ad- 
 mitted to lay communion. Among these proposals were 
 many from which the Pope dissented. The preamble, 
 and even the title itself, presented difficulties. The term 
 Concordat was hated and dreaded by the clergy, as it re- 
 minded them of Francis the First, and hia mischievous 
 agreement. The treaty was described, therefore, as the 
 Convention between the French Government and his Holi- 
 ness Pius the Seventh. In the first draft, the catholic 
 religion was described by Napoleon as La Religion de I'Etat. 
 As that threatened toleration and undermined the first 
 principles of the Revolution, it had to be withdrawn. Then 
 Spina tried hard for the term Religion Dominante, which 
 was also refused ; and a compromise was made by de- 
 scribing Catholicism as La religion de la grande majority 
 des citoyens fran^ais. Napoleon was thus ready, without 
 being asked, to give up the first principles of the Revo- 
 lution, by setting up a State religion. By favouring the 
 religion of the majority, he established a privileged, a pro- 
 tected one : privileged, not only by the advantages given
 
 THE NEGOTIATION OF THE CONCOEDAT 127 
 
 to it, but by the special profession of it (profession particu- 
 liere) required from the Consuls. The Pope made this 
 profession indispensable, if he allowed the First Consul 
 to nominate bishops; and he urged, in support of his 
 claim, the damaging precedent of England. The Pope 
 showed that, in England and Scotland, he nominated the 
 vicars apostolic; and in Ireland, the metropolitans and 
 bishops: 'so that the King does not meddle in these 
 nominations, nor even claim to nominate as his catholic 
 predecessors did before the schism.' l Though Consalvi was 
 not able to make Romanism the State religion, he did 
 require that the First Consul should be a Romanist; and 
 Article 17 ordains that, if any successor of the First Consul 
 shall not be a catholic, the rights * and prerogatives men- 
 tioned above, and the power of nominating to bishoprics, 
 shall be regulated, with respect to him, by a new conven- 
 tion '. Thus one office, that of Head of the State, was not 
 accessible to all Frenchmen, as the Rights of Man claimed, 
 but was reserved for catholics, so long as the Concordat 
 should be law. 
 
 Having secured the dignity and the privilege of Romanism, 
 Consalvi aimed next at obtaining complete freedom. The 
 First Article runs 'La religion catholique, apostolique et 
 romaine sera librement exercee en France ; son culte sera 
 public, en se conformant au reglements de police que le 
 Gouvernement jugera necessaires pour la tranquillite pu- 
 blique*. The words in italics led to the famous Articles 
 Organiques, which mean of course ' administrative regula- 
 tions ' only, not fundamental principles. The common 
 English rendering ' Organic Articles ' may be precise, but is 
 precisely wrong. Napoleon wished to confine public cere- 
 monial within the churches. This, Consalvi refused ; and 
 he suggested no mention of State control, promising that 
 the Pope would settle the matter by a Brief, which the clergy 
 must obey. But, answered Napoleon, how can we allow 
 that the Pope, by such a Brief, should exercise his juris- 
 diction in France, even indirectly? Consalvi feared that 
 any admission might be used against freedom of worship. 
 1 Aulard, p. 222.
 
 128 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 Napoleon's objection, however, was honest and sound. He 
 pointed out ' there are places where irreligion or difference 
 of opinion is so violent that it would be impossible to con- 
 duct ceremonies outside the churches without the danger 
 of their being insulted'. 1 As happens so often in papal 
 negotiations, Consalvi, while appearing to compromise on 
 one point, outwitted the adversary in a more important 
 one. He suggested the phrase ' all obstacles shall be re- 
 moved which hinder the free exercise of worship '. By these 
 ' obstacles', he understood, though he did not express, various 
 civil laws of the Revolution, including divorce. Napoleon 
 finally rejected this phrase ; but it illustrates the methods 
 of papal diplomacy. The Romans were willing to promise 
 anything, so long as their phrases were not beyond the 
 reach of casuistry, and did not seem to give them away 
 publicly. They were, and are, always in terror of awkward 
 precedents. Consalvi wrote to Doria, ' Les plenipotentiaires 
 fran?ais ne voulurent jamais comprendre que toute notre 
 difficult^ consistait a le dire, tandis qu'en fait nous le souffrons 
 partout.' 2 As the agreement had to be given in Latin, 
 Consalvi tried to manipulate the rendering, so as not to 
 wound the Curia. Cardinal Mathieu owns that ' he required 
 some dexterity in operating, because the French nego- 
 tiators, who knew Latin, checked the translation, which the 
 Italians were dealing with loosely ' (faisaient au pied leve). 3 
 And all these tricks, equivocations, and the caressing flat- 
 teries of Napoleon are mingled with unctuous phrases and 
 invocations of the Holy Ghost. Pius and his advisers were, 
 in these methods, as facile as Consalvi. Cardinal Mathieu 
 recommends the instructions of Pius, and the whole 
 negotiation, as a model to young diplomatists of the 
 Quai d'Orsay. They certainly illustrate papal diplomacy, 
 and throw floods of light on the evolution of the papacy 
 during the middle ages, when its adversaries were not so 
 cautious and scholarly as Napoleon's representatives; but 
 the Cardinal forgets that these methods are no longer 
 profitable, or even possible, in our present condition of 
 
 1 Lecomte, Rapport, p. 102. * Ibid, p 102. 
 
 3 Mathieu, Concordat, p. 260.
 
 THE NEGOTIATION OF THE CONCOEDAT 129 
 
 publicity ; and recent experiences have proved this to every 
 one but the diplomatists of the Curia. During the whole 
 progress of Separation, from the visit of President 
 Loubet to Rome until the latest stages of the affair, docu- 
 ments have been sophisticated by the papal Secretary of 
 State ; but his methods have been systematically exposed by 
 means of the Press. 
 
 The difficulties we have considered relate to the funda- 
 mental principles of the Concordat, as they appeared to 
 both parties. There were other grave differences of de- 
 tail which had to be adjusted before an agreement could 
 be reached. One of the greatest was the question of the 
 existing bishops. Napoleon wanted them all deposed : the 
 Emigres and non-jurors, as royalists ; the Constitutional 
 bishops, as republicans and liberals. There were serious 
 objections to deposing them by a papal decree. It was un- 
 canonical and unprecedented, and could not be admitted 
 as valid by any Gallican. Pius himself described his power 
 as douteuse, which means that he knew it to be non-existent, 
 or at any rate a novel and most arbitrary usurpation. Be- 
 sides, the only fault of the Emigres was that they had been 
 faithful to the old rSgime, and had been forced by the Revolu- 
 tion into ultramontanism. The Pope said he could not sacri- 
 fice them without violating his personal honour (son honneur 
 d'homme). Nevertheless he did sacrifice both the bishops 
 and his honour, not to Napoleon, but to the aggrandizement 
 of the papacy, though he tried to save appearances, and to 
 conceal the ultimate consequence of his act by the usual 
 casuistries. He suggested, first, that he might withdraw 
 their faculties and appoint administrators, to act while the 
 existing bishops lived. Napoleon rejected this, because it 
 would still leave the bishops free to agitate, as royalists. 
 They would oppose the Consulate and the Concordat as 
 they had opposed the Directory and the Civil Constitution. 
 Pius then said he would exhort the bishops to resign ' for 
 the good of the church '. If they refused, it would be a 
 grievous fault ; and, for this fault, he would depose them. 
 Thus Pius sacrificed his honour, and the papacy gained 
 enormously. 'He asked, really, that his hand might be 
 
 K
 
 130 CHUKCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 forced, and for an obvious reason ; that the First Consul, 
 by recognizing the papal authority to depose bishops, 
 without canonical faults, should destroy independently one of 
 the last barriers and guarantees of episcopal freedom against 
 the papal absolutism in matters of rule and discipline.' l 
 This was a long step towards the infallibility of 1870. To 
 depose the whole episcopate of the leading catholic nation 
 was, indeed, a triumph for the papacy ; and the power thus 
 usurped by the aid of Napoleon was used recently, in spite 
 of Napoleon's Concordat, against the bishops of Laval and 
 Dijon. Thus Pius the Seventh established in France, for 
 the first time, an hierarchy of which the Pope was the ruling 
 chief; and Napoleon eliminated that democratic church, 
 which would have been inconvenient for his imperial and 
 autocratic administration. 
 
 Of the eighty-one bishops, who survived from the old 
 regime, thirty-six refused to resign. A few of these yielded 
 long afterwards, but the majority were never reconciled. 
 The last survivor, de The'mines, bishop of Blois, styled him- 
 self bishop of all France. He died in 1828 ; and the Petite 
 jSglise lived into the reign of Leo the Thirteenth. Those 
 uncompromising prelates, whom the Revolution had driven 
 from their Gallicanism to ultramontanism, were driven back 
 to Gallicanism by the Pope. They described his action as 
 une monstruosite", which is true ; and they enriched G-allican 
 literature with a mass of pamphlets, equally abusive of the 
 papacy and the Constitution Civile. Twelve of the Constitu- 
 tional prelates were admitted into the Concordat, ten 
 bishops and two metropolitans. A farther example of 
 ultramontane diplomacy is to be found in the tortuous 
 history of their so-called retractations. 2 The Concordat was 
 signed in Rome on August 28, and ratified by Napoleon and 
 Talleyrand on Sept. 8, 1801 ; but it was not promulgated 
 and carried out until April 1802, from which time it should 
 properly be dated. The delay was caused by the prepara- 
 tion of the so-called Organiques or administrative clauses ; 
 that police des cultes, against which Consalvi had used all 
 his casuistry. 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 199. * Aulard, pp. 246-9.
 
 THE NEGOTIATION OF THE CONCORDAT 131 
 
 We have considered, first, the positions and aims of the 
 two parties to the treaty ; and, secondly, the chief obstacles 
 which hindered their agreement. We may now summarize 
 the Concordat itself; reminding the reader again that its 
 official title is CONVENTION ENTRE LE GOUVERNEMENT FEAN^AIS 
 ET SA SAINTET PIE VII. The Convention itself contains 
 17 Articles. We have dealt with the preamble, which 
 describes Catholicism as ' la religion de la grande majority 
 des citoyens francais ', and which prescribes the profession 
 particuliere (professio peculiaris) of the Consuls. The first 
 Article grants the free exercise of the catholic religion ; and 
 of its public worship, subject to the police regulation which 
 the government shall judge necessary for public tranquillity 
 and order. 2. There shall be made by the Holy See, in 
 concert with the government, a new delimitation of the 
 French bishoprics. 3. Provides, as we have seen, for the 
 resignation of existing bishops. If they refuse, which his 
 Holiness does not expect, the government of the new 
 dioceses, under their new titles, is to be provided for as 
 follows. 4. The First Consul shall nominate, within three 
 months from the publication of the Bull ; and his Holiness 
 will institute canonically, according to the forms established 
 with reference to France before the change of government. 
 5. Future nominations will be made in like manner by the 
 First Consul ; and canonical institution will be given by the 
 Holy See according to the preceding Article. Cardinal 
 Mathieu remarks that this Article does not bind either 
 party, as to time ; but, surely, the length of vacancies must 
 be regulated by the usual practice of the old regime, to 
 which the previous Article refers, even if the period of one 
 month does not affect this Article, which is a complement 
 and expansion of the preceding. 6. The bishops swore 
 fidelity to the First Consul in person, in the terms which 
 were used under the old government : that is, they swore 
 obedience and fidelity, to join in no plots or disorders, and 
 to report all such matters to the government. Napoleon 
 thus had his spiritual police organized, and so had Louis 
 the Fourteenth ; but, in the catechism which explains what 
 is meant by loyalty, the Emperor went much farther than
 
 132 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 the king, much farther than Bossuet. The acceptance of 
 such doctrines is not creditable to the concordatory bishops, 
 or to the Holy See ; and it is not surprising that liberals 
 were hostile to the clergy as the chief agents of tyranny and 
 reaction. ' See how the Pope accepted a clause which made 
 the bishops informers and spies, mouchards du gouverne- 
 ment.' 7. Priests were to make a similar oath to the civil 
 authorities of their districts ; and so the whole body of the 
 clergy was enrdgimenU in the service of Napoleon. 10. Cures 
 were to be nominated by the bishops, but the nominee must 
 be acceptable to the government. 11 and 12. Bishops may 
 have a chapter, and a seminary, and churches not alienated 
 will be given to them. 13. The Pope ratifies the alienation 
 of all ecclesiastical property, and guarantees its existing 
 owners in their possessions. 14. The government assures 
 a becoming salary, traitement convenable, to all ministers : 
 sustentationem quae cuiusque status ducat. This payment 
 was a salary, paid for duties performed, as to other public 
 servants. It was not a property. Still less was it a com- 
 pensation or an equivalent for the domains of the old First 
 Order, which was deliberately and entirely abolished, by 
 the sovereign authority of the nation, with all its rights, 
 privileges, and material possessions. It left no heirs or 
 claimants except the State. The new clergy, who were not 
 a corporate body, but individuals paid by the Government, 
 had no more right to the possessions of the First Order than 
 any other individual Frenchmen. 
 
 The Administrative Regulations are divided into four 
 chapters and seventy-seven Articles. We need not go into 
 their details. The controversies which they have raised are 
 about their principles, and even their existence. The Pope 
 repudiated them from the first, saying they were drawn up 
 without his knowledge, and added fraudulently to the Con- 
 vention. The Government has always maintained that they 
 existed implicitly in the second clause of Article 1 : Le culte 
 sera public, en se conformant aux reglements de police que le 
 Gouvernement jugera ntcessaires pour la tranquillitepublique. 
 It might be asked, pertinently, who are responsible for 
 public order in France, who are to judge of it ? Is it to be
 
 THE NEGOTIATION OF THE CONCOEDAT 133 
 
 regulated by the French government, or by foreigners in 
 Italy ? There can be but one answer, unless we acknowledge 
 the full theocracy of Boniface the Eighth. The same ques- 
 tion returns to us if we deal with matters of property and 
 persons. Has the French government, or has the Pope, 
 sovereign rights over French citizens ? Can France dispose 
 of her own money and buildings, or must she sue to the 
 Pope for leave ? Englishmen answered these questions 
 decisively some four centuries ago, with regard to the 
 papacy. Our law courts still answer them in a similar way 
 whenever they recur, as in the case of the Scotch Free 
 Churches. It is not a matter which depends on the estab- 
 lishment of religion. It is a matter which is vital to 
 sovereignty, and to the civil power. Not only the Rights of 
 Man, but the freedom and progress of humanity, depend 
 on these questions being answered against papal and clerical 
 assumptions. ' Les plus dangereux adversaires de la liberte' 
 sont des hommes habitue's a gouverner la terre au nom du 
 ciel.' 
 
 Leaving principles, and turning to a few details, it will 
 be noticed that there is no mention in the Concordat of the 
 religious orders. They had not been included in the 
 Constitution Civile, except as a survival, which was to expire 
 naturally. Their royalist and reactionary plottings led to 
 their abolition, and they were swept away by law. Their 
 return was never contemplated, and so it was not even for- 
 bidden. "When the Concordat was made, the Jesuits were 
 still suppressed, and no civil government expected or desired 
 their restoration. It was clearly intended by the civil power 
 that monasticism should not be restored in France. The 
 convents had been dissolved, not only because they were 
 decayed and useless, and their revenues misused, but 
 because the conventual state violated the Rights of Man 
 and the principles of the Revolution. It has been argued 
 by some casuists that the first article of the Concordat, 
 which grants liberty to the catholic religion, carries with it 
 of necessity a permission to take monastic vows. This may 
 have been one of Consalvi's mental reservations ; but, it 
 must be remembered, though individuals may vow what
 
 134 CHUKCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 they choose, yet if their vows lead to external acts the law 
 must deal with them, and if such persons combine they fall 
 under those laws of association which all States have, and 
 must have, the duty to regulate. At any rate Napoleon 
 did not want the orders back. He provided in the Con- 
 cordat for bishops, curSs and vicaires, but not for monks. 
 His agreement referred only to the parochial clergy. 
 Napoleon said plainly 'It is against my intentions that 
 religious communities are being established ', and he issued 
 a further decree against all unauthorized associations. He 
 authorized only three orders, one of them being the 
 Missions trangeres, which he favoured for imperialistic 
 reasons. The Christian Brothers were admitted, but only 
 as a body of individual teachers, under the Minister of 
 Education ; and the Sulpicians were also encouraged for 
 educational purposes. As to the rest, Portalis informed the 
 Council of State that 'All monastic institutions have dis- 
 appeared ' ; and Lucian Bonaparte explained to the Corps 
 LSgislatif, l We see no more of those innumerable orders, 
 which devour the substance of the people without giving 
 them any return . . . and which only serve in modern States 
 to encourage destructive and foreign tendencies ' (un esprit 
 etranger et funeste). Mr. Bodley states that the orders just 
 mentioned ' were the only three which he (Napoleon) autho- 
 rized '- 1 They were, indeed, the only orders of men ; but 
 'more than two hundred congregations or communities of 
 women had been authorized by the Emperor. Many others 
 were formed without legal recognition ' ; and the three 
 orders of men had their authorization withdrawn in 
 1809. 2 As we shall see, the Concordat was violated in 
 many ways, even from the beginning ; but no violation 
 of it has been so outrageous as the continual increase 
 of the religious orders, which progressed with a grow- 
 ing momentum until it was checked by the legislation of 
 M. Waldeck-Rousseau, and the rigorous administration of 
 M. Combes. 
 
 Neither party was satisfied by the Concordat. Napoleon 
 
 1 Church in France, p. 69. s Debidour, p. 329.
 
 THE NEGOTIATION OF THE CONCORDAT 135 
 
 found himself in conflict with the papacy almost before the 
 ink was dry. He thought he had broken clerical resistance 
 when he replaced the First Order of the old regime by 
 a department of State with salaried officials, whose heads 
 were chosen by himself, and who all swore allegiance to 
 him personally. He failed to see that by making the higher 
 clergy dependent on the State, he not only made them 
 helpless against the papacy, but impelled them inevitably 
 towards ultramontanism. The lower clergy, in like manner, 
 were subjected to their bishops. Only a small proportion of 
 curds had security of tenure. The great body of desservants 
 and vicaires were, indeed, enrfyimentte ; but their com- 
 mander was the bishop, not the Emperor. The position of 
 the lower clergy under these conditions has been degrading, 
 precarious, and deplorable. Even the nomination of bishops 
 did not turn out as Napoleon expected. The real head of 
 the concordatory episcopate was not the Emperor but the 
 Pope. The real administrator was not the Minister of Public 
 Worship but the Nuncio. Though the French authority 
 could nominate to bishoprics, it could only set up an epis- 
 copal dummy. Until the Pope animated that dummy by 
 his canonical investiture and his various faculties, the minis- 
 terial nominee was but a phantom prelate. Napoleon soon 
 experienced this ; and Pius the Seventh baffled him, at the 
 height of his power, by refusing to institute his nominees. 
 As Article 5 imposed no fixed limit of time, and provided 
 no alternate action, the Pope did not violate the letter of 
 the Concordat ; and there is hardly a clause of it which is 
 not equally vulnerable. Napoleon, instead of re-establishing, 
 as he thought, a national and Gallican church, set up an 
 organization which was dependent on the Curia. The 
 Concordat gave the Pope a right of entry into France, such 
 as he had never enjoyed before. It secured him in a 
 fortified position from which he could dominate the clergy, 
 and influence every department of French affairs. Napoleon 
 was soon driven to confess ' The greatest error in my reign 
 was the Concordat ' ; and every French administration 
 would endorse his judgment. Whatever advantage it may 
 have brought to Napoleon, it has been disastrous for his
 
 136 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 successors, by giving them a legacy of perpetual friction 
 and incessant conflict. 
 
 And yet the other party was not satisfied. Cardinal 
 Antonelli, in a consistory held at Eome in 1801, presented 
 a report which is worth pondering. He began by jubi- 
 lating over the deposition of the French bishops, which 
 he described truly as a coup d'Etat, and then praised as 
 ' un hommage extraordinaire rendu a sa puissance, en con- 
 tradiction flagrante avec les theories gallicanes '. After this 
 flourish, he proceeded to bewail the deprived bishops, ' True 
 shepherds, exiled from their country, and more, (I cannot 
 speak of it without tears) wounded and separated from 
 their flocks by the very sword of Peter. The religious 
 orders are expelled from the whole of that vast empire. 
 The holy virgins are deprived of their cloistered sanctuaries. 
 Chapters and seminaries are without means of support. The 
 churches which remain, after the recent profanations, are 
 sordid and ruinous. The bequests and legacies, the chari- 
 table works, the prerogatives and immunities are abolished 
 and overturned. In fine, we have a skeleton, soulless, 
 bloodless, fleshless. This is the phantom of religion which 
 they have re-established in France ; and those who have 
 effected this wretched performance boast, and usurp the 
 name of restorers of altars.' l It is not easy to satisfy the 
 ultramontanes. 
 
 ' The Court of Eome had submitted to Napoleon's demands 
 because it could not otherwise regain its temporal and 
 spiritual power. Thanks to him, the Pope had recovered 
 part of his States ; but, far from being grateful, it chafed on 
 account of that which it had not received. Thanks to him 
 also, the Pope had recovered his authority over the French 
 episcopate, and had usurped the right of deposing bishops 
 without any canonical reason ; but it held that no gratitude 
 was owing to the author of the Organiques. The church of 
 France was, to all appearance, garotted by the civil power. 
 But that very servitude, into which Bonaparte pretended 
 he had pushed it, was one reason why it turned towards 
 
 1 Lecomte, Rapport, p. 110.
 
 THE NEGOTIATION OF THE CONCOEDAT 137 
 
 the Pope, and gave itself to him with a docility which was 
 unknown under the old regime. . . . Bonaparte had, in 
 reality, and unawares, worked against himself, against the 
 lay and liberal France of the Revolution. Moreover, while 
 dreaming that he had bound the church, he hand-cuffed 
 himself to a rival power whose implacable and invincible 
 resistance became one cause of his ruin. He made in- 
 evitable a transformation whose manifest consequences we 
 are feeling now. The old regime had made the French 
 clergy Gallicans. Napoleon manufactured ultramontanes.' l 
 
 The situation created by the Concordat has been summed 
 up by M. Anatole France with his unfailing lucidity and 
 wit : ' Le Concordat, depouille de la pompe romaine et de la 
 majeste consulaire, n'est qu'une bouffonnerie italienne jouee 
 par un cadet d'Ajaccio avec un pretre remain. Bonaparte 
 sentit lui-meme le comique de cette piece. Quand il re9ut 
 du cardinal Caprara, dans une assemblee solennelle, une 
 exemplaire authentique de la Convention, enfin signee, on 
 le vit rire aux eclats et faire des grimaces. Pourtant le plus 
 fin de la comedie lui echappait. II pensait avoir dupe le 
 vieux renard, et c'etait lui qui etait la dupe. 
 
 ' L'imprudent Consul croyait retablir a son profit 1'figlise 
 gallicane, et il organisait en France une province de l'glise 
 romaine. II faisait un clerge sans force pour lui resistor et 
 sans force pour resister au Pape, un clerge, miserable et 
 servile, soumis a deux maitres et contraint sans cesse de 
 trahir 1'un pour contenter 1'autre. II organisait le clerge 
 qui, apres avoir chante des Te Deum, pour toutes ses victoires, 
 se detournera de lui dans ses jours sombres, prendra la 
 cocarde blanche en 1814, soulevera centre lui la Vendee en 
 1815.' 2 
 
 Cardinal Mathieu quotes, with approval, a saying of 
 Cacault, ' Le Concordat a ete 1'ceuvre d'un heros et d'un 
 saint'; but he has to add in the next sentence 'Le heros 
 se dementit bientdt '. 3 ' The alliance between Bonaparte 
 and the papacy was a manage dinteret, ill-arranged, and 
 bound to finish with a divorce. Nevertheless, it had its 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 227. s L'figlise et la Rtpubligve, p. 86. 
 
 3 Le Concordat, pp. 325-6.
 
 138 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 honeymoon, which was longer than is usual with such 
 unions.' 1 The consulship for life in 1802, and the empire 
 in 1804, made the papacy very complacent with the vic- 
 torious soldier. Nevertheless, differences began almost at 
 once. The Organiques were objected to by the Pope, on 
 their publication: so was Caprara's oath as legate, which 
 revived the Gallicanism of the old regime. In return for 
 the coronation and consecration of the Emperor by the 
 hands of the Pope, Pius counted on getting back Ravenna, 
 Ferrara and Bologna, as well as the restoration of religious 
 orders in France, and the abrogation of the Organiques. In 
 all these hopes, he was disappointed. Instead of obtaining 
 the Legations, he lost Ancona and Civita Vecchia. As 
 Napoleon seemed to decline in power, the Pope grew more 
 exacting. The Article about the institution of bishops 
 prescribed no limit of time, and by declining to institute, 
 Pius was able to cause grave embarrassment to the Em- 
 peror's administration. The Concordat did not work ; and 
 not even the ingenuity or the violence of Napoleon could 
 make it work. He had given the Pope an ultimate control 
 over the French church. The Organiques, against which 
 the Vatican protested, were quite useless as a barrier against 
 the papal jurisdiction. Napoleon then tried force. The 
 Papal States were invaded, and in the end annexed to the 
 empire, being considered as two French Departments. The 
 Pope had an allowance of 2,000,000 francs (80,000). 
 The Sacred College and the Propaganda were financed by the 
 Emperor, the papal archives were taken to Paris ; and the 
 Four Articles of 1682 were made a law of the empire. 
 The Pope himself was imprisoned at Savona, and moved to 
 Fontainebleau. The Concordat of 1802 was thus broken 
 and finally abrogated within ten years of its promulgation. 
 New terms were proposed to the Pope ; and a Council met 
 in 1811, to solve, if possible, the difficulty about institution. 
 It showed itself, however, too papal, and had to be dissolved. 
 The opposition were imprisoned, and the remaining bishops 
 were re-assembled. They revived ancient canons, and pro- 
 posed that no sees should be vacant for more than a year ; 
 1 Debidour, p. 230.
 
 THE NEGOTIATION OF THE CONCORDAT 139 
 
 that the Pope must institute within six months of nomina- 
 tion ; and, if he refused, the metropolitan or the senior 
 bishop of the province should act ; but they would not 
 decree this without the Pope's authority. The proposal was 
 submitted to Pius, and accepted by him in a Brief; and 
 these terms were adopted as the Fourth Article in the 
 Concordat of Fontainebleau, which was signed by Napoleon 
 and Pius on January 25, 1813. It was repudiated by the 
 Pope in the following March. The chief interest of this 
 Concordat, beyond Article 4, is that France and the 
 kingdom of Italy were both included. Article 9 ordained 
 that the Propaganda, the Penitentiary, and the papal 
 archives should be established wherever the Pope might 
 reside. That was not necessarily Rome ; and the abolition 
 of the Temporal Power was thus ratified by Pius the Seventh. 
 This new Concordat was short-lived ; for, besides the Pope's 
 immediate repudiation, the First Empire itself was ended 
 finally in 1815. The year before, the Pope was restored to 
 Rome, and his States were given back to him by the Con- 
 gress of Vienna. The relations between France and the 
 papacy were regulated again by the Concordat of 1802. 
 As the main principles of that agreement were unaltered, it 
 has not been necessary to consider in detail the stormy and 
 interesting period of the empire, which was very little 
 creditable to the French clergy, or to the Emperor, or even 
 to Pius the Seventh ; though he is usually praised in 
 ultramontane histories without any sort of reservation. 
 
 4. Pius THE SEVENTH. 
 
 Barnaba Luigi Chiaramonte was born in 1742. At six- 
 teen, he joined the Benedictines. He was a distant relative 
 of Pius the Sixth, who made him a titular abbot. He was 
 promoted to the bishoprics of Tivoli and Imola, and so to 
 the Cardinalate. He was elected Pope, at Venice, on the 
 24th of March, 1800, when the papacy had fallen, as 
 it seemed, irretrievably. Pius the Sixth died a prisoner 
 in France. A Republic had been proclaimed in Rome. The 
 Papal States were in the hands of Austria and Naples ; and
 
 140 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 were soon to pass once more into the grasp of Napoleon. 
 France itself was lost to the papal jurisdiction. Under 
 these circumstances, Napoleon offered the Concordat, and 
 all that it implied. We have seen what hopes were raised 
 in the mind of Pius, and how grievously they were dis- 
 appointed. The reign of Pius the Seventh may be divided 
 into two periods. From 1800 to 1814, he has no history 
 apart from Napoleon. Those years are occupied by the 
 Concordat, by a short period of deceptive peace, by a long 
 period of disagreement, which involved the loss of the Papal 
 States, the imprisonment of the Pope, and a renunciation of 
 the Temporal Power. It is not easy to form, and it is less 
 easy to formulate, an equitable judgment of Pius the 
 Seventh. Joseph de Maistre, that fiery ultramontane, did 
 not hesitate to write of him, soon after Napoleon's corona- 
 tion, ' The crimes of an Alexander Borgia are less revolting 
 than this hideous apostasy of his weak successor. ... If once 
 a man of his rank and office so far forgets both one and the 
 other, he degrades himself into the condition of a puppet 
 who is of no further consequence.' Ultramontane opinions 
 always produce intemperate expressions; but impartial 
 judges may take a more lenient view of Pius the Seventh. 
 In himself, he was amiable, with a singular charm of looks 
 and manner. Certainly, he was no martyr. The heroic 
 virtues were not his; but he had an unexpected fund of 
 passive resistance, which seldom failed him, though it was 
 not inexhaustible. The bottom was reached more than once, 
 and Pius yielded what no really great and brave man would 
 have surrendered. In a Pope, that matters little ; for he can 
 always go back on his own word, since he claims the power 
 of absolving other men from their engagements. 
 
 After 1814, Pius was restored to his capital, and his States. 
 The second period of his reign inaugurates that new 
 papacy which was evolved during the nineteenth century. 
 Its first act was to restore the Jesuits ; and it has been 
 dominated by them ever since. Under their guidance, it 
 produced the Syllabus of 1864, and defined papal infallibility 
 in 1870. The results of this policy have been perpetual 
 friction with the Civil Power, and an ever widening breach
 
 PIUS THE SEVENTH 141 
 
 between the church and the progressive intellect of the 
 modern world. The papacy, without any doubt, was more 
 active and influential in the last quarter of the nineteenth 
 century than it was in the last quarter of the eighteenth. 
 The position of Leo the Thirteenth was very much greater 
 than the position of Clement the Thirteenth. This was due 
 very largely to our modern facilities of communication, 
 which enabled the administration of the church to be more 
 centralized, and more in contact with the various govern- 
 ments. The Press and the telegraph have been indispensable 
 factors in the growth of Vaticanism ; and, as a French 
 ultramontane said recently, government by telephone, with 
 an autocrat at the other end of it, is terrible. The ultimate 
 success of the Jesuit policy, and of centralization, is more 
 than doubtful. Shrewd observers think its failure is already 
 discernible. The mass of the people seem lost to the church 
 in all progressive countries ; and the personnel of the clergy 
 has deteriorated. Vigour and initiative have withered 
 under the ultramontane system, which has done for the 
 hierarchy and the priesthood what the Ignatian method has 
 done for the Society of Jesus. Obedience is good, but blind 
 obedience may be too dearly bought. These matters, how- 
 ever, are still in process of evolution ; and the end of them 
 is not yet. 
 
 As a ruler, after his restoration, Pius followed the bad 
 example of the Holy Alliance. His policy was feeble, and 
 his administration detestable. Its fatal consequences were 
 soon experienced by his successors. Except for the heroic 
 episodes, which were due to Napoleon, Pius the Seventh 
 would have gone down to history as an amiable and quite 
 undistinguished Pope. For one beautiful and charming 
 work, however, he must always be remembered gratefully. 
 An inscription tells that he rescued the Pincian Hill from 
 neglect and squalor, and made it pleasant for the Eomans, 
 and also for strangers who worship Rome as their second 
 country. As we ascend that regal staircase inscribed with 
 the name of Louis Quinze, and pass under the ilex bowers of 
 the French Academy, and take in the panorama of the City, 
 with all its huddled roofs and towers between the Quirinal,
 
 142 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 the Palatine, and the Janiculum, and marvel at the trans- 
 formation of St. Peter's dome as it glows tremulous and 
 then fades in sunset, or enjoy the morning light through 
 the pines of the Borghese Villa, we should think very kindly 
 of Pius the Seventh, the builder of those massive terraces. 
 Napoleon also is on the Pincian, not as an Emperor, nor as 
 one of the great statesmen of old or new Italy, but among 
 the Italian Condottieri. That is, perhaps, a just stroke of 
 irony or accident ; and a judgment which he thoroughly 
 deserves in the enchanted garden of his prisoner. And 
 overlooking it, from the highest ridge of the Janiculum, 
 above the Acqua Paola, dark and ominous against the 
 sky, colossal, is another Condottiere, Garibaldi, frowning 
 always on the Vatican, where the papacy endures a more 
 serious imprisonment than that of Savona and Fontaine- 
 bleau. 
 
 We have" now reached the modern world ; and the re- 
 mainder of our task is to show how Napoleon's Concordat 
 led inevitably to Separation. It contained the germs of 
 disintegration, and was unworkable from the first. Napoleon 
 abrogated it himself in 1813, and it was abolished again 
 four years later. Under every dynasty, and through every 
 government, it has been a cause of friction, and has presented 
 opportunities for papal encroachments. With respect to the 
 State, it was illogical, reactionary, incompatible with the 
 principles of the Eevolution ; and these conclusions have at 
 last been recognized. 
 
 On the ecclesiastical side, the Concordat differs much less 
 than is supposed from the Constitution Civile, except in one 
 point. The Constitution provided for a recognition of the 
 papal primacy, and for communion with Eome as the centre 
 of unity. The Concordat admitted the papal jurisdiction 
 into France, and so made the Pope master of the French 
 church. As Bishop Gre*goire said 'All the reasons for accep- 
 tance, all the proofs which you bring in favour of the Con- 
 cordat, are precisely the same which we used to justify the 
 acceptance of the Constitution Civile. . . . You set Europe on 
 fire, stirred up foreign and civil war, caused massacres and 
 persecutions, only to do ten years later that which we did
 
 PIUS THE SEVENTH 143 
 
 ten years earlier '.* And, after all, the Concordat did not 
 bring peace. Before it, the Romanist clergy were split into 
 the factions of those who took an oath to the Consulate, and 
 those who clung to Louis the Eighteenth. During the 
 quarrels between the Pope and Napoleon, there were similar 
 divisions. The Constitution was a protest against papal 
 usurpations, but it cannot be described as heretical unless 
 the whole primitive church be also accused of heresy. It 
 was the pretext or occasion of much trouble, but the causes 
 of that trouble, and of the crimes which accompanied it, 
 were the bmigrk and ultramontane clergy. The Concordat 
 was not so much a restoration of Catholicism as a renewal of 
 the link between church and State, in a way which was 
 most advantageous for the papacy, as the remainder of our 
 history will show. 
 
 1 Champion, p. 166.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE EESTOEATION 
 
 WITH the Eestoration, we enter that new world which 
 was beginning to organize itself after the storms of the 
 Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The battle between 
 progressives and conservatives is always being waged. It 
 is as old as Cain and Abel, or as Prometheus and the 
 Olympians. Indeed, Zeus himself was a progressive, even 
 a revolutionary, in his father's reign, though he declined 
 into a tyrannical conservatism, and so died ; as even Gods 
 must if they won't move. The eternal warfare only changes 
 its form. In the time we have reached, the progressive 
 party were fired by those generous enthusiasms which led 
 to the Revolution of 1848, which have endowed the men 
 and the movements of that age with perpetual youth, 
 making them singularly attractive. Some of the catholic 
 leaders were touched with a breath of liberalism, and tried 
 to infuse it into their church, with disastrous consequences 
 for themselves. Lamennais died an outlaw, declining to 
 be reconciled, refusing the prayers of the church, demanding 
 civil burial. Montalembert lived to bewail the supersti- 
 tions and the Vaticanism which were so manifestly over- 
 whelming the French church in his closing years. Dupan- 
 loup, always in and out with liberalism, after opposing 
 infallibility, courted the Pope, and aimed at the cardinalate 
 which he failed to get. The official representatives of the 
 church, become more and more exacting in the years be- 
 tween 1814 and 1870. They opposed, and openly con- 
 demned, liberalism in church and State. This was not a 
 new departure, but a logical and an inevitable process. The 
 Syllabus of 1864 is contained implicitly in the Encyclicals 
 of Pius the Sixth and Gregory the Sixteenth. The defi- 
 nition of 1870 is a necessary consequence from the pre-
 
 THE RESTORATION 145 
 
 misses of Boniface the Eighth, Innocent the Third, and 
 Gregory the Seventh. On one side, then, we see Vaticanism 
 and clericalism, under Jesuit guidance, moving towards 
 their appointed goal. On the other, we can follow the lay 
 spirit and the principles of 1789, directed by scientific 
 methods, and inspired by a growing knowledge, working 
 out their inevitable destiny. Clericalism produced anti- 
 clericals ; repression strengthened liberalism ; misgovern- 
 ment led to revolution ; obscurantism led on to education. 
 The quarrels of the past, between church and State, were 
 usually over matters of taxation, or of patronage and privi- 
 lege, or of royal and papal jurisdiction. In the period 
 before us, they turn almost exclusively on education. The 
 Revolution postulated universal suffrage ; and both sides 
 saw that it was essential to influence the voters. Liberals 
 wished to do this by a national education, obligatory, free, 
 and lay. The clericals wanted education to be their mono- 
 poly; and, like all monopolists, they objected to a free 
 trade in their commodity. They were not zealous for 
 education itself, but for its control and management. That 
 struggle gives us the clue, or the key-note, to French his- 
 tory during the nineteenth century ; and mingled with it, 
 during many years, was a struggle for political freedom and 
 expansion, against a centralizing and retrogressive hierarchy. 
 The Concordat was a reactionary measure, and so was the 
 Restoration. They were, both of them, attempts to miti- 
 gate the principles of 1789, to divert and check their logical 
 development, to unite past and present in an impossible 
 combination: to put new wine into old bottles, in other 
 words ; and the result should have been foreseen, at any 
 rate by a theological party. 
 
 ' If the Bourbons, who were re-established in 1814, were 
 never able to become popular, and disappeared for ever at the 
 end of sixteen years, it was not only because they returned 
 under the protection of foreigners, who had conquered us, 
 or because they were accomplices of a noblesse that wished 
 to submit us again to the reign of privilege ; but because 
 they were too servile to the catholic clergy, who aimed 
 manifestly at subjecting us to their theocracy. That word is
 
 146 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 no exaggeration, if we examine the programme of those 
 who directed the French clergy. To abolish the Concordat 
 of 1801, and especially the Organiques; in consequence, to 
 reduce to a minimum, in relation to the church, the control 
 and influence of the State ; to re-establish, as far as possible, 
 between the two powers, those relations which had existed 
 before 1789 ; to restore the ancient dioceses, or at least the 
 majority of them ; to let the clergy become a corporation, 
 that is an Estate within the State ; to re-endow the clergy, 
 making them independent, with domains or funds ; to give 
 a free entry to all religious orders of men and women, 
 allowing them not only to hold property but to increase it 
 without limit by gifts and legacies ; to destroy the Univer- 
 sity, or, in other words, State education ; or if that were 
 impossible, to let the church dominate education, and give 
 the clergy entire freedom to open schools of every kind ; 
 to give practical effect to the exclusive recognition of 
 Catholicism, or at least to utilize its existing privileges ; to 
 make it invulnerable from attacks in the Press ; to give its 
 dogmatic, and even its disciplinary, edicts the force of law ; 
 to restore to it the registrations which had been given to the 
 civil power ; to expunge from the Code everything of which 
 the church disapproved, especially divorce, and to make 
 religious marriage an obligation which must precede the 
 civil ceremony.' * 
 
 As soon as Napoleon had sunk, the ultramontane clergy 
 showed that they disliked the Concordat as much as the 
 Constitution Civile. The imprisoned Pope had become free, 
 strong, and therefore dangerous; so the prelates out-vied 
 one another in ultramontane professions, and abuse of the 
 Eevolution. The lower clergy had lost that relative secu- 
 rity of tenure which the old regime had given them ; for 
 the Concordat subjected most of them to a servile depen- 
 dence on their bishops, who could nominate, and revoke the 
 nomination, of all desservants and vicaires, the vast majority 
 of parochial clergy (Art. 31 of the Organiques). The liberal 
 clergy of 1789 and of th&- Constitution Civile died out, and 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 328.
 
 THE RESTORATION 147 
 
 were replaced by reactionaries, royalists, and ultramontanes. 
 ' L'esprit de la Vendee avait envahi les presbyteres.' l 
 
 But more powerful and more- zealous than the parochial 
 clergy was that combination of the religious orders which 
 the French describe so conveniently and accurately as La 
 Congregation. By Congregation, the French law under- 
 stands a religious association, or an organization of religious 
 houses, which is governed by a common superior, a General. 
 An Etdblissement is any single house which forms part of 
 an association. A CommunauU, or religious community, is 
 a house governed By' a resident superior, a self-governing 
 community. It might be added, perhaps, that a Convent 
 is technically any cloistered house, of men or women. It 
 is only a modern usage that applies the word exclusively 
 to nuns. Immediately after the Restoration, all the orders 
 which Napoleon had forbidden in 1809 recovered their 
 legal position, and others were established. Among these, 
 were the Jesuits, no longer suppressed, but restored by 
 
 . aliti^" -" ""*| . 
 
 Pius the Seventh, in August 1814. They opened several 
 schools, and had a house of Professed Fathers in Montrouge, 
 at the gates of Paris, which became a centre of the counter- 
 Revolution. Though they had a Provincial of Paris, they 
 disguised their name and state. 'They denied, or made 
 their friends deny, that they belonged to the Society of 
 Ignatius ; and they hid the truth so well that they were 
 not un-masked for ten years.' 2 Into their hands passed the 
 direction of the famous Confraternity or Association of 
 the Virgin, which met in the Rue du Bac, ostensibly 
 for charitable work, but certainly for political intrigue. 
 It was clerical, reactionary, and exclusively royalist. 'II 
 etait impossible que les bons Chretiens ne fussent pas 
 royalistes.' 3 It was an aristocratic society; for the aris- 
 tocrats, who had been philosopJies before 1789, came back 
 from their wanderings a little changed. ' They were not, 
 perhaps, really more believing than formerly; but their 
 interests, which bound them so closely to the priests after 
 the Revolution, gave and increased in them a new sort of 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 328. Ibid. p. 329. 
 
 3 Grandmaison, La Congregation, p. 151. 
 
 L2
 
 148 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 zeal for religion. They educated their children in a rigid 
 orthodoxy. They understood clearly that it must be through 
 the church that they might obtain, if not their privileges, 
 the restitution of their confiscated property. Some of them, 
 undoubtedly, were quite sincere in their fanaticism.' l 
 
 Louis the Eighteenth was not so acceptable to the zealots 
 as his brother. He still retained some of the scepticism 
 and mocking of his youth, and was always a prince of the 
 old regime. With better surroundings, he might have suc- 
 ceeded fairly well, but the clergy and the zealots made 
 success impossible. Louis gave a Charter at his restoration, 
 by which he proclaimed that 'the catholic, apostolic, and 
 Eoman religion is la religion de VEtat' (Art. 6); though 
 liberty and protection were granted to all forms of worship 
 (Art. 5). Freedom of publishing and printing was allowed, 
 subject to the laws against mis-use of the Press (Art. 8). Of 
 course a religion de I'fitat is not compatible with genuine 
 freedom, and this illogical compromise led to perpetual 
 friction. The Comte d'Artois, now Monsieur, was given 
 over to the clericals ; and even his fanaticism paled beside 
 the zeal of his niece and daughter-in-law, the Duchess of 
 Angouleme. Devotion became d la mode, and ruled the 
 Tuileries. ' The grands corps de Vfitat walked in religious 
 processions. The miscreants of the Directory, the veterans 
 of the empire, the dethroners of Pius the Sixth, and the 
 gaolers of Pius the Seventh, figured in them devoutly. 
 The Princes displayed themselves, candle in hand, without 
 seeing that the Parisians, long un-accustomed to such habits, 
 smiled as they went by. It was more serious when black 
 masses were said for Chouans and traitors, and when the 
 Eevolution was attacked so violently during a requiem, for 
 Louis the Sixteenth that the king dared not have the dis- 
 course printed in the Moniteur.' 2 
 
 It was not long before education was assailed. An abbe", 
 Montesquieu, was made Minister of the Interior. He began 
 by establishing a censorship for books, and an authorization 
 for newspapers. The Emigre" nobles obtained the restitution 
 of all their confiscated property which had not been sold. 
 1 Debidour, p. 331. Ibid. pp. 333-4.
 
 THE RESTORATION 149 
 
 The clergy made a similar claim, but had to wait. As a 
 compensation, their secondary schools, or Petits Stminaires, 
 were to be established, one at least in each Department, out 
 of public funds, and they were dispensed from the Univer- 
 sity course for degrees. The University itself was to be 
 dissolved, and replaced by a Conseil Royal de V Instruction 
 Publique, with a prelate as chairman ; and seventeen local 
 Universities were to be organized, under the Prefects and 
 bishops. ' C'etait 1'infeodation pure et simple de 1'enseigne- 
 ment public a 1'administration et surtout a 1'episcopat.' * 
 The proposed legislation, however, was frustrated by Napo- 
 leon's return. Louis had planned more than this. He 
 disdained to rule under the Convention of an usurper, and 
 wished to restore the Concordat of Francis the First, and 
 the old dioceses. This occasioned new difficulties with the 
 existing bishops, and also with Rome. Consalvi said the 
 Pope was infallible, and therefore the Most Christian King 
 had no right to say he had erred in the Concordat of 1801. 
 These negotiations also foundered during the Hundred 
 Days, when the king found it advisable to live in Ghent. 
 Napoleon returned almost a Jacobin, and strongly anti- 
 clerical. He allowed the mob to cry A has la calotte, and 
 the Press to mock at the clergy. He restored the University 
 to lay control. His Minister of the Interior, Carnot, encou- 
 raged the Lancasterian system which had been copied from 
 England ; and planned a lay and popular system of primary 
 education. The clergy, therefore, were hostile to Napoleon. 
 Many of them emigrated, with the Court, and others fomented 
 insurrections. Napoleon had much trouble in the south 
 during March and April. In May, there was a more serious 
 rising in Brittany and La Vendee. The thirty thousand 
 troops which were required to check it might very con- 
 ceivably have turned the scale at Waterloo. Napoleon fell, 
 never to rise again in the body; though his spirit made 
 the second empire, and his Legend, which survived the 
 disasters of 1870, has had, and still has, a buoyant vitality. 
 The Bourbons came back, and with them, as before, foreign 
 armies of occupation. 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 336.
 
 150 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 'The second Restoration, of which the facts are well 
 known, provoked an explosion of wrath and vengeance 
 towards the Revolution and the empire, which was far more 
 violent than the reaction of 1814. We need not go into 
 the details of the White Terror: the national army dis- 
 banded ; France occupied and pillaged by a million 
 foreigners ; our generals proscribed, condemned, and shot ; 
 patriots massacred ; assassination and robbery let loose in 
 the king's name ; universal delation ; one hundred thousand 
 suspects imprisoned. But it is as well to point out that in 
 this orgy of reprisals religious passion had almost as large 
 a share as political. Above all, it was in certain Depart- 
 ments of the south, in the Gard and Vaucluse, that religious 
 animosity raged with a violence and savagery which the 
 Government could not restrain. . . . The bishops, almost 
 everywhere, instead of preaching peace inflamed the strife 
 by rabid pastorals, in which they pointed out for vengeance 
 not only the friends of the Revolution but inoffensive holders 
 of the national domain.' * In all this violence, the elections 
 were held, and they produced a reactionary Chamber, fol- 
 lowed by a royalist Ministry. The Terror was legalized by 
 statutes against personal freedom and the liberties of speech 
 and writing. Divorce was abolished, as contrary to Catho- 
 licism ; and liberals pointed out in vain that all Frenchmen 
 were not catholics. Another attempt was made to endow 
 the clergy ; but their claim to the unsold domains, and to 
 a couple of milliards as an equivalent for those which had 
 passed into private hands, was more than the Chamber 
 would sanction. ' The extremists of the Right cried aloud 
 over the spoliation of the church ' : * but more reasonable 
 conservatives and lawyers showed that to endow the clergy 
 with domains and capital would make them into a corpora- 
 tion or an Estate again ; that, even under the old regime, no 
 one ever disputed the right of the State to dissolve corpora- 
 tions; that the State was the sole and only inheritor of 
 such corporations ; that the State had no cognizance of 
 the clergy as a body, comme personne morale, but only as 
 individual ministers of a public worship, which was a public 
 1 Debidour, pp. 338-9, 341.
 
 THE EESTOEATION 151 
 
 service, to be paid for annually like any other ; and that this 
 pay was in no sense the equivalent or the acknowledgement 
 of a debt, or of a right which did not exist. These reasons 
 could not be disputed. They had been laid down by 
 Mirabeau, and others, throughout the Revolution. They 
 are in accordance with French law and practice. Their 
 logic is unassailable. It is worth while to repeat them; 
 because the old fallacy, that clerical salaries are a debt, still 
 owing and eternally owable, for the 'confiscation' of 1789, 
 has been repeated continually during the present Separation 
 of church and State; especially by English and Italian 
 ecclesiastics, who seem ignorant of French law, of the 
 principles of jurisprudence, and of history. The proposal 
 was lost, so far as the two milliards were concerned, though 
 a return of the unsold estates was voted. (April 24, 1816.) 
 
 Both the University and primary education were attacked 
 within a few weeks of the second Restoration. The grand 
 mastership of the former was suppressed, and a commission 
 replaced it. Many rectors and professors were removed, 
 and were succeeded by un grand nombre de pretres. 1 Pri- 
 mary schools were placed under the district councils, which 
 were presided over by the curls. No one could open 
 a school without a certificate from the cures. To them, also, 
 was given the nomination of teachers, and full powers of 
 inspection and control. 
 
 It was proposed to subject secondary education in like 
 manner to the bishops ; but so violent and tactless was the 
 Chamber that Louis was recommended to dissolve it by the 
 Holy Alliance. Reaction against these clerical extravagances 
 produced a more liberal successor ; but the campaign of the 
 church went on, with open threats from the secular clergy, 
 and useless plotting by the Congregation. As an example, 
 two abbes were convicted in 1816 for abusing the Concordat, 
 and threatening the holders of clerical property with damna- 
 tion. 2 The propaganda of the Congregation was managed 
 by the central association of the Rue du Bac ; and it was 
 extended through the Departments by the society of the 
 Missions de France, founded by the Abbe* Liautard. The 
 1 Debidour, p. 342. 2 Ibid. pp. 344, 345.
 
 152 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 methods of these missionaries were like those of the Salva- 
 tion Army: 'its preachers were ignorant but fanatical 
 and brazen, accomplished masters of theatrical effect, able 
 to excite the populace. . . . They came noisily into towns 
 and villages, and preached in the open air ; railing at the 
 spirit of the age, and the Eevolution ; threatening the 
 holders of national property ; organizing spies and in- 
 formers ; arranging spectacular processions, and compelling 
 government officials to walk in them ; holding public prayers 
 and acts of reparation ; assembling choirs of men and 
 women, who sang pious canticles to the most worldly tunes; 
 setting up calvaries with crosses sixty and eighty feet high ; 
 sparing no effort to make religion, if not attractive, at least 
 noisy and conspicuous.' l Among their attractions, were 
 bonfires of unorthodox writings. Voltaire, Diderot, and 
 other philosophers were given to the flames ; but the more 
 they were burnt, the faster they were re-printed and circu- 
 lated. A report by the Ministry of the Interior says that 
 between 1817 and 1824 twelve editions of Voltaire and 
 thirteen of Eousseau had been issued, making a total of 
 2,159,000 volumes. 
 
 Louis revived his project of a new Concordat, and tried 
 to arrange it privately with the Pope. (1) The Concordat of 
 Francis the First and Leo the Tenth is revived. (2) The 
 Concordat of 1801 lapses. (3) The Organiques are abrogated. 
 (4) Suppressed bishoprics are re-established. (5) Existing 
 dioceses are retained. (8) All dioceses are to be endowed 
 with lands or capital ; as well as existing and future 
 Chapters, curSs and seminaries. (9) The Pope is to arrange 
 all the dioceses by a Bull. There are fourteen Articles in 
 the treaty, but these seven are the most important. They 
 were objected to strongly by the more liberal Ministers, 
 and were abhorred by the surviving Grallicans. It was 
 pointed out that the Pope had never exercised territorial 
 jurisdiction in France ; and that these Articles allowed him 
 to dispose of finance, since he might arrange as many 
 dioceses as he chose, for which the Chamber must pay. 
 These constitutional objections irritated the ultramontanes, 
 1 Debidour, pp. 344, 345. 2 Ibid. p. 345.
 
 THE RESTORATION 153 
 
 who intrigued for a more clerical Ministry. Instead, a more 
 liberal one came in ; and though Rome abated none of its 
 claims, and conceded nothing to French opinion, the pro- 
 posed Concordat had to be ' suspended through financial 
 difficulties'. It was dropped quietly, and Napoleon's law 
 remained in force. The finances of the church might well 
 terrify the nation. In 1815, the budget of worship had 
 amounted to 11, 500,000 francs. In 1819, it had risen to 
 25,000,000. To that must be added 11,000,000, for pensions, 
 making a total of 36,000,000; and that sum should be 
 doubled, as we must allow for the contributions of the Con- 
 seils Gendraux and the Communes. 1 
 
 The Duke of Berry was assassinated in February 1820, 
 and that crime led to another reaction. Liberty of the 
 person and of the Press was restrained still more, and the 
 franchise was narrowed. Education was perpetually assailed. 
 The aim of the clericals was two-fold : to possess and utilize 
 the public teaching of the country; and, failing that, to 
 have complete freedom of teaching in all clerical institutions, 
 without State inspection, or guarantees of efficiency, or 
 recourse to the University. "When legislative attacks on the 
 University failed, its profession and studies were libelled. 
 At various times between 1814 and 1848, Guizot, Cousin, 
 Michelet, Quinet, Jouffroy and other liberals were silenced, 
 and Villemain and Michaud were expelled from the Academy. 
 Courier and Be'ranger fell under the Press laws. There is 
 no truer picture of the times than Courier gives in his 
 delightful and ironic pages. The scurrility of the clericals 
 would be incredible if their own writings did not remain as 
 witnesses against them. In 1823, Lamennais charged the 
 University 'not only with irreligion and sacrilege, but 
 with the most flagrant immorality. He accused it of 
 systematically j)eryj^^ngy.QiitL..as a seminary of atheism 
 and fEe~ vestibule of hell.' * A bishop of Chartres accused 
 the University of ' slaughtering souls ', of ' authorizing theft, 
 of the overthrow of society, parricide, les voluptes les plus 
 inf times, of encouraging sacrilegious systems, of turning its 
 pupils into unclean beasts and ferocious animals '. 2 The Abbe' 
 1 Briand, Rapport, p. 65. 2 Debidour, pp. 372, 448.
 
 154 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 Desgarets wrote a volume entitled Le Monopole Universitaire, 
 to damage State education. There is not a crime which is not 
 attributed to its teaching. Quinet is described as sorti d'un 
 ver, un impur blasphemateur. The Professors are compared 
 to les boucs et les chevres de Thdocrite. The Royal Colleges 
 are sentines de tons les vices. By garbled extracts and 
 falsified quotations, Cousin, Ge*nin, and other reputable 
 authors are made into slanderers of Christianity. 1 The 
 Abb^ Carle, in a similar production, praises the Inquisition 
 as ' an instrument of liberty V and ' refrains from drawing 
 the curtain which hides the unclean secrets ' of the Univer- 
 sity. 1 The curious in these matters should read Le Ver 
 Rongeur des Societ^s Modernes by the Abbe" Gaume, (Paris 
 1851). It is an attack on the classics as an instrument of 
 education ; and it not only shows the spirit of that reactionary 
 time, but proves how hostile to any genuine and liberal 
 education the Fathers were, from Tertullian onwards. The 
 abba's quotations are a terrible indictment of the church, as 
 represented by its officials and its greatest men. Even the 
 Abbe's Desgarets and Carle are put into the shade by the 
 Abbe Combalot, whose railings it is impossible to quote in 
 any language. Against such misusages of the Press, the 
 laws were not put in motion. 
 
 ^<&ir~this violence only meant that the clergy did not 
 approve of lay teaching. They were jealous of the Univer- 
 sity, and not satisfied with equality under the law. They 
 wanted privileges and exemptions for their own schools, 
 and above all they wanted that monopoly of education 
 which was indispensable if they were to dominate society. 
 Their violence was not reserved for political and theological 
 opponents. The more extreme catholics were always eager 
 to strew epithets on the moderates. Even Charles the Tenth 
 / was not spared. A fanatical cure attacked him in the 
 / pulpit as ' no Christian, because he maintained the Charter, 
 / which was a law contrary to religion'. 1 Lamennais de- 
 / scribed two laws, on the Congregation and on sacrilege, as 
 / 'heretical' and 'atheistical': the first, because it did not 
 >y give entire freedom to the orders; the second, because it 
 1 Debidour, pp. 450, 453.
 
 THE RESTORATION 155 
 
 did not protect Catholicism alone. 1 On the smallest pro- 
 vocation, the clergy talked of Diocletian and Nero ; and 
 compared royalist Ministers to the miscreants of the Terror. 
 Englishmen are so unused to these violent methods of 
 controversy, and so few of them read the clerical newspapers 
 of any foreign country, that they take such language far 
 too seriously when they see it applied to current politics 
 and republican legislation in France. Intemperate speech 
 seems necessary to ultramontanism. From the Pope down- 
 wards, that party misuses language. Perhaps violence of 
 thought induces violence of speech; but these methods 
 defeat their own object, and every statement made by 
 those who rely on them has to be discounted before it is 
 accepted. 
 
 While the battle of education was waged incessantly, the 
 government was neither wise nor edifying. { Le roi etait 
 vieux, impotent, mais n'en avait pas moins encore des 
 passions. La belle Madame du Cayla lui inspirait depuis 
 quelque temps un sentiment aussi tendre que ridicule.' 1 
 Certain leaders of the ultra- catholic party utilized this 
 charmer for their party game. They taught her to favour 
 la bonne cause, and described her as ' an angel of light ' 
 combating the ' genius of evil '. They crouched behind 
 screens during her visits to the king, to prompt and refresh 
 her memory. 2 The Abbe Liautard and one of the Roche- 
 foucauld did these things, ad maiorem Dei gloriam, and 
 recorded them in their Memoires. Such methods are, in 
 my opinion, more revolting than any scandal of the old 
 regime, which was at any rate honest with itself. What- 
 ever the weaknesses of Louis Quinze may have been, he 
 removed them when custom required him to be devout. 
 The unctuous depravity of the Restoration is perhaps the 
 most odious among its unhappy legacies. 
 
 In 1824, when Louis the Eighteenth was within a few 
 months of his end, a Chamber was elected in which the 
 Right had an overwhelming majority, and they proceeded 
 to utilize it They began by voting an indemnity to the 
 Emigres, for their confiscated property, and they received 
 1 Debidour, p. 363. Ibid.
 
 156 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 a milliard in the following year. The Chamber voted itself 
 an existence of seven years. It gave the king power to 
 authorize religious communities, and enable them to hold 
 property. So exorbitant was this clerical Assembly that 
 it was described as 'the old regime plus the Jesuits and 
 minus the Gallican liberties'. It welcomed the accession of 
 Charles the Tenth with effusion ; and then set itself to pass 
 a ferocious law of sacrilege, which would have revived the 
 barbarous mutilations and tortures of the middle ages. The 
 original project was modified, thanks to the irrefutable logic 
 of its opponents. Royer-Collard enunciated some principles 
 which might well be remembered and applied. He mocked 
 at the new crime, lese-majeste divine, which he said was 
 a contradiction in terms. ' Religion, so far as it is a dogma, 
 is above, and therefore outside, the cognizance of civil law. 
 To put it into a statute is to lower it, and deny its nature.' 
 ' Man should not be vain enough to think he can avenge 
 God ': Deorum iniurias Dls curae says Tiberius in Tacitus, 
 with similar wisdom. Members who kept their balance 
 pointed out that people who misused the Eucharist, believ- 
 ing in the real presence, must be mad, and should be tended, 
 not tortured. 1 The law passed, but was a dead letter, as 
 the Courts dared not apply it. Collard ended by saying 
 theocracy was equally damaging to religion and dangerous 
 to society ; and he added ' The theocracy of our time is less 
 religious than political, and it utilizes that principle of 
 reaction which is overwhelming us '. 
 
 The extravagance and folly of the clericals alarmed the 
 country, which was even more disturbed by what it sus- 
 pected than by what it saw. The occult policy and influence 
 of the Congregation, and especially of the Jesuits, increased 
 the unpopularity of the government. The Charter and 
 toleration were continually attacked, openly or invidiously. 
 The old Gallican, Montlosier, wrote a scathing book on the 
 Congregation and the whole policy of the Restoration. 
 There was a split among the Royalists, and one of the 
 malcontents described the clerical party as 'the occult 
 power which dominates the government, estranges the 
 
 1 Debidour, pp. 380-2.
 
 THE KESTORATION 157 
 
 French people from religion, alienates them from the 
 king, and attacks everything which is respectable. France 
 endured a military despotism, but it will never endure an 
 hypocritical tyranny.' Nevertheless, the clericals pursued 
 their way, attacking every liberal institution, threatening 
 every legal barrier, claiming every privilege, increasing the 
 religious orders, multiplying their schools and colleges. 
 The king was infatuated, and thought within a few days 
 of his fall that he must win. In the middle of July, 1830, 
 he dissolved a newly elected Chamber. On the 25th, he 
 abolished liberty of the Press, and tampered with the 
 franchise. Next morning, his decrees were in the Moniteur ; 
 but three days later, Paris was in revolt, and Lafayette 
 was in the Hotel de Ville. The king's concessions were too 
 late ; and at the end of a week Charles was on his way to 
 England, a victim of ecclesiastical obstinacy and royal 
 blindness.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE 
 
 AFTER the three days of July, France gave itself a new 
 royalty. It set up a King of the French, in the place of 
 the King of France. The sovereignty of the people was 
 acknowledged frankly by the House of Orleans, which after 
 generations and centuries of opposition at last occupied the 
 throne. The role of a Louis Philippe or a Henry of Lan- 
 caster is always repellent from one point of view, though 
 from another it may be patriotic and inevitable. Is it 
 lawful to save a dynasty by sacrificing its impossible chief; 
 and if the ancestral dynasty can give something to its 
 country which no parvenu can bestow, is not a younger line 
 justified in replacing the oldest? These questions cannot 
 be answered wholly in the negative; and Louis Philippe 
 deserves more sympathy than he gets usually. His fault 
 was, not that he replaced Charles the Tenth, but that his 
 liberalism was timorous. No doubt he was in a difficult 
 place, and liable to attack by extremists of both wings. To 
 legitimists, he was not only a liberal, but a traitor. To 
 progressives, he was far too royalist and conservative. But 
 his great difficulty was the church. The hierarchy was 
 legitimist, aristocratic, reactionary: it despised and hated 
 the bourgeois king. The most influential catholics were 
 more liberal than the Monarchy of July. They disliked 
 all State control, and chafed against all human sovereignty. 
 Louis Philippe was ground to pieces between these con- 
 flicting principles. His abiding fear was to have trouble 
 with the church. He capitulated alternately to the Pope and 
 the hierarchy, or to Montalembert and the radical clergy; 
 and, in consequence, the liberal monarchy did more to 
 fortify clericalism and hurt the interests of the laity than 
 the legitimist monarchy.
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE 159 
 
 The Revolution of 1830 was directed chiefly against 
 legitimist royalty, though the church had been the worst 
 opponent of liberty and progress. ' The nation was satisfied 
 with overturning the throne, and did not go on to smash 
 the altar. Catholic by long habitude, if it have terrified 
 the priests, it is undeniable that it has seldom done them 
 much harm. Some prelates were conspuds, and thought 
 themselves lucky to escape worse. Some convents and 
 seminaries were shut. The missionary crosses were pulled 
 down, less for the Christ on them than for the Bourbon lilies. 
 The Congregation and its tools were satirized, rhymed, 
 caricatured, burlesqued, put on the comic stage ; but the 
 public soon tired of these amusements. Such violences as 
 occurred, the damage to Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois and 
 the sack of the arch-bishop's palace, were an answer to 
 legitimist provocations, and not a frontal attack on religion.' 1 
 * The middle-class liberals who revised the Charter and gave 
 the Crown to Louis Philippe did not wish to be forced to 
 mass, but had no desire to prevent others going. Many of 
 them were good catholics. The Voltairians held, moreover, 
 that religion is necessary for a people, and as it had one to 
 which it clung, they never dreamed of touching it. The 
 administration of the Concordat and the Organiques worked 
 somehow, well or ill. They thought it superfluous and 
 possibly dangerous to patch up another. All they wanted 
 was that France should be mistress in her own house, and 
 be ruled by laymen. They only aimed at purging her of 
 ultramontanism and the theocracy.' 2 In the latter, they 
 were not very successful, and France was more ultra- 
 montane in 1848 than it had been in 1830. 
 
 The Charter was altered, and Catholicism was no longer 
 the religion de l'tat. By Article 6, it is described as 
 'the religion of the majority', and its ministers are paid 
 by State, as are the ministers of other bodies. Article 5 
 ordains that all religions have equal freedom and pro- 
 tection. The recent law of sacrilege was abolished, and 
 the noisy SocteU des Missions dissolved. Otherwise, there 
 was no formal change in the relations between church and 
 1 Debidour, pp. 413-14. Debidour, p. 415.
 
 160 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 State. Their intangible relations, however, had been vitally 
 affected by the days of July. The king himself, a revo- 
 lutionary in his youth, and always a Voltairian, remained 
 at bottom sceptical, ironical ; but he preferred the clergy to 
 be allies, not enemies, and he always feared them, though 
 he was obliged to humour the liberals occasionally. Of the 
 clergy themselves, the prelates grumbled, of course, at the 
 Concordat ; but they had learnt by experience that it was 
 more profitable than hurtful to the church. It gave them 
 an official rank, and material support. They wished to alter 
 it, but by no means to abolish it. The lower clergy were 
 not so complacent. All was not well with them because 
 eighty bishops lived in dignity and ease. Liberalism, and 
 even the Eevolution, was leavening them. The seed of 
 Lamennais was flowering. They pined for liberty, and for 
 no legal or official connexion with the State. 
 
 In fact, by a strange irony, as we can see now, those 
 two forces, liberalism and ultramontanism, which have been 
 battling for life and death during the last half-century, were 
 then germinating together ; and the great advocates of the 
 restored papacy were also the prophets and apostles of 
 liberalism. The initiator of modern ultramontanism, in 
 a popular form, was Joseph de Maistre ; but his work 
 was over-shadowed by the volcanic zeal and fluency of 
 Lamennais. 
 
 'This priest without reproach, this Eeligious without 
 fear, who lived only in his theories and was ignorant of men, 
 had evolved an ideal church and papacy to which neither 
 Pope nor bishops could attain. He was contemptuous of all 
 governments, including the Bourbon regime, because all of 
 them in his eyes utilized religion instead of obeying it. 
 He repudiated all agreements between them and the Holy 
 See. He claimed illimitable freedom for the sovereign pon- 
 tiff. Political necessities did not exist for him. If Eome 
 thought well to concede, Eome was blamable. Lamennais 
 was thus more papal than the Popes.' 1 All this can be 
 found also in de Maistre. These ultramontane dreamers, 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 418.
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE 161 
 
 delivered by the Revolution from the saecular bonds of the 
 old monarchies, conceived a papacy superior to all sovereign- 
 ties and all governments, exercising the plenitude of spiritual 
 power freely, unfettered by any official relations with the 
 State. It was the empire of Hildebrand and Innocent the 
 Third spiritualized, and loosed from the ties of feudalism. 
 To de Maistre and his following, the papal authority was 
 the great barrier against revolution. The Eock of Peter 
 was the one immovable foundation in a shifting world. 
 Lamennais, however, came to accept the Revolution. He 
 urged the Pope, in the name of the Gospels, to break with 
 kings and governments, to depend wholly on the people. 
 To argue thus is to ignore the traditions of the papacy, to 
 forget its history, to contradict its principles, and to defeat 
 its persistent aims. Lamennais and the papacy could not 
 work together on these lines. He had to choose between 
 Vaticanism and liberalism, and he was true to liberalism. 
 The papacy was true to itself, by ejecting him. Thinkers 
 like de Maistre and Lamennais seem to forget that the 
 papacy differs essentially from the New Testament. In the 
 Gospels, we find broad and penetrating principles applied 
 only to individuals. The spheres of God and Caesar are 
 sharply divided. In that sense Christianity can be entirely 
 spiritual, and a matter of the conscience. But if religion 
 be organized, and materialized, and endowed, and be looked 
 at always as a corporation, in which the individual hardly 
 counts, it cannot have free play, which would mean license, 
 in any political society. Still less can it have that liberty, 
 when it takes the form of a political State, world-wide, 
 existing in all countries and bounded by none, ruled by a 
 monarch. A diplomatic papacy, relying on endowed and 
 political hierarchies, utilizing and commanding the religious 
 orders, cannot expect or be allowed the freedom of a purely 
 spiritual influence. This was the rock on which Lamennais 
 was wrecked. And, for precisely the opposite reason, it is 
 the rock on which Vaticanism will be wrecked. 
 
 Montalembert, the chief disciple of Lamennais, had all his 
 zeal, much of his power, not so much of his prophetic fire, 
 and only a small part of his logic. He was a fervent ultra- 
 
 li
 
 162 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 montane, and he applied ultramontanism with great force 
 to the politics of the July monarchy, and of the two govern- 
 ments which followed. He never understood all that his 
 various ideals required, or whither they were bound to carry 
 him. He tried to combine the incompatible : to be a liberal 
 and an ultramontane. He was really true to neither side, 
 and displeased both. He also had a large share in pro- 
 pagating those romantic notions of the middle ages, of the 
 papacy, and above all of the religious orders, which would 
 have appeared so astounding to the middle ages themselves. 
 They would, indeed, have laughed at the romance of the 
 cloister, and the chivalry of the Curia. These notions 
 produced among ourselves the Oxford Movement ; but they 
 have been wholly superseded by our more rigorous, accurate, 
 and scientific methods in history. Montalembert died dis- 
 illusioned with the papacy, and despairing of that France 
 to whose best traditions he had been so untrue. Neverthe- 
 less, he was a strenuous and effective combatant in his own 
 day. After the suppression of L'Avenir, and the condemna- 
 tion of Lamennais, he fought on with Lacordaire and Du- 
 panloup, both of them half -liberals, and all of them in 
 a false position. His perpetual fight was for education. 
 He claimed absolute freedom for catholic schools, and for 
 the religious orders. Freedom of teaching, freedom of 
 association, freedom of meeting, freedom of the Press, were 
 the battle-cries of Montalembert. They are lawful claims 
 for genuine liberals, subject always to efficiency in education, 
 control of corporate bodies, public order, and individual 
 protection. To these checks, however, the clergy would 
 not submit; and they proclaimed the church as the sole 
 judge in all these matters. Many of the clergy, too, were 
 not liberals at all. They were eager to utilize liberty as 
 a step towards monopoly, and then all freedom would soon 
 have ended. The starting-point of their educational thesis 
 was the text Docete omnes gentes : ( Teach all nations.' In 
 these words, Christ gave a monopoly of education to the 
 clergy. The base of all education is morality ; morality, to 
 these reasoners, means religion ; religion can only be taught 
 by the priest ; therefore the State has no right to substitute
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE 163 
 
 itself for the priest, and to depose him from the most 
 important of his functions. With these principles, leading 
 to these conclusions, it is not surprising that the University 
 was always being attacked, and that the whole field of 
 education was continually disputed. 
 
 Montalembert was, I believe, the first catholic to see how 
 party and parliamentary methods could be utilized for the 
 church. He practised them himself with skill and success, 
 and he was a master in all the tricks of electioneering. He 
 was the organizer of those tactics which O'Connell used, 
 which have made the Centre the arbiters in German politics, 
 and which have enabled the clericals to dominate Belgium 
 for so long. 
 
 In the course of Montalembert's campaigns, it was 
 discovered, by Guizot, that ' children belonged to their 
 families before they belong to the State '. This argument 
 has re-appeared of late in our own educational discussions ; 
 and it has been used, strangely enough, by the catholics. 
 When they argue for the rights of parents, they expose 
 a singular ignorance of their own history and principles. 
 The middle ages, the ages of faith, the golden age of 
 a pseudo-catholicism, would have made short work, not 
 only of the rights of parents, but of the parents themselves, 
 if they were un-orthodox, that is in the minority. 
 
 And so this conflict went on, through the reign of Louis 
 Philippe, as it had gone on through the Restoration. The 
 king's dubious title made him even more timorous of the 
 clergy than the legitimate sovereigns had been. He was 
 always placating the clergy by concessions, and alienating 
 the liberals in consequence ; or, to quiet the clerical party, 
 he would appeal to Rome, and so encourage papal activity 
 in France. His ministers, and especially the protestant 
 Guizot, did much harm in these ways, and bequeathed 
 serious trouble to their successors. These tactics, which 
 did not win or satisfy the clericals, did alienate the liberals, 
 and wrecked the so-called liberal monarchy. 
 
 All through the reign, too, the Congregation had been 
 growing. Its schools and convents increased rapidly. By 
 1825, there were at least 2,000 communities of women, 
 
 M2
 
 164 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 teaching about 250,000 children. As compared with the 
 369 royal and communal schools, in 1840, there were more 
 than 1,000 clerical institutions, besides 127 petits sdminaires ; 
 and yet there were continual efforts to damage the State 
 education and to favour the clerical. Cousin, in a noble 
 speech, protested against these plots to divide France, and 
 hurt its moral unity. ' From childhood/ he said, ' we are 
 taught to shun each other, to entrench ourselves in hostile 
 camps, the priests at our head. A fine apprenticeship to 
 that civic charity which is named patriotism! And this 
 country which, at any rate, in all its misfortunes, has 
 preserved one asset of incalculable value, the sense of its 
 unity, will forfeit it.' 1 
 
 The religious orders and the secret Associations were per- 
 petual fomenters of division and founders of sects. In 1843, 
 the existence of a vast Association Catholique was discovered, 
 which was spread throughout France. The members swore 
 to keep secret the methods, the rules, and even the existence 
 of the Society. 1 The occult influence of these organizations 
 was more irritating to the country than their notorious 
 growth. And at the head of them all, most influential, 
 most secret, and most feared, was the revived Society of Jesus. 
 The Jesuits progressed even more than the others. After the 
 Revolution of 1830, which they had done so much to cause, 
 they effaced themselves, and closed some of their houses, 
 and waited for quiet days. Then they began to reappear 
 de dessous terre, as in Beranger's poem. 2 They soon had 
 about thirty houses of Professed Fathers, beside noviciates, 
 yet the government affected to ignore their existence, and 
 their friends denied it. They dominated the Court of 
 Rome, and many of the other orders, which copied their 
 institutions. The secular clergy were trained on their 
 principles, and taught from their theology. They wrote, 
 confessed, directed, and preached through all France. Their 
 moral theology, on one side of it, has been immortalized 
 by Pascal. ' Thanks to the Jesuits, the way to heaven grew 
 easy, and more easy. Devotion took the place of virtue, 
 
 1 Debidour, pp. 461-5. J Les E&vtrends Peres.
 
 LOUIS PHILIPPE 165 
 
 and became ever more exterior, mechanical, material, an 
 affair with which the heart had little to do. Indulgences 
 were priced and classed as under Leo the Tenth. For 
 15 francs, one could buy a plenary indulgence for the 
 hour of death, applicable to the purchaser, his friends and 
 connexions to the third degree, and twenty-five other 
 persons at his choice.' l Their moral theology, on another 
 side, has been exposed by Paul Bert. In their manuals of 
 history, French youth was taught to admire the dragonnades 
 of Louis the Fourteenth, to detest and dread the whole work 
 of the Revolution, and to rejoice in the consequences of 
 "Waterloo. 
 
 The feeling against them rose continually. The Debats, 
 a moderate paper, called them un monument vivant du 
 mepris de la lot ; because they existed in defiance of French 
 law. They were castigated as hypocrites patentds, mar- 
 chants ^indulgences, pourvoyeurs d' absolutions, colporteurs 
 de pieuses calomnies. It was urged in parliament, that ' the 
 existence in our country of an order independent of the 
 bishops, bound to a foreign head by a vow of obedience 
 without reserve, is a national danger ; and the old regime 
 thought so, as well as the governments which have suc- 
 ceeded the Revolution.' 2 Their expulsion was demanded ; 
 but the bishops threatened to rouse the country if the Jesuits 
 were touched. The Court, trembling, referred to Rome, 
 where there was much intrigue ; and a sham dissolution 
 was agreed to by the Pope, to save appearances in France, 
 and to dupe the liberals. It was announced in the Moniteur 
 that ' The Jesuit Society will cease to exist in France, and 
 will dissolve itself: its houses will be closed, and its 
 noviciates broken up.' As a matter of fact, three Professed 
 houses and two noviciates were closed, and their members 
 divided among the twenty-five others which remained. 
 The subjects in one of the closed houses were formed into 
 two fresh houses that were opened in Paris itself. All these 
 events led to a growth of liberalism, which was increased by 
 the election and the beginnings of Pius the Ninth. The 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 439. 2 Ibid. pp. 465-6.
 
 166 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 number of voters under Louis Philippe was only 200,000. 
 Guizot had always opposed a broadening of the suffrage. 
 The people were alienated from the monarchy. Montalem- 
 bert and his allies were influential and busy with the 
 electors. The church and the liberals coalesced after the 
 elections of 1846, in which Montalembert carried nearly 
 a third of the seats ; and, in February, 1848, the monarchy 
 of Louis Philippe had lived, and he followed Charles the 
 Tenth to England.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE SECOND REPUBLIC 
 
 THE church is often compared to a rock, by admiring 
 theorists, who describe it as immutable and firm in a fluc- 
 tuating world. As a matter of fact, the church is more 
 variable than a chameleon, for it has always taken the 
 colour, and even the form, of its surroundings. In the 
 middle ages, it was feudal and military, copying the models 
 of Charlemagne; under the Roman Empire it had been 
 civic and magisterial, pouring itself into the moulds of 
 Caesar. Bossuet found in the Scripture a justification of 
 Louis the Fourteenth, and a prophecy of the old regime. 
 The concordatory bishops of Napoleon canonized his em- 
 pire; their catechism and their police duties went far 
 beyond the monarchical theories of Bossuet. In 1848, the 
 clergy discovered that the Gospels were republican and 
 socialistic. 'Aux yeux du peuple, seduit par leurs gene- 
 reuses utopies, le Christ redevenait le sans-culotte Jesus.' 
 The Gospel was d I'ordre du jour in France, in 1848, and 
 all parties relied on it. Lamennais had found in it the 
 most democratic principles. He preached renunciation to 
 the wealthy, and announced a good time coming to the 
 poor. The Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity of the new 
 Republic were imputed to the New Testament. The bishops' 
 pastorals took up the phrase and commented on it with 
 tedious iteration, till a fine truth became a platitude. The 
 clergy saw that their interest was not to oppose and dam 
 the Revolution, but to swim with the stream. Louis 
 Veuillot declared in his Univers that the Revolution of 1848 
 was ' a notification from Providence that France, which had 
 believed herself monarchical, was all the time republican, 
 and that there were no sounder republicans in her than the 
 French catholics '. Bishops affirmed that the Republic had 
 been proclaimed by Christ from Golgotha : that liberty,
 
 168 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 equality, and fraternity came straight from the Gospels; 
 and that the best friend of the people was the priest. The 
 Congregation sang in concert to the same tune. Te Deums 
 were chanted in the cathedrals, and masses were sung in 
 the open air, while ecclesiastics led popular processions and 
 planted trees of liberty in the towns and villages, blessing 
 them in the name of the church and consecrating the 
 Revolution. ' Never were the clergy so popular in our 
 country.' l The first days and weeks of 1848 were an 
 idyllic time, such as France had not experienced since the 
 fervours of 1789. 
 
 The Provisional Government was honest in its friendship 
 to the clergy. It also recognized how much influence they 
 must have in the approaching elections. These were held 
 in April, and the Constituent Assembly which they pro- 
 duced was largely the handiwork of the church. 'The 
 representatives whom France gave herself were not all 
 nominated by the church, but hardly any candidate whom 
 it opposed was elected. In many places, the cur6s led their 
 voters to the poll, after mass. The Assembly was thus 
 republican, but most respectful to the church.' l There was 
 a minority, however, partly Orleanist and partly legitimist. 
 Louis Napoleon had the sympathy of many in the Assembly 
 and of more in the country ; through the magic of his name, 
 his two attempts against Louis Philippe, his long imprison- 
 ment at Ham, and his adventurous escape. There was 
 also a Fourth Party, manoeuvring in darkness, professing 
 liberalism, but catholiques avant tout, and subordinating 
 themselves and their opinions to the church, that is to 
 clerical and papal interests. Their leaders were Monta- 
 lembert, Falloux, Lacordaire, and Bishop Parisis of Langres. 
 The Charter promised complete liberty of association, of 
 petition, of the Press, of worship ; and ministers of all 
 bodies recognized by law were to be paid by the State. 
 The Revolution of 1848 thus produced a large measure of 
 liberty, a government with no prejudice against the church, 
 no desire to hurt it, and every inducement to keep well 
 with the clergy. The majority of the Assembly was 
 1 Debidour, pp. 483-4, 485-6.
 
 THE SECOND EEPUBLIC 169 
 
 catholic. The ultra-catholic party was both powerful and 
 popular. Its chiefs professed liberal opinions which were 
 more advanced than those of the majority. They had 
 every chance to put their professions into practice. The 
 history of the Second Republic is an object-lesson in what 
 ultramontanes really intend when they profess liberalism 
 and liberty. 
 
 There were some attempts to liberalize the Concordat, 
 which was made for a despotic empire, and was out of 
 harmony with a republic. The Commission appointed for 
 this purpose was friendly to the church. Nothing was pro- 
 posed in a hostile spirit. The ecclesiastics were able to 
 modify every liberal proposition, and to defeat any change 
 by leaving a final decision with the Pope. It was proposed, 
 for instance, that bishops should be elected by the people, 
 instead of nominated by government. The clericals did 
 not object to the elective principle, but would limit the 
 exercise of it to the clergy. In reality, the bishops pre- 
 ferred nomination ; and no change was made. Again, it 
 was proposed to improve the condition of the desservants, 
 by giving them a security of tenure, and a right of appeal 
 to some ecclesiastical body; because they were entirely at 
 the disposal and mercy of the bishop in his personal 
 capacity. The liberalism of the bishops did not extend to 
 the lower clergy. They preferred, as Napoleon said, a 
 regiment to free service ; and this reform was lost. ' The 
 bishops had long ceased to be Gallican, and so the parochial 
 clergy were being forced into ultramontanism. Could they 
 not be brought back? Was there no means of inducing 
 these children of the people to love and serve liberty, whom 
 the church gave back to the people as their pastors and 
 educators ? To make the priesthood republican and demo- 
 cratic was in 1848 the dream of many good catholics.' l If 
 the dream had been realized, it is probable that the French 
 church might still be 'the religion of the majority', which 
 it certainly is not at present. 
 
 The church thus held, and even strengthened, its positions 
 in 1848. The catholic party had two ends which it was 
 1 Debidour, p. 488.
 
 170 CHUKCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 bent on achieving: to restore the Pope's government in 
 Italy, and to possess the whole system of education in 
 France. The labour troubles, especially in Paris, in May 
 and June, 1848, which had led to riot, and led on to 
 massacre, drew a great many moderate people towards the 
 clergy, as supposed bulwarks of order; and this enabled 
 the ultra-catholics to realize their policy. Another factor, 
 which we must now consider, played into their hands. The 
 Constituent Assembly had made the President eligible by 
 universal suffrage. There were two candidates, Louis Na- 
 poleon and Cavaignac. The latter was honest, and a genuine 
 liberal. He would have no hand in forcing the papal 
 government on the Roman republic, or in giving education 
 to the clergy. Napoleon promised both to Montalembert, 
 as the price of clerical support. The terms of Montalembert 
 * etaient fort nettes. Ramener le pape a Rome et livrer au 
 clerge 1'Universite de France'. 1 Thiers, also, for his own 
 ends, joined forces with Montalembert, and supported 
 Napoleon on the same conditions. By aid of the church 
 and of the bourgeoisie, the friends of order, and of the 
 Napoleonic tradition, the Prince was elected by a large 
 majority : out of 7,327,315 votes, he received 5,434,226. 
 
 * When the Prince was elected, France witnessed a strange 
 thing. The head of the Republic was the prisoner of his 
 allies, and they forced him to choose a ministry in which 
 all the reactionary parties were represented, and from 
 which republicans, in a short time, were rigorously ex- 
 cluded.' 1 Of these ministers, Falloux was the moving and 
 leading spirit. He was Minister of Education ; but his 
 energies were devoted first to Rome. The Revolution broke 
 out there in 1848. The Romans soon discovered that the 
 liberalism of Pius the Ninth did not go very far. His 
 Constitution was worth little, and he did not observe it 
 scrupulously. His confidence was never given to his liberal 
 advisers. He would not break with Austria, and lead 
 United Italy. He fled to Gaeta, and summoned the catholic 
 powers to restore him by force. A republic was proclaimed 
 in Rome, with Mazzini at its head. Charles Albert was 
 1 Debidour, pp. 494, 495.
 
 THE SECOND REPUBLIC 171 
 
 more than beaten, he was wrecked, at Custozza and Novara 
 (July 1848, March 1849). The French were sensitive about 
 Austrian predominance in Italy. Even so, the French 
 liberals did not intend to hurt the Roman republic, which 
 had all their sympathies. Napoleon was a devotee of 
 nationality, and a genuine friend of Italy. A vote of credit 
 was given, for an expedition to Italy, to safeguard French 
 interests, and keep Austria in check. The money and the 
 forces were mis-used, on the President's personal authority, 
 to besiege and take Rome, to destroy the republic, and to 
 re-impose the papal government on a free people who had 
 thrown it off. By the time this act had been played out, 
 the new elections had given France an Assembly of re- 
 actionaries, and the Roman policy was condoned if not 
 approved. It may be asked why Napoleon acted against 
 his most cherished opinions : why he did not attack Austria 
 instead of Mazzini, and do easily, as he might have done 
 in 1849, what he only half did, and with difficulty, in 1859? 
 M. Debidour has given the answer in his phrase, ' he was 
 the prisoner of his allies/ That is the clue to Napoleon 
 the Third's history, and the explanation of all his disasters. 
 Napoleon did, indeed, urge the Pope to give his people 
 institutions which were really liberal : to grant an amnesty, 
 to secularize the government, to establish the Code Napo- 
 Uon, to rule constitutionally, to reform. No notice was 
 taken. Napoleon got no thanks, and never had any grati- 
 tude for this and other services to the Holy See. Monta- 
 lembert's liberalism did not extend to the Roman people ; 
 and Thiers told them they were meant to be victims for 
 the benefit of the catholic world. 
 
 The second aim of the ultra-catholics was then put in 
 hand. Montalembert described the capture of education as 
 La campagne de Rome d VinUrieur. Its general was 
 Falloux, a conservative in politics of the school of Berryer, 
 in religion a disciple of Montalembert ; a biographer of Pius 
 the Fifth, in a book which eulogized the Inquisition, and 
 satirized toleration as cette vertu des siecles sansfoi. To have 
 restored the Pope to Rome was good, but to restore clerical 
 education in France would be better; and we must now
 
 172 CHUECH AND STATE IN PEANCE 
 
 examine ' the campaign of the interior ', which resulted in 
 a solid and lasting victory. 
 
 Freedom of education had been promised by Article 9 in 
 the constitution of 1848. The Constituent Assembly pro- 
 posed a law that should realize the promise. It was framed 
 by Carnot and Jules Simon, both of them staunch liberals, 
 and it was based on the scheme which Thiers had submitted 
 to the Assembly in 1 844. Its broad principle was to main- 
 tain the rights and status of the University ; and to affiliate 
 voluntary, private, free education to the national scheme, 
 subject to State inspection and control. As we should say, 
 voluntary education was to be encouraged and recognized, so 
 long as it was efficient and in harmony with public opinion. 
 This scheme of education, wisely and properly, maintained 
 the rights of the State, and the administrative supremacy 
 of the University. 
 
 As the term University is mis-leading to English readers, 
 it may be as well to explain what it signifies in the French 
 usage. The word has two meanings in French, and they 
 are thus defined in the admirable Dictionnaire General of 
 MM. Hatzf'eld and Darmesteter. ' (1) Centre d'enseignement 
 superieur, divise en groupes (facultes) dont chacun confere 
 des grades (baccalaureat, licence, doctorat). (2) Universite 
 de France, corps privilegie, charge (depuis Napoleon I er ) de 
 donner au nom de 1'^tat 1'enseignement superieur (facultes), 
 secondaire (lycees et colleges), primaires (ecoles primaires) 
 sous la direction du ministre de 1'instruction publique, dit 
 grand maitre de 1' Universite.' The former of these defini- 
 tions is what we understand by an University. "We have, 
 as yet, nothing so logical and comprehensive as the adminis- 
 trative body which is described in the second definition. If 
 we combined and co-ordinated the functions of the President 
 and Board of Education with the old School Boards and the 
 present County Councils, and our various Universities, we 
 should have something which resembles the Universite de 
 France, though still short of it. This approximate meaning 
 of the term University must be remembered if the Lot 
 Falloux is to be appreciated. 
 
 Falloux's design was the contradictory of the schemes
 
 THE SECOND REPUBLIC 173 
 
 which had been drafted by Carnot and Thiers. It was 
 entrusted to a Committee of twenty-four, of whom Falloux 
 was president, and Thiers vice-president. The latter had 
 renounced his genuine liberalism, and lent himself to 
 various reactionary movements, partly through a fear of 
 socialism, but also for his personal objects. On the commis- 
 sion were only six members of the University, a quarter 
 of the body; and even those were allies of the clericals. 
 Montalembert, Dupanloup, Sibour, Falloux himself, and 
 others, represented the ultra-catholics. The socialist terror 
 was played effectually on the moderate and bourgeois 
 liberals. 'La tempete etait dechainee; la tourmente revo- 
 lutionnaire et socialiste menayait d'emporter les bases meme 
 de la societe, la famille, et la propriety. H fallait se serrer 
 autour de la religion, qui seul pouvait preserver notre pays 
 d'un complet naufrage. Thiers, plus desireux encore que 
 Louis Napoleon de complaire au clerge, se declarait con- 
 vaincu, subjugue par 1'eloquence de 1'abbe Dupanloup, 
 quand ce dernier lui representait que la cause de la Congre- 
 gation et des Jesuites en particulier etait celle de la justice 
 et de la vertu.' This was the line of argument. Thiers, 
 convinced himself, embellished it with his eloquence, and 
 drew Cousin with him almost the whole way. The plan 
 of Falloux was not so much to destroy the University as to 
 dismantle it, and then occupy it for the benefit of his party. 
 Montalembert's ulterior design was complete freedom of 
 voluntary education, without any check, or control, or 
 guarantee by the State ; though public money was not 
 equally proscribed. The University, in fact, was to be 
 swamped by its enemies, who, under cover of its name, were 
 to disintegrate and weaken the State system, discourage 
 every teacher, and give every privilege and facility to the 
 curds and the Congregation. 
 
 The first Section of the measure dealt with the supreme 
 and central authority ; and this was so organized that ' the 
 educational functions of the State were reduced to impo- 
 tence '. The old Conseil Royal de I University was changed 
 into Le Conseil Superieur de V Instruction Publique. It con- 
 sisted of three bishops, two protestant ministers, three coun-
 
 174 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 cillors of State, three members of the Institut, all elected 
 by their peers ; and there were three representatives of 
 voluntary education, chosen by government. To these 
 fourteen, appointed for six years, were added eight members 
 of the University, appointed for life, but removable at any 
 time by the Conseil d'fitat. These eight formed a per- 
 manent committee : but, beyond the promotion of University 
 teachers, they were only a committee of advice, having 
 neither legislative nor executive powers. In their functions, 
 the representatives of the University were helpless : in 
 matters of opinion, they were an impotent minority in the 
 Conseil Superieur of twenty-two. The functions of this 
 Council were, to advise in the regulation and administra- 
 tion of State education ; on the examinations, the schemes 
 of teaching, and the inspection of voluntary establishments ; 
 on the grants made to them; on the foundation of new 
 facultes, Iyc4es and colleges ; on what books should be 
 authorized in State schools, and forbidden in voluntary 
 schools ; to be a court of appeal in matters of discipline. 
 The supreme control of education was thus filched from the 
 University, which, in the person of its eight representatives, 
 was merged and even submerged in the new Council of 
 twenty-four. 
 
 Its authority in local or provincial education was disin- 
 tegrated more thoroughly. There had been twenty Aca- 
 demies ; that is, in the French meaning, twenty regions or 
 districts organized for higher education, each of them 
 subordinated to the University of France. The Falloux 
 Law divided the country into eighty-six academies ; of 
 which the rectors could be simple licences (not graduates), 
 and not University men at all. They had no powers 
 over the voluntary schools. All administrative power was 
 lodged with the Conseils Acaddmiques, which were respon- 
 sible for secondary and primary education. The members 
 of these Councils were the rector and one inspector, the 
 sole representatives of the University, and the first not 
 necessarily belonging to it. Besides these, there were the 
 bishop, and one ecclesiastic nominated by him ; one minister 
 from each of the protestant or Jewish consistories in the
 
 THE SECOND REPUBLIC 175 
 
 Department, if there were any ; the Prdfet, one Procureur, 
 one member of the court of appeal elected by his colleagues, 
 and four representatives from the Conseil Ge"ne"ral of the 
 Department. The Council was not much more than a con- 
 sultive and advising Board, except in a few matters of disci- 
 pline connected with the teachers. It will be seen from the 
 number, eighty-six, that each Department was made into 
 an Acade"mie for purposes of Education. Falloux was re- 
 proached by the clerical extremists with multiplying the 
 hated University by eighty-six. He knew only too well 
 what he was doing, and retorted that he had divided it by 
 that number. Certainly he had disintegrated it, and 
 broken its power. Its only representative, the weak and 
 bogus rector, would be impotent, both in council and before 
 the public, as compared with the bishop of the Department. 
 The University was of less account in the Conseils Aca- 
 de"miques than in the Conseil Supdrieur. 
 
 The schools themselves were of two kinds : Public, that is 
 maintained by the State, the Departments, or the Com- 
 munes : and Private, that is conducted by individuals or 
 associations. This word covered and included the religious 
 orders, and thus ran counter to all previous laws and the 
 whole tenour of French administration. The inspection of 
 secondary schools was entrusted to inspectors general, or 
 inspecteurs d'acaddmie. Over the primary schools were 
 appointed, not only the inspecteurs primaires but the maires 
 and the cure's. In the case of voluntary schools, the inspec- 
 tion was illusory, and was concerned only with morality, 
 health, and sanitation. In matters of teaching, the in- 
 spectors were only competent to interfere if anything 
 immoral or illegal were taught. As to efficiency and 
 subjects, they had no power. 
 
 The teaching in the primary schools had to be moral and 
 religious. In the practical sphere it was limited to reading, 
 writing, the French language, and the metrical system, that 
 is the simplest arithmetic. The law which had made it 
 obligatory and free was repealed. The dcoles normales 
 primaires, the training schools for teachers, were suppressed, 
 as nurseries of republicanism. With regard to teachers,
 
 176 
 
 everything possible was done to harass, discourage, and 
 almost penalize the lay teachers, and to encourage ecclesias- 
 tical teachers. For the latter, the recommendation of a cure 
 or of an ecclesiastical superior took the place of academical 
 certificates, degrees, residence, and all that is implied by 
 University guarantees. It was hoped that primary educa- 
 tion would pass almost entirely into the hands of the 
 Congregation. The church was most interested in this 
 branch of education, because it is connected necessarily 
 with political influence in countries which have universal 
 suffrage, or the semblance of it. For women, the facilities 
 and privileges given to ecclesiastical teachers were even 
 greater than for men ; and the obstacles in the way of lay 
 governesses were greater. The petits seminaires were 
 favoured and organized so as to constitute a sort of eccle- 
 siastical University, wholly independent of the State, 
 though maintained by it. This was the famous Loi 
 Falloux : ' La grande charte de 1'enseignement clerical en 
 France;' or, as Lacordaire said, 'A nineteenth -century 
 Edict of Nantes.' * The University was thus weakened at 
 the centre, and practically abolished in the Departments. 
 
 The Falloux ministry was gone before the law was 
 presented to the Assembly, and the succeeding Cabinet 
 desired to modify it, especially by reducing the eighty- six 
 Academies to their previous number, and by giving the 
 ordinary tribunals a jurisdiction in matters of discipline. 
 These amendments were defeated, however ; and the debates 
 only rendered the measure more clerical. The liberals 
 fought hard, and made some memorable speeches, especially 
 Victor Hugo, who summed up the law in a few pregnant 
 phrases. ' C'est une loi strategique ; c'est une loi qui a un 
 masque ; c'est une confiscation qui s'intitule donation ; c'est 
 un monopole aux mains de ceux qui tendent a faire sortir 
 I'enseignement de la sacristie et le gouvernement du con- 
 fessionnal.' The liberals prophesied that the catholic triumph 
 would be a national danger, as indeed it proved. The 
 catholics themselves were dissatisfied, and wanted more. 
 
 1 This account is a summary of M. Debidour's interesting and lucid 
 pages, 501-12.
 
 THE SECOND EEPUBLIC 177 
 
 Parisis of Langres deplored that the University, that 
 ' cauldron of immorality, atheism, unbelief, anarchy, and 
 revolution ', was not utterly demolished. Montalembert had 
 to comfort and restrain his friends, as well as to reassure 
 the moderates. For their benefit, socialism was painted red, 
 and they were implored to rally in defence of their proper- 
 ties and families, by the help of the church. Thiers justified 
 his apostasy by the same reasons. The new Ministry was 
 languid in its support. 'It was felt that the head of the 
 State abandoned with regret its most precious rights and 
 duties to the church ; but he said nothing : and gave no 
 hint that he might one day take back from his allies a part 
 of that which he was surrendering.' The law passed on the 
 15th of March, 1850. The catholics thus gained from the 
 Republic more than the Restoration or the Monarchy of 
 July had given them; and yet they were not satisfied. 
 Louis Veuillot railed against the law. The bishops were 
 urged to lend no hand in working it. Pius the Ninth said 
 it was not a full satisfaction, but only a stage in the progress 
 to something better. At any rate, it kept France shamefully 
 illiterate, and enabled the clergy for many long years to 
 deceive and agitate the ignorant voters, in the interests of 
 the papacy. It was a fitting prelude to the second empire, 
 which was so largely occupied with the Eoman question, 
 and in the end was wrecked by it. 
 
 The liberalism, the republicanism, of the catholics in 1848 
 had all evaporated by 1850. Their odious extinction of the 
 Eoman republic and their attack on education had been 
 demoralizing. Even more demoralizing were their arrange- 
 ments with Louis Napoleon. It will be remembered that 
 Montalembert had clamoured for universal suffrage, freedom 
 of meeting, and freedom of the Press. He soon proved that 
 his notions of liberty were peculiar, and disingenuous. In 
 1850, the ultra-catholics supported a law to narrow the 
 franchise, in order to exclude the proletariat of the towns, 
 which was 'peu ddvot', and therefore inconvenient to the 
 clericals. It was a migratory population, and by making a 
 three years' residence the qualification for a vote, about three 
 millions of them were disfranchised. This was in May 
 
 N
 
 178 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 1850. In June, Montalembert and his friends supported 
 a law which suppressed indefinitely all rights of public 
 meeting. In July, they voted for an increased severity of 
 the Press laws, which were already intolerable. 'These 
 liberals, who formerly extolled the principles of 1789, wanted 
 liberty now only for themselves. As they enjoyed it fully, 
 it seemed just to deprive their opponents of it.' J 
 
 Having secured education for the church, the ultra- 
 catholics proceeded to utilize charity for their political 
 designs ; so as to secure for the clergy new and more 
 powerful means of social influence. All the legislation of 
 this period en matiere d 'assistance publique gave the clergy 
 a dominating influence, and in some directions gave the 
 Congregation a monopoly. Their friends cried out because 
 the unauthorized communities could not also benefit, and so 
 were ' hindered in their good works '. 
 
 By this time, the presidential term was ending, and 
 Napoleon was looking forward. He courted the church 
 sedulously; edifying the populace in his official journeys 
 by his deference to the bishops ; scattering his alms among 
 convents and churches ; purging the schools and lycees of 
 suspected teachers; purifying the University of Michelet 
 and of those who agreed with him. Montalembert praised 
 him in the Assembly, eulogizing ' with emotion ' his great 
 services to the party of order. A revision of the Constitu- 
 tion was proposed, so that he might be re-elected; and 
 Veuillot began a noisy campaign to support this. The 
 motion was defeated in the Assembly ; and Montalembert 
 joined an intrigue to gain votes, and if necessary to appeal 
 to the people against the Assembly. Meanwhile, Napoleon 
 and his intimates had prepared a different stroke. Early 
 in the morning of December 2, the Assembly was dissolved, 
 and the Constitution torn up. The republican generals 
 were imprisoned ; and the people were incited, by the 
 threat of anarchy, to give the Prince an authority similar 
 to that of the Consulate. A Dictatorship would have 
 described it better. Two hundred and twenty representa- 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 513.
 
 THE SECOND EEPUBLIC 179 
 
 tives, who had met, were imprisoned. The Press was 
 muzzled ; and there followed some shooting and proscrip- 
 tions. Then France was invited to ratify the Coup d'fitat, 
 and justify Napoleon. The red spectre was always held up, 
 flaming and glaring, before the owners of property. Monta- 
 lembert did not fail to join in the murder of liberty. On 
 the 12th of December he wrote to the public : ' To vote against 
 Louis Napoleon is to encourage the socialist revolution. . . . 
 I remind myself of the great religious acts which have 
 signalized his government : liberty of teaching guaranteed ; 
 the Pope re-established by French armies; the church 
 allowed once more to meet in councils and synods, replaced 
 in its dignity, and witnessing the steady increase of its 
 colleges, communities, and works of charity.' The clerical 
 Press chanted the Coup d'fitat as a grace of God. Louis 
 Veuillot thanked God that France had a government and 
 an army, a head and an arm ; that iniquity trembled before 
 justice, and law reigned instead of crime. The bishops 
 spoke in the same way, and the clergy voted Yes. 'Les 
 religieux s'inclinerent tres bas.' Dupanloup, Ravignan, 
 Lacordaire, to their great honour, held aloof from the 
 pervading servility, or spoke against the prevailing 
 despotism. 
 
 On the 21st of December, 7,500,000 votes proclaimed that 
 Napoleon had done well ; and the catholics had their reward. 
 Bishops, churches, convents, were laden with gifts. The 
 Pantheon was restored to ecclesiastical uses. Authorization 
 was made easier and quicker for the communities. The 
 teaching body was cleared thoroughly of liberals, and lay 
 teachers lost all security of tenure. Philosophy was almost 
 proscribed ; and, by a system of alternative studies, ' La 
 jeunesse fat detournee le plus possible des fortes etudes 
 litteraires ou se forme et se virilise la liberte de 1'esprit.' 
 Sixty-eight representatives of the people were banished. 
 The last champions of liberty were transported as convicts 
 to Cayenne. France was given into the hands of a despot, 
 with irresponsible ministers, and dependent Assemblies 
 without power. All freedom of meeting was forbidden, 
 except to the church. The Press was put under despotic 
 
 N2
 
 180 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 regulations. And Montalembert approved. ' The man, who 
 formerly, in the name of religion, had made himself the 
 advocate of all freedom, continued silent.' He only grew 
 cold to the Napoleonic despotism when it ventured to 
 modify the Lot Falloux, very slightly, in a lay and liberal 
 direction. By all these things, the liberalism of Monta- 
 lembert may be judged.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE SECOND EMPIRE 
 
 BY eight million votes, the empire of Napoleon the Third 
 was approved, in November, 1852. For several years, there 
 was a perfect understanding between the emperor and the 
 church. There had never been in France a government so 
 anxious to please the clergy. Napoleon recognized clearly 
 how much he owed them, and they perceived that he must 
 rely on their good will. He was always the ' prisoner ' of 
 the catholics who had secured him the presidency, and 
 then crowned him. Charles the Tenth was not so devout 
 as Napoleon seemed. The Most Christian Kings were not 
 so reverent to the Pope and the clergy as the ex-Carbonaro 
 who had borne arms against the papacy. That youthful 
 indiscretion was ignored, for the moment. The Pope 
 blessed the new empire. Episcopal incense, material and 
 metaphorical, wreathed about the emperor ; and the curts 
 prostrated themselves before his sacred majesty. He had 
 restored the Pope, and maintained him by French bayonets. 
 Pius the Ninth was the despotic master of the Romans, and 
 his spiritual sovereignty began to increase as the empire 
 was established. The French bishops flouted the Organiques, 
 came and went between France and Italy as they chose, 
 corresponded freely with the Vatican, received and pub- 
 lished official directions from it without any reference to 
 the civil power. In a repressed society, the church alone 
 exercised a freedom of public meeting. Cardinals were 
 senators by right. The salaries of all the prelates were 
 increased. The budget des cultes, which had been 42,000,000 
 under the republic, had risen above 46,000,000 by 1858. 
 All the high officers of State and of the Departments were 
 zealous frequenters of ecclesiastical ceremonies. Proces- 
 sions were displayed in the streets, attended by civil and
 
 182 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 military pomp. The missions d finte'rieur, which have 
 been described under the Eestoration, began again. Ee- 
 ligious orders of every kind, authorized and unauthorized, 
 swarmed into the country. From 1814 to 1830, the 
 Bourbons had authorized 643 communities of women. 
 The second republic had authorized 207, nearly all of 
 them under Napoleon's presidency. In the first eight 
 years of the empire, 982 were authorized. Many com- 
 munities were subsidized by government. The wealth of 
 them all grew at a surprising rate. Few occupations are 
 so lucrative as the profession of poverty. In the 
 same eight years, the authorized communities acquired 
 9,000,000 in gifts, and 25,000,000 from other sources. 
 They owned 14,660 hectares of land (a hectare is about 
 2 1 acres). The value of their sites and buildings was about 
 105 millions. The amount of their investments was not 
 declared, but it probably exceeded their visible property. 
 The income and funds of the unauthorized Congregations 
 are also unknown. The laws which referred to the Congre- 
 gation were not enforced. Neither its statutes, nor its 
 expenditure, nor its members were enquired into, as the 
 law intended. 'Monks and nuns could escape legal pro- 
 cesses by changing their houses or their names. Convents 
 became sanctuaries once more, which the police and justice 
 dared not violate.' The Loi Falloux bore the expected 
 fruit. In thousands of communes, the public schools fell to 
 the Congregation. During the twenty years which ended 
 in 1863, the number of teaching brothers and nuns had 
 almost trebled, their schools had more than doubled, and 
 their pupils were nearly half of all the children who were 
 being educated. The mere ' letter of obedience ', that is 
 the certificate of membership in an order, was an easier 
 entrance to the career of teaching than was required from 
 lay aspirants. Besides, the religious were exempted 
 from military service, and travelled free on the railways. 
 Secondary education was being absorbed even faster than 
 primary, and the church was teaching about 45,000 boys. 
 The University was neglected and repressed, and its 
 greatest voices were silenced. The various confraternities
 
 THE SECOND EMPIRE 183 
 
 and the nursing orders were spreading the influence of the 
 church. The Propagation de la Foi had an income of 
 3,000,000, of which 2,000,000 came from France. The Society 
 of Saint Vincent of Paul had 2,814 conferences, or local 
 organizations, and 1,360 were French. The Press was 
 gagged in the interests of the church. Licenses of col- 
 portage, for peddling books, were refused except to ' good ' 
 literature. Louis Veuillot continued his paeans, describing 
 Napoleon as vraiment grand, liberal, royal, as ' a gift of 
 Providence ' ; and the clerical Press echoed his resounding 
 words. 1 
 
 The second empire need not detain us long. "We are 
 concerned only with its relations to the church. They are 
 too frequently overlooked in general histories, but they 
 are the key-note of the reign. It has been advisable, there- 
 fore, to explain the close ties which were formed so early 
 between the ultra-catholics and Louis Napoleon. They 
 had a large share in making him president, and then 
 emperor. From the Pope downwards, they approved the 
 Coup d'Btat. Without catholic support, the empire would 
 probably have failed ingloriously. Its foremost catholic 
 supporters were professed liberals ; and their chief, Monta- 
 lembert, was implicated in the plots which led up to the 
 Coup d'Etat. It has been necessary, also, to show the 
 intimate relations between the church and the emperor 
 during the first years of his reign. The account which 
 I have given, and which I owe in its summarized form to 
 M. Debidour, proves the extent of Napoleon's dependence. 
 It shows, also, two other things. First, that the Concordat 
 was quite useless, either to restrain the Congregation, or to 
 resist the papacy ; and, secondly, it shows the strong posi- 
 tion, the enormous influence, the dangerous privileges and 
 immunities, and the more dangerous precedents, with which 
 the third republic had to deal in connexion with the 
 church when it succeeded the imperial regime. 
 
 We need hardly refer to the general politics of Napoleon 
 the Third. He began his reign with the phrase L' Empire 
 
 1 Debidour, pp. 525-30.
 
 184 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 cest la Paix ; but the defensive Marseillaise was supplanted 
 by a dynastic and aggressive tune ; the banners of the 
 republic were charged with imperial thunder-bolts and 
 eagles, the emblems of an aggressive family ; the laurelled 
 head of its reigning and conquering chief was flaunted on 
 stamps and coins ; the birthday of the founder, the Fete 
 Napoleon, was made the national holiday ; the base of his 
 column in the Place Vendome was hung with memorial 
 wreaths, and watched by veterans ; his tomb in the In- 
 valides was thronged with devotees ; the dome above it, 
 new-gilt and glittering, and his triumphal arch, were the 
 two conspicuous objects in any view of Paris. It was 
 impossible to forget that his remains lay near the ' banks 
 of the Seine among the French people whom he had loved '. 
 His spirit, moreover, was believed to haunt the Seine, alert 
 and armed, striking at his destroyers, one by one. Eussia 
 was humiliated first, and then Austria. The turn of Prussia 
 was to follow. Then England, the old stubborn enemy and 
 arch-offender, after being used and flattered, was to be 
 dealt with last. Such, it was rumoured, were the plans of 
 Napoleon the Third ; and some of them were carried out. 
 We cannot, however, eliminate the designs and character 
 of Nicholas the First from the causes of the Crimean war. 
 The principle of nationality, and above all the cause ot 
 Italy, was a genuine and honest enthusiasm with Napoleon 
 the Third, and this explains his war against the Austrians. 
 The revelations of Bismarck have shown where the chief 
 responsibility lies for the war of 1870 ; and the history of 
 the last forty years has proved how much Europe and 
 civilization have suffered and been degraded by the defeat 
 of France, by the rude and cynical diplomacy of Berlin. 
 Perhaps of all the sovereigns in the second half of the 
 nineteenth century, Napoleon the Third is the most romantic 
 and interesting. He knew best how to maintain a sump- 
 tuous and splendid court. In spite of defeats, and mischief, 
 and mistakes, France must look back with some pride and 
 some regret to the eighteen prosperous and striking years 
 of the second empire. Napoleon himself was a melancholy 
 and mysterious person. His writings reveal a man who is
 
 THE SECOND EMPIEE 185 
 
 much better than the ruler. He was always grateful and 
 faithful to his friends, and very kind to individuals. He 
 was a dreamer of generous dreams, which he strove in vain 
 to realiza The France of his day was too evenly balanced 
 between liberalism and clericalism. Napoleon could not 
 adopt either one or the other decidedly, or with safety. 
 He wavered and vacillated ; and, between the two, he was 
 reduced to impotency. He was the 'prisoner' of the 
 clericals, and the maintainer of the Temporal Power, and 
 yet the foremost champion of United Italy. In the con- 
 flict of those dramatic forces he was crushed. To please 
 the clericals, he restored and maintained the Pope, and so 
 lost Italian help when France needed it most. To please 
 the liberals, he made United Italy possible, and the absorp- 
 tion of Borne inevitable, and so alienated the French ultra- 
 montanes. The blame for these contradictory policies was 
 not his alone, since France herself was torn in two by 
 liberal and papal sympathies; but the full penalty was 
 exacted from her ruler, who symbolized these contradictions 
 in his own person. It is possible that history may deal 
 more tenderly with Napoleon the Third than his contem- 
 poraries dealt. From the church he received no gratitude, 
 and by the liberals no extenuating circumstances have been 
 admitted ; and yet every revelation from Berlin has light- 
 ened his burden, and fuller knowledge will probably transfer 
 most of it to the Prussian who cajoled and duped him. 
 
 In return for his great services, Napoleon asked Pius 
 the Ninth to crown him in Paris. Pius was not eager to 
 go, but he was willing to make a bargain. ' Si 1'Empereur 
 veut que j'aille en France, il faut qu'il m'ouvre la porte. 
 Qu'il abroge toute disposition, tout decret contraire au 
 Concordat. Je laisserai passer trois mois pour e"viter d 
 I 'arrangement Tapparance (Vun marche", et puis, en voiture.' l 
 The Pope wished the Organiques to be eliminated; but 
 Napoleon dared not sacrifice them, nor those parts of the 
 Code Civil which Rome disliked, and the negotiations 
 failed. The emperor was mortified and irritated ; and he 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 535.
 
 186 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 showed his displeasure by liberalizing the Loi Falloux. 
 The Academies were reduced from eighty-six to sixteen, by 
 which episcopal influence was also reduced ; and the new 
 rectors, with their larger districts, became officials of some 
 consequence. The appointment and removal of all public 
 teachers was taken from the departmental councils and 
 given to the Prefets. 
 
 This was in 1854. At the end of that year the Pope 
 made a Coup d/figlise, which was more revolutionary than 
 the emperor's Coup d'fitat. He defined, on his own autho- 
 rity, a question which had agitated the schools for centuries, 
 and ordered his decision to be accepted as a dogma. Never 
 before had a Pope decided a matter of faith alone, without 
 a council. In this case, Pius assembled a selected number of 
 the bishops to hear his judgement, but their opinion was not 
 asked. They heard, and believed. This was an experiment, 
 and it succeeded. The episcopate made no protest. Only 
 a few Gallican legists hesitated to receive the Bull ; and 
 their hesitation was increased because many French bishops 
 accepted and promulgated it without waiting for an official 
 sanction by the government. This act of Pius the Ninth 
 was a feeler, a ballon d'essai, to see what the episcopate 
 would tolerate, and the governments accept. There was 
 practically no resistance, no protest or difficulty ; and Pius 
 moved on steadily towards that goal for which he was so 
 eager, namely, the definition of his infallibility. In this 
 policy he was encouraged and supported by the Jesuits, 
 whose logic had always pointed in that direction, whose 
 principles and position necessitated the fullness of papal 
 absolutism. They had long believed and practised what 
 they were now preaching ; and, for the next fifteen years, 
 all their efforts were directed to obtain this end. The 
 history of this movement has not yet been written, and 
 perhaps never can be fully. Noise, calumny, intrigue, 
 piety, the Press, the pulpit, the confessional, the altar, were 
 all utilized ; nothing was omitted or neglected which might 
 help to achieve the end. Only those who were in touch 
 with Eomanism and Eomanists in those stormy years can 
 realize the turmoil of the church. The ecclesiastical Press
 
 THE SECOND EMPIEE 187 
 
 and the controversies of that time must be sad and shameful 
 reading if any one venture into it. Manning in England, 
 and Louis Veuillot in France, were the leaders of the cam- 
 paign, and the Jesuits were the drilled army. The defini- 
 tion of 1854 was the first stage in the pontifical progress, 
 the first definite act. It was a most effective one. The 
 Pope did not claim infallibility, but exercised it, and left 
 others to make the claim. As his exercise was unchal- 
 lenged, his claim could not be disputed afterwards. It 
 might be explained, but could not be explained away. It 
 only remained to define and regularize that which had 
 been committed, in which the whole church was an accom- 
 plice, and which could not be repudiated without stultifying 
 both Pope and church together. It was an astute policy, 
 and eminently shrewd ; but neither so courageous nor so 
 desperate as it seems. Rome and the Jesuits had taken the 
 measure of their episcopate, and had not misjudged it. 
 The wisdom, however, of the Jesuit and ultramontane 
 policy still remains to be demonstrated. 
 
 The next step in the papal programme was the encyclical 
 Quanta Cura, with its annexed Syllabus of errors. It was 
 proposed in 1862, but not published until 1864. In this 
 document open war was declared against modern thought, 
 against every principle and institution of modern .sacieiy. 
 It was a formal condemnation of 1789 f and. of everything 
 which the Revolution had established. It was aimed par- 
 ticularly against "France, the maker and propagator of the 
 Revolution ; the country which, so far, had carried out its 
 principles most thoroughly. The Pope's theoretical dislike 
 of France was aggravated in practice by the Italian policy 
 of Napoleon the Third. 
 
 ' This two-fold profession of faith, which seems to bring 
 back the middle ages, was a formal condemnation of all 
 those liberties which have been conferred by the Revolution. 
 It condemned with a naive and brutal frankness, not only 
 t'he rignts of conscience, of philosophy, of science, but the 
 elementary principles ot l those legal and political theories 
 which France had proclaimed in 1789, and which most of 
 Europe had copied from her. Pius tlie Ninth was. perhaps, 
 
 __~un.\t**t i i > ajMan n)i m i iminfifni n"' "" i i 'tin
 
 188 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 more exacting in his claims than Gregory the Seventh 
 and Innocent the Third. He declared that the church is in 
 itself a complete and perfect society ; independent, by right, 
 and in all respects, of the temporal authority; that it is 
 superior to the State; that it has the exclusive right to 
 educate. The Pope condemned the theory of national or 
 popular sovereignty, and -the practice of universal suffrage. 
 HeTHenied freedom of worship to non- catholics, and all 
 freedom of the Press, and of speech. He claimed for the 
 church a coercive power. In matters of controversy with 
 the State, he arrogated for the church rights which no 
 modern government can recognize. He desired for the 
 church a right to interfere with civil legislation, so as to 
 abolish toleration and even, justice to non-catholics. He 
 condemned civil marriage.' 1 
 
 Taking up a phrase of Gregory the Sixteenth, Pius brands 
 liberty of conscience and worship as a deliramentum : free- 
 dom of speaking and printing as libertatem perditionis. He 
 will not tolerate any right in the civil power to come 
 between the Pope and every Christian individual: a doc- 
 trine which destroys the civil power, and leads both to 
 anarchy and despotism. He castigates the opinion that in 
 politics accomplished facts become right, merely because 
 they have been accomplished, in ordine politico facta con- 
 summata, eo ipso quod consummata sunt, vim iuris Jiabere\ 
 forgetting, apparently, his own approval of the Coup 
 d'Etat. The whole encyclical is written in the pious, 
 vague, and turgid style which is a spteialitd of pontifical 
 documents. It is also in a base and lumbering Latin, which 
 is very different from the flowing prose of Leo the Thir- 
 teenth. An impartial reader must be struck, in every para- 
 graph, by the exaggerations. Modern society is painted 
 all in black. The picture is nothing but shadow, and 
 therefore has no truth. Society has no aims but material 
 ones. Its education is necessarily corrupt. Its philosophy 
 is not only erroneous, but malicious. No one can look 
 honestly at the world, and say that the encyclical describes 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 588.
 
 THE SECOND EMPIRE 189 
 
 it. The results which Pius anticipates do not happen. 
 They are not true of individuals, or of society as a whole. 
 If they were, society would perish. It is a diagnosis mani- 
 festly untrue, and therefore one has no confidence in the 
 physician. The eighty clauses of the Syllabus cover the 
 whole field of human activity. The forty-second and forty- 
 third clauses are worth recording, as they refer to the 
 matters in dispute at present between France and the 
 Vatican. Clause 42 condemns as an error the prin- 
 ciple that ' In case of a legal conflict between the two powers 
 (civil and ecclesiastical) the civil law must prevail '. Clause 
 43 says 'It is erroneous that the civil or lay autho- 
 rity has the right to break, to denounce, and to nullify 
 the solemn agreements (concordats) made with the apostolic 
 See, concerning the rights and practices pertaining to eccle- 
 siastical immunities, without the consent of that See, and 
 in spite of its protests '. The policy of the French govern- 
 ment is anticipated and condemned by these clauses. If the 
 Syllabus be authoritative, the Pope is bound to protest 
 against any renunciation of the Concordat, on principle. 
 No modification of the law can satisfy him. He cannot 
 accept any solution which is imposed by the civil power 
 without consulting him. No concession, but only submis- 
 sion, can settle the difficulty. Finally Pius the Ninth 
 abhorred the notion that ' The .Roman Pontiff can and 
 should reconcile himself and come to terms with progress, 
 liberalism, and modern civilization '. 
 
 Modern civilization, modern thought, modern societies 
 and polities being thus condemned, we might fairly ask the 
 Pope to show us something better. He says the church is 
 a perfect society. When he wrote those words he was a 
 temporal ruler, exercising sovereignty. The Temporal 
 Power and the Papal States were the most absorbing ques- 
 tion in European politics between 1840 and 1870. How, 
 we may ask, did the Pope rule his own States and people ? 
 "What did his theories produce, in the place where he was 
 free to work them out unhindered ? "We might expect to 
 find an earthly paradise. Let us enter the perfect society 
 as it existed under Pius the Ninth himself, as it was
 
 190 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 seen by Edmond About, who thus described it in 1859, 
 'The Eoman catholic church, which I respect sincerely, 
 consists of 139,000,000 people, not counting the little Mor- 
 tara. It is governed by seventy cardinals, or princes of the 
 church, in memory of the twelve apostles. . . . The cardinals 
 are made by the Pope, and the Pope is made by the car- 
 dinals. From the day of his election, he becomes infallible. 
 ... In 1859, the bishop of Eome is temporal sovereign over 
 four million hectares, and reigns over 3,184,668 human 
 beings, who cry aloud.' * They complain of arbitrary 
 power ; of a hopeless confusion between legislative, execu- 
 tive, and judicial functions ; that papal infallibility in civil 
 matters is unendurable ; that they want law, not caprice. 
 All offices and functions are in clerical hands: 'they are 
 men, doubtless, excellent in the sight of God, but insup- 
 portable to the public ; strangers often to the country, some- 
 times to public affairs, always to domestic life, which is the 
 foundation of society ; they are without special knowledge, 
 except in the affairs of heaven ; without children, which 
 makes them careless of the future, and without wives, which 
 makes them dangerous in the present ; incapable of being 
 reasonable, since they claim a share of the pontifical infalli- 
 bility.' 1 The 3,000,000 subjects ^pf the Pope were taxed 
 almost out of existence, and their industry was ruined by 
 unwise taxation. They were burdened with police, yet 
 neither life nor property was safe. Society was corrupted 
 by informers and terrorized by spies. The prisons were 
 numerous, and always full. There was no proper means of 
 communication. Eoads were seldom made, and never re- 
 paired ; and Gregory the Sixteenth thought railways dan- 
 gerous to salvation. The country was devoured, and the 
 towns infested, by monks, producing nothing and ac- 
 quiring much. There was no sanitation in the towns, no 
 drainage in the country, no efficient cultivation. Trade 
 was in the hands of monopolists, to the public loss. Fees 
 and favouritism were the only means of promotion. Justice 
 was hardly attainable, and was ruinous. Education was 
 deficient, was discouraged, and the people were illiterate. 
 
 1 About, La Question Eomaine.
 
 THE SECOND EMPIEE 191 
 
 There was no freedom, either mental, political, theological, 
 or personal. The Papal States were everything *which a 
 State ought not to be. They were a scandal to Europe. 
 The civil authorities, whom the Pope condemned, urged 
 him continually to reform his own government ; to make 
 it tolerable and decent. It was so insupportable that 
 the Pope had to be protected from his subjects by foreign 
 soldiers. The papal theories did not produce prosperity, 
 or justice, or a contented people. Materially, they resulted 
 in failure and misery. Morally, they were even more 
 disastrous. Misgovernment produced dissatisfaction, and 
 repression violence ; and then their victims were punished 
 for being criminal. Legal opposition was impossible under 
 an arbitrary government. The theological claims of the 
 papacy were extended into every sphere of political and civic 
 life. In judging the papal theories by the standard of 
 modern societies, we must not forget that the papal govern- 
 ment has given us an object-lesson, by showing us how 
 they work out in practice. 
 
 ' The little Mortara,' of whom About speaks, is an illustra- 
 tion both of that practice, and of certain claims which ultra- 
 montane educationalists have been making recently. He was 
 a Jewish child, living in the Papal States, baptized, without 
 his own volition or his parents' knowledge, by a catholic 
 nurse. The affair became known to the clergy ; and the 
 child was taken from his parents, placed in a religious 
 institution, and brought up as a catholic. The parents 
 objected to the loss of their child, and to his proselytism, 
 which began as a fraud, and was maintained by force. The 
 matter was an European scandal, circulated by the Press, 
 and occupying diplomatists ; but the papal government 
 listened to no remonstrances. The child was never returned 
 to his parents, and was brought up, against their wish, as 
 a Roman catholic. "We have heard much, recently, about 
 the rights of parents in education, especially from the 
 English and Irish Romanists. Such ' rights ' were not 
 recognized, as I have pointed out, by the mediaeval church. 
 This incident shows how little they were respected, even in 
 our times, and in a place where the church had sovereign
 
 192 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 authority. There was a similar case in 1864, when a Jew 
 named Cohen was abducted and retained. 
 
 ' The States of the church,' says M. Debidour, ' continued 
 to be governed arbitrarily by priests. Obscurantism, the 
 Inquisition, and contempt of the modern spirit were dis- 
 played in them at their ease. The army of the French 
 republic covered with its flag this resurrection of ancient 
 servitudes. . . . The inevitable justice of things has decreed 
 that 1849 should produce 1870, and that the expedition to 
 Eome should be as fatal to the second empire as it had 
 been shameful to the second republic.' l 
 
 The Syllabus was most awkward and perplexing to liberal 
 catholics, as it implicitly condemned them^ and struck 
 at their position^ jl^ 
 
 demned only the '.excess 5 of liberty ; that he. xeiected the 
 principles of the Eevolution, but could make terms with it 
 if necessary; in other words, the church did not appeal, to 
 force when it was weak, but always reserved its claims. One 
 bishop, Lecourtier of JVEontpellier, protested against the 
 Syllabus, and his objections are worth remembering. 'If 
 every pontifical rescript must be accepted with absolute 
 submission, Eome might send to-morrow the deposition of 
 Napoleon the Third, as Hildebrand deprived Henry the 
 Fourth of the empire, and loosed Germany from its oaths 
 of obedience, and the French catholics would have to submit 
 passively. It is a system, no doubt, like any other, but it is 
 a little astonishing in 1865.' ' Among French catholics, 
 those who were not thinkers wondered at the papal direc- 
 tions without discussing or understanding them, with- 
 out feeling any need to obey or defend them. Others held 
 generally that, as the Syllabus was at least imprudent, the 
 less said of it the better v JAs to militant philosophes, and 
 savant^ and free-ininkers, and liberals, and radicals, who 
 made it a point of honour to resist clericalism, they were 
 filled with glee ; they would have been really disappointed 
 if the Pope had not published his views, and they were at 
 no pains to disguise theirs.' 2 The intractability of Eome 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 501. Ibid. p. 593. '
 
 THE SECOND EMPIRE 193 
 
 is wonderful. The Emperor tried many ways of solving 
 the Roman question, without prejudice to Italy, and without 
 sacrificing the Temporal Power. Among others, he proposed, 
 instead of the sole French occupation, a body of troops 
 furnished by the smaller catholic powers, to avoid jealousies ; 
 a subsidy by all the catholic States ; an international 
 guarantee of the remaining papal territory. To the subsidy, 
 the Vatican replied that nothing would be accepted unless it 
 took the form of a compensation for annates, and for the old 
 * canonical rights ' over vacant benefices. 1 It is a maxim of 
 canon law that there is no prescription against the claims 
 of the Roman church : what it has claimed once, it claims 
 always; and this claim goes back into the middle ages, 
 when the whole structure of society and the relations 
 between church and State were entirely different ; when 
 the papacy also was entirely different. 
 
 As the years went by, the empire was rapidly under- 
 mined from two sides at once. Napoleon achieved his 
 Italian campaign of Magenta and Solferino, which drove 
 Austria out of Italy, and made the Italian kingdom a 
 possibility. These acts, and their consequences, produced 
 a strong ultramontane opposition in France, and broke the 
 close alliance between the clergy and the empire. That 
 opposition was strengthened considerably by Thiers, who 
 was a resolute opponent of Italian unity. On the other 
 hand, through clinging to the Pope, the Emperor was assailed 
 by the growing liberal opposition, which disliked both the 
 empire and the Vatican. If the spirit of these times be 
 understood, we need not go into the political details by 
 which that spirit expressed itself. M. Debidour is speaking 
 of the years 1864 and '65, and he says ' Outside the Chamber, 
 the republican party increased rapidly, and seemed indis- 
 posed to hesitate for ever before revolutionary methods. 
 This party was united in an equal hatred of Caesarism and 
 obscurantism, of the policy of December 2 and the policy of 
 the Syllabus, of the empire and the church. If it could 
 not yet speak out its thought about the empire, it was less 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 562. 
 o
 
 194 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 reticent about the church. Since the coup d'fitat, and in 
 face of a government whose despotism had always had the 
 clergy as its strongest ally, there grew up in Prance 
 a republican youth, very different from that which had 
 grown up under Louis Philippe, and which believed for 
 a moment, in 1848, that an alliance was possible between 
 religion and liberty. This new generation, less romantic 
 than the old but more learned, less sentimental but more 
 swayed by reason, did not rely on the Gospel or on faith but 
 on history, on science, on jurisprudence. It put humanity 
 in the place of God. Its religion was the Positive philosophy. 
 It no longer read Lamennais. Its inspirations came, directly 
 or indirectly, from Comte, Littre', Renan. Taine, who had 
 not yet caricatured the Revolution, enchanted it by his 
 methodical certitude and his placid contempt for theology. 
 The challenge to reason and science by the authors of the 
 Syllabus had strengthened its incredulity.' 1 
 
 These were the forces with which the empire had to deal 
 in Prance ; and the papacy, in the whole world of European 
 thought and influence. The empire might have resisted 
 longer, if it had not been the ' prisoner ' of the church. It 
 could not afford to meet the liberals half-way, and it was 
 never able to satisfy the ultramontanes. The papacy went 
 on steadily towards the Vatican Council, for which it had 
 been preparing since the definition of 1854. As the Papal 
 States shrank, the papal claims increased. The marvellous 
 resurrection of Italy became an accomplished fact. The 
 policy of Cavour, the knight-errantry of Garibaldi, the 
 heroism of a splendid race, achieved the deliverance in spite 
 of terrific odds. Austria was expelled from the north. The 
 Lorrainers disappeared from Tuscany. The central provinces 
 escaped from the papacy. Naples became Italian. Only 
 Rome and a small territory were left to the Temporal Power. 
 In this, the Pope was protected from his subjects and the 
 rest of Italy by French soldiers, while he flouted their 
 emperor; and within this fortress, he grew ever more 
 threatening and violent. In 1867, he kept the centenary 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 595.
 
 THE SECOND EMPIRE 195 
 
 of the apostle Peter, which was attended by 450 bishops. 
 While they applauded the Syllabus, the Pope foreshadowed 
 the approaching council, which was to ratify the policy of the 
 Syllabus, and above all the papal infallibility. These events 
 were re-echoed in France. Thiers used all his eloquence to 
 prove that the overthrow of the Temporal Power would be 
 the greatest of misfortunes for France. The Univers, which 
 had been suppressed, re-appeared at this time, and embittered 
 the clerical campaign. The Emperor, once the favourite of 
 bishops, was now described as Pilate. Duruy, the Minister 
 of Education, was specially attacked ; because he wished 
 to multiply schools, to educate the wielders of universal 
 suffrage, and, what was much worse, to supply a lay 
 education for women, and to submit the teachers of the 
 Congregation to the ordinary laws and regulations. These 
 reforms were described as attacks on religion, as trampling 
 on the moral order, spreading atheism among the people. 
 On the other hand, Garibaldi was thundering against the 
 papacy. ' Hold yourselves ready to be purged of the vomito 
 negro. Death to the Blacks. We must go to Rome and 
 dislodge this brood of vipers. A thorough cleansing is 
 required. ... It is our duty to go to Rome, and we shall go 
 soon.' Young Italy and ultramontane France were thus 
 on different sides. The Papal States estranged and almost 
 embroiled the two Latin sisters. They were not re-united 
 until France had become thoroughly liberal, and their 
 reconciliation led directly to a breach with the Vatican, 
 and so to Separation. 
 
 At Rome, everything moved towards the papal absolutism. 
 The Curia was infatuated by the Syllabus. It was bent on 
 legalizing that claim to personal infallibility for which the 
 Popes had manoeuvred so long in vain. It had been almost 
 realized, as we have seen, by Boniface the Eighth, but his 
 policy fell to ruin under the blows of Philip the Fair. The 
 Council of Constance had condemned the claim in theory 
 and stultified it in practice. The Council of Trent had not 
 dared to sanction it. Gallicanism was a standing protest 
 against it : and the Gallican church had been the efficient 
 
 O 
 
 bulwark of Catholicism against Vaticanism, so long as the 
 
 o 2
 
 196 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 old regime endured. The papal monarchy had been tempered 
 in some degree by the episcopate. Though the jurisdiction 
 of the bishops had been attacked and narrowed continually, 
 it still retained some vestige of life and power. But it was 
 now determined, by Pius and his advisers, that the papacy 
 should be henceforth absolute, unfettered. As the mediaeval 
 Popes had mediatized the sovereignty of the kings, so the 
 modern papacy has mediatized the bishops. It has been 
 explained how the council was led up to, by the decree of 
 the Immaculate conception in 1854, by the Syllabus ten 
 years later, by the persistent effort of the Jesuits. The 
 centenary of 1867 was followed by a Bull, which summoned 
 the council at the end of 1869. The terms of this and of 
 other preparatory documents were vague. The council was 
 to meet for confirming the faith, and strengthening the dis- 
 cipline of the church ; to redress the errors of civil society ; 
 to protect the people against impious books and a pernicious 
 Press ; to preserve unfortunate youth, whose education has 
 been taken from the clergy, against their pedagogues of 
 wickedness and error ; to secure the progress and certainty 
 of human knowledge. 
 
 There were some curious innovations both in the prelimin- 
 aries of the council, and in its procedure. As to the first, 
 it was not left free to arrange its own business, but the 
 agenda were entrusted to several commissions, appointed by 
 the Pope, composed of his partizans, and deliberating in 
 secret. As to the second, no representatives of the civil 
 power were invited to attend. This was an ominous novelty. 
 In primitive ages, the emperors had summoned general 
 councils and frequently presided over them in person. In 
 mediaeval councils, the sovereigns were represented by their 
 ambassadors, who were not witnesses of a ceremony, but 
 deliberating members of an assembly. The various govern- 
 ments were strangely and foolishly apathetic. They took 
 no concerted action. A few surviving Gallicans urged 
 Napoleon to protest against the exclusion of the ambassadors, 
 and the decree of infallibility ; but the Emperor, more than 
 ever the ' prisoner ' of his clericals, dared not move. He felt 
 his power crumbling. He was about to appeal once more
 
 THE SECOND EMPIEE 197 
 
 to universal suffrage, he could not afford to lose ecclesiastical 
 support, and much less to have it cast against him. Galli- 
 canism had almost perished. The Revolution overturned it. 
 The Concordat had weakened it. The decree of 1870 killed 
 it. The concordatory bishops and curds were alike ultra- 
 montane, for reasons which, paradoxical as it may sound, 
 were both similar and contradictory. When the clergy 
 ceased to be an Order, the bishops leaned more and more 
 on the Pope, as their ally against the civil authorities. At the 
 same time, they acquired a fuller power over their clergy, 
 and jreliecl .on ultramontanisjxu to maintain, it. Under the 
 did regime, the lower clergy were quite independent of the 
 Pope, and almost independent of their bishops. The 
 majority, though ill-paid, had security of tenure. They 
 were national and democratic. Under the Concordat, only 
 a tenth of the parochial clergy had a relative independence. 
 The remaining nine-tenths were dependent on the bishops. 
 The State had deprived itself of all power to help them. 
 Their only protector was the Pope. Rome utilized this 
 position to check the bishops, and it relied on the episcopal 
 discipline to secure the unity of the priesthood. It played 
 one order against the other with ability ; making the 
 bishops rely on the Curia to maintain their predominance, 
 and mollifying the servitude of the priests to secure their 
 loyalty. The Gallicans were reduced to a few bishops, 
 most of them imperialists ; and to a few laymen, Falloux, 
 Arnaud, Montalembert, all of them sad and disillusioned. 
 Montalembert wrote to Db'llinger in November 1869, ' You 
 admire the bishop of Orleans (Dupanloup) ; but you would 
 admire him more if you could realize for yourself the abyss 
 of idolatry in which the French clergy are wallowing. It 
 surpasses everything that could have been imagined in the 
 days of my youth, in the time of Frayssinous and de 
 Lamennais. ... Of all the enigmas, which are so numerous 
 in the history of the church, I don't know one which equals 
 or surpasses our sudden and complete transformation into 
 the poultry yard of the papal ante-chambers.' 
 
 Such was the wretched end of Montalembert, a man of 
 the loftiest nature, and worthy of a better fate. His heart
 
 198 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 was sounder than his head, but he dared not trust it. 
 Surely the end of Lamennais was happier. At any rate he 
 liberated his soul and loosed his tongue before he died. 
 Few men had done more than Lamennais to spread ultra- 
 montane theories ; and no one had carried them into practice 
 with more influence than Montalembert. The French church 
 was reaping what he had sown ; and we must not forget how 
 largely the French nation is indebted to him for Napoleon's 
 presidency, and for the second empire. It is strange that 
 so able a man could be so utterly blind to the inevitable 
 consequence of his own premisses. Montalembert died four 
 months after writing the letter which I have quoted ; on 
 March 13, 1870. He lived long enough to realize the 
 sinister proceedings of the council, but he was spared the 
 decree. The Pope forbade a ceremonial mass in the Ara 
 Coeli which his brother-in-law De Merode, the Grand 
 Almoner of Pius, had arranged. He allowed a plain mass, 
 over the Tiber, in Santa Maria Transpontina, and he attended 
 it in private, behind a screen, forbidding any public notifica- 
 tion as to whom the requiem was for. And thus Montalem- 
 bert was rewarded for his chivalrous devotion to the church, 
 for the shipwreck of those liberal and generous instincts 
 which were the best part of him : pity that they were only 
 dimidium animae. If I may accommodate a line of Arnold : 
 He never once possessed his soul before he died. 
 
 The council had opened on December 8, 1869, in Saint 
 Peter's. There were about 750 bishops, a large number of 
 vicars apostolic, dependants of the papacy, and of religious 
 superiors, who are its professed servants. Some 150 bishops 
 formed the Opposition. Soon after the opening, on January 3, 
 Manning promoted an address to the Pope, praying him to 
 allow his infallibility to be declared. Pius held his infalli- 
 bility as of divine right, and made a point of not submitting 
 it to the council, so it was arranged the council should beg 
 him to proclaim the doctrine. The Schema de Ecclesid 
 enunciated the claims of the church and the papacy even 
 more arrogantly than the Syllabus. Feeble as the Opposi- 
 tion were in numbers, and fatuous in tactics, their reasonings 
 were formidable, and the delay was annoying to the Pope.
 
 THE SECOND EMPIRE 199 
 
 It was decreed, therefore, by the Pope, that closure should 
 be granted on the demand of only ten members, which was 
 the strangest way of proving the council was free to discuss ; 
 and, secondly, that decisions might be made by a majority 
 of votes, whereas in all previous councils unanimity had 
 been required for an authoritative definition. Finally, 
 after many delays, and some alterations, infallibility was 
 
 The 
 
 decree ran in the name of the Pope : "We teach and define, 
 with the approbation of the council, adhering faithfully to 
 the tradition received from the beginning, that it is a 
 dogma revealed by God that the Roman Pontiff, when he 
 speaks ex cathedrd, that is when, fulfilling the office of 
 pastor and doctor of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme 
 apostolic authority^ he defines a doctrine concerning faith 
 and morals, must.. be believed by. the. whole church : he 
 enjoys fully, by the divine assistance which has been 
 pledged to him in the person of blessed Peter, that infalli- 
 bility with which the divine Redeemer has willed that 
 his church shall be provided in defining doctrines touching 
 faith and morals ; and, in consequence, these definitions of 
 the Roman Pontiff, by themselves and not in virtue of the 
 consent of the church, are irreformable. ' If any one, which 
 Q-od avert, should have the temerity to gainsay our defini- 
 tion, let him be damned.' This definition was made in 
 Saint Peter's, on July 18, during a viOiflflt atonnT jf 
 thunder". ~~&s tfie heaven roared and the lightning lamed, 
 the ultramontanes talked of Sinai and a second Pentecost. 
 Other people took the noises for a proof of divine wrath, 
 speaking of the Apocalypse and Babylon the Great. 
 During the last days of the council, war was declared 
 between France and Prussia.; and the bishops were de- 
 spatched away in haste. The council was prorogued ; but, 
 I believe, has never been dissolved. It still sits, in theory ; 
 but there is no reason why it should ever re-assemble, or 
 why any other council should be held. Councils were 
 a cumbrous machinery, difficult to assemble, more difficult 
 to handle. If papal infallibility were known to the 
 ancients, to tradition, it is strange they never resorted to
 
 200 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 so easy and decisive a way of ending controversies and 
 discovering the truth. It is undeniable that the bishops at 
 Constance declared councils were superior to Popes. They 
 acted on their belief by deposing one Pope, and making 
 another; and the Pope so made confirmed their opinion, 
 on which alone his title rests. And there are many other 
 flaws in the papal argument ; but the church triumphs over 
 history. 
 
 Before many weeks had passed. Napoleon was dethroned, 
 and a prisoner. The republic had been proclaimed 
 throughout France, and a government of national defence 
 organized in Paris. The Emperor had appealed in vain to 
 Italy for help. His regiments were withdrawn from Rome, 
 and the Italians took possession of their capital on Sep- 
 tember 20. By an almost unanimous vote, the Romans 
 expressed their wish to be incorporated into the kingdom 
 of Italy. The Pope lost his Temporal Power, and retired 
 into the Vatican, the prisoner of his own policy. The 
 Pope-King came to an end, but only to be transformed 
 into the Pope- God; and so we enter upon the last phase 
 of our history.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE THIRD REPUBLIC 
 
 1. NATIONAL DEFENCE. 
 
 WHEN the news of Sedan came to Paris, the Empress 
 made an effort, through Merimee, to gain the services of 
 Thiers. That most astute and common-sense of politicians 
 would neither ally himself to a ruined cause, nor commit 
 himself to a dubious adventure. He refused the Empress ; 
 and he would not join the government of national defence, 
 though he gave it a benevolent support. It consisted of 
 eleven members. Some of them had made their reputations ; 
 Arago, Cremieux, Jules Favre: others had theirs to make, 
 and were in due time to be famous ; Jules Ferry, Gambetta : 
 one, Jules Simon, was to stultify his principles; another, 
 Henri Rochefort, had become notorious in the empire, and 
 was to be more conspicuous for many years under the 
 republic. It seemed as though the church could not live 
 at ease with men of this kind. On the other hand, Rome 
 was more intractable than ever. The hurried separation of 
 the council, the retirement of the French garrison, and the 
 fall of the empire, warned the Curia of its doom. The 
 misfortunes of the papacy rallied its adherents. Never were 
 the ultramontanes so zealous or so bitter, especially in France. 
 There was no enthusiastic alliance between the clergy and 
 the new government, as there had been when the second 
 republic was inaugurated. There were no common interests, 
 as in the understanding between the church and the second 
 empire. But patriotism, and defeat, and the odious presence 
 of the invader, drew all Frenchmen together. They sank 
 party differences, and worked in common. The liberal 
 government of defence accepted the conservative and 
 clerical Trochu as their head, and on his own terms, namely
 
 202 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 that religion, property, and the rights of the family, should 
 be respected. 
 
 The church benefited, again, by the liberties which the 
 new government allowed. It required no political oath, and 
 granted freedom of meeting and of the Press. As the Prussians 
 were isolating Paris, the government had to be established 
 elsewhere. Cremieux, a Jew, the Minister of Worship, 
 went to Tours, and lived with Guibert, the arch-bishop. It 
 was arranged shortly afterwards, between the Minister and 
 the Nuncio, Chigi, that the nomination of bishops should be 
 entrusted to Guibert, and his nominations were naturally 
 acceptable to Rome. Thus one of the rights given by the 
 Concordat was resigned by an easy-going Minister; and 
 there grew up a custom that the formal nomination by 
 government should be given to the ecclesiastic already 
 chosen to receive it by the Holy See. 
 
 A large number of the bishops gave a loyal support to the 
 government of defence. They organized hospitals and 
 ambulances, and appointed seminarists and religious to serve 
 them. Others, however, began to intrigue with the various 
 parties and pretenders. Dupanloup was an Orleanist, 
 Bonnechose of Eouen was faithful to Napoleon. Most of 
 them, unfortunately, were as much occupied with Eome as 
 with France. The Temporal Power was again a cause of 
 estrangement between France and Italy, a cause of serious 
 division and weakness in French domestic politics, and 
 a continual source of anxiety or even a possibility of danger 
 in foreign aifairs. On the 20th of September, 1870, the 
 Italians entered Eome, and occupied the whole of their 
 capital, except the Vatican, where the Pope was free and 
 sovereign. He used his freedom to make himself a voluntary 
 prisoner. The question of his going or staying was debated 
 anxiously. France offered him an asylum in Corsica ; and 
 England, in Malta. Bismarck was eager to have him in 
 Prussia. The Pope felt that to sever the papacy from Eome 
 was to risk the loss of its traditions and its moral influence. 
 He decided not to go unless he were forced ; and, as the 
 Italian government were most anxious to keep him in Eome, 
 there was no likelihood of his being forced. The papacy
 
 NATIONAL DEFENCE 203 
 
 stayed on, then, protesting ; and it has continued to do both 
 for nearly forty years, and under three pontificates. On the 
 2nd of October there was a plebiscite ; and the City of Rome 
 decided, by 40,875 votes against 46, that it wished to be 
 incorporated with the kingdom of Italy. The new French 
 government did not feel either able or called upon to 
 protest. They recognized the accomplished fact; recalled 
 their ambassador from the Court of Rome, and appointed 
 a charge d'affaires to represent them with the Pope in his 
 spiritual capacity. And, what is more important, they 
 decided that the time was inopportune for reconsidering the 
 Concordat, which under normal circumstances they would 
 probably have denounced. This correct and chivalrous 
 attitude probably saved a great deal of immediate friction 
 between church and State ; but it held a great deal more in 
 solution, and bequeathed a dangerous legacy to the coming 
 republic. 
 
 The government of national defence did better than is 
 generally supposed ; and the People's war, as distinguished 
 from the Emperor's war, that is the stand made in France 
 against the Prussians, has only recently been presented as 
 it deserves to English readers. 1 We are aware now of the 
 enormous difficulties, both military and diplomatic, which 
 hampered, and almost vanquished, the Prussians before 
 Paris. The exhaustion of Germany was so great, both in 
 men and finance, that a well-organized and well-supported 
 resistance might have ended the war in a very different 
 way. France, however, was not, and could not be, well 
 organized; and she was not inclined to continue the war 
 with energy. Certainly, she did not fail in courage ; every 
 battle-field and engagement proved it. The French fighting 
 was magnificent. What did fail was direction, and therefore 
 confidence. Twenty years of autocratic government had 
 demoralized the country ; and when the autocracy crumbled 
 to pieces, in gigantic failure, there was no immediate power 
 of rallying. France, then, desired peace ; and this was 
 proved by the elections in February iffi^ jjjj? jfrifililflnir nQ / 
 occupied a place in the new Assembly which was not * 
 1 Lonsdale Hale, The People's War in France.
 
 204 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 deserved by 'their numerical importance or their real 
 i^flnfl^^^^bjgieii^ioii'.t The peace which France wanted 
 
 was personified in Thiers. Gambetta represented a con- 
 tinuation of the war, and the republic was identified with 
 Gambetta. The parties hostile to the republic obtained 
 a signal victory. 
 
 ' In the majority of Departments the candidates of the 
 reactionary coalition, who were patronized by the clergy, 
 came in easily.' Only 200 republicans were elected on the 
 8th of February, and 50 more deputies rallied to them later. 
 The whole number of deputies was 768, which was reduced 
 to 738 when the territory was rearranged. About a third 
 of the Assembly was republican. There were few Bonapart- 
 ists. The vast majority were royalists. They, however, 
 were divided, or they would have carried everything before 
 them. There were Orleanists, the supporters of Louis 
 Philippe's heirs, who desired a liberal monarchy. There 
 were legitimists, who adhered to the grandson of Charles 
 the Tenth : but these, again, were subdivided, into thorough 
 legitimists, who accepted the king on his own terms, as of 
 divine right; a sovereign who should impose his will on 
 the country, granting such liberties as he chose, out of his 
 mere favour, a king who should rule as well as reign. 
 There was also a group of modified legitimists, who would 
 make terms with the king before allowing him to rule. 
 These differed little in theory from the Orleanists ; but the 
 family quarrel, between the two Bourbon pretenders, and 
 the consequent factions among their partizans, were veVy 
 serious. There was, in addition, a modified Orleanism, 
 which would have accepted a son of Louis Philippe as 
 a stadt-holder or semi-royalist president. These parties 
 were so divided that none of them could bring in any 
 candidate, or agree upon any constitution. ^They could^and 
 they did, unite in general politics. They were reactionary 
 by instinct, and ultramontane by profession. ' This Assembly 
 >r was the most reactionary, and above all the.most clerical, 
 which had been in France' 2 since the Eestoratioii. 
 
 1 Debidour, L'tiglise Catholique et I'Etat 1870-89, p. 25. 
 
 2 Ibid, p. 28.
 
 THIEES AND THE COMMUNE 205 
 
 2. THIEES AND THE COMMUNE. 
 
 In one matter, its action was marked out clearly by the 
 electors. Thiers had been returned by 27 Departments. He 
 had obtained 2,000,000 votes. It was clear that the nation 
 wished him to be head of the State ; and the Assembly 
 confirmed the wishes of the people. Thiers was neither 
 a clerical nor a royalist. He saw that all the pretenders 
 and their causes were impossible. He wanted a republic, 
 which, as he said, would divide Frenchmen least. His faith 
 and his prophecy have both been justified. He did not, 
 however, press the republic, or declare his own preferences. 
 Every party thought it might gain him, or at least use him, 
 and then throw him away. The royalists were not sorry 
 that the making of peace, and the payment of the bill, 
 should be put on other shoulders. They hoped both of these 
 unpleasant matters would ruin Thiers, and discredit the 
 republican party for ever. Then their king was to come 
 in as the deliverer, untainted by concessions to the foreigner, 
 not compromised by taxation and ceded provinces. Thiers, 
 moreover, had served both clerical and papal interests. He 
 had voted the Loi Falloux, for which indeed he was largely 
 responsible. He had always opposed united Italy, and the 
 destruction of the Temporal Power. He had, therefore 
 supported the clerical policies of 1849 and 1850 ; the expedi- 
 tion to Rome, and the presidency of Louis Napoleon. He 
 was, for all these reasons, not unacceptable to the clericals 
 and royalists. 
 
 Thiers was, at any rate, a giant among dwarfs, or a lynx 
 among moles and bats. He saw one thing very clearly, 
 which the majority could not or would not see: namely 
 that the existing majority was due to exceptional and 
 ephemeral causes ; that it did not represent the sane and 
 permanent wishes of the country ; that time was on the side, 
 probably of the republic, and certainly of liberalism. 
 Thiers was also a great patriot ; and he does not forfeit that 
 character because he combined his own interests with those 
 of the country, and served them with incomparable skill. 
 His immediate policy was to unite Frenchmen, to reorganize
 
 206 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 the country, and to clear it as soon as possible of the 
 hated Prussians. In a very noble speech, on the 10th of 
 March, he prescribed these duties; and promised, farther, 
 that no party should be deceived or out-witted by him ; that 
 constitutional changes should neither be made nor prepared 
 in secret ; that he was working for the country, not for party. 
 To this pacte de Bordeaux, he remained loyal. 
 
 Garibaldi, as soon as the empire fell, volunteered his 
 services to France, and fought strenuously for her in the 
 second war. As a recognition, he was elected by several 
 Departments ; but only presented himself to the Assembly 
 to return thanks for the honour, and to resign it. By the 
 clericals and ultramontanes he was howled down, and refused 
 a hearing. ' Sa voix fut couverte par les clameurs brutales 
 des droites coalisees. Cette seance du 13 Fevrier, de triste 
 memoire, eut naturellement en Italie le plus facheux re- 
 tentissement.' l A few weeks later, Victor Hugo was treated 
 in the same way for acknowledging Garibaldis services to 
 France. 
 
 The new government lefb Bordeaux, and settled at 
 Versailles. There were many causes of discontent in Paris, 
 and this slight aggravated them. The reactionary Right was 
 irritated by and afraid of the capital, that nursery of 
 revolutions. Paris had grievances, which were both definite 
 and theoretical, against the government. Certainly, the 
 government was maladroit, and unconciliatory. This temper 
 on both sides led to the revolt of Paris, and to the Commune. 
 The whole affair was mis-managed deplorably. The govern- 
 ment looked upon the communists as rebels. It shot 
 prisoners, would make no concessions, would not even con- 
 sider terms. To protect its soldiers, the Commune threatened 
 in turn to shoot prisoners, including the arch-bishop of 
 Paris, whom it held as hostage. The government would 
 not make an exchange of prisoners, or even discuss terms 
 of release. Thq arnh hinhop'.n impi-i*-*^ lafrtif^ from 
 April 4 to May 23 ; and he was shot, not by the Commune, 
 which was dissolved, but during the anarchy which followed 
 the entrance of the troops into Paris. 
 1 Debidour, p. 31.
 
 THIERS AND THE COMMUNE 207 
 
 Even the military operations were bungling and slow. 
 MacMahon's forces entered Paris on May 21. They could 
 have occupied the whole city in a few hours, without serious 
 resistance, if they had been led capably. Instead, they took 
 eight days. During these inexplicable delays, the hostages 
 were shot, barricades were erected, a fierce resistance was 
 organized, and some of the finest buildings in Paris were 
 given to the flames. It is impossible not to blame the 
 government for refusing to treat, for dealing unjustifiably 
 with prisoners and combatants, for the grossest injustice to 
 non-combatants, and for a criminal want of decision and 
 promptness when they had entered Paris. Their treatment 
 of the conquered was even more criminal. The army 
 entered Paris on May 21 ; and there followed wholesale 
 executions of unarmed prisoners, and of non-combatants 
 who were in many cases innocent. The burning of Paris 
 did not begin till the evening of the 23rd ; and the hostages 
 were not killed before that night or early the next morning. 
 The victims executed by the Commune, or rather by the 
 anarchy whicE succeeded it, amounted to 76 ; 52 laymen, 
 
 and 2 4~ ecclesiastics. The numbers killed by the govern- 
 
 ** *"**""*-- * .*...- ^-^- t i i i|H| i m ir * --*^- in (< y i I, * 
 
 ment amounted to above 20,000. They were shot down in 
 masses, or tried summarily without much pretence at justice. 
 After the capture of Paris, there were 350,000 accusations, 
 and 46,000 trials. The condemned amounted to 10,137. l 
 It is probable that not less than 40,000 persons were either 
 killed or transported ; and of all the episodes, in the whole 
 revolutionary annals of France, the suppression of the 
 Commune is at once the most bloody and the most repre- 
 hensible. ' So violent a ferocity of repression cannot be 
 explained solely by the excitement of battle and the fury 
 of political passions. Religious passions contributed a large 
 part of it. Among the conquerors, many regarded the 
 executions of the conquered as a necessary expiation and 
 a pleasing sacrifice to God. 2 
 
 During its short existence, the Commune separated church 
 and State. It said 'Liberty is the first.. principle of the 
 
 1 Hanotaux, La France Content poraine, i. pp. 212-13. 
 
 2 Debidour, p. 49.
 
 
 208 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 French republic. Liberty of conscience is the first of 
 liberties. The budget des cultes is contrary to this princi- 
 ple, since it taxes citizens against their belief. _The clergy 
 are guilty of crimes against ;_ liberty. _____ Therefore the church 
 is separated from the State. The budget des cultes is 
 suppressed. The possessions of the Congregation are national 
 property.' Under the Commune, 12 out of the 60 churches 
 in Paris were shut. Otherwise, churches and schools went 
 on much as usual ; and leading members of the Commune 
 escorted their children, to. both. 
 
 The elements of the situation in France, after the suppres- 
 sion of the Commune, which we must bear in mind, were, 
 first, the possession of power by a reactionary Assembly, 
 which did not represent the permanent mind of the country, 
 and still less its political and social aspirations. Secondly, 
 the majority of this Assembly was legitimist ; but the 
 action of the legitimists was paralysed by the disunion of 
 the royalists, and still more by the character of the Comte 
 de Chambord. The Bonapartists were, for some time to 
 come, of no account. But, thirdly, all the reactionary 
 factions had a common bond, not of unity, but of political 
 aggressiveness, in their adhesion to the church. The clergy 
 worked for them, and they for the clergy. Further, the 
 , church question was intensified and complicated by the 
 Roman question ; that is, by united Italy, and the suppres- 
 sion of the Temporal Power. This had very serious effects 
 Jon external and internal politics. In foreign affairs, it 
 estranged France and Italy, and brought them several times 
 |to the brink of war. In consequence, it drew Italy and 
 Prussia together, in a common league against France, and 
 it led eventually to the Triple Alliance. More than this, it 
 added, if that were possible, to the acrimony and aggressive- 
 ness of the French ultramontanes, not only at home, but in 
 all matters relating to the papacy. 
 
 Among such matters, was the struggle between church 
 and State in Germany. So outrageous and unwarrantable 
 were the comments of French bishops on Prussian affairs, so 
 dangerous and threatening were their manifestos,that France 
 and Prussia were brought within sight of war. In France
 
 THIEES AND THE COMMUNE 209 
 
 itself, the reactionary Assembly and the situation of the 
 Pope increased the bitterness and zeal of the clerical cam- 
 paign. We have to explain how the republic was founded, 
 in spite of a royalist and reactionary majority ; and why 
 the republicans, who began by having no hostility against 
 the clergy, were forced into the position expressed by 
 Gambetta when he declared 'Le Clericalisme, voila 1'ennemi'. 
 ^For, indeed, between iftyj--^*? ^.1875. clericalism proved 
 itself the enemy of all internal progress, and a source of the 
 
 ^^L^^-^-~ luffing*"* **"f" mpfrg" Keeping 
 tEese main positions in view, I propose to illustrate them in 
 detail ; and, by so doing, I hope to explain the relations 
 between church and State during the opening years of the 
 third republic. 
 
 ' On the morrow of the bloody week, the Assembly of 
 Versailles did not limit itself to praying and thanking God 
 for its triumph ; it exulted proudly, and was inflated with 
 exuberant hopes. But neither pity nor clemency touched 
 its heart. It profited by its victory to prolong the reprisals 
 of its civil war. It was not enough for it to have conquered, 
 to have carried Paris by assault and drowned the insurrec- 
 tion in seas of blood.' l Even its piety was belligerent and 
 provocative. Devotion to the Pope-King was ' shown by 
 the most varied religious demonstrations; by prayers, 
 exciting sermons, novenas, solemn invocations to God, the 
 virgin, and the saints ; by theatrical processions which 
 began to deploy through our towns, re-echoing the devout 
 chorus 
 
 Sauvez ROME et la France 
 
 Au nom du Sacre Coeur. 
 
 A thaumaturgy, daily becoming more coarse, riotous and 
 provocative, took hold of religion. Worships relatively new 
 developed with a strange and unexpected rapidity for the 
 benefit of the august prisoner in the Vatican. Catholicism 
 was transforming itself into an anthropomorphic polytheism, 
 hardly respectable, which appealed to the least noble passions 
 and the lowest instincts of human nature. J^A twpfo flnf * 
 the virgin snj)plante.d ..CU>4; frr wliUffl'tke nutniul hardly 
 1 Debidour, p. 82. 
 P
 
 210 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 paid any further attention. They were asked, without 
 shame, for health, wealth, success in examinations, and in 
 all kinds of business ; they were paid fatly, and generally 
 in advance, for their services.' 1 
 
 The medal of Saint Benedict had an extraordinary vogue. 
 Saint Joseph, neglected for so many ages, began to be 
 cultivated in the sixteenth century. His devotion was pro- 
 pagated by the Jesuits, and he took a place beside the 
 virgin mother and her son. The divine Trinity was reflected 
 in the semi-divine persons of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. 
 Their sacred hearts were invoked by the devout. Saint 
 Joseph was a safe guide in practical affairs, a special 
 guardian of virginity, and an effectual protector in the hour 
 of death. By Pius the Ninth, he was declared Patron of the 
 Universal Church. His assumption has begun to be thought 
 probable, and his immaculate conception is not beyond the 
 range of practical theology. It has even been suggested 
 that these growing honours of Saint Joseph may be a divine 
 preparation of escape if the Roman church should be forced 
 by criticism nearer to the Unitarian position. The old 
 shrines, and many recent ones, became scenes of miracles 
 and centres of pilgrimages. Saints without histories, like 
 Philumena, had an extraordinary and ephemeral popularity. 
 She owed her existence only to the misplaced fragments of 
 an inscription in the Roman catacombs. The Pope himself 
 became an object of devotion, and even his relics were sought 
 after. He was represented in devotional pictures, fettered, 
 behind prison bars, surrounded by the instruments of Christ's 
 passion. Straws from his dungeon bed were distributed to 
 the faithful, and fragments of his old garments were received 
 with reverent devotion. Miracles were attributed, not only 
 to Pius himself, but to his portraits, and to his relics. 
 Material advantages were not forgotten in all this pious 
 enthusiasm ; and the representations of Pius were generally 
 accompanied by a reminder of Peter's Pence, which flowed 
 into the Vatican in an ever-swelling flood during the years 
 which followed the council and the suppression of the 
 Temporal Power. 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 62.
 
 THIERS AND THE COMMUNE 211 
 
 The real situation of the Pope was very different from 
 that which was presented to the ill-informed and illiterate 
 populations of certain countries. The Italian Parliament 
 voted the Law of Guarantees in May 1871. It settles on 
 the Pope a yearly income of 3,225,000 lire (130,000) which 
 was the amount of the last papal budget. The Pope's person 
 is inviolable, and sovereign honours are paid to him. The 
 Vatican and its precincts, that is the palace, the galleries, 
 the basilica, and the gardens, are made exterritorial : within 
 them, the Pope is king. Perfect freedom is guaranteed to 
 conclaves. The Pope is free to publish all his acts, to use 
 the Italian posts and telegraphs; to receive ambassadors 
 from all the Powers. The ecclesiastical authority is inde- 
 pendent of the State in all matters of church discipline and 
 government. Such is the real position of the prisoner of 
 the Vatican. Never have the Pontiffs been so absolutely 
 free to exercise their spiritual functions, un-impeded by 
 material considerations or political difficulties. Never was 
 any pretender so considerately treated, or established so 
 splendidly in his former capital. And yet the Pope pro- 
 tested more vehemently, abusively, and continuously than 
 any other claimant. His complaints were re-echoed by 
 the French episcopate. They agitated the French ultra- 
 montanes, and they in turn brought pressure to bear on the 
 government, with a view to intervention. Pius proclaimed 
 openly that he wished the catholic Powers to coerce Italy, 
 though he would not submit his temporal claims to an 
 international congress. There were frequent pilgrimages 
 to the Vatican, especially from France ; and the speeches 
 of the Pontiff were not calculated to soothe excited and 
 irritated feelings. The Vatican must bear the responsibility 
 of having used and not discouraged language which if it 
 had its natural effect would have resulted in war. The 
 Curia and its partizans thought it advisable ' to aid Provi- 
 dence a little, and not rely on it exclusively'. 1 Pius 
 distributed to some of his visitors a red flannel cross, praised 
 the crusades of Pius the Fifth, and described the enemies 
 of the church as ' the wicked Turks of our days '.* By 
 1 Debidour, p. 66. 
 p 2
 
 enemies of the church, he meant all liberals, not forgetting 
 the liberal catholics, for whom he and the most ultra- 
 montane of the bishops cherished a special hatred. It 
 must be remembered, as we look back on these political 
 conflicts, that a papal restoration would have meant the 
 regime of the Syllabus, and its application wherever clerical 
 influence was in power. 
 
 With a view to obtaining this power, clubs and associa- 
 tions were formed among the working men. That catholi- 
 cisme social which was utilized so extensively by Leo the 
 Thirteenth began to take form, though Pius the Ninth 
 had little sympathy with it. Its ecclesiastical leader in 
 France was de Segur, but its champion was'U^^ntan, 'Count 
 
 A 1 1 I <y.K.l^*' <- .*^^-'^"^-IM^.rc,..MWl<l|!^K>i^ 
 
 Albert de Mun. Bismarck described universal suffrage as 
 a power which rulers must learn to utilize. It was not 
 a new lesson for the church, though it had been forgotten 
 since the thirteenth century. The church practised it in 
 two ways ; by organizing and leavening the masses ; and 
 by controlling, so far as possible, their education : that is to 
 sav by educating them very little, and controlling them 
 a great deal. Bishop de Segur said ' there_ js only p^g sort 
 of French repuTTlicj and^BTat a bacTone. . . . The revolu- 
 tionaries aS3rpnblicans (tngjjr "afe n ttt8""WffiLe" practically) 
 are the enemies of religion. . . . They are the enemies of 
 our best national glories; enemies of science, literature, 
 and art. They are for the most part betes. They are com- 
 pacted with vice.' 1 
 
 M. de Mun has never dissembled or minimized his 
 opinions. Speaking of the Syllabus, he said, 'Yes, praise 
 or blame, we accept it. ... It is the Syllabus which we mean 
 to take as the foundation of our work. . . . We wish to pro- 
 claim still that the voice of the church is the voice of God 
 himself. . . . The Syllabus has become our manifesto, because 
 Pius the Ninth has signed it. ... The Syllabus will be our 
 standard, because it has only to be hoisted for our enemies 
 to recoil.' Asked what would happen if the Syllabus and 
 the law were contradictory, de Mun replied without hesita- 
 tion that the law must give way. ' Catholicism, being the 
 1 Debidour, p. 78.
 
 THIERS AND THE COMMUNE 213 
 
 x very essence of the truth, is also the very ideal of the good 
 (le bien par excellence), since it has been established by 
 God himself to be the link between man and his creator. 
 It follows, therefore, that a catholic work or action cannot 
 be illegitimate in law, whatever may be the practical con- 
 \ ditions in which society is placed.' And then he went on 
 \ to say ' Between the Revolution and the church, there is an 
 incompatibility. It must be, either that the church kills 
 I the Revolution, or that the Revolution will destroy the 
 / church. "We recognize the incompatibility, but we do not 
 I fear the dilemma. The victor in this deadly battle is pre- 
 \ ordained. The church will demolish the Revolution, because 
 \the church cannot ever fail.' J 
 
 It has been worth while to record these various expres- 
 sions, because they enable us to realize the spirit of the 
 time, and the problems with which statesmen had to deal. 
 "We are often told that the republic has persecuted a blame- 
 less church. It must be pointed out, however, that the 
 speakers whom I have quoted were opposing themselves 
 violently to the majority of their countrymen. They were 
 not content to assert their own opinions, but they branded 
 their opponents with perpetual and scurrilous abuse. They 
 wished, not only for liberty to teach their opinions, but that 
 all other teaching should be suppressed. When they profess 
 liberty, they mean liberty for themselves alone. As Louis 
 Veuillot said, quite frankly, ' He demanded liberty from the 
 republicans in the name of their principles, but would 
 refuse it to them resolutely in the name of his own.' * It 
 may be added that de Mun was an officer in active service, 
 while he was thus denouncing and defying the first 
 principles of those whose uniform he wore. The tolerance 
 of the government certainly cannot be challenged, though 
 its wisdom and courage are liable to question. 
 
 In the midst of all this ofnleiiaitiuul ajjibnliun, the 
 government of Thiers did wonders. The recovery of the 
 country was marvellous. It grew richer in spite of its 
 losses, and it maintained its population in spite of the 
 annexed provinces. As royalism proved itself more and 
 1 Debidour, pp. 136, 142.
 
 214 CHURCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 more impossible, Thiers strengthened his own position, and 
 brought the republic nearer. He was assisted materially 
 by the Comte de Chambord, whose manifesto on July 5, 
 1871, was followed by a law, at the end of August, ' That 
 the chief of the executive should be styled President of 
 the Republic, and continue to exercise his powers under the 
 authority of the Assembly, so long as it have not terminated 
 its labours.' Ministers were to be appointed and dismissed 
 by the president, though responsible to the Assembly, as he 
 was himself; and he had the right of speaking in the 
 Assembly whenever he judged it advisable. This law was 
 carried soon after some partial elections, when out of 
 a hundred vacant seats, more than eighty were captured by 
 the republicans. After its first panic, the country was 
 settling down. It had repented its reactionary verdict ; 
 and every election henceforth shows a steady advance in 
 liberalism. The breach between the country and the As- 
 sembly widened continually, and the folly or the blindness 
 of the majority added no less continually to the friction 
 between the people and their nominal representatives. 
 
 The government of Thiers cannot be accused of anti- 
 clericalism. The Concordat was violated with impunity by 
 the church. It has been explained how the nomination of 
 bishops fell, practically, to the Nuncio ; and the advantage 
 then gained was expressed gradually in the Bulls, which 
 were so worded as to imply that the government did not 
 nominate, but merely presented for nomination. The Holy 
 See continued to protest against the Organiques, though it 
 was careful to insist on them when they were to its 
 advantage. Another effort of the government to improve 
 the position of the desservants was resisted by the bishops ; 
 who, on the other hand, applied the Concordat very loosely 
 to themselves. In finance, the republic was generous to 
 the church. The budget des cultes^ which, . JiacL been 
 49,683,981 francs in 1871, rose to nearly 55,000,000 in 
 thqjollowing year. Confraternities and associations were 
 organized freely. Charity of all kinds was in the hands of 
 the church ; and in every commune the cure was a member 
 of the council which regulated these matters.
 
 THIERS AND THE COMMUNE 215 
 
 The only difference between the government and the 
 church, under Thiers, was about education. In countries 
 which have universal suffrage, the voters must not be 
 illiterate. In countries which are liberal, education must 
 be compulsory, secular, and free. This programme was 
 advocated warmly by Gambetta, in 1871, and was opposed 
 no less warmly by Dupanloup. The educational propa- 
 ganda was assisted marvellously by Jean Mace, who had 
 founded the Ligue de I'Enseignement in 1866, and the work 
 was taken up again with renewed enthusiasm after the war. 
 The arguments of this clear thinker are worth considering 
 in our own country of confusion and timidity. ' Can you 
 tell me what connexion there is between the alphabet and 
 the existence of God ? Can one not teach a scholar to make 
 loops and lines without touching on papal infallibility? 
 What has the question of priestly celibacy to do with the 
 rules of participles ? Why should the Jewish messiah be 
 mixed up with theories of the greatest common denominator? 
 No, the school will not be atheistical ; because reading and 
 writing have nothing to do with atheism, and never will 
 have. Grammar is not atheistical. Because you ask a man 
 to teach you arithmetic, and he teaches it without speaking 
 of religion, it would be as unreasonable to cry down his 
 school as atheistical as it would be, on leaving a shoemaker 
 who had measured you for boots without speaking of 
 religion, to get a mob round his door and shout Here is an 
 atheistical shop.' l Jean Mace's League started a petition 
 for popular education, which soon obtained 917,000 signa- 
 tures, in spite of clerical opposition. Gambetta took up the 
 cause, and became, as he said le commis-voyageur de la 
 democratic. But the churc,fc oppfflgjliie whole | 
 
 * Thejoatholic papers foretold the most dismal catastrophes, 
 
 preachers bewailed the abomination of desolation, if France 
 should learn to read.' T^A A^mbJ was nosuJe, and Jules 
 
 Simon gave* WftyftT the matter of primary educaton. At 
 
 the same time, he was forced by the Assembly to modify 
 the Conseil Superieur de I' Instruction in a way favourable 
 to the church and most damaging to the University. 
 1 Debidour, p. 92.
 
 216 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 Meanwhile, TJiiers had been accomplishing his great work 
 of paying the indemnity and liberating the Departments 
 from Prussian occupation. The indemnity amounted to 
 cinq milliards (200,000,000). The last milliard was not due 
 until March 1875 ; but Thiers arranged to pay it by September 
 1873, and the territory was liberated as payments came in. 
 On March 17, 1873, Thiers was able to announce the accom- 
 plishment of his task. A member moved that ' the President 
 of the Republic deserves well of the country '. A counter- 
 proposal was made, praising the Assembly. The two motions 
 were joined, and passed unanimously. The hesitation 
 showed the insecurity of Thiers. He had long been 
 unacceptable to the royalist and reactionary majority. 
 Though he had kept his pledges, he had moved inevitably, 
 as the country had, nearer to the republic. He had also 
 drawn nearer to the republicans, which was worse ; and he 
 had enabled republicanism to solidify, which was worst 
 of all. When his great work was achieved, his tenure of 
 office was not long; and the monarchical majority threw 
 him out on the 24th of May, 1873. 
 
 Adolphe Thiers is, perhaps, the most remarkable French 
 statesman since the Napoleonic era. His versatility and 
 industry were amazing. The Histories of the Revolution, 
 the Consulate, and the Empire would have served most 
 men as the occupation of a life-time. They still remain 
 a splendid work of literature, though as history they have 
 declined in value ; and Thiers is one of the great writers of 
 France. Among a nation of orators, he is also in the first 
 rank. His speeches are full of power. They compel assent 
 by their reasoning ; but they are also models of lucidity, of 
 skilful pleading, and of common-sense. They abound in 
 happy phrases and shrewd hits. In all he wrote, and spoke, 
 and did, there is a pervading distinction. He began his 
 public career as a liberal journalist, opposing the monarchy 
 of Charles the Tenth, and contributing substantially to over- 
 throw it. He soon came to the front, under Louis Philippe ; 
 but though he was Prime Minister, that part of his career 
 is perhaps the least successful. His writings did much to 
 popularize Napoleon, and to circulate that Napoleonic legend
 
 THIEES AND THE COMMUNE 217 
 
 which resulted in the second empire, and which revived so 
 ominously under the third republic. We have seen how 
 he was connected with the Falloux Law, the expedition to 
 Rome, and the establishment of Louis Napoleon in the 
 presidency. In all these matters, he did a poor service to 
 that liberalism of which he was on the whole a genuine and 
 meritorious disciple ; but he served liberalism well in the 
 evil days of the second empire. 
 
 As to the Temporal Power, he was neither clerical nor 
 ultramontane; but he did not wish to see a strong and 
 united Italy over against the French border. His foresight 
 and penetration were remarkable. He told Napoleon the 
 Third that united Italy must lead to a united Germany ; 
 that a new Germanic empire would be as dangerous to 
 France as the empire of Charles the Fifth, only it would 
 rest on Italy, not on Spain. All of this came true when 
 the Triple Alliance was formed. Perhaps a larger and more 
 generous view of the Italian question would have led him 
 to see that the two liberal and Latin peoples were natural 
 allies, as against Prussia ; and that Italy was not to blame 
 if France stultified her own liberalism by supporting the 
 reactionary papal government. Thiers proved under the 
 second empire thaThe was a skilful parliamentarian, but 
 his great opportunity came in 1871. His conduct of 
 the Assembly, the revival of France, and the payment 
 of the indemnity, place him among the leading statesmen 
 of our time. 
 
 In person, he was very small, alert, vivacious ; incessantly 
 active in mind and body. He delighted in the society of 
 his friends, to whom he was always faithful and affectionate. 
 In politics, he was a shrewd manager of men and parties. 
 It was not easy to over-reach or dupe him. He excelled as 
 a talker, in a country where conversation is still a fine art. 
 More good sayings have been attributed to him than to any 
 French statesman since Talleyrand. As a wit, he was 
 inferior to that incomparable master, who no doubt was 
 greater than Thiers in diplomacy. Thiers possessed in an 
 eminent degree the finest qualities of the commercial and 
 magisterial class under the old regime. He was frugal,
 
 218 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 industrious, the soul of honesty in business, inclined to 
 be Voltairian and philosophe, cultured therefore and en- 
 lightened, but very conservative in practice notwithstanding 
 his liberal prepossessions. Above all, he had a splendid 
 common-sense, united to a keen intellect and a sovereign 
 command of words. His uncompromising logic saved him 
 from the defects of these qualities, which so often lure their 
 possessors into self-deceit. Thiers was never carried away 
 by sentiment, or intoxicated by his own verbosity. Talley- 
 rand, too, had all these qualities in a still more eminent 
 degree. Like the great Duke of Marlborough, he ' possessed 
 the Graces', and personified that exquisite culture which 
 belonged to the noblesse of the old regime. He was at heart, 
 as I believe, more liberal than Thiers, and far more humane. 
 The problem of the Commune would have been solved by 
 him, as I think, with more tact, and above all with more 
 humanity. The handling of the Commune, and the bloody 
 reprisals which followed it, are the great blot on Thiers' 
 reputation. He showed in dealing with the Parisians a 
 lamentable want of any ' healing power '. He was the typical 
 bourgeois, dealing feverishly and ferociously with an affair 
 which presented itself to him chiefly as an attack on 
 property. And that was the narrowest, hardest, and lowest 
 view which could be taken of the Commune. 
 
 3. MACMAHON. 
 
 The successor of Thiers was a soldier, Marshal MacMahon, 
 the victor of Magenta, the vanquished of Sedan. As a man, 
 he was loyal and honest. As a soldier, he was not great, 
 and in politics was of no account. He was merely the 
 figure-head, put forward by the Orleanist and legitimist 
 politicians who were scheming for the monarchy, for which, 
 as they saw, time was indispensable ; and who utilized that 
 time to damage, to delay, and if possible to destroy the 
 republic. -They were in close alliance with the church, and 
 were furthering the cause of clericalism as well as of 
 monarchy. They proclaimed themselves the party of ' moral 
 order ' ; appealing to religion and vested interests, against
 
 MACMAHON 219 
 
 the vague and therefore terrific dangers of social unrest and 
 Jacobinical persecution. They showed their interpretation 
 of ' morality ' by practising one long intrigue against the 
 cause they were supposed to serve. They deceived the nation 
 which had entrusted them with power ; and the friction 
 which ensued was compromising, and even dangerous, to 
 order. They had, apparently, little dislike of persecution, 
 intolerance, and repression, when they were necessary for 
 their own purposes. Kepublicanism had gained, and was 
 gaining, as a political cause. The Left Centre, that is 
 a group of men thoroughly conservative, represented by 
 Leon Say, now recognized, with Thiers, that the republic 
 was the only possible form of stable government. The Left, 
 represented by Grambetta, were being educated by facts into 
 a tactful and moderate ' opportunism ' : a word which was 
 borrowed, strangely enough, from the ' inopportunists ' who 
 had tried to defer the proclamation of infallibility in the 
 Vatican Council* Associated with Gambetta were three 
 men destined to be famous under the Third Republic, and 
 to do a great work for the liberal cause. Of Jules Ferry, 
 Paul Bert, and Challemel-Lacour, we shall hear more during 
 the educational campaign. 
 
 The majority of the Assembly, as we have seen, was so 
 divided as to be impotent. All parties in it wanted a 
 monarch ; but they had only one throne to give, and there 
 were three claimants, and they could not agree which of 
 them should sit in it. The Due de Broglie, the head of the 
 ministry, was an Orleanist; he hoped to establish a con- 
 stitutional monarchy, and would probably have accepted 
 a conservative republic with an Orleans president. It was 
 he who coined the phrase ordre moral ; when he said that 
 governments should not only assure material order, but 
 moral. MacMahon's first message repeated the phrase ' To 
 all the other titles which the Assembly has to our obedience, 
 it joins this one, that it is the real way of safety (veritable 
 boulevard) for a society which is threatened in France, and 
 in Europe, by a faction which imperils the quietude of all 
 nations; and which only hastens your dissolution because 
 it sees in you the chief obstacle to its design. . . . By the
 
 220 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 help of God, we will continue together the work of liber- 
 ating our territory, and of re-establishing the moral order.' 
 MacMahon was a thoroughly honest man, as he proved 
 conspicuously while president. De Broglie was enlightened 
 as well as honest ; but both of them, through unreasoning 
 distrust or fear, set themselves to oppose the popular will and 
 to delay the national aspirations. Their government was 
 disastrous to themselves, and to the causes which they repre- 
 sented. It was only not disastrous to the nation because 
 the republicans were moderate as well as strong. They 
 had the giant's strength, but used it gently. Their conduct 
 and policy showed how unjust, how ridiculous, were the 
 fears and suspicions of the party of moral order. 
 
 I do not propose to give an history of MacMahon's 
 government, even in outline. Our purpose will be served 
 if I describe the royalist plots and personages ; if I exhibit 
 the intentions and language of the clericals ; and if I explain 
 the educational measures which proved the growing strength 
 of the liberals, until they were able to possess the two 
 Houses and occupy the presidency. In 1873, the Ministry 
 was royalist, and the president was willing to make way 
 for Henry the Fifth if the nation were willing to accept him. 
 He did not mind a certain amount of tactical policy, but 
 he would not favour any direct intrigue, or be a party to 
 any coup d'fitat. The clerical .party -was. .not so scrupulous. 
 A catholic congress thanked the. Pope, in an address, . for his 
 decisions^-and- -'specially -the -great ..aiuL .brave Syllabus'. 
 They accepted it as their ' rule of life ', ' conforming to it 
 our private and public conduct ' : : in other words, defying 
 and repudiating modem France. Pie of Poitiers and 
 Lavigerie of Algiers professed similar principles. The latter 
 condemned 'that liberalism which, even modified and 
 softened, is nothing else than indifference between good 
 and evil, between vice and virtue '. He, too, hoisted the 
 uncompromising banner of the Syllabus (drapeau complet}. 
 
 Pressure was brought to bear on the whole administra- 
 tion, which was leavened with monarchists and clericals. 
 ' The government, utilizing the state of siege which prevailed 
 1 Debidour, p. 105.
 
 MACMAHON 221 
 
 in many Department^ mpprMaftd. suspend Ad. 
 into court, not only papers j^hich were too devoted to the 
 republic, but those which were not devout enough to the 
 church.' Pilgrimages abounded. Paray-le-Monial and 
 Lourdes were crowded with devotees. The Assembly itself 
 voted a large sum for the great church to the sacred heart 
 on Montmartre, granted powers for the forcible acquisition 
 of the site, and assisted officially at the inauguration of 
 the building. These manifestations in France were accom- 
 panied by the most violent language towards Italy and 
 Prussia. The Education or May Laws of Bismarck led to 
 a conflict with Pius the Ninth ; and so threatening were 
 the French bishops that the Cabinet of Berlin thought itself 
 obliged to take official action. It found the French Govern- 
 ment too feeble in rebuking its bishops, and warned it to 
 take more effectual measures. When the French Ambassa- 
 dor appealed to the Pope, to quiet the bishops, the latter 
 answered coolly that ' he did not interfere in politics '. 
 Though Bismarck threatened war, in 1874, it is probable 
 that he was only playing for new military votes from the 
 Reichstag, which he obtained that April. Whatever his 
 real intention, the words and acts of the French Ultra- 
 montanes were bristling with provocation. Louis Veuillot 
 wrote 'France has only one thing to do, to give Victor 
 Emmanuel a few months for clearing out of Rome, and, if he 
 won't obey, to drive him out with an army. If Germany 
 intervenes, God will be with us, and that will be sufficient.' l 
 It is no wonder that Bismarck was minatory. If he wanted 
 a pretext, the French clericals provided it. The French 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs telegraphed, in alarm, 'The 
 situation is charged with danger. It is indispensable that 
 no pretext be furnished by our bishops, for the sinister 
 designs of Germany are clear. I venture to hope you will 
 obtain from the cardinal a despatch of wise and urgent 
 admonition.' x The French Government thus had to appeal 
 to a foreign authority to recall its own subjects to a sense 
 of decency and patriotism. The danger was not imaginary, 
 or magnified by panic.-; -for ^jjj^T^Eftf '^?ffiF ft " MQ 
 1 Debidour, pp. 120, 124, 125, 126, 115.
 
 222 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 om ultraanontanism ' 
 
 "While these very real dangers were menacing from Berlin 
 and Italy, Lavigerie was advising the legitimist pretender 
 to begin a certain coup d'fitat, and a probable civil war. 
 He was to make sure of various generals (II y en a qui sont 
 prets, je le sais), and then to arrive between the dissolution 
 of the Assembly and the new elections, and ' claim his rights 
 by force' 1 . If the pretender did not come, it was his 
 courage that failed ; because he had no objection on prin- 
 ciple to the employment of force. He had written that ' he 
 did not fear to use force in the service of order and justice' 1 . 
 It was fortunate, indeed, for France that the last direct heir 
 of Louis the Fourteenth was a feeble personage. 
 
 Henry, Count of Chambord and Duke of Bordeaux, was 
 posthumous son of the assassinated Duke of Berry. He 
 was born in the ominous years of the .Restoration, and was 
 a boy of nine when Charles the Tenth was expelled. His 
 surroundings were reactionary and clerical. He knew 
 nothing of Frenchmen, and was brought up to hate all the 
 principles in which they believed, and by which they lived. 
 His wife belonged to the most reactionary of the grand- 
 ducal families in Italy. Her father was the one European 
 sovereign who never recognized Louis Philippe, and the 
 grandson of Charles the Tenth never forgave the Orleans 
 usurper. That the grandson of Louis Philippe was the 
 eventual heir to Henry the Fifth, only added bitterness 
 and disappointment to the family quarrel. The Orleans 
 chance was a fairly good one ; but the majority of the 
 existing Assembly were legitimist, and hindered any appeal 
 to the country, or any decisive political action, until the 
 republic had solidified. A peace was patched up between 
 the rival Pretenders, but only when it was too late. The 
 Comte de Paris made his submission to Chambord, and by 
 so doing branded his grandfather as a traitorous usurper. 
 By coalescing with legitimacy, he lost his liberal supporters, 
 most of whom were merged in the moderate republicans. 
 
 1 Debidour, pp. 120, 124, 125, 126, 115.
 
 MACMAHON 223 
 
 And the legitimist pretender wrecked his own chances. It 
 might be said more truly his own certainties ; for the fruit 
 was his, if he had stretched out his hand to seize it. The 
 government were either all his, or willing to accept him. 
 MacMahon was ready to retire. The nobles were already 
 quarrelling over their places in the future Court. The 
 ceremonial entry was arranged. Even the horses were 
 bought, and the trappings made for the golden coaches. The 
 governing classes, if not the people, were waiting for the 
 king ; and the church was doing everything to prepare his 
 ways. The advent appeared certain; and then the pre- 
 tender shattered all their hopes, and ruined his cause for 
 ever. He would not renounce his white flag and his lily 
 flowers. He would not even accept the Tricolors as a national 
 flag, keeping his own royal standard. Nor would he take 
 the Tricolore powdered with lilies. He would make no com- 
 promise, and give no pledges. If he could not enter by 
 divine right, un-pledged, un-fettered, giving such conces- 
 sions as he might choose, of his free will, he would not come 
 at all. He would be the king of the old regime, or nothing. 
 His accession must be the repudiation of 1789. All this 
 was symbolized by his flag, and with his flag he would 
 stand or fall. It was, in some aspects, a noble, or at any 
 rate a chivalrous, attitude. It certainly was honest. Except 
 in its honesty, it was precisely what a prince would learn 
 fromclerical and reactionary teachers. It was felt that the 
 army would never renounce tne Tricolore, the symbol of its 
 revolutionary and Napoleonic glories ; nor would the nation 
 ever renounce its liberties, the ownership of its land, and 
 the principles of 1789. The pretender destroyed all his 
 claims when he published his reactionary declaration. We 
 may admire his high principle, though we must deplore his 
 narrow views. But he could have done France no greater 
 service, being what he was, than by showing her that his 
 restoration was impossible. His honesty, as I ajf?|, did ""* 
 appeal to his clerical allies. Pius the, 2&ntii wafca&tU of 
 scorn for his chivalrous adhesipn. to principle. < When, he 
 read Chambord's manifesto, he said 'Tout $a pour uno 
 serviette.' Chivalry and honesty were nothing to the 
 
 " -.-*'* :*,-*-**-* *~ ""**~<*-**.tiiijS^i, f fj r fimti t <,ant\n>iL^miti^au*mtMr,mie*i*'*'
 
 224 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 clericals, in^ comparison with ecclesiastical supremacy. 
 Chambord lived to be asked by another Pope to abdicate 
 his claims ; and he replied mournfully, ' As the church does 
 not allow suicide, it cannot require this of me,' but he saw 
 Leo turn away from lost causes to cultivate the victorious 
 majority. 
 
 When the legitimist cause was ruined, de Broglie still 
 hoped for his Orleanist candidate, in spite of the recon- 
 ciliation with Chambord. He still played for time ; and 
 MacMahon's presidency was conferred on him for seven 
 years, after a vain attempt to make it ten, in the hope that 
 the king might be enthroned before the Septennat was 
 over. Eepublicanism, however, was growing as royalism 
 declined. The country was clamouring for an election, as 
 the Assembly represented only a minority. By-elections 
 were all in favour of the republic, except one which pointed 
 to a Bonapartist revival, and the desire for a new plebiscite. 
 The Left grew larger, stronger, more compact, as the Eight 
 lost power and cohesion. It was led superbly in the 
 Assembly by Thiers and G-ambetta; and the influence of 
 the latter throughout the country was enormous. In 1875, 
 they managed to carry through the Assembly the new laws 
 of the constitution. The republic was established defi- 
 nitely, instead of being provisional. Time had worked, not 
 for the monarchists, but for the republicans. They were, 
 nevertheless, excluded from the ministry. M. Buffet, a 
 reactionary and a clerical, succeeded the Due de Broglie, 
 with a Cabinet containing only two members of the Left 
 Centre ; and the underground efforts of clericalism were 
 incessant. That party still directed the ministry, and pres- 
 sure was used on the whole personnel of the administration. 
 The petits fonctionnaires, the employes subalternes in the 
 public service, were spied upon, denounced, admonished, 
 threatened by the dominant officials. Liberal school teachers 
 and the professors of lycees, who were very much at the 
 mercy of the cures, were repressed and silenced. The Con- 
 gregation increased rapidly in numbers, and worked with 
 feverish activity. Their establishments of men, which num- 
 bered 1706 in 1870, had risen to 3,184 in 1877, with a
 
 MACMAHON 225 
 
 membership of 22,207 instead of 11,877. The various nuns 
 had increased in the same period from 90,343 to 127J000. 1 
 
 As a large nu.njbeE-.of!.. .jligioug ( -both- men -*n<l women, 
 were engaged, in . teaching, the old struggle for education 
 was renewed. The church was not satisfied with all it. jjot 
 by the Loi Falloux^.Q^Jay^^so twtvantages secured -to ifc 
 
 **'~**m* f, *. l*^<.fA..,^.^*W>* 1ft '''* yir ' 
 
 through the Conseil Supdrieur de V Instruction, which had 
 been re-modelled in 1873, so that the direction of the Uni- 
 versity was still further reduced, and a preponderating 
 ecclesiastical influence was secured. The church now aimed 
 at complete freedom of primary and_ affynpflffry ttiiutftlifm. 
 ancTat setting-up universities of its own, with power to 
 
 m _ r _ J ^.,...4**. t w ~ r -^.. Y f -. -S*~*v*St***** *--''***v***.*aff futiTi, Qup.itn joTr/Utjfc^ j.-t%A-lfi.v.Luii. M*** '""" ^-^^-^JJ*****^-**"****"^^^*. - 
 
 confer degrees, without any State control or guarantee. 
 
 1 '-. J C.'lr-^.-._' J .^. .^^JU^"'"'^~*W^1UJ^V.BM\.W<nalUnUaLl/:,l-.^..^. -jnJA--- 
 
 ' One conquest, above all others, the church pined for. 
 That which the second republic had not had time to give 
 it, which the second empire had not allowed it to take, 
 the clergy now claimed haughtily, as a debt, from the third 
 republic. It was not enough for it to teach reading to the 
 children of the people, and to educate the children of the Jt 
 governing classes. To jnpuld children was good ; but to **^ 
 
 ^^**** aH $figj3gOm^.^ii lt "'^*"* > " i__m*mttWmnTirrfi\.'YL*i^Lirtf^**^*''^ 
 
 manipulate yojitj^^^as. m b^j i .^jft^ wished to manufacture 
 bachelors, TSarristers, doctors, and that freely, without con- 
 trol, so thoroughly that at the end of some years the liberal 
 professions would be carried on and the public service filled 
 only with its creatures.' 2 
 
 The church was not satisfied by a proposal to share 
 education with the State. It spurned regulations and con- 
 trol. It wanted complete freedom, no external standards ' 
 and examiners, full power to give degrees. 'The perfect 
 method of public education,' wrote a certain Father Martini, X/ 
 ( is for the church to possess the sole direction of teaching, 
 in all its grades, that it should have the inspection and 
 control of all schools, so that morals and dogma should 
 everywhere JjQ. . secured.' 2 Paul Bert brought in a bill pro- 
 posing larger and freer powers for the University, which 
 Dujga^Llosij^ opposed, saying he recognized no freedom, except 
 for the good, that is for those who agreed with the bishop of 
 Orleans. Under the usual fallacies of ' liberty ', thVcTerlcal 
 """i Debidour, p. 133. * Ibid. pp. 139, 140. 
 
 Q
 
 226 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 Right were willing to grant uncontrolled licence to the 
 church, at the expense of the State. Challemel-Lacour alone 
 had the courage and logic to observe that ' no liberty was 
 owing to 'those who refused it to others ' ; and then he 
 pointed out that the proposed catholic universities were 
 merely devices for proselytism and propaganda ; that they 
 must lead to teaching and practising the Syllabus, which 
 the majority repudiated and abhorred. He urged that to 
 divide the nation into two camps was to prepare disaster. 
 However, Dupanloup prevailed, and irresponsible university 
 teaching was carried. The bachelorships of letters and 
 science were reserved to the State, but all other degrees 
 might be conferred by independent universities, which 
 taught, not science, but 'Christian science founded on the 
 doctrines of the church '. Teaching was, in clerical eyes, not 
 a mere schoolmaster's function, but a weapon for conflicts. 
 M!)ur final end,' said the ultramontane L' Union, ' is not only 
 to vindicate catholic teaching, but to impose it on the State. 
 We must efface from our French language that barbarous 
 term " The University of France ".' 
 
 '"This p,dnr.aj)jnTia.1 yjjctnry mas Ae 1afl jfcphi.eyenient.Qf. the 
 reactionary Assembly. France had come back to her normal 
 state. 'She wished to be her own mistress. Although 
 catholic, she rejected by a great majority, the theocratical 
 pretensions of the papacy. Anti-clericalism became of neces- 
 sity part of the republisaii^lbh^o^rT 1 For ~th~e Roman 
 aggression was not confined to theories and theology. Pius 
 the Ninth erected several universities in France, at Lille, 
 at Angers, at Poitiers, 'by the plenitude of his apostolic 
 authority,' besides altering the boundaries of dioceses. ' In 
 IK the eyes of the church, French legislation was non-existent, 
 and our country was merely a pontifical province.' l But 
 liberalism was rising like a flood. Thiers and Gambetta 
 had the ear of the country. The Press revived. Edmond 
 About lashed the Congregation with epigrams and ridicule. 
 The general elections were approaching, and in 1876 they 
 gave a majority of 200 to the republicans in the Chamber ; 
 and by winning 92 places in the Senate, they secured 
 1 Debidour, pp. 147, 159.
 
 MACMAHON 227 
 
 almost an equality of voting power. Thus the ordre 
 moral saw itself repudiated by the country, and a genuine 
 republic in a fair way to be established. 
 
 The Marshal, however, still held to his small majority 
 in the Senate. Buffet was succeeded by Dufaure, Dufaure 
 by Jules Simon, and Jules Simon by de Broglie, in less 
 than eighteen months. Gambetta fought on while the 
 Chamber was impotent and the filysee intractable. He 
 showed how Vaticanism had invaded the French church, 
 and possessed the bishops, who obeyed Rome blindly. They 
 accepted the Syllabus and continually broke those laws to 
 which alone they owed their privileges. He said he was 
 favourable to the Concordat, but could not go on supporting 
 it if it bound only one side, and were misused by the other. 
 Then he added, in famous words, which have resounded 
 ever since : Le Clericalisms, voilob I'ennemi. 
 
 When Jules Simon was dismissed, on the 16th of May, 
 1877, de Broglie formed a reactionary Cabinet. MacMahon 
 issued a reactionary manifesto. The Chamber could not 
 work with the new Ministry: and the republicans in the 
 Senate appealed to the country ' to resist a policy which 
 threatened peace and order'. The 363 republicans in the 
 Chamber protested ' against a policy of reaction and ad- 
 venture, that challenged everything which had been gained 
 so painfully during six years'. When a dissolution was 
 threatened, Gambetta said 363 would go to the country, 
 but 400 would come back. The Senate voted the dissolu- 
 tion by a small majority, and the country spent the summer 
 and early autumn in the fever of an election. The Ministry 
 made full use of its position to pack the public service, 
 and to influence opinion. It even tried, but failed, to get 
 an inspired article into The Times ; and was covered with 
 ridicule because, presuming on the insertion, it quoted 
 from the paragraph which had not appeared. In the midst 
 of the turmoil, Thiers died suddenly (Sept 3) in a hotel at 
 Saint-Germain ; but his election address, which he had just 
 published, contributed to the republican victory. So, too, 
 probably did the Pope^ and de Mnn, and several bishops , 
 who iqfrflrfflTfif! ftlA ^fitlf" The repnEUcans dicTnot 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 come back, as Gambetta said, 400 strong ; but they reached 
 that figure ultimately when about 80 reactionaries had been 
 unseated for corrupt practices. Still MacMahon would not 
 yield, and accept a republican ministry. De Broglie tried 
 to get a new dissolution from the Senate, but failed and 
 resigned. He was succeeded by a new Cabinet with which 
 the Chamber would hold no relations. As the budget was 
 due, the president had to give way. He summoned Dufaure 
 again, who formed a Cabinet on his own terms, but he did 
 not go beyond the Left Centre for his Ministers, and did 
 not include in it Gambetta or any of the real majority. 
 
 When Gambetta's phrase is quoted, that clericalism is 
 the enemy, when French liberals are accused of being 
 necessarily anti-christian because they are anti-clerical, it 
 should be remembered that the church party has forced this 
 attitude on their opponents. During the election of 1877, 
 the bishop of Limoges wrote thus : ' If a candidate hesitate, 
 and distinguish hftf.wfl^ p.fcripa.iijqnr^ iii*rajinnntoniflTn, am^ 
 the catholic rel^^ 
 
 tESTaileged. encroachments -a^&-Gl^^^&^fQ^m^p.i&iG^g 
 the absolute rights of the- State; "Or -if v> be--teny witk4apu- 
 dence and coarseness all.rights to the church^ that.man. jsill 
 be mischievous to France : you ought not, you cannot, with 
 a good conscience, give him your votes,' l If Christianity, 
 if Catholicism, be thus identified with ultramontanism, with 
 the full doctrine and claims of the Syllabus, and if the 
 organization which so identifies it enter into political con- 
 flicts, those who are opposed to clerical policy cannot be 
 blamed if they resist and battle in the ordinary way of 
 politics. 
 
 The new government did not venture on any policy 
 which justified the episcopal and papal violence. It sug- 
 gested that primary education should be gratuitous, that 
 training colleges for primary teachers should be established, 
 and that teachers should be nominated by the rectors of 
 the various universities. It was hinted also that the Con- 
 cordat might be observed by the bishops, and that State 
 payment should be withdrawn from those seminaries which 
 1 Debidour, p. 180.
 
 MACMAHON 229 
 
 were taught, illegally, by the Congregation. These very 
 mild reforms were described as persecution, and their 
 authors were compared to Robespierre. Gambetta coun- 
 selled moderation, patience, strategy, until the Senate 
 should become definitely republican ; though he was not 
 blind to the danger of the State, and the steady progress 
 of the church. ' The question of the relations between 
 church and State holds all others in suspense. In that is 
 the root of hostility to modern thought, and that is the 
 cause of the struggle which we must organize. This French 
 State of ours has been submitted to a regular siege, and 
 every day a breach is made in the edifice. Yesterday, it 
 was the principle of mortmain ; to-day, it is education. 
 
 'In 1849, it was primary teaching ; in 1850, secondary ; in 
 1876, higher education. Now it is the army, then public 
 instruction, and again the recruiting of our navy. Where- 
 ever the Jesuit principle (esprit) can be insinuated, the 
 clericals slip in and aim at domination. When a storm 
 rises, they become small ; and it is peculiar to their history 
 that, as our country falls, Jesuitism rises. I maintain that 
 the duty of the republican and democratic State is to 
 respect religion, and to see that its ministers are respected, 
 but its ministers must keep themselves within the bounds 
 of law. I say that, in the relations of the clergy to the 
 State, the law should be applied, the law in its entirety, 
 and favour should be abolished. If you apply the whole 
 law, order will return to France, and without any violence ; 
 because, once more, we have only to apply those traditions 
 of our Third Estate from the time when it appeared first 
 in our history until the waning light of the republic of 
 1848.' l 
 
 In the jgnatorial election. .oJL.1879, 
 
 was waitingj out of 82 vacant seats, the republicans 
 obtained 66, which transferred the majority from Eight to 
 Left, and put the. tw Chambers in agreement. MacMahon 
 did not long survive the republican victory. Though Presi- 
 dent of the Republic, he was not a republican. He disliked 
 and mistrusted liberalism, and no Ministry that he would 
 1 Debidour, p. 196.
 
 230 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 accept could satisfy the lawful and constitutional desires 
 of the majority. The friction which ensued could only end 
 in a coup d'fitat, or in the submission of the president, or in 
 his resignation. He was too loyal to the country to attempt 
 the first ; and too loyal to himself to care about the second. 
 After much hesitation, due to the clericals and to his per- 
 sonal surroundings, he resigned on the 30th of January, 
 1879. MacMahon would not lend himself personally to 
 conspiracies or violence. Though the Count of Chambord 
 came to Versailles in 1873 and requested an audience, the 
 president would not receive him ; and he declined some 
 overtures from the Prince Imperial in 1879. He was 
 eminently loyal. At the same time, the whole period of 
 his presidency was utilized by others for dynastic and 
 reactionary intrigues. The president himself strained the 
 constitution, excluded the majority from office, and ob- 
 structed the manifest and growing wishes of the nation. 
 
 It was under these unfavourable auspices that the third 
 republic came into being. It owed its existence very 
 largely to the divisions of the royalists. Its steady pro- 
 gress, in spite of intrigues and opposition, was due to the 
 tact and wisdom of Thiers, and also to the power and 
 popularity of G-ambetta. The republic was helped, as we 
 cannot but realize on looking back, by the violent and 
 uncompromising utterances and the unceasing hostility of 
 the ultramontanes. From Pius the Ninth downwards, they 
 lost no opportunity of depreciating liberalism, of misrepre- 
 senting the Revolution, of attacking the principles and 
 institutions by which modern France has re-organized her- 
 self. The Count of Chambord described the Revolution of 
 1789 as ' the revolt of a minority against the wishes of the 
 country '. A man who so misread the past and misunder- 
 stood the present could not be a saviour of society. The 
 clerical party still repeats that its discomfiture is due to 
 a faction, a minority, which in some mysterious way is able 
 to impose its will on a people, not only free, but the most 
 intelligent in the world. 
 
 The ultramontanes, besides misunderstanding the problem 
 which they have to solve, discourage all those among them-
 
 MACMAHON 231 
 
 ^ 
 
 selves who might help them to solve it. Lamennais was 
 driven out of the church. Montalembert died broken- 
 hearted and disillusioned. Falloux in his old age was 
 disgraced and disavowed, and was threatened with excom- 
 munication by Freppel of Angers. Of Dupanloup it is not 
 easy to speak, because his career is inconsistent and con- 
 tradictory. His liberalism, probably, did not go very far. 
 In 1876, in his ' Second Letter to Minghetti ', he disclaimed 
 the name of liberal. ' I affirm that I have never spoken of 
 modern liberties dans le sens de la these, mais dans le sens 
 de rhypothese. I have never considered them as principles 
 everywhere and always applicable. I have only taken them 
 up as local concessions and existing facts ' (liberte"s locales / 
 et des faits.) If so, Dupanloup's earlier life does not merit" 
 the praise which has been given to it. 
 
 The Syllabus records the attitude of Pius the Ninth 
 towards non-catholic liberalism. He was, if possible, more 
 bitter towards liberal Catholicism. ' What I fear most ', he 
 said, ' is this catholic liberalism, which is a veritable plague. 
 It is a see-saw which will destroy religion. Warn the 
 members of your catholic associations that we have not in 
 view the enemies of the church, who are known, but much 
 more those who propagate and scatter the Revolution by 
 pretending to conciliate Catholicism with liberty.' * We 
 are thus brought back, by the highest authority, to that 
 incompatibility, proclaimed so clearly by de Mun, between 
 the church and the Revolution. By the term Revolution, 
 I understand the principles and theories of 1789, disengaged 
 from the taint of politics and the crimes of politicians. 
 They are not very different from the principles by which 
 England has lived, or towards which she has been tending, 
 since 1689. They are the principles on which the United 
 States founded their constitution. These principles, as the 
 Pope and his leading adherents declare, are incompatible 
 with the principles of the Syllabus and the spirit of the 
 Roman Catholic church. 
 
 The incompatibility is evident in France ; but it extends 
 also to our own English principles and institutions. That 
 1 Debidour, p. 82.
 
 232 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 it has not resulted, as yet, in open and violent friction is 
 due only to the small numbers and the political insignifi- 
 cance of the English catholics. I am saying this, not to 
 depreciate the English catholics, for whom, as a body and 
 individually, apart from the Jesuits, I have a sincere affec- 
 tion ; but I want to explain that when Englishmen accuse 
 French liberals of violence, and persecution, and other such 
 things, they fail to realize that the circumstances in France 
 are entirely different from the circumstances here, that 
 arguments from one country are not applicable to the other. 
 Our laws and institutions are sometimes the contradictories 
 of theirs. The French and the English often reach the same 
 end by different means, and even by opposite ways. Our 
 politics are not obstructed, our progress is not hindered, by 
 a powerful organization, ruled from abroad, influencing 
 a considerable number of the population, and not only 
 violently opposed to all our institutions, but proclaiming 
 that opposition with incredible violence, and practising it 
 with unceasing activity. If we had a clericalism of that 
 kind and extent, we should soon have a corresponding anti- 
 clericalism ; and we should not fail to proclaim and treat it 
 as 'The Enemy'. If Christianity were presented to us 
 almost exclusively by such an organization, which claimed 
 as well to be its exclusive and only genuine representative, 
 we should find that anti-clericalism often expressed itself in 
 anti-christian terms. 
 
 4. THE EBPUBLIC; EDUCATION; THE EELIGIOUS 
 OEDEBS. 
 
 From 1873 to 1879, there was a nominal republic, in 
 which republicans were excluded carefully from office. The 
 president was a conservative, and the Assembly was legiti- 
 mist. It was not until the fall of MacMahon that the head 
 of the State and the majority in both Houses represented the 
 opinion of the country. Though that opinion was never 
 doubtful, and though its representatives were always in 
 power, it was many years before the administration of the 
 republic was effective. If the republic owed its existence
 
 EDUCATION AND THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS 233 
 
 to the divisions of its enemies, the continuance of its life 
 was maintained in spite of its friends. 
 
 To MacMahon there succeeded Jules Grevy, a staunch 
 republican, a veteran liberal of 1848. He did a great service 
 by showing that the president's office should be impersonal, 
 aloof from parties and politics, above them, not of them. 
 We need not follow the interminable procession of ministers 
 which hurries by during the next twenty years ; and we are 
 not concerned with the general ebb and flow of politics. 
 The Concordat of 1802 is our base of operations : from that, 
 and with reference to that, our main business is to consider 
 the relations between church and State. Theoretically, 
 there is no change of principle in those relations between 
 1802 and the Separation .Law. of 1905. Practically, an 
 incalculable change was made by the Syllabus and the decree 
 of Infallibility. "The Concordat of 1802 was an agreement 
 between the papacy of the eighteenth century and the 
 survivors of the old Gallican church. On the French side, 
 Gal 1ir.am'sni -was, the basis of the agreement : Gallicanism as 
 tempered aud purified by 1Z89,,, with- tha. religious orders 
 pruned away, as well as all tha jGaudal relics, of the old 
 administration. During the next fifty years, Gallicanism 
 was dying ; and, as it withered, Vaticanism was growing. 
 The decree of 187Q .was virtually a condemnation of the 
 historical church of France., ,.. IJltramontanes, especially 
 English ones, talk in an airy way_Qf Jhe . church .of Bossuet 
 and Fenelon. Such a thing does not exist. If it could 
 revive, it would find itself heretical. 
 
 If the papacy found itself confronted by a new France in 
 1871, the French republic was confronted by a new papacy. 
 With the old one, as we have seen, there was continual 
 friction. Separation had been accomplished once. It was 
 never lost sight of completely, and was desired earnestly by 
 the liberal catholics of the Restoration. Napoleon's Con- 
 cordat was a blundering arrangement, even at the time it 
 was made. It 'never worked to the satisfaction of either 
 party. It was altered and abolished several times within 
 twenty years of its acceptance. It was wholly inapplicable 
 to the spirit and institutions of both parties in 1871. That
 
 234 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 Separation should have come at last is not surprising. It is 
 only surprising that the Concordat should have been en- 
 durable for so long. The church always protested against it, 
 but always utilized it. The Concordat was a passport, 
 which gave the Pope a free entry into France. It secured 
 him in a favourable position for extending his influence 
 over the most important province of the papal monarchy. 
 
 That monarchy was being extended over France in two 
 ways during the nineteenth century : by a monopoly~<5f 
 education, and by the growth of the religious orders. In 
 mediaeval times, and under the old regime, the papacy 
 struggled for jurisdiction, privileges, exemptions, patronage, 
 territory. In modern times, it aims at the voters, the Press, 
 the workers, at commerce and finance. Its chief agent is 
 the Congregation, which teaches, trades, prints and circulates, 
 and probably speculates. The bishops are no longer heads 
 of their churches, but only figure-heads, vicars and "repre- 
 sentatives of the Pope, who has absorbed the plenitude of 
 episcopal authority. The governing power of the whole 
 church is with the papal Congregations in Rome, that 
 strange bureaucracy which professes to be universal and is 
 almost exclusively Italian. The living and prevailing influ- 
 ence throughout the church is with the Congregation, which 
 is tending to overwhelm and absorb the secular clergy and 
 the, episcopate. 
 
 As we should suppose, from these premisses, the struggle 
 between the church and the third republic takes the form, 
 almost invariably, of a battle over education, or a campaign 
 against the religious orders. 
 
 From our previous study, it should be realized that the 
 papal church and the liberal republic are incompatibles, 
 irreconcilables. It is not a quarrel of persons merely, but 
 of principles. With the best will in the world, on both 
 sides, differences are inevitable. And certainly, on one side, 
 there was no good will. It is customary to describe the 
 republic as aggressive, as wantonly aggressive ; though 
 I should prefer to omit the adjective, and to say defensive. 
 I have shown the words and attitude of the ultramontanes 
 to every government, from the Revolution onwards. They
 
 EDUCATION AND THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS 235 
 
 were both provocative and aggressive during the period of 
 the ' moral order '. "When that ' order ' was reversed, and 
 the liberals possessed the administration, they did not, as 
 might be expected, begin reprisals. Gambetta, Ferry^and 
 other stalwarts would not hear of Separation. They were 
 afraid of it. They thought it possible to work the Concordat, 
 and they were resolved to maintain it. They were ready to 
 meet any advances from the church more than half-way. 
 But, in the two matters which I have mentioned, a conflict 
 was inevitable. In a country of universal suffrage, education 
 is vital. It. is iruTiapflflgftble that voters should be literate. 
 It is also advisable that children' should Jfe bropflfcfctip in 
 
 ftt^F 
 
 which thex will have to carry on. A clerical education did 
 
 irniM.Mii ^^^ n '"'"*SBbaayNM>WEMaoMUMMWMMMMMMg ( MM0HHM>IMM>MkW^|i4M IMIB .^^^^^^ 
 
 not satisfy these conditions, and it .was conducted chiefly 
 by the religious orders. Thus, the questions of education 
 ancfoF'the Congregation .hung. together .;.. and the re.pujblic 
 had 'jbo^deal^mtk them-. -both. la-- dealing. ,witk the orders, 
 it must be remembered that liberal statesmen, like Ferry 
 and Gambetta, thought they were acting strictly within the 
 letter of the Concordat, and certainly the strict letter 
 supports their view. 
 
 What I wish to place before my readers, so far as possible, 
 is the French point of view, and the conditions which pre- 
 vail in France. They are so different from our own methods 
 and circumstances that we cannot judge them by analogy 
 from England, without injustice to both sides in the saecular 
 dispute between France and the papacy. The view of the 
 opportunists was expressed with perfect lucidity by Paul Bert 
 in 1883 ; and, after almost five-and- twenty years' experience, 
 his penetration and foresight are even more remarkable 
 than his lucidity. He was discussing Separation, and he 
 wrote ' The conditions in which the church lives and moves 
 are unfavourable for carrying out this proposal. . . . Before 
 thirty years are over, this church, erased from the budget 
 and the governmental fabric, removed from its presbyteries 
 and buildings, but left entirely to itself, will have re- 
 conquered the position of which it had been deprived. ... 
 Let us begin by changing these conditions as a preparation
 
 236 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 for our future triumph over the opinions which we are 
 resisting now. . . . Let us begin by taking from the church 
 that fictitious authority which it has assumed in the country. 
 Let us require from it obedience to those concordatory laws 
 which it has itself proposed. In fine, let us wait for the 
 time when public education, and especially that of women, 
 has reared minds capable of enduring firmly the period in 
 which religious liberty may be established.' 
 
 He then went on to show how the church had gone far 
 beyond the Concordat, by its own encroachments, and by 
 the laxity of the various administrations. The budget des 
 cultes had risen from 1,250,000 francs to aT3OuOO,000,OOtT; 
 desservants were paid by the State, and seminaries were 
 endowed ; buildings and national property were at the 
 disposal of bishops and conseils de fabriques; the church 
 had the monopoly of burial fees and profits ; contributions 
 were imposed on the communes in money or property ; civil 
 and military .honours were given to the bishops. On the 
 other hand, the legal process of recours pour abus was 
 ineffective, so that the clergy had practically an immunity 
 frojo-the law. The articles of the penal code which were 
 applicable to them were not applied ^t^e^eminaristsjBnjoyed 
 an exemption from military service ; the increase of the 
 Congregation and of property in mortmain was alarming ; 
 the secular clergy continually ignored the Organiques with 
 respect to residence, synods, dress, titles, correspondence with 
 a foreign Power, oaths of allegiance to the State ; the church 
 was continually encroaching upon education and other 
 public services.' l He pointed out that the Organiques were 
 obligatory, as a logical result of the Concordat itself; and 
 that the State, being sovereign, could not depend on a foreign 
 Power for the police regulations of public worship. He 
 demanded, therefore, that the church should be kept strictly 
 within the letter of the Concordat. This was not done, 
 and was not seriously attempted ; but the ministries under 
 President Grevy dealt with education and the religious 
 orders. 
 
 In the Freycinet government of 1879, Jules Ferry was 
 
 1 Debidour, pp. 332-3.
 
 EDUCATION AND THE EELIGIOUS OKDERS 237 
 
 Minister of Education ; and he introduced a bill to (1) dis- 
 qualify the lettre d'obedience as a proof of capacity and an 
 authorization to teach. That certific^J;e...Qf,jn^nberjslup in 
 a religious order was a veryuHjust preference, favouring the 
 Congregation and prejudicial to the lay teachers. Ks ~& re- 
 sult ot-it-about 37,000 sisters were teaching in the various 
 schools, of whom only 5.733 had certificates of capacity. 
 The abolition was opposed furiously by the clericals, .not 
 only for the obvious reason that their teachers would be 
 diminished; but for the more significant reason that the 
 certificate of capacity would make their subiects free, bv 
 
 -<yA-i *- r^-/yr' K **^'''"''"-ei->- *''"'-' t^tf- vw+.+i** -*"- -:....;.*.-. G*MMMMrfr 
 
 opening to them an independent professional career as 
 teachers. 
 
 ( 2 ) It_was_|iroppsed to .re-model the Conseil Superieur 
 d' Enseignement by excluding from it those representatives of 
 the classes sociales who had been put in six years before 
 for reactionary purposes. The Conseil was to be composed 
 henceforth of professional educators, chosen by law, or 
 appointed by the State, with the addition of members repre- 
 senting ypluntary education* The local administrations, the 
 conseils acodemiques were to be re-formed in a similar way. 
 
 (3) The power of giving degrees of all kinds was with- 
 drawn from the voluntary universities, and reserved ex- 
 
 -t . ^^j... 1 t ^x ....* A m * '--VI**; -,/V d.*.'r* " * --,.* X 'V* ,..-*.-.<;- 
 
 clusively to the University,of. France. 
 
 (4) The Seventh Clause, however, was the most offensive 
 to the clericals. It ordained that ' Nul ne serait admis a 
 participer a 1'enseignement public ou libre, ni a diriger un 
 etablissement d'enseignement de quelque ordre qu'il fut, s'il 
 appartenait a une congregation religieuse non-autorisee '. 
 This law would have eliminated many influential orders 
 
 -T- *-^ rv<r-T5-:r'<'- T -~i't"?~~"'"''f**~"<^" *fK*jt*tfif.tyMLf-.K(i ^.-.'^t 
 
 from education, and especially the Jesuits. The whole 
 project was fought strenuously. It passed the Chamber, lirai 
 
 r V " """"""'^* : vrr^T>i^"A.- -, v^'*" 
 
 the Senate removed Clause Seven. 
 
 'J v>'l .,.,..,. 
 
 With regard to paragraph (1) and thb Letter of Obedience, '^ 
 it will be seen that the teachers of authorized orders suffered 
 no injustice. They were merely put on the same level as 
 other teachers. Tf fViny ygfflftd ^p standard o. capacity, 
 which the State required^properly^ thej; .were^ftfie-to. teach. 
 Their superiors, however, were
 
 238 CHURCH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 as the bishops have always been disturbed by any proposals 
 to give more security of tenure to the desservants. 
 
 In consequence of the Senatorial rejection of Clause 
 Seven the Chamber voted, by 324 to 125, that the un- 
 
 dissolved. It is necessary, 
 
 in order to do justice to French legislation, to understand 
 the principles of French law with regard to associations. 
 The third republic devised no new principles of law, but 
 merely developed precedents. It assumed no new powers, 
 but only applied those which had been exercised without 
 protest under the monarchy. The whole question has been 
 treated luminously by Paul Bert and Waldeck- Rousseau. 
 The latter says ' We must distinguish between two kinds of 
 association, which are wholly different in their origin, their 
 nature, their purposes, their methods, and the inconveniences 
 which they may produce in a State. The Congregation is 
 not an ordinary association, not even a natural one. The 
 State has a bounden duty to guarantee and maintain indi- 
 vidual rights. But these rights are abdicated by persons 
 who enter religious orders, into which they are not admitted 
 except by the three vows of poverty, obedience, and chastity. 
 . . . When you subtract from the human personality that 
 which enables it to possess, that which makes it a reasonable 
 being, and that which enables it to propagate, I ask how much 
 of that personality remains. In the Congregation, desires 
 and intentions are not strengthened, by co-operation, as in 
 ordinary associations, but they are annihilated for the benefit 
 of a power which they did not establish, and whose interests 
 may be contrary to those of the State. Equally under the 
 old regime as under the new, all jurists are agreed in 
 defending society against such associations by special safe- 
 guards.' J Paul Bert made the same distinction between 
 communities and individuals. Liberty, he said, is due on 
 principle to individuals, by the State ; ' but this common 
 right cannot be claimed by members of associations which 
 one enters only by renouncing common rights ; that is, by 
 giving up individual freedom, the possession of property, 
 and family rights.' 1 Another parliamentarian made a clear 
 1 Debidour, pp. 324, 220.
 
 EDUCATION AND THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS 239 
 
 distinction between associations of which all the members 
 reserved and preserved their individual liberties, associating 
 only for definite and specific objects ; this, he said, was 
 lawful: and Congregations which abrogated the rights of 
 man (personal freedom, property, marriage), which the State 
 has guaranteed and preserved since 1789; this, he said, is 
 unlawful, and out of harmony with French institutions. 
 He arguecHhat^all Congregations should be dissolved, whether 
 authorized or no. 
 
 There is then a clear distinction, in the eyes of French 
 law, between one kind of association and another. The 
 distinction between individuals and associations is even 
 clearer. Associations cannot be regarded merely as collec- 
 tions of individuals. They become corporate bodies; and, 
 when they possess property and influence, the State must 
 have a final power of regulation and control, extending to 
 dissolution. Here we come to the bearing of the terms 
 ' authorized ' and ' unauthorized ' which occur so often in 
 ecclesiastical controversy. In French law, there are two 
 personalities who have rights of property ; individuals, and 
 personnes civiles, or as we should say corporations and com- 
 panies legally established. A Congregation which is autho- 
 rized becomes a personne civile, and acquires all the legal 
 rights which are attached to this position. A Congregation 
 which is not authorized has none of these privileges. It is 
 an outlaw. It has the rights neither of an individual, nor 
 of a legal corporation. These legal and logical principles 
 demolish those sentimental appeals, employed so often on 
 behalf of religious associations by pseudo-liberals. They 
 argue as though they were collections of individuals, each 
 of whom possesses his full individual rights ; but by their 
 own act, in joining an order, such individuals have conveyed 
 away those rights ; and, if the order be not authorized, 
 neither it nor its members have acquired any corporate rights. 
 
 It may be asked why all Congregations do not apply for 
 authorization ? In some cases, they would not get it. French 
 law has refused to recognize certain orders ; but there are 
 other reasons, which again are curious, and which would not 
 occur to those who are unfamiliar with the conventual mind.
 
 240 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 ' It is not only through clerical pride, or contempt for the 
 civil power, that Congregations not recognized decline to 
 apply for authorization. It is through a zeal for their 
 material interests. Authorization implies a governmental 
 inspection and.auditing which would hinder their perpetual 
 acquisitions.' \ By remaining unauthorized, and by the 
 connivence of skilful lawyers, -the. unauthorized communities 
 secured all the advantages of the authorized, without the 
 disadvantages of legal inspection and control. The indi- 
 viduals belonging to them also claimed individual rights, or 
 the community claimed those rights in their persons. For 
 instance, in matters of inheritance, a religious who owned 
 property dies ; and the community pleads his vow of poverty, 
 and withholds his property from the legal heirs. On the 
 other hand, a religious has a claim to property by the death 
 of a relative ; the vow of poverty is ignored, and he claims 
 as an ordinary individual. By thus playing at see-saw 
 between individual and corporate regulations, the unautho- 
 rized communities e^yaded almost every tax. ' When they 
 owed the State elevens-awes, they paid fifty centimes. The 
 Congregation disappeared as a legal entity and changed itself 
 sometimes into an individual, sometimes into a soctete civile 
 (a benefit or co-operative society) and their property became 
 real or personal according to their needs.' 2 These religious 
 became individuals for purposes of acquiring property, and 
 societies when it came to paying taxes, or holding property. 
 No wealthy religious ever died : his or her property was 
 always the property of the community, held in its dead 
 hand, withheld from circulation and from the State. 
 
 As to their property, it was shown that the authorized 
 orders in 1849 owned 6,000 'hectares valued at 43,000,000. 
 In 1880, they owned 40,000 valued at 712,000,000. In 1825, 
 the value of donations and legacies coming to them averaged 
 about 88,000 francs yearly. In 1880, the average had risen 
 to between 10,000,000 and 13,000,000. These were the official 
 and admitted figures, of the authorized Congregations only ; 
 and they received much more which was neither legal nor 
 declared. The budget des cultes had grown with a similar 
 1 Debidour, p. 261. 2 Ibid. p. 265.
 
 EDUCATION AND THE EELIGIOUS ORDERS 241 
 
 rapidity. From 1794 to 1802, there was none; yet. as we 
 have seen, most of the parishes were working. In the first 
 year of the Concordat, it amounted to 1,258,000 francs. In 
 1813, when France had 130 Departments, it was 17,000,000, 
 reduced to 13,000,000 under Louis the Eighteenth. By 1830, 
 it had risen to 35,000,000, by 1848 to 39,000,000, by 1852 to 
 41 ,000,000. The second empire raised it to 50,000,000, and the 
 third republic to over 53,000,000. This was from the central 
 government alone. Counting local grants, the whole sum 
 amounted to over 75,000,000. "With the value of buildings, 
 payments to teachers, grants to Seminaries, legacies, dona- 
 tions, and the \ casuel it .was estimated that the church 
 received annually about, 450,000,000 francs (18,000,000 
 sterling). And this is how it was persecuted by a revolu- 
 tionary and Jacobinical State. 
 
 The object of the State, in its education laws, in its policy 
 towards the Congregation, and in its wish to see the Con- 
 cordat observed, was not to persecute, but to remove friction, 
 and to enforce the law. The Ligue de V Enseignement summed 
 up the policy of the third republic in one of its manifestos. 
 'The future of the republic is at stake. "We must know 
 whether we are a sovereign people, disposing freely of our 
 destinies, without permission from outside, or whether the 
 decrees of our representatives must be countersigned by the 
 Vatican ; whether French law or the Roman law is to have 
 the precedence. Whoever influences the schools, influences 
 the world : whoever regulates French schools rules France. 
 . . . Make people understand that we have not ousted God 
 from the schools because our country has come into them ; 
 that we have not attacked the prerogatives of the clergy in 
 giving to them entirely what is theirs; that we are not 
 outraging the religious beliefs of the fathers of families by 
 removing from children the possibility of a public outrage 
 to the political or religious convictions of their parents.' * 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 305. 
 
 R
 
 242 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 5. Pius THE NINTH AND LEO THE THIRTEENTH. 
 
 Many changes had occurred by 1880, when the Ferry laws 
 were discussed and voted. The ministers of 1871 had been 
 more compliant towards the church than the ministries of 
 the second empire. Instead of being warned by the 
 Vatican Council, they had yielded to the new militant and 
 centralized ultramontanism. They did what no French 
 government had ever done, not even under Charles the 
 Tenth. They allowed the Nuncio to arrange the nomina- 
 tion of bishops, which was reserved so stringently to France 
 by the Concordat. It was not surprising that the episcopate 
 became wholly ultramontane ; and when the government 
 began to assert its right again, and to choose for itself, not 
 only did Rome show ill humour, but the nominees of the 
 flffifflfl pfflTg^ tjj^fflygf^ vpg frnTn snspim'nn hv fheir 
 
 extreme and rabid clericalism. Monseigneur Guitrel in 
 L'Anneaud'Amethyste had many originals in the episcopate. 
 When the next generation of ministers talked of applying 
 the Concordat, they forgot there were not only no Gallican 
 churches, but no Gallicans. They were also confronted by 
 a new Pope, with a very different and far more subtil policy. 
 Pius the Ninth died on February 7, 1878, within a few days 
 of Victor Emmanuel. He nad reigned thirty-two years. 
 During that period, he had occupied rather than filled the 
 pontifical seat. He was hailed as a liberal when he began 
 to reign, as new Popes often are. If he had been a genuine 
 liberal, he might have presided over united Italy. He pre- 
 ferred reaction, under Jesuit guidance : following that 
 
 ^^^^^^MMMMMMMMB * 
 
 guidance, willingly, he gave his name to the Syllabus, and 
 used his personal influence to secure papal Infallibility. He 
 sacrificed united Italy to his Temporal Power, which he lost 
 as he achieved his spiritual conquest. He was a handsome 
 and kindly old man, with lustrous eyes, a clear voice, and 
 a fine presence : he was the figure-head of the church, 
 rather than the head. The organizing brains and the 
 uncompromising pens were not those of Pius. He left the 
 church in conflict with almost every European government; 
 and his two legacies, the Syllabus and Infallibility, may
 
 PIUS IX AND LEO XIII 243 
 
 prove to have been dearly bought. They will probably 
 turn out a ruinous investment, ending in bankruptcy. 
 
 His successor was in everything his opposite. The con- 
 clave met on February 18, and never had the cardinals 
 been more free. In two days, they had elected Joachim 
 Pecci, who made himself Leo the Thirteenth. He had 
 
 , amjfouitfau ,rrrr- .,'_>-..._ 
 
 begun a brilliant career in diplomacy, under Gregory the 
 Sixteenth. He was made bishop of Perugia in 1846, and 
 cardinal in 1852. He was practically banished to his 
 Umbrian see, and only re-appeared in Rome after Antonelli's 
 death in 1876. Pius the Ninth made him Camerlengo, which 
 by precedent usually excludes from the papacy. Cardinal 
 Pecci had followed the way of caution. He was very 
 orthodox, very circumspect. He never spoke during the 
 council. He pleased the liberal catholics, especially by his 
 pastoral letters of 1877 and 1878, though he had no ostensible 
 relations with them. He was known to be urm~m his 
 orthodoxy ; to be as intransigeant as Pius himself, but to be 
 flexible in mind, caressing in manner, a very superior diplo- 
 matist, a man to compose difficulties and conquer by negotia- 
 tion. That was what the conclave wanted, and Leo supplied 
 the want. The cardinals ' desired a Pope who would not 
 repudiate the Syllabus, but who would utilize it by insinua- 
 tion, and not brandish it like a weapon. Circumstances 
 made for Pecci. Let us add that, as a clever politician, he 
 knew how to second them a little ; especially in gaining 
 one of his rivals, Franchi, by promising him the secretary- 
 ship of State. Franchi could not have succeeded himself, 
 but he might have wrecked Pecci's chances. All this did 
 not prevent Leo from simulating astonishment, and even 
 sorrow, after the manner of new Popes, when the requisite 
 majority gathered round his name. He wept, and declared 
 himself unworthy. But his tears were soon dried, and his 
 humility did not refuse that tiara which his patient and 
 astute ambition had pursued for so many years.' 1 
 
 He was sixty-eight when he was elected, and he died at 
 
 ninety-three. His reign of 25 v^ar? yflg ffl^ with diulo- 
 
 matic successes. .^JJ&jgja.d.e peace, ^f^ye -Pius fyad made 
 
 1 Debidour, p. 187. 
 
 B 2
 
 244 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 war, and gained more by diplomacy than his predecessor 
 had lost by violence. Leo himself was a strange mixture. 
 He was a scholar of the Humanist type, a pretty Latinist. 
 He professed to be intelligent, yet he revived mediaeval 
 scholasticism as the final word in philosophy, and his 
 biblical exegesis might also have been written in the middle 
 ages. He played with socialism, but only so far as it served 
 the pontifical cause in Italy ; and his working-men were 
 kept under episcopal control. Leo was a zealous man of 
 business ; a speculator in that new Eome which he con- 
 demned, and yet put his money into. Like many others, 
 he lost; and then patiently repaired his loss. He loved 
 money ; not only possessing it, but handling it. Not much, 
 perhaps, remains of all his labour. France has separated 
 the church from the State, and no longer recognizes the 
 Pope officially. Spain is going the same way as France. 
 Italy is less papal now than it was in 1878. Christian 
 socialism, as Leo tried to construct it, is bankrupt. The 
 German Emperor is the only ally of the papacy in Europe. 
 But, personally, Leo is the most interesting and accom- 
 plished Pope who has reigned for many generations. 
 
 "When Leo began to reign, the republic had a large 
 majority, but it was impotent,, through its factions and its 
 personal quarrels. Leo was well served by his Nuncio, 
 Czacki, through whom he made overtures to Gambetta. He 
 offered to, support the republic, if .the republic would hand 
 oyjsr education to the church*. As Gambetta read the letter, 
 he said, ' At the price they put on it, their support is too 
 dear.' l Leo waited, and renewed his offers later. Neither 
 Ferry, nor Gambetta, nor any of the opportunists were very 
 serious in their measures against the church. France was 
 building up a colonial empire, in Africa, in the Far East ; 
 and the liberals thought the catholic missions were profit- 
 able allies. They said anti-clericalism was not for exporta- 
 tion. They still believed in their, protectorate in the Near 
 East, and thought the papacy could help them. At home, 
 they had private understandings with the Congregations 
 whom they affected to persecute in public. Their laws 
 1 La France ftoire, p. 224aij*&tt^^ 
 
 .;:,$ 
 
 ifcKKtfiiwmfc.,..
 
 PIUS IX AND LEO XIII 245 
 
 were not carried out, Freycinet was grievously com- 
 promised" fry a plot of this kind, and had to retire. Their 
 policy was fatuous. It is clear they did not understand the 
 papacy ; except, perhaps, Paul Bert, who was never in 
 power, and Ferry who was immersed in his imperialism. 
 Otherwise, the 'attacks' of the government amounted to 
 a process of appel pour abus, or the reduction of a bishop's 
 stipend, which gained him the halo of martyrdom, and a large 
 offering from the devout. 'They annoyed and irritated 
 the enemy without hurting him. They made themselves 
 hated, but not feared.' All the governments were weak, 
 especially the grande ministere of Gambetta, which lasted 
 only from November 14, 1881, to January 26, 1882 ; and, on 
 the 31st of the following December, Gambetta himself was 
 dead. The government of the republic failed to control 
 the__cliiircii. It had not the sympathy nor the loyalty of 
 the army ; at any rate, not of the officers. The_niagistracy 
 was reactionary and clerical. And into this chaotic body 
 politic TLeo the TEirteenth introduced his methods of pene- 
 tration. Weak as the republic was, he saw jthe monarchy 
 was weaker, that it was dead, so he threw it over, and 
 rallied to. the republic. As he said, pointing to a crucifix, 
 ' That is the only corpse to which the church is bound.' 
 
 Leo formulated his policy in a series of encyclicals, 
 written in elegant and flowing prose, but more than usually 
 ambiguous even for papal utterances. His position was 
 very difficult. The majority of cardinals were creatures 
 of Pius the Ninth, reactionary, intractable ; and the Pope 
 could not afford to alienate them. Neither could he alienate 
 the French episcopate, which was mainly royalist. He 
 exhorted the French to political agreement and conciliation, 
 under the established order, which is of God. Leo ' rallied ' 
 to the republic, as it is expressed. It is often thought, 
 erroneously, that the Roman church is opposed to republi- 
 canism, and prefers monarchy. That is a curious error. 
 The church is J.ndifferent to the forms of government. It 
 asserts its own superiority to the civil power, and it cares 
 little what form that power takes. J^_prefers_a weak 
 republic to a strong monarchy, if that monarchy be hostile.
 
 246 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 It knows very well how to manipulate parties, and influence 
 parliaments, and tune the Press, and excite the population. 
 So long as it can influence legislation or bias the magistracy, 
 it is indifferent to the nominal and outward form of adminis- 
 tration. The church does not hold that republics are 
 necessarily bad. They are bad only when they secure 
 liberty of conscience, of education, of the Press. Then they 
 are opposed to the mind and standards of the papacy ; but 
 even these things may be endured, if they cannot be 
 removed. 
 
 Leo saw that they could not be ended by violence, by 
 frontal attacks. The policy of Pius the Ninth, or of the 
 GesUj was a failure. He resolved to mend that evil which 
 he could not end immediately. It might be ended in due 
 time, when his adherents were organized, and had possession 
 of the public services. The papacy rallied to the republic J 
 as the octopus rallies to its prey; coiling and wreathing 
 its feelers over the victim, fixing its suckers, draining and 
 embracing its antagonist. Leo's policy was not understood at 
 first. Some of his adherents became republicans by order, 
 as some of the ultramontanes of 1830 and 1848 became 
 liberals by design ; but many of the royalists stood out, and 
 devout women prayed for the Pope's conversion. If Leo's 
 policy had been followed intelligently and zealously,, the,, 
 republic would have become clerical. There would, have 
 been reactio^ repression, confusion, perhaps civil war.. As 
 it was, the policy went a great way towards success, and 
 for some years the country was not only disturbed, but in 
 serious danger. . The republicans were divided, weak, lulled 
 into security; and the work of penetration went. on. The 
 Congregation grew continually, extending its operations and 
 influence. The army, the magistracy, the civil service, 
 were filled, with clerical sympathizers. But there were two 
 disturbing elements, which brought matters to a crisis. The 
 episode of General Boulanger showed how dissatisfied the 
 country was, not with the existing regime, but with its 
 weakness and its factions. In the elections of 1885 the 
 republican vote sank to 4,327,162, and the reactionary vote
 
 PIUS IX AND LEO XIII 247 
 
 A series of unstable ministers added to the general dis- 
 content and insecurity. Then the republican institutions 
 were openly threatened by General Boulanger, whose popu- 
 larity brought the country within measurable distance of 
 a plebiscite or a coup d'fitat. He was a candidate in many 
 constituencies, won a striking election in the department 
 of the Seine, and agitated for a rgpublique ouverte, with 
 universal suffrage for the presidency. These dangers rallied 
 and solidified the republicans. Boulanger was accused of 
 treason, and fled. A general who runs away extinguishes 
 himself ; and this pretender committed suicide in Belgium, 
 in 1892. His agitation had been financed by royalists, by the 
 Comte de Paris himself. The royalist party was more than 
 compromised by so ignominious an alliance ; and the last 
 chances of the Orleans family were wrecked in the dis- 
 grace of this adventurer. How far the church went into 
 Boulangisme is less demonstrable. Boulanger entered politics 
 as a violent anti-clerical. As he began to play for his own 
 hand, he grew devout. Certainly, he bid for clerical 
 support, and was favoured by all the reactionary parties. 
 On the top of this trouble, came the Panama scandal, which 
 compromised several republican leaders, and forced them 
 out of politics. It added very seriously to popular mis- 
 trust of the republic. Meanwhile, the papal policy of 
 penetration was working steadily and quietly. In some 
 cases it was aided, and in others it was not opposed, by 
 republican ministers. So thoroughly was it succeeding 
 that the clerical party were too confident. They showed 
 their hand before they had won the game ; and the 
 exposure of a plot, which they had certainly utilized, if 
 they had not originated, brought matters to a crisis. 
 
 6. DEEYFUS; NATIONALISM. 
 
 f 
 
 There is no need to go into the Dreyfus affaire. It is 
 sufficient to say that from 1897 until 1900 the country 
 was moved and troubled to its depths. Party and faction 
 were stirred in a most dangerous way. 'By the heat of 
 the passions which it roused, it can only be compared to the
 
 248 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 disturbance over the Bull Unigenitus, of a hundred and 
 sixty years before. It was also, I am pleased to say, 
 a quarrel of Frenchmen over justice and injustice. The 
 Dreyfus affaire, arising out of a secret judgment, had this 
 danger, that the mystery which enveloped it favoured 
 lying. At its root, one finds the Anti-semites, who had 
 been trafficking in France for some time. And it would 
 be a matter of astonishment that men should be found, 
 in a time of quiet, among a people amiable and tolerant, 
 reviving ancient race hatreds and fomenting religious war, 
 if one did not know whence such men came, and did not 
 recognize in them the emissaries of the Roman church. To 
 the Anti-semites were soon adhering a large contingent 
 of the Parti Noir, who in houses, in the streets, in country 
 districts, scattered malign reports, whispered alarming 
 rumours, spoke of treasons, and plots^ disquieted people 
 through their patriotism, disturbed their security, steeped 
 them in fear and anger. This party did not yet snow itself 
 in the light of day. It formed itself in the twilight into 
 a vast and shadowy mass, recalling the monks of the League 
 in their armoured habits. But when it had rallied all the 
 forces of the counter-Revolution, and attracted numerous 
 malcontents from the republic, and had blown up in front 
 of itself all that human rubbish which can be driven by 
 public opinion, it came out brazen-faced, monstrous, multi- 
 farious, and usurped the glittering title of Nationalism. 
 
 ' The credulity of the multitude is boundless. The people, 
 mis- led and frantic, tumbled in crowds into the trap of 
 the Anti-semites. Too many of the leaders of republican 
 opinion followed sadly after them. The legislature com- 
 mitted itself, with a blind mis-giving, in the silence of 
 a government which was the dupe or the accomplice of 
 the Parti Noir ; a government from which the Nationalists 
 had secured hostages. The general elections were coming 
 on, and the Congregation unmasked itself. Not that it lost 
 patience, which never fails the religious orders. But it 
 threw away all prudence, as a useless burden, and flung 
 itself headlong into political strife. All the militia of 
 the papacy was engaged. The unauthorized Congregations,
 
 DREYFUS; NATIONALISM 249 
 
 feeling less encumbered, were the most audacious. Their 
 action had been long prepared. In every ecclesiastical 
 affair there is always constancy and continuity. To win 
 a temporal domination in France, the church for several 
 years had put forward her franc-tireurs, thejunanthojizejd 
 Congregations ; and the numbers of them increased per- 
 petually as the invasion of France progressed. 
 
 ' And under these circumstances, one meets again the old 
 enemies of the civil power . . . the Jesuits. . . . That they 
 had arranged the operations of the Anti-Semites at the 
 beginning of the affaire, is hardly doubtful. They" are 
 aiscbverecTTater weaving intrigues m ^tEe War Office, to 
 save those desperate men who sweated blood to submerge 
 the truth. The. JFesuits moreover had a holy cause to serve. 
 They reckoned on the affaire to undo the crime~oT the 
 Constituent Assembly ; hoping that the treason of a Jew 
 would compel a terrified and an indignant France~To 
 withdraw civil rights from Jews and protestants ; and thus 
 re-establish in our laws a unity of obedience which would 
 
 __ )> _ ij riitL-L't I.I-'"T--OT^H.M-''**---- -I-LH-T -r Tuiir^"TTry^TttM^a-^rr^^ fc "^"'^"^^T^^gfT^r^Tjnf'^^^^T '*" 
 
 be profitable to Koman jsatholicisiii. It appears they took 
 less care than usual to hide their complicity.' x "With the 
 Jesuits and the Dominicans were the Assumptionists, and 
 their newspaper La Croix, with all its Departmental editions ; 
 a vast organization, professing poverty, but with fourteen 
 establishments, and a turn-over of 40,000 a year, made 
 largely out of Saint Antony of Padua. They had con- 
 fraternities and agencies everywhere. Their paper circu- 
 lated in myriads, with its crucifix as a badge : * ce symbole 
 donnait, pour 1'egarement des simples, 1'onction d'un texte 
 edifiant et la majeste des formes liturgiques a leurs sales 
 injures et a leurs abominables calomnies.' * The_Assump- 
 tumi^sjiouiide^ 
 
 injeyery Departmental, municipal, local, and State election. 
 They had an agency and an agent in every commune to 
 look after elections. Ninety-six clubs were affiliated to 
 thenu Besides their electoral work, they had confraternities 
 to protect and push their clients in trade, and to boycott 
 their opponents. It was a huge system of terror and 
 1 Anatole France, L'Eglise et la Rt'publique, pp. 32-4, 36.
 
 250 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 corruption. Yet the church, is not political. The whole 
 p.ajjhnlip. Praaa waa rffo t.he same side. Not a single bishop 
 raised his voice to counsel restraint or caution, much less 
 to recommend patience, lest truth and justice should be 
 violated. Individual catholics who urged moderation and 
 
 ^^^^^^^ t ^~^^^~~^~****HtH_jmjjiuiijBIBf^* tl * 1 ~ ~" ""*-' "*" t ' "MMi^M ^n" >* W^ r n i ii 111 .^^^^^ 
 
 justice were overborne,., denounced as traitors, calumniated. 
 The champions of truth came from the opposite camp. 
 Zola, to his lasting honour, did for Dreyfus that which 
 Voltaire had done for the Galas family, for Sirven. More 
 fortunate than Voltaire, he delivered an innocent man 
 before it was too late. When passion had cooled, and 
 the rage of party had spent itself, and justice had spoken, 
 France was horrified at the crime which had been com- 
 mitted in her name. She also realized what the papal 
 policy of rallying to the republic meant. ,She saw how 
 her army, her civil service, her voluntary schools, her 
 magistrates, even her ministers and leaders had been 
 ' penetrated ' by Eoman agencies, and duped by the Con- 
 gregation. The Jesuits especially had worked the army. 
 They trained boys successfully for the examinations. So 
 untiring was their zeal, that in a certain examination some 
 of-their pupils knew one of the papers beforehand, and 
 of course .did splendidly. The affair led to questions in 
 the Chamber, -but was hushed up. 1 
 
 7. THE EEPUBLICAN EALLY. 
 
 The first result of the affaire was to rally the republicans. 
 They sank their minor differences, and formed the bloc. 
 For the first time, they united, and used their strength. 
 A Cabinet, with a small majority, under the leadership 
 of "Waldeck-Eousseau, held office for an unprecedented 
 time. The second and the inevitable result of the affaire 
 was an effort to deal with the religious orders. The whole 
 question had been treated, as we have seen, by "Waldeck- 
 Eousseau, some years before ; and in July 1901, he brought 
 
 in his Association Law. It ordained that no Conqreqrations 
 
 x*>. , iv < -.%r. -,. ~.,y y. ---...^ _^ 
 
 could be formed without authorization : that is, authoriza- 
 1 Debidour, p. 158.
 
 THE EEPUBLICAN RALLY 251 
 
 tion was made obligatory. Congregations already existing, 
 and not authorized, were to apply for authorization. Those 
 which had not applied by a certain date, or which refused 
 to apply, were to be dissolved. Their .goods would be 
 liquidated by the Courts. No unauthorized Congregation 
 was henceforth to teach. These regulations are often 
 described as novel, as inventions of the Godless republic, 
 and so forth. They are, in fact, wholly in the tradition 
 of French law and practice. They can be traced back 
 through the second empire, and Louis Philippe, and the 
 Restoration, to the old regime. In 1749, Chancellor 
 d'Aguesseau ordained that 'no new establishment of 
 chapters, colleges, seminaries, religious houses or communi- 
 ties can be made without the king's leave. All donations 
 made to unauthorized establishments are null. Such 
 donations, if not claimed by the givers, fall to the crown, 
 and are confiscated.' Similar legislation was framed a 
 couple of centuries earlier ' in order that unauthorized 
 property may not fall into mortmain'. The elections of 
 1902 turned on this law. Desperate efforts were made 
 by the clericals and nationalists to beat the government. 
 The nationalists came back a little stronger; but the pro- 
 gressists, the republicans who were not decidedly anti- 
 clerical, lost, and on the whole the government majority 
 was increased in the new Chamber. Waldeck-Rousseau 
 then retired, recommending M. Combes as his successor. 
 M. Combes began to apply the law, to the great indignation 
 and surprise of the communities. In June 1902, he closed 
 127 establishments which had been founded, without 
 authorization, since the passing of the law. And so the 
 
 wonf. nn unfl* rKo^^oT^c. fr Ta.Tiy_pln/..flfl. 
 
 The Report on the Congregations fills two thick volumes 
 quarto, which contain between them 2,221 pages, covered 
 with a bare enumeration of their names, numbers, and 
 property. The total number of Congregations, associations, 
 and communities amounts to 1,546. Their landed property 
 consisted of 48,757 hectares. The value of their property 
 was estimated at 1,071,775,260 francs (about 42,880,000). 
 A vast quantity of their wealth was not covered by these
 
 252 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 returns. It must be pointed out that religious orders were 
 not contemplated by the Concordat ; that all unauthorized 
 orders existed and acquired property at their own peril, 
 knowing the law and the risks, and preferring those risks 
 for the reasons already given; that all Congregations, 
 authorized and unauthorized, exist only by sufferance of 
 the State, they have no rights against the State ; that all 
 these persons and all this property were subject ultimately 
 to a foreign Power, and that they cannot be described 
 as friendly towards the existing institutions of their 
 country. 
 
 The elections of 1902 had returned a radical and socialist 
 majority, which kept firmly together, and supported 
 M. Combes. From that time onwards, the government 
 policy has been endorsed by the country, in every election, 
 by growing majorities. Departmental and municipal 
 elections tell the same story. M. Combes has informed us 
 that when he took office he did not mean to introduce 
 a measure of Separation. He thought the time not oppor- 
 tune, and the policy not ripe ; but that measure, which 
 the liberals still regarded as theoretical and future, was 
 made practical and urgent by the Vatican. The papal 
 Secretary of State forced Separation into the sphere of 
 practical politics. Leo the Thirteenth died in 1903, and 
 was succeeded by Pius the Tenth. Soon afterwards, the 
 President of the republic paid an official visit in Eome 
 to the King of Italy, to celebrate that happy reconciliation 
 between the two countries, which had been separated lor 
 so long, chiefly on account of Eome and the Temporal 
 Power. 
 
 The Vatican was indignant that the head of the French 
 - . 
 
 State should recognize the usurper. .It issued a Note of 
 complaint to the .French government, and to the other 
 Powers. The Notes were stated to , be ^ identical j but it 
 became known that Cardinal Merry .del Val had not said 
 to France precisely what he had said of her. The French 
 nation took fire at this interference .of a foreign Power 
 in her national affairs. The radicals and socialists clamoured 
 for Separation, and far ^. Krftfl^ wjth^tfa Vatican. The
 
 THE REPUBLICAN EALLY 253 
 
 government still delayed ; but then followed the cases of 
 twoJSisEopSj wEo" \vere summoned to Borne, and wiKTwent 
 finally, without the authorization of government. They 
 were condemned there unheard, and! deprived o their 
 
 <fAV+>*^.ft r + ll *A l amLf*i!* f *LnL,^~.*4^*+ j*.^.^ r . r ^ a-h-B-f-^.rpi _ __ | ji -|~i 
 
 sees. All these acts were clearly a violation of tRa 7Ccm- 
 
 . ,. -.*.ivitr-x< ** .WA ,>*.*-'''''* i^f^^ti^+^^^tii+f^tM**^************^*!********* 
 
 cordat ; and the , French .. Ambassadqr_to_ 
 
 recalled. The Chambers approved the rupture of diplo- 
 matic relations ^(th the papacy, " _aii^_'tje_^jjiincin_ left 
 Paris. _Thus the ancient and often intimate relation 
 between France L anc)[ tEe Jjjpntfficat Court was severecl. Its 
 ecclesiastical connexion ,w.itfe v the > : papacy ( i|pL,remauiei4p i , 
 b,e. dealt with. 
 
 8. SEPARATION. 
 
 Various proposals for Separation had been presented to 
 the legislature at different times; but the very notion of 
 it was resisted fiercely by the Vatican and the French 
 clericals. Though the church always protested against the 
 Concordat, it knew better than to wish for its abolition. 
 Experience had proved how advantageous it was to the 
 church, and how little it availed to resist papal encroach- 
 ments, to control the episcopate, or to check the religious 
 orders. All the advantages of the Concordat were with the 
 church: all the disadvantages, with the State. That part 
 of it which professed, however inadequately, to control the 
 papacy and the clergy was repudiated in principle, and 
 calmly ignored in practice. There was no pretence of 
 adhering to the letter of the agreement ; and every 
 attempt to apply the letter of the law was described as 
 persecution. In spite of these unvarying experiences, many 
 liberals still hesitated. Some thought Separation dangerous, 
 as giving too much liberty to the church, and uncontrolled 
 authority to the Vatican. Others thought Separation was 
 an attack on liberty, because it violated the wishes of many 
 catholics. The policy of Separation, however, was taken up 
 seriously, and presented to the Chambers, after the events 
 which have been described. 
 
 No one who reads the calm and learned Rapport of
 
 254 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 M. Lecomte to the Senate, or the eloquent and luminous 
 Rapport of M. Briand to the Chamber of Deputies, can 
 assert that the subject was not presented judicially, and 
 examined from every point of view. The measure itself is 
 liberal and even generous. If as generous a measure of 
 disestablishment should be carried in England, the persons 
 affected by it would not have a substantial grievance. The 
 first Article proclaims liberty of conscience, in the name of 
 the republic, and guarantees the free exercise of all re- 
 ligions, subject only to the necessary regulations for public 
 order. The second Article says the republic neither recog- 
 nizes, nor salaries, nor subsidizes any religion. The various 
 budgets des cultes of the State, the Departments, and the 
 communes are henceforward suppressed, so far as public 
 worship is concerned ; but many chaplaincies are still pro- 
 vided for by public money. The Conseils de Fdbrique and 
 other boards of management for property are dissolved. By 
 Article 3, an official inventory of all such property was 
 ordered, to be made by government officials in the presence 
 of representatives of the religious bodies. These inventories 
 were granted at the request of the Right, of the clericals. 
 They were intended solely for the protection of corporate 
 property, pending its transference to new bodies ; yet they 
 were misrepresented, resisted, and made so far as possible 
 an occasion for disorder. Article 4 provides for the con- 
 veyance of property to the new associations cultuelles, 
 ' which are to comply with the general rules and organiza- 
 tion of the particular religious body which they represent.' 
 It is this clause which has been made the pretext for papal 
 and episcopal resistance ; but this clause is most favourable, 
 perhaps too favourable, to the hierarchy. There is nothing 
 to prevent the clergy from being members of these associa- 
 tions, or even the sole members of them ; and the ultimate 
 control is with the bishops, since they are nominally at 
 the head of the ' organization of religion ', in the Roman 
 catholic body. Moreover, by the principles of that religion, 
 a lawful bishop must be in communion with the Pope, or 
 he ceases to be a recognized part of the ' organization '. 
 The smallest minority of claimants, in case of dispute,
 
 SEPARATION 255 
 
 would thus have a right to the church property if they 
 were recognized by the bishop in communion with Rome. 
 
 So far from promoting schism, or ignoring the hierarchy, 
 this clause made the enjoyment of catholic church property 
 conditional on communion with Rome. From a strict and 
 logical point of view, this clause was reactionary and anti- 
 liberal. Instead of leaving questions of church property to 
 be decided by the majority, they were to be decided, over 
 the heads of the majority, by the fact of communion with 
 the papacy, through the episcopate: a matter with which 
 the secular State has no concern, and which it should not 
 have taken upon itself to enforce or even to decide. Clause 8 
 went on to say that matters of dispute, about property, are 
 to be heard by the Conseil d'fitat, the last and highest 
 French executive tribunal. This, again, has been objected 
 to by clericals and papists. But no other final appeal is 
 possible, without violating the sovereignty of the State. 
 The State must be supreme in all matters of persons and 
 property. It cannot admit a rival sovereignty, and still less 
 a foreign sovereignty, over French affairs. As we have 
 seen recently, in the Scottish Free Church dispute, matters 
 of theology may depend on questions of property; and 
 questions of property must be decided by the Courts of 
 Law. In such matters, there is no difference between an 
 established church and a so-called free church. The mem- 
 bers of both, the property of both, are equally subject to 
 the supreme authority of the State. 
 
 It will be seen, farther, that an equitable system of 
 pensions was provided by the Separation law. Ministers 
 above 60, who have served 30 years, receive three-quarters 
 of their salary for life. Ministers over 45, who have served 
 20 years, receive half their salary for life. Ministers whose 
 ages and services are below these figures receive, after the 
 passing of the law, their whole salary the first year, two- 
 thirds of it the second, one-half of it the third year, and 
 a third of it the fourth year, when the payment ceases. In 
 small communes of 1,000 inhabitants and less, the periods 
 above mentioned are doubled ; so that the State continues 
 its salaries for eight years after the law is passed.
 
 256 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 These are the chief Articles of the Separation Law. The 
 law itself is given in full, in the Appendix, page 269. 
 
 This legislation was initiated by M. Combes. During the 
 course of it, and after the law was passed, the principle of 
 Separation was endorsed by the various electoral organiza- 
 tions of the country. The whole State, the Departments, 
 the municipalities, approved it by large and ever growing 
 majorities. Changes of ministry brought no change of 
 policy in this matter. Every election since the Dreyfus 
 affaire has shown that clericalism is a receding cause. It 
 has lost ground steadily in the old royalist and reactionary 
 districts, which were strongholds of clericalism for a cen- 
 tury after the Eevolution. The Separation Law was passed 
 on December 9, 1905. Except for the few and wholly 
 artificial disturbances over the inventories, the country has 
 remained calm. Not a ripple has disturbed the ordinary 
 smooth current of public life. People waited, with more 
 curiosity than anxiety, to see what the church would do 
 when the time came for applying the law. The vast 
 majority of the clergy, over ninety per cent., applied for 
 their pensions under its terms. The French bishops met, 
 to discuss the new associations cultuelles, which had to 
 be formed if the churches were to be retained, and public 
 worship were to be carried on. It appears that a majority 
 of the bishops were willing to accept the law, and make 
 the best of it. In their opinion, it was canonical and 
 workable. Their proposed scheme, however, was not rati- 
 fied by the Pope, and they were forbidden to accept the 
 law, or to form associations cultuelles. 
 
 The objections of Eome were to clauses 4 and 8. It was 
 alleged that the former ignored the hierarchy, and that 
 the latter gave a final decision, in ecclesiastical matters, to 
 a lay tribunal whose members were not necessarily catho- 
 lics. Neither of these grievances will bear examination, 
 for the reasons already stated. By refusing to form the 
 associations culttielles, that is to accept the legal responsi- 
 bility for churches and their finances, it was calculated that 
 the law would be made impracticable, that the churches 
 would be closed, and that confusion or grave disturbance
 
 SEPARATION 257 
 
 would ensue. The government did not oblige those who 
 were pining for martyrdom, or playing for rebellion. It 
 left the financial matter in suspense, and ordained that 
 service might be held if legal notice were given, as for any 
 other public meeting. The giving of that notice was then 
 forbidden by the Vatican, on the pretext that the per- 
 mission depended only on a ministerial order, and therefore 
 had no permanent security. The Ministry met this objec- 
 tion by a short Bill, which put the matter on a legal 
 footing. As the Vatican repeated its objection, the govern- 
 ment repealed the law requiring any notification for 
 public meetings, including religious services. Since then, 
 the French bishops have had another meeting; and they 
 have issued a new proposal, which is approved or inspired 
 by the Vatican. They have demanded that the churches 
 shall be made over to the parish priests for eighteen years, 
 that the agreements shall not be valid unless each of them 
 is countersigned by the bishop within a few days of its 
 execution ; and that every change of incumbent must be 
 approved by the bishop in the same way before the agree- 
 ment is ratified by the public authority. The bishops 
 demanded, in addition, that these terms must be accepted 
 by every local authority in France without any exception ; 
 otherwise, the proposal is withdrawn. They must be 
 obeyed, not only by government and the Chambers, but 
 by every maire in all the thirty thousand communes 
 throughout the country. Their proposal is an ultimatum, 
 arrogant in its tone, almost impracticable in its terms. The 
 matter is still outstanding, and it remains to be seen how 
 the government will act. The action of the bishops cannot 
 be described as conciliatory to the nation, and it betrays 
 a curious mistrust of the parochial clergy. 
 
 It may be asked, Why does the Vatican reject evrey 
 proposal, though the rejection involves a grave monetary 
 loss, throws the ordinary life and worship of the church 
 into confusion, and seems to endanger the continuance or 
 even the existence of French Catholicism? It appears to 
 be a suicidal policy, and to have no adequate reason. The 
 Pope has tried to answer this question by appealing to the
 
 258 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 ' organic laws ' of the church, which he says are violated 
 by the project of Separation. But there are no { organic laws ' 
 of the church. It has always proved itself adaptable and 
 variable. If certain primitive canons might be called 'or- 
 ganic', they have been rendered obsolete long ago by the 
 encroachments of the papacy itself. 
 
 The real reason for the Pope's obduracy is that the French 
 government has ignored the papacy in the negotiation. 
 Pius the Tenth repudiates the Separation Law for pre- 
 cisely the same reason which made Pius the Sixth ignore 
 the Constitution Civile. In each case, France has managed 
 its own affairs without consulting the papacy. If this pro- 
 cedure were admitted by Rome, it would endanger the 
 whole papal system. If it were recognized as a precedent, 
 other countries and churches might utilize it. The Con- 
 stitution Civile acknowledged the primacy of Rome, and 
 made communion with the bishop of Rome obligatory ; but 
 the papacy wants more than this : it wants jurisdiction, 
 domination. On the other hand, the French government 
 claims to be a sovereign power ; and it cannot admit that 
 any foreign authority has the right to intervene between 
 itself and its own subjects, in a matter of property and 
 persons. We have thus come back, on a practical issue, to 
 that incompatibility, between the papal claims and a full 
 sovereignty of the civil power, which underlies all the 
 history that we have been considering. The claim of Pius 
 the Tenth is the claim of Boniface the Eighth, of Innocent 
 the Third, of Gregory the Seventh. 
 
 In feudal times, the Popes tried to make the European 
 sovereigns into vassals of the Holy See, and to treat the 
 national churchea as fiefs of the Roman bishopric. Under 
 the Renaissance monarchies, they claimed to depose sove- 
 reigns, and release subjects from their allegiance. In modern 
 times, the Pope claims the right of ordering his subjects 
 to disobey any civil law of which he does not approve. 
 He does not go through the form of excommunicat- 
 ing obnoxious administrators, and releasing subjects from 
 their allegiance, but he does practically the same thing 
 when he says that legislation is unacceptable to him, and
 
 SEPAEATION 259 
 
 when he goes on to order that it shall be disobeyed. In 
 comparison with these tremendous claims, the monetary- 
 losses of a national church, the sufferings of its clergy, and 
 the interruption of its religious life, are all secondary 
 affairs in the estimation of the Vatican. So the matter 
 rests for the present, between the two Powers whose claims 
 are incompatible. For many centuries, a compromise was 
 possible, because the incompatibility was dissembled. Philip 
 the Fourth and Boniface the Eighth came to open war, to 
 blows. Neither side ever really gave way, but a Working 
 agreement was patched up. The Bourbon kings and the 
 Tridentine papacy agreed to differ. Gallicanism and 
 Romanism pretended to form one church. Since then, the 
 two Powers have both changed, and have both developed. 
 France has carried through her Revolution. In spite of 
 opposition and reaction, she is beginning to realize and 
 apply all that she has gained. She has deposed a pseudo- 
 theocracy, and established the Rights of Man. The papacy, 
 also, has developed. It has drawn up the Syllabus, declaring 
 implacable war against the Revolution. It has made its 
 chief infallible ; and, by so doing, it has centralized and 
 concentrated its organization. It is difficult to see how any 
 agreement is possible, without a sacrifice of principle. It 
 remains to be seen which side will be forced to make the 
 sacrifice. 
 
 9. CONCLUSION. 
 
 On the practical side of this question, we may perhaps 
 draw some conclusions from our investigation of the past. 
 It is asserted perpetually that the salaries given to the 
 clergy by the Concordat were a compensation, an equivalent, 
 for the church property which the nation had resumed in 
 1789 ; and that the State is committing a breach of trust, 
 or an act of spoliation, when it withdraws these salaries, 
 and abrogates the Concordat. The course of this history 
 will, I trust, have shown that these arguments are fallacious. 
 From Mirabeau downwards, from Bossuet even, these views 
 have been refuted. "When the Constitution Civile was legal- 
 ized, when Separation was voted in 1794, when the Concordat 
 
 s 2
 
 260 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 was being prepared, it was stated on one side, and admitted 
 on the other, that the salaries of the clergy were neither 
 a compensation nor a debt. They were not an equivalent 
 for the property of the old First Order, which was dissolved, 
 and had no heir except the State. They were salaries paid 
 for services done ; and they are terminable, like any other 
 salaries, when circumstances change. When these salaries 
 were voted, the majority of Frenchmen were, or professed 
 to be, catholics. Though Catholicism was not made the 
 religion de I'fitat by the Concordat, it was the religion of 
 the majority of the nation. It cannot be so described 
 now. Circumstances have changed. It is equitable that 
 financial relations should be modified to suit existing circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Again, we hear continually that the republic ' persecutes ' 
 the religious orders. No doubt the republic has been 
 severe to some of them, and with sufficient reason. But 
 the republic has only applied laws which every French 
 government has administered without question. It is not 
 the government which has innovated or changed. It is the 
 church, or rather the papacy, which has changed since the 
 opening of the nineteenth century. 
 
 The present controversy in France gives us the measure 
 of this change. It is an object-lesson in Vaticanism. Not 
 a single article of the faith is disputed or impeded by the 
 French government. The whole difference is material, 
 financial, administrative. It is merely une affaire de 
 sacristie, hardly beyond the competence, one would have 
 thought, of the parochial authorities, certainly within the 
 jurisdiction of the episcopate. Yet what do we see ? The 
 episcopate of what was once the proudest, the strongest, the 
 most independent church in Christendom is now unable to 
 decide in a matter, not of doctrine, not even of discipline, but 
 only of administration. When it does decide, it is overborne, 
 and made to retract. Apparently, it is unable to produce 
 a leader, an initiator. If this be the result after less than 
 forty years of Vaticanism, those who value French Catholicism 
 must look forward with dismay to its probable degradation 
 in another century.
 
 CONCLUSION 261 
 
 There are other reasons, too, which must be disquieting 
 for the admirers of French Catholicism. For many years 
 past, it has given itself over to new and extravagant devo- 
 tions, which would have shocked the graver piety of its 
 Fenelons and Bossuets. The material worship of the sacred 
 heart, of the holy face, of Christ's bodily organs, as dis- 
 tinguished from his entire person ; the growing and 
 extravagant honours paid to his parents ; the delirium over 
 Saint Antony of Padua, and all the strange requests 
 made to him ; the pilgrimages, the miracles, the visions, 
 the revelations of hell and purgatory ; all these things, as 
 propagated in the sacerdotal Press, and recommended in 
 books of piety, must fill thoughtful observers with surprise, 
 or with misgiving. The clerical Press itself is a portent. 
 It can only be described as the cloaca maxima of Europe. 
 Such a Press cannot be handled without contamination. It 
 must be a cause of demoralization and pollution. Through- 
 out this enquiry, quotations must have brought home to my 
 readers the excessive violence with which ecclesiastical 
 arguments are conducted. There is no prudence, no modera- 
 tion, no decency. Everything is stated with exaggeration, 
 in superlatives. Charles the Tenth was abused by clerical 
 fanatics as a heathen, an atheist, because he would not go 
 to every length they wished. It is not surprising that 
 liberal statesmen are denounced in unmeasured language ; 
 but such methods defeat themselves, besides demoralizing 
 those who employ them. They may deceive the public for 
 a time, but they must be fatal in the end to those who use 
 them. 
 
 "We hear much again, from ultramontane sources, about 
 the Freemasons, and their machinations against the church. 
 It is true that early in the nineteenth century, under the 
 pervading despotism of the Holy Alliance, masonic and 
 other societies were utilized by the liberals for political 
 purposes. As political tyranny relaxed, these uses of the 
 secret societies declined. But no doubt they have been 
 used to some extent as centres of liberalism in the battle 
 against clericalism. The Lodges, so far as I know, are 
 advocates chiefly of toleration and liberty. If they have
 
 262 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 used violent language, they have been violently provoked. 
 That they are deliberately and fundamentally anti-christian, 
 I do not believe. That a small minority, however active, 
 can coerce or cajole the great majority of Frenchmen, against 
 their will, is incredible to any one who knows the French 
 people. In all these matters, after the fiasco of Diana 
 Vaughan and the exposures of Leo Taxil, the clericals would 
 do well to show more humility and to practise less credulity. 
 "Whatever influence the Lodges may have, it is undeniable 
 that the Congregation, the innumerable catholic associations, 
 confraternities, and societies, have exercised, and still try to 
 exercise, a secret, an extended, and an organized influence. 
 "When ( delation ' is complained of by the clericals, it may 
 be retorted that delation is one of the gravest evils in the 
 French church. According to the Jesuit principles, it is 
 a duty, a necessity, a virtue. According to our English 
 notions, it is an unpardonable and a deadly vice, odious by 
 whomsoever it is used. I only wish to point out that, before 
 English Eomanists can blame the French liberals for 
 practising it, they should reform their own principles, and 
 recommend their party in France to do the same. 
 
 It may be asked, "What will be the effects of Separation, 
 and what is likely to be the future of French Catholicism ? 
 I will not venture to prophesy ; but it is always possible to 
 examine the past, and to state existing facts. The material 
 results of Separation will probably be very serious. It will 
 winnow the catholics; separating from them that large 
 number of people who adhere passively to a State church 
 that costs them nothing, and may confer social if not pecu- 
 niary advantages. All statistics, and all reports, especially 
 from catholics themselves, show that the number of persons 
 practising their religion, technically 'in the church ', obeying 
 its laws and fulfilling their duties, is a very small per- 
 centage of the whole population. In country places, this 
 shrinkage is evident, and therefore appears more serious ; 
 but it is probably even more serious, though for obvious 
 reasons less evident, in the large towns. In one district, 
 La Brie, of 216,000 inhabitants, 5,200, about 2 per cent., 
 were returned as practising their religion in 1904. Bishop
 
 CONCLUSION 263 
 
 Dupanloup reckoned 37,000 practising catholics in hig 
 diocese, out of a population amounting to 350,000. These 
 figures are all vague ; but the percentage of practising 
 catholics is small. It is not hostility, but indifference, 
 which leads to these results. The effect of them on finance 
 is obvious. When State aid is withdrawn, the burden of 
 maintaining public worship will fall on a comparatively 
 small minority ; and of that minority again, only a fraction 
 will be able and willing to contribute large amounts. From 
 the country districts, it will be very difficult to get any- 
 thing ; and the towns, as a whole, will probably give a dis- 
 agreeable surprise to the episcopate. Roman Catholic 
 missions, which have depended hitherto so largely on 
 France, will probably suffer as the French church finds it 
 even more difficult to meet its expenditure at home. For 
 a similar reason, the contributions of Peter's Pence are 
 likely to be seriously diminished. 
 
 There is a farther question, depending from this one, 
 which will probably cause more anxiety than any other to 
 the episcopate ; namely, the question of the ministry. It 
 has not been easy hitherto, for many years past, to recruit 
 the clergy. The new state of things will add to this diffi- 
 culty, which the church of Borne has to face in these days 
 like all other churches. The difficulty is not only financial 
 but intellectual. If it be difficult to get candidates for 
 orders, it is even more difficult to keep them when ordained. 
 History, criticism, the scientific mind and method, find 
 their way into the presbyteries, and even into the seminaries. 
 The traditional theology is giving way before them. No 
 amount of ' authority ' can defend books and traditions 
 which are not able to face the ordinary methods of criticism 
 and examination which are applied in these days as a 
 matter of course, which are the outfit of every thinking 
 man. The world has moved very far in these directions, 
 even since 1870. Then, a few isolated historians opposed 
 the Vatican decree, and had no support. Their words were 
 in a tongue unknown to the clergy. In these days, it would 
 not be possible to carry such a decree, in the face of 
 history. The papal authority itself, and the whole tradi-
 
 264 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 tional theology of the Roman church, are being subjected 
 to a process which must either end them, or transform 
 them. 
 
 There is a liberal catholic school of theology in France 
 of great distinction. It has grown in spite of trouble and 
 persecution. Its members are likely to have more trouble, 
 and more persecution, in the immediate future, as the 
 episcopate narrows, and the regular clergy grow more 
 powerful ; but the ultimate future is with these liberals, 
 unless Catholicism is going to lose all touch with the 
 intelligence and honesty of the modern world. It is not 
 so very long since the church claimed a monopoly of 
 human knowledge. It professed to teach science, and to 
 explain the universe. Its explanations have been proved 
 untrue, and its science is obsolete. The church still pro- 
 fesses to explain infallibly certain books; but science is 
 claiming to prove that the ecclesiastical teaching is mis- 
 taken. When the teaching of the church can be tested, 
 it is not her infallibility that is demonstrated. If we 
 accept modern criticism, then it follows that the church 
 has been grievously mistaken over the interpretation of 
 her own sacred books. Her last claim, which is summed 
 up in the decree of Infallibility, is to explain herself; but 
 that claim is being dissolved by the same historical and 
 critical processes which have modified our traditional notions 
 of the Hebrew scriptures, and of the origin of all religions. 
 For these problems, the Roman church has no better 
 solution than any other Christian society. It can only 
 appeal to its authority ; and that authority can only satisfy 
 those who are already convinced. Those who require 
 convincing will not find any proof or any solution within 
 the Roman church which they cannot find equally with- 
 out it. 
 
 As we look back over the period covered by this history, 
 it is not easy to say what the papacy has done for France, 
 except to cause perpetual friction and disturbance. No 
 article of belief is in dispute now, or has been disputed 
 within the French church, during the whole period which 
 we have considered. The disturbances we meet with were
 
 CONCLUSION 265 
 
 caused entirely by the encroaching papal jurisdiction. Those 
 encroachments have become far more serious and irrecon- 
 cilable since the^papal church has been centralized by the 
 Vatican decree. LA free church in a free State is an excellent 
 ideal ; but, as long as the papal church is highly organized, 
 under a foreign executive, it is hardly accurate to call it free. 
 No civil government can admit an international society 
 within its frontiers, which claims a sovereignty over its 
 subjects, and unlimited rights over property: especially 
 if the subjects and property are formed into corporations 
 which will not submit to the ordinary legislation and 
 control of the Stated The difference between these rival 
 claimants appears to be insoluble. On the other hand, 
 though the difference is not soluble by the State in its 
 public capacity, it is evidently being solved indirectly 
 by the public. As we have seen, during the Revolution, 
 under the first empire, the papacy could stir up grave 
 troubles in France. Even under the second empire, Pius 
 the Ninth could coerce an unstable dynasty : but Pius the 
 Tenth seems unable to cause any serious trouble to a de- 
 mocratic and popular government. The mass of the people 
 are evidently with the government, and not with the 
 papacy. A solution, therefore, seems eventually not im- 
 possible. The clergy may be conquered in the end by 
 coups de liberty, though they have triumphed previously 
 by repression and persecution. As both sides saw clearly, 
 this battle had to be decided in the schools ; and the 
 legislation of Jules Ferry and Paul Bert is now contributing 
 to the victory of the third republic. 
 
 Though there has been a conflict of principles between 
 the Revolution and the papacy, it is not proved, as I think, 
 that the third republic has been ' persecuting ' or actively 
 hostile to the church. It has generally acted on the de- 
 fensive, and has seldom tried to enforce the strict letter 
 of the law. Even so, the Concordat has not worked 
 smoothly. Mr. Bodley describes the Concordat as 'the 
 statute or treaty of 1801, under which Church and State 
 lived at peace in France for a century'. 1 I had no in- 
 1 The Church in France, p. 114.
 
 266 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 tention of refuting Mr. Bodley; but the facts, which 
 I have left so far as possible to tell their own story, seem 
 to convey to us, that since 1801 France has been disturbed 
 unceasingly by the church question at home, or by the 
 Roman question abroad. I admit, with Mr. Bodley, that 
 ' the Concordat was the work of a stupendous genius ' ; l 
 but I can't see that Napoleon's genius is demonstrated by 
 the Concordat. Nor did Napoleon think this himself. He 
 pronounced the Concordat the great mistake of his reign ; 
 and, if we may judge by results, the most violent distur- 
 bances caused by it were those which happened in the 
 earliest years of its existence. 
 
 Another conclusion, perhaps, which we might draw is 
 this. France is too commonly held by us, or described 
 by us, as changeable, unstable, revolutionary. At first sight, 
 this charge might appear true : but, if we examine care- 
 fully, and sift the facts, we shall find throughout French 
 history a disturbing element, not native, but foreign. 
 That element is the papacy, acting directly, or through 
 the national church. It is impossible not to see that the 
 action of the church preceded and led up to the worst 
 excesses of the Revolution. The same influence, modified 
 happily in its powers of action, but even more violent in 
 its expression, has impeded and tried to hinder the natural 
 development of the Revolution. Hence the ferment and 
 the troubles of the last thirty years. The policy which 
 is expressed by the term Vaticanism has, indeed, caused 
 much trouble to the State; but it has been absolutely 
 ruinous to the church. The church had a splendid oppor- 
 tunity, and every advantage, under the Restoration. By 
 misusing those opportunities, it caused the reaction of 
 1830. It had almost greater opportunities in 1848, and 
 they were all wasted in mere violence and aggression. 
 Even in 1871, all the trumps were in the hands of the 
 church, and they were all wasted. We have seen how the 
 great liberal catholics have, one and all, been treated. Our 
 history has shown us that the ultramontane leaders will 
 make no terms with liberalism. They identify Catholicism, 
 1 The Church in France, p. 114.
 
 CONCLUSION 267 
 
 and even Christianity, with the most rigid form of 
 clericalism. For consumption in England, Catholicism is 
 often minimized ; but when presented by its official organs, 
 from the papacy downwards, there is no minimizing. We 
 are always told that we have to deal with an infallible 
 authority, with the literal words of the Syllabus, pressed 
 to their extreme conclusions. Those are principles which, 
 at any rate, we can understand. 
 
 There are many illogical positions in this world, especially 
 in theology; but there are few, as I think, so pathetic 
 as the theological position of a man like the late Lord 
 Acton. He believed his church to be infallible: but he 
 also believed the organ and the only expression of infalli- 
 bility was the chief obstacle to the success and progress 
 of the church. French liberals have, as a rule, a juster 
 and clearer notion of the papacy than most non-catholics 
 and even than many catholics in England. At any rate, 
 they take the authorities of the church at their word, 
 when they identify Christianity with the church, and the 
 church with clericalism. It is not surprising that French 
 liberals are anti-clerical. The church never lets them for- 
 get the incompatibility between itself and the Revolution. 
 Every Frenchman has to choose between the principles 
 of 1789, and the principles of the Syllabus. It is not 
 surprising, either, under these circumstances, that anti- 
 clerical passion is often expressed in terms which are anti- 
 christian. For my own part, if I thought, as ultramontanes 
 assert, that clericalism and papalism were necessarily in- 
 herent in Christianity, I also should reject Christianity as 
 more harmful than beneficial to human progress and well- 
 being. So, I think, would the Founder of Christianity ; 
 and he, perhaps, has been too much overlooked as a possible 
 arbiter in this debate. 
 
 Finally, let us remember that Separation means what 
 the word implies. It does not mean an altered relation 
 with the papacy, or a new relation. It means having no 
 official relation at all. That is why Rome is so discon- 
 certed, and so pertinacious. What the result may be, no 
 one can say. Fortunate are those who seem likely to witness
 
 268 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 the results in another fifty years. The evils which have 
 been prophesied for the last century have not happened. 
 France is more stable, more prosperous, more moral, more 
 educated, now than it was then. It is impossible to read 
 the published volumes of M. Hanotaux' France Contem- 
 poraine without being struck by four things: the mar- 
 vellous recuperation of the country after the war; the 
 steady progress and working out of the ideals of 1789, 
 in spite of both friends and enemies ; the long roll of 
 distinguished names which honours the third republic, and 
 maintains the traditional reputation of France ; the high 
 civilization which permeates the whole country, and is 
 so evidently the heritage, not of a class, but of the people. 
 A century ago, France was the pioneer of Europe in politics. 
 It may be reserved for her logic and her equity to be our 
 pioneer in resolving that problem which is expressed by 
 the term socialism. It is not impossible that France may 
 give us a solution of that religious question which is being 
 presented to all the nations, and all the churches. The 
 whole tendency of modern thought and institutions seems to 
 indicate that it is not the churches which will give the final 
 answer. I believe that Separation is inevitable, and will be 
 beneficial, and will not be limited to France.
 
 APPENDIX 
 LOI DU 9 DfiCEMBKE 1905 
 
 CONCERNANT LA SEPARATION DES tiGLISES ET 
 DE L'^TAT 
 
 TITRE I 
 
 PRINCIPES. 
 
 Art. l er . La R6publique assure la liberty de conscience. Elle 
 garantit le libre exercice des cultes sous les seules restrictions 
 6dictees ci-apres dans I'int6ret de 1'ordre public. 
 
 Art 2. La R6publique ne reconnait, ne salarie ni ne subven- 
 tionne aucun culte. En consequence, a partir du 1 OT Janvier qui 
 suivra la promulgation de la pr^sente loi, seront supprim6es des 
 budgets de 1'^ltat, des departements et des communes, toutes 
 depenses relatives a 1'exercice des cultes. Pourront toutefois etre 
 inscrites auxdits budgets les depenses relatives a des services 
 d'aumonerie et destinies a assurer le libre exercice des cultes dans 
 les Stablissements publics, tels que Iyc6es, colleges, 6coles, hospices, 
 asiles et prisons. 
 
 Les etablissements publics du culte sont supprimes, sous re- 
 serve des dispositions enonc6es a 1'article 3. 
 
 TITRE II 
 
 ATTRIBUTION DES BIENS. PENSIONS. 
 
 Art. 3. Les 6tablissements dont la suppression est ordonnee 
 par 1'article 2 continueront provisoirement de fonctionner, con- 
 form6ment aux dispositions qui les regissent actuellement, jusqu'a 
 1'attribution de leurs biens aux associations pr6vues par le titre IV 
 et au plus tard jusqu'a 1'expiration du delai ci-apres. 
 
 Des la promulgation de la presente loi, il sera proced6 par les 
 agents de 1'Administration des domaines a 1'inventaire descriptif 
 et estimatif : 
 
 1 Des biens mobiliers et immobiliers desdits etablissements ;
 
 270 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 2 Des biens de 1'Etat, des dEpartements et des communes 
 dont les memes Etablissements ont la jouissance. 
 
 Ce double inventaire sera dressE contradictoirement avec les 
 representants legaux des Etablissements ecclesiastiques ou eux 
 dument appelEs par une notification faite en la forme adminis- 
 trative. 
 
 Les agents charges de 1'inventaire auront le droit de se faire 
 communiquer tous titres et documents utiles a leurs operations. 
 
 Art. 4. Dans le delai d'un an a partir de la promulgation de 
 la prEsente loi, les biens mobiliers et immobiliers des menses, 
 fabriques, conseils presbytEriaux, consistoires et autres Etablis- 
 sements publics du culte seront, avec toutes les charges et obliga- 
 tions qui les grevent et avec leur affectation spEciale, transfErEs 
 par les representants legaux de ces Etablissements aux associations 
 qui, en se conformant aux regies d'organisation gEnErale du culte 
 dont elles se proposent d'assurer 1'exercice, se seront legalement 
 formers, suivant les prescriptions de 1'article 19, pour 1'exercice de 
 ce culte dans les anciennes circonscriptions desdits etablissements. 
 
 Art. 5. Ceux des biens designes a 1'article prEcEdent qui 
 proviennent de 1'Etat et qui ne sont pas grevEs d'une fondation 
 pieuse creee posterieurement a la loi du 18 germinal an X feront 
 retour a 1'Etat. 
 
 Les attributions de biens ne pourront tre faites par les Etablis- 
 sements ecclEsiastiques qu'un mois apres la promulgation du 
 reglement d'administration publique prevu a 1'article 43. Faute 
 de quoi la nullitE pourra en etre demandee devant le tribunal 
 civil par toute partie interessEe ou par le ministere public. 
 
 En cas d'aliEnation par 1'association cultuelle de valeurs mobi- 
 lieres ou d'immeubles faisant partie du patrimoine de 1'Etablis- 
 sement public dissous, le montant du produit de la vente devra 
 etre employE en titres de rente nominatifs ou dans les conditions 
 prevues au paragraphe 2 de 1'article 22. 
 
 L'acquEreur des biens aliEnEs sera personnellement responsable 
 de la rEgularitE de cet emploi. 
 
 Les biens revendiques par 1'Etat, les dEpartements ou les com- 
 munes ne pourront etre aliEnes, transformes ni modifies jusqu'a 
 ce qu'il ait EtE statue sur la revendication par les tribunaux 
 compE tents. 
 
 Art. 6. Les associations attributaires des biens des Etablis- 
 sements ecclEsiastiques supprimes seront tenues des dettes de ces 
 etablissements ainsi que de leurs emprunts, sous rEserve des
 
 APPENDIX 271 
 
 dispositions du troisieme paragraphs du present article ; tant 
 qu'elles ne seront pas liberees de ce passif, elles auront droit a la 
 jouissance des biens productifs de revenus qui doivent faire retour 
 a 1'Etat en vertu de 1'article 5. 
 
 Le revenu global desdits biens reste affecte au payement du 
 reliquat des dettes regulieres et legales de I'etablissement public 
 supprim6, lorsqu'il ne se sera form6 aucune association cultuelle 
 apte a recueillir le patrinioine de cet etablissement. 
 
 Les annuites des emprunts contract's pour depenses relatives 
 aux edifices religieux seront supporters par les associations en 
 proportion du temps pendant lequel elles auront 1'usage de ces 
 edifices par application des dispositions du titre III. 
 
 Dans le cas oil 1'Etat, les departements ou les communes rentre- 
 ront en possession de ceux des Edifices dont ils sont proprietaires, 
 ils seront responsables des dettes regulierement contractees et 
 afferentes auxdits edifices. 
 
 Art. 7. Les biens mobiliers ou immobiliers greves d'une 
 affectation charitable ou de toute autre affectation etrangere 
 a 1'exercice du culte seront attribues, par les representants legaux 
 des etablissements ecclesiastiques, aux services ou etablissements 
 publics ou d'utilit6 publique dont la destination est conforme 
 a celle desdits biens. Cette attribution devra etre approuvee par 
 le prefet du de"partement oil siege I'etablissement ecclesiastique. 
 En cas de non-approbation, il sera statue par decret en Conseil 
 d'Etat. 
 
 Toute action en reprise ou en revendication devra etre exercee 
 dans un delai de six mois a partir du jour oil I'arret6 pr6fectoral 
 ou le decret approuvant 1'attribution aura ete insere au Journal 
 officiel. L'action ne pourra tre intentee qu'en raison de dona- 
 tions ou de legs et seulement par les auteurs et leurs heritiers en 
 ligne directe. 
 
 Art. 8. Faute par un etablissement ecclesiastique d'avoir, 
 dans le delai fixe par 1'article 4, proced6 aux attributions ci-dessus 
 prescrites, il y sera pourvu par d6cret. 
 
 A 1'expiration dudit d6lai, les biens a attribuer seront, jusqu'a 
 leur attribution, places sous s'questre. 
 
 Dans le cas oil les biens attributes en vertu de 1'article 4 et du 
 paragraphe l er du present article seront, soit des 1'origine, soit 
 dans la suite, reclames par plusieurs associations formees pour 
 1'exercice du meme culte, 1'attribution qui en aura et6 faite par les 
 representants de I'etablissement ou par decret pourra etre contested
 
 272 CHUECH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 devant le Conseil d'etat statuant au contentieux, lequel pronon- 
 cera en tenant compte de toutes les circonstances de fait. 
 
 La demande sera introduite devant le Conseil d'etat, dans le 
 delai d'un an a partir de la date du decret ou partir de la notifi- 
 cation, a Pautorite prefectorale, par les repr^sentants legaux des 
 6tablissements publics du culte, de 1'attribution effectuee par eux. 
 Cette notification devra etre faite dans le delai d'un mois. 
 
 L'attribution pourra etre ult^rieurement contestee en cas de 
 scission dans 1'association nantie, de creation d'association nouvelle 
 par suite d'une modification dans le territoire de la circonscription 
 eccl6siastique et dans le cas ou 1'association attributaire n'est plus 
 en mesure de remplir son objet. 
 
 Art. 9. A defaut de toute association pour recueillir les biens 
 d'un 6tablissement public du culte, ces biens seront attribues par 
 decret aux 6tablissements communaux d'assistance ou de bienfai- 
 sance situ6s dans les limites territoriales de la circonscription 
 ecclesiastique interessee. 
 
 En cas de dissolution d'une association, les biens qui lui auront 
 6t6 d6volus en execution des articles 4 et 8 seront attribues par 
 decret rendu en Conseil d'etat, soit a des associations analogues 
 dans la meme circonscription, ou a leur defaut, dans les circon- 
 scriptions les plus voisines, soit aux etablissements vises au para- 
 graphe l er du present article. 
 
 Toute action en reprise ou en revendication devra etre exerce'e 
 dans un delai de six mois a partir du jour ou le decret aura ete 
 ins6r6 au Journal officiel. L'action ne pourra etre intentee qu'en 
 raison de donations ou de legs et seulement par les auteurs et leurs 
 heritiers en ligne directe. 
 
 Art. 10. Les attributions pr^vues par les articles pr6c6dents 
 ne donnent lieu a aucune perception au profit du Tresor. 
 
 Art. 11. Les ministres des cultes qui, lors de la promulga- 
 tion de la present e loi, seront ages de plus de 60 ans revolus et 
 qui auront, pendant trente ans au moins, rempli les fonctiona 
 eccl6siastiques remun6rees par 1'Etat, recevront une pension 
 annuelle et viagere egale aux trois quarts de leur traitement. 
 
 Ceux qui seront ag6s de plus de 45 ans et qui auront, pendant 
 vingt ans au moins, rempli des fonctions ecclesiastiques remune- 
 r6es par 1'Etat, recevront une pension annuelle et viagere egale 
 a la moiti6 de leur traitement. 
 
 Les pensions allouees par les deux paragraphes precedents ne 
 pourront pas depasser 1,500 francs.
 
 APPENDIX 273 
 
 En cas de deces des titulaires ces pensions seront r6versibles, 
 jusqu'a concurrence de la moiti6 de leur montant, au profit de la 
 veuve et des orphelins mineurs Iaiss6s par le defunt et, jusqu'a 
 concurrence du quart, au profit de la veuve sans enfants mineurs. 
 A la majorite des orphelins, leur pension s'6teindra de plein 
 droit. 
 
 Les ministres des cultes actuellement salaries par 1'Etat qui ne 
 seront pas dans les conditions ci-dessus, recevront, pendant quatre 
 ans a partir de la suppression du budget des cultes, une allocation 
 egale a la totalite de leur traitement pour la premiere annee, aux 
 deux tiers pour la deuxieme, a la moitie pour la troisieme, au tiers 
 pour la quatrieme. 
 
 Toutefois, dans les communes de moins de 1,000 habitants et 
 pour les ministres des cultes qui continueront a y remplir leurs 
 fonctions, la duree de chacune des quatre p^riodes ci-dessus indi- 
 qu6es sera doubled. 
 
 Les departements et les communes pourront, sous les memes 
 conditions que 1'Etat, accorder aux ministres des cultes actuelle- 
 ment salaries par eux des pensions ou des allocations etablies sur 
 la meme base et pour une egale dur6e. 
 
 K6serve est faite des droits acquis en matiere de pensions par 
 application de la legislation anterieure, ainsi que des secours 
 accordes, soit aux anciens ministres des differents cultes, soit 
 a leurs families. 
 
 Les pensions prevues aux deux premiers paragraphes du present 
 article ne pourront se cumuler avec toute autre pension ou tout 
 autre traitement allou6, a un titre quelconque par 1'Etat, les 
 departements ou les communes. 
 
 La loi du 27 juin 1885, relative au personnel des facultes de 
 th6ologie catholique supprim^es, est applicable aux professeurs, 
 charges de cours, maitres de conferences et etudiants des facultes 
 de th6ologie protestante. 
 
 Les pensions et allocations pr6vues ci-dessus seront incessibles 
 et insaisissables dans les mSmes conditions que les pensions 
 civiles. Elles cesseront de plein' droit en cas de condamnation 
 a une peine afflictive ou infamante ou en cas de condamnation 
 pour 1'un des delits pr^vus aux articles 34 et 35 de la presente loi. 
 
 Le droit a 1'obtention ou a la jouissance d'une pension ou allo- 
 cation sera suspendu par les circonstances qui font perdre la 
 qualite de Francais, durant la privation de cette quality. 
 
 Les demandes de pension devront etre, sous peine de forclu- 
 
 T
 
 274 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 sion, formees dans le delai d'un an apres la promulgation de la 
 presente loi. 
 
 TITEE III 
 
 DES EDIFICES DBS CULTES. 
 
 Art. 12. Les edifices qui ont ete mis a la disposition de la 
 nation et qui, en vertu de la loi du 18 germinal an X, servent 
 a 1'exercice public des cultes ou au logement de leurs ministres 
 (cathedrales, eglises, chapelles, temples, synagogues, archeveches, 
 6veches, presbyteres, seminaires), ainsi que leurs d6pendances 
 immobilieres et les objets mobiliers qui les garnissaient au mo- 
 ment ou lesdits edifices ont ete remis aux cultes, sont et demeu- 
 rent proprietes de 1'Etat, des departements et des communes. 
 
 Pour ces edifices, comme pour ceux posterieurs a la loi du 18 
 germinal an X, dont 1'Etat, les departements et les communes 
 seraient proprietaires, y compris les Facult6s de theologie protes- 
 tante, il sera precede conform6ment aux dispositions des articles 
 suivants. 
 
 Art. 13. Les edifices servant a 1'exercice public du culte, ainsi 
 que les objets mobiliers les garnissant, seront laisses gratuitement 
 a la disposition des 6tablissements publics du culte, puis des 
 associations appelees a les remplacer auxquelles les biens de ces 
 etablissements auront 6te attribu6s par application des dispositions 
 du titre II. 
 
 La cessation de cette jouissance, et, s'il y a lieu, son transfert 
 seront prononces par decret, sauf recours au Conseil d'Etat 
 statuant au contentieux: 
 
 1 Si 1'association beneficiaire est dissoute ; 
 2 Si, en dehors des cas de force majeure, le culte cesse d'etre 
 celebr6 pendant plus de six mois cons6cutifs ; 
 
 3 Si la conservation de 1'edifice ou celle des objets mobiliers 
 classes en vertu de la loi de 1887 et de la presente loi est compro- 
 mise par insuffisance d'entretien, et apres mise en demeure 
 dument notifiee du Conseil municipal ou, a son defaut, du prefet ; 
 4 Si 1'associatioii cesse de remplir son objet ou si les edifices 
 sont detourn6s de leur destination ; 
 
 5 Si elle ne satisfait pas soit aux obligations de 1'article 6 du 
 dernier paragraphe du present article, soit aux prescriptions 
 relatives aux monuments historiques. 
 
 La desaffectation de ces immeubles pourra, dans les cas ci-dessus
 
 APPENDIX 275 
 
 pr6vus. Stre prononcee par d6cret rendu en Conseil d'etat. En 
 dehors de ces cas, elle ne pourra 1'etre que par une loi. 
 
 Lea immeubles autrefois affectes aux cultes et dans lesquels les 
 c6r6monies du culte n'auront pas 6t6 celebrees pendant le delai 
 d'un an ant6rieurement a la presente loi, ainsi que ceux qui ne 
 seront pas reclames par une association cultuelle dans le delai de 
 deux ans apres sa promulgation, pourront etre desaffectes par 
 d6cret. 
 
 II en est de meme pour les Edifices dont la desaffectation aura 
 6t6 demandee anterieurement au l er juin 1905. 
 
 Les 6tablissements publics du culte, puis les associations ben6- 
 ficiaires seront tenus des reparations de toute nature, ainsi que des 
 frais d'assurance et autres charges aff^rentes aux edifices et aux 
 meubles les garnissant. 
 
 Art. 14. Les arch.evecb.6s, 6vches, les presbyteres et leurs 
 dependances, les grands seminaires et Facultes de theologie pro- 
 testante seront laisses gratuitement a la disposition des etablis- 
 sements publics du culte, puis des associations pr6vues a 1'article 
 1 3, savoir : les archeveches et les eveches pendant une periode de 
 deux annees ; les presbyteres dans les communes oil r6sidera le 
 ministre du culte, les grands seminaires et Facult6s de theologie 
 protestante pendant cinq annees a partir de la promulgation de la 
 presente loi. 
 
 Les etablissements et associations sont soumis, en ce qui con- 
 cerne ces Edifices, aux obligations prevues par le dernier para- 
 graphe de 1'article 13. Toutefois ils ne seront pas tenus des 
 grosses reparations. 
 
 La cessation de la jouissance des 6tablissements et associations 
 sera prononc^e dans les conditions et suivant les formes d6ter- 
 min6es par 1'article 13. Les dispositions des paragraphes 3 et 5 
 du meme article sont applicables aux edifices vises par le para- 
 graphe l er du present article. 
 
 La distraction des parties superflues des presbyteres laisses a la 
 disposition des associations cultuelles pourra, pendant le delai 
 pr6vu au paragraphs l er , etre prononcee pour un service public 
 par decret rendu en Conseil d'Etat. 
 
 A 1'expiration des delais de jouissance gratuite, la libre disposi- 
 tion des Edifices sera rendue a 1'Etat, aux d^partements ou aux 
 communes. 
 
 Les indemnity de logement incombant actuellement aux com- 
 munes, a defaut de presbytere, par application de Particle 136 de 
 
 T 2
 
 276 CHUKCH AND STATE IN FKANCE 
 
 la loi du 5 avril 1884, resteront a leur charge pendant le delai de 
 cinq ans. Elles cesseront de plein droit en cas de dissolution de 
 1'association. 
 
 Art. 15. Dans les departements de la Savoie, de la Haute- 
 Savoie et des Alpes-Maritimes, la jouissance des edifices anterieurs 
 a la loi du 18 germinal an X, servant a 1'exercice des cultes ou au 
 logement de leurs ministres, sera attribute par les communes sur 
 les territoires desquelles ils se trouvent, aux associations cultuelles, 
 dans les conditions indiquees par les articles 12 et suivants de la 
 pr6sente loi. En dehors de ces obligations, les communes pour- 
 ront disposer librement de la propriete de ces Edifices. 
 
 Dans ces memes departements, les cimetieres resteront la pro- 
 priete des communes. 
 
 Art. 16. II sera procede a un classement complementaire des 
 edifices servant a 1'exercice public du culte (cathedrales, eglises, 
 chapelles, temples, synagogues, archeveches, eveches, presbyteres, 
 s^minaires), dans lequel devront etre compris tous ceux de ces 
 edifices representant, dans leur ensemble ou dans leurs parties, 
 une valeur artistique ou historique. 
 
 Les objets mobiliers ou les immeubles par destination men- 
 tionn6s a 1'article 13, qui n'auraient pas encore ete inscrits sur la 
 liste de classement dressee en vertu de la loi du 30 mars 1887, 
 sont, par 1'effet de la presente loi, ajoutes a ladite liste. II sera 
 procede par le ministre de 1'Instruction publique et des Beaux- 
 Arts, dans le delai de trois ans, au classement definitif de ceux de 
 ces objets dont la conservation presenterait, au point de vue de 
 Thistoire ou de 1'art, un interet sufiisant. A 1'expiration de ce 
 delai, les autres objets seront declasses de plein droit. 
 
 En outre, les immeubles et les objets mobiliers, attribues en 
 vertu de la presente loi aux associations, pourront etre classes 
 dans les mmes conditions que s'ils appartenaient a des etablisse- 
 ments publics. 
 
 II n'est pas deroge, pour le surplus, aux dispositions de la loi du 
 30 mars 1887. 
 
 Les archives ecclesiastiques et bibliotheques existant dans les 
 archeveches, eveches, grands seminaires, paroisses, succursales et 
 leurs dependances, seront inventoriees, et celles qui seront recon- 
 nues propri6te de 1'Etat lui seront restituees. 
 
 Art. 17. Les immeubles par destination classes en vertu de 
 la loi du 30 mars 1887 ou de la presente loi sont inalienables et 
 imprescriptibles.
 
 APPENDIX 277 
 
 Dans le cas oil la rente ou 1'echange d'un objet class6 serait 
 autorise par le ministre de 1'Instruction publique et des Beaux- 
 Arts, un droit de preemption est accorde : 
 1 Aux associations cultuelles ; 
 2 Aux communes ; 
 3 Aux departements ; 
 
 4 Aux musses et societes d'art et d'archeologie ; 
 5 A 1'Etat. Le prix sera fixe par trois experts que designe- 
 ront le vendeur, 1'acquereur et le president du tribunal civil. 
 
 Si aucun des acquereurs vises ci-dessus ne fait usage du droit de 
 preemption, la vente sera libre ; mais il est interdit a 1'acheteur 
 d'un objet classe de le transporter hors de France. 
 
 Nul travail de reparation, restauration ou entretien a faire aux 
 monuments ou objets mobiliers classes ne peut etre commence 
 sans 1'autorisation du ministre des Beaux-Arts, ni execute hors de 
 la surveillance de son administration, sous peine, centre les pro- 
 prietaires, occupants ou detenteurs qui auraient ordonn6 ces 
 travaux, d'une amende de seize a quinze cents francs (16 a 1,500 
 francs). 
 
 Toute infraction aux dispositions ci-dessus ainsi qu'a celles de 
 1'article 16 de la presente loi et des articles 4, 10, 11, 12 et 13 de 
 la loi du 30 mars 1883 sera punie d'une amende de cent a dix 
 mille francs (100 a 10,000 francs) et d'un emprisonnement de six 
 jours a trois mois, ou de 1'une de ces deux peines seulement. 
 
 La visite des edifices et 1'exposition des objets mobiliers classes 
 seront publiques ; elles ne pourront donner lieu a aucune taxe ni 
 redevance. 
 
 TITKE IV 
 
 DES ASSOCIATIONS POUR I/EXERC1CE DES CULTES. 
 
 Art. 18. Les associations formees pour subvenir aux frais, 
 a 1'entretien et a 1'exercice public d'un culte devront etre consti- 
 tuees conformement aux articles 5 et suivants du titre I er de la 
 loi du l er juillet 1901. Elles seront, en outre, soumises aux 
 prescriptions de la pr6sente loi. 
 
 Art 19. Ces associations devront avoir exclusivement pour 
 objet 1'exercice d'un culte et etre composees au moins: 
 
 Dans les communes de moins de 1,000 habitants, de sept 
 personnes ; 
 
 Dans les communes de 1,000 a 20,000 habitants, de quinze 
 personnes ;
 
 278 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 Dans les communes dont le nombre des habitants est superieur 
 a 20,000, de vingt-cinq personnes majeures, domiciliees ou residant 
 dans la circonscription religieuse. 
 
 Chacun de leurs membres pourra s'en retirer en tout temps, 
 apres payement des cotisations echues et de celles de 1'annde 
 courante, nonobstant toute clause contraire. 
 
 Nonobstant toute clause contraire des statuts, les actes de 
 gestion financiere et d'administration legale des biens accomplis 
 par les directeurs ou administrateurs seront, chaque annee au 
 moins, presented au controle de 1'assemblee generale des membres 
 de 1'association et soumis a son approbation. 
 
 Les associations pourront recevoir, en outre des cotisations pre- 
 vues par 1'article 6 de la loi du l er juillet 1901, le produit des 
 quetes et collectes pour les frais du culte, percevoir des retribu- 
 tions : pour les ceremonies et services religieux meme par fonda- 
 tion ; pour la location des banes et sieges ; pour la fourniture des 
 objets destines au service des f unerailles dans les edifices religieux 
 et a la decoration de ces edifices. 
 
 Elles pourront verser, sans donner lieu a perception de droits, 
 le surplus de leurs recettes a d'autres associations constitutes pour 
 le meme objet. 
 
 Elles ne pourront, sous quelque forme que ce soit, recevoir des 
 subventions de 1'Etat, des departements ou des communes. Ne 
 sont pas considerees comme subventions les sommes allouees pour 
 reparations aux monuments classes. 
 
 Art. 20. Ces associations peuvent, dans les formes deter- 
 minees par 1'article 7 du decret du 16 aout 1901, constituer des 
 unions ayant une administration ou une direction centrale ; ces 
 unions seront reglees par 1'article 1 8 et par les cinq derniers para- 
 graphes de 1'article 19 de la presente loi. 
 
 Art. 21. Les associations et les unions tiennent un etat de 
 leurs recettes et de leurs depenses ; elles dressent chaque annee le 
 compte financier de 1'annee ecoulee et 1'etat inventorie de leurs 
 biens, meubles et immeubles. 
 
 Le controle financier est exerce sur les associations et sur les 
 unions par 1'Administration de 1'enregistrement et par 1'Inspection 
 gen6rale des finances. 
 
 Art. 22. Les associations et unions peuvent employer leurs 
 ressources disponibles a la constitution d'un fonds de reserve 
 suffisant pour assurer les frais et 1'entretien du culte et ne pouvant 
 en aucun cas recevoir une autre destination ; le montant de cette
 
 APPENDIX 279 
 
 reserve ne pourra jamais depasser une somme 6gale, pour les 
 unions et associations ayant plus de cinq mille francs (5,000 fr.) de 
 revenu, a trois fois et, pour les autres associations, a six fois la 
 moyenne annuelle des sommes d6pens6es par chacune d'elles pour 
 les frais du culte pendant les cinq derniers exercices. 
 
 Ind6pendamment de cette reserve, qui devra etre plac6e en 
 valeurs nominatives, elles pourront constituer une reserve spSciale 
 dont les fonds devront etre d6pos6s, en argent ou en titres nomi- 
 natifs, a la Caisse des depots et consignations pour etre exclusive- 
 ment affectes, y compris les intents, a 1'achat, a la construction, 
 a la decoration ou a la reparation d'immeubles ou meubles destines 
 aux besoins de 1'association ou de 1'union. 
 
 Art. 23. Seront punis d'une amende de seize francs (16 francs) 
 a deux cents francs (200 francs) et, en cas de recidive, d'une 
 amende double les directeurs ou admin is trateurs d'une association 
 ou d'une union qui auront centre venu aux articles 18, 19, 20, 21 
 et 22. 
 
 Les tribunaux pourront, dans le cas d'infraction au paragraphe 
 l er de Tarticle 22, condamner 1'association ou 1'union a verser 
 1'excedent constat6 aux 6tablissements communaux d'assistance ou 
 de bienfaisance. 
 
 Us pourront, en outre, dans tous les cas prevus au paragraphe 
 l er du present article, prononcer la dissolution de 1'association ou 
 de 1'union. 
 
 Art. 24. Les Edifices affected a 1'exercice du culte appartenant 
 a 1'Etat, aux d6partements ou aux communes continueront a etre 
 exemptes de I'impot foncier et de I'impot des portes et fenetres. 
 
 Les Edifices servant au logement des ministres des cultes, les 
 seminaires, les facult6s de theologie protestante qui appartiennent 
 a 1'Etat, aux d6partements ou aux communes, les biens qui sont 
 la propriety des associations et unions sont soumis aux mSmes 
 impots que ceux des particuliers. 
 
 Les associations et unions ne sont, en aucun cas, assujetties h la 
 taxe d'abonnement ni a celle imposee aux cercles par 1'article 33 
 de la loi du 8 aout 1 890, pas plus qu'k I'impot de 4 % sur le 
 revenu etabli par les lois du 28 decembre 1880 et du 20 d6cembre 
 1884.
 
 280 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 TITEE V 
 
 POLICE DBS CULTES. 
 
 Art. 25. Les reunions pour la celebration d'un culte tenues 
 dans les locaux appartenant a une association cultuelle ou mis a sa 
 disposition sont publiques. Elles sont dispensees des formalites 
 de 1'article 8 de la loi du 30 juin 1881, mais restent placees sous 
 la surveillance des autorites dans 1'interet de 1'ordre public. Elles 
 ne peuvent avoir lieu qu'apres une declaration faite dans les formes 
 de 1'article 2 de la meme loi et indiquant le local dans lequel elles 
 seront tenues. 
 
 Une seule declaration suffit pour I'ensemble des reunions per- 
 manentes, periodiques ou accidentelles qui auront lieu dans 
 1'annee. 
 
 Art. 26. II est interdit de tenir des reunions politiques dans 
 les locaux servant habituellement a 1'exercice d'un culte. 
 
 Art. 27. Les ceremonies, processions et autres manifestations 
 exterieures d'un culte continueront a etre reglees en conformite 
 des articles 95 et 97 de la loi municipale du 5 avril 1884. 
 
 Les sonneries de cloches seront reglees par arret6 municipal, et, 
 en cas de disaccord entre le maire et le president ou directeur de 
 1'association cultuelle, par arrete prefectoral. 
 
 Le reglement d'administration publique prevu par 1'article 43 de 
 la presente loi determinera les conditions et les cas dans lesquels 
 les sonneries civiles pourront avoir lieu. 
 
 Art. 28. II est interdit, a 1'avenir, d'elever ou d'apposer aucun 
 signe ou embleme religieux sur les monuments publics ou en 
 quelque emplacement public que ce soit, a 1'exception des edifices 
 servant au culte, des terrains de sepulture dans les cimetieres, des 
 monuments funeraires. ainsi que des musees ou expositions. 
 
 Art. 29. Les contraventions aux articles precedents sont 
 punies des peines de simple police. 
 
 Sont passibles de ces peines, dans le cas des articles 25, 26 et 27, 
 ceux qui ont organist la reunion ou manifestation, ceux qui y ont 
 participe en quality de ministres du culte et, dans le cas des articles 
 25 et 26, ceux qui ont fourni le local. 
 
 Art. 30. Conformement aux dispositions de 1'article 2 de la 
 loi du 28 mars 1882, 1'enseignement religieux ne peut etre donne 
 aux enfants ages de 6 & 13 ans, inscrits dans les ecoles publiques, 
 qu'en dehors des heures de classe.
 
 APPENDIX 281 
 
 II sera fait application aux ministres des cultes qui enfrein- 
 draient ces prescriptions, des dispositions de 1'article 14 de la loi 
 precitSe. 
 
 Art. 31. Sont punis d'une amende de seize francs (16 francs) 
 a deux cents francs (200 francs) et d'un emprisonnement de six 
 jours a deux mois ou de 1'une de ces deux peines seulement ceux 
 qui, soit par voies de fait, violences ou menaces contre un individu, 
 soit en lui faisant craindre de perdre son emploi, ou d'exposer a un 
 dommage sa personne, sa famille ou sa fortune, 1'auront determine 
 a exercer ou a s'abstenir d'exercer un culte, a faire partie ou 
 a cesser de faire partie d'une association cultuelle, a contribuer ou 
 a s'abstenir de contribuer aux frais du culte. 
 
 Art. 32. Seront punis des memes peines ceux qui auront 
 empecb.6, retards ou interrompu les exercices d'un culte par des 
 troubles ou desordres causes dans le local servant a ces exercices. 
 
 Art. 33. Les dispositions des deux articles precedents ne 
 s'appliquent qu'aux troubles, outrages ou voies de fait, dont la 
 nature ou les circonstances ne donneront pas lieu a de plus fortes 
 peines d'apres les dispositions du Code penal. 
 
 Art. 34. Tout ministre d'un culte qui, dans les lieux oil 
 s'exerce ce culte, aura publiquement, par des discours prononces, 
 des lectures faites, des ecrits distribues ou des affiches apposees, 
 outrag6 ou diffam6 un citoyen charge d'un service public, sera puni 
 d'une amende de cinq cents francs a trois mille francs (500 fr. 
 a 3,000 fr.) et d'un emprisonnement de un mois a un an, ou de 
 1'une de ces deux peines seulement. 
 
 La v6rit6 du fait diffamatoire, mais seulement s'il est relatif aux 
 fonctions, pourra etre etablie devant le tribunal correctionnel dans 
 les formes pr^vues par 1'article 52 de la loi du 29 juillet 1881. 
 Les prescriptions edict^es par 1'article 65 de la meme loi s'appli- 
 quent aux delits du present article et de 1'article qui suit. 
 
 Art. 35. Si un discours prononcd ou un 6crit afficb.6 ou 
 distribu6 publiquement dans les lieux ou s'exerce le culte, contient 
 une provocation directe a register a 1'execution des lois ou aux 
 actes legaux de 1'autorite publique, ou s'il tend a soulever ou 
 a armer une partie des citoyens contre les autres, le ministre du 
 culte qui s'en sera rendu coupable sera puni d'un emprisonnement 
 de trois mois a deux ans, sans prejudice des peines de la complicite, 
 dans le cas ou la provocation aurait ete suivie d'une sedition, 
 re volte ou guerre civile. 
 
 Art. 36. Dans le cas de condamnation par les tribunaux de
 
 282 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 simple police ou de police correctionnelle en application des 
 articles 25 et 26, 34 et 35, 1'association constitute pour 1'exercice 
 du culte dans rimmeuble oil 1'infraction a ete commise sera civile- 
 ment responsable. 
 
 TITKE VI 
 DISPOSITIONS GENERALES. 
 
 Art. 37. L'article 463 du Code penal et la loi du 26 mars 1891 
 sont applicables a tous les cas dans lesquels la presente loi edicte 
 des p^nalites. 
 
 Art. 38. Les congregations religieuses demeurent soumises 
 auxlois des !<* juillet 1901, 4 decembre 1902 et 7 juillet 1904. 
 
 Art. 39. Les jeunes gens qui ont obtenu, k titre d'eleves eccl6- 
 siastiques, la dispense prevue par 1'article 23 de la loi du 15 juillet 
 1889 continueront a en ben6ficier conformement a 1'article 99 de 
 la loi du 21 mars 1905, a la condition qu'a 1'age de vingt-six ans 
 ils soient pourvus d'un emploi de ministre du culte retribu6 par 
 une association cultuelle et sous reserve des justifications qui 
 seront fixees par un reglement d 'administration publique. 
 
 Art. 40. Pendant huit ann6es a partir de la promulgation de 
 la presente loi, les ministres du culte seront ineligibles au Conseil 
 municipal dans les communes oil ils exerceront leur ministere 
 ecclesiastique. 
 
 Art. 41. Les sommes rendues disponibles chaque annee par 
 la suppression du budget des cultes seront reparties entre les com- 
 munes au prorata du contingent de la contribution fonciere des 
 proprietes non baties qui leur aura ete assigne pendant 1'exercice 
 qui precedera la promulgation de la presente loi. 
 
 Art. 42. Les dispositions legales relatives aux jours actuelle- 
 ment feries sont maintenues. 
 
 Art. 43. Un reglement d 'administration publique rendu dans 
 les trois mois qui suivront la promulgation de la presente loi 
 determinera les mesures propres a assurer son application. 
 
 Des reglements d'administration publique determineront les 
 conditions dans lesquelles la presente loi sera applicable a 1'Algerie 
 et aux colonies. 
 
 Art. 44. Sont et demeurent abrogees toutes les dispositions 
 relatives a 1'organisation publique des cultes anterieurement re- 
 connus par 1'^tat, ainsi que toutes dispositions contraires a la 
 presente loi et notamment :
 
 APPENDIX 283 
 
 1 La loi du 18 germinal an X, portant que la convention 
 passee le 26 messidor an IX entre le pape et le gouvernement 
 franfais, ensemble les articles organiques de ladite convention et 
 des cultes protestants, seront executes comme des lois de la 
 Republique ; 
 
 2<> Le d<cret du 26 mars 1852 et la loi du l er aout 1879 sur 
 les cultes protestants ; 
 
 3 Les decrets du 17 mars 1808, la loi du 8 f6vrier 1831 et 
 1'ordonnance du 25 mai 1844 sur le culte Israelite ; 
 
 4 Les decrets des 22 decembre 1812 et 19 mars 1859 ; 
 
 5o Les articles 201 a 208, 260 a 264, 294 du Code pSnal ; 
 
 6 Les articles 100 et 101, les paragraphes 11 et 12 de 1'article 
 136 et 1'article 167 de la loi du 5 avril 1884 ; 
 
 7 Le decret du 30 decembre 1809 et 1'article 78 de la loi du 
 26 Janvier 1892. 
 
 La pr^sente loi delibSree et adopted par le Senat et par la 
 Chambre des d6put6s sera executee comme loi de 1'^ltat. 
 
 Fait a Paris, le 9 decembre 1905. 
 
 ^]MILE LOUBET. 
 
 Par le President de la Republique : 
 
 Le President du Conseil, 
 
 ministre des affaires etrangeres, 
 
 EOUVIEB. 
 
 Le ministre de V instruction publique, 
 des beaux-arts et des cultes, 
 
 BIENVENU MARTIH. 
 Le ministre de I'interieur, 
 F. DUBIEF. 
 
 Le ministre des finances, 
 
 P. MEKLOU. 
 Le ministre des colonies, 
 CLEMENTEL.
 
 INDEX 
 
 A. 
 
 Abelard ; 6. 
 
 About, Edmond ; 190, 226. 
 Acquaviva; 31. 
 Acton, Lord; 267. 
 Aguesseau, Chancellor d 1 ; 251. 
 Alembert, d' ; 77. 
 Alexander VI (1492-1503) 57. 
 Alphonso of Ligouri ; 28. 
 Anglicanism and Constitution 
 
 Civile; 87-8. 
 
 Anneau d'Amtthyst, V ; 242. 
 Anti-Semites; 248. 
 Antonelli, Cardinal ; 136. 
 Antony of Padua; 249, 261. 
 Aquinas, Thomas of ; 34. 
 Arago; 201. 
 Arcola, battle of; 120. 
 Argenson, d' ; 75. 
 Arnaud; 197. 
 Arnold of Brescia ; 6. 
 Arnold, Matthew ; 198. 
 Artois, Comte d' ; 148. 
 Association Catholique; 164. 
 Association Laws, French theories 
 
 of; 238-40. 
 
 Assumptionists ; 249-50. 
 Aulard (Etudes, 5 me serie) ; 66, 
 
 87,116, 122, 127, 130. 
 Ausculta Fili, the ; 13. 
 Authorization of Religious Orders, 
 
 meaning of; 239, 240. 
 Autun ; 3. 
 Avignon, 26 ; 120. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bailly ; 67. 
 
 Baronius; 32. 
 
 Ban-as; 120. 
 
 Barre, La ; 61. 
 
 Basle, council of; 18. 
 
 Bastile, the, taken ; 64. 
 
 Bellarmine ; 32, 33, 34, 35, 36. 
 
 Beranger ; 153, 164. 
 
 Bernard, Jean (Hist. Anecdotique) ; 
 
 42. 
 
 Bernier, 1'Abbe ; 125. 
 Bernini; 99. 
 
 Bernis, Cardinal ; 97. 
 
 Berry, due de; 153, 222. 
 
 Berryer; 171. 
 
 Bert, Paul; 165,219, 225,235, 238, 
 
 245. 
 
 Berthier; 121. 
 
 Bismarck; 184, 185,202,221. 
 Bodley, Mr. ; 45, 134, 265, 266. 
 Bodley, ' Church in France ' ; 46, 
 
 134. 
 Bologna, Concordat of; 19-21, 50, 
 
 56, 78, 89, 115, 149. 
 Bonaparte, Lucien ; 134. 
 Boniface VIII (1294-1303) 6, 8, 10, 
 
 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 32, 133, 145, 
 
 195, 258, 259. 
 
 Bonnechose, Cardinal ; 202. 
 Bordeaux, Pacte de ; 206. 
 Bossuet; 9, 35, 40, 59, 60, 61, 71, 
 
 79, 82, 132, 167, 259. 
 Boulanger ; 246, 247. 
 Bourges, Pragmatic of; 18, 19, 21. 
 Bourges, Synod of; 18. 
 Braschi, Cardinal (Pius VI); 97, 
 
 98, 99. 
 
 Breviary, the ; 24. 
 Briand, Aristide ; 42, 44, 79, 83, 
 
 91, 153, 254. 
 Broglie, due de ; 219, 220, 224, 227, 
 
 228. 
 Buffet; 224,227. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cacaut; 237. 
 Calas ; 61. 
 Calonne ; 63. 
 Cambon; 105,117. 
 Cambridge Modern History ; 62. 
 Camus ; 69. 
 Carle, 1'Abbe ; 154. 
 Carlyle; 69. 
 
 Carnot ; 120, 149, 172, 173. 
 Caprara, Cardinal ; 137, 138. 
 Casaubon, Isaac ; 29. 
 Castiglioni, battle of ; 120. 
 Cavaignac, General ; 170. 
 Cavour; 194.
 
 286 
 
 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 Cayla, Madame du ; 155. 
 
 Challemel-Lacour ; 219, 255. 
 
 Chambord, Comte de ; 208, 214, 222, 
 223, 224, 230. 
 
 Charlemagne ; 5, 167. 
 
 Charles I of England ; 64. 
 
 Charles V (1364-1380) 16. 
 
 Charles VI (1380-1422) 16, 17. 
 
 Charles VII (1422-1461) 18. 
 
 Charles VIII (1483-1498) 19. 
 
 Charles X (1824-1830) 154, 156, 
 157, 158, 166, 181, 204. 
 
 Charles-Albert ; 170. 
 
 Chenier, Andre ; 104. 
 
 Christ and Clericalism ; 267. 
 
 Christ and Ecrasez I'Infdme ; 56. 
 
 Clement VIII (1592-1605) 33. 
 
 Clement XI (1700-1721) 37. 
 
 Clement XIII (1758-1769) 141. 
 
 Clement XIV (1769-1774) 39, 97. 
 
 Cttricalisme, voila TEnnemi ; 227. 
 
 Cloaca Maxima of Europe, the ; 126. 
 
 Colbert; 59. 
 
 Combalot, 1'Abbe ; 134. 
 
 Combes, M. ; 134, 251, 252, 256. 
 
 Communautt, meaning of term; 
 147. 
 
 Commune, the ; 206-8. 
 
 Conception, the Immaculate ; 186. 
 
 Concordat ; 95, 118. 
 
 Concordat, draft of between Direc- 
 tory and Pius VI; 119. 
 
 Concordat of Fontainebleau ; 139. 
 
 Concordat of Napoleon, 90, 101, 
 114, 143, 152, 233, 234. 
 
 Congregation, meaning of term ; 
 147. 
 
 Consalvi; 124, 125, 127, 128, 130, 
 149. 
 
 Constitution Civile du Clerge; 78- 
 93. 
 
 Convent, meaning of term ; 147. 
 
 Convocations, English, their timid- 
 ity ; 90. 
 
 Coup d'Eglise ; 186. 
 
 Coupd'Etat', 178-9. 
 
 Courier, P. L. ; 153. 
 
 Cousin ; 153, 154, 164, 173. 
 
 Cremieux; 201, 202. 
 
 Croix, La ; 249. 
 
 Custozza, battle of ; 170. 
 
 Czacki; 244. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dante ; 4. 
 
 Debidour, M. ; 41, 42, 45, 46, 48, 
 50, 51, 52, 53, 63, 69, 75, 76, 77, 
 
 81, 82, 86, 92, 100, 107, 118, 119, 
 120, 121, 123, 124, 130, 134, 137, 
 138, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 
 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 159, 160, 
 164, 165, 168, 169, 170, 171, 176, 
 178, 183, 185, 188, 192, 193, 194, 
 204, 206, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212, 
 213, 215, 220, 221, 222, 225, 226, 
 228, 229, 231, 236, 238, 240, 241, 
 243. 
 
 Decazes, due de ; 95. 
 
 Delation, clerical ; 262. 
 
 Desachy (La France Noire); 47, 51, 
 244. 
 
 Desgarets, 1'Abbe ; 154. 
 
 Desmoulins, Camille ; 108. 
 
 Diderot ; 61, 152. 
 
 Dijon, bishop of ; 130. 
 
 Dillon, Archbishop ; 46, 54. 
 
 Dollinger; 197. 
 
 Dreyfus ; 247. 
 
 Dubois, Cardinal ; 38. 
 
 Dufaure ; 227, 228. 
 
 Dupanloup; 144, 162, 173, 179, 
 192, 197, 202, 215, 225, 226. 
 
 Duphot, General ; 121. 
 
 Duruy, Victor ; 195. 
 
 E. 
 
 ' Ecrasez Vlnf&me ' ; 56. 
 Education Laws of J. Ferry ; 237, 
 
 265. 
 
 Edward I of England ; 12. 
 Egypt; 121. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen ; 32, 82. 
 Emery, T Abbe ; 92. 
 Emigres, the ; 67, 82, 94. 
 Emmanuel, Victor ; 221,242. 
 Empire, the Second ; 181-201. 
 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' the, ix. 
 
 601 ; 80. 
 
 Encyclopedia, the ; 39, 61. 
 England; 1. 
 IJrasmus ; 24, 25. 
 Etablissement, meaning of term ; 
 
 147. 
 
 F. 
 
 Falloux ; 168, 170, 171, 173, 175, 
 
 197, 231. 
 
 Falloux, Loi ; 172-7. 
 Farnese, the ; 26. 
 Faure, Jules ; 201. 
 Fenelon; 79. 
 Ferrara; 120. 
 Ferry, Jules ; 201, 219, 235, 236, 
 
 244, 245.
 
 INDEX 
 
 287 
 
 Fleury, Cardinal ; 38. 
 Fontainebleau ; 138, 142. 
 
 Concordat of ; 139. 
 Fox, Charles ; 65. 
 France, Anatole ; 137, 247-9. 
 
 L'JEglise et la 
 
 RepulUque ; 137, note. 
 Franchi, Cardinal ; 243. 
 Francis I (1515-1547) 19, 21, 40, 
 
 50, 80, 115, 126, 149. 
 Frayssinous, 197. 
 Frederic II, Emperor; 14. 
 Free-masonry; 261. 
 Freppel, Bishop ; 231. 
 Freycinet ; 236, 245. 
 Froude ; 23. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gallican Articles of 1682; 35, 36- 
 
 41. 
 Gallican Church of 18th century; 
 
 41-58. 
 
 Gallican Church, origin of; 9. 
 Gambetta ; 201, 204, 209, 215, 219, 
 
 224, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 235, 
 
 244. 
 
 Garibaldi; 142, 194, 195, 206. 
 Gaume, 1'Abbe ; 154. 
 Genin ; 154. 
 Gerson; 18. 
 Ghent; 149. 
 Girondins; 106-8. 
 Gospel, the ; 61. 
 Grandmaison ; 147. 
 Grtgoire ; 69, 105, 142. 
 Gregory I (590-604)4. 
 Gregory VII (1073-1087) 144, 188, 
 
 258 
 Gregory XVI (1831-1846) 144, 188, 
 
 190, 243. 
 
 Grevy, Jules ; 233, 236. 
 Guarantees, Italian Law of; 211. 
 Guibert, Arch-bishop ; 202. 
 Guignard, S.J. ; 34. 
 Guitrel, Monseigneur ; 242. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hale, Lonsdale ; 203. 
 Hanotaux ; 207, 268. 
 Henry IV ; 33. 34, 40, 67. 
 'Henry V; 220. 
 Henry II of England ; 7, 14. 
 Henry III of England ; 7. 
 Henry IV of England ; 158. 
 Henry V of England ; 17. 
 
 Henry VIII of England ; 14, 33, 
 
 80, 82, 125. 
 
 Henry IV, Emperor ; 192. 
 Hildebrand ; 161, 192. 
 Hincmar; 110. 
 Hohenlinden, battle of; 125. 
 Hugo, Victor; 176, 206. 
 Hume; 61. 
 HUBS; 17. 
 
 I. J. 
 
 Jacobins; 107. 
 
 Jansenists ; 37, 38, 79. 
 
 Jerome of Prague ; 17. 
 
 Jervis ; 102. 
 
 Jesuits ; 15. 
 
 Jesuits, suppression of in France ; 
 
 39. 
 Jesuits, restoration of; 140, 147, 
 
 164. 
 
 Jesus, le Sansculotte ; 167. 
 Jesus, Society of; 27-31. 
 Jeu de Paume ; 64. 
 Ignatius Loyola ; 27, 31. 
 Imperial, the Prince ; 230. 
 Ineffabilis Amor, the ; 12. 
 Infallibility; 130, 149, 233. 
 Infallibility, definition of ; 199. 
 Infdme, Ecrasez V ; 56, 65. 
 Innocent III (1198-1216) 6, 7, 8, 
 
 11, 100, 145, 161, 188, 258. 
 Innocent VIII (1484-1492) 26. 
 John of England (1199-1216) 7. 
 Joseph, Saint ; 210. 
 Jouffroy; 153. 
 Irenaeus ; 2. 
 Julius II (1503-1513) 26, 57. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kitchin, Dean ; 80. 
 
 L. 
 
 Lacordaire ; 162, 168, 176, 179. 
 Lafayette; 157. 
 Lamarque ; 129. 
 
 Lamennais, de ; 144, 153, 154, 160, 
 161, 162. 167, 194, 197, 198, 231. 
 Lancasterian System ; 149. 
 Lanessan ; 45. 
 Lanjuinais ; 95. 
 Lateran, council of; 19, 21. 
 Laval, bishop of; 130. 
 Lavallee ; 34. 
 
 Lavigerie. Cardinal ; 220, 222. 
 Laynez ; 31.
 
 288 
 
 CHUECH AND STATE IN FEANCE 
 
 Lazarus ; 3. 
 
 Lecomte (Rapport) ; 128, 136, 254. 
 
 Lecourtier, Bishop ; 192. 
 
 Lecoz, Bishop ; 123. 
 
 Leibnitz ; 61. 
 
 Leo I (440-461) 4. 
 
 Leo X (1513-1521) 17, 21, 26, 88, 
 
 98, 115, 165. 
 Leo XIII (1878-1903)141, 188, 212, 
 
 245, 246, 252. 
 Leo XIII, his election and 
 
 character; 243-4. 
 Liancourt, duke of; 65. 
 Liautard, 1'Abbe ; 151, 155. 
 Lilly, Mr. W. S. ; x, xi, xii, 34. 
 Littre, 194. 
 Locke; 61. 
 Lodi, battle of ; 120. 
 LoiFalloux; 172-7. 
 Loubet, President ; 129. 
 Louis IX (1226-1270) 7, 9, 12. 
 Louis XI (1461-1483) 19. 
 Louis XII (1498-1507) 19. 
 Louis XIV (1643-1715) 9, 35, 37, 
 
 38, 50, 56, 59, 60, 75, 78, 79, 118, 
 
 165. 
 Louis XV (1715-1774) 38, 39, 40, 
 
 56, 60, 61, 62, 75, 76, 141. 
 Louis XVI (1774-1792) 54, 62, 64, 
 
 65, 70, 76, 94, 96, 100, 103, 109, 
 
 110. 
 Louis XVIII (1814-1824) 116, 122, 
 
 126, 143, 148, 149, 155, 241. 
 Louis Napoleon; 168, 170, 171, 177, 
 
 178, 179. 
 Louis Philippe (1 830-1848) 112,158, 
 
 163, 166, 168, 194, 204. 
 Louis Philippe, reign of; 158-166. 
 Ludovisi, the ; 26. 
 Luneville, Treaty of; 126. 
 Luther; 32. 
 Luynes, Cardinal de ; 97. 
 
 M. 
 
 Macaulay; 37. 
 Mace, Jean ; 215. 
 Machiavelli; 30. 
 
 MacMahon; 218, 219, 220, 223, 
 224, 227, 228, 229, 230, 232, 233. 
 Maistre, Joseph de ; 140, 160, 161. 
 Manning, Cardinal ; 187, 198. 
 Marengo, battle of; 122, 125. 
 Mariana ; 33. 
 
 Marie-Antoinette ; 64, 108, 110. 
 Martin V. (1417-1431) 17, 18. 
 Martineau ; 83, 90. 
 
 Martini; 225. 
 
 Martiniana, Cardinal ; 122, 125. 
 
 Masson, Frederic ; 97. 
 
 Mathieu, Cardinal ; 124, 128, 137. 
 
 Mazzini; 170, 171. 
 
 Merimee ; 201. 
 
 Merode, de ; 198. 
 
 Merry del Val, Cardinal ; 252. 
 
 Michelet ; 52, 106, 153, 178. 
 
 Mirabeau; 72, 151, 259. 
 
 Missions de France ; 151. 
 
 Montalembert ; 144, 158, 161, 162, 
 163, 166, 168, 170, 171, 173, 177, 
 178, 179, 180, 183, 197, 198, 231. 
 
 Montesquieu ; 39, 61. 
 
 Montesquiou, 1'Abbe; 148. 
 
 Montlosier; 96, 156. 
 
 Mortara, le petit ; 190-1. 
 
 Mun, Comte Albert de ; 212, 227, 
 231. 
 
 N. 
 
 Napoleon; 112, 120, 121, 122, 123, 
 
 126, 129, 130, 135, 149. 
 Napoleon, and Italy ; 120-25. 
 Napoleon III; 181, 183,184,185, 
 
 187, 192, 193, 196, 200, 202. 
 Napoleon III, his empire and 
 
 character ; 183-5. 
 Napoleon III and the French 
 
 Church; 181-3. 
 Nationalism; 247,248. 
 Necker ; 53, 63, 64. 
 Nero ; 155. 
 Newton ; 61. 
 
 Nielsen ('Hist, of Papacy'); 97, 119. 
 Nogaret, William of ; 10, 13, 14. 
 Novara, Battle of; 170, 
 
 0. 
 
 O'Connell; 163. 
 Olympians, the ; 144. 
 Organic Articles ; 127, 132-3. 
 Orleans, la Duchesse d' (Correspon- 
 
 dance) ; 38, note. 
 Oxford Movement ; 162. 
 
 P. 
 
 Papacy and Revolution, Incom- 
 
 patibles; 101-2. 
 Papal States, government of; 189- 
 
 92 
 
 Paris', Comte de ; 222, 247. 
 Parisis, Bishop ; 168, 177. 
 Parsons, Father, S.J. ; 31.
 
 INDEX 
 
 289 
 
 Parti Noir ; 248. 
 Pascal ; 36, 56, 59, 164. 
 Pasquier, on Jesuits ; 76. 
 Pattison, Mark ; 29. 
 Paul III (1534-1549) 27. 
 Paul V (1605-1621) 99. 
 Peregrinus Apostolicus (Pius VI) ; 
 
 99. 
 
 Petite Eglise ; 130. 
 Philumena, Saint ; 219. 
 Pie, Cardinal ; 220. 
 Piranesi; 99. 
 Pisa, Council of ; 19. 
 Pius V (1566-1572) ; 171. 271. 
 Pius VI (1775-1795) 57, 83, 96, 99, 
 
 100, 101, 121, 144. 
 Pius VI, his appearance and 
 
 character ; 97, 99. 
 Pius VI, register of his death ; 121. 
 Pius VII (1800-1823) 15, 57, 121, 
 
 122, 125, 126, 129, 130, 135, 138, 
 
 139, 147. 
 Pius VII, his life and character; 
 
 139-43. 
 Pius IX (1846-1878) 13, 32, 100, 
 
 165, 170, 177, 181, 185, 186, 187, 
 
 189, 196, 198, 210, 223, 226, 230, 
 
 231. 
 Pius IX, his life and character ; 
 
 242-3. 
 
 Pius X ; 252, 258, 259. 
 Politique tiree de VEcriture Sainte 
 
 (Bossuet) ; 60, 68. 
 Portalis; 134. 
 Part Royal ; 37, 59. 
 Port Royalists ; 36. 
 Press, the Clerical ; 261. 
 Pressense, E. de ; 60. 
 Propagation de lafoi ; 183. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quanta Cura, the ; 187. 
 
 Quesnel's Reflexions Morales ; 37, 38. 
 
 Quinet ; 153, 154. 
 
 Quod Aliquantum, the; 101. 
 
 R. 
 
 Ravaillac; 34. 
 Ravignan ; 179. 
 Reason, Goddess of; 107. 
 Reformation, the ; 22-4. 
 Renaissance, the ; 24, 25. 
 Renan ; 14, 194. 
 Republic, the Second ; 167-80. 
 Republic, the Third ; 201-68. 
 
 Restoration, the ; 112. 
 Restoration, the Monarchy of ; 144- 
 
 57. 
 
 Revolution, the ; 59-114. 
 Revolution, constructive work of; 
 
 116-18. 
 Revolution and Papacy, Incom- 
 
 patibles; 101-2. 
 Richelieu ; 40, 59, 110, 118. 
 Rights of Man, the ; 68-9. 
 Robespierre ; 107, 108, 120. 
 Rochefort, H. ; 201. 
 Rocquain ; 38. 
 
 Rohan, Cardinal de ; 45, 46, 47. 
 Romanism, The New ; 32-5. 
 Royer-Collard ; 156. 
 Rue du Bac, Association of; 147, 
 
 151. 
 
 S. 
 
 Saint-Just ; 95. 
 
 Saint-Simon, Duke of; 89. 
 
 Savona ; 138, 142. 
 
 Say, Leon ; 219. 
 
 Second Empire ; 181-200. 
 
 Second Republic ; 167-80. 
 
 Sedan, battle of; 201, 218. 
 
 Segur, de ; 212. 
 
 Separation of State and Church, 
 
 1794 ; 115, 116. 
 Separation of State and Church, 
 
 1905 ; 253-59. 
 Separation Law of 1905 (Text); 
 
 269-83. 
 Sibour ; 173. 
 Sicard, 1'Abbe ; 45. 
 Simon, Jules ; 172, 201, 215, 227. 
 Sirven; 61. 
 
 Sixtus IV (1471-1484), 26, 57. 
 Solferino, battle of; 193. 
 Spina ; 124, 125, 126. 
 Stagl, Madame de ; 124. 
 States-General; 15, 34, 63. 
 Sully, duke of ; 17. 
 Syllabus of 1864; 100, 140, 144, 
 
 187-9, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 
 
 198, 212, 226, 228, 231, 233, 259. 
 
 T. 
 
 Taine ; 42, 44, 45, 47, 194. 
 Talleyrand ; 3, 41, 71, 91, 103, 118, 
 
 125, 130, 217, 218. 
 Talleyrand, life and character of ; 
 
 108-14. 
 Taunton, E. L. ; 32.
 
 290 
 
 CHURCH AND STATE IN FRANCE 
 
 Taxil, Leo ; 262. 
 Tellier, Le, S. J. ; 37, 38, 39. 
 Terror, Reign of ; 107, 108. 
 Thiers; 170, 171, 172, 173, 177, 
 
 193, 201, 204, 205, 213, 214, 215, 
 
 216, 219, 224, 226, 227, 236. 
 Thiers and the Commune ; 205- 
 
 18. 
 Thiers, life and character of; 216- 
 
 19. 
 
 Times, The ; 227. 
 Tolentino, treaty of; 120, 125. 
 Torquemada; 107. 
 Trent, council of; 25-7, 32, 195. 
 Tricolore, the ; 67. 
 Trochu; 201. 
 Turgot; 63. 
 
 U. V. 
 
 Unam Sanctam, the ; 13, 15, 21. 
 
 Unigenitus, the ; 37, 74. 
 
 4 University,' meaning of term in 
 
 French; 172. 
 
 Urban VIII (1623-1644) 99. 
 VaUa, Lorenzo ; 24, 26. 
 Vatican, council of; 198-200. 
 Vaticanism ; 233, 234. 
 
 Vaticanism, its effects on France ; 
 
 260. 
 
 Vaughan, Diana ; 262. 
 Venaissin, the ; 96, 103, 120. 
 Veuillot, Louis ; 167, 177, 178, 179, 
 
 183, 187, 213, 221. 
 Vienna, Congress of; 112, 139. 
 Villemain ; 153. 
 
 Vincent of Paul, Society of ; 183. 
 Virgin, Confraternity of ; 147. 
 Voltaire ; 39, 49, 56, 61, 62, 77, 81, 
 
 82, 103, 110, 152. 
 
 W. 
 
 Waldeck-Rousseau ; 134, 238, 250, 
 
 251. 
 
 Waterloo ; 149, 165. 
 White Terror, the ; 150. 
 William the Silent ; 32. 
 Wyclif; 18. 
 
 X. 
 
 Ximenes, Cardinal ; 110. 
 
 Z. 
 
 Zola; 150. 
 
 Oxford : Horace Hart, Printer to the University
 
 c i7, Cl< ; gra T mS j 4i and 43 Maddox Street, 
 
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 No. 1883 Mayfair. February, 1912. 
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's 
 
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 Demy 8vo. With Portrait. 125. 6d. net. 
 
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 was deflected to India by the news of the Mutiny. He was present 
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 THE PACIFICATION OF BURMA. 
 
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 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 3 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF THE YUKON. 
 
 By the Hon. STRATFORD TOLLEMACHE. 
 
 With 1 6 full-page Illustrations from drawings by 
 J. F. HARRISON BUTTON. 
 
 One Volume. Demy 8vo. ias. 6d. net. 
 
 The author's experiences in the Yukon region covered the period 
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 OXFORD MOUNTAINEERING 
 ESSAYS. 
 
 Edited by ARNOLD LUNN. 
 
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 in Greek poetry.
 
 4 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 
 
 THE GIRLHOOD OF CLARA 
 SCHUMANN. 
 
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 " Father William," the aged and choleric shepherd ; " Granfeyther," 
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 Mr. Edward A mold's Spring A nnouncetnents. 5 
 
 THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN. 
 
 H (Buioe to Social aspirants. 
 
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 6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 
 
 FROM RELIGION TO PHILOSOPHY. 
 
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 AUTHOR OF " THUCYDIDES MYTHISTORICUS," ETC. 
 
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 CATHOLICISM AND THE MODERN 
 
 MIND: 
 
 H Contribution to TReligious Stuop ano progress. 
 
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 By MALCOLM QUIN, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " AIDS TO WORSHIP," " NOTES ON A PROGRESSIVE CATHOLICISM," ETC. 
 
 Crown Svo. 75. 6d. net. 
 
 The author of this book was for thirty years an adherent and 
 advocate of the religious system of Auguste Comte, and head of one 
 of the communities formed to give effect to the religious conceptions 
 of that celebrated thinker. In a Prefatory Letter, addressed to 
 Pope Pius X., he explains how, as a result of his life's study and 
 work, he has been led to the conclusion that the religious unity and 
 advance of mankind cannot be brought about by any revolutionary 
 attempt to establish a new " religion," or new sect, but depend upon 
 the common acceptance of Catholicism, so interpreted and expanded 
 by the modern mind as to render it capable of overcoming the exist- 
 ing religious disorder, and of ultimately unifying all forms of faith 
 and culture. From this point of view the writer analyses the 
 religious and social conditions due to the rise of Protestantism and 
 unbelief, and seeks to show how the chief Catholic conceptions and 
 doctrines admit of a construction at once conservative and progres- 
 sive, in harmony both with the fundamental aims of Catholicism and 
 with the developing thought and needs of the world.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 
 
 THE PARTING OF THE ROADS : 
 
 Studies in tbe Development of Suoafsm ano 
 
 Cbristianits. 
 
 By MEMBERS OF JESUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 With an Introduction by W. R. INGE, D.D., 
 
 LATE PROFESSORIAL FELLOW, NOW HONORARY FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE AND DEAN OK 
 
 ST. PAUL'S. 
 
 Edited by F. J. FOAKES JACKSON, D.D., 
 
 FELLOW AND DEAN OF THE COLLEGE. 
 
 Demy 8vo. IDS. 6d. net. 
 
 This volume has the distinction of being essentially a young man's 
 book, and the work of a single college, instead of representing the 
 collective opinion of a University. 
 
 The essays are not the product of any school, but represent all 
 shades of thought in the Church of England, whilst one is written 
 by a Nonconformist, and another by a Jewish scholar. 
 
 With the exception of the introduction by the Dean of St. Paul's 
 and the first essay by the editor, the volume is the work of young 
 men. Although the plan of the volume was sketched by the editor, 
 there has not been any attempt to make it a mere echo of his 
 opinions. The essayists are of very different schools of thought, 
 and have always been encouraged at Cambridge to give full play to 
 their individuality ; and the editor has met with a gratifying deter- 
 mination on the part of his fellow-workers to express their own 
 opinions in their own words. 
 
 The object of the work is to trace the origin of Christianity from 
 Judaism, and its development till the final parting of the two 
 religions. 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 By the Rev. H. C. O. LANCHESTER, 
 
 RECTOR OF SALL. 
 
 Crown Svo. 25. 6d. net. 
 
 An attempt to place the general reader in a better position for the 
 intelligent study of the Old Testament. The main results of the 
 Higher Criticism are frankly accepted, and it is recognized that this 
 movement has been fraught with considerable perils to faith ; but 
 the writer endeavours to point out that modern studies have resulted 
 in a broadening, rather than in an evaluation, of a reasonable faith. 
 Some account is given of the historical background of the Old 
 Testament, and of the assistance which recent researches have 
 afforded to the study of it. The several books are, with few excep- 
 tions, briefly reviewed, and a chapter is added on the principles of 
 interpretation which have obtained in different ages.
 
 8 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 SYNOPTIC PROBLEM. 
 
 By the Rev. ERIC REDE BUCKLEY, 
 
 VlCAK OF BUKLKV-IN-WHAKFKDALE, PROCTOR IN CONVOCATION. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 55. net. 
 
 This book gives the main results of recent research as to the 
 literary origin and composition of the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. 
 Mark, and St. Luke. A distinctive feature of it is that all the more 
 important passages on which the arguments rest are printed in full 
 in English, thus relieving the reader of the necessity of constant 
 reference to his Bible or Greek Testament. Besides giving a careful 
 explanation of the theories most widely accepted by contemporary 
 critics, the author has stated some alternative theories which seem 
 worthy of consideration. An interesting feature of the book is the 
 discussion of the light thrown on the matter by the Gospel quotations 
 in the Apostolic Fathers, and by the extant fragments of the Gospel 
 according to the Hebrews. 
 
 JESUS SALVATOR MUNDI : 
 
 Some %enten Ubouabts on Salvation. 
 
 By the Rev. J. H. BEIBITZ, 
 
 RBCTOR or SHELSLBV BBAUCHAMP AMD SHBLSLEY WALSH, WORCESTER; 
 LATK VICE-PRINCIPAL or THE THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, LICHFIELD. 
 
 Crown Svo. Cloth. 28. 6d. net. 
 
 There are few tasks more important than that of subjecting our 
 ordinary religious ideas to a thoroughgoing analysis. Only so can 
 they become real to us, and gain, or regain, the power of directing 
 and moulding our lives. This little book represents an attempt to 
 fulfil this task in regard to the fundamental Christian conception of 
 our salvation through and in Jesus Christ ; in other words, to answer 
 the question in what sense, and by what means, are we " saved "? It 
 is divided into seven sections, or chapters. The first deals with the 
 Lenten season as presenting a great opportunity for clarifying our 
 religious notions ; the second, with the New Testament idea of 
 salvation. The third and fourth chapters are concerned with 
 salvation through the Cross and in the Church. The fifth and sixth 
 discuss the meaning of salvation as applied to the social and individual 
 life respectively. The seventh is a meditation on the two-fold sign 
 of the Water and the Blood. It is hoped that the final, practical 
 aim of the whole investigation is borne in mind throughout namely, 
 that with fuller, clearer conceptions we may be able to enter yet 
 more completely into the riches of our spiritual inheritance.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 9 
 
 THE SAINTS' APPEAL. 
 
 By the Rev. S. A. ALEXANDER, 
 
 CANON AND TREASURER or ST. PAUL'S ; 
 AUTHOR OF "THE MIND or CHRIST," ETC. 
 
 Fcap. 8vo. Tastefully bound. as. net. 
 
 It is hoped that, while suitable for devotional reading throughout 
 the year, the book will be found especially helpful as a companion 
 for quiet hours in Lent. It consists of a selection of the sermons 
 preached by Canon Alexander last year to very large congregations 
 in St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday afternoons. They are an attempt 
 to show the romance and heroism of the Christian life, to bring the 
 mystical and spiritual side of it into closer touch with ordinary, 
 practical affairs, and to illustrate in general ways the power and 
 fascination both of the belief and of the character of those who have 
 endeavoured to live that higher life under many different conditions 
 of society. 
 
 THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES " OF 
 ^SCHYLUS. 
 
 Rendered into English Verse by EDWYN BEVAN. 
 Crown 8vo. Cloth, zs. net. 
 
 MODERN THEORIES OF DIET, 
 
 Bno tbeir JSearina upon practical 2>fetetfcs. 
 
 By ALEXANDER BRYCE, M.D., D.P.H. (Camb.), 
 
 AUTHOR OP "THE LAWS or LIFE AND HEALTH," ETC. 
 
 Large crown Svo. 73. 6d. net. 
 
 The author offers an interesting and informing survey of the 
 important subject of dietetics. He deals fully with all the important 
 systems of diet which are entitled to serious consideration. Questions 
 which have long been much debated are discussed, and the author 
 gives clearly and concisely his own views and those of eminent 
 authorities concerning the different systems of diet He discusses 
 the problems in relation to the amount and the kind of food required 
 in health and also in disease, and endeavours to arrive at some 
 rational decision which may guide us in the application of dietetic 
 principles in everyday life.
 
 io Mr, Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 
 
 THE 
 CHEMISTRY OF BREADMAKING. 
 
 By JAMES GRANT, M.Sc.Tech., F.I.C., F.C.S., 
 
 HEAD OF THE FERMENTATION INDUSTRIES DEPARTMENT IN THE MUNICIPAL SCHOOL OF 
 TECHNOLOGY, MANCHESTER. 
 
 viii + 224 pages. Crown 8vo. 55. net (inland postage 
 
 A handbook describing simply and clearly the chief points where 
 breadmaking is brought into contact with Chemistry, Physics and 
 technical Mycology. 
 
 SMOKE : A STUDY OF TOWN AIR. 
 
 By J. B. COHEN, F.R.S., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OK LEEDS ; 
 
 And A. G. RUSTON, B.A., B.Sc. 
 Demy 8vo. With 35 Figures. 55. net. 
 
 An account of experiments and observations carried on during the 
 last twenty years on the effects of the solid and gaseous products of 
 combustion, especially in regard to vegetation. The daily soot-fall 
 in industrial centres and the causes of town-fog are discussed. 
 
 THE THEORY AND DESIGN OF 
 REINFORCED CONCRETE. 
 
 By OSCAR FABER, B.Sc. (Lond.), A.M.Inst.C.E., 
 And P. G. BOWIE, A.C.G.I. 
 
 Demy 8vo. t with 155 Figures. 125. 6d. net. 
 
 The scientific design of all kinds of structures in reinforced 
 concrete is here treated by two expert engineers. The mathematical 
 results of the calculation of stresses in a large variety of difficult 
 cases are put into a practical form for practical use. 
 
 NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION. 
 
 ! ACROSS THE BRIDGES. 
 H Stuo of Social Xite in Soutb Xonoou. 
 
 By ALEXANDER PATERSON. 
 
 With Preface by the BISHOP OF SOUTHWARK. 
 Cloth, as. net; paper, is. net.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. n 
 
 BOOKS LATELY PUBLISHED. 
 
 MEMOIRS AND LETTERS OF THE 
 RIGHT HON. SIR ROBERT MORIER, 
 
 G.C.B., 
 
 FROM 1826-1876. 
 
 Edited by his Daughter, Mrs. ROSSLYN WEMYSS. 
 In Two Volumes. With Portraits. Demy &vo. 325. net. 
 
 "A continuous inner history of Europe. Mrs. Wemyss has concentrated her attention 
 upon the greater matters, but the book is full also of good entertainment. Morier was 
 the most vivacious of letter-writers and a master of apt characterization. We congratu- 
 late Mrs. Wemyss on a work wh.ch is not only a worthy memorial of a great man, but 
 one of the most valuable political treatises of recent years." Spectator. 
 
 "Two well-filled volumes packed with material of the very highest interest to the 
 political student, commendably devoid of padding and decoration, and admirably frank 
 in their comment upon the European history of the second half of the Nineteenth 
 Century." Daily Telegraph. 
 
 "These two volumes are indeed a very great record, not only of the service of the 
 man who wrote it, but of the high politics of Europe set down in the most discerning and 
 comprehensive manner." Daily News. 
 
 THE FRAMEWORK OF HOME 
 RULE. 
 
 By ERSKINE CHILDERS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "WAR AND THE ARME BLANCHE," "THE RIDDLE OF THK SANDS," KTC. 
 
 One Volume. Demy 8vo. 125. 6d. net. 
 
 " It is a work of great ability, and will amply repay either Unionists or Home Rulers 
 for the effort for which it calls. Times. 
 
 "This is the ablest and most clear-sighted book that has ever come from any English 
 writer on the subject of Home Rule. It is at once bold and practical, careful in its study 
 of human nature, and daring in its faith in human nature's possibilities. It is certain 
 that 'The Framework of Home Rule' will impress and influence every intelligent man 
 who reads it." Daily News. 
 
 " By far the most important contribution to the study of the Irish political problem 
 which has appeared since Home Rule re-emerged into the region of practical politics.''- 
 Irish Times.
 
 12 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 
 
 FROM PILLAR TO POST. 
 
 By Lieut-Colonel H. C. LOWTHER, D.S.O., M.V.O., 
 
 SCOTS GUARDS. 
 
 With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 155. net. Third Impression. 
 
 " Colonel H. C. Lowther owes his readers no apology for publishing in ' From Pillar 
 to Post ' his reminiscences of a crowded and many-sided life. Very few men of our 
 generation have contrived in the space of a few years to see more of the world, or to see 
 it with so observant and humorous an eye." Times. 
 
 " His chapters are so full of good things that ' From Pillar to Post ' should prove one 
 of the reminiscence-books most in demand this season." Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " Colonel Lowther has written a very delightful book which, from its very unpreten- 
 tiousness, impresses the mind with a sense of actuality. His careless yarns about the 
 war have more of the real ring about them than acres of florid and bombastic descrip- 
 tion. We can only urge everyone to beg, borrow, or steal the book and read it." 
 Evening Standard. 
 
 MY LIFE STORY. 
 
 By EMILY, SHAREEFA OF WAZAN. 
 With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. izs. 6d. net. Second Impression. 
 
 " This is a very remarkable book, and one that should interest alike those who are 
 fascinated by the romance of reality and those who are always glad to learn about other 
 races from those possessed of intimate knowledge." Daily Telegraph. 
 
 "The book is much more than the story of a very exceptional life. It is a mirror of 
 Moorish society in its feminine aspect." Times. 
 
 "A remarkable book, and bears on every page the evidence of unvarnished truth." 
 Daily News. 
 
 " It may honestly be said that there is not a dull page in it." Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 MY ADVENTURES IN THE CONGO. 
 
 By MARGUERITE ROBY. 
 With Illustrations and a Map. Demy &vo. ias. 6d. net. 
 
 " Mrs. Roby not only writes well, with an engaging candour and vivacity, but she has 
 genuinely stirring episodes to describe. She has given us one of the best travel books we 
 have read for a long time." Liverpool Courier. 
 
 " A brilliant exposure of humanitarian humbug. After reading the book I have 
 taken every means in my power to test the good faith of the writer. She is a woman 
 whom I cannot describe otherwise than as a born leader. Read the book and you will 
 know some of the qualities required for leadership." VANOC in the Referee.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 13 
 
 THE GREAT PLATEAU OF 
 NORTHERN RHODESIA. 
 
 By CULLEN GOULDSBURY AND HERBERT SHEANE, 
 
 OF THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY'S SERVICE. 
 
 With Preface by Sir ALFRED SHARPE, K.C.M.G., C.B. 
 With 40 pages of Illustrations and a Map. 1 6s. net. 
 
 "The most minute, thorough, and interesting- description that has vet been 
 written of the vast territory that is called Northern Rhodesia. We thoroughly recom- 
 mend the book." Standard. 
 
 " Not the least interesting of the twenty chapters, each packed with the most valuable 
 material of native African history, is the one dealing with 'animism and witchcraft,' which 
 throws light on the phenomena of black magic and totemism." Daily Telegraph. 
 
 THE WILDS OF PATAGONIA. 
 
 H "Narrative of tbe Sweoisb Bjpeoition to Patagonia, 
 Sierra fcel ff uego, ano tbe jfalfclano Sslanos in 1907*1909, 
 
 By CARL SKOTTSBERG, D.Sc., etc. 
 With Illustrations and Maps. One Volume. Demy Svo. 153. net. 
 
 " Few books of the kind that I have read in recent years are half as interesting. 
 Instead of bloody records of the butchering of defenceless beasts (for it should never be 
 forgotten that even tigers and rhinoceroses are practically without defence against quick- 
 firing guns) we have an interesting account of plants, stones, natural nistory, and 
 scientific problems, all set dawn by a young, well-educated and adventurous man. The 
 book reads like what Captain Cook's adventures might have been had they been written 
 by Sir Joseph Banks, and still preserved Cook's charm." Mr. R. B. CUNNINGHAMS 
 GRAHAM in the Saturday Review. 
 
 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 
 
 By Mrs. M. A. HANDLEY. 
 With Numerous Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 125. 6d. net. 
 
 " The scope of Mrs. Handley's book is quite inadequately indicated by the title ; it 
 really forms a welcome addition to our knowledge of the vast and complex subject of 
 India in that it contains the impressions of a keen and shrewd observer on many Indian 
 races, their manners, customs, religions, virtues, vices, and idiosyncrasies, as well as 
 admirable descriptions of scenery, vivid-accounts of hunting incidents and travel episodes, 
 and instructive little asides on the political and economical, social and racial problems of 
 the great peninsula. We recommend the book thoroughly ; it is well written in a style 
 that is as attractive as it is sound, and the matter is worthy of all consideration." 
 Standard.
 
 14 Mr. Edward A mold's Spring A nnouncements. 
 
 HANDLEY CROSS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 MR. JORROCKS'S HUNT. 
 
 Illustrated by CECIL ALDIN. 
 
 In Two Volumes, with 24 Coloured Plates and about 100 Black-and- White 
 Illustrations. The Ordinary Edition. 2 is. net. 
 
 Also a limited Edition de Luxe of 250 copies only for the British Empire, 
 each Copy Numbered and Signed by the Artist. 3 35. net. 
 
 THE HORSE : 
 
 3ts riain ano Development, combineo witb 
 Stable practice. 
 
 By Colonel R. F. MEYSEY-THOMPSON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "A HUNTING CATECHISM," "REMINISCENCES OF CAMP, 
 COURSE, AND CHASE," ETC. 
 
 With Illustrations. One Volume. Demy Svo. 155. net. 
 
 "All who love horses will find much of absorbing interest in 'The Horse,' for the 
 book contains some of the life experiences of one of the greatest experts on a subject 
 which appeals strongly to most of us. The author imparts many secrets of training, and 
 gives sound and practical advice all the time. Especially may the book be commended 
 to the notice of horse show judges." Referee. 
 
 THE SPORT OF SHOOTING. 
 
 By OWEN JONES, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING," ETC. 
 
 With Illustrations. One Volume. Demy Svo. IDS. 6d. net. 
 
 "What Mr. Jones does not know about 'Game_' and 'Shooting' is, in the vernacular, 
 not worth knowing. ' The Sport of Shooting ' is a book which every shooting man 
 should study." World. 
 
 " A very readable and informing book." Morning Post. 
 
 " Not only a useful manual for boys entrusted with their first gun, but is very interest- 
 ing to sportsmen of more mature years, the descriptive passages being excellent. "- 
 Standard.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 15 
 
 THE LIFE OF A TIGER. 
 
 By Sir S. EARDLEY-WILMOT, K.C.I.E., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "FOREST LIPK AND SPORT IN INDIA." 
 
 With nearly 150 Original Illustrations. Medium Svo. 75. 6d. net. 
 
 "A book which is well worthy to be placed on the same shelf as the chronicle of 
 .Mowgli's adventures." Morning' Post. 
 
 A LITTLE HISTORY OF MUSIC. 
 
 By ANNETTE HULLAH. 
 
 With Numerous Illustrations. One Volume. Medium Svo. 55. 
 
 "The clear-sightedness of the whole book makes it valuable and interesting-. ''- 
 Morning Post. 
 
 HINTS TO SPEAKERS AND 
 PLAYERS. 
 
 By ROSINA FILIPPI. 
 One Volume. Crown Svo. 33. 6d. net. 
 
 "An immensely helpful little book. It is as shrewd as it is sympathetic, and many 
 besides stage-pupils should read it." Morning Leader. 
 
 THE GRAVEN PALM. 
 
 H /IDanual of tbe Science of palmistry. 
 
 By Mrs. ROBINSON. 
 With about 250 Original Illustrations. Medium Svo. los. 6d. net. 
 
 A GOODLY FELLOWSHIP 
 
 Ubougbts in IDerse ano {prose from many Sources. 
 
 Collected by ROSE E. SELFE. 
 
 With a Preface by 
 His Grace the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 
 
 One Volume. Small Svo. as. 6d. net.
 
 1 6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements. 
 
 RECENT FICTION. 
 TANTE. 
 
 By ANNE DOUGLAS SEDGWICK, 
 
 AUTHOR or " FRANKLIN KANE," " AMABEL CHANNICE," ETC. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. Fourth Impression. 
 
 " I stand amazed by the qualities of the author's genius. She really can create 
 characters, quite original, and, as it were, not fanciful, not fantastic, but solid samples 
 of human nature. When one lights on something really good in contemporary fiction 
 one has pleasure in saying how excellent one finds the rarity." Mr. ANDREW LANG in 
 the Illustrated London Nevis. 
 
 "'Tante' is a fine piece of work, well thought out, well constructed, and full of 
 human nature. There is no possible doubt that it will stand out among the most 
 distinguished novels of the year." Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " There can be but one opinion as to the merits of this entirely fascinating and able 
 novel, which marks a fresh stage in the development of one of the most remarkable 
 writers of the present day." Westminster Gazette. 
 
 " One does not know of any woman writing novels in England to-day who is capable 
 of anything so imposing in invention and so refined in execution as 'Tante.' ' Tante ' is 
 a remarkable novel, full of brilliant things and of beautiful things the strongest work of 
 a very distinguished writer." Manchester Guardian. 
 
 THE BRACKNELS. * 
 
 By FORREST REID. 
 One Volume. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 "A work of rare distinction. 'The Bracknels' is more than brilliant; it is actual; it 
 is true ; it is an accurate reproduction of an experience." Daily Nevis. 
 
 "An admirable novel, from which one has had no ordinary amount of pleasure." 
 Manchester Guardian. 
 
 "A remarkable novel and a novel of character. It is as fine a piece of work as we 
 have come upon for a long time." Daily Chronicle. 
 
 MORE GHOST STORIES. 
 
 By Dr. M. R. JAMES, 
 
 PROVOST OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 AUTHOR OF " GHOST STORIES OF AN ANTIQUARV," ETC. 
 
 Medium 8vo. 6s. Second Impression. 
 
 " I wish to place myself on record as unreservedly recommending ' More Ghost 
 Stories.' It is Dr. James's method that makes his tales so fascinating. As he puts it in 
 his preface, a ghost story ought to be told in such a way that the reader shall say to'him- 
 self : ' If I am not very careful something of this kind may happen to me. ' " Punch. 
 
 LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.
 
 UCLA-College Ubrary 
 
 DC59.5G13 
 
 L 005 692 349 3 
 
 Library 
 
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 $9. 
 01? 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES 
 
 COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below. 
 
 2JMT80teGCl 
 
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 fan 4*5 
 Jani3 <c 
 
 War 29 6 5' 
 
 MAR 3 119 
 
 8 '67 
 
 
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