MENTS.
The condition of the church and clergy forms a moat important feature in the history and present si tuation of France. In former times, the Galilean church, without desiring a separation from the Holy See, had often advanced a claim to independence, and maintained long and animated discussions, or ra ther controversies familiar to those readers of French history, who have attended to the history of the Jansenists and Molinists. The result of these and of the general progress of knowledge in France was an exemption from a part at least of the inter ference in ecclesiastical affairs, exercised so despo tically by the court of Rome, in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. As to pecuniary means, though the income of the lower ranks of the clergy was extremely small, the church of France was in the whole richly endow ed; the rent of land and houses, appropriated to ab beys, priories, bishoprics. archbishoprics, and bene fices of every description, being computed at five millions sterling, exclusive of the tithes levied, with more or less strictness, throughout the whole kingdom. As a political body, the French clergy were differently situated from the English, having no voice in legislating, but aiming at, and frequently at taining, the highest offices in the executive govern ment.
In 1789, a number of the clergy, both in the up.. per and lower ranks, participated in the general wish for a political reform, and evinced that disposition, by their readiness in coalescing with the Tiers Etat, at a time when the majority of the noblesse refused to do it, until compelled by the call of the people, and the positive order of the court. In the highly interesting discussions that ensued during the years 1789 and 1790, several of the leading orators were Catholic clergymen, nor did they in general take the alarm, until the menacing aspect given to public af fairs by the too rapid progress of the Revolution. The National Assembly stripped the church of her lands, and declared them the property of the public, providing, indeed, for the income of the clergy, but snaking the payment of it dependent on government. All this might have passed and been forgiven in the ardent hope.s of national benefit from the Revolution, but the Assembly did not stop here. Considering both the court of Rome and the court of France in veterately hostile to the Revolution, they determined to detach the clergy from both, and sought to com pel their adherence, by imposing on them an oath of fidelity to the new constitution, on pain of forfeit ure of their livings. The sincerity of the clerical
body was now put to the test, and sk striking proof was given of their being actuated by that conscien tious feeling, for which the public in Protestant countries are so little disposed to give them credit.— In every rank, whether prelates, curates, vicars, or the humble desservants, the majority preferred the hazard of losing their livelihood to taking an oath at variance with their conscience. The violent party continued to triumph at Paris, and the non-conform ing clergy had no alternative, but to fly their coun try. Hence the crowds of emigrants, who, in 1791 and 1792, sought refuge in Italy, Germany, and, above all, in England. Those who remained in France were exposed to all the atrocities of the Jaco bins. Hundreds of them were sacrificed in the mas sacres of September 1792, and hundreds were brought to the guillotine in the dreadful years 1793 and 1794. With the fall of Robespierre (July 1794) the executions ceased; but a tone of hostility to the church was still kept up, and accounted an indis pensable part of the policy of the revolutionary go. vernment. The only class allowed to remain in quiet were the cures, whose humble station and scattered position created no political alarm. It was not till the established sway of Bonaparte (in 1801) that cir cumstances admitted of cooler calculation, and ena bled that artful usurper to seek, in a hierarchy, a prop to his own power, and an engine of opposition to the liberal party—to that party which still hoped to secure to France advantages from the Revolution. With this view, he affected great respect for the Ca. tholic church, passed a Concordat with the Pope, and made a pecuniary provision for a specified num. ber of Sees. His next step was to frame and circu late throughout all France a catechism, calculated to impress the rising generation with a profound ve neration for a sovereign, who had been " anointed by the Pope, and received his mission from the Al mighty." The power of Bonaparte received in this manner a most substantial support, and would have taken deep root with the lower orders, had he not counteracted it by his subsequent quarrel with the Pope, which assumed an angry aspect in 1809, and became more and more aggravated during the re. mainder of his reign.