Even the National Convention, which passes in history as an assembly of atheists, put aside at first, in November 1792, a project of separa tion, and formally maintained the Civil Con stitution, limiting itself to making laws against refractory priests. But soon, when the Re public Had replaced the Monarchy, all the Catholic clergy became unpopular. The patriots accused the Papal clergy of conspiring with out side enemies and with the emigres, of fomenting the civil war in the la Vendee. They accused the non-Pa;, of having taken part in the Civil Vti. Republic with the Girondins against d of the Mountain. It seemed to the pet. all the priests, Constitutionals and Rem_ were conspiring against the that they were a permanent danger ti public. Although the people had nit r philosophers, they had the feeling that out of the power of the priests to hr. country, they would have to tear altars; and it was thus, much less ph y than by patriotism, much less 1. religious fanaticism than as national defense; it was thus th arose these popular disturbances by taking the form of an i christianization of France. There was cult of Reason, which the COIIVeEn associated only to a limited extent, in permitting the communes to rent Through its Committee o Safety it strove to prevent violence persons; it proclaimed the principle c: of conscience. But passions were than the laws or, the government another most of the churches were the observance of religious worship la: generally suspended in 1794.
A new attempt at a state religion n the same year by the efforts of Robe: who was then the true head of the government ; this was the worship Supreme Being, a sort of philosophic - or purified Christianity, which disapperm tirely, or almost so, when Robespierre Then, when the victories of the Fen: put an 'end to the terror which the priests and foreigners had inspirit, Catholic religion spontaneously Then at last, enlightened by experience t all idea of a state religion, the Nation. vention established the secular regime ration, which lasted from the end of spring of 1803. Under this regime it paid no further salaries to any sect, w:l sects, equal before the law, worship* with the provisional restrictions and the precautions rendered necessary by the foreign and even civil war in wind still labored. A number of the chunk restored to purposes of worship, 00 Cr that the priests who should enjoy the • should submit to the laws. remained a shadow, a trace, of a this was the aculte Decadaire' or religion, a sort of official religion of which disappeared little by little we' indifference, when the country was n: in danger. On the other hand a arose, a kind of unofficial cult of the Supreme Being; this IT philanthropism.
Papal Catholics, non-Papal Catheio Protestants, Theophilanthropists, ader ten-day cult ; all these sects acted as poise to each other in a state of Mr. although the vicissitudes of war brought on acts of intolerance, !I:: said that the regime of separation and State became a part of the life at the time of the Consulate, that r least endurable for all sects and that there was a rich development of religious life.
If Napoleon Bonaparte suppressed this regime of liberty, at which he had himself pre sided with as much success as talent; if he came at last to desire and to effect the reunion with Rome, to conclude a new concordat, it was not at all from piety but from personal ambition, his purpose being to command, through the Pope, the consciences of men, to realize through the Pope his dreams of power and of universal empire.
When the victory of Marengo had made him sufficiently popular to believe that all things were permitted to him, in the enforced silence of public opinion and the press, he entered upon negotiations with the lc'ope, and on 15 July 1801, at Paris, an act was signed which, since none dare call it a concordat, was called a Convention, but which was really an agree ment analogous to that which Francis I had concluded with Leo X. In it Catholicism was not declared the religion of the state, but the fact was recognized that it was the faith of the great majority of the French people. The Pope was to demand or force the resignation of all the bishops then acting, and after a new cir cumscription of dioceses had been determined on, the First Consul was to make nominations to these bishoprics or archbishoprics and the Pope was to confer on the persons thus nomi nated canonical ordination according to the forms of the earlier concordat. The bishops should nominate the priests, but subject to the approval of the government. The Pope prom ised that the purchasers of property formerly belonging to the clergy should not be disturbed; and a suitable salary was to be given the bishops and priests by the government. On the other hand, the First Consul instituted some regulations of policy, called the Organic Arti cles, by which he received security from the churches, in conformity with the ancient Gal Heat] policy. The Convention and the Organic Articles became law on the 18 Germinal, year 10 of the Republic (March 1802) and the new concordat was in force from the end of the following April.
The greatest advantage that accrued to the Pope from this document did not appear in writing: this was the suppression of schism. Bonaparte abolished the heretofore constitu tional church. He abolished also Theophilan thropy and whatever remained of the worship. ' Protestants and Jews were recognized and protected by the state, but not with the same degree of honor and influence. The Concordat promised salaries only to the district priests. When Bonaparte became em peror, he allowed a salary of other priests or curates to the number of more than 30,000. The budget of Religions swelled little by little. At the time of the rupture of the Concordat, in 1905, it was about 50,000,000 francs.