Among questions or movements of general sig nificance which have agitated the French Church since that date must be mentioned the stir caused about 1830 by the body of enthusiastic vision aries, of whom Lamennais, Lacordaire, and Mon talembert are the best known, starting from a pure devotion to the cause of liberty and a con viction that the Church would gain by its fullest exercise, but ending in dangerous errors which received the condemnation of the Holy See, and in more modern times the very serious aggres sions made upon the Church with increasing bit terness by the Government of the Third Republic. Though Pope Leo XIII. has repeatedly laid down the principle that there is no reason why, theo retically, a good Catholic should not be a good republican, it is undeniable that the bulk of the monarchist parties is composed of members of the Church; and it is, therefore, not altogether to be wondered at that the Government has felt justified in taking a position of antagonism to the Church as a whole. The extreme lengths, however, to which this antagonism has been carried within the last few years are difficult to reconcile with the principles of a democracy, and afford scope for many doubts as to the outcome of a policy so hostile to the religious instincts which are at least latent in the great majority of the French population.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Jervis, The Church of France Bibliography. Jervis, The Church of France (2 vols., London, 1872), and The Gallican Church and the Revolution (London, 1882), by far the best books in English on the whole sub ject; Gallia Christiana (13 vols., Paris, 1715 85 ; vols. 14-16, ib., 1856-65) ; Guett6e, Histoire de l'eglise de France (12 vols., ib., 1847-56) ; Jager, Histoire de l'eglise catholique de France (19 vols., ib., ; Gerin, Recherches historiques sur l'Assemblee de 1682 (Paris, 1869) ; id., Louis XIV. et le Saint Siege (2 vols., ib., 1890) ; de Maistre, De l'eglise gallicane (Paris, 1821) : id., Du pape (Lyons, 1809) ; Le Roy, Le Gallicanisme au XVIII. siecle (Paris, 1892) ; Keller, La fin du Gallicanisme et M. Maret, son dernier repre sentant (Alencon, 1901) ; Theiner, Documents inedits relatifs aux affaires religieuses de France, 1790 a 1800 (Paris, 1857) ; id., Les deux Con cordats (ib., 1869.) ; D'Haussonville, L'eglise ro maine et le premier Empire ( Paris, 1864-71) ; and see FRANCE; HUGUENOTS.