Brumaire (9th November), the anniversary of the overthrow of the Directory, and at the same time the demarcation of the new sees and the nominations of the fifty new prelates. He thought that by presenting to the public the restored Catholic Church of France fully formed and complete in all its details, he would disarm hostile criticism and earn the admiration of a people always ready to worship success and easily pleased with a brilliant and theatrical stroke of policy. 23 At the same time a great feast was to celebrate the signing of the preliminaries of peace with England and the conclusion of treaties with Russia, Bavaria, Portugal and Turkey, which had at last brought about the general pacification of Europe. For the publication of the Concordat, however, it was necessary that the bull for the delimitation of the new bishoprics should have been received in Paris, as the First Consul could not nominate to sees not yet in existence and the new Bishops canonically instituted. But for that it was necessary that the existing Bishops should have replied to the Papal brief which demanded their resignation, and Mgr. Spina, in whose hands copies of this document were placed, could not forward them until the Concordat had been ratified by the First Consul.24 To Bonaparte's great displeasure the proclamation of the Concordat was, therefore, deferred until Christmas.

The obstinacy with which Bonaparte insisted on nominating some of the intrusive Bishops to the newly created sees, without any retractation of their errors, caused the Holy Father and his minister the most profound grief. In a letter addressed to the Papal Nuncios, Cardinal Consalvi acknowledges that the intrusive Bishops had won a complete victory. They had refused to submit to the conditions imposed by the Holy Father, who had made every concession to them; they had confirmed their error by the very form in which they had announced to him the resignation of their sees, and yet the French Government maintained that they had sufficiently atoned for their past conduct by resigning their sees at the demand of the Pope and accepting the Concordat, and that nothing more could be asked of them.25 To satisfy, however, the impatience of Bonaparte, and with the object of making every effort to avoid "the incalculable evils which would threaten religion if his will were opposed," the bull for the damarcation of the new dioceses was forwarded on December 2, though the Bishops whose resignations had been asked for had not yet replied. Cardinal Caprara was also authorized to give canonical institution in the name of the Pope to the new Bishops as soon as they should be nominated, and after making a summary inquiry with regard to them (un processo sommario). This would meet the views of Bonaparte, who said that under the circumstances in which religion was being restored he wanted to nominate the new Bishops, have them consecrated and send them to their new dioceses within twenty-four hours, so as to allow no time for any opposition or resistance to be offered. But the Holy Father refused to accept the nomination of the intrusive Bishops unless they submitted to the decisions of the Holy See with regard to the ecclesiastical affairs of France and acknowledged the illegality of their election and consecration, as they had been required to do by the brief "Post muttos labores."26

Cardinal Consalvi repeated these observations in a letter to M. Cacault, the French Ambassador in Rome, pointing out to him that in eighteen centuries there had been no example in the Church of such a measure as the suppression of ancient dioceses without the consent of the Bishops, but in a matter of such importance, and in the extraordinary state of affairs then existing, the Holy Father consented to "pass over every canonical regulation." Cardinal Caprara had also been authorized to give the newly elected Bishops the canonical jurisdiction by means of letters patent, although according to the terms of the Concordat nothing was to be changed in the ancient and more lengthy forms of procedure which had existed before the revolution. 27

The refusal of the constitutional Bishops to make their recantation in the form demanded by the brief of the Holy Father and the resistance of many of the legitimate Bishops to his request that they should resign their sees were not the only hindrances which delayed the proclamation of the Concordat. The winter session of the Tribunate, the Legislative Body and the Senate had just begun (22d November, 1801), and the three assemblies soon displayed a strong opposition to the First Consul, who seemed to aim at the reëstablishment of a monarchical government, and his Concordat was especially obnoxious to them, for it was a most counter-revolutionary transaction. The Tribunate showed its animosity by severely criticizing the treaties of peace which Bonaparte had just concludeed, especially that with Russia, in which he was accused of having made concessions unworthy of the dignity of republican France. The Tribunate also opposed and the Legislative Body rejected the preliminary part and two of the first three laws of the Code Civil, which had just been drawn up under the presidency of Bonaparte by the Council of State.28 It was an institution of which they were jealous, as in order to form it the First Consul had selected the most capable men of business he could find and carried out his most important undertakings by their aid. Some of the generals, too, made no secret of their animosity against Bonaparte; of their discontent at having to submit to one who had been their equal, and of the irritation they felt on seeing the restoration of the Catholic Church, which they thought they had destroyed. They were displeased with the peace which had contributed so much to Bonaparte's glory; they found themselves, after ten years of warfare and lawlessness, once more subordinated to the civil authorities under a firm government, and they hoped that by the overthrow of the First Consul they might be able to bring back the anarchy, the licentiousness and the corruption of the Directory.20 The great majority, however, of the army as well as of the nation was thoroughly devoted to Bonaparte, and, trusting to their support, he resolved to employ energetic measures to overcome the resistance of the assemblies and force them to accept the Concordat.

Bonaparte therefore withdrew the Code Civil from further discussion; he did not, indeed, dismiss the Tribunate and the Legislative Body, but he left them without employment, in a state of inactivity and with the responsibility of having put a stop, by their factious spirit, to the plans he had formed for the good of France. He then left for Lyons, where he presided over a congress of five hundred of the most distinguished citizens of the Cisalpine Republic, for which he drew up a new form of Constitution. Its name was then changed to that of the Italian Republic, and he was proclaimed its President.

During this interval Cambacérès, the Second Consul, was charged with the duty of eliminating those members of the Tribunate and of the Legislative Body who by their animosity against Bonaparte's undertakings had shown that they would certainly vote against the Concordat, and of replacing them by others who might be expected to vote in accordance with Bonaparte's wishes.

By the 38th article of the Constitution which had been drawn up in November, 1799, one-fifth of the Tribunate and of the Legislative Body was to be renewed in the year X.30 The members to be excluded were to be indicated by the Senate, but the method of doing so had not been specified, and the Senate might be persuaded to remove by ballot instead of by lot those who had led the opposition and had impeded all legislation. The plan, mainly due to Cambacérès, succeeded. The more influential members of the Senate were won over, and on January 15 and 18, 1802, it decided, by a large majority, that the renewals should take place immediately, and that the ballot should be employed for the purpose, but that it was to indicate not those who should leave the two assemblies, but those who should remain. By this means sixty members of the Legislative Body and twenty of the Tribunate, who had been most opposed to Bonaparte's views and were especially hostile to the Catholic religion, were excluded and their successors chosen, also by the Senate, from the lists of candidates presented by the departments. 31

In spite of Bonaparte's declaration that he was resolved to name some of the constitutional clergy to the new bishoprics, Cardinal Caprara still hoped that he would not persist in this resolution, and in more than one letter to Cardinal Consalvi he expressed his conviction that none of the intrusive Bishops would be named. Bonaparte, on his side, according to his usual practice of taking by surprise at the last moment the persons with whom he was transacting business, deliberately kept the Cardinal in ignorance of his real intentions; for in the month of December he told a friend of Caprara's that he would not say whether he would or would not name any of the intrusive Bishops, but that the Cardinal should have confidence in him, and that he would certainly act in concert with him in the matter.32 Caprara still continued, however, to implore of the First Consul to abandon his plans with regard to the constitutional clergy and to warn him that by choosing Bishops from their ranks he would overthrow the edifice which he had constructed, and that instead of the peace which he sought, he would bring about religious dissensions, which are the most disastrous of all. Even Portalis, the recently named Minister of Religion, presented to Bonaparte a strongly worded memorial, in which he pointed out to him that the reports forwarded by the prefects from all parts of the republic agreed in stating that public opinion was altogether in favor of the priests who had not taken the constitutional oath, and that their churches were the most frequented. Even in the days of the "Terror" the fury of the revolutionists had never been able to force the majority of the citizens to attend the religious services celebrated by the constitutional clergy, and the ignorance and bad conduct of many members of that clergy had much contributed to strengthen the aversion they inspired. Portalis again warned the First Consul, when sending him an annotated list of the intrusive Bishops, that they had not the confidence of the people, and that hardly one of them had any claim to be trusted by him. If, therefore, such men were placed in charge of the dioceses, the great work of the reestablishment of religion would be compromised. There were, indeed, a few who were learned and virtuous, but they would have much to do to overcome the repugnance which the people felt for them.33

In spite of these warnings, Bonaparte, who towards the end of March had decided to increase the number of the new sees from fifty to sixty, still persisted in his resolution to nominate some of the intrusive Bishops. He still, however, carefully concealed his intentions from Caprara, probably lest the Cardinal should have the time to apply to Rome for advice and further instructions; but in order to make sure that the persons whom he should nominate should run no risk of being rejected by the Legate at the last moment, he sent the Abbé Bernier and Portalis to obtain from the Cardinal a formal declaration on the subject. Caprara replied that in order to put an end to the schism the Holy Father, even though it would be very painful to him, would allow the First Consul to name some constitutionals. He as Legate would then reconcile them to the Church, according to the rules which had been laid down for him, after making what remarks and observations he should judge necessary. But Bonaparte was not content with merely verbal assurances; he wished to have this concession guaranteed by the Legate's signature, and he obtained it thus.

On March 27 Cardinal Caprara was warned by a note from Bernier that on the following day he was to be solemnly received at Notre Dame according to the ancient ceremonial prescribed for Legates, and the "Te Deum" would be sung in thanksgiving for peace. The authorities would then pay him formal visits, and on April 5 he would be received by the First Consul in a public audience, after which he was to consecrate the new Bishops. On the evening of the same day Bernier and Portalis came to inform him that it was the desire of the First Consul that both the clergy in communion with the Church and the constitutional or schismatic clergy should assist at the ceremony of the following day. The Cardinal, though thus taken by surprise, pointed out to Portalis the impossibility of yielding to this request, and though Portalis assured