him that Bonaparte, who wanted to have a numerous gathering of clergy in order to give the ceremony greater solemnity, would be so irritated by his refusal that all the labor and care bestowed on the Concordat would be wasted and France allowed to remain in a state of schism, he still refused to give way, though he expressed his willingness to listen to some proposal which should not be at variance with his duty. The Abbé Bernier then said that he had foreseen that the Cardinal would refuse to take part in the ceremony at Notre Dame along with the constitutional clergy; he had, therefore, together with Portalis, prepared a document which he presented to him, assuring him at the same time that he would not find in it anything conflicting with his duty. The affair, he thought, might indeed be arranged if the Cardinal were to express his refusal under a form which should please the First Consul, whose anger might otherwise have fatal consequences.

In this paper, drawn up in the Cardinal's name and addressed to Portalis, the Legate was made to agree that the constitutional Bishops and priests did not require to be reconsecrated or reordained, also that the First Consul might nominate those constitutional Bishops whom he considered worthy. He also agreed that all parties should be reunited, and that, therefore, after giving canonical institution to the Bishops whom it should please the First Consul to name, he would proceed to reunite them (je procederai à leur réunion), so that nothing should remain which might give rise to disorder or be a cause of humiliation. But until these constitutional Bishops demanded canonical institution in the usual form and received it, they were not in communion with the Holy Father, by whom they had not been instituted. This communion should therefore be established after the publication of the Concordat by the demand and grant of the canonical institution in virtue of the Concordat until when he, as Legate, could not recognize those who, since ten years, had ceased to hold the usual relations with the Holy See. The Cardinal was then made to express his readiness to go to Notre Dame without requiring the presence of any of the former Bishops or of the priests who were faithful to them, and thus avoid any cause of disturbance, but he could not hold any communication with the constitutional Bishops and priests until the publication of the Concordat and the demand and grant of canonical institution in compliance with its rules. He therefore left the First Consul free to name whatever ecclesiastic he might think fit to receive him at Notre Dame.

Cardinal Caprara had been thrown off his guard by the unexpected visit of Bonaparte's emissaries. He was much alarmed by their threatening language, and he was always only too ready to make any concession by which he might hope to put a speedy end to the schism. He therefore made a few changes in the wording of the document, and said to Bernier: "Since you, who have considered the contents of this paper coolly and conscientiously and not hurriedly, assure me that it contains nothing contrary to our principles and maxims, I shall not refuse to have it copied and give it to you signed, with no other object than to avoid a difficulty which you both make me fear might prove fatal."34

On the same evening the Cardinal was informed by a note from Bernier that his letter had produced the result that they had expected. The First Consul had decided that as the absence of the clergy would deprive the "Te Deum" of the necessary solemnity, it should be deferred until the ratification of the peace. By that time the Concordat would have been published and the Cardinal would then be surrounded by a clergy recognized and instituted. Bonaparte might well make this concession, for he had obtained what he wanted-a promise in writing that the Legate would give canonical institution to the Bishops he might choose to name.

The Cardinal was at last informed of the First Consul's decision on March 30 at an audience which he had demanded for the purpose of offering his congratulations on the peace of Amiens. Bonaparte then told him frankly for the first time that among the new Bishops there would be a few of the constitutional clergy. Caprara objected that evil would inevitably result from their nomination, as he was well aware, since protestations were being continually made against it; but Bonaparte replied that the Pope had stated in his note to Cacault that if the constitutional Bishops performed what he had prescribed, he would accept them and give them canonical institution." It was therefore useless to say any more on the subject. His decision was made-either that or nothing; two Archbishops and eight Bishops were to be nominated among the constitutional clergy. The Cardinal still continued to plead, but could obtain no other answer than: "Either that or nothing; the Pope has promised; the Pope must

34 Documents, V., No. 1,197, p. 269. Caprara à Consalvi, Parigi, 4 Aprile, 1802. Documents, V., No. 1,194, p. 264. Note de Caprara à Portalis, Paris, 27 Mars, 1802.

35 Documents, IV., No. 998, p. 323. Note de Consalvi à Cacault, 30 Novembre, 1801. "His Holiness has given a clear proof that he does not entertain such a sentiment (of pride, in refusing to accept the formula adopted by the intrusive Bishops in their letters) by being the first to invite them, by the brief addressed to Mgr. Spina, and communicated by him to them, to be reunited by laying down their error.

•

His Holiness is ready to give a new proof of it by readmitting them to communion with him, and even by instituting some of them, if named to the new churches, provided they perform what was prescribed to them in the said brief and in the instruction sent to the Cardinal Legate at the same time."

keep his word if he wishes the Concordat to be published and that France should not continue to be separated from unity." When Caprara remarked that it was thought that both the laity would refuse to acknowledge and obey the constitutional Bishops, Bonaparte answered: "I shall not deport to Cayenne the ecclesiastics who will dare to do that, but I shall send them all without exception to Romagna (a province of the Papal States) and distribute them among its cities." The Cardinal could only retort that since the Pope had yielded with regard to the nomination and canonical institution of the intrusive Bishops, it was his duty to carry out the instructions he had received and to insist that they should observe to the letter the conditions which had been laid down by the Holy Father. On hearing this firm language, Bonaparte gave signs of much irritation (manifesto marcato sdegno), and after some further discussion he turned to Portalis, who had assisted at the interview, and said to him: "You have heard what the Legate wishes; you shall, therefore, be responsible for it."36

The Tribunate and the Legislative Body, from which the principal opponents of the government had been carefully excluded, met for an extraordinary session on April 5, when the Concordat was laid before them. The Tribunate passed it by a majority of 78 to 7; the Legislative Body by a majority of 228 to 28, and it became law on April 8, 1802, under the name of "La Loi du 18 Germinal, an X." Along with it was voted, so as to form one law, a collection of seventy-seven regulations known as Les Articles Organiques, intended to define the relations between the State and the Catholic Church and to establish a claim on the part of the State to interfere on every possible occasion in the discipline of the Church and in the administration of purely ecclesiastical matters. Thus the authorization of the government was required before any bull, brief or rescript from Rome or the decrees of a foreign synod, or even of a general council could be published in France, and no Legate or Nuncio of the Holy See could exercise his functions without having obtained it. The rules of the diocesan seminaries were to be submitted to the approbation of the First Consul, and their professors were to be bound to sign the declaration made by the French clergy in 1682, and to teach its doctrines. The exercise by a Bishop of his right to form a chapter as well as the choice and the number of the ecclesiastics destined to compose it also required the authorization of the government. The parish priests were forbidden to bring any accusation in their sermons against any persons or against the other forms of religion authorized in the State, and they were to give the nuptial blessing only to those who could prove that they had already contracted a civil marriage. These few extracts must suffice to show the general character of the Articles Organiques, which have been described as the "quintessence of that spirit known as Gallicanism, which has always been condemned by Rome."37

These articles may be considered as the result of the efforts of the Jacobins and the infidels, who, having failed to prevent Bonaparte from concluding the Concordat, now sought to restrict the little freedom it allowed the Church and to eliminate whatever it might contain favorable to religion. It was a resuscitation and a development of the vexatious regulations by which the Kings of France had sought to subject the Church to the State, although the Bourbon monarchy and its institutions had been so recently swept away in the name of liberty. Even on the day following the conclusion of the Concordat d'Hauteville, one of Talleyrand's secretaries in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, addressed, in the absence of his superior, 38 a long protest to the First Consul against many of the concessions which had been made to Rome in opposition to the advice of Talleyrand, who brought the matter forward again in a report shortly before the ratification of the Concordat. He pointed out to Bonaparte that some of the fundamental conditions which he had laid down and which it seemed useful to maintain had been set aside, a statement calculated to arouse the suspicions of the First Consul and put him on his guard. Talleyrand then repeated d'Hauteville's objections, but more concisely. He regretted that the religious belief professed by the members of the government should have been introduced into a public document; that the power of creating ecclesiastical foundations should have been allowed too much latitude; that seminaries and chapters should have been mentioned, and that the convention should have contained no stipulation for the interests of the constitutional clergy or of the priests who had been secularized by marriage or by a voluntary renunciation. He thought, however, that the First Consul, after ratifying the convention, could provide against any inconvenience which might result if it were literally executed by special decrees referring to each particular case.39

The Councillor of State, Portalis, was charged with the preparation of the Articles Organiques. Much of this code was dictated to him by Bonaparte, for the First Consul, though resolved to restore religion in France in spite of the opposition of the infidel party, sought to diminish the power of the clergy as much as possible and render it dependent on the State. The publication of these articles at the same time as the Concordat was considered in Rome as an attempt to suggest that they formed part of it. Caprara, indeed, assured Cardinal Consalvi that everybody was convinced of the contrary, but Portalis in his speech before the Legislative Body had spoken more than once of "the convention with the Pope and the organic articles of that convention,''11 and Consalvi might well maintain that only one conclusion could be drawn from his wordsnamely, that they had been agreed to by the Pope.42

Organic articles to define the relations of the French Calvinists and Lutherans with the State were published at the same time as those annexed to the Concordat, but while the Holy Father had not been consulted with regard to the regulations bearing upon the Catholic Church, those for the Protestant sects were drawn up according to instructions furnished by representatives whom the various communities had been asked to send to Paris for that purpose.43

When the Papal Government had learned that the Legate at his official reception would be expected to take an oath to the First Consul, researches were made in the Roman archives to ascertain what course had been followed on previous occasions in the time of the monarchy, but no record of any such formality could be found. Some French writers, indeed, mentioned some cases, but without specifying any precise form, and it seemed to have consisted merely in a promise that the Legate would exercise his powers only so long as it should please the King. Pius VII. thought, therefore, that

40 "Dans ce travail j'ai été dirigé par les notes sages et profondes que j'avais prises sous votre dictée, et j'ai marché avec confiance." Documents, t. IV., No. 941, p. 195. Portalis au Premier Consul, 24 Octobre, 1801.

41 Documents, t. IV., No. 1,213, p. 389. Discours de Portalis sur l'organisation des Cultes, 5 Avril, 1802. "La Convention avec le Pape, et les articles organiques de cette Convention, participent à la nature des traités diplomatiques, c'est à dire à la nature d'un véritable contrait."

42 Documents, V., No. 1,271, p. 581. Consalvi à Caprara, Roma, 5 Maggio, 1802. Cardinal di Pietro, in his report to Pius VII., was also of opinion that the expressions employed by Portalis might lead one to believe thatthe organic articles formed part of the Concordat. Rinieri, Vol. I., p. 439. 43 Documents, t. III., No. 759, p. 452. Le Premier Consul à Chaptal, 10 Août, 1801. "Je désire que vous donniez l'ordre aux préfets des cinq départements de la République où il y a le plus de protestants, et à celui de Genève pour les calvinistes, l'envoyer à Paris, auprès de vous, chacun un des principaux ministres du culte protestant le but de cette mesure est de concerter les moyens de maintenir le bon ordre, la liberté et l'indépendance des cultes."