RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Concordats and
Delimiting- Bulls
plicit answer from Pius VII. on July 10, the negotiations proceeded, and from Nov., 1800, they were conducted in Paris between the papal delegate, Monsignor Spina, and the Abb6 Bernier. Napoleon demanded a reduction of the number of bishoprics from 158 to 60; resignation of all existent French bishops; right of episcopal nominations for the First Consul; remuneration of the clergy out of the state exchequer, and express pledge of obedience to the state government; relinquishment of claims to church property that had been sold; pardon for the priests who during the Revolution had married; and transfer of the pohce inspection of pubhc worship to the Coimcil of State. Spina in turn demanded that with the repeal of all adverse laws the Roman Catholic religion should be declared as that of the State, and the consuls be bound to that confession. The proceedings dragged along, and when Napoleon had despatched to Rome a draft elaborated by Spina and Bernier and accepted by Talleyrand, but found it subjected there to procrastinating explanations, he demanded, on May 13, 1801, either an immediate, unconditional acceptance or the rupture of diplomatic relations. Cacault, who shortly before had been sent to Rome for the resumption of diplomatic intercourse, was, in fact, recalled. At his suggestion, however, the papal secretary of state, Consalvi, went straightway in person with large and full powers to Paris, where he arrived on June 20; and after an arduous conference on July 15, 1801, with the imperial commissioners, Bernier and Joseph Bonaparte, he concluded the concordat, which then was ratified on both sides, though not without demurrings.
The concordat (Mirbt, Quellen, pp. 334-336) is drawn up in French; it containa seventeen articles, and is entitled, Convention entre le gouvernement fran^ais et sa Saintete Pie VII. By way of preamble it declares: " The government of the French Republic recognizes the fact that the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion is the religion of the great majority of French citizens. His Holiness likewise recognizes the fact that this same religion has derived, and still anticipates at this time, the best and greatest advantage from the establishment of the Catholic worship in France; and from the particular profession thereof on the part of the consuls of the Republic." Art. i. reads: " The CathoUc, Apostolic, and Roman religion shall be freely exercised in France; its acts of worship shall be public, and in accord with such civil regulations as the Government shall judge necessary in behalf of public tranquillity." Art. ii. promises a reduction of the bishoprics. Art. iii. regulates the dismissal of former bishops, and provision is then made in arts, iv.-vi. for future episcopal appointments. The Church relinquishes legal claims to ecclesiastical property sold during the Revolution (art. xiii.), but the State guarantees a competent maintenance for the bishops and parochial clergy (art. xiv.), and allows foundations beneficial to the Church (art. xv.). The same rights and prerogatives are conceded to the First Consul as the former government had enjoyed in relation to the Apostolic See (art. xvi.). The first articles proved the most troublesome, because the Church was unwilling to yield the point that Roman Catholicism was a state religion in France; and the State uesitated to waive the point that the Church must comply with all and sundry state police provisions, instead of simply with those of a general scope.
The ratification on the pope's side ensued, as in the case of preceding concordats, by his embodying the entire Latin text in the bull Ecclesia Christi, dated Aug. 13, 1801. On Sept. 10 (23 Fructidor an IX.) the ratifications were interchanged at Paris; upon which the publication for France took place as follows. A state law was passed on Apr. 8, 1802 {Loi relative a V organisation du cuUe du 18 Germinal
an X.), by which the concordat (not the papal bull) was promulgated with statutory force, together with two separate appertaining " organic articles " (Mirbt, Quellen, pp. 336-338) relating to Catholic and Protestant worship. These " organic articles " aimed to institute an introductory status, but they start from premises about the State's influence in ecclesiastical affairs that were not acknowledged by the Church. At the same time the powers of the papal representative at Paris, Cardinal Caprara, were recognized, and on the following day he published the papal bull of ratification of Aug. 13; a brief of Nov. 29, 1801, which gave him authority to institute new bishopries; the promised delimiting bull for France (Qui Christi Dominis vices); and an indult reducing the number of festivals, all of the same date. The government expressed a qualified acquiescence on Apr. 19.
The original documents relating to the concordat are found complete in J. Desenne, Code general frangais contenant les lois et actes du gouvernement publies depuis le 6 mai, 1789, jusqu'au 8 juillet, 1815, Paris, 1818 sqq., vol. x., pp. 438-493. Material for the history of the concordat was gathered by J. E. M. Portalis in Discours, rapports et iravaux inedits sur le concordat de 1801, les Articles organiques etc., Paris, 1845, and has been lately augmented by Boulay de la Meurthe, Documents sur la negociation du concordat et les autres rapports de la France avec le Saint-Siege en 1800 et 1801, 5 vols., Paris, 1891-99. Consult also Mcmoires du Cardinal Consalvi etc., avec une introduction et des notes par J. Cretirieau-Joly, 2 vols., Paris, 1864; Comte d'Haussonville, L'Bglise romaine et le premier Empire, 1800— 181^, 5 vols., Paris, 1868 sqq.; A. Theiner, Histoire des deux concordats de la repuhlique jrancaise et de la republique cisalpine etc., 2 vols., Paris, 1869; O. Mejer, Zur Geschichte der rbmisch-deutschen Frage, part i., Rostock, 1871, pp. 152-200; L. Sech^, Les Origines du concordat, 2 vols., Paris, 1894; A. Debidour, Histoire des rapports de I'Bglise et de I'Etat en France de 1789 a 1870, Paris, 1898; Wirtz, Das franzbsische Konkordat von 1801, in AKR, vol. Ixxxv. 85 sqq., 209 sqq. For the concordat in Alsace-Lorraine cf. AKR, vol. xxiv., p. 306; vol. xlv., p. 302.
This concordat regulated the relations between Church and State in France for more than a hundred years. Tension between France and the Papal See, due to various causes, occasioned the rupture of their diplomatic relations in 1904, and it was then proposed, after the fall of Minister Combes and under the ministry of Rouvier, to disestablish the Church. The repeal of the concordat was decreed by the legislative bodies. The law respecting the separation of State and Church came before the Chamber of Deputies on Mar. 21, 1905, and was adopted on July 3 by 341 votes to 233. The Senate began to deliberate the measure on Nov. 9, and on Dec. 6 approved the bill by 179 votes to 103. See France.
The concordat of 1801 and the new circumscription became operative within the boundaries of France as determined by the peace negotiations of Lun^ville and Amiena; hence they applied also to Belgium, the left bank of the Rhine, and the parta which France had acquired of Switzerland and Savoy. For the Italian Republic, Pius VII. concluded a apecial concordat with Napoleon as
2. French its president, on Sept. 16, 1803; it was ap- Dependen- proved by the State Council at Milan, Sept. cies. 27, and ratified by the pope on Oct. 29, by Napoleon on Nov. 2 of the aame year. It is a recasting of the French concordat, whose arts, iv., vi., vii X xiii it contains literally, while others are of a more favorable construction for the Church. It alao contains rulings upon points that were not touched in the Concordat of 1801, but were first agitated on occasion of the strife which even then broke out on account of the " organic articles " {Bullarium Romanum, ed. Barberi, vol. xu., pp. 59 sqq ) It continued in force also for the Kingdom of Italy that was erected in the year 1805, superseding the Italian Republic. ,
The so-called Concordat of Fontainebleau, or second concordat of Napoleon, dated Jan. 25, 1813, which he negotiated and concluded personally with the pope; which he
Ooncordats and
Delimiting' Bulls