TheConcordat of 1801was anagreementbetween theFirst French Republicand theHoly See,signed by First ConsulNapoleon BonaparteandPope Pius VIIon 15 July 1801 inParis.[1]It remained in effect until 1905, except inAlsace–Lorraine,where itremains in force.It sought national reconciliation between theFrench Revolutionand Catholics and solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France, with most of its civil status restored. This resolved the hostility of devoutFrench Catholicsagainst the revolutionary state. It did not restore the vast Church lands and endowments that had been seized during the Revolution and sold off. Catholic clergy returned from exile, or from hiding, and resumed their traditional positions in their traditional churches. Very few parishes continued to employ the priests who had accepted theCivil Constitution of the Clergyof the revolutionary regime. While the Concordat restored much power to the papacy, the balance of church-state relations tilted firmly in Bonaparte's favour. He selected the bishops and supervised church finances.[2][3]
Bonaparte and the Pope both found the Concordat useful. Similar arrangements were made with the Church in territories controlled by France, especially Italy and Germany.[4]
History
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During the Revolution, theNational Assemblyhad taken Church properties and issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which made the Church a department of the state, effectively removing it from papal authority. At the time, the nationalisedGallican Churchwas the official church of France, but it was essentially Catholicism. The Civil Constitution caused hostility among theVendeanstowards the change in the relationship between the Catholic Church and the French government. Subsequent laws abolished the traditionalGregorian calendarand Christian holidays.[5]
The Concordat was drawn up by a commission with three representatives from each party. Napoleon Bonaparte, who wasFirst Consulof the French Republic at the time, appointedJoseph Bonaparte,his brother,Emmanuel Crétet,a counselor of state, andÉtienne-Alexandre Bernier,a doctor in theology. Pope Pius VII appointed CardinalErcole Consalvi,CardinalGiuseppe Spina,[6]archbishop of Corinth, and his theological adviser, Father Carlo Francesco Maria Caselli.[7]The French bishops, whether still abroad or returned to their own country, had no part in the negotiations. The concordat as finally arranged practically ignored them.[8]
While the Concordat restored some ties to thepapacy,it was largely in favour of the state; it wielded greater powervis-à-visthe Pope than previous French regimes had, and church lands lost during the Revolution were not returned. Napoleon took a utilitarian approach to the role of religion.[9]He could now win favour with French Catholics while also controlling Rome in a political sense. Napoleon once told his brotherLucienin April 1801, "Skillful conquerors have not got entangled with priests. They can both contain them and use them."[10]As a part of the Concordat, he presented another set of laws called theOrganic Articles.
Contents
editThe main terms of the Concordat of 1801 between France and Pope Pius VII included:
- A declaration that "Catholicism was the religion of the great majority of the French" but not the official state religion, thus maintaining religious freedom, in particular with respect to Protestants.
- The Papacy had the right to depose bishops; the French government still, since theConcordat of Bolognain 1516, nominated them.
- The state would pay clerical salaries and the clergy swore an oath of allegiance to the state.
- The Catholic Church gave up all its claims to Church lands that were confiscated after 1790.
- Sunday was reestablished as a "festival", effectiveEaster Sunday,18 April 1802. The rest of theFrench Republican calendar,which had been abolished, was not replaced by the traditional Gregorian calendar until 1 January 1806.
According toGeorges Goyau,the law known as "The Organic Articles", promulgated in April 1802, infringed in various ways on the spirit of the concordat.[8]The document claimed Catholicism was "the religion of the majority of Frenchmen," and still gave state recognition toProtestantsandJewsas well.
The Concordat was abrogated by thelaw of 1905on theseparation of church and state.However, some provisions of the Concordat are still in effect in the Alsace–Lorraine region under thelocal law of Alsace–Moselle,as the region was controlled by theGerman Empireat the time of the 1905 law's passage.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^Knight, Charles (1867)."Pius VII".Biography: Or, Third Division of The English Encyclopedia.Vol. 4. Bradbury, Evans & Company.
- ^Aston, Nigel (2000).Religion and revolution in France, 1780–1804.Catholic University of America Press. pp. 279–335.
- ^William, Roberts (1999). "Napoleon, the Concordat of 1801, and Its Consequences". In Coppa, Frank J. (ed.).Controversial Concordats: The Vatican's Relations with Napoleon, Mussolini, and Hitler.pp. 34–80.
- ^Aston, Nigel (2002).Christianity and revolutionary Europe, 1750–1830.Cambridge University Press. pp. 261–62.
- ^"France".Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.Archived fromthe originalon 6 February 2011.Retrieved15 December2011.See drop-down essay on "Religion and Politics until the French Revolution"
- ^Spina had been Papal Majordomo for Pius VI, and had followed him in his arrest and deportation to France in 1799. Salvador Miranda, Librarian Emeritus, Florida International University,The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church,Spina, Giuseppe.Retrieved: 2016-07-30.
- ^Edwards, Bela Bates; Peters, Absalom; Agnew, John Holmes; Treat, Selah Burr (1840).The American Biblical Repository.s.n.Retrieved22 April2014.
- ^abGoyau, Georges. "The French Concordat of 1801." The Catholic EncyclopediaVol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 8 November 2015
- ^Vilmer, Jean-Baptiste Jeangéne. "Comment on the Concordat of 1801 between France and the Holy See",Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique,102: 1, 2007, p. 124-154
- ^Aston, Nigel (2002).Christianity and Revolutionary Europec.1750-1830.Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-46027-1.
Further reading
edit- Aston, Nigel.Religion and revolution in France, 1780-1804(Catholic University of America Press, 2000), pp. 279–315.
- Consalvi, Ercole (1866). J. Crétineau-Joly (ed.).Mémoires du Cardinal Consalvi, avec une introduction et des notes de J.Crétineau-Joly(in French). H.Plon.
- Crétineau-Joly, Jacques (1869).Bonaparte, le concordat de 1801 et le cardinal Consalvi; suivi, Des deux letters au père Theiner sur le pape Clément XIV(in French). Paris: H. Plon.
- Roberts, William. "Napoleon, the Concordat of 1801, and Its Consequences." in: Frank J. Coppa, ed.,Controversial Concordats: The Vatican's Relations with Napoleon, Mussolini, and Hitler(1999) pp: 34–80.
- Sévestre, Emile (1905).L'histoire, le texte et la destinée du Concordat de 1801(in French) (seconde ed.). Paris: Lethielleux.
- Theiner, Augustin (1869).Histoire des deux concordats de la République française et de la République cisalpine conclus en 1801 et 1803 entre Napoléon Bonaparte et le Saint-Siège--: suivie d'une relation de son couronnement comme empereur des français par Pie VII--d'après des documents inédits, extraits des archives secrètes du Vatican et de celles de France(in French). Vol. Tome I. Bar-le-Duc: L. Guérin & cie.
- Walsh, Henry Horace.The Concordat of 1801: A Study of the Problem of Nationalism in the Relations of Church and State(Columbia University Press, 1933).
External links
edit- Documents upon Napoleon and the Reorganization of Religion:selected text of the Concordat and Organic Articles