La séparation des Églises et de l'État

The separation of church and state.

The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, signed on 15 July 1801. It solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its civil status.^[1]

During the French Revolution, the National Assembly had taken Church properties and issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which made the Church a department of the State, removing it from the authority of thePope. This caused hostility among theVendeans towards the change in the relationship between the Catholic Church and the French government. Subsequent laws abolished the traditional Gregorian calendar and Christian holidays.^[2]

While the Concordat restored some ties to the papacy, it was largely in favor of the state; the balance of church-state relations had tilted firmly in Napoleon's favour. Now, he could win favor with the Catholics within France while also controlling Rome in a political sense. Napoleon once told his brother Lucien in April 1801, "Skillful conquerors have not got entangled with priests. They can both contain them and use them." ^[3] As a part of the Concordat, he presented another set of laws called the Organic Articles.

Contents 1 Contents 2 See also 3 External links 4 References

Contents

The 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, but this made little difference, because the French government still nominated them.
• The State would pay clerical salaries and the clergy swore an oath of allegiance to the State.
• The Roman Catholic Church gave up all its claims to Church lands that were confiscated after 1790.
• The Sabbath was reestablished as a "festival", effective Easter Sunday, 18 April 1802. The rest of the French Republican Calendar, which had been abolished, was not replaced by the traditional Gregorian Calendar until 1 January 1806.

The Concordat was abrogated by the law of 1905 on the separation of church and state. However, some terms of the Concordat are still in effect in the Alsace-Lorraine region under thelocal law of Alsace-Moselle, as the region was controlled by the German Empire at the time of the law's passage.

See also

• Napoleon and the Jews

External links

• The French Concordat of 1801 by the Catholic Encyclopedia
• The Organic Articles by the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Documents upon Napoleon and the Reorganization of Religion
  selected text of the Concordat and Organic Articles
• Napoleon's concordat and Organic Articles - text and background from www.concordatwatch.eu

References

1. ↑ "France". Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Retrieved 2011-12-15. See drop-down essay on "The Third Republic and the 1905 Law of Laïcité"
2. ↑ "France". Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Retrieved 2011-12-15. See drop-down essay on "Religion and Politics until the French Revolution"
3. ↑ Aston, Nigel (2002). Christianity and Revolutionary Europe c. 1750-1830. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521 460271.