THE RELIGIOUS POLICY OF THE SECOND EMPIRE.
[The following is the translation of a remarkable memoir presented to Napoleon III. by one of his Ministers of Public Worship. Its authenticity is guaranteed under oath by Leon Pagès, and the date of its presentation seems to be about the year 1860. It furnishes the key to the religious events of the second period of the reign of Napoleon III., and shows how a government calling itself Catholic plotted against, and was gradually destroying the liberty of, the church. The perfidy and falsehoods contained in the document speak for themselves. The programme detailed in the second part of the same was only too faithfully carried out, not only to the ruin of the emperor, but to that of France also. It began to be put in practice in the year 1860, and was persevered in until the day when all power was taken from the hands of its authors and abettors. The key-note to the whole insidious production is contained in the opening sentence—viz., that no matter what is done by the Catholic Church, it must be for the sake of obtaining influence over souls, not for their spiritual and eternal welfare, but for mere temporal and selfish ends—for worldly power. To the Catholic reader this one remark will be sufficient to place him on his guard. We copy from the Revue du Monde Catholique.—Translator.]
I.
The essential tendency of Roman Catholicism has been, is, and always will be, the spirit of secular domination, the inevitable result of transforming a man, the Pope, into the infallible and absolute vicar of Jesus Christ on earth.
If, before the Revolution of '89, the clergy were Gallican—that is to say, national—it was because it had sufficiently attained that end of temporal rule. It was the first order of the state; it possessed great wealth; it had its own organization, and enjoyed considerable privileges; its religion was the exclusively dominant one. What else could it ask, unless it wished to displace royalty itself? The clergy then was much more French and royalist than Roman, solely because it had such enormous interests at stake in the soil and in the constitution of the kingdom.
Again, if we study carefully the so-called maxims and liberties of the Gallican Church, we quickly recognize that between the kings and the clergy these liberties constituted a sort of commutative contract entered into almost wholly at the expense of the Papacy. The bishops, generously treated by royalty, in return consented to sacrifice to royalty many of the Roman pretensions, which, however, were consequences of the spiritual supremacy; and, with more reason, they allowed the sovereign to settle all matters of purely political independence. In the Gallican Church, the king rejected Papal infallibility, because it necessarily implied his temporal supremacy; and the bishops to whom the doctrine would perhaps in any other country have been acceptable, rejected it likewise because it would have disturbed their privileges and their possessions, which they owed to royalty. It ought to be added that all this was according to the ancient traditions of the land, which had rendered better service to the church than any other, and which never desired any foreign interference in its own affairs. But certainly both the French clergy and bishops would have gone back to the pope and to ultramontane ideas, unless their independence, peaceful and magnificent, had been assured them.
After the Revolution of '89, the clergy, deprived of its possessions, its privileges, its constitution, reduced to the condition of salaried functionaries, feeling its utter dependence on the state, felt the necessity of creating for itself a new influence by detaching itself from administrations over-neutral in its regard. For a short time it saluted Napoleon I. as the restorer of the altar; then it submitted to his powerful hand; but it hastened to desert him when conquered, calling him the persecutor of Pius VII. It came to the support of the Restoration, because of the recollections of the past, and, above all, because it hoped therefrom the re-establishment of many immunities which the Restoration did not dare, in opposition to public opinion, to concede to it. This is the reason that, under the Restoration, it came to pass that the clergy was more occupied in caring for itself than for royalty, so much so that it is from this epoch that the first efforts of return to ultramontanism date their origin. No excuse can be offered for Louis XVIII. and for Charles X. for having allowed the Concordat of 1801 and the organic articles to remain in force, and for not having given to the church an indemnity, as they did to the exiles.
Under Louis Philippe, the clergy was not deluded; it understood very well that a parliamentary and democratic government would never permit it to work for the re-establishment of its power. Consequently, and under the pretext that the church, accepting all de facto governments, ought not to mix in the risks and responsibilities of politics, the clergy proclaimed its absolute neutrality, which was but another name for a complete separation. Hence nothing is easier of comprehension that it quickly gave up all Gallican ideas, to rally to the support of ultramontane doctrines. Isolated, without influence, without wealth, cramped in its sphere of activity, it had no interest in upholding the independence of the state against the Holy See, whilst everything invited it to defend once more the famous thesis of the Catholic Church, directing kings and peoples, and giving to the clergy the influence of a class superior to all others. The anti-Gallican demonstration, aided by the politicians of legitimacy and of the Catholic party, who had adopted as their watchword free education, began to develop itself rapidly in the episcopate, amongst the inferior clergy in the seminaries and religious orders, and even in the halls of the two chambers. Everything was prepared for the solemn return to Rome, when the Revolution of 1848 burst forth.
The religious party as well as the legitimists, its auxiliary, at first accepted that revolution because it destroyed the upstart, usurping, and Voltairian party. It afterwards strove with energy to form a coalition of all the elements of public order, so as to escape from the power of the demagogues; it was this same motive which influenced its votes in favor of the president; it thus struck a blow at the democratic and social republic. But when it believed that Napoleon III., who had become successively dictator and emperor, would consent to play the part of another Charlemagne, Episcopus ad extra, it became devoted to him and enthusiastic. But the emperor had no such thought; he only wished to attach the clergy firmly to the Empire by honorable laws ensuring its safety and liberty. By so doing he supplied one of the greatest social needs, without, however, departing from a wise public policy; but he had no intention of handing the state over to the church. The clergy, on its part, easily imagined what he desired. Hence we see in 1852 (and this must not be passed over) more earnestness and greater sympathy in that portion of the episcopate which was notoriously ultramontane. It was that portion which had been the best initiated by Rome into its projects of encroachment, which carried them out with the greatest zeal, and which consequently sought to conciliate the good-will of the sovereign and to engage him to pursue a course of liberal toleration.
Thus it came to pass that it immediately insinuated how exceedingly becoming it would be to enter into what was called a compact between the church and state—viz., the negotiation of a treaty which was to replace the organic articles.
Now, as has been said at the beginning of this memoir, Roman Catholicism aiming necessarily at temporal rule, the moment seemed so much the more favorable to advance in that undertaking, as the government seemed to give its consent so easily thereunto. The law of free education already existed. The emperor appeared unwilling to make use of the prohibitions of the organic law regulating public worship and of the law concerning religious congregations of men; consequently, provincial councils were quickly organized and congregations were multiplied.
The design of gaining possession almost entirely of primary education was avowed by bringing the influence of the curés to bear on the various municipal offices, and, by forcing the Christian Brothers to refuse to receive from their rich pupils any compensation whatever for attending their schools, which had been built and were supported by the municipality: in this way the Brothers received from the state a compensation of 3,000,000, at the expense of the lay schools.
The famous decree of 1852 was then proposed to the emperor, but without explaining its import. This destroyed the ancient and wise legislation of the council of state, and allowed the almost unlimited extension of authorizations to establish congregations of women.
In spite of the lively opposition of the majority of the bishops and of the secular clergy, the Roman liturgy was then inaugurated and presented to the emperor as a simple matter of material unity in Catholic worship; care was taken not to avow that this was a deadly blow against the customs and constitution of the Gallican Church, the triumph of Romanism in France, and a tax of more than six millions on the manufactures and municipalities of the Empire. All this was necessary in order to obtain a brief from the Pope in 1858 obliging the clergy to recite in its liturgy the prayer Domine salvum, which had been excluded from the Roman Breviary.
Whilst, on the one hand, the clergy sought to gain possession of the people through the medium of primary education, which was solicited for the religious congregations by all the charitable confraternities (of S. Vincent of Paul, of S. Francis Regis, of S. Francis Xavier, etc., etc.), through a multitude of foundations of religious charity, on the other it strove also to enlist in its favor the children of the higher and middle classes of society through the numerous and immense educational institutions of a superior character, founded either by the bishops or by the religious orders of Jesuits, Carmelites, Marists, Dominicans, etc. Thus the law of 1850, hostile to all state education, brought forth its fruits.
As to the education of girls, it was and it is almost exclusively in the hands of religious, from the country infant schools and protectories up to the most splendid educational establishments of Paris; on this point it is impossible for the lay element to contend with the religious element, which, either really or apparently, will always present far better guarantees to families for morality and self-devotion. But the point worthy of consideration here is that this convent education, directed by the inspiration and opinions of the clergy, is not at all in sympathy either with the existing government or with public opinion.
This is the reason why the episcopate and Rome have always resisted any inspection on the part of the state into their institutions, except a purely nominal one, alleging that these religious congregations could submit only to ecclesiastical inspection. In the regulations made in 1852 too much was yielded on that point.
It can be affirmed with truth to-day that there is no class of society which is not to a greater or less degree entangled in the meshes so admirably laid by the congregations and associations called benevolent or charitable. They gain entrance even into the army, under the pretext of giving gratuitous instruction and spiritual conferences; they gather together working-men of every condition; they establish a kind of freemasonry, and of equality amongst citizens of every rank; through their trusty friends and adherents they are represented in all the branches of the government; they have possession of the child and of the man in his prime of life, of the poor and of the rich; they are everywhere. This enormous fact becomes a most convincing proof, if we consider the exact meaning of the name of these congregations, associations, and works of every kind, and of the end each of them proposes to obtain. It is almost certain that, directly or indirectly, the Catholic idea permeates them all; and as the direction of that Catholic idea belongs more than ever to Rome, the conclusion is natural that all these means of action so skilfully organized form a kind of secret government, the helm of which is in the hand of the Roman cardinals, prefects of the congregations.
The present religious agitation proves the truth of this assertion. The society of S. Vincent of Paul has thought and acted exactly in the same way as the convents, seminaries, and religious orders; from one end of the scale to the other there is but one opinion, and the pamphlet of M. de Segur can be found in the salon of the nuncio as well as in the workshop—yes, even on the bench of the lowest primary school.
But it was not enough to have thus securely encircled lay society with so many arms employed for the benefit of the religious element. It was necessary to be certain that these arms would always be used conformably to the end in view—viz., the Roman Catholic supremacy. The bishops and secular clergy might perhaps grow restless under this ultramontane domination; they might perhaps, although desiring the development of religion and of their own personal condition, either moderate a too quick movement towards, or, for the sake of their own independence, even oppose themselves to the absorption meditated at Rome. Therefore, the effort was made, especially since the beginning of 1852, to crush out even a show of resistance from the bishops and secular clergy; and the Univers, the avowed organ of the Holy See, whilst praising the emperor and attacking violently the parliamentary or liberal Catholic party (de Falloux, de Montalembert, Lacordaire, etc.), undertook to establish a system of ecclesiastical compression, which in the end triumphed. M. Veuillot became the lay pope of the French; with as much audacity as talent, he set forth the doctrines of the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the Holy See; he thundered against the schism of the Gallican Church, and against any compact which bound the priest to the state.
And at the same time the Papal nuncios in France surrounded the bishops with an almost intolerable servitude. Near each of them they had devoted ecclesiastics, who spied into and denounced their actions. Any bishop suspected of favoring independence or resistance was the object of those thousands of cunning tricks which Rome has under its command because of the powers it can either grant or refuse to the episcopate.
Any priest of some eminence who did not go over to the ultramontane party was made the object of threats and calumnies, which, it was said, would break his episcopal cross. Things came to such a point that a Minister of Public Worship, frightened at the bold and dogmatic tone in which a nuncio pronounced his veto on the episcopal nominees, was forced to make an energetic declaration concerning the rights of the emperor, and to tell that nuncio to bear it in mind.
At the same time, also, Rome endeavored to render the episcopate subservient to itself by interfering in the administration of dioceses by granting the inferior clergy the right of addressing the prefects of the apostolic congregations on all matters which concerned conscience, liturgy, or dispensations. So that the bishops, humiliated, and with their jurisdiction lessened, had no other resource left them to recover their authority than to show themselves ultramontanes, and so gain the good graces of the Holy See.
Provincial councils, wherein zealous men domineered, only served to consummate that ruin of our ancient church and of all opinions which still bound the French clergy to their native land.
More yet was wanted. The better to secure the dependence of the episcopate, the gradual substitution of the regular for the secular clergy was dreamt of. This was the reason why monasteries of religious congregations were multiplied, under the pretext that there was need of auxiliary priests to help the curés and their assistants. They built churches, took possession of the pulpits and confessionals, directed the different confraternities; they thus set aside and banished the parochial clergy. In a few years, things going on in this manner, what would hinder the Pope from saying to the bishops: "You have no further need of seminaries to recruit your clergy; look at the numerous religious houses, from which you can take your curés and assistants." And then what would happen? The clergy of France would no longer possess any national character whatsoever. It would be exclusively a Roman army, under the command of the generals of each congregation. Episcopal authority would be completely annihilated, and the church in France would be under the absolute command of the Pope. In that case, only the most violent struggles—a veritable civil war—could alone save the concordat and the independence of the state!
Nay, even now the Pope, abusing the liberty granted, affects to look on France as a province of his Catholic empire. He freely promulgates the acts and laws of his personal administration, and rules here, just as directly as he would at Ancona or Perugia, the affairs of the episcopate and of the church according to the famous ultramontane formula: "The clergy of France is first Catholic, then French."
Nothing better proves the exactness of these views than the study of the causes and the progress of the existing religious agitation about the Italian question. The greater part of the episcopate cared but little for internal demonstrations; the Pope brought the energetic appeal of two encyclical letters to bear upon them. Each bishop was harassed, forced, menaced in the name of his Catholic conscience, in the name of his obligation of obedience to the Pontiff. Three months were required to wring from each and all the wished-for pastoral letter. And what do the leaders of the ultramontane party say to-day? "The French Church has spoken," cries the Bishop of Poitiers; "she is unanimous."
Yes, by dint of the most violent siege. It began by bending the episcopate under the imposed doctrine of the infallible superiority of the Pope. That subjection was accomplished by all the stratagems of the administrative power of Rome over spiritual matters and diocesan affairs; and when, in consequence, it was certain that there would be no resistance on any question whatsoever, even were it the political question of the Romagna, they boast that the free opinion of the Catholic world has been given; they place the Pope under the protection of the universal church, which is judged to have spoken and acted freely. This is a strange use of power and of trickery!
To recapitulate. Rome, as it never goes out of the path leading to its end, has wished and wishes to create its own supremacy in France, which has been so long prevented by royalty allied to the French clergy.
It has found a clergy not attached to the soil and to the state by great interests of wealth and influence.
Profiting by the situation, it has wished to reduce the clergy into bondage after a precise fashion by the intrusion of all of the doctrines of the ultramontane church, and, to obtain its end, has employed all the powers of polemics, of spiritual administration, and of the regular clergy.
The clergy conquered, it has marched on to possess itself of all classes of society through the medium of educational institutions, of confraternities and congregations of every kind, and has established an organization as vast as it is formidable.
Henceforth Rome rules the clergy and the Church of France, and, through the clergy and the church, it means to rule the country.
II.
Such is a true picture of the religious situation.
However, if the French clergy seem unwilling to oppose any further external resistance to the doctrines, plots, and encroachments of Rome, it must not be forgotten that very many of its members in conscience are far from approving what they call the excesses of ultramontanism, because they fear for their own safety and for that of the true religion.
A great part of the episcopate realizes the fact that the effort is being made to reduce them to the condition of simple vicars apostolic, whose jurisdiction could be recalled, and to suppress the proprium jus episcopûm. They foresee that the nation will never go back on the civil and political progress made in order to place itself under any theocracy whatsoever.
Consequently, they are not convinced of the strength of the proposed ultramontane arrangement, which may be set forth in these terms: "Be no longer a French episcopate; acknowledge your absolute dependence on the Pope; and, in recompense, we will have all together the religious government of France." Such a plan would expose religion to many and inevitable conflicts, in which it would be either swallowed up by worldly views, or would be gravely compromised.
As a rule, we may also add that the clergy has no idea of separating itself from the emperor, who is the highest guarantee of social order, and whose religious loyalty it well knows.
Finally, to sum up all, it clearly sees that it must live and die in the bosom of France, where it was born; and that, if it does not enjoy the advantages it did in times past, it yet receives from the state whatever constitutes its sphere of activity, its security, and its existence. For the national clergy to quarrel angrily and irrevocably with the emperor and with the nation is a thing easier said than done, the more so as it hates the religious orders, and has no other support whatsoever for its own independence except the laws and good-will of the government.
It sees only too well what would become of it if the government, judging it irrevocably hostile, should all at once suppress all sympathy towards it, should cut off from it all sources of liberality and of toleration, and should brand it before the country as alien to the national feelings and blindly obedient to ultramontane passions. Here is the key-note to the disagreements which now exist amongst the clergy. The dispute and the declaration of 1682 are buried in the past. The controversy is not a theological one at all. It is exclusively one of our own day, exclusively political, exclusively social; and, if the ultra-montanists of to-day are the same as those of past times, the present Gallicans are by no means like those of the time of Louis XIV. We must live either in our own age or the life of the middle ages; we must be either French or Roman. Such is the true state of the question.
Under such circumstances, what is to be done?
Must we, by abruptly changing our whole system of government, expel the religious congregations of men, modify the law concerning education, apply all the organic articles, and reach such a point that the law, fully carried out, will look very much like persecution? No; for then the sincerity of the sovereign might be called into question on account of his passing so quickly from a generous and affectionate protection to all the rigors of prohibition; it would inflict a deep wound on the entire clergy and on a vast multitude of honorable Catholics; it would give rise to the suspicion that, in spite of all to the contrary, a return was being made to Voltairian prejudices; and perhaps it would necessitate a defence against an anti-religious reaction which would consider all its excesses justifiable.
The measures to be taken ought not to surpass the limits of the abuses to be suppressed, and to be carried out in behalf of the respect due to the supreme power, for the welfare of public tranquillity and of religion well understood. Besides, it is well known that public opinion acts as a kind of police over the faults of the clergy. As often as the clergy departs from its true sphere of action and strives to encroach upon the powers and independence of society, it creates a circle of resistance and opposition which subdues it. To-day men are frightened at what they think are the outbursts of revolutionary passion, but which in reality are only the energetic manifestation of public opinion rebelling against the wishes of those in favor of theocracy. Preserve the uprightness of the religious sentiment of the nation; use no violence; borrow from our public law what is necessary to put a stop to insupportable encroachments; in this way separate the course of religion as sincerely practiced from the arrogance and calculations of the Roman propaganda—such, I think, is a course of action well adapted to the necessities of the hour, and will obtain the approbation of the country.
Taking these general notions for a basis, perhaps the following measures would be most opportune:
1st. Except in cases of local necessity, which is to be well proven, to tolerate no other new establishment of religious communities of men, whether it be a question of conventual houses, churches, chapels, even under the pretext that they are to act as auxiliaries in the sacred ministry, or whether it be a question of institutions for public instruction and works of public charity. The hospitality so generously granted by the emperor to communities of men, although prohibited by law, will, in this way, remain inviolate. "You are numerous enough, and France has not been given to you to drain;" this is a sensible answer, which cannot incur the reproach of exclusion. Besides, why will not those who force themselves into the religious communities enter and recruit the ranks of the secular clergy, the parochial clergy? Where is the necessity of increasing the regular clergy which belongs to the Roman government? There are at present in France 68 associations or congregations of men, 19 only of which are authorized as teaching and charitable communities. They have under their charge 3,088 institutions or schools, they number 14,304 religious and have 359,953 pupils.
2d. Henceforth exercise the greatest severity in granting permission for the establishment of congregations of women, only granting the same when the actual undeniable necessity of public charity or primary education requires it; demand certain proofs that they have sufficient resources for their support; do not easily grant permission for the conversion of local communities into communities subject to a superioress-general, which inundate France with their annexed establishments. True it is that de facto congregations cannot be stopped; but, as they are not recognized by law, they know that every one of their members remains subject to the common law; and the de facto congregation, which collectively has no civil existence, can therefore neither receive gifts nor legacies, neither can it act as a corporation. At present there are in France 236 communities of woman subject to superioresses-general, which have, besides the 236 principal foundations, 2,066 secondary or annexed establishments; and about 700 congregations or communities under local superioresses (each of these last forms a distinct establishment, governed by its own superioress, and independent of the establishments of the same religious order established elsewhere); to which we must add about 250 religious associations of women not yet recognized, but existing de facto.
3d. As to what concerns the authorized communities of men or women, let the council of state exercise the greatest severity in the matter of gifts, legacies, and charitable donations it permits them to receive. Here we must consider not only the condition and protests of families demanding a reduction of such donations, but we must also examine into the necessities of the community so rewarded. There is no reason why we should procure for them the means of a useless or abusive extension, by authorizing them to receive what is necessary to defray expenses they ought never to have incurred. Communities once established will remain what they are, if the fruitful source of liberality which they provoke and seek for be wanting to stimulate the natural tendency of these communities to extend themselves indefinitely. The spirit of rivalry which exists amongst them, the lust of propagation and of power, all drive them on towards an incessant development. Once entered on this path, they must have money, and they put their wits to work to find out and appeal for help, for donations, and for alms. If the regulations concerning such gifts and legacies were more severe, if the principle were established that such liberality, which is only an encouragement to the extension of expenses and of establishments, would no longer be tolerated, an abrupt stop would be put to the excess of which we to-day complain.
It must be confessed that these congregations, authorized or non-authorized, have always the means of evading the law and of receiving gifts secretly. This cannot be prevented when the affair is conducted cunningly, and the congregations are not without skilful counsellors or numerous adherents ready to aid them in everything. But even in this case, the amount of these evasions or of manual gifts which deprive families of the livelihood obtained for them by their author is easily appreciable. Whence, for example, have the immense resources of the religious orders, vowed to poverty, proceeded, which they must have consecrated to their numerous and vast establishments? The real estate of the Jesuits surpasses twenty millions. How did they buy or build them? Certainly from private donations. Now, this being a fact, does it not follow that there is an obligation on the state not to tolerate any new establishments, which would necessitate new appeals to private charity, and the certainty that by such a prohibition it would act wisely?
4th. Maintain, as far as possible, without destroying the liberty of choice in the municipal councils, lay primary education. If, through the intelligence and firmness of the prefects, a stop be not put to the incessant plottings of the clergy, forcing the townships to entrust their schools to the Christian Brothers, there will be soon no lay teachers, except in such poverty-stricken localities as the brothers disdain to take. Here we must remark that an effort is being made to multiply congregations of so called Little Brothers, who install themselves in isolated country places, whilst the Christian Brothers can only form an establishment in which three brothers will be in the same school. Townships not having resources and population sufficient to receive the Christian Brothers will then be attended to by these Little Brothers, called after Lamennais, S. Viator, Tinchebray, etc., and so it will come to pass that lay teachers will be entirely suppressed. As these teachers to-day, modest and useful public officers, are devoted to the emperor, and render notable service in the rural districts, considering that universal suffrage is the law of the land, we would be very much weakened if all primary instruction passed into the hands of congregations which depend more on Rome than on France. Nay, more, it would be wise henceforth not to recognize as places of public utility any congregation of men for primary education. There are at present in France 49,639 lay schools for boys and girls, attended by 2,410,517 children; and 14,602 conventual schools, attended by 1,342,564. Moreover, we must remark that in the academies of young girls directed by congregations, in the free primary schools entrusted to them, as well as in the secondary schools wherein their influence reigns, we meet histories compiled to glorify monarchies of divine right, to exalt religious supremacy, to lower indirectly the civil and political principles acquired since 1789. Truly these establishments, so numerous, are, to a greater or less degree, real branches of the legitimist and Catholic party. On the contrary, it is in our imperial lyceums, in our municipal colleges, in our lay schools, that we find a more robust and popular instruction given, which fosters the national sentiments in the hearts of the children. Where is it that you hear the cry cordially given, Vive l'Empereur? Certainly not in the congregational establishments.
5th. Uphold with energy state education, because it is the true national education; place its institutions, by a sufficient budget, in a condition to enlarge their capacity, to perfect their staff and their means of instruction—this is the key to the events of the future. The Catholic legitimist party understood this only too well in demanding under Louis Philippe, with so much ardor, liberty of education, monopolized by the university, and in 1850, under the presidency, in having the law on public instruction passed. Later, under the dictatorship, it had the hardihood to dream of the total abolition of state education, in order to hand it over to the clergy and to the congregations; but the emperor, fully instructed on the intent of such a measure, refused his consent. But it remains a fact, however, that, thanks to the law of 1850, granting to every French citizen liberty to teach, the Catholic legitimist party has been enabled to perpetuate in the young generations that division of castes and of ideas which would have disappeared under the system of a united university education. It has been enabled, through the pupils brought up in congregational houses, to give continued existence to its own social and political doctrines. This is a great evil, no doubt; but, great as it is, it is impossible to think of suppressing the law which guarantees the liberty of the family. That would necessitate an immense struggle, a bloody one, and one contrary to justice. There remains, then, but this one escape, as equitable as it is prudent; everything concurs in it: let us strengthen and favor state education, which fits one for any career in life, which is the most solid and most patriotic, whilst, at the same time, let it be made religious, moral, and paternal.
6th. As far as it can be done without forcing things too far, let us put in execution the organic regulations, which place salutary checks on the encroachments of the Papal power over the clergy and the state; in other words, let us tolerate no new attack against our civil legislation and our political constitution, whether in writings or in the pulpit.
Place the office of the nuncio in France under the same regulations as any other embassador of a friendly power, and do not allow him to correspond at all, in the Pope's name, with the French bishops, nor allow him to perform any act of jurisdiction, nor allow him to have the least say in the choice of bishops.
With a firm hand prevent any act of the court of Rome from either being received, published, or distributed in France without the authorization of the government.
Choose resolutely the bishops from pious and honorable ecclesiastics, but such as are known for their sincere attachment to the emperor, and to the institutions of France.
Suppress all religious journals, the need of which no one dreamt of before the invasion and agitations of the ultramontane party. The clergy has its discipline, its bishops, its priests, its pulpits, its mandates, its pastoral letters, and a complete government. There is no necessity at all of adding the polemics of the press to the ordinary means of publicity for this ecclesiastical government. Besides, the whole of that press has always been the instrument for spreading the doctrines and designs of the Roman theocracy, or parliamentary Catholicism. To-day it supplies the most energetic nutriment towards a religious agitation. Suppress this focus of excitement, which is spreading into every presbytery, and the clergy will remain quiet. The Univers has upset the heads of all the younger clergy by preaching religious supremacy, and the harm done by it will not be effaced for many a long year. To impose the protection of the church on the state; to sap all civil and political liberties; to undermine all lay institutions; to attack incessantly every European alliance, except that with Austria and the Catholic states, thus to introduce, above everything else, and everywhere, the influence, the ideas, and the power of Rome—such is the work of religious journals supported by the legitimist party.
Encourage, finally, the public study of the ancient French liberties, and profess everywhere and with spirit the conservative principles of the independence of the state alongside of that of the Papacy.
7th. Moreover, persevere in a course of loyal protection for the true interests of religion and of deference towards the clergy. Nothing would be wiser, and, at the same time, nothing more just, than to increase the honor paid to the inferior clergy, who in almost the whole of France experience the direst privations. In this way they would be attached to the government. If the episcopate, through weakness or any other motive, abandoned the emperor, he would be compelled to conciliate the inferior clergy, who ask nothing better than to have a little more ecclesiastical independence, and who sometimes suffer from episcopal despotism. At all events, it is of great importance that the religious part of the nation be amazed at the noise occasioned by these Roman quarrels, or remain indifferent concerning them, seeing the national worship always tranquil, protected, and honored. For this reason it is very useful that the grants of the budget be increased towards the construction and repairing of churches, presbyteries, and diocesan buildings.
8th. Finally, perhaps it would be opportune for the government to turn its attention to those large lay associations, such as those of S. Vincent of Paul, of S. Francis Xavier, etc., which, by their administration and the nature of their works, are really in the hands of the clergy and of the legitimist party. The conferences of S. Vincent of Paul to-day are more than nine hundred in number; they penetrate every rank of society, and even into the lyceums and colleges, where they affiliate even the children under the title of aspirants. They are connected to a principal conference in each department of the country; they are governed by a general council of that society, which has presented to the Holy Father at Rome a report on the general condition of the French conferences. It is a formidable association, which, as it has at its disposal so many members and such resources, forms, as it were, a secret and complete government. Our laws do not at all admit the independent organization of such associations. Recognizing the charitable and Christian end of the Society of S. Vincent of Paul, the benefits which undoubtedly are to be attributed to it, the excellent spirit of many of its members, it is impossible not to perceive the intentions of the men who have the privilege and inspiration of its government; it is impossible, also, not to grow uneasy at the existence of so vast and so skilful an organization, through which thousands of citizens can receive such or such an impulse, or such or such a word of command. Disinterested benevolence can easily pass to such a society of propagandists; and charitable societies, in order to exist and to do good, have no need of going beyond their own district, nor of affecting a spirit of affiliation and of a cemented union, which up to the present time has only existed in secret revolutionary societies. Is it not to be feared that they will in some sort replace the ancient Catholic associations of the Restoration, which were then named "Jesuits in short-tailed coats, or the Congregation"?
There can be no doubt at all that there is no one who now enters these societies solely for love of charity or to satisfy his taste for religious exercises; they are so numerous, so well filled up from all ranks of society, that a powerful, compact interest is thereby established which offers inducements for the welfare of families and for any career in life. The Society of S. Vincent of Paul, which, as we have seen, initiates the children in our lyceums and colleges, has entered into the polytechnic school and into every branch of the civil administration. It is developing in the army, in the magistracy, at the bar; everywhere, in fine, it manifests its secret influence, and unites all its members by the bonds of mutual support. To be a member of the Society of S. Vincent of Paul to-day is not merely to make an act of religious adhesion; it is to enter into a secret world, strongly organized, acting on all sides upon the opinions and the affairs of society; it is to gain active and influential protectors, and to secure for one's self all the avenues leading to success in the different chances or walks of life. The democrats would have desired to establish a republican unity of interests. The clerics and ultramontanes, allied to the legitimists, have established the mutual support of the S. Vincent of Paul Society. What an immense lever this could become in hostile hands to move political ideas! Yes, we must repeat, the power of these associations is such that men enter them for purely temporal motives. They influence the determinations of families more than one dreams of; and it is a very strange spectacle to see a considerable number of our civil officers enrolled under their banners, whilst their children, avoiding the state institutions, receive their instruction from the Jesuits, the Carmelites, the Marists, the Dominicans.
This memoir has been composed in a spirit of pure frankness and truth. We have wished to dissemble nothing. Yet if the matters treated of in this memoir be serious, we know full well that they do not constitute a fatal danger for the country. We can face them coolly. The material and moral power of the government of the emperor is immense. The majority in France cares very little for clerical pretensions, and will never bow before the theocratical doctrines of Rome nor before the intrigues and lamentations of the coalesced political parties. The country has too much trust in the national interests, and too great faith in the principles of modern society, not to crush, by the very manifestation of its opinions, all this laborious restoration of men and of the theories of the past. But as these are elements of agitation and disorder, it is the duty of a provident government to watch attentively. "Prudence begets safety."