Question: Why are we under obligations to our emperor?
Answer: Because, in the first place, God, who creates empires and distributes them according to his pleasure, in blessing our emperor, both in peace and war, has set him over us as our sovereign, and has made him the image of himself upon the earth. To honor and serve the emperor is then to honor and serve God.
Question: Are there not special reasons why we are most profoundly indebted to Napoleon the First, our emperor?
Answer: Yes. For in difficult circumstances, he is the man whom God has raised up to re-establish the public worship of the holy religion of our fathers, and to be our protector.... He has become the anointed of the Lord by the consecration of the pope, the head of the Church Universal.
Question: What shall be thought of those who fail in their respect to our emperor?
Answer: According to the Apostle Paul, those who resist the appointed powers shall receive eternal damnation to their souls.[A]
Of course, when the first Napoleon fell, the Catholic church quickly withdrew from circulation the catechism from which I have been quoting. It was after considerable effort that I was able to secure a copy of the work. The infallible church, then, was for Napoleon, heart and soul, as long as he was in power. Without any conscientious scruples whatever, the church hailed the tyrant, whose profession was wholesale murder for his own glory—as the "image of God on earth!" In those days it meant "damnation" not to accept Napoleon as the anointed of heaven. Such a guide is the church!
But at last the church professed to be converted to liberty.
Now we are in a position to appreciate the sudden and complete change of front on the part of the French clergy. From staunch imperialists they had been converted, judging by their professions, to the principles of the French revolution. An era of peace and brotherhood seemed to open before that much troubled country. Priest and magistrate had both buried the hatchet; church and school would now, after endless disputation, co-operate in the work of education, and the vicar of Christ and the president of the republic shall join hands in the service of the people. The new republic promised all this. The skies were serene and clear, and the church bells rang in honor of the era that had just dawned.
Having inaugurated the republic, the next business before the country was the election of a president. The Catholic church, having disarmed all suspicion and given tangible proofs of its conversion to republicanism, succeeded in nominating its own candidate to the presidency. This was Louis Napoleon, the nephew of the great Napoleon. To elect its nominee, the church engaged in a most active campaign; sermons were delivered in every church; a house to house canvass was undertaken, and even the confessional was utilized to secure votes for "the Star of France," as they called Napoleon.