The Priests readily procure money.
Then there is an objection, not on the ground of right but of simple policy. “Supposing it possible to confiscate the priests’ stipends honourably, would it be wise or prudent to do so?” Whenever they are ill-used, even to a much less degree than that, they immediately proclaim themselves martyrs. If their salaries were withheld there would be an immense display of clerical indigence. The clergy might excite much popular sympathy by appearing as one vast mendicant order, with ragged cassocks, and they would certainly do all in their power to arouse the indignation of the peasantry against the Government. Then they would put a great part of the country under a sort of interdict. Even already the reactionary parties prepare the way for something of this description by spreading rumours amongst the peasantry. According to these rumours the republic intends to deprive the peasantry of religious rites, so that their children are to remain unbaptized, and their dead are to be buried like dogs. These rumours have frequently reached me through the peasants themselves, and they are generally traceable to the efforts of reactionary candidates during election times, Cautious republicans think that to abolish the budget des cultes would be to provide the clergy and the monarchists with a very dangerous weapon. More than this, they believe that if disestablishment is intended to weaken and impoverish the clergy it will have an exactly contrary effect. The Church always gets whatever money she requires. Her power of renewing her wealth after immense losses is founded on the assured support of the rich. Here is a case in point. In consequence of the laïcisation of a school a few “brethren of the Christian doctrine” were put out of employment. The curé of the place started a subscription to get a home for them, and in a week he had got together nearly two thousand pounds.[35] Now, for comparison’s sake, imagine starting a subscription in the same place for some purpose of secular intellectual culture, such as the encouragement of scientific research or the purchase of prints or casts. You could not, in such a place, scrape together two thousand pence.
No one who knows France will venture upon predictions about French affairs. I may, however, indicate certain alternatives which the course of future events can scarcely altogether avoid.
Co-establishment not likely to be permanent in France.
There is the indefinite prolongation of the present system, by which opposite religions are endowed. This may continue for a long time, but it is not likely to last for ever. The annual payment of a tribute to the clergy is, like all tributes, a constantly-recurring vexation. In itself it is enough to revive hostility, which might otherwise pass into indifference. It will not let sleeping dogs lie. If it should ever happen, which is by no means impossible, that the opponents of the budget des cultes can unite a small majority, the clergy will open their newspapers one morning and see a brief announcement that their salaries are stopped.
Project of M. Yves Guyot.
A more probable event is that, according to the proposal of M. Yves Guyot, the State will disembarrass itself of responsibility by handing over the payment to the communes. According to this system the money would be given to the municipal council in each commune, to be expended either in the payment of the clergy, or for any other purpose of public utility that the majority of each council might prefer. There could then be no complaint against the Government, which would escape all responsibility. That would fall upon the municipal electors in each commune separately, who would have themselves to thank if they were deprived of religious ministrations.
Practical Result of M. Guyot’s Project.
The result of this, in practice, would be a partial and perhaps progressive disestablishment. The clergy would be paid in some communes, perhaps in the majority, but not in others. The change would therefore come without any general shock. This scheme may be agreeable to the numerous enemies of the clergy, who will have the wit to perceive that it offers a kind of bribe to the municipal councils, which are seldom rich, and almost invariably desire to do more than their limited means permit.[36] The more prudent republicans might accept it as affording a ground of complaint less advantageous, polemically, to the clergy.
Difference between Disestablishment in France and in England.