After the signing of the Concordat of 1801, the Catholic clergy returned from exile or hiding and resumed their traditional positions in their traditional churches. Very few parishes retained priests who had accepted the “civil constitution of the clergy.” Both Napoleon and the Pope found the Concordat useful. Similar agreements were made with the Church in areas controlled by Napoleon, particularly in Italy and Germany. The new Republican administration, known as the Convention, has responded to the growing unrest and continued threat abroad with the reign of terror. The Revolutionary Tribunal, created on 10 March 1793, aimed to show that persons dangerous to the Republic were identified and punished. The laws of September 1793 and June 1794 directed against the “enemies of freedom” and the “enemies of the people” saw an increasing number of priests and nuns arrested and brought to justice. Their accusations included not only counter-revolutionary, but also “fanaticism” and possession of objects used in the celebration of Mass, which again shows the suspicion now associated with religious worship. Only a small percentage were guillotined, but their attempts – which should be an example – instead gathered additional support for counter-revolutionary forces in the Vendée and other parts of western France and drove religious practice underground. In February 1821, while in exile on the island of St. Helena, Napoleon`s health began to deteriorate rapidly. He reconciled with the Catholic Church.

He died on 5 September. He received the sacraments of Confession, the Extreme Anointing and the Viaticum in the presence of Father Ange Vignali. With the Thermidorian reaction, the civil constitution was abolished, but at that time the French Church was effectively in schism, with rival contenders for many seats belonging to constitutional bishops and bishops of the Ancien Régime in exile or hidden. In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius XVII signed an agreement called the Concordat, an agreement between the French state and the Catholic Church that reconciled the Church with the anti-religious policies of the French Revolution. The Enlightenment`s quest to promote reason as the basis of legitimacy and progress has hardly been commendable in the Church. While philosophers appreciated the value of religion in promoting the moral and social order, the Church herself was condemned for her power and influence. The scandal surrounding the divisive theological movement of Jansenism, exacerbated by the clumsy treatment of its followers at the turn of the century, provided a reason to attack the authority of the Church and its close ties to the monarchy. France`s lack of tolerance towards religious minorities has provided another.

Although the philosopher Voltaire praised the young nuns who dedicated their lives to caring for the sick and poor, the clergy was considered less useful. The writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier complained in 1782 that Paris was “full of tonsured priests and clerics who serve neither Church nor State” and who were engaged only in “useless and insignificant” affairs. The criticism was directed specifically at the monasteries where monks and nuns spent their days praying, much to the anger of philosophers who thought they should instead reproduce for the good of the nation. The solemn vows that these men and women made and linked them to the religious state for life also raised concerns about individual freedom. Denis Diderot protests against the permanent nature of these vows, warns against decisions taken too young in life and, in his novel La Religieuse, raises the spectre of a young woman forced to be religious against her will. Although most philosophers promoted reform rather than destruction, their comments encouraged a growing anticlericalism whose wickedness was exacerbated by resentment against the wealth of the Church. Napoleon may have fallen from power in 1814 and 15, and republics and empires came and went, but the Concordat remained until 1905, when a new French republic abrogated it in favor of the “law of separation” that divided church and state. Well, we`ll see how it works. Francis recognizes that this will cause suffering, and I am sure it will. China is not like France in the early 19th century.

Bonaparte was dealing with a church that was a powerful force established in French society and associated with strong political opponents of his regime. Our people in China are hardly like that. They are a superimposed and tiny minority, almost powerless, whose message and independence seem paranoid to the regime. Probably for good reason. It is unlikely that the regime will ever concede much of the ultimate message and independence, if it is even perceived as a threat to its “order.” The same goes for totalitarians. even of this “red-capitalist” variety. a refined version of Putin`s citizenship. These are the kind of principalities and powers we “deal” with here. Just as the lens of the concordat with the Nazis indelibly colored the perception of the Church in everything that followed, I fear that this agreement is long-term. Perhaps it will be a long effort to successfully wait for these gangsters while the Church and the gospel thrive in the end. But this is quite a gamble that is not played with Hosue money through the tokens of the life and belief of our brothers and sisters locally in China. Pray for them.

You will need it. Pope Pius VI asked for peace, which was granted to Tolentino on February 19, 1797; but on December 28 of the same year, in an uprising that papal troops blamed on the Italian and French revolutionaries, the popular Brigadier General Mathurin-Léonard Duphot, who had gone to Rome with Joseph Bonaparte as part of the French embassy, was killed and a new pretext for invasion was provided. General Berthier marched on Rome, entered it on February 10, 1798 without resistance and proclaimed a Roman Republic and demanded that the pope renounce his secular power. As part of the Concordat, Napoleon proposed another set of laws called organic articles. These consisted of 77 articles on Catholicism and 44 articles on Protestantism and were published in 1802 as a unilateral supplement to the Concordat. Napoleon submitted the legislation to the Tribunat and the legislature at the same time as he had them vote on the Concordat itself. Pope Pius VII claimed that the articles were proclaimed without his knowledge. The presentation of organic articles was Napoleon`s method of granting the Tribunat and the legislature partial control over the Concordat to help the state monitor politically harmful Catholic or Protestant movements or activities.

Napoleon came to power in 1799 to take into account the continued presence of religious beliefs and practices in French society, notably to mitigate counter-revolutionary opposition. The writings of his youth show that Napoleon had little time for religion, but just like philosophers, he saw its use for society. He also appreciated the savings benefits demonstrated by the state-sponsored reintroduction of religious congregations for the operation of hospitals and schools. Above all, Napoleon realized that if relations with the Church were improved, they could be used to promote and consolidate his reign throughout France. Napoleon ignored the objections of revolutionary opponents of the Church and set out to formalize his place in France in such a way that loyal membership of Church and State was no longer mutually exclusive. Meanwhile, support for the refractory church has been increasingly associated with counter-revolution. Emigrant priests and bishops preached from abroad against the revolution, while the remaining recalcitrant became a focal point for wider resentment against the revolution. The distrust with which many people viewed constitutional priests, especially in parts of regional France, helped create popular support for the counter-revolutionary cause. This association had immediate effects. In the first week of April 1791, the sisters of a congregation of Parisian religious were attacked by masses of women who accused them of teaching children “bad principles” and planning a counter-revolution with recalcitrant priests. Such sentiments found official expression in the debates of the “Legislative Assembly,” which was formed in October 1791 and was determined to impose the policies of the early revolution. In November, he ended the pensions of refractory priests and banned them from using religious buildings.

The 6. In April 1792, she banned any form of religious dress in order to abolish this visible memory of the Ancien Régime and force people to see priests as “citizens like everyone else.” The Concordat, negotiated with the papacy in 1802, reintegrated the Roman Catholic Church into French society and ended the cycle of simple tolerance and persecution begun in 1792. Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military general, the first emperor of France and one of the greatest military leaders in the world. Napoleon revolutionized military organization and training, promoted the Napoleonic Code, reorganized education, and established the lasting concordat with the papacy. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly had taken the property of the Church and issued the civil constitution of the clergy, which made the Church a department of the state and effectively removed it from papal authority. .