The War Upon Religion Part 20

In October, 1880, the expulsions began. The residences and colleges of the Jesuits and other Congregations were entered and their occupants driven out. Very often the military were called upon to enforce the decrees. It was to no purpose that the Catholics of the nation lifted up their voices in angry protest, or that bishops--like Mgr. Gay and Mgr.

de Cabrieres--clothed in their pontifical vestments, uttered sentence of excommunication against the despoilers. The rout went on with ever-increasing ardor. It is to the credit of the French bar of the time that it refused to concur in the shameful acts. M. Chesnelong, in 1891, writes: "After the decrees of March 29, 1880, more than three hundred magistrates abandoned their career rather than sacrifice the least particle of their honor; these heroes of duty displayed a magnificent spirit of sacrifice to the very end."

Against the Congregations not attainted by the decrees, recourse was had to tactics slower but more perfidious. They were rounded up in a pitiless circle of taxes and a.s.sessments to such an extent as to rob the Congregations of one-fifth of their net revenues.

Once more the Holy Father sent forth his vigorous protestations. In an open letter to Cardinal Guibert of Paris, dated October 22, 1880, after reviewing the situation he writes: "But today, in the midst of these new disasters, our emotion is great, our anguish is extreme; and we cannot help but grieve and protest against the injury done to the Catholic Church." The great Pope ended by declaring that "in the presence of this license, the duties of his office commanded him to safeguard with invincible constancy the inst.i.tutions of the Church, and to defend her rights with a courage that would not end at any peril." Following this letter of the Sovereign Pontiff the Apostolic Nuncio, Mgr. Czacki, proceeded in a few weeks, November 25, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and placed before him a ministerial declaration of November 9, which glorified in having dispersed two hundred and sixty-one non-authorized establishments, together with a note protesting against these avowed and cowardly persecutions.

The word, however, had gone forth to pursue the Church and her influence wherever they should appear, in any form. During the ten following years a veritable fury of laicisation and de-christianization was let loose.

Catholicity was hunted down in every section of the social organization.

The laws were penetrated more and more with an irreligious spirit. In the army the chaplaincies were disorganized. (Law of July 8, 1880) the military Ma.s.s was suppressed, and the troops were forbidden to take part--as a body--in any religious ceremonies (Ministerial circulars of December 7 and 29, 1883), nor were they permitted even to enter a Catholic Church in a body (Decree October 23, 1883); moreover, numerous Catholic military a.s.sociations were closed upon the slightest pretext.

In the Courts the usual prayers at the opening of judicial proceedings were either suppressed or declared optional (May 23, 1884); the members of the bar were forbidden to a.s.sist in a body at religious processions (May 23, 1880). In the matter of education the bishops and clergy were excluded from the Superior Council of Public Instruction.

Before 1880 the episcopate had been represented in this Council by four of its members. Since that date the representatives of private education held four seats out of sixty; but a priest has never been admitted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PRESIDENT SADI CARNOT.]

In the matter of higher education, the faculties of Catholic theology in the Sorbonne were suppressed (Budget of 1885), while the Protestant faculties have been maintained. In secondary education, religious instruction was made optional (December 21, 1881). In primary education a law of March 28, 1882, interdicted anyone from teaching the catechism in the local schools. In the prisons the religious services were notably reduced. In the hospitals of many cities the Sisters were driven out despite protestations of all kinds; moreover, no priest was henceforth to be placed upon the administrative commissions of the hospitals (April 5, 1879). The cures were also driven from the bureau of charity (April 5, 1879). The exterior ceremonies of religion were forbidden in the streets and religious monuments proscribed. In the cemeteries non-Catholics were to be admitted to burial side by side with Catholics (November 15, 1881.) In the churches, the mayor of the town was to have a key, could order the church bells to be rung, and exercise police supervision within the church limits, in contradiction to Article XV., of the Concordat. In the workshops and factories the law of Sunday rest was abrogated (1880.) In private houses, no private chapels might be maintained. In the family, the law of divorce was felt (July 27, 1884.) In May, 1893, this law was so transformed that a mere separation lasting three years could then, on the demand of one of the parties, be changed into absolute divorce. Civil contracts were elevated to a position of honor. The laws stood at the bedside of the dying to prevent the making of pious legacies; in the cemeteries civil funerals were permitted with attendant anti-religious manifestations, and the new practice of cremation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CASIMER PeRIER.]

The laws oppressed the consciences of the people by the pressure constantly exercised and the menace held over the heads of functionaries culpable of confiding their children to Christian teachers, of taking part in Catholic works, or of simply performing their religious duties.

State officials were spied upon, denounced, reprimanded, and disgraced because they endeavored to reconcile the accomplishment of their duties to the State with the open practice of their religious obligations.

In the matter of schools the laws were especially unreasonable. In 1880, lyceums were opened for young girls in order to transform their Catholic spirit. In October 30, 1886, a law was voted declaring that thenceforth all Congregation teachers, male and female, should be excluded from all public schools, primary and maternal. In schools for boys the law was executed promptly, and their personal administrations were completely laicised before October, 1891. The schools for girls were subjected to the change more gradually but none the less effectively. By the law of March 28, 1882, priests were excluded from the schools. In November, 1882, it was forbidden to display any longer the crucifix, which was thereupon taken down from the walls and cast, in many cases, into the filth of the sewers.

Other laws attainted the salaries of the clergy. In 1886 that of the bishops was reduced by one-third, and that of the archbishops by one-fourth. The salaries of canons were gradually extinguished altogether, as were also those of many curacies and a.s.sistants. The same method of reduction was brought to bear upon the allowances for seminaries; the towns were released from the obligation of repairing churches and religious establishments of charity. From 1876 to 1893, the budget for religious wors.h.i.+p was reduced from 53,727,925 to 42,560,000 francs, or more than 11,000,000.

Still other laws affected the work of the bishops in the administration of their dioceses. In 1892, the Archbishop of Rheims was condemned for having taught the Catholic doctrine of marriage, and the Bishop of Lucon for defending the rights of the Pope. Other bishops were prosecuted for instructing the faithful in regard to their duty in the elections. In 1889, a law was framed imposing on all religious without exception the obligation of serving three years in the army. Its object was evidently to destroy the spirit of the priesthood in the hearts of young men, an object, however, which happily failed of its realization.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PRESIDENT FELIX FAURE.]

In the midst of all these exasperating infractions of religious liberty, the Catholic people of France were constantly consoled by the deep and abiding interest manifested by the Holy Father. In 1884, he addressed to them his celebrated encyclical _n.o.bilissima Gallorum gens_, an effusion of fatherly tenderness towards a n.o.ble daughter of the Church. In a magnificent word-picture he spoke of the past grandeur of France, he deplored her present evils, and he pointed out, as an efficacious remedy, a cordial understanding and necessary concord between Church and State. This understanding the Concordat of 1801 had cemented for the happiness and prosperity of a country which was then at the height of its power. And it was still to the Concordat not mutilated and denatured in its letter and spirit, but loyally interpreted and honestly executed that recourse must be had for the re-establishment of union and peace.

At the same time he warned the bishops that they should give no occasion for a suspicion of hostility to the Republic: "Nemo jure criminabitur vos const.i.tutae reipublicae adversari." The same sentiments, calling for close union among Catholics in a Catholic State, were reiterated in his letter to the Bishop of Perigueux, and in his encyclicals, _Immortale Dei_ of November 19, 1885, in his _Libertas_, June 20, 1888, and still more in the encyclical, _Sapientiae Christianae_, January 10, 1890, all of which while defending the glory and rights of the French Catholics, instructed them in the duties and methods of unity among themselves, and of loyalty to the Republic.

_CATHOLICS AND THE REPUBLIC._

The enemies of the Church, who during former periods had rested the defence of their persecutions upon the doctrines and internal life of Catholics, began during the period of the Third Republic to have recourse to tactics more effective among a people to whom republican liberty appeared the consummation of all national well-being. The Government no longer dared to touch upon the religion of the soul; it perceived clearly that dogmas and the internal rules of morality were beyond the scope of civil legislation. In its new war upon religion it invoked against the Church reasons of State, and interests of a political order. Comprehending as they did that the French people were attached to republican inst.i.tutions, the party of persecution endeavored to represent the Catholics as the enemies of the republican Government while they would identify their own cause with that of the established power.

The Catholics were accused of political ends in all their actions, and their zeal in defending the spiritual order was transformed into a greedy desire for exclusive advancement in things temporal. Hence the Government, menaced by the plots and schemes of Catholics, was obliged to defend itself, and to adopt the most effective measures for destroying Catholic conspiracy. These insinuations were constantly injected into the ma.s.ses by anti-Christian journals, orators, and demagogues, whose perpetual cry was that the Church is the enemy of the State, of civil authority, of modern society and of intellectual progress, all of which were by them comprehended in the term "Republic."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PAUL BERT.]

The tactics in themselves are not historically new. You find them mentioned in the Gospel as employed by the Jews in their false testimony against Christ when they represented Him as a disturber of the people, as one who would forbid the tribute to Caesar, as one who called Himself a King. For whosoever maketh himself a king is an enemy to Caesar. Later still, the pagans in their envy of the Christians, called them "useless beings, dangerous and factious citizens, the enemies of the Empire and of the Emperors."

The same complaints and the same bitterness are renewed more or less in the succeeding centuries as often as there are governments unreasonably jealous of their power, and animated with intentions hostile to the Church. They always know how to put before the public the pretext of pretended usurpations of the Church over the State, in order to furnish the State with the appearance of right in its encroachments and violence toward the Catholic religion. (Encyclical of Leo XIII. to the Catholics of France, Feb. 16, 1892.)

There were not wanting apologists to place the true position of Catholics before the nation. Thus Cardinal Guibert, Archbishop of Paris, in his letter addressed to the President of the Republic, March 30, 1886, declared:

No, the clergy never had, and has not today any spirit of hostility toward existing inst.i.tutions.... If the Republic accepted the obligation, binding on all governments, of respecting the faith and wors.h.i.+p of the vast majority of our country, it would find nothing in the doctrine of the Church, nor in her traditions, which would justify in a priest a sentiment of mistrust or opposition.... Monsieur le President, I appeal to your intelligence and your impartiality.... The Catholic clergy has made no opposition to the Government which rules France, but the Government for six years has not ceased to persecute the clergy, to weaken Christian inst.i.tutions, and to prepare the abolition of religion itself.

So also spoke Mgr. Freppel, the bishop-deputy, in a discussion held in the Chamber, December 12, 1891:

It is evident that the President of the Council (M. de Freycinet) believes in a hostile att.i.tude of the clergy towards the Republic. That hostile att.i.tude I deny formally.

Already, on a former occasion, I was not afraid, from the height of this tribune, to defy our adversaries to produce one single pastoral letter in which a member of the clergy shows himself in favor of the monarchy against the Republic.

That challenge has remained unanswered. For, Monsieur President, to simply demand the modification of certain laws as unjust or anti-religious is not sufficient to merit even for an instant the epithet of an enemy to the Republic. We are certainly allowed to form a different conception of the Republic than yours; that is the right of every one. It is certainly permissible not to identify in principle the republican idea or form with atheism, anti-Christianism, or Freemasonry. One may combat these errors or these inst.i.tutions without having thereby an att.i.tude hostile to the Republic itself. All that you have the right to exact is that in no pastoral writing and by no pastoral act shall a member of the clergy p.r.o.nounce against the actual form of the Government.

The French cardinals, January 16, 1892, presented the same ideas:

To resume: respect for the laws of the country, where they do not conflict with the exigencies of conscience; respect for the representatives of power; the frank and loyal acceptation of political inst.i.tutions; but, at the same time, a firm resistance to the encroachments of the secular power upon the spiritual domain ... such are the duties which, at the present hour, are imposed upon the conscience and patriotism of the French Catholics.

_POPE LEO XIII. AND THE REPUBLIC._

It is sufficiently evident that all these declarations were in perfect conformity with the instructions of the Holy See; yet, that there might be no doubt as to the authoritative teaching of the Church in that matter, the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII., addressed on February 16, 1892, an encyclical letter to the Catholics of France, wherein he pointed out the basis and conditions of a possible peace--provided it was sincerely wished for--between Catholicism and the republican Government.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GAMBETTA.]

After denouncing the "vast plot which certain men have formed to annihilate Christianity in France, and the animosity they display in striving to realize their design," he proceeds:

The Church, in her relations with the political powers, abstracts from the forms which differentiate them, in order to treat with them upon the great religious interests of peoples, knowing that to her belongs the duty of teaching them above every other interest. If each political form is good in itself, and can be applied to the government of peoples, the fact is that it does not encounter the political power under the same form among all peoples; each possesses its own. That form arises from the ensemble of circ.u.mstances, historical or national, but always human, which give rise in a nation to traditional or even fundamental laws, and through these is determined the particular form of government, the basis of transmission of supreme powers. It is useless to repeat that all individuals are bound to accept such governments, and to attempt in no way to overturn them or to change their form. Thence it is that the Church, the guardian of the truest and loftiest notion of political sovereignty, since she derives it from G.o.d, has always reproved the doctrines and condemned the men rebellious to legitimate authority. And that in times when the depositaries of power used it only to abuse her, thus depriving themselves of the most powerful support of their authority, and of the most efficacious means of popular obedience to their laws.

But a difficulty presents itself: "This Republic," it may be said, "is animated by sentiments so anti-Christian that honest men, and above all Catholics, cannot conscientiously accept it." This it is which has given rise to dissensions and aggravated them. These unfortunate divergences would be avoided if one would only take into account the considerable distinction between Const.i.tuted powers and Legislation....

Practically the quality of the laws depends more upon the quality of the men invested with power than upon the form of the power.... One can never approve of points of legislation which are hostile to Religion and to G.o.d; on the contrary it is a duty to reprove them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLES DE FREYCINET.]

The Holy Father thus makes it plain that the Church, and Catholics as Catholics, are not opposed to existing governments, nor are they _in principle_ opposed to the legislation of such governments, as long as such legislation is not hostile to G.o.d and religion. When hostility of this kind is found in legislation, it is the duty of Catholics to oppose it and to strive to obtain a better law. The form of power remains the same, and the Catholic people are held by their principles to support it loyally.

These declarations coming from so many and such authoritative sources had their effect upon the common sense of the French people. The spirit of hostility to Catholicity and its inst.i.tutions began to show a marked diminution. This was evidenced most of all in the very abiding place of former anti-Christianism, the French Chamber of Deputies. On March 3, 1894, M. Spuller, a disciple of Gambetta, and the man who had introduced the famous Article VII. in 1879, made the following significant declarations in the Chamber of that day:

When the Republic had to struggle against the coalition of the old parties, when the Church served as a bond for all these old parties, I followed at that time the policy exacted by the circ.u.mstances, and which the supreme interest of the Republic commanded.... But does that mean that I ought to close my eyes to what is taking place today? Does it mean that those religious struggles which I once deplored and which I deplore still, which I proclaim a danger that ought to be avoided, a peril that it is to the interest of all of us to dissipate, does it mean that I did not deplore them even at the time I took so ardent a part in them? No, gentlemen, and if it were necessary for me today to summon what I consider the most precious of testimonies, because it is that of a conscience which has never weakened, I would address myself to my honorable and dear friend, M. Brisson; I would ask him to recall what he said to me himself in an intimate conversation, namely, that the struggle against clericalism, rendered necessary by the political action of the Church, is that which has done the most harm to the Republic, and has put back her triumph for ten or rather fifteen years.

Very well, gentlemen, I believe with the profoundest conviction, that after twenty-five years of existence, after the proofs which the Republic has given of her resistance and vitality, this struggle ought, if not to cease altogether, at least to take on a different character.... I declare that now the Church, instead of serving as the support of the monarchical parties, has cast herself into the arms of the democracy. I declare that by this movement the Church will draw you perhaps, you republicans, further than you would wish to go, for if you do not take care she will regain over the ma.s.ses the influence which you have lost. That is why I consider that we ought not to abandon any of our old traditions in our incessant struggles for the benefit of secular and civil society; but at the same time I believe that a new spirit ought to animate our democracy and those who represent it.

Here the speaker began to be interrupted, thus:

_Voices from the Left:_ "What new spirit?"

_M. Spuller:_ "I will explain.... The new spirit is this: instead of a mean, vexatious and exasperating war...." (Protests from the Extreme Left--Applause from the Centre).

_M. Rene Boblet:_ "Whom are you accusing of carrying on this exasperating war?"

_M. Camille Pelletan:_ "You insult the memory of Ferry."

_M. Spuller:_ "If you permit me, gentlemen, I will say that it is I myself whom I accuse at the present moment, so that n.o.body can be offended."

_M. Millerand:_ "That is a _mea culpa_."

_M. Spuller:_ "Precisely, but all your _finesse_, all your casuistry will not prevent the country from understanding my words."