after the Concordat, as if he had absolute power over the bishops."
(Speech by Bigot de Préameneu, Minister of Worship, at the national
council, June 20, 1811.) This act was almost universal in the history
of the church, and the court of Rome started from this sort of
extraordinary act, passed by it at the request of the sovereign, in
order to enforce its ideas of arbitrary rule over the bishops."

[3] So stated by Napoleon.

[4] Bossuet, "Œuvres complètes, XXXII., 415. (Defensio declarationis
cleri gallicani, lib. VIII, caput 14). - "Episcopos, licet papœ divino
jure subditos, ejusdem esse ordinis, ejusdem caracteris, sive, ut
loquitur Hieronymus, ejusdem meriti, ejusdem, sacerdotii, collegasque
et coepiscopos appelari constat, scitumque illud Bernardi ad Eugenium
papam: Non es dominus episcoporum, sed unus ex illis."

[5] Comte Boulay (de la Meurthe), "les Négociations du Concordat," p.
35. - There were 50 vacancies in 135 dioceses, owing to the death of
their incumbents.

[6] Bercastel and Henrion, XIII., 43. (Observations of Abbé Emery on
the Concordat.) " None of the past Popes, not even those who have
extended their authority the farthest, have been able to carry such
heavy, authoritative blows out, as those struck at this time by Pius
VII."

[7] Prœlectiones juris canonici habitœ in seminario Sancti Sulpitii,
1867 (Par l'abbé Icard), I., 138. "Sancti canones passim memorant
distinctionem duplicis potestatis quâ utitur sanctus pontifex: unam
appelant ordinariam, aliam absolutam, vel plenitudinem potestatis. . .