of God." The great body of the clergy along with their flocks will
abandon them ; they will soon be forgotten, like old sprouts
transplanted whose roots have been cut off; they will die abroad, one
by one, while the successor, who is now in office, will find no
difficulty in rallying the obedient around him, for, being Catholic,
his parishioners are so many sheep, docile, taken with externals,
impressionable, and ready to follow the pastoral croisier, provided it
bears the ancient trademark, consists of the same material, is of the
same form, conferred from on high and sent from Rome. The bishops
having once been consecrated by the Pope, nobody save a Gregory or
some antiquarian canonist will dispute their jurisdiction.

The ecclesiastical ground is thus cleared through the interposition of
the Pope. The three groups of authorities thereon which contend with
each other for the possession of consciences[29] - the refugee bishops
in England, the apostolic vicars, and the constitutional clergy -
disappear, and now the cleared ground can be built on. "The Catholic
religion being declared[30] that of the majority of the French people,
its services must now be regulated. The First Consul nominates fifty
bishops whom the Pope consecrates. These appoint the curés, and the
state pays their salaries. The latter may be sworn, while the priests
who do not submit are sent out of the country. Those who preach
against the government are handed over to their superiors for
punishment. The Pope confirms the sale of clerical possessions; he
consecrates the Republic." The faithful no longer regard it askance.
They feel that they are not only tolerated, but protected by it, and
they are grateful.[31] The people recover their churches, their
curés, the forms of worship to which they are almost instinctively
accustomed, the ceremonial which, to their imagination, belongs to
every important act of their lives, the solemn rites of marriage,