gendarmerie, and in the police.[55] Such, in all branches of social
life, is the universal and final effect of the Revolution. In the
Church, as elsewhere, it has extended the interference and
preponderance of the State, not inadvertently but intentionally, not
accidentally but on principle.[56] "The Constituent" (Assembly), says
Siméon, "had rightly recognized that, religion being one of the oldest
and most powerful means of government, it was necessary to bring it
more than it had been under the control of the government." Hence, the
civil constitution of the clergy; "its only mistake was not to
reconcile itself with the Pope." At present, thanks to the agreement
between Pope and government (Napoleon, First Consul), the new régime
completes the work of the ancient régime and, in the Church as
elsewhere, the domination of the centralizing State is complete.




VI. Napoleon Executes the Concordat.

Reasons for suppressing the regular clergy. - Authorized religious
associations. - The authorization revocable.

These are the grand lines of the new ecclesiastical establishment, and
the general connections by which the Catholic Church, like an
apartment in a building, finds itself included in and incorporated
with the State. It need not disconnect itself under the pretext of
making itself more complete; there it is, built and finished; it
cannot add to or go beyond this; no collateral and supplementary
constructions are requisite which, through their independence, would
derange the architectural whole, no monastic congregations, no body of