the wisest, the appeal to the diocesan court in case of disgrace, the
opposing plea before the officialité, the permanent tie by which the
titular curé, once planted in his parish, took root there for life,
and believed himself bound to his local community like Jesus Christ to
the universal Church, indissolubly, through a sort of mystic marriage.
"The number of curés," says Napoleon,[95] "must be reduced as much as
possible, and the number of assistants (desservans) multiplied who can
be changed at will," not only transferable to another parish, but
revocable from day to day, without formalities or delay, without
appeal or pleading in any court whatsoever. Henceforth, the sole
irremovable curés are the four thousand; the rest, under the name of
succursalists, numbering thirty thousand,[96] are ecclesiastical
clerks, surrendered to the discretionary power of the bishop. The
bishop alone appoints, places and displaces all belonging to his
diocese at his pleasure, and with a nod, he transfers the most
competent from the best to the worst post, from the large borough or
small town, where he was born and has lived at ease near his family,
to some wretched parish in this or that village buried in the woods or
lost on a mountain, without income or presbytery; and still better, he
cuts down his wages, he withdraws the State salary of five hundred
francs, he turns him out of the lodgings allowed him by the commune,
on foot on the highway, with no viaticum, even temporary, excluded
from ecclesiastical ministries, without respect, demeaned, a vagabond
in the great lay world whose ways are unknown to him and whose careers
are closed to him. Henceforth, and forever, bread is taken out of his
mouth; if he has it to-day, it is lacking on the morrow. Now, every
three months, the list of succursalists at five hundred francs drawn
up by the bishop, must be countersigned by the prefect. In his upper
cabinet, near the mantelpiece on which the visiting-cards of every
considerable personage in the department are displayed, facing the