old one. In the ecclesiastical herd, no head browses at a distance or
under cover; high or low, all are within reach, all eyes are turned
towards the episcopal crook; at a sign made by the crook, and
according to the signal, each head forthwith stands, advances or
recedes: it knows too well that the shepherd's hands are free and that
it is subject to its will. Napoleon, in his reconstruction of the
diocese, made additions to only one of the diocesan powers, that of
the bishop; he suffered the others to remain low down, on the ground.
The delays, complications and frictions of a divided government were
repugnant to him; he had no taste for and no comprehension of any but
a concentrated government; he found it convenient to deal with but one
man, a prefect of the spiritual order, as pliable as his colleague of
the temporal order, a mitered grand functionary - such was the bishop
in his eyes. This is the reason why he did not oblige him to surround
himself with constitutional and moderating authorities; he did not
restore the ancient bishop's court and the ancient chapter; he allowed
his prelates themselves to pen the new diocesan statute. - Naturally,
in the division of powers, the bishop reserved the best part to
himself, the entire substance, and, to limit his local omnipotence,
there remained simply lay authority. But, in practice, the shackles by
which the civil government kept him in its dependence, broke or became
relaxed one by one. Among the Organic Articles, almost all of them
which subjected or repressed the bishop fell into discredit or into
desuetude. Meanwhile, those which authorized and exalted the bishop
remained in vigor and maintained their effect. Consequently,
Napoleon's calculation, in relation to the bishop or in relation to
the Pope, proved erroneous. He wanted to unite in one person two
incompatible characters, to convert the dignitaries of the Church into
dignitaries of the State, to make functionaries out of potentates.
The functionary insensibly disappeared; the potentate alone subsisted