the latter, appointed by the bishop without the approbation of the
civil powers, are removable at his discretion; their parochial
ministry is simply a provisional commission; they may be placed
elsewhere, passing from one precarious curacy to another no less
precarious. "At Valence,[41] Mgr. Chartrousse, in one month
transferred 150 priests from one parish to another. In 1835, in the
diocese of Valence, 35 transfers were sent out by the same mail." No
assistant-priest, however long in his parish, feels that he is at home
there, on his own domain, for the rest of his life; he is merely there
in garrison, about the same as lay functionaries and with less
security, even when irreproachable. For he may be transplanted, not
alone for spiritual reasons, but likewise for political reasons. He
has not grown less worthy, but the municipal council or the mayor have
taken a dislike to his person; consequently to tranquilize things, he
is displaced. Far better, he had become worthy and is on good terms
with the municipal council and the mayor; wherever he has lived he has
known how to mollify these, and consequently "he is removed from
parish to parish,[42] chosen expressly to be put into those where
there are troublesome, wrangling, malevolent, and impious mayors." It
is for the good of the service and in the interest of the Church. The
bishop subordinates persons to this superior interest. The legislation
of 1801 and 1802 has conferred full powers upon him and he exercises
them; among the many grips by which he holds his clergy the strongest
is the power of removal, and he uses it. Into all civil or
ecclesiastical institutions Napoleon, directly or by counterstrokes,
has injected his spirit, the military spirit; hence the authoritative
régime, still more firmly established in the Church than in the State,
because that is the essence of the Catholic institution; far from
being relaxed in this, it has become stricter; at present it is
avowed, proclaimed, and even made canonical; the bishop, in our days,