his will to assist at a ceremony at variance with the opinions of several
of them. The concessions of the Court of Rome and the obedience of the
generals could not conceal the vast gulf that separated Revolutionary
France from the religious tradition of the past. Bonaparte felt this. He
wished for the Concordat, understanding its lofty aim and practical
utility; he had conceded more in appearance than he intended to grant in
reality. The _Te Deum_ was chanted: the bishops were confirmed, and had
now set out for their dioceses. In every district, along with the
Concordat, and as if invested with the same sanction, the First Consul
published a series of "organic articles," regulating in detail the
relations of the civil power with the religious authority. Already, when
discussing the Concordat the representative of the Holy See had rejected
most of Bonaparte's pretensions on that subject; but he now reproduced
them, transformed, by the power of his will alone, into administrative
measures, voted like the Concordat by the Corps Legislatif, and having
equal force for the Catholic Church, the Protestant Church, and the Jewish
form of worship. The anger and sorrow of the Court of Rome had no effect
in modifying the resolution of the First Consul. Cardinal Caprara was
constantly passing from submission to despair. "He who is fated to treat
with the First Consul," he wrote to Cardinal Consalvi, "must bear always
in mind that he is treating with a man who is arbiter of the affairs of
the world--a man who has paralyzed, one might say, all the other powers of
Europe, who has conceived projects the execution of which seemed
impossible, and who has conducted them with a success which astonishes the
whole world. Nor should it be forgotten that I am appointed here in a
nation where the Catholic religion has not a ruling power, even in peace.
Here all the powerful personages are against her, and they strive as much
as possible against the First Consul. He is the only man who watches over
her. Unfortunately, her future depends on his intention, but at least that
intention is sure of completion. When the First Consul is against us,