NAPOLEON
689
NAPOLEON
Malta and the Nile Valley, and to menace England in
the direction of India. He embarked on 19 May,
1798. The taking of Malta (10 June), of Alexandria
(2 July), the battle of the Pyramids (21 July), gave
Bonaparte the uncontested mastery of Cairo. At
Cairo he affected a great respect for Islam; reproached
with this later on, he replied: "It was necessary for
General Bonaparte to know the principles of Islam-
ism, the government, the opinions of the four sects,
and their relations with Constantinople and Mecca.
It was necessary, indeed, for him to be thoroughly ac-
quainted with both religions, for it helped him to win
the affection of the clergy in Italy and of the ulemaa
in Egypt." The French troops in Egypt were in great
danger when the naval disaster of .A.boukir, inflicted
by Nelson, had cut them off from Europe. Turkey
took sides with England: in the spring of 1799, Bona-
parte made a campaign in Syria to strike both Turkey
and England. Failing to effect the surrender of
Acre, and as his army was suffering from the plague
(May, 1799), he had to make his way back to Egypt.
There he re-establi.shed French prestige by the victory
of Aboukir (25 July, 1799), then, learning that the
Second Coalition was gaining immense successes
against the armies of the Directory, he left Kl^'ber in
Egypt and returned secretly to France. He landed
at Fr<!Jus, 9 October, 1799, and was in Paris seven
days later. Besides certain political results, the ex-
pedition to Egypt had borne fruit for science: Egypt-
ology dates its existence from the creation of the Insti-
tute of Egypt (Institut d'Egypte) by Bonaparte.
Bonaparte, First Consul. — While Bonaparte was in Egvpt, the religious policy of the Directory had pro- voked serious troubles in France. Deportations of priests were multiplpng; Belgium, where 6000 priests were proscribed, was disturbed; the Vendee, Nor- mandy, and the departments of the South were rising. France was angry and uneasy. .Spurred on by his brother Lucien, president of the Five Hundred, allied with Directors Sieyes and Roger-Ducos, Bonaparte caused Directors Gohier and Moulins to be impris- oned, and broke up the Five Hundred (18 Brumaire; 9-10 November, 1799). The Directorial Constitu- tion was suppressed, and France thenceforward was ruled by three consuls. First Consul Bonaparte put into operation the Constitution known as that of the Year VIII, substituted for the departmental adminis- trators elected by the citizens, others appointed by the Executive Power, and reorganized the judicial and financial administrations. He commissioned the Abbd Bernier to quiet the religious disturbance of the Vendeans, and authorized the return of the non-juring priests to France on condition of their simply promis- ing fidelity to the laws of the republic. Then, to make an end of the Second Coalition, he entrusted the Army of Germany to Moreau, and, himself taking command of the Army of Italy, crossed the Great St. Bernard (13-16 May, 1800) and, with the co-operation of Desaix, who was mortally wounded, crushed the Austrians (14 June, 1800) between Marengo and San Giuliano at the very spot he had marked on the map in his study in the Tuileries. The Peace of Luneville, concluded with Austria, 9 February, 1801, extended the territory of France to 102 departments.
Bonaparte spent the years 1801 and 1802 effecting internal reforms in France. A commi.ssion, estab- lished in 1800, elaborated a new code which, as the "Code Napoleon", was to be promulgated in 1S04, to formally introduce some of the "i)riiicipl('s of 1789" into French law, and thus to complcle llic civil results oi the Revolution. But it was Napoleon's desire that, in the new society which was the i.s.sue uf the Revolu- tion, the Church should have a place, and cou.-^ciences should be set at rest. TheC'oni'ordat witii the Holy See was signed on 17 July, 1801 ; it was published, to- gether with the Organic Articles, as a law, 16 April, 1802. For these two acts, one of which established X.— 1-1
the existence of the Church in France, while the other
involved the possibility of serious interference by the
State in the life of the Church, see Concordat; Arti-
cles, The Org.inic. Napoleon never said, "The Con-
cordat was the great fault of my reign." On the con-
trary, years afterwards, at St. Helena, he considered it
his greatest achievement, and congratulated himself
upon having, by the signature of the Concordat,
"raised the fallen altars, put a stop to disorders,
obliged the faithful to pray for the Republic, dissi-
pated the scruples of those who had acquired the
national domains, and broken the last thread by
which the old djoiasty maintained communication
with the country." Fox, in a conversation with
Napoleon at this period, expressed astonishment at
his not having insisted upon the marriage of priests:
"I had, and still have, to accomplish peace". Napo-
leon replied, "theological controversies are allayed
with water, not with oil." The Concordat had
wrecked the hopes of those who, like Mme de Stael,
had wished to make Protestantism the state religion
of France; and yet the Calvinist Jaucourt, defending
the Organic Articles before the Tribunat, gloried in
the definitive recognition of the Calvinist religion by
the state. The Jewish religion was not recognized
until later (17 March, 1808), after the assembly of a
certain number of Jewish delegates appointed by the
prefects (29 July, 1806) and the meeting of the Great
Sanhedrim (10 February~9 April, 1807); the State,
however, did not make itself responsible for the sal-
aries of the rabbis. Thus did the new master of
France regulate the religious situation in that country.
On 9 .4pril, 1802, Caprara was received for the first time by Bonaparte in the oflRcial capacity of Pius VTI's legate a latere, and before the first consul took an oath which, according to the text subsequently pub- lished by the "Moniteur", bound him to observe the constitution, the laws, statutes, and customs of the republic, and nowise to derogate from the rights, liberties, and privileges of the Galilean Church. This was a painful surprise for the Vatican, and Caprara declared that the words about Galilean liberties had been interpolated in the " Moniteur". Another painful impression was produced at the Vatican by the atti- tude of eight constitutional priests whom Bonaparte had nominated to bishoprics, and to whom Caprara had granted canonical institution, and who after- wards boasted that they had never formally abjured their adhesion to the Civil Constitution of the clergy. In retaliation, the Roman Curia demanded of the constitutional parish priests a formal retractation of the Civil Constitution, but Bonaparte opposed this and when Caprara insisted, declared that if Rome pushed matters too far the consuls would yield to the desire of France to become Protestant. Talleyrand spoke to Caprara in the same sense, and the legate desisted from his demands. On the other hand, though Bonaparte had at first been extremely irri- tated by the allocution of 24 May, 1802, in which Pius VII demanded the revision of the Organic Arti- cles, he ended by allowing it to be published in the "Moniteur" as a diplomatic document. A spirit of conciliation on both sides tended to promote more cordial relations between the two powers. The proc- lamation of Bonaparte as consul for life (August, 1802) increased in him the sense of his responsibility towards the religion of the country, and in Pius VII the desire to be on good terms with a personage who was advancing with such long strides towards omnipo- tence.
Bonaparte took care to gain the attachment of the revived Church by his favours. While he dissolved the associations of the Fathers of the Faith, the Adorers of Jesus, and the Panarists, which looked to him like attempts to restore the Society of .le.sus, he permitted the rectinstilution of the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of St. Thomas, the Sisters of St.
