FRANCE
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FRANCE
pellation, was implicitly disavowed, on 19 January,
by M. Merlou, Minister of Finance. But the feel-
ing lasted and, from the end of January to the end
of March, expressed itself, in a certain number of
churches, in violent outbreaks against the agents who
came to take the inventories. The lircaking open of
locked doors, the cashiering of military officers who
refused to lend the aid of their troops to these proceed-
ings, the arrest and prosecution of persons taking part
int'atholic demonstrations, and the mortal wounds
inflicted on some of them in the departments of
Nord and of Haute-Loire aggravated the public irrita-
tion. There was some hope among Catholics that the
general elections, which were to take place in May,
would result in defeat for the Government; but these
hopes were not realize<l ; the Opposition lost fifty seats
in the balloting of 6-20 May.
The first general gathering of the bishops was held 30 May, 1906. The EncycHcal "Gravissimo officii" (10 August, 1906), which rejected the cultuelles, re- ceived the absolute obedience of the Catholics. The attempt to form schismatical cultuelles, made by some priests and laymen in eighty localities, met with deri- sion and contempt, and these isolated bodies of schis- matics failed to obtain possession of the religious edifices even by appealing to the courts. The second and third general gatherings of the bishops (4-7 Sep- tember, 1906, and 15 January, 1907) thanked Pius X for the Encyclical and discussed the organization of public worship, in accordance with a very definite programme for deliberation which the Holy See had sent to Cardinal Richard, Arclibishop of Paris. On 12 December, 1906, Mgr. Montagnini, who had remained in Paris as guardian of the pontifical archives, was expelled from France after a minute domiciliary search and the seizure of his papers. The Vatican protested in a circular dated 19 Decemljer. Various incidents in the application of the law — the expulsion of Cardinal Richard from his archiepiscopal residence (15 Decem- ber, 1906), expulsions of seminarists from the semina- ries, the employment of troops at Beaupreau and at Auray to enforce such an expulsion — called forth lively protests from the Catholic press, which saw, in all these episodes, the realization of the settled policy thvis expounded by M. Viviani, Minister of Labour, in theChamberof DeputieSjSNovember, 1906: "Through our fathers, through our elders, through ourselves — all of us together — we have bound ourselves to a work of anticlericalism, to a work of irreligion. . . . We have extinguished in the firmament lights which shall not be rekindled. We have shown the toilers that heaven contained only chimeras."
Successive "meetings of the bishops have organized the work of the Denier du Clergi. The organization is diocesan, not parochial. No individual is taxed ; the subscriptions are entirely voluntary; but in many dio- ceses the diocesan budget fixes, without, however, im- posing, the contribution which each parish ought to furnish. A connnission of control, composed of priests and laymen, in many dioceses takes charge of the dis- bursement of the Denier du Clerge. If a parish con- tributes insufficiently, and that not from lack of means but from lack of gooclwill, the bishop can withdraw its jiarish priest. Two penalties can be inflicted upon Catholics who culpal:)ly refuse to contribute to the support of religious worship: a diminution of pomp in the administration of the sacraments, and an increase, as affecting such persons, of incidental burdens.
The first results of the Denier du Clerge in the various dioce.ses are not as yet well ascertained; they seem to justify neither over-enthusiastic hopes nor over-pessimistic fears. \n inter-diocesan fund (caisse) is beginning to do its work in aiding the poorer dio- ceses. In many communes the communal authority, having taken possession of the presbytery, has rented it to the parish priest for a certain sum, but the law declares that the lease, to be valid, must have been
ratified by the prefect. By this means the State has
sought to prevent the communes from renting presby-
teries too cheap. Of 32,093 presbyteries existing in
France, 3643 were still occupied rent-free by the parish
priests at the beginning of October, 1908. A circular
of M. Briand, Minister of Justice, has animadverted on
this fact as an abuse. It appears that in most of the
dioceses a central committee, or diocesan bureau, com-
posed of priests and laymen, is to be formed, with the
episcopal authority for its centre, to combine the direc-
tion of all the organized work of the diocese. Subject
to this committee there will be committees in the sev-
eral arrondissements, cantons, and parishes. When
consulted in May, 1907, Pius X preferred small paro-
chial committees under the cures to the formation of
parochial associations (which might be interpreted as
an acceptance of the Law of 1901 on associations),
with an unlimited number of members. The ecclesias-
tical seminaries, which the Law of Separation drove
out of the buildings they were occupying, have been
reconstituted in other homes under the title of "Ecoles
Superieures de Thdologie."
At present one of the most serious preoccupations of the Church in France is the supply of priests. In 1878, when Mgr. Bougaud wrote his book, "Le grand p6ril de I'Eglise de France," there was a deficiency of 2467 priests in France. Pore Dudon.who has studied the question of the supply of priests very pro- foundly, computes that in 1906, at the breaking of the Concordat, there was a deficiency of 3109, and the very insecurity of the position of the Church before the law furnishes ground for the fear that vocations will go on decreasing in frequency.
Geography. — RECLrs, La France in Geographie univcrselle (Paris, 1S76), II; Vidal de i.a Blache, La France (Paris, 1903); MicHELET. Tableau de la France in vol. II of the His- toire mentioned below; Du.mazet. Voyage en France (47 vols., Paris. 1S94-1907): Marshall, Ca(AedraZ Cities of France (.Lon- don, 1907).
General History. — Michelet, Ilistoire de France (new ed., 17 vols.. Paris, 1871-74 — recommended by its truthfulness of his- torical colouring rather than exactness of detail, a picture rather than a narrative); Martin, Histoire de France (19 vols., Paris. 1855-60— conscientious research with anti-Catholic ten- dencies and somewhat out of date); cf. Epinois, JV/. Henri Mar- tin (Paris, 1867); Dareste, Hiatuire de France (8 vols., Paris, 1S64-73 — clear and judicious); Bodlet, France (2d ed., Lon- don, 1899): Galton, Church and State in France, lSOO-1900 (London, 1907); Kitchix, .4 //i-storj/ o/ France (Oxford, 1.S92- 94). A group of specialists under the direction of Lavisse have undertaken the publication of a Ilistoire de France of which the published volumes bring their subject down to the end of the reign of Louis XIV; this work — the contributors to which are men of learning, each following his own bent, though never violently — give^ the last word of science at the present time. Louis Batiffol, La Renaissance (Paris, 1905), is the only volume which has yet appeared of a collection now being pre- pared under the title Histoire de France pour tous. Adams, The Groicth of the French Nation (London, 1897).
No General History of the Church of France is really worthy to be recommended. The principal documents to consult are: Gallia Chri<iliana (q. v.); Jean, Les archevegues et erlques de France de ItiSS A 1801 (Paris. 1891); HANOTAnx ed., Instnw- tions des anibassadeurs de France aupres du Saint-Siege (Paris, 1888); Imbahtde la Tour, Archives del'histoirereligieusedela France (4 vols, have appeared); Baunard, Un sikcle de I'E- glise de France (Tours. 1901 — dealing with the nineteenth cen- tury); L'episcopat franfais au XIX' siicle (Paris, 1907). On the Sources of the History of France the chief repertories are: MoNOD, Bibliographie de Vhistoire de France (Paris. 1888); Catalogue de Vhistoire de France de la Bihliolhcque Nationale (Paris, 1855-82); Langlois and Stein, Les archives de Vhis- toire de France (Paris, 1891); Molinier, Les sources de Vhis- toire de France (4 vols., Paris, 1901-04).
For bibliography of the French Revolution see Revolution, French.
For France in the Nineteenth Century see Napoleon. ALso Currier, Constitutional and Organic Laws of France, 1875-1889 (Philadelphia, 1891); Viel-Castel, Ilistoire de la Restauration (20 vols., Paris, and tr. London. 1888); Thuheau-Dangin. His- toire dela monarchic de Juillet (Paris); de la Gorge, Histoire du second Empire (7 vols., Paris); Olltvier, V Empire liberal (Paris, 1904-08 — 13 vols, have appeared); Lamy, Etudes sur le second Empire (Paris); Hanotaux, Histoire de la France contemporaine, 1870-1883 (4 vols., Paris. 1902-09); Zkvort, Histoire de la trois-icme Republique (4 vols.. Paris. 1900-05); Coubertin, L'Evoluiion fran^aise sous la troisi^me Republique (tr., London, 1898); Parmele, The Evolution of an Empire (New York, 1897). On the Religious History of France under the Third Republic: Debidour, L'Eglise catholiijiie el VElat sous la troisihne Republique (2 vols., Paris, 1906-08 — very
