who had benefited from the sale of national property were the mainstay of
Napoleon's regime, he could hardly grant the Pope's economic demands,
but as a quid pro quo Napoleon offered to put all the clergy on a salary and
treat them as state officials. A very decent compromise on the ep iscopate
had almost been worked out when the venal Talleyrand spotted that
married ex-clergy like himself would be at a disadvantage; he managed to
intrigue to get the 'offending' clauses scrapped.
As the negotiations stretched out into r8or, attitudes on both sides
hardened. After the 'infernal machine' incident, Napoleon's desire for an
agreement with the Catholic Church became more intense and he grew
impatient with the stalling tactics of the papacy. At one point he
threatened a military occupation of Rome if Pius VII did not come to
heel. The Pope, meanwhile, considered that Spina had already conceded
too much and sent his Secretary of State, Consalvi, to Paris, to conduct
the talks. Two eleventh-hour crises threatened to turn the proposed
treaty into debacle. Consalvi tried to get a recantation from the bishops
who were then in schism through having accepted the revolutionary
constitution civile. Napoleon was outraged and angrily charged the papal
delegate with not realizing the extent of Republican, Jacobin and Army
opposition he had had to overcome even to reach this point in the talks.
Finally, a draft agreement was reached, but Bernier warned Consalvi that
he was being asked to put his signature to a text which was not the one
agreed.
There were outraged protests from Consalvi. Napoleon, angry at
having been caught in such an obvious deception, threw the draft treaty
on the fire and dictated a ninth at speed, which he insisted had to be
signed then and there without cavil. Consalvi refused and called
Bonaparte's bluff. Napoleon appeared to back down and signed the treaty
of Concordat at midnight on rs July r8o1. In a conciliatory preamble,
Napoleon recognized the Roman Catholic faith as the religion of most
French people. In the detailed articles that followed it was stipulated that
French government and Holy See together would work out a new
division of dioceses; that the First Consul would nominate bishop s, to be
ratified and invested by the Pope; and that in return for an oath of loyalty
to the government the clergy would receive state salaries , without
prejudice to the benefits churches could enjoy from endowments.
The Pope considered the Concordat a great triumph. He ratified the
treaty on 15 August r8or, and in the bull Tam Multa he ordered the
ultramontane bishops to resign, pending the new reorganization of sees.
Most did so, but in the west of France a handful of rebels set up an anti
Concordat church, royalist and schismatic. The new dioceses were
marcin
(Marcin)
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