Editing Concordat of 1801 (section)

==Contents==
The main terms of the Concordat of 1801 between France and Pope Pius VII included:
* A declaration that "Catholicism was the religion of the great majority of the French" but not the official state religion, thus maintaining religious freedom, in particular with respect to Protestants.
* The Papacy had the right to depose bishops; the French government still, since the [[Concordat of Bologna]] in 1516, nominated them.
* The state would pay clerical salaries and the clergy swore an oath of allegiance to the state.
* The Catholic Church gave up all its claims to Church lands that were confiscated after 1790.
* Sunday was reestablished as a "festival", effective [[Easter|Easter Sunday]], 18 April 1802. The rest of the [[French Republican calendar]], which had been abolished, was not replaced by the traditional Gregorian calendar until 1 January 1806.

According to [[Georges Goyau]], the law known as "The Organic Articles", promulgated in April 1802, infringed in various ways on the spirit of the concordat.<ref name=Goyau/> The document claimed Catholicism was "the religion of the majority of Frenchmen", and still gave state recognition to [[Protestantism|Protestants]] and [[Jews]] as well.

The Concordat was abrogated by the [[1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State|law of 1905]] on the [[separation of church and state]]. However, some provisions of the Concordat are still in effect in the Alsace–Lorraine region under the [[Local law in Alsace–Moselle|local law of Alsace–Moselle]], as the region was controlled by the [[German Empire]] at the time of the 1905 law's passage.