Editing Concordat of 1801

{{Short description|1801 agreement between France and Pope Pius VII}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}

[[Image:Allégorie du Concordat de 1801.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.2|''Allegory of the Concordat of 1801'', by [[Pierre Joseph Célestin François]]]]

The '''Concordat of 1801''' was an [[Concordat|agreement]] between the [[First French Republic]] and the [[Holy See]], signed by First Consul [[Napoleon|Napoleon Bonaparte]] and [[Pope Pius VII]] on 15 July 1801 in [[Paris]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsVPAAAAMAAJ&dq=Napoleon+and+Pope+Pius+VII+July+1801+vatican&pg=PT342 |last=Knight |first=Charles |title=Pius VII |encyclopedia=Biography: Or, Third Division of The English Encyclopedia |volume=4 |publisher=Bradbury, Evans & Company |year=1867}}</ref> It remained in effect until 1905, except in [[Alsace–Lorraine]], where it [[Concordat in Alsace–Moselle|remains in force]]. It sought national reconciliation between the [[French Revolution]] and Catholics and solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France, with most of its civil status restored. This resolved the hostility of devout [[Catholic Church in France|French Catholics]] against the revolutionary state. It did not restore the vast Church lands and endowments that had been seized during the Revolution and sold off. Catholic clergy returned from exile, or from hiding, and resumed their traditional positions in their traditional churches. Very few parishes continued to employ the priests who had accepted the [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy]] of the revolutionary regime. While the Concordat restored much power to the papacy, the balance of church-state relations tilted firmly in Bonaparte's favour. He selected the bishops and supervised church finances.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aston |first=Nigel |title=Religion and revolution in France, 1780–1804 |publisher=Catholic University of America Press |year=2000 |pages=279–335}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Roberts |last=William |chapter=Napoleon, the Concordat of 1801, and Its Consequences |title=Controversial Concordats: The Vatican's Relations with Napoleon, Mussolini, and Hitler |editor-first=Frank J. |editor-last=Coppa |year=1999 |pages=34–80}}</ref>

Bonaparte and the Pope both found the Concordat useful. Similar arrangements were made with the Church in territories controlled by France, especially Italy and Germany.<ref>{{cite book |last=Aston |first=Nigel |title=Christianity and revolutionary Europe, 1750–1830 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |pages=261–62}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Gérard - Signature du Concordat entre la France et le Saint-Siège, le 15 juillet 1801.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''The signing of the Concordat, 15 July 1801'' by [[François Gérard]], 1803-1804]]

During the Revolution, the [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]] had taken Church properties and issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which made the Church a department of the state, effectively removing it from papal authority. At the time, the nationalised [[Catholic Church in France|Gallican Church]] was the official church of France, but it was essentially Catholicism. The Civil Constitution caused hostility among the [[Vendée|Vendeans]] towards the change in the relationship between the Catholic Church and the French government. Subsequent laws abolished the traditional [[Gregorian calendar]] and Christian holidays.<ref name="georgetown2">{{cite web |url=http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/countries/france |title=France |publisher=[[Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs]] |access-date=2011-12-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110206213909/http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/resources/countries/france |archive-date=6 February 2011 }} See drop-down essay on "Religion and Politics until the French Revolution"</ref>

The Concordat was drawn up by a commission with three representatives from each party. Napoleon Bonaparte, who was [[French Consulate|First Consul]] of the French Republic at the time, appointed [[Joseph Bonaparte]], his brother, [[Emmanuel Crétet]], a counselor of state, and [[Étienne-Alexandre Bernier]], a doctor in theology. Pope Pius VII appointed Cardinal [[Ercole Consalvi]], Cardinal [[Giuseppe Spina]],<ref>Spina had been Papal Majordomo for Pius VI, and had followed him in his arrest and deportation to France in 1799.  Salvador Miranda, Librarian Emeritus, Florida International University, ''The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church'',  [http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1801.htm#Spina Spina, Giuseppe]. Retrieved: 2016-07-30.</ref> archbishop of Corinth, and his theological adviser, Father Carlo Francesco Maria Caselli.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Edwards|first1=Bela Bates |last2=Peters|first2=Absalom|last3=Agnew|first3=John Holmes|last4=Treat|first4=Selah Burr |title=The American Biblical Repository|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfsRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA433|access-date=2014-04-22|year=1840|publisher=s.n.}}</ref> The French bishops, whether still abroad or returned to their own country, had no part in the negotiations. The concordat as finally arranged practically ignored them.<ref name=Goyau>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04204a.htm Goyau, Georges. "The French Concordat of 1801." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 8 November 2015</ref>

While the Concordat restored some ties to the [[Pope|papacy]], it was largely in favour of the state; it wielded greater power ''vis-à-vis'' the Pope than previous French regimes had, and church lands lost during the Revolution were not returned. Napoleon took a utilitarian approach to the role of religion.<ref name=Vilmer>[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.jbjv.com/Commentaire-du-Concordat-de-1801.html&prev=search Vilmer, Jean-Baptiste Jeangéne. "Comment on the Concordat of 1801 between France and the Holy See", ''Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique'', 102: 1, 2007, p.  124-154]</ref> He could now win favour with French Catholics while also controlling Rome in a political sense. Napoleon once told his brother [[Lucien Bonaparte|Lucien]] in April 1801, "Skillful conquerors have not got entangled with priests.  They can both contain them and use them."<ref>{{Cite book|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-46027-1|last=Aston|first=Nigel|title=Christianity and Revolutionary Europe ''c.'' 1750-1830|year=2002}}</ref> As a part of the Concordat, he presented another set of laws called the [[Organic Articles]].

==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.

==See also==
* [[Concordat in Alsace–Moselle]]
* [[Napoleon and the Jews]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Aston, Nigel. ''Religion and revolution in France, 1780-1804'' (Catholic University of America Press, 2000), pp.&nbsp;279–315.
* {{cite book|last=Consalvi|first=Ercole|editor=J. Crétineau-Joly|title=Mémoires du Cardinal Consalvi, avec une introduction et des notes de J.Crétineau-Joly|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5-G1T4usJhAC|year=1866|publisher=H.Plon|language=fr}}
* {{cite book|last=Crétineau-Joly|first=Jacques |title=Bonaparte, le concordat de 1801 et le cardinal Consalvi ; suivi, Des deux letters au père Theiner sur le pape Clément XIV|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZJxeAAAAcAAJ|year=1869|publisher=H. Plon|location=Paris|language=fr}}
* Roberts, William. "Napoleon, the Concordat of 1801, and Its Consequences." in: Frank J. Coppa, ed., ''Controversial Concordats: The Vatican's Relations with Napoleon, Mussolini, and Hitler'' (1999) pp: 34–80.
* {{cite book|last1=Sévestre|first1=Emile|title=L'histoire, le texte et la destinée du Concordat de 1801|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOnYDXQni2IC|edition=seconde|year=1905|publisher=Lethielleux|location=Paris|language=fr}}
* {{cite book|last= Theiner|first=Augustin|title=Histoire des deux concordats de la République française et de la République cisalpine conclus en 1801 et 1803 entre Napoléon Bonaparte et le Saint-Siège--: suivie d'une relation de son couronnement comme empereur des français par Pie VII--d'après des documents inédits, extraits des archives secrètes du Vatican et de celles de France|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3V-6A-NrFQYC|volume=Tome I|year=1869|publisher=L. Guérin & cie|location=Bar-le-Duc|language=fr}}
* Walsh, Henry Horace. ''The Concordat of 1801: A Study of the Problem of Nationalism in the Relations of Church and State'' (Columbia University Press, 1933).

==External links==
* [http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/government/diplomatic/c_concordat.html Documents upon Napoleon and the Reorganization of Religion]: selected text of the Concordat and Organic Articles
{{Napoleon}}{{Authority control}}

[[Category:History of Catholicism in France]]
[[Category:Treaties of the Holy See (754–1870)|1801]]
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