Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/770

 NAPOLEON

700

NAPOLEON

M(>nl;iU'iiil)rrt"s iiidtioii, vdIciI :ipprov:iI of the "Motu I'roprio" of 12 Si>|itember, by uliicli Pius IX iiromised roforms without yiddiii); to all the president's inipora- tivo doiiiiinds. The presiilent was ihssatisfied, and forced the Falloux Cabinet to resign; but he was soon working with all the influenee of his position for the ptussage of the Falloux Law on freedom of teaching — a law which involved a great triumph for the Catho- lics — while, in the course of his journeys through France, his deferential treatment of the bishojis was extremely marked. And when, by the Coup d'Elal of 2 December, ISol, Louis Napoleon had dissolved the Assembly, and by the iiUhiscilf apiiealed to the F'rench people as to the justice of that act, many Catholics, following Montalcmbert and Louis \'euillot, decided in his favour; the prince-president obtained 7,481,231 votes (21 November, 1S52). The Dominican Lacor- daire, the Jesuit Ravignan, and Bishop Dupanloup were more reserved in their attitude. Lacordaire went so far as t o say :" If France becomes accustomed to this order of things, we are moving rapidly towards the Lower Empire".

Dictatorial Period of the Empire, /S.52-60.— The first acts of the new government were decidedly favourable to the Church. By the " Decree Law" of 31 January, 1S.52, the congregations of women, which previously could be authorized only by a legislative act, were made authorizable by simple decrees. A great many bishops and parish priests hailed with joy the day on which Louis Napoleon was proclaimed emijeror and the day (30 January, 1S53) of his marriage with the Spanish Eugenie de Montijo, which seemed to assure the future of the dyna.sty. .\t this very time Dupan- loup, less oi)timistic, published a pastoral letter on the liberty of the Church, while Montalcmbert began to perceive s\-inptoms which made him fear that the Church would not always have reason to congratulate itself on the new order. For some years the Church enjoyed effective liberty: the bishops held synods at their pleasure; the budget of public worship was forthcoming; cardinals sat in the Senate as of right; the civil authorities appeared in religious processions; missions were given; from 18.52-60 the State recog- nized 982 new communities of women; primary and secondary educational institutions under ecclesiastical control increased in number, while, in 1S.52, Peres Pctelot and Ciratry founded the Oratory as a Catho- lic centre of science and philosophy. Catholics like Scgur, Cornudet, Baudon, Cochin, and the Vicorate de Mclun founded many charitable institutions under state protection. Napoleon III was anxious that Pius IX should consent to come to crown him at Notre Dame. This request he caused to be preferred by Mgr de S(5gur, auditor of the Rota, and Pius IX ex- plained that, if he crowned Napoleon III, he would also be obliged to go and crown Francis Joseph of Austria, hinting, at the same time, that Napoleon could come to Rome; and he gave it to be understood that, if the emperor were willing to sup|)ress the Or- ganic Articles, he, the pope, might be able to accede to his request at the end of three months. Pius IX also wished Napoleon III to make the Sunday rest obligatory and abrogate the legal necessity of civil marriage previous to the religious ceremony. After two years of negotiations the emperor gave up this idea (18.54), but thereafter his relations with the Church seemed to bo somewhat less cordial. The Bull in which Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception was admitted into France grudgingly, and after some very lively opposition on the part of the Council of State (18.54). Dreux Un'zc, Bishop of Mouhns, was denounced to the Council of State- for infringement of the Organic Articles, while the " Correspondant " and the "Univers", having ih-fi iide<l the bi.shop, were rigorously dealt with by the authorities. Lastly, the return to the Conr de Casxation (Court of Appeals) of the former procureur general Dupin, who had resigned

in 1S.52, wiis looked upon as a victory for Galilean ideas.

The Crimean War (1853-56) was undertaken by Napoleon, in alliance with England, to check Russian aggression in the direction of Turkey. The Fall of Sebastojjol (S September, 1855) compelled Alexander II to sign the Treaty of Paris (1856). In this war Piedmont, thanks to its minister, Cavour, had had a part, both military and diplomatic; for the first time Piedmont was treated as one of the Great Powers. After all, the Italian Question intereslcd the emperor more than any other, and upon this ground difficidties were about to arise between him and the Church. As early as 1856 Napoleon knew, through Cavour, that the Piedraontese programme involved the dismember- ment of the Pontifical States; at the promptings of the French Government the Congress of Paris ex- pressed a wish that the pope shoiikl carry out liberal reforms, and that the French and .Austrian troops should soon leave his territories. The attempt on the emperor's life by the Italian Orsini (14 January, 1858), set in motion a policy of severe repression ("Law of General Security" and proceedings against Proudhon, the socialist). But the letter which Orsini wrote from his prison to Napoleon, beseeching him to give liberty to twenty-five million Italians, made a lively impression upon the emperor's imagination. Pietri, the prefect of pohce obtained from Orsini an- other letter, pledging his political friends to renounce all violent methods, with the understanding that the enfranchisement of Italy was the price to be paid for this assurance. From that time, it was Napoleon's active wish to reaUze Italian unity. On 21 July, 1858, he had an interview with Cavour at Plombieres. It was agreed between them that France and Piedmont should drive the Austrians from Italy, and that Italy should become a confederation, under the rule of the King of Sardinia, though the pope was to be its hon- orary president. The result of this interview was the Italian War. For this war public opinion had been schooled by a series of articles in Liberal and govern- ment organs — the "Siccle", "Presse", and "Patrie" — by Edmond About's articles on the pontifical ad- ministration, published in the "Monitcur", and by the anonymous brochure "L'Empereur Napolfen III et ritalie" (really the work of Arthur de la Gu6ron- niere), which denounced the spirit of opposition to reform shown by the Italian governments. Catholics tried to obtain Napoleon's assurance that he would not aid the enemies of Pius IX. In the House of Representatives (Corps Legislatif) the Republican Jules Favre asked: "If the government of the cardi- nals is overthrown shall we shed the blood of the Romans to restore it?" And the minister, Baroche, made no an.swer (26 April, 1859). But Napoleon, in the proclamation announcing his departure for Italy (10 May, 18.59), declared that he was going to deliver Italy as far as the Adriatic, and that the pope's power would remain intact. The victories of the French troops at Magenta (4 June, 1859) and Solferino (24 June, 1859) coincided with insurrectionary move- ments against the papal authority. Cathohcs were alarmed, and so was the emperor; he would not ap- pear as an accomplice of these movements, and on 11 July he signed the treaty of Villafranca. Austria ceded Lombardy to France, and France retrocedcd it to Sardinia. Venetia was still to belong to Austria, but would form part of the ItaUan Confederation which would be under the honorary presidency of the pope. The ])ope would be asked to introduce the in- dispensable reforms in his state. In November, 1859, at Zurich, these preliminaries were formally embodied in a treaty.

Neither the i)opo nor (he Italians were pleased with the emperor. On the one hand the pope did not thank Napoleon for his hints on the way to govern the Horaagna, and an elociuent brochure from the pen of