Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/229

 FRANCE

187

FRANCE

without any previous autliorization. A mayor can formed by the Orthodox at the Synod of Orleans (6 prohibit processions in his commune simply on the February, 1900), and requiring as a conditbn the ac- pretext of avoiding public disorder; as a matter of ceptance of the Declaration of Faith of 1872; in this fact, in most of the great cities of France processions body the regional synods, in which the delegates of the do not take place. Mayors can even forbid the pres- presbyteral associations meet, and the national synods ence in funeral processions of priests wearing their hold spiritual authority ; (2) the Union des Eglises Re- vestments, but very few mayors have ever issued such formees de France, formed by the centre droit at the an order. Both the parish priest and the mayor have Synod of Jarnac (June, 1907), with the like synodal authority to cause the bells to be rung. A ministerial organizations and with the hope, hardly justified so circular dated 27 January, 1907, withholds from the far, of receiving the adhesion of both the extreme mayor the right to have the bells rung for " civil bap- parties; (3) the United Reformed Churches (Eglises tisms " or for non-religious marriages or burials, but Rcformees Unies), a very vague grouping of independ- there is no penal sanction for the transgression of this ent presbyteral associations, leaving to each Church order. It is now forbidden to erect or to affix any re- its autonomy, restricting the functions of the .synods, ligious sign or emblem in public places or upon pub- and representing, in place of dogma, the negative lie monuments; but the existmg emblems remain tendencies called "liberal". In this new threefold

and private property may be decorated, even exter- nally, with religious em- blems.

(b) Repression of Inter- ference with Religious Worship. — The law pim- ishes with a fine of from 16 to 200 francs and im- prisonment of from six days to two months any- one who by violence, threats, or any act which may be construed as pres- sure (prcssion) has at- temptetl to influence an individual to exercise or to abstain from exercising any religious worship, or who, by disorderly con- duct, interferes with the exercise of any such wor- ship. It punishes, with a fine of from 500 to 3000 francs or imprisonment for from two months to one year, outrages or slanders against functionaries, if committed publicly in places of religious wor- ship, and with from three months to two years im- prisonment any preacher who .shall incite his hearers to resist the laws.

Tlie Law oj Separation and the Protestants awl Jew

The Cathedral, Blois

organization one feature, the consistory, disap- peared.

The Lutheran Church has but sixty-seven par- ishes in France. It has grouped its cuUuelles into one general association.

The Jewish denomina- tion has formed the Union des Associations Cultuelles Israelites en France. The central consistory is com- posed of the grand rabbi, certain rabbis elected by the graduates of the Rab- binical School of France \Yho are employed in edu- cational or religious func- tions, and lay members elected for a term of eight years by the associations cultuelles. The rabbis are elected, subject to the ap- proval of the consistory.

Chaplaincies. — The law authorizes the State, the departments, and the com- munes to pay salaries to chaplains in public insti- tutions such as lycces, col- leges, schools, hospitals, asylums, and prisons. In the Army the office of chaplain has not been al)olished, but it remains unoccupied. Since 1 January,

— The Law of 1905 suppressed the special organic arti- 1906, no minister of rehgion has been a member of the cles which regulated Protestant worship and the De- staff of any mihtary hospital; the local ministers of cree of 1844 which had organized Jewish worship, reUgion may enter these hospitals at the request of recognized since 1806, and provided, since 1831, with sick soldiers. A decree dated 6 February, 1907, state-paid rabbis. Before 1905 there had been a Re- abolished the naval chapLaincies, but certain eccle- formed Church which was administered in each parish siastics who formerly filled these posts will con- by a presVjyteral council elected by the members of the tinue to discharge the functions proper to them. The denomination, and at the capital by a consistory to State does not allow appropriations for the mainte- which all the presbyteral councils sent delegates, and nance of chaplaincies in schools where there are no which nominated pastors with the consent of the Gov- boarders. It is a curious fact that, while the laws ernment. This Church was very much divided in forbid priests to enter primary schools, they have, up theology. It included: the Orthodox, who had car- to the present, admitted to the secondary schools ried, in the general synod of 1872, by 61 votes to 45, a chaplains paid out of the public purse ; the Goyern- dedaration of faith mvolving as of necessity the ac- ment feared that if this guarantee of religious training ceptance of certain dogmas; the Liberals, who, in were wanting parents would send their children to spite of their defeat in 1872, continued to claim for the private schools. But a practice recently established pastor an milimited freedom of teaching in his own in a certain number of lycees tends to relieve the State church ; a midway party (centre droit) who were nearer of the expense of chaplaincies by compelling parents to the Liberals than to the Orthodox. The Law of who wish their children to receive religious instruction 1905, in terminating the official existence of a Reformed to pay an additional sum.

Church, had this interesting result, that the theologi- Political Groups, the Press, and Intellectual and

cal divisions of the various groups openly expressed Social Organizations. — Politically speaking, the Catho-

themselves in the formation of three distinct great lie group which receives the active sympathies of the

organizations for the Reformed religion: (1) the Union Catholic press is that known as the Action Lib^rale

Nationale des Eglises Rdformees Evangeliques, Populaire, founded by M. Jacques Piou, a Member of