Page:Jean Jaurès socialist and humanitarian 1917.djvu/102

 two prelates were known to be friends of the Republic, and to have reactionary enemies in their dioceses, their cases aroused sympathy. Moreover, under the Concordat these dismissals could not take place except by the intervention of the French Government. But as upon expostulation the Pope declined to give any satisfaction, the French Chargé d'Affaires was told to leave Rome, the Papal Nuncio being asked to quit Paris.

It was in this way that the Concordat came to an end, and when Parliament met in the autumn it was felt that the separation of Church and State was inevitable. Jaurès was associated with Briand in drawing up a report, and Combes prepared a Bill, although he was not actually in power at the time it was passed. When the Bill for the Separation of Church and State was being brought into the Chamber the Government was generous in providing pensions and allowing the use of buildings. The Bill passed in 1905 and became law in the following year.

There had followed upon the split among the Socialists a period of many quarrels. After a while, however, the Parti Socialiste de France (the Guesdists), feeling the weakness of the position and unwilling that the disunion should continue, resolved at the Congress of Rheims in 1904 that they would carry the matter before the International at the Congress which was to