WHAT will be the outcome of the present movement in France toward separating the state from the Church of Rome?—No one knows. One thing, however, is certain: M. Combes and his friends, of the governmental party, are in dead earnest in their antagonism to, and even hatred for, the papal church.
The bills that are now pending before the French chambers are remarkable in many respects. On the whole, they must be admired for their consistency. The principle of separation between the realm of politics and that of religion is carried to its farthest and most logical conclusions. All support to the clergy is withdrawn. All the church edifices, which are the property of the state, will be leased or sold to such church organizations as may desire the use of them. The embassy to the Vatican is to be suppressed. In a word, the divorce is to be a complete one. And from the standpoint of pure theory, the outlook, to liberty lovers, would seem very encouraging and bright.
But one important fact must not be overlooked. The issue in France is not parallel to that which brought about the separation between church and state in America one hundred and twenty-five years ago. Then, the idea was liberty based on the Gospel; now, it is liberty without, or even against, the Gospel. There, it was separation of the church from the state entanglements in the very interests of the church itself; here, it is separation of the state from the church in order to muzzle her, and with the secret hope of destroying her influence on society. In America, the issue had the sympathy of most of the churches concerned. In France, those most concerned by it—the Catholic clergy and people—consider the same issue with indignation and alarm.
From this entire dissimilarity, it would not seem reasonable to expect from the present movement in France the same peaceful results which were won in America, and the influence of which has been productive of so much good all over the earth. Undoubtedly, the intentions of many liberal politicians in France are excellent. So were the intentions of the men who inaugurated the French Revolution in 1789. The discourses of Mirabeau, for instance, were not only masterpieces of eloquence, but directly in favor of the rights of conscience and the separation of the church from the state. The charter of human rights drafted by the same men of 1789, and set forth as the basis of the Revolution, is admirable. But that did not prevent the Revolution from running into untold excesses.
The Catholic Church will never welcome the idea of being severed from the state. This is against her inmost life and principles; and yet, she will make the best of the separation when it does come. Once severed from its political attachments, she will ply all her forces toward increasing her influence over the masses, and thereby conquering a political majority which may bring her back to her former position. Count Henri d'Arnim was once discussing with the marquess Alfieri—niece of Cavour, the famous Italian patriot of the days of Garibaldi—the value of her uncle's famous maxim: Chiesa libera in stato libero (a free church in a free state). He thus summed up his views: "Do you wish to know the outcome of this foolish fancy?—It is this; it simply means: Chiesa armata in stato disarmato (an armed church in an unarmed state). The state has no more weapons with which to resist the church, while the church can make use of all her weapons." The best of these weapons is the ballot, which she is using now with so much success in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France.
To come back to the bills providing for the divorce between the French Government and the Catholic Church, several of these have been presented to a large legislative committee appointed for the purpose. Recently, M. Combes has been requested to present one, also, in behalf of the government. One article in this bill is significant. It authorizes religious associations to organize for the purpose of owning property only within the limits of each department (there are eighty-six in France), and requires that the trustees of any religious edifice must reside in the canton (county) in which said edifices are located. This would bring to naught—to say nothing of the Catholic Church—the present organization, and even the existence of most of the Protestant missionary organizations, in France. The idea is, evidently, to prevent the organization of large Catholic national boards for the owning and control of church property, when the separation shall become a fact.
This, like the whole story of the present cabinet and the one which preceded it, shows that in France there is a determined and desperate fight on the part of the liberals and freethinkers against the efforts of the Roman hierarchy toward controlling the minds and bodies of the nation. The weapons used are laws enacted under the colors of liberty, and enforced with a distinct smack of intolerance. But the same weapon, it must be remembered, can be used by the Catholic party, and it may be depended upon that they are preparing to use it with a vengeance. And should they ever—which is by no means an improbable event—control a majority of votes in the Chamber, it will not be long before this whole legislation will be thrown overboard, and a new class of laws introduced. This, at least, is what the conservative deputies boastingly and openly predict to their antagonists of the Bourbon Palace, and which has been the case in Spain since the short-lived republican government in 1873.
In Spain.
The religio-political agitation going on in France has had its reflection in Spain, in the form of a lively discussion between the clerical and the liberal press. The papers representing the former—El Siglo, El Futuro, El Universo—give all their sympathy to the hundreds of monks and nuns who have gone over to Spain to seek a refuge and a field of usefulness (?). These papers are shocked and indignant at the sight of the "eldest daughter of the church" talking of breaking loose from the Holy See, and this at the very time when the Spanish Government is discussing the adoption of a new treaty with Rome. This treaty (convenio) is said to be a complete surrender to all the claims of Rome and an endorsement of all the concessions made to the hierarchy by the conservative cabinets from 1876 to the present time.
On the other hand, the liberal press—El Heraldo, El Imparcial, El Liberal—and all the republican papers—claim that the break between the French Republic and the Vatican contains "useful lessons for Spain," which is, in their estimation, "the land upon which weighs most heavily the yoke of clericalism and Vaticanism." This fact is evidenced by the last census, which shows that there are in Spain hundreds of congregations, made up of 14,000 friars, 2,000 Jesuits, and 42,000 nuns. These figures were collected before the immigration of orders from the Philippines and France.
During this same controversy in the press, allusion was made by the liberal papers to the struggles which took place under even such monarchs as Charles V., Philip II., Philip V., and Charles III., and the resistance which they made against papal encroachments. The fact was recalled that, during the minority of Isabella II., in 1836, the "company of Jews" was suppressed, as it had been in 1767, in all the Spanish dominions.
All these struggles toward the intellectual and religious emancipation of France, Italy, and Spain will amount to very little, unless they are based on the Gospel of Christ, and unless the only weapon used is the Word of God. Would that Protestants in these lands where they number by thousands and tens of thousands might remember that it was the old Bible which conquered Rome in France, Bohemia, and Germany, in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries.
Sunday Laws.
Unless they do this, these very enemies of Rome will ultimately play as tools in her hands. They are even now doing this by giving their support to Sunday laws, which constitute a denial of religious liberty and an acknowledgment of the doctrinal authority of the Church of Rome against the Bible.
Spain has just passed a law enforcing the Sunday rest. Italy is greatly agitated over the question. France is being silently worked on the same question by a large organization which has hundreds of local committees. Belgium is rapidly ripening for the same thing, the government having adopted a system of postage stamp which provides for not delivering mails on Sunday, according to the wish of the senders. And in Switzerland, Geneva, after eight years' struggle, has at last succumbed to the persistent efforts of the friends of Sunday laws; a rather mild enactment has recently been introduced, and carried through the legislature of that canton, "with the hope that more stringent laws will soon follow" this entering wedge.
Thus do we see that the only effective opposition to Romish intolerance and control is that based on the Gospel, and that the only laws which can be operative against church-and-state union are those written, not in the statute books only, but in the hearts of the people. JEAN VILLEUMIER.
