The Gateway Chronicle 2020

54
be forced to acknowledge the important
social role that religion now played.
Then Napoleon Bonaparte entered the picture.
Coming to power in 1799, he was
willing to permit the continuation of religious
practice in order to both promote
moral social values and to diminish counter-revolutionary
spirit. He even recognised,
despite this somewhat going
against the separation of Church and
state, that having religious congregations
running hospitals and schools would have
great financial benefits for the government.
Most importantly, he saw that by
repairing relations with the Church, he
could use it as a means by which to consolidate
his power. Thus, despite protests
from avid revolutionaries within his government,
Napoleon sought to formalise
the place of the
Church in France. On
16 July 1801, he
signed the Concordat
with Rome after an 8-
month negotiation period.
This recognised
Catholicism as the ‘religion
of the vast majority
of French citizens’, rather than giving
the Church any unique role within the
French state, whilst also requiring the
Church to give up their calls for the return
of property that they lost during the Revolution.
Most significantly, the Church was
brought under full control by the state.
Napoleon himself would now be in charge
of appointing Bishops, further reducing
papal authority. He was even crowned a
Notre-Dame in 1804, demonstrating its
cultural significance in France. This was
now very much Napoleon’s Church, with
its own distinct national identity, much
like the preceding Gallican Church in the
ancien régime. He was ultimately excommunicated
upon occupying Rome in 1808,
which led him to jail the Pope in response.
Napoleon was eventually defeated in his
war of conquest in 1815. His legacy was
very significant as far as secularism is
“Napoleon emancipated religious
minorities, which contributed
to the secular principle
of freedom of religion”
concerned. Firstly, he emancipated religious
minorities, which contributed to the
secular principle of freedom of religion.
Secondly, whilst it may seem that his expansion
of state relations with the Church
went against the basic principles of secularism,
Napoleon’s authority actually
worked in favour of secularism, as it enhanced
animosity against state intervention
in peoples’ religious lives, thus again
forcing religious practice into the private
sphere rather than the public and dividing
his government.
90 years later, the French government formally
enacted laïcité, finally consolidating
all of the changes that had come about in
French society with regard to religion. As
previously mentioned, the three main
principles of laïcité are the separation of
Church and state, the
freedom of religion
and the freedom of
conscience. The Revolution
was hugely influential
in bringing
about such changes.
Whilst it expanded
state regulation over
the Church, it successfully reduced the
very influential role that religion had
played in the ancien régime, thus fulfilling
the first principle of laïcité to an extent. It
virtually ended the important social role
that the Church had in public French life,
by forcing them to sell off their property.
This also meant that religion became
much more of a private matter than a public
one. Furthermore, the emancipation of
religious minorities served to fulfil the last
two principles.
In the present day, the echoes of the Revolution
and the passage of laïcité are still
very much heard. With the recent spate of
religious extremism in France, the issue of
religious dress has once again entered the
forefront public debate, and schools in
France continue to very strictly adhere to
laïcité.
Alex