The Concordat of 1801, and the Model It Set

The Revolution had left French religion in pieces. Church property had been sold, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy had split the priesthood between those who swore to it and those who refused, worship had been suppressed and then partly restored, and two rival hierarchies were operating. The agreement Napoleon reached with Pius VII in 1801 settled it by conceding almost nothing that mattered to the state. Catholicism was acknowledged as the religion of the great majority of French citizens, which is not the same as an established church. Every existing bishop on both sides was asked to resign so that a new episcopate could be built; the government nominated bishops and the pope instituted them; the confiscated property stayed with those who had bought it; and the clergy were paid by the state, which made them salaried officials.

The following year the government added the Organic Articles unilaterally, a body of regulation controlling seminaries, publication of papal documents, and the conduct of worship, which the pope had not agreed and never accepted. Parallel articles were issued for the Protestant churches, giving them recognition and salaries on similar terms. The arrangement therefore recognised several religions and funded them under supervision, rather than establishing one, and that model outlasted its author across a good deal of Europe.