Now, ten years ago, the State had done nothing else, and, to the old
Concordat which was not good, it had just substituted a Concordat that
was worse. This new alliance, concluded by it with the Church in
1802, is not a religious marriage, the solemn sacrament by which, at
Rheims, she and the King promised to live together and in harmony in
the same faith, but a simple civil contract, more precisely the legal
regulation of a lasting and deliberate divorce. - In a paroxysm of
despotism the State has stripped the Church of its possessions and
turned it out of doors, without clothes or bread, to beg on the
highways; next, in a fit of rage, its aim was to kill it outright, and
it did partially strangle it. Recovering its reason, but having
ceased to be Catholic, it has forced the signature of a pact which is
repugnant, and which reduces their moral union to physical
cohabitation. Willingly or not, the two contracting parties are to
continue living together in the same domicile, since that is the only
one they possess; but, as there is incompatibility of humor, they will
do well to live apart.
Pages:
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132