Organic Articles

As organic products (French Articles organiques ) refers to regulations adopted by Napoleon, as a supplement to the July 15, 1801 negotiated with the Vatican Concordat. The organic products gave the Concordat, the legal basis. The Concordat concerned only the relations between the French government and the Pope; the organic products regulated beyond dealing with the practice of religion in France.

History

The organic products were elaborated on April 3, 1802 by the State Council and approved and levied bodies into law on April 8, 1802 without amendment by the Legislature. The ratification of the Concordat already happened on September 10, 1801. Was not until seven months later, Napoleon himself had, as First Consul, read the agreement in the Council of State. The vote in Tribunat on April 7, 1802 showed 78 to 7 and in the Legislative Body on April 8, 228 against 21 votes for the adoption of the original. In the meetings of the two meetings, especially in the tribunate, a pretty lively opposition had had an impact. The laws presented here were received unfavorably, sometimes even discarded. It came before the final vote, to a re- naming of the tribunes and the Legislature, in which the members of the adoption of the proposed government laws opposed, have been removed. As law, the Concordat was then ( 18 Germinal X) simultaneously published on 8 April 1802 and the organic articles. The solemn promulgation took place on 18 April, which is Easter Sunday 1802. During the ceremony in the Paris Notre Dame Cathedral, five archbishops and bishops contributed 19 to the first consul allegiance.

Also in the March 9, 1801 after the peace of Luneville of Napoleon annexed as part of the French territory on the left bank of the Rhine, the organic products were already declared on May 4, 1802 ( 14 Floreal X) for the newly acquired departments on the Rhine for binding legal.

By the "Law for the separation of church and state " December 9, 1905 the Organic Articles were in France and has imposed a strict secularism. While the scope of the Act was extended in 1905 by a decree of February 6, 1911 on the overseas territories Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion, apply in the departments of Haut-Rhin, Bas -Rhin and Moselle, which did not belong to France in 1905 to continue the Concordat of 1801 and the organic Articles of 1802. department in French Guiana and the French overseas territories with special status, there are some cases special arrangements.

In Belgium and Luxembourg and the left bank of the German federal states and western Swiss cantons, which were part of the French territory in the Napoleonic period, certain financial arrangements of organic products continue to have legal force. In Luxembourg they were formally largely replaced by appropriate clauses in contracts state church in 1997. In Geneva, the Organic Articles in 1907 were repealed by referendum, replaced in the Netherlands in 1981 in fact.

Content

The organic products included a total of 77 articles. They fall back on the Gallican Articles ( 1682) are required to include instruction on the theological institutions, the principles of the French state church revive and, although weakened, the church-political practice of the revolutionary period. The organic products lead the state's approval for the propagation of papal decrees in France prohibit the posting papal legate except the certified Nuncio and explain only approved by the government Catechism admissible. Napoleon recognized next to the Catholic only the Reformed, Calvinist Church and the churches of the Augsburg Confession, the Lutheran Church.

Articles for the Catholic Church ( Articles organiques de l' Église catholique ) regulated the relations of the Church to the civil administration, the rank order and the teaching ( discipline ) of the Catholic clergy, the way how the service was to be held, the new classification of parish churches and communities and the grade of the clergy.

The organic products of the Protestant Churches ( Articles organiques of cultes protestans ) were divided into three titles. The first, containing the general provisions ( Dispositions générales pour toutes les communions protestantes ), said that one must be French in order to practice the religion can, and that the pastors are paid by the state. The Protestant churches were allowed to maintain any relations with foreign powers. The second title dealt with the pastors, Consistories and synods of the Reformed Church (Des Églises réformées ) and the third title concerned the rules in the Lutheran Confession ( De l' organization of Églises de la confession d' Augsbourg ).

Effects

Four recognized religions ( " cultes reconnus " )

With the Concordat and the taking effect of organic products, the anti-clerical policy of the revolutionary period has ended. The organic products issued by Napoleon without the knowledge of the Pope led to a protest by the Cardinals, as they are, as they thought, did not get along with the principles of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius VII did not feel bound by the articles, and there ensued an exchange of notes between the Vatican and the French Government to the days of the Empire. But even in France itself the laws gave rise to resistance. Many old Republicans and many officers of the revolutionary army were dissatisfied with the restoration of the old religion.

The number of archdioceses in France, including the annexed territories was 10, which established the dioceses at 50. The payment of the bishops was regulated: as an archbishop and a bishop received 15,000 10,000 francs annually by the French State. From the earlier numerous religious holidays were only four retained: Christmas, Easter, Ascension Day and All Saints.

The Reformed and Lutheran consistorial were combined to form 6,000 parishioners. They were led by Lokalkonsistorien, with five consistorial formed a synod.

Already in 1808 took place with the formation of the central Consistoire israélite the official recognition of Judaism as a religion alongside the Catholic, Reformed and the Lutheran Church. By decree of 25 May 1844, the provisions of the organic products were placed in analogous application. The four denominations were now equal and recognized by the state. So you can still speaks today of the four " cultes reconnus " in France.

Establishing left-Rhine Protestant churches

In areas with previously Catholic territorial sovereignty (eg archbishopric of Mainz, Cologne Archdiocese, Archdiocese of Trier) for the first time it was in the French period after 1802 due to the organic products possible to set up legal Protestant churches and to use their own church building. For example, the organic products following secularized monastery churches newly founded by the French prefect Protestant parishes were assigned based on:

• Anna Church in 1802 in Aachen; previously been supplied by the Evangelical Limburg Vaals
• Chapel in the Electoral Palace in June 1802, two months later instead chapel of the former Dominican monastery of St. Martin ( Görgengasse the old Löhrtor ) 1802/ 03 in Koblenz; previously considered themselves the few Protestant to Sponheim Winningen,
• Antoniterkirche 1802 in Cologne ( assigned in 1801 ); the Protestants had previously been supplied by jülichschen Frechen or since 1610 by the Bergisch Mülheim,
• Altmünsterkirche 1802 in Mainz, since 1808 Welschnonnen Church, since 1829 St. John's Church,
• Kloster Marienberg 1804/ 06 in Neuss ( used until 1906).

In the succession of the French state reached by the Congress of Vienna in more secularized churches become the property of the Prussian state and was greeted by King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and King Frederick William IV newly established Protestant churches provided:

• Castle Church ( in the current university main building) 1816 in Bonn; the Protestants were previously supplied by Berg Upper Kassel,
• Jesuit Church 1816 ( until 1819 as a simultaneous church), since 1856 instead Constantine Basilica in Trier,
• ( Expropriated by Friedrich Wilhelm III. Against compensation from municipally owned ) Florinskirche 1818 in Koblenz,
• From 1857 ( first arrives after the secularization privately owned, transferred in 1834 to the Prussian state under a corresponding support ) shared right at Altenberg Cathedral in Odenthal as a simultaneous church.

These four churches are so far wholly or partially owned by the federal states of North Rhine -Westphalia and Rhineland- Palatinate.

State benefits left bank of the Rhine States and Countries

Even today, based part of the German federal states of Rhineland -Palatinate, Saarland and linksrheinischem North Rhine -Westphalia, the work done in Luxembourg, Belgium and France in Alsace and in Lorraine Moselle department to the churches State benefits ( subsidies ) for the salaries of pastors on a compensation for that time in favor of the tax authorities retracted parish assets or on the organic products and exporting them imperial decree of Napoleon of 13 Fructidor XIII (31 August 1805). Also, the only two state theological faculties at the University of Strasbourg in France and their financing guaranteed by the Organic Articles.

In the Netherlands, based on the Organic Articles State services have been largely replaced in 1981 by one-time payment of 250 million guilders.

In the Swiss cantons, which were entirely or partially part of the French Republic or the daughter - republics, the situation is different. Churches and church congregations to finance often partially from the community ( Basel-Landschaft, Bern, Jura, Neuchâtel, Vaud, Valais). In the canton of Geneva is since 1907 a strict separation of church and state, but also take away certain here was incurred before the January 1, 1909 municipal easements.