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Page 34
The Consular Court was in general extremely irreligious; nor could it be
expected to be otherwise, being composed chiefly of those who had
assisted in the annihilation of all religious worship in France, and of
men who, having passed their lives in camps, had oftener entered a church
in Italy to carry off a painting than to hear the Mass. Those who,
without being imbued with any religious ideas, possessed that good sense
which induces men to pay respect to the belief of others, though it be
one in which they do not participate, did not blame the First Consul for
his conduct, and conducted themselves with some regard to decency. But
on the road from the Tuileries to Notre Dame, Lannes and Augereau wanted
to alight from the carriage as soon as they saw that they ware being
driven to Mass, and it required an order from the First Consul to prevent
their doing so. They went therefore to Notre Dame, and the next day
Bonaparte asked Augereau what he thought of the ceremony. "Oh! it was
all very fine," replied the General; "there was nothing wanting, except
the million of men who have perished in the pulling down of what you are
setting up." Bonaparte was much displeased at this remark.
--[This remark has been attributed elsewhere to General Delmas.
According to a gentleman who played a part in this empty pageantry,
Lannes at one moment did get out of the carriage, and Augerean kept
swearing in no low whisper during the whole of the chanted Mass.
Most of the military chiefs who sprang out of the Revolution had no
religion at all, but there were some who were Protestants, and who
were irritated by the restoration of Catholicism as the national
faith.--Editor of 1896 edition.]--
During the negotiations with the Holy Father Bonaparte one day said to
me, "In every country religion is useful to the Government, and those who
govern ought to avail themselves of it to influence mankind. I was a
Mahometan in Egypt; I am a Catholic in France. With relation to the
police of the religion of a state, it should be entirely in the hands of
the sovereign. Many persons have urged me to found a Gallican Church,
and make myself its head; but they do not know France. If they did, they
would know that the majority of the people would not like a rupture with
Rome. Before I can resolve on such a measure the Pope must push matters
to an extremity; but I believe he will not do so."--"You are right,
General, and you recall to my memory what Cardinal Consalvi said:
'The Pope will do all the First Consul desires.'"--"That is the best
course for him. Let him not suppose that he has to do with an idiot.
What do you think is the point his negotiations put most forward? The
salvation of my soul! But with me immortality is the recollection one
leaves in the memory of man. That idea prompts to great actions. It
would be better for a man never to have lived than to leave behind him no
traces of his existence."
Many endeavours were made to persuade the First Consul to perform in
public the duties imposed by the Catholic religion. An influential
example, it was urged, was required. He told me once that he had put an
end to that request by the following declaration: "Enough of this.
Ask me no more. You will not obtain your object. You shall never make a
hypocrite of me. Let us remain where we are."
I have read in a work remarkable on many accounts that it was on the
occasion of the Concordat of the 15th July 1801 that the First Consul
abolished the republican calendar and reestablished the Gregorian. This
is an error. He did not make the calendar a religious affair. The
'Senatus-consulte', which restored the use of the Gregorian calendar, to
commence in the French Empire from the 11th Nivose, year XIV. (1st
January 1806), was adopted on the 22d Fructidor, year XIII. (9th
September 1805), more than four years after the Concordat. The re-
establishment of the ancient calendar had no other object than to bring
us into harmony with the rest of Europe on a point so closely connected
with daily transactions, which were much embarrassed by the decadary
calendar.
Bonaparte at length, however, consented to hear Mass, and St. Cloud was
the place where this ancient usage was first re-established. He directed
the ceremony to commence sooner than the hour announced in order that
those who would only make a scoff at it might not arrive until the
service was ended.
Whenever the First Consul determined to hear Mass publicly on Sundays in
the chapel of the Palace a small altar was prepared in a room near his
cabinet of business. This room had been Anne of Austria's oratory.
A small portable altar, placed on a platform one step high, restored it
to its original destination. During the rest of the week this chapel was
used as a bathing-room. On Sunday the door of communication was opened,
and we heard Mass sitting in our cabinet of business. The number of
persons there never exceeded three or four, and the First Consul seldom
failed to transact some business during the ceremony, which never lasted
longer than twelve minutes. Next day all the papers had the news that
the First Consul had heard Mass in his apartments. In the same way Louis
XVIII. has often heard it in his!
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