France[edit]
The Michelade massacre by French Huguenots in 1567
During the French Revolution (1789–95) clergy and religious were persecuted and Church property was destroyed and confiscated by the new government as part of a process of Dechristianization, the aim of which was the destruction of Catholic practices and the destruction of the very faith itself, culminating with the imposition of the atheistic Cult of Reason followed by the imposition of the deistic Cult of the Supreme Being.[165] The persecution led Catholics who lived in the west of France to wage a counterrevolution, the War in the Vendée, and when the state was victorious, it killed tens of thousands of Catholics. A few historians have called it genocide.[166] However, most historians believe it was a brutal crackdown against political enemies rather than genocide.[167] The French invasions of Italy (1796–99) included an assault on Rome and the exile of Pope Pius VI in 1798.
Relations improved in 1802 when Napoleon came to terms with the Pope in the Concordat of 1801.[168] It allowed the Church to operate but did not give back the lands; it proved satisfactory for a century. By 1815 the Papacy supported the growing alliance against Napoleon, and was re-instated as the State Church during the conservative Bourbon Restoration of 1815–30. The brief French Revolution of 1848 again opposed the Church, but the Second French Empire (1851–71) gave it full support. The history of 1789–1871 had established two camps—the left against the Church and the right supporting it—that largely continued until the Vatican II process in 1962–65.[169]
France's Third Republic (1871–1940) was cemented by anti-clericalism, the desire to secularise the State and social life, faithful to the French Revolution.[170] This was the position of the radicals and socialists.[171] in 1902 Émile Combes became Minister of the Interior, and the main energy of the government was devoted to an anti-clerical agenda.[172] The parties of the Left, Socialists and Radicals, united upon this question in the Bloc republicain, supported Combes in his application of the law of 1901 on the religious associations, and voted the new bill on the congregations (1904). By 1904, through his efforts, nearly 10,000 religious schools had been closed and thousands of priests and nuns left France rather than be persecuted.[173] Under his guidance parliament moved toward the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State, which ended the Napoleonic arrangement of 1801.[174]
In the Affaire Des Fiches, in France in 1904–1905, it was discovered that the militantly anticlerical War Minister under Combes, General Louis André, was determining promotions based on the French Masonic Grand Orient's huge card index on public officials, detailing which were Catholic and who attended Mass, with the goal of preventing their promotions. Exposure almost caused the government to fall; instead Combes retired.[175]
Italy[edit]
Italian troops breaching the Aurelian Walls at Porta Pia during the Capture of Rome. Breccia di Porta Pia (1880), by Carlo Ademollo. Afterwards, the Pope declared himself a "Prisoner in the Vatican."
In the Napoleonic era, anti-clericalism was a powerful political force.[176] From 1860 through 1870, the new Italian government, under the House of Savoy, outlawed all religious orders, both male and female, including the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Jesuits, closed down their monasteries and confiscated their property, and imprisoned or banished bishops who opposed this (see Kulturkampf).[177][178] Italy took over Rome in 1870 when it lost its French protection; the Pope declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican. Relations were finally normalized in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty.[179]
Christianity
Nietzsche
The Michelade massacre by French Huguenots in 1567
During the French Revolution (1789–95) clergy and religious were persecuted and Church property was destroyed and confiscated by the new government as part of a process of Dechristianization, the aim of which was the destruction of Catholic practices and the destruction of the very faith itself, culminating with the imposition of the atheistic Cult of Reason followed by the imposition of the deistic Cult of the Supreme Being.[165] The persecution led Catholics who lived in the west of France to wage a counterrevolution, the War in the Vendée, and when the state was victorious, it killed tens of thousands of Catholics. A few historians have called it genocide.[166] However, most historians believe it was a brutal crackdown against political enemies rather than genocide.[167] The French invasions of Italy (1796–99) included an assault on Rome and the exile of Pope Pius VI in 1798.
Relations improved in 1802 when Napoleon came to terms with the Pope in the Concordat of 1801.[168] It allowed the Church to operate but did not give back the lands; it proved satisfactory for a century. By 1815 the Papacy supported the growing alliance against Napoleon, and was re-instated as the State Church during the conservative Bourbon Restoration of 1815–30. The brief French Revolution of 1848 again opposed the Church, but the Second French Empire (1851–71) gave it full support. The history of 1789–1871 had established two camps—the left against the Church and the right supporting it—that largely continued until the Vatican II process in 1962–65.[169]
France's Third Republic (1871–1940) was cemented by anti-clericalism, the desire to secularise the State and social life, faithful to the French Revolution.[170] This was the position of the radicals and socialists.[171] in 1902 Émile Combes became Minister of the Interior, and the main energy of the government was devoted to an anti-clerical agenda.[172] The parties of the Left, Socialists and Radicals, united upon this question in the Bloc republicain, supported Combes in his application of the law of 1901 on the religious associations, and voted the new bill on the congregations (1904). By 1904, through his efforts, nearly 10,000 religious schools had been closed and thousands of priests and nuns left France rather than be persecuted.[173] Under his guidance parliament moved toward the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State, which ended the Napoleonic arrangement of 1801.[174]
In the Affaire Des Fiches, in France in 1904–1905, it was discovered that the militantly anticlerical War Minister under Combes, General Louis André, was determining promotions based on the French Masonic Grand Orient's huge card index on public officials, detailing which were Catholic and who attended Mass, with the goal of preventing their promotions. Exposure almost caused the government to fall; instead Combes retired.[175]
Italy[edit]
Italian troops breaching the Aurelian Walls at Porta Pia during the Capture of Rome. Breccia di Porta Pia (1880), by Carlo Ademollo. Afterwards, the Pope declared himself a "Prisoner in the Vatican."
In the Napoleonic era, anti-clericalism was a powerful political force.[176] From 1860 through 1870, the new Italian government, under the House of Savoy, outlawed all religious orders, both male and female, including the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Jesuits, closed down their monasteries and confiscated their property, and imprisoned or banished bishops who opposed this (see Kulturkampf).[177][178] Italy took over Rome in 1870 when it lost its French protection; the Pope declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican. Relations were finally normalized in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty.[179]
Christianity
Nietzsche