Organic Articles

It met with opposition from the Catholic Church with Pope Pius VII claiming that the articles had been promulgated without his knowledge.

[1] Presenting the Organic Articles was Napoleon’s method of granting the Tribunat and the Corps législatif partial control of the concordat in order to help the state monitor any politically harmful Catholic or Protestant movements or activities.

For example, Article 45 states, “In cities where there are temples dedicated to different religions, no religious ceremony is to take place outside of the buildings consecrated for Catholic worship.”[2] In towns with adherents of different dogmas, public processions were prohibited.

The Calvinist community, a variety of Protestant Christianity, was divided into congregations of adherents governed by clerical leaders appointed by wealthy or powerful taxpayers.

Parallel to the Articles relative to Catholicism, the pastors were salaried by the State, and following this, a Calvinist revival was held by the Protestants.

Government approbation was required before papal pronunciations could be published, councils convoked, new parishes established and chapels set up.

Although it was not specifically referred to in the Organic Articles, the creation of a Ministry of Cults in 1801 reinforced a drive towards government oversight of ecclesiastical matters.

[6] However, in the departments of Alsace and Moselle, in 1905 not part of France, the organic articles remain in power (see local law in Alsace-Moselle).