Chapter 23

Religious Freedom and Jewish Liberation

In This Chapter

bullet Signing the Concordat with the Pope

bullet Promoting Jewish freedom

O f all the reforms instituted by Napoleon, perhaps none were more important than those involving religious freedom. To the modern western reader, religious freedom seems almost a given. But in Napoleonic France, not only was it not a given, it was a hard-fought victory.

For one thing, the Catholic Church, led by the Pope, was less interested in religious freedom than in restoring its prominence in France after the Revolution. To be blunt, the Church didn’t want religious freedom; it wanted to restore its right to be the only recognized religion in France and in most of Europe.

On the other hand, the Revolutionaries were not at all interested in giving the Church, whose abuses were legend, so much as a camel’s nose under the tent. The Revolution had been anticlerical in nature, and many in France were quite content to keep it that way. (Many of the peasants, however, wanted their old Church back.)

In the middle of all of this were the Jews. Long the targets of discrimination, they would discover in Napoleon not only a liberator of their current decidedly unliberated condition but a precursor of their eventual acquisition of a homeland in Israel.

In this chapter, I tell you how Napoleon brought religious peace to Europe, which included the return of the Catholic Church (with significant restrictions) and the establishment of freedom of religion throughout the French Empire.

Accommodating the Catholic Church

No question about it: The French Revolution (see Chapter 3) took place at least in part in reaction to the excesses of the Catholic Church. That religious institution, which had developed enormous wealth and power, had come to dominate most of central and southern Europe and had abused its status. Not at all interested in religious tolerance or freedom, it had instituted the Inquisition in Spain, torturing, jailing, and killing all with whom it disagreed. Jews, Muslims, and Protestants alike were in deep trouble.

The Inquisition didn’t extend into the rest of Europe, but that was mainly because France, southern Germany, Italy, and much of the rest of Europe were already dominated by the Church (as it was generally known). Great Britain, northern Germany, Scandinavia, and a few other areas were dominated by Protestant sects, themselves less than tolerant of differing religious views.

Revolting against the Church

The French Revolution had pretty much removed the Catholic Church from its position of preeminent influence. Actually, it had pretty much removed the Church from France, replacing it with a sort of civil religion called “The Civil Constitution of the Clergy.” The Church was allowed to continue to exist, but it was under strict governmental control.

The Church had long developed a reputation for being more interested in wealth than saving souls. Its higher clergy (bishops and the like) lived more like princes than representatives of a group that supposedly had taken vows of poverty. Moreover, the Church was quick to tell the common people how to lead their lives but not quick at all to work against those same people’s oppression by the nobility. Even the local priests, called cure in French, were not safe from the people’s wrath, as many of them had a reputation for ignoring vows of chastity, if not poverty.

Remember

It is really important to remember that the leaders of the French Revolution absolutely hated the Catholic Church. They killed priests and other clergy, sacked and destroyed many churches and cathedrals, and did all they could to drive religion out of France. They also confiscated most Church property and either kept it as property of the state or sold it to the highest bidder. Yet, many of the common people still wanted their religion and longed for the day that it was okay again to be a Catholic.

For its part, the Church did little to endear itself to the Revolution. It was a strong supporter of the Bourbon cause and worked to bring back the monarchy. It didn’t support religious freedom and had no use at all for most of the other egalitarian ideals of the Revolution. In conservative, ultra-religious areas of France, Church leaders railed against the Revolution and supported counter-Revolutionary movements. Indeed, to some extent France was in danger of having a civil war between supporters of the Revolution and supporters of the Church.

Trying to ease civil strife

When Napoleon took control of France as First Consul in late 1799, he immediately understood that he governed a nation torn by many conflicts, not the least of which was the conflict over religion. Napoleon was essentially a nonbeliever and was probably somewhat bemused by all the fuss over who could pray to what god and in what manner.

But as a political leader, he clearly understood that he needed to find a way to bring a greater unity to France, including in the area of religion. No one wants to rule a deeply divided country. Besides, the Church was a bastion of royalism (support for the monarchy, another reason the leaders of the Revolution had little use for the Church), and he needed to diffuse that threat to his own rule. Shortly after his ascension to power, Napoleon began to seek ways to find an accommodation with the Pope and with religion in general.

Negotiating with the Pope

When Pope Pius VII was elected in the spring of 1800, Napoleon made immediate efforts to bring about some kind of rapprochement. He offered to bring the Church back to something like its previous (pre-Revolutionary) position of prominence if, in turn, the Pope would recognize the confiscation of Church property and the right of the state to control the Church as an institution.

The negotiations did not always go well. The Pope was not happy to have to bargain for what had once been his (or at least his Church’s) and was not at all interested in Napoleon’s initial offering. If he couldn’t get his lands back, he wanted restitution. Napoleon wasn’t about to face the political firestorm that would have ensued from a deal like that, so he suggested instead that the state pay the clergy’s salaries. But the catch there was that the First Consul would have the right to nominate the clergy, who would then be invested by the Pope.

Legend

A major area of disagreement was the exact position of the Church in French society. Prior to the Revolution, the Catholic Church had been the official religion of France, and Pope Pius wanted Napoleon to restore that status. Like that was going to happen! Napoleon made it clear that he was quite happy to restore the Catholic Church as one of the religions of France but definitely not as the religion of France. Napoleon, unlike the Church, was a firm believer in freedom of religion.

The Pope soon learned that he was not dealing with just anyone and that Napoleon was negotiating from a position of strength. If the Pope wanted to get his religion back into France, it would happen pretty much on Napoleon’s terms. After that was understood, negotiations moved along a bit better.

On August 15, 1801, Napoleon’s 32nd birthday, the Pope signed an agreement known as the Concordat. This document allowed the Catholic Church to be one of the recognized religions in France but not the recognized religion, as the Pope had wanted. It gave Napoleon the power to appoint and pay clergy, with the Pope relegated to simply confirming them in their positions. Still, the Pope and his clergy were pretty pleased, for they were finally allowed back in France. Their pleasure was not shared by everyone, however.

Facing a backlash

Now, you may think that bringing back the Church while maintaining the rights of all other religions would be a wildly popular accomplishment. You’d be wrong.

Many of the Revolutionaries in and out of government were furious with Napoleon for signing the Concordat. Soldiers claimed that the agreement was an insult to the deaths of so many French who fought in the Revolution. Many leaders didn’t want the Church back in France at all, for fear that the old excesses would soon reappear. And on the flip side, devout Catholics were not pleased at the restrictions that were placed on the Church under the agreement, or with the fact that Catholicism was only one of a number of religions recognized by the French government.

And royalists, who were the biggest losers in the deal, recognized that they had lost one of their strongest supporters. Catholics could hardly be expected to promote the demise of the very leader who had brought them back their religion.

Napoleon had a difficult time getting the Concordat through the legislative assemblies, dominated as they were by Revolutionaries. Some legislators tried to get major modifications, such as reducing the power of the Pope. But ultimately, they went along with the agreement.

Remember

Of all Napoleon’s reforms, the Concordat was probably his least popular. Still, when the Catholic churches were reopened in April 1802, it had only been a month since the Treaty of Amiens, which held the promise of finally establishing peace between France and Great Britain (see Chapter 21). Napoleon had brought both internal and external peace to France in a short time, and for that, his popularity continued to soar to new and dizzying heights.

Promoting Jewish Freedom

The history of the Jews in Europe is an unhappy one. They suffered discrimination in every quarter and had been blamed for the Plague, economic depres- sions, famine, and pretty much everything else that ever went wrong.

The Catholic Church didn’t exactly promote tolerance for other religions, especially Judaism. The Inquisition in Spain largely drove Jews out of that country. And the Crusades, nominally directed against Islam, often brought death and destruction to Jews as well. (Let’s face it: Sometimes the Crusades degenerated into Christians killing Christians, all in the name of wealth rather than preserving the Holy Land.)

The French Revolution created little in the way of improvement for Jews. They were granted citizenship, but as a religious institution Judaism was considered pretty much on par with the Catholic Church. Synagogues were closed, and Judaism was treated with much the same disdain as Catholicism. France had a strong strain of anti-Semitism, and anyone who went up against that was in for a struggle.

Envisioning the Jewish state

From the very beginning, Napoleon promoted the liberation of the Jews. Throughout much of Europe in the 18th century, Jews had been forced to live in ghettos and even to wear yellow arm bands. In 1797, while in Ancona, Italy, Napoleon was made aware of this fact and was absolutely amazed. He quickly ordered that the arm bands be removed and that Jews be given the right to live wherever they wished. It was a policy that he would follow during all of his military campaigns throughout Europe. Many years later, in Poland, he closed the Warsaw ghetto in much the same way. Clearly, Napoleon saw discrimination against Jews as a direct affront to his firmly-held belief in equality, and he was determined to do something about it.

In 1798, Napoleon led an army that invaded Egypt (see Chapter 7). On his way there, he took over the island of Malta. When he discovered that Jews on that island had not been allowed to operate a synagogue, he issued an immediate order rectifying the situation.

Legend

After Malta, Napoleon gained control of Egypt and from there moved north into the Holy Land, which is modern-day Israel. He took with him a proclamation, dated April 20, 1799, that essentially declared that Palestine was to be a new Jewish homeland. Napoleon planned to issue this proclamation when he entered Jerusalem. Unfortunately for him, and for the Jews, he was stymied at the siege of Acre and never made it to Jerusalem.

Napoleon’s campaign in the Holy Land resulted in his withdrawal to Egypt, and he never did issue the proclamation. The document still exists, however, and in 1947, David Ben Gurion used it as one of his justifications before the United Nations when he was seeking creation of the Jewish state of Israel.

Granting French Jews full citizenship

Napoleon did for French Jews what he did for Jews everywhere he went. The revision of the Civil Code, later called the Code Napoléon (see Chapter 19), granted religious freedom for everyone and paid particular attention to the Jews. Taking this stance against religious oppression was not an easy thing to do, given the strong political support for anti-Semitism. Indeed, over the years, Napoleon would have to continually work to see that his directives on the matter were carried out. He was determined to see that Jews were made full citizens, including having the right to freely practice their religion and participate in all aspects of social, economic and political society. But numerous newspapers and politicians routinely opposed him on this issue.

Legend

Determined in his objectives and frustrated by opposition, Napoleon decided to take a bold step. On May 30, 1806, Napoleon issued a decree calling for an assembly of Jewish leaders and rabbis to meet in Paris to discuss all issues related to Jews in France. This meeting was called a Sanhedrin, and it was designed in part to allow Jewish leaders to respond to the attacks being made against them. It was also called to signal once and for all Napoleon’s support for full Jewish citizenship.

The Sanhedrin met at the City Hall in Paris on July 23, 1806. Every department of France as well as Northern Italy was represented by the 111 Jewish leaders. Napoleon announced the results of their deliberations and his support for their religious freedom on November 29, 1806. Jews were declared full citizens and Judaism made one of the three official religions of France, along with Protestantism and Catholicism.

The Sanhedrin convened again in February and March of 1807 to fine-tune the provisions of law granting Jewish independence.

Meeting opposition at home and abroad

Not surprisingly, Napoleon faced plenty of opposition to his move toward Jewish liberation. Not only did newspapers and political leaders oppose him, but so did some of his own generals and family members. His uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch, in particular, was convinced that these actions would lead to the end of the world.

No other leader in Europe supported Napoleon in his efforts. Tsar Alexander I of Russia was furious and made his feelings quite clear. Austria and England protested as well, accusing Napoleon of going against the natural order of things. It’s hard to imagine such a backlash from such a reasonable policy, but backlash is exactly what Napoleon got.

That backlash was impossible to ignore, so in March 1808 Napoleon issued a decree that placed restrictions on Jewish freedom. This was an awful step backward, but it did cool down emotions a bit. Within a few months, the restrictions were pretty much removed in most of France, and by 1811 they were completely gone. Jews were finally full members of society, able to work, worship, and live as they wished.

Legend

Small wonder, then, that Napoleon is seen as a hero to many Jews today. Jews can credit him with helping to end the policies, if not the emotions, of institutionalized anti-Semitism in much of Europe.

Jews of Napoleon’s time certainly recognized his importance to their status as a people. The period engraving shown in Figure 23-1 represents the gratitude Jews felt for Napoleon.

Figure 23-1: This period engraving shows Napoleon granting Jews their freedom through his decree of May 30, 1806 that called for a Sanhedrin, the first step toward full freedom.

Figure 23-1: This period engraving shows Napoleon granting Jews their freedom through his decree of May 30, 1806 that called for a Sanhedrin, the first step toward full freedom.