HISTORY NOTES
Church-State Relations in Germany and France
1870-1914
C.3. Treat of relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the State in each of two of the following countries; Italy, France, Germany, during the period 1870-1914
During the period 1870-1914 tensions arose between the Catholic Church and both France and Germany. These were causes mainly by the two leaderships’ fear of ultramontainism, believing that it caused a divided loyalty among Catholics in their countries. These tensions became evident in the struggles for control of education that occurred in each country. France had poor relations with the Catholic Church between 1870 and 1914 because the socialist government of the Third Republic was hostile towards its links with the upper classes and its opposition to Liberalism. Bismarck, though also opposed to Liberalism, resented the influence of Rome on German Catholics.
In Germany the
opportunity for Bismarck to take action against the Catholic Church came as a
result of the first Vatican Council when it was announced that the Pope was
infallible on moral issues. Many German
Catholics refused to accept this.
Bismarck then appointed one of these Old Catholics, Cardinal Hohenlohe,
as ambassador to the Holy See. When he
was rejected by Pope Pius ⅠⅩ, Bismarck cut off diplomatic relations with the
Vatican. He also closed the Catholic
section of the Prussian bureau for public worship. In 1872 the Falk laws brought education under state
inspection. Some religious orders such
as the Jesuits were banned from teaching.
This was followed by the May laws of 1873 and 1875. They introduced a government veto on
appointments of bishops. All clerical
appointments were to be made to those who had studied at German
universities. Civil marriage was
introduced. The pulpit laws banned
priests from speaking abut political matters in their sermons. However these laws were unpopular with
German Protestants and with the Kaiser.
For this reason, and in order to gain the support of the Catholic Centre
Party against the Socialists, Bismarck forced May’s resignation and by 1890 the
laws were removed from the Statute books.
In France the
tensions between the Church and State dated back to the time of the French
Revolution when land was confiscated from the church and citizens were given a
right to elect bishops. The Concordat
of 1801 had helped relations but the birth of the Third Republic, in the
aftermath of the Franco-Prussian, war had caused further problems. The Third Republic had little support among
the French people and saw the church as an enemy, accusing it of indoctrinating
people through its sermons. The Church
was traditionally right wing, and conservative in its outlook, with many of its
hierarchy coming from the nobility. It was
these social, philosophical and political tensions which prompted the
government to take action against the Church.
It was Jules
Ferry, the education minister, who instigated the first of these measures. He banned religious orders from Higher Board
of education and from awarding diplomas.
Women’s training colleges were set up to loosen church control of girls’
education. In 1899 Ferry announced that
all primary education was to be free and secular. The Jesuits were expelled from the country and other orders left
when their schools were shut down. However,
these measures were not completely successful due to the lack of state schools
and protests of the French public.
Further attacks
were launched on the Church in the 1880s with the reduction in clergy salaries,
and the introduction of civil marriage and divorce. Public displays of religion were forbidden. Nuns and chaplains
were expelled from hospitals and army respectively. In 1891 the Assumptionists were dissolved.
With the
arrival of Leo ⅩⅢ as Pope it seemed tat there would be an improvement
in Church-State relations. In his
encyclical “Au milleu des Sollicitudes” he urged greater co-operation between
French Catholics and the government. However
this rapprochement was ended with the Dreyfus affair when the Church sided with
the Right.
In 1899 Waldeck-Rousseau introduced
the ‘Law of Associations’ which meant that all religious organisations had to
get state permission for their activities. Few were
granted this. This was followed, in
1905, by the Law of Disassociation of Church of Church and State. This removed State funding for the Church
and set up a new bureau to determine how the public would worship. Public worship as it had existed was banned
and all religions were given equal status.
In both France
and Germany at the end of the 19th century hostile relations
appeared between State and Church. In both
cases they were motivated by a wish on the State’s part to curtail the power of
the Church and both cases resulted in battles fought out principally in
education. However in Germany Bismarck’s
attempts proved unsuccessful and were abandoned quickly. In France the State succeeded in curtailing
the power of the Church in France, which, despite causing animosity in the
short term, resulted eventually in a situation where the Church was revitalized
as a result of less state interference in vetoing bishop‘s appointments, while
the State spent less time embroiled in Church issues, thus separation the two.
