From the first year the effect arrived at is better than could be expected. "Look at the clergy,"51107 said the First Consul to Roederer; "every day shows that in spite of themselves their devotion to the government is increasing, and much beyond their anticipation. Have you seen the pastoral declaration of Boisgelin, archbishop of Tours?... He says that the actual government is the legitimate government, that God disposes of thrones and kings as he pleases and that he adopts the chiefs whom the people prefer. Your yourself could not have said that better." But notwithstanding that this is said in the pastoral letter, it is again said in the catechism. No ecclesiastical publication is more important: all Catholic children are to learn this by heart, for the phrases they recite will be firmly fixed in their memories. Bossuet's catechism is good enough, but it may be improved,—there is nothing that time, reflection, emulation, and administrative zeal cannot render perfect! Bossuet teaches children "to respect all superiors, pastors, kings, magistrates, and the rest." "But these generalities," says Portalis,51108 "no longer suffice. They do not give the proper tendency to the subject's submission. The object is to center the popular conscience on the person of Your Majesty." Accordingly, let us be precise, make appointments and secure support.

The imperial catechism, a great deal more explicit than the royal catechism, adds significant development to the old one, along with extra motives:

"We specially owe to our Emperor, Napoleon the First, love, respect, obedience, fidelity, military service, and tributes ordained for the preservation of the empire and his throne... For God has raised him up for us in times of peril that he might restore public worship and the holy religion of our fathers and be its protector."

Every boy and girl in each parish recite this to the vicar or curÉ after vespers in their tiny voices as a commandment of God and of the Church, as a supplementary article of the creed. Meanwhile the officiating priest in the pulpit gravely comments on this article, already clear enough, at every morning or evening service;51109 by order, he preaches in behalf of the conscription and declares that it is a sin to try to escape from it, to be refractory; by order, again, he reads the army bulletins giving accounts of the latest victories; always by order, he reads the last pastoral letter of his bishop, a document authorized, inspired and corrected by the police. Not only are the bishops obliged to submit their pastoral letters and public instructions to the censorship; not only by way of precaution, are they forbidden to print anything except on the prefecture presses, but again, for still greater security, the bureau of public worship is constantly advising them what they must say. First and foremost, they must laud the Emperor. But in what terms, and with what epithets, without indiscretion or mistake, in order not to meddle with politics, not to appear as a party managed from above, not to pass for megaphones, is not explained, and is therefore a difficult matter. "You must praise the Emperor more in your pastoral letters," said RÉal, prefect of police, to a new bishop. "Tell me in what measure." "I do not know," was the reply. Since the measure cannot be prescribed, it must be ample enough. There is no difficulty as regards other articles.—On every occasion the Paris offices take care to furnish each bishop with a ready-made draft of his forthcoming pastoral letter—the canvas on which the customary flowers of ecclesiastical amplification are to be embroidered. It differs according to time and place. In La VendÉe and in the west, the prelates are to stigmatize "the odious machinations of perfidious Albion," and explain to the faithful the persecutions to which the English subject the Irish Catholics. When Russia is the enemy, the pastoral letter must dwell on her being schismatic; also on the Russian misunderstanding of the supremacy of the Pope. Inasmuch as bishops are functionaries of the empire, their utterances and their acts belong to the Emperor. Consequently he makes use of them against all enemies, against each rival, rebel or adversary, against the Bourbons, against the English and the Russians, and, finally, against the Pope.