At least, pleaded Mgr.
Spina, let tithes be re-established.

To this request the First Consul deigned no reply.

None, indeed, was possible except a curt refusal.
Few imposts had been so detested as the tithe; and its reimposition would have wounded the peasant class, on which the First Consul based his authority.

So long as he had their support he could treat with disdain the scoffs of the philosophers and even the opposition of his officers; but to have wavered on the subject of tithe and of the Church lands might have been fatal even to the victor of Marengo.[154] In fact, the difficulty of effecting any compromise was enormous.

In seeking to reconcile the France of Rousseau and Robespierre to the unchanging policy of the Vatican, the "heir to the Revolution" was essaying a harder task than any military enterprise.