This change of ownership necessitated the taking of inventories in the churches, which many simple and devout people, incapable of understanding its political meaning, believed was a religious persecution, and resisted by force.
The bill recently passed is aimed not at the Church, but at "Clericalism," a powerful element within the Church, which has been determined to make it a political as well as a spiritual power.

With the passage of this bill there no longer exists the opportunity for political and ecclesiastical intrigues, which have made the Church a hatching-ground for aristocratic conspiracies.

The severance now accomplished is not complete as with us.

Money will still be appropriated from the public treasury for the maintenance of churches in France.

But the power derived from the ownership of valuable estates is no longer in the hands of men in sympathy with the enemies of the existing form of government.
Another matter which for a time seemed to threaten the peace of France has been happily adjusted.