The legislature having decided that religious vows could not be taken up to twenty-one years of age,...

this measure keeps novices away; the monastic orders, sapped by the state of morals and by time, could obtain no recruits; they languished in a state of inertia and of disfavor which was worse than annihilation....

The era for monastic institutions had passed."] [Footnote 5158: Pelet de la Lozere, p.146.

(Words of Napoleon, March 11, 1806.)] [Footnote 5159: Pelet de la Lozere, p.207 (May 22, 1804).] [Footnote 5160: Decree of Messidor 3, year XII (June 22, 1804) .-- Letter of Napoleon to the King of Naples, April 14, 1807, on the suppression of convents at Naples: "You know that I don't like monks, as I have uprooted them everywhere." To his sister Elisa, May 17, 1806: "Keep on and suppress the convents."] [Footnote 5161: "Etat des congregations, communantes et associations religieuses," drawn up in execution of article 12 of the law of Dec.

12, 1876 (Imprimerie nationale, 1878): 1st.