2. All elections shall be by ballot and shall be decided by the absolute majority of the votes.

3. The election of bishops shall take place according to the forms and by the electoral body designated in the decree of December 22, 1789, for the election of members of the Departmental Assembly.

6. The election of a bishop can only take place or be undertaken upon Sunday, in the principal church of the chief town of the department, at the close of the parish mass, at which all the electors are required to be present.

7. In order to be eligible to a bishopric one must have fulfilled for fifteen years at least the duties of the church ministry in the diocese as a parish priest, officiating minister or curate or as superior or as directing vicar of the seminary.

17. The archbishop or senior bishop of the province shall have the right to examine the bishop-elect in the presence of his council upon his belief and his character. If he deems him fit for the position he shall give him the canonical institution. If he believes it his duty to refuse this, the reasons for his refusal shall be recorded in writing and signed by the archbishop and his council, reserving to the parties concerned the right to appeal on the ground of an abuse of power as hereinafter provided.

18. The bishop applied to for institution may not exact of the person elected any form of oath except that he makes profession of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic religion.

19. The new bishop may not apply to the pope for any form of conformation, but shall write to him as the Visible. Head of the Universal Church as a testimony to the unity of faith and communion maintained with him.

21. Before the ceremony of consecration begins, the bishopelect shall take a solemn oath in the presence of the municipal officers, of the people and of the clergy to guard with care the faithful of his diocese who are confided to him, to be loyal to the Nation, the Law and the King and to support with all his

power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly and accepted by the King.

25. The election of the parish priests shall take place according to the forms and by the electors designated in the decree of December 22, 1789, for the election of members of the Administrative Assembly of the District.

29. Each elector, before depositing his ballot in the ballotbox, shall take oath to vote only for that person whom he has conscientiously selected in his heart as the most worthy, without having been influenced by any gift, promise, solicitation or threat. The same oath shall be required at the election of the bishops as in the case of the parish priests.

40. Bishoprics and cures shall be looked upon as vacant until those elected to fill them shall have taken the oath above mentioned.

TITLE III.

I. The ministers of religion, performing as they do the first and most important functions of society and forced to live continuously in the place where they discharge the offices to which they have been called by the confidence of the people, shall be supported by the nation.

2. Every bishop, priest and officiating clergyman in a chapel of ease, shall be furnished with a suitable dwelling on condition, however, that the occupant shall make all the necessary current repairs. This shall not affect, at present, in any way, those parishes where the priest now receives a money equivalent instead of his dwelling. The departments shall, more over, have cognizance of suits arising in this connection, brought by the parishes and by the priests. Salaries shall be assigned to each, as indicated below.

3. The Bishop of Paris shall receive 50,000 livres; the bishops of cities having a population of 50,000 or more, 20,000 livres; other bishops, 12,000 livres.

4. [Article 4 fixes the salaries of the vicars of cathedral churches. These ranged from 6000-2000 livres.]

5. The salaries of the parish priests shall be as follows: In Paris, 6000 livres; in cities having a population of 50,000 or over, 4000 livres; in those having a population of less than 50,000 and more than 10,000, 3000 livres; in cities and towns of which the population is below 10,000 and more than 3000, 2400 livres.

In all other cities, towns and villages where the parish shall have a population between 3000 and 2500, 2000 livres; in those between 2500 and 2000, 1800 lures; in those having a population of less than 2000, and more than 1000, the salary shall be 1500 livres; in those having 1000 inhabitants and under, 1200 livres.

6. [The salaries of the curates, fixed by article 6, ranged from 2400 livres at Paris to 700 in the small places.]

7. The salaries in money of the ministers of religion shall be paid every three months, in advance, by the treasurer of the district.

II. The schedule fixed above for the payment of the ministers of religion shall go into effect upon the day of publication of this decree, but only in the case of those who shall be afterward provided with ecclesiastical offices. The remuneration of the present holders, both those whose offices or functions are abolished and those whose titles are retained, shall be fixed by a special decree.

12. In view of the salary which is assured to them by the present constitution, the bishops, parish priests and curates shall perform the episcopal and priestly functions gratis.

TITLE IV.

1. The law requiring the residence of ecclesiastics in the districts under their charge shall be strictly observed. All vested with an ecclesiastical office or function shall be subject to this without distinction or exception.

2. No bishop shall absent himself from his diocese more than two weeks consecutively during the year, except in case of real necessity and with the consent of the Directory of the Department in which his see is situated.

3. In the same manner the parish priests and the curates. may not absent themselves from the place of their duties be

yond the term fixed above, except for weighty reasons, and even in such cases the priests must obtain the permission both of their bishop and of the Directory of their district, and the curates that of the parish priest.

4. In case a bishop or a priest shall violate this law requir ing residence, the communal government shall inform the procureur-general syndic of the department, who shall issue a summons to him to return to his duties. After a second warning the procureur shall take steps to have his salary declared forfeited for the whole period of his absence.

6. Bishops, parish priests and curates may, as active citizens, be present at the Primary and Electoral Assemblies, they may be chosen electors or as deputies to the Legislative Body, or as members of the General Council of the Communes or of the Administrative Councils of their districts or departments Their duties are, however, declared incompatible with those of Maire or other municipal officers and those of the members of the Directories of the District and of the Department. If elected to one of these last mentioned offices they must make a choice between it and their ecclesiastical position.

7. The incompatibility of office mentioned in article 6 shal! only be observed in the future. If any bishops, parish priests or curates have been called by their fellow-citizens to the offices of Maire or to other communal offices or have been elected members of the Directory of the District or of the Department, they may continue their functions.

D. Decree upon the Clerical Oath. November 27, 1790. Duvergier, Lois, II, 59-60.

I. The bishops and former archbishops and the cures kept in their positions shall be required, if they have not already done so, to take the oath for which they are liable.. concerning the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. In consequence, they shall swear... to look with care after the faithful of their diocese or the parish which is intrusted to them, to be faithful to the nation, to the law and to the King, and to maintain with all their power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly and accepted by the King.

2. [The same requirement, except the first clause, is made of "all other ecclesiastical public functionaries."]

5. Those of the said bishops, former archbishops, cures, and other ecclesiastical public functionaries, who shall not have taken the oath which is prescribed for them respectively, shall be reputed to have renounced their office and there shall be provision made for their replacement, as in case of vacancy by the resignation.

E. Decree upon the Publication of Papal Documents. June 9, 1791. Duvergier, Lois, III, 10.

The National Assembly, after having heard its united constitutional and ecclesiastical committees, considering that it is of importance for the national sovereignty and the maintenance of public order within the kingdom, to determine constitutionally the conservative forms of the ancient and salutary maxims by which the French nation has always kept clear of the enterprises of the court of Rome, without lacking in the respect due to the head of the Catholic Church, decrees as follows:

1. No briefs, bulls, rescripts, constitutions, decrees, or other documents of the court of Rome, under any denomination whatsoever, shall be recognized as such, received, published, printed, posted, or otherwise put into execution within the kingdom, but they shall here be null and of no effect, unless they have been presented to the Legislative Body, seen and verified by it, and unless their publication and execution have been authorised by a decree sanctioned by the King and promulgated in the forms established for the notification of the laws.

2. The bishops, cures, and other public functionaries, whether ecclesiastical or lay, who, in contravention of the preceding article, shall read, distribute, cause to be read, distributed, printed, posted, or shall otherwise give publicity or execution to the briefs, bulls, rescripts, constitutions, decrees, or other documents of the court of Rome, not authorised by a decree of the Legislative Body sanctioned by the King, shall be prosecuted criminally as disturbers of the public order and pun