Monseigneur Guitrel, Bishop of Tourcoing, addressed to the President of
the Republic the following letter, the text of which was published _in
extenso_ by the _Semaine religieuse_, the _Vérité_, the _Étendard_, the
_Études sérieuses_, and several other diocesan papers:
“MONSIEUR LE PRÉSIDENT,
“Before bringing to your notice several just causes for
complaint and divers claims which are only too well founded,
allow me for one short instant to enjoy the keen delight of
feeling that I am in perfect accord with you on a point which
must affect us both; allow me, realizing as I do the feelings
that must have swayed you during these long days of trial and
of consolation, to join with you in an outburst of patriotic
gratitude. Oh, how your generous soul must have suffered when
you saw that handful of misguided men cast insult at the Army
under the pretext of defending justice and truth, as though
justice and truth could exist in opposition to social order
and the hierarchy of power established by God Himself upon this
earth! And how that heart of yours must have rejoiced at the
sight of the whole nation, without exception of party, rising
as one man to acclaim our brave Army, the Army of Clovis,
Charlemagne, and St. Louis, of Godefroy de Bouillon, Jeanne
d’Arc and Bayard; to embrace her cause and avenge her wrongs.
Oh, with what satisfaction must you have witnessed the watchful
wisdom of the nation as it frustrated the devices of the proud
and the evil-doer!
“Certainly one cannot deny that the honour of such praiseworthy
conduct is due to France as a whole. But you are too
clear-sighted, M. le Président, not to have recognized the
Church and her faithful members in the van of the supporters of
law and authority. They were in the front rank of the battle,
saluting with confidence and respect the Army and her chiefs.
And was it not the right place for the servants of Him Who has
called Himself the God of Armies, and Who, to use the words of
Bossuet, has sanctified them in calling Himself by that name?
Thus you will always find in us the surest upholders of law
and order, and the obedience which we have not refused even
to princes that persecuted us will never tire. In return for
this may your Government ever look peacefully upon us, and so
make our obedience a joy! Our hearts must exult at sight of
the warlike array which makes us feared by other nations, and
at sight of you yourself in your place of honour, surrounded
by your brilliant staff, like King Saul, that great and
courageous man who always attached the bravest warriors to his
person. _Nam quemcumque viderat Saul virum fortem et aptum ad
prœlium, sociabat eum sibi_ (1 Kings xiv. 52).
“Oh, would that I could end this letter as I have commenced it,
with words of joy and gladness, and how happy should I be, M.
le Président, if I could associate your venerated name with the
declaration of peace in the Church as I have associated it with
the victories gained before our eyes by the spirit of authority
over the spirit of discord. But, alas, it cannot be! I must
bring to your notice a subject of great sorrow; must afflict
your soul by the spectacle of a great grief. I shall accomplish
an irresistible duty in bringing your mind to bear upon an open
and bleeding wound which must be healed. It is to my interest
to tell you certain painful truths, and to your interest to
listen. My pastoral duty compels me to speak. Placed by the
grace of the Sovereign Pontiff upon the See of the Blessed
Saint Loup, successor as I am of so many holy apostles and
vigilant pastors, should I be the legitimate heir of their
devoted labours if I had not the courage to continue them?
_Alii laboraverunt, et vos in labores eorum introistis_ (Ecc.
viii. 9). It is therefore fitting that my feeble voice should
uplift itself until it reach your ears. It is also fitting that
you lend an attentive ear to my words, for the subject I am
about to discuss is worthy the thought of a ruler. _Princeps
vero ea, quæ digna sunt principe, cogitabit_ (Is. xxxii.).
“But how can I broach the subject without immediately feeling
myself overcome by overwhelming grief? How can I, without
weeping, point out to you the state of the religious whose
spiritual head I am? For it is of them I would speak, M. le
Président. As I entered my diocese, how heart-rending were the
sights that met my gaze on all sides. In the sacred buildings
consecrated to the education of children, the cure of the sick,
and the care of the aged, the instruction of our priests and
the contemplation of the divine mysteries, I found nothing but
anxious faces and sad looks. There, where the joy of innocence
and the quietude of labour formerly reigned, a dark anxiety
has settled. Sighs go up to heaven, and from all lips the same
cry of anguish, ‘Who will care for our sick and aged? What
will become of our little children? Where shall we retire to
pray?’ These were the words that greeted the shepherd of the
diocese of Tourcoing, such were the words of the monks and nuns
who knelt at his feet and kissed his hands, for they have
been robbed of that which is theirs by right, of that which is
also the right of our poor, our widows and orphans, the bread
of our clergy, and the viaticum of our missionaries. Thus, at
the moment of total ruin, our monks and nuns bewailed their
fate while they waited for the tax-collectors to outrage the
sanctuary of our cloistered virgins, and even to seize the
sacred vessels on the altar.
“This, then, is the state to which our religious communities
are reduced by the enforcement of the different taxation laws
to which I have referred, if such mad and criminal enactments
can be called laws. If you will but examine the position in
which our religious orders are placed by these spoliative
measures, dignified by the name of laws, the expressions
of which I make use will not appear to you excessive, and
a moment’s attention on your part will make you share my
feelings. Having regard to the fact that religious bodies are
subject to the general taxation, it is iniquitous to force
further taxes upon them; that will at once strike you as an
injustice, and I can point out others equally unjust. But as
regards this thing in particular, M. le Président, allow me to
protest both firmly and respectfully. I have not sufficient
authority to speak in the name of the entire Church, but I am
sure that I do not stray from the right path when I declare
as an essential principle of justice that the State has no
right to impose burdens upon the Church. The Church pays what
is demanded of her, she pays as an act of grace, but she is
under no obligation to do so. Her ancient exemption from
taxation proceeded from her sovereignty, for the sovereign
pays no tribute. She can always enter a claim to those ancient
rights when and where it suits her convenience; she can no more
renounce her just claims than she can renounce her duties and
sovereign privileges, and, as matters are, she gives proof of
the most admirable powers of renunciation. That is all. Having
stated my objections, I will now proceed with my evidence.
“The religious bodies are subject to the following duties:
“Firstly, general taxation, as I have just stated.
“Secondly, taxes on inalienable property.
“Thirdly, a tax of four per cent on income (Acts of 1880 and
1884).
“Fourthly, liability under the ‘droit d’accroissement,’ the
monstrous effects of which are supposed to have been modified
by what is called the ‘droit d’abonnement,’ by which the
Government annually deducts from the estimated portion of
deceased members the sum of eleven francs twenty-five per
cent, including the decimes. It is true that, by a mock
kindness which is in reality merely a refinement of perfidy
and injustice, the law allows the charitable and educational
institutions to be relieved of this charge, on account of their
utility, as though the houses where our holy women pray God
to pardon the crimes of France and to enlighten her blinded
rulers were not as useful, more useful even, than schools and
hospitals!
“But it was necessary to disunite the common interests, and in
order to do so differential treatment had to be meted out. The
idea was to disintegrate and paralyse resistance; this again
was the idea that actuated the Government when they fixed the
tax of 30 per cent for recognized religious institutions, and
at 40 per cent for the unrecognized, payable annually, on the
value of property both real and personal, so that the latter,
who are not permitted to hold property, are judged liable to
pay, and to pay even more than the others.
“To sum up, for the further burden of our religious bodies to
the common taxes are added the tax on inalienable property,
the income tax of 4 per cent, and the so-called increment
duties, which are not modified but accentuated by what is
called the ‘droit d’abonnement’ or subscription duty. Is this
endurable? Is it possible to find in the whole world another
such abominable example of spoliation? No, you must admit, M.
le Président, that it is not.
“And when the religious orders of my diocese asked me what
they were to do, could I give them any other reply than the
following: ‘Resist the law! It is your right and duty to oppose
injustice! Resist the law! Say to them, “We cannot do it. _Non
possumus._”’
“They are resolved so to do, M. le Président, and all our
religious bodies, recognized or unrecognized, teaching,
charitable or cloistered, destined to foreign missions or
to lives of monastic retreat, are agreed, in spite of the
inequality with which they are assessed, upon a stubborn
resistance. They have realized that the different forms
of treatment meted out to them by your so-called laws are
uniformly iniquitous, and that it behoves them to join together
in a common defence. Their resolve is unshakable. After having
paved the way to it, I support their resolution, and in so
doing feel assured that I am not failing in the obedience I
owe to authority and to the law, and which I whole-heartedly
render to you both as a matter of conscience and religion. I
feel sure that I am not misjudging your power, which can only
be exercised for the maintenance of justice. _Ecce in justitia
regnabit rex_ (Paralip. xxii. 22).
“In his pastoral letter _Diuturnum illud_ His Holiness Leo XIII
has expressly declared that the faithful may dispense with
obedience to civil power if the latter issue orders that openly
disregard natural and divine rights. ‘If a man,’ he has said
in this admirable letter, ‘finds himself forced to infringe
either the law of God or the law of man, he should follow the
precepts of Jesus Christ, and reply like the apostles, “It is
better to obey God than man.” To act thus is not to merit the
reproach of disobedience, for as soon as the will of a ruler is
in opposition to the will and law of God he exceeds his power,
justice is corrupted, and henceforth his authority is impotent
because, in so far as it is unjust, it ceases to exist.’
“Believe me it is not without deep and protracted meditation
that I have encouraged the religious bodies under my control
to make the necessary resistance. I have weighed the temporal
loss that may, perhaps, result, and such consideration has
not stopped me. When we reply to your tax-gatherers, ‘_Non
possumus_,’ you will attempt to overcome our resistance by
force. But how will you achieve your end? Will you lay hands
upon our recognized bodies? Dare you? Upon our non-recognized
bodies? Can you? Will you show a pitiful courage and sell our
goods and the objects dedicated to divine worship? And if it
is indeed true that neither the poverty of the former nor
the sacred nature of the latter will preserve them from your
rapacity, you must learn, and the wives and children of those
who aid and abet you must learn, that those who enter upon
such a course run the risk of excommunication, the terrible
effects of which strike fear into even the most hardened
sinners. And all those who consent to buy anything proceeding
from any such unlawful sale expose themselves to the same
penalty.
“And if we are robbed of our belongings, hunted from our
dwellings, the injury will not be to us, but to you, who will
be covered with the shame of unprecedented scandal. You can
retaliate most cruelly upon us, but no threat can frighten
us; we fear neither prison nor chains. The manacled hands of
priests and confessors have delivered the Church ere now. Come
what may, we shall pay nothing, we may not, we cannot. _Non
possumus._
“Before arriving at such an extremity I thought it only right,
M. le Président, to place the matter before you, in the hope
that you would inquire into it with the whole-hearted firmness
God bestows upon the rulers who place their trust in Him.
May you, with His help, find a remedy for the crying evils I
have placed before you. God grant, M. le Président, God grant
that, when you have examined the injustice of the taxation
as regards our religious bodies, you may be guided less by
your counsellors than by your own sense of justice. For, if
the chief may take counsel of others, it is his own counsel
he should follow. As Solomon has said, ‘Counsel in the heart
of a man is like unto deep water.’ _Sicut aqua profunda, sic
consilium in corde viri_ (Prov. xx. 5).
“With the deepest respect, etc., I have the honour, M. le
Président, to be
“Your obedient servant,
“JOACHIM,
“Bishop of Tourcoing.”
The letter of the Bishop of Tourcoing was published on January 14th.
On the 30th of the same month the _Agence Hava_ sent the following
communication to the papers:
“The cabinet met yesterday at the Élysée. It was decided at the meeting
that the Minister of Public Worship should apply to the Council
d’État for a writ against Monseigneur Guitrel, Bishop of Tourcoing,
in connexion with a letter addressed by him to the President of the
Republic.”
Transcriber’s Note:
Spelling and hyphenation have been retained as published except the
following:
Page 39
esctasy of admiration at _changed to_
ecstasy of admiration at
Page 117
carrrying in front of her _changed to_
carrying in front of her
Page 175
Superscript is shown with a preceding ^ as in “No. 3715^8”