French Diocese
The Holy See was initially willing to make some concessions to reclaim the French Diocese, but they were worried that these concessions would set a bad example for other dioceses. What if everyone started adopting the "If France can do it, I can't" mentality, following the France example?
The Holy See even suggested that France's conditions were not entirely unnecessarily open to negotiation, but it would be best to keep them confidential as part of the agreement, so as not to excessively damage the Holy See's reputation.
However, the France argue that France is a democracy, and its people have the right to know and oversee the work of their government. Therefore, such a demand violates the principles of France legislation and is utterly impossible...
Everyone knows this is pure nonsense, because the treaties signed between France and Spain, or between France and Austria, or even Prussia, all contain many undisclosed secret clauses, and some of these secret clauses are even kept secret.
Of course, there are reasons for doing this, because it is to protect "state secrets" and to safeguard the people. Anyway, once you learn how to construct two coordinates on a plane, many things in this world can be explained.
The France perspective is simple: while making these conditions public would certainly damage the Holy See's authority, it would greatly enhance the prestige of France, especially the First France. Therefore, it's simply a choice between sacrificing France interests and sacrificing the Holy See's interests. And isn't the choice obvious?
Therefore, the France representative did not hesitate to say that.
The moment those words were uttered, the Holy See's negotiators paled, for they carried a heavy threat.
The saying that "Our country initially intended to be a constitutional monarchy and did not intend to become a republic. However, some people were unwilling, and as a result, France became a republic" refers to Louis XVI's unwillingness to accept a constitutional monarchy and relinquish some power, resulting in the overthrow of his entire rule and his own execution.
The statement that "republican France is now willing to accept a constitutional monarchy, which I personally believe is a very sincere gesture" draws a parallel between the Holy See and Louis XVI. The Holy See was unwilling to accept a diocese largely independent of the Church, just as Louis XVI was unwilling to be a constitutional monarch and insisted on restoring absolute rule. Louis XVI did not accept the goodwill of the France people; he refused to listen to reason and was ultimately sent to the guillotine, and his dynasty vanished.
If the Holy See insists on bowing to France now, it means it refuses to accept the goodwill of the France people. The same way the France people dealt with Louis XVI can be used against the Holy See now. This is no longer a matter of inviting the Pope back to Avignon; it's a matter of directly and violently reforming the Holy See's structure.
The Holy See then proposed a temporary recess, stating that they needed to consult with the Pope.
That very evening, a bishop secretly visited the France envoy and, after bribing France with 200,000 francs, finally obtained a hint from France. A few days later, France and the Holy See finally reached an agreement.
In this agreement, the France demands were largely met, and the Holy See also received the face they needed. The France agreed to keep the privileges of the France Church confidential. However, the agreement would also publicly state that the France Church had obtained certain privileges, but these privileges involved national security and therefore would not be disclosed.
After this agreement was reached, Catholicism was finally able to return to France. However, those priests who had been expelled in Ninety-Three found upon France return that the most important positions in the France Church no longer belonged to them, and they even had to undergo closed-door studies and examinations at the new France Church before they could resume their priestly duties.
During a break in the training course, two middle-aged trainees huddled together and began to complain. Back in France, they had been middle-level members of the church, but now they had suddenly fallen to the bottom, so it was inevitable that they had some grievances.
"I heard that all these tricks were devised by our new director of the Bureau of Religious Affairs. I heard that his performance at the seminary was mediocre, and he didn't even get a formal pastor's certificate. Now he's our boss, it's really..."
"To be honest, it would be better to have Talleyrand as the Bureau of Religious Affairs. Although he is a traitor to the Church, at least he used to be an archbishop and a nobleman. And then there's our cardinal, who doesn't even have one..."
"Are you out of your minds?" a voice rang out behind them. The two men turned around and saw another man, Renal, who had returned from abroad with them for training as a prospective pastor.
"Have you forgotten the Director's illustrious reputation? Don't you know how he rose to such a high position? How dare you... You should know that being able to return to the country is a rare opportunity for us."
Elsewhere, we are outsiders, but in France, although we are now at the lower levels, the France Church is currently severely lacking in clergy with sufficient experience. This is especially true at the higher levels.
Therefore, as long as we demonstrate sufficient loyalty to the new regime, our promotions will be very rapid. But all of this is predicated on loyalty." Reverend Renal said, "Don't bring your bad habits from abroad back to France —we're returning together. If you can't change your bad habits from abroad, it will not only harm yourselves but also implicate me..."
At this point, the prospective pastor Renal revealed a cruel smile, "I will never allow such a thing to affect me, do you understand? This is my first and last warning to you."
After saying this, the prospective priest Renal turned and left, leaving the two dumbfounded men standing there in a daze.
The person who concurrently served as the director of the newly established agency— the Bureau of Religious Affairs—was none other than Fouché.
In Fouché's view, the Church was extremely useful for gathering intelligence. One of the important tasks of priests was listening to confessions, and in this process, they could acquire a great deal of secrets. However, because the Church had many propaganda functions, direct control of the Church fell into the hands of Lucien's "Ministry of Truth." Fouché could only resort to the Bureau of Religious Affairs to exert influence on the Church and use it to obtain intelligence.
In a sense, one of the important purposes of Fouché's proposal of such a training course was to take this opportunity to develop his spies among these people.
Of course, it is said that according to church rules, pastors would not, and are not allowed to, spread the news they heard in the confessional. This even led to the following joke:
A man was wrongly convicted of murder, imprisoned, and sentenced to death. Just before he was hanged, a pastor came to give him a final confession.
"Pastor, I really didn't kill anyone. I really didn't kill that person," the man said to the pastor.
"Ah, child, I know. All the priests in town know you didn't kill anyone. But none of us can say anything," the priest replied with deep compassion.
But you would be wrong to think that the priests would keep such secrets. If they really did, how would anyone know about Madame de Renal and Julien's romantic affairs? Using such information at the right time is one of the techniques by which the church has grown. Therefore, the slightly smarter trainees in those training courses were not actually opposed to Fouché's recruitment.
As for the newly appointed cardinal, he was a top student from a seminary named Ao Boliang. (Of course, this is the version verified by the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth; previous rumors claimed that Ao Boliang had not even graduated.) After the start of the French Revolution, he obtained the position of priest by swearing allegiance to the revolutionary government. Later, in Ninety-Three, he transformed himself into a priest of the Cult of Reason and even became a spy for Robespierre.
After Robespierre's downfall, this man naturally fell on hard times, but he quickly regained his connection with Lucien through his former detective friend. He then performed exceptionally well under Lucien and was thus promoted continuously. Before becoming a cardinal, he had already become the director of the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth.
Joseph and Napoleon both knew how important it was to keep the Church under their control, and Lucien, with his expertise in intelligence and propaganda, naturally wouldn't let this position pass him by. However, Catholicism clergy must be single and cannot have wives (of course, they can have mistresses and illegitimate children). Without wives, there are no legitimate heirs, which is not good for the balance of power within the family. Therefore, none of the three Bonaparte could take on the position themselves. Thus, Ao Boliang, with his experience working in religious institutions, was recommended to Joseph and Napoleon by Lucien and was ultimately appointed cardinal of the French Diocese.
Aside from the cardinals, most of the bishops and other officials in various regions also fell into Lucien's hands. However, the heads of the local Bureau of Religious Affairs were mostly Fouché's men. After all, when it came to intelligence gathering and investigating conspiracies, Fouché was far superior to Lucien. In addition, Lucien had too many things to manage and many distractions, so even Joseph and Napoleon felt that these matters were more efficiently handled by Fouché.
Of course, although Fouché was very capable and now shared many common interests with the Bonaparte Family, neither Joseph nor Napoleon fully trusted him. Therefore, the Church itself still fell into Lucien's hands— the Bonaparte Family needed its own intelligence system to balance Fouché.