Therefore, it was to heroic measures that the Assembly
resorted to save the state from bankruptcy. To provide funds, a heavy
blow was struck at one of the chief props of the "old regime"--the
Catholic Church. The Church, as we have seen, owned at least a fifth of
the soil of France, and it was now resolved to seize these rich church
lands, and to utilize them as security for the issue of paper money--
the _assignats_. As partial indemnity for the wholesale
confiscation, the state was to undertake the payment of fixed salaries
to the clergy. Thus by a single stroke the financial pressure was
relieved, the Church was deprived of an important source of its
strength, and the clergy were made dependent on the new order. Of
course, as often happens in similar cases, the issue of paper money was
so increased that in time it exceeded the security and brought fresh
troubles to the state, but for the moment the worst dangers were tided
over.
[Sidenote: 6. Other Legislation against the Catholic Church]
The ecclesiastical policies and acts of the National Assembly were
perhaps the least efficacious and the most fateful achievements of the
Revolution.
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