The
crowning achievement of his financial readjustments was the
establishment (1800) of the Bank of France, which has been ever since
one of the soundest financial institutions in the world.
[Sidenote: Ecclesiastical Settlement: the Concordat, 1801]
Another grave problem which Bonaparte inherited from the Revolution was
the quarrel between the state and the Roman Catholic Church. He was
determined to gain the political support of the large number of
conscientious French Catholics who had been alienated by the harsh
anti-clerical measures of the revolutionaries. After delicate and
protracted negotiations, a settlement was reached in a concordat (1801)
between Pope Pius VII and the French Republic, whereby the pope, for
his part, concurred in the confiscation of the property of the Church
and the suppression of the monasteries, and the First Consul undertook
to have the salaries of the clergy paid by the state; the latter was to
nominate the bishops and the former was to invest them with their
office; the priests were to be appointed by the bishops.
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