In this way
the Catholic Church in France became a branch of the lay government
much more completely than it had been in the time of Louis XIV. So
advantageous did the arrangement appear that the Concordat of 1801
continued to regulate the relations of church and state until 1905.
[Sidenote: Judicial Reforms]
[Sidenote: The Code Napoleon]
One of the fondest hopes cherished by enlightened liberals was to clear
away the confusion and discrepancies of the numerous legal systems of
the old regime and to reduce the laws of the land to a simple and
uniform code, so that every person judicial who could read would be
able to know what was legal and what was illegal. The constitution of
1791 had promised such a work; the National Convention had actually
begun it; but the preoccupations of the leading revolutionaries,
combined with the natural caution and slowness of the lawyers to whom
the task was intrusted, delayed its completion. It was not until the
commanding personality of Bonaparte came into contact with it that real
progress was made.
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