The Great Quarrel

All France continued to experience the mighty shakes of religious quakes (TIME, June 30 et seq.).

Chamber. In the Chamber of Deputies, the Cardinals' manifesto (TIME, Mar. 23) was debated. The assembly became combustible when the Premier said that the policy of withdrawing the French Embassy to the Vatican could be criticised, as it had been by M. Briand (TIME, Feb. 2), but that the Government's policy had nothing to do with religion. He went on logically to denounce the organized Sunday demonstrations against the Government and the lois laiques governing the relations between Church and State. The Assembly exploded when the Premier said :

"Throughout history, the laity has never misunderstood Christianity, while that Christianity was not the Christianity of bankers."

From this time for two hours, with two suspensions, the Chamber was in an uproar. A dozen fist fights ensued between the acrimonious Opposition and the enraged Government Parties. The noise was so appalling that Premier Herriot was twice obliged to leave the tribunal. Ballot boxes were hurled through the air. Peacemakers suffered grievous injuries of a temporary nature. No insult was insulting enough to be hurled at an opponent.

At one period, Deputy de la Ferronnais, Nationalist, was ordered to leave the Chamber. He refused. Chamber President Paul Painleve called in a small detachment of the Garde Republicaine, M. de la Ferronnais stood firm in the minute of silence that stood out like an oasis in a limitless desert. The officer of the Garde began "Au nom de la loi . . ." Mr. Ferronnais thought better of his position, seized the officer's hand in a hearty handshake, walked out of the Chamber.

After much more pandemonium, the Chamber voted confidence. Two motions were taken:

1) The Chamber, affirming its attachment to the principles of laity (secularism) on which the Republic has founded liberty of conscience for its citizens and liberty of religious cults defined by the Declaration of the Rights of Man, resolutely maintains the regime of separation of Church and State, which can alone assure the supremacy of the civil power.

2) Reproving the appeal to violence, which declares as propitious for such an agitation a moment when the country is called upon to face the greatest international and financial difficulties the Chamber puts its confidence in the Government to continue, without weakening, a firm and loyal application of secular law.

Premier. When Premier Edouard Herriot issued his political program last year (TIME, June 30), he probably did not realize the depth and width of the religious quarrel he was engendering. Or did he?

Vatican. He promised that the French Embassy to the Vatican would be withdrawn through a suppression of its credits. As a Socialist, and concomitantly anticlerical, he was bound to oppose having the French State represented at the Holy See. As a statesman, he could see no advantage to France in maintaining apparently insignificant relations with the Pope. As a politician, he had to remember that his parliamentary support was dependent on an effective anti-clerical policy.

Congregations. He also promised as part of his Government's program that the lois legations (religious orders) should be enforced. Premier Poincare has declared that, during his term of office, these laws had not been infringed, but it is undeniable that they have been badly stretched since 1919.

Alsace-Lorraine. Also as part of his ministerial policy, the Premier had promised to bring the two provinces of Alsace and Lorraine under the laws governing France, instead of permitting them to be governed by special laws.

Results. The result of attempting to put into practice these policies was to enflame the whole of Catholic France. Sunday demonstrations became the fixed order of the week and, at some of these parades of protest, blood was shed.

Alsace and Lorraine, swearing their unswerving loyalty to France, but deeply conscious of the religious freedom they enjoyed under Germany, protested vehemently against the suppression of the Vatican Embassy. On their side, they had a solid phalanx of Catholics from the other French provinces. They also objected to the design of the Socialist Government in Paris to stop religious teaching in the schools--a practice which is not permitted in the rest of France; and they naturally insisted upon keeping their religious orders.

Premer Herriot's policy committed him to include the two provinces in the centralized administration of France. It was impossible to have one law for one part of the country and another law for another part. He could not, therefore, allow Alsace and Lorraine the religious freedom which was denied to the rest of France. A far-sighted statesman would not have attempted to rush the country headlong into a religious dispute of the first magnitude; but Premier Herriot's hand was forced; he had either to go down to certain defeat or to pursue his anti-clerical policies.

Issues. Two main issues have sprung from the Government's actions: One is the hostility of Alsace and Lorraine to any kind of interference with their religious liberty. As an Alsatian recently said: "We came back to France to regain our liberties, not to lose them." In the Chamber of Deputies recently, 21 of the 24 Deputies of the two provinces voted against the Government. The second issue is the unified protest of an overwhelming body of French Catholics to the suppression of the Vatican Embassy, which has been obviously used as a pretext for all kinds of religious agitation.

France has not been so shaken by religious discussion for 20 years.