III., by Bercastel
et Henrion. The reader will find in these two works an exposition of
the diverse statutes of the Catholic Church in other countries. Each of
these statutes differs from ours in one or several important articles;
the fixed, or even territorial, endowment of the clergy, the nomination
to the episcopate by the chapter, or by the clergy of the diocese, or
by the bishops of the province, public competition for curacies,
irremovability, participation of the chapter in the government of the
diocese, restoration of the officialite; return to the prescriptions of
the Council of Trent (Cf. especially the Concordats between the Holy
See and Prussia, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, the two Hesses, Belgium,
Austria, Spain, and the statutes accepted or established by the Holy See
in Ireland and the United States.)]

[Footnote 5345: The brothers Allignol, "De l'Etat actuel du clerge en
France," p.248. "The mind of the desservant is no longer his own. Let
him beware of any personal sentiment or opinion!... He must cease
being himself and must lose, it may be said, his personality."--Ibid.,
preface, XIX. "Both of us, placed in remotes country parishes,... are
in a position to know the clergy of the second class well, to which, for
twenty years, we belong."]

[Footnote 5346: The principal means of action of the State is the right
of appointing bishops. The Pope, however, installs them; consequently,
the Minister of Worship must have an understanding beforehand with
the nuncio, which obliges it to nominate candidates irreproachable in
doctrine and morals, but it avoids nominating ecclesiastics that are
eminent, enterprising or energetic; once installed and not removable,
they would cause trouble. Such, for example, was M. Pie, bishop
of Poitiers, nominated by M. de Falloux in the time of the
Prince-President, and so annoying during the Empire; in order to keep
him in check, M. Levert, the cleverest and most adroit prefect, had to
be sent to Poitiers; for many years they waged the most desperate war
under proper formalities, each playing against the other the shrewdest
and most disagreeable tricks. Finally, M. Levert, who had lost a
daughter and was denounced from the pulpit, was obliged, on account of
his wife's feelings, to leave the place. (This happened to my own
knowledge, as between 1852 and 1867 I visited Poitiers five times.) At
the present day, the Catholics complain that the government nominates
none but mediocre