Religion and politics the Saint-Napoleon festivity 1852-70: anti-clericalism, local patriotism and modernity *.

ON 15 August 1865, like every town and village in France, the commune of Leers (Nord) prepared itself for what had become a familiar joint celebration: the commemoration of the national festivity, the Saint-Napoleon, together with the Catholic festivity of the Assumption, in honour of the Virgin Mary. Everything seemed in place for the traditional religious ceremony of the morning. The civic procession, to be led by the mayor of Leers and including a variety of local associations, had arranged to convene in front of the municipality, and to stride out from there to the nearby church.

But Abbe Dubray, the cure of Leers, shared little of this civic enthusiasm for the celebration of France's national festivity. For him, this day marked the Catholic festivity of the Assumption; 'the other fete', as he put it dismissively, was an unnecessary distraction. A week earlier, his parishioners had received an intimation of this attitude when his sermon referred to the celebration of 15 August as a purely religious festivity; he pointedly made no mention of any special ceremony or prayer in honour of Napoleon III. Furthermore, on the eve of the festivity, Dubray went to the municipality to inform the mayor that the Musical Society would not be allowed into the church: 'we have our own music' he said laconically.

Things got worse on the day itself. Breaking with established custom, the church bells did not ring, either at dawn or at the time of the morning mass. When the civic procession arrived in front of the church (without the unfortunate musicians) there was no one to greet them. As they entered, it became immediately clear that there had been no preparations for their arrival; there were no reserved seats for the municipal authorities. Indeed the religious ceremony itself was almost over by the time the mayor and his colleagues appeared; the priest was singing the final verses of the Te Deum as the hapless local notables scrambled around trying to find a place. No mention was made of the Emperor in the prayers. Even so, when they heard their priest begin the sacred chant, and thinking that they were doing the right thing, the church attendants began to ring the bells to honour the ruler of France. The Abbe Dubray immediately ordered them to stop; local rumour had it that he later dismissed them for this overzealous display of Napoleonic patriotism.

Word of this disastrous ceremony at Leers quickly reached Paris. The prefect of the Nord was ordered to investigate its causes, 'with the greatest possible discretion'. One of his subordinates was sent to the area, and he reported back a few weeks later. The official had found a commune bitterly divided between two clans, one religious and the other secular. The envoy laid most of the blame upon the priest, whose 'irascible character' had brought things to a head. The mayor, incensed at having been received in the church 'like a dog in a game of skittles', was demanding the sacking of the priest. The account concluded by noting the striking difference between Leers and the neighbouring commune of Lannoy, where the religious ceremony of 15 August had been officiated with 'good-will, pomp, and solemnity', and all those present had been 'struck with wonder'. (1)

Harmony and entente between ecclesiastical and civil authorities in one commune, savage conflict in another: between 1852 and 1870 this dualism was mirrored across the whole of France during the festivities of the Saint-Napoleon. In some places, the religious dimension of the celebrations brought communities together; in others, they served to highlight underlying conflicts between secular and religious camps. We shall explore the nature of these battles, and attempt to ascertain what they tell us about the State, the Church, and the Kulturkampf between the religious and secular worlds in nineteenth-century France.

An essentially untranslatable expression well sums up the typical French republican view of the sort of conflict which ocurred in Leers in 1865: a 'querelle de clocher'. Reflecting the positivistic contempt for such manifestations of primitive social behaviour, Littre's Dictionnaire defined such conflicts as 'petty local, village jealousies, or from one small town to another; they are of no general interest'. (2)

But the religious dimensions of the national celebrations, and the conflicts to which they gave rise, take us well beyond these manifestations of local insularity. In the first instance, they bring back into historical focus the Bonapartist fete du 15 aout, 'the first successful attempt at a national festivity in France before 14 July'. (3) In the literature on civic festivities the importance of this event, which was celebrated throughout France under the Second Empire, is now increasingly recognized. However, there is still a tendency to view these celebrations through the consensual prism of the aspirations of the Bonapartist elites (and from a Parisian vantage point), thus undervaluing the substantially different dynamics to which they often gave rise in provincial (and especially rural) France. Rosemonde Sanson's account of the festivities thus emphasizes their successful stage-managing by the authorities, and the strict subordination of the clergy. (4) Similarly, Matthew Truesdell's analysis stresses the harmony between State and Church during the national celebrations, arguing that incidents opposing local officials and the clergy were 'rare'. (5) Our evidence, gathered from national and departmental archives, will show otherwise: religion was not only a source of harmony, but also of conflict at the local level. (6) Beyond the dynamics of this specific clash, we shall also find echoes here of a much wider phenomenon: the repeated difficulties encountered by all modern French regimes after 1800--whether Napoleonic, Bourbon, Orleanist, Bonapartist, or republican--in establishing a successful 'civil religion'. (7)