As a logical result of the Papal Encyelical, the French
Bishops are taking extreme measures to prevent the formation of the Associations cultuelles. Warnings have been issued in many dioceses, and in particular the Bishop of Cotitances threatens any one participating, in the movement with the terrible penalty of excommuitication. According to the Paris correspondent of the Times, this action of the, Bishops is likely to recoil on themselves. On the one hand, it is not likely, as M. Briand has remarked, that the Frenclipeasant-will remain blind to the fact that what the Pope and Bishops are endeavouring to do is to exclude him from a share in, the management of the affairs of a Church which they call upon him to support,—a view which is endorsed even by those politicians who 'neither approved of the separation of Church and. State, nor of the general Anti-Clerical policy !of the Republican Party. On the other hand, the uncompromising attitude of the French Episcopate is only tending to harden the Anti-Clericals in their resolve to-support the new Ministry in resorting to extreme measures against the .recalcitrant Bishops. By simultaneously . ignoring the claims of the faithful, alienating moderate politicians, and exasperating their opponents, the Bishops are thus entering -on a crucial
stage of the conflict with all the odds against them. .
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