bodies, thereby insuring, after a lapse of time for liquidation, the
disappearance of all teaching orders.

These measures against the religious groups were, in spite of outcries
of persecution, after all matters of internal administration. But,
meanwhile, causes for direct dissension with the Vatican had arisen over
questions involving the _Concordat_ regulating the relations of Church
and State.

The first dispute was about the method of appointing bishops. The
Concordat gave to the Government the right of appointing bishops,
subject to the papal ratification of the appointee's moral and
theological qualifications. During the Third Republic the habit had
grown up of mutual consultation before appointments were made, a
practice which led the Vatican to assume that its initial influence was
as great as that of the Government, and finally to make use of the
formula _nobis nominavit_, or _nominaverit_, as though the Government
merely proposed a candidate subject to the Vatican's free right to
accept or to reject. The keen-scented Combes took an early opportunity
to raise this issue by making certain appointments to bishoprics
without previously consulting the Vatican. In the midst of the
discussions Leo XIII died in July, 1903, and was succeeded by Pius X,
whose character was utterly different from that of his predecessor. His
primitive faith saw in France the home of heretics like the Modernist,
the Abbe Loisy; and his Secretary of State, the ultramontane Cardinal
Merry del Val, was as hostile to France, as his predecessor Cardinal
Rampolla had, on the whole, been well disposed to the "eldest daughter
of the Church." Between Merry del Val and Combes no agreement was
possible. So matters went from bad to worse.

In the autumn of 1903 the King of Italy made a visit to France, and in
1904 it was deemed advisable to have President Loubet return this visit
to emphasize the new cordiality between France and Italy, the settlement
of long-standing difficulties, and to cultivate as much as possible one
member of the Triple Alliance. The Pope protested violently against this
visit to his enemy in Rome and made it clear that he would refuse to see
Loubet. The diplomatic crisis became acute and the French Ambassador to
the Vatican was recalled.

Soon came a complete rupture over the treatment by the pontifical
authorities of two French bishops, Geay of Laval and Le Nordez of Dijon.
They had shown themselves loyal Republicans a