nce armed resistance, often systematically prepared, was made to
the authorities, army officers again occasionally refused to carry out
orders, and on March 6, at Boeschepe, a man was killed. It was this
incident which caused the downfall of the Rouvier Cabinet.

It was the policy of M. Briand, entrusted with the application of the
new law, to employ the most conciliatory means face to face with the
Vatican, determined to be persecuted. As a matter of fact the French
bishops, after plenary consultation, had decided by a considerable
majority, to accept the law in a good spirit, with reservations as to
its justice, and to organize the _associations cultuelles_. Suddenly the
Pope intervened by an encyclical directed against any such acceptance,
and prescribed a continuation of the contest. These orders the bishops
felt constrained to obey.

Therefore, at the advent of the Clemenceau Cabinet in October, 1906, M.
Briand had achieved nothing but compulsory inventories. He got
Parliament to allow the legality of the proposed religious organizations
under the Associations Law of 1901 or under the general law of 1881 on
public meetings, as well as under the special legislation of 1905. Again
the Holy See refused to obey, and ordered the clergy to continue their
occupancy of the churches, but to refrain from any legal declaration or
registration whatsoever. Then M. Briand did away with the declaration.
So the contest went on without agreement until it finally lapsed. The
clergy continued to occupy the churches, but without legal claim to
them, under the law of 1881 on public meetings, amended by the law of
March 28, 1907, suppressing the formality of a declaration. The Catholic
Church was stripped, by its own unwillingness to help organize holding
bodies, of all its possessions. By the good-will of the Government it
continued to occupy the religious edifices, but the maintenance and
repair of these was dependent on the good-will of the _commune_ or
administrative division in which the churches were situated. On the
other hand, nothing has materialized of the prophesied religious
persecutions, civil war, and martyrdoms.

Apart from the annoyances caused by the separation of Church and State,
the history of the Clemenceau Ministry deals largely with labor
disturbances and social unrest. This was partly due to parliamentary
demagogy. A succession of weak and ineffective ministries had been
followed by Clemenceau's incoherencies a