ABSTRACT
No single area of Napoleonic statecraft has generated livelier or more enduring disagreement than that of religious affairs. Part of the problem is that the several lines of policy pursued by the government, though each was clear enough in itself, were never perfectly coordinated. Bonaparte did not destroy the gains made by Protestants and Jews during the Revolution, so far as civil equality and freedom of worship were concerned. Everywhere, however, the familiar pattern of state supervision was in evidence. Each Calvinist synod or Lutheran general consistory met under the eyes of a prefect or his representative. Rabbis, unlike ministers, were not considered salaried public functionaries; but all the Jews of a given district were taxed to pay their clergy. Every local synagogue and regional Jewish consistory was administered with the participation of wealthy laymen selected from the proper list of notables. Non-Catholics were, in short, both protected and brigaded by the irreligious general who was their ruler.
