Embedded Files
French Civil Code, 1804
After four years of debate and planning, French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte enacts a new legal framework for France, known as the “Napoleonic Code.” The civil code gave post-revolutionary France its first coherent set of laws concerning property, colonial affairs, the family, and individual rights.
In 1800, General Napoleon Bonaparte, as the new dictator of France, began the arduous task of revising France’s outdated and muddled legal system. He established a special commission, led by J.J. Cambaceres, which met more than 80 times to discuss the revolutionary legal revisions, and Napoleon presided over nearly half of these sessions. In March 1804, the Napoleonic Code was finally approved.
It codified several branches of law, including commercial and criminal law, and divided civil law into categories of property and family. Though not officially a part of the Code Napoleon, this agreement with the Catholic Church and the pope plays a critical role in redefining Napoleon's France.
Article 6. Before assuming their functions, the bishops will take directly at the hands of the First Consul, the oath of loyalty used before the change of government, expressed in the following terms :
I swear and promise before God, on the Holy Scriptures, to observe obedience and loyalty to the Government established by the Constitution of the French Republic. I also promise to have no dealings, to attend no council, to converse with no group, whether within or without, which would be contrary to the public peace; and if, in my diocese or elsewhere, I learn that something is being plotted to the detriment of the State, I will make it known to the Government.
Article 7. Ecclesiastics [priests] of the second rank will take the same oath at the hands of the civil authorities designated by the Government.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse