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In 1800, General Napoleon Bonaparte, as the new dictator of France, began the arduous task of revising France’s outdated and muddled legal system.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 8. A prayer in the following form will be repeated at the end of divine office in all Catholic churches in France :
Domine, salvam fac Rempublicam; [God save the Republic.]
Domine, salvos fac Consules. [God save the Consuls.]
Article 10. The bishops will make nominations for the parish. Their choice will be limited to those persons agreeable to the Government.
Article 11. Bishops will be permitted to have a chapter in their cathedral and a seminary for their diocese, without the Government being obliged to endow [pay for] them.