ORGANIC ARTICLES. — This name designates the 77 provisions which the French law of 18 Germinal, Year X (= 8 Apr. 1802), ratifying the Concordat concluded on 15 July 1801 between the Holy See and Napoleon, added to the Concordat itself as an integral part. These provisions, almost certainly inspired by Talleyrand and drafted by the renowned jurist Joseph-Marie de Portalis, were consistently regarded by the Holy See as a violation of the Concordat by the French State, having been issued without agreement with the Holy See and being largely contrary to Church doctrine and laws; for this reason, the Holy See publicly or through diplomatic channels protested against them on several occasions (the first protest being that contained in the blunt allocution delivered by Pius VII in the Consistory of 24 May 1802).
Through the Organ. Art., the French State arrogated to itself an intense power of interference in the internal affairs of the Church, combining the claims deriving from the application of the principles of jurisdictionalism and Gallicanism. Among other things, they affirm the right of placet or exequatur and the appeal *ab abusu*; they prohibit the holding of particular councils or diocesan synods without government authorization; they abolish the exemption of religious from the jurisdiction of bishops; they prohibit the existence of most ecclesiastical institutions; they grant metropolitans powers far broader than those established by the Church; they issue various provisions regarding the appointment of bishops, their powers, and their relations with metropolitans, seminaries, and parish priests; likewise concerning preaching (teachers are required to subscribe in advance to the declaration of the Gallican clergy of 1682, condemned by the Church), the circumscription of dioceses and parishes, and various other matters.
The protests of the Holy See were in vain, for the French government continued to apply these provisions until the law of 9 Dec. 1905, which introduced the separation of Church and State, repealed, in Article 44, both the Concordat and the Organ. Art. Indeed, already in Article 3 of the convention concluded between Pius VII and Louis XVIII on 11 July 1817, the repeal of the Organ. Art. had been established; but this convention was never ratified, due to subsequent political events in France.
The same name of Organ. Art. was given to the decree of the Vice-President of the Italian Republic (Cisalpine) Francesco Melzi d’Eril, of 26 Jan. 1804, Year III, which contained twelve supplementary articles to the Concordat concluded with the Holy See in Paris on 26 Sept. 1803. These articles, clearly inspired by Napoleonic aspirations, likewise attributed considerable civil authority in ecclesiastical matters.