ORGANIC ARTICLES. – This name designates the 77 provisions that the French law of 18 Germinal, Year X (= 8 April 1802), ratifying the Concordat concluded on 15 July 1801 between the Holy See and Napoleon, added to the Concordat itself as an integral part thereof. These provisions, almost certainly inspired by Talleyrand and drafted by the celebrated jurist Joseph-Marie de Portalis, were constantly regarded by the Holy See as a violation of the Concordat by the French State, since they had been enacted without agreement with the Holy See itself and were, for the most part, contrary to the doctrine and laws of the Church. The Holy See therefore protested against them repeatedly, either publicly or through diplomatic channels (the first protest was that contained in the allocution delivered by Pius VII at the Consistory of 24 May 1802).
Through the o. a., the French State arrogated to itself extensive power of interference in the internal affairs of the Church, combining the claims arising from the application of the principles of jurisdictionalism and Gallicanism. Among other things, they affirmed the right of placet or exequatur and the appeal ab abusu; they prohibited the holding of particular councils or diocesan synods without government authorization; they abolished the exemption of religious from the jurisdiction of bishops; they prohibited the existence of a large part of the ecclesiastical institutions; they granted metropolitans powers much broader than those established by the Church; and they laid down various provisions concerning the appointment of bishops, their powers, and their relations with metropolitans, seminaries, and parish priests. They likewise regulated preaching (teachers were required first to subscribe to the declaration of the Gallican clergy of 1682, condemned by the Church), the boundaries of dioceses and parishes, and various other matters.
The protests of the Holy See were in vain, because the French government continued nevertheless to apply these provisions, until the law of 9 December 1905, which introduced the separation of Church and State, abrogated, by Article 44, both the Concordat and the o. a.
In fact, Article 3 of the convention concluded between Pius VII and Louis XVIII on 11 July 1817 had already established the abrogation of the o. a.; but this convention was never ratified, owing to France’s subsequent political developments.
The same name, o. a., was given to the decree of the Vice-President of the Italian (Cisalpine) Republic, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, of 26 January 1804, Year III, which contained twelve supplementary a. to the Concordat concluded with the Holy See in Paris on 26 September 1803. These a., likewise clearly inspired by Napoleon, granted the civil authority considerable powers of interference in ecclesiastical matters.