The ecclesiastical ground is thus cleared through the interposition of the Pope. The three groups of authorities thereon which contend with each other for the possession of consciences[5129]--the refugee bishops in England, the apostolic vicars, and the constitutional clergy-- disappear, and now the cleared ground can be built on. "The Catholic religion being declared[5130] that of the majority of the French people, its services must now be regulated. The First Consul nominates fifty bishops whom the Pope consecrates. These appoint the curés, and the state pays their salaries. The latter may be sworn, while the priests who do not submit are sent out of the country. Those who preach against the government are handed over to their superiors for punishment. The Pope confirms the sale of clerical possessions; he consecrates the Republic." The faithful no longer regard it askance. They feel that they are not only tolerated, but protected by it, and they are grateful.[5131] The people recover their churches, their curés, the forms of worship to which they are almost instinctively accustomed, the ceremonial which, to their imagination, belongs to every important act of their lives, the solemn rites of marriage, baptism, burial, and other sacramental offices.--Henceforth mass is said every Sunday in each village, and the peasants enjoy their processions on Corpus-Christi day, when their crops are blessed. A great public want is satisfied. Discontent subsides, ill-will dies out, the government has fewer enemies; its enemies, again, lose their best weapon, and, at the same time, it acquires an admirable one, the right of appointing bishops and of sanctioning the curés. By virtue of the Concordat and by order of the Pope, not only, in 1801, do all former spiritual authorities cease to exist, but again, after 1801, all new titularies, with the Pope's assent, chosen, accepted, managed, disciplined,[5132] and paid by the First Consul, are, in fact, his creatures, and become his functionaries. IV. The Pope, Napoleon's employee. Other services expected of the Pope.--Coronation of Napoleon at Notre-Dame.--Napoleonic theory of the Empire and the Holy See.--The Pope a feudatory and subject of the Emperor. --The pope installed as a functionary at Paris, and arch-chancellor on spiritual matters.--Effect of this for Italy.