1905, even though Combes, for reasons other than clerical, had been forced out of office. And though the pope condemned the law, forbade its acceptance by French Catholics, and excommunicated every deputy who voted for it (there were 341 of them in the Chamber), the French government went ahead with the task of separating Church and state once and for all. Title to all Church property was taken over by the state, priests and bishops were removed from the public payroll,
