by the Pope to cease writing. Archbishop Gouthe-Soulard came to their defense, and criticized the Pope for cutting off the index finger of his own right hand. Waldeck-Rousseau then struck against the Archbishop, sending each of the six bishops a notice on 30 January that their defiance of the law was unacceptable, and informing them that their payments from the Caisses du Trésor were suspended. Gouthe-Soulard died on 9 September 1900, mooting any additional actions against him. The hostile anti-republicanism of the Catholic right, however, continued to fuel anticlericalism. In 1904, two French bishops, Pierre Geay of Laval and Albert Le Nordez of Dijon, dared to announce that they were republicans, and they urged a reconciliation with the French Republic. They were ordered by Pope Pius X to resign (Le Nordez had been denounced as a freemason), and the French Chamber of Deputies replied by voting to sever diplomatic relations with the Vatican. Similarly, in 1904, as part of the liquidation of the Salesian Fathers in France, who did not have the status of an authorized congregation according to the law of 1 July 1901, the archbishop of Aix, François-Joseph Bonnefoy, had to appear in a court in Marseille to be granted title to the domaine de Saint-Pierre-de-Canon, which had been given the Salesians as a legacy; otherwise the property would have been confiscated by the State. The high point came in 1905, with the Law on the Separation of the Churches and the State. This meant, among other things, the end of financial support of any religious group on the part of the French government and all of its subdivisions. An inventory was ordered of all places of worship that had received subsidies from the State, and all property not legally subject to a pious foundation was to be confiscated to the State. That was a violation of the Concordat of 1801. In addition the State demanded repayment of all loans and subsidies given the Churches during the term of the Concordat. On 11 February 1906, Pope Pius X responded with the encyclical Vehementer Nos, which condemned the Law of 1905 as a unilateral abrogation of the Concordat. He wrote, "That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error." Diplomatic relations were broken, and did not resume until 1921. Bishops and Archbishops To 1000 45? : Maximinus of Aix 80?