Chapter 6: The attempts to establish a constitutional monarchy
Between 1789 and 1791, the National (Constituent) Assembly set about devising a new constitution that would
curb the powers of the monarch and provide, ‘liberty and equality’.
Church reforms
Why did the Assembly try to change the Church?
One of the first ‘victims’ of the Assembly’s desire for change was the Church. The association of the Catholic
Church with the Ancien Régime and the privileges enjoyed by the first estate clergy perhaps made it an obvious
victim of attack. The philosophes and the enlightenment movement in general were often scathing in their
criticisms of Church power, influence on intolerance. In 1782, writer Louis-Sebastien Mercier had complained
that Paris was ‘full of priests and tonsured clerics who serve neither the Church nor the state’, whilst monks
and nuns who devoted themselves to prayer and contemplation were seen as ‘wasters’ who contributed little to
the community. The philosophes also disapproved of binding religious vows which were often taken by those
barely mature enough to understand their full meaning. The Church was seen as: ideological Conservative; rich
as an institution as it owned the second most amount of land (after the Crown); it ensured people followed the
King; people were opposed to it because they were made to pay the tithe tax which was a 10 th of the income and
many were already poor
Some of those who spoke most vehemently in favour of Church reforms in the Assembly were clergymen
themselves. They included men such as Abbé Sieyès, Archbishop Talleyrand and Abbé Gregoire, all of whom
believed that the temporal power of the Church should be removed, thus allowing it to concentrate on spiritual
function, The attack on Church power that featured in 18th century anti-cleric literature and the long-running
issues of the state provided further motives for reform.
The Assembly though did want to reform the Church. They want to get rid of foreign influence and the holding
of an office or multiple offices – but they understand that the Church does provide a kind of moral code for
society so they do not want to be rid of it entirely
There was, however, another reason why Church reform was so attractive to the revolutionaries. At the end of
1789, France was still in a dire financial position. Nothing had been done to solve the problems that had
brought about the Estates-general in the first place and matters had actually gotten worse as peasants refused
to pay their taxes, The wealth of the Church provided a tempting prospect of financial gain. In the excitement of
the August Decrees, the clergy had agreed to give up the tithe and allow the estate to take over Church funding.
Conditions therefore were favourable for the confiscation of the Church’s considerable riches
Religious changes, August 1789-June 1790
A month of important changes, weakening Church power, were made in the early months of the revolution
Pluralism was abolished
They payment of annates was ended
The tithe, the Church tax and the right of the clergy to decide its own taxation in the don gratuit were
abolished
Separate Church assemblies (synods) were abolished
All Church property was nationalised on 2nd November 1789. This was perhaps another bit of
enlightened thinking as the Church had been so important in the Ancien Régime. People now had an
interest in keeping their new land and therefore stopping an absolutist King. The land they buy is
known as the biens nationaux and just under 50% of it goes to the bourgeoisie. The selling of the
Church land also made things more difficult to peasants and overall did not really improve the financial
situation.
Full citizenship was granted to Protestants in December 1789 and in September 1791 to Jewish people
– this possibly signalled the end of caring about religion and the beginning of religious freedom
All religious orders were dissolved, unless they could prove that they were contributing to the
community, for example by providing for the poor or sick or working in education/charity
Apart from weakening secular power of the Church, some of these measures provided the Assembly with a way
of relieving the state of the burden of debt. From February 1790, the state began to sell of monastic wealth and
, property and from June it sold Church land and possessions. This became the main means by which the new
government was able to keep the economy of the revolutionary state afloat.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
State control of the Church’s income demanded some Church reorganisation, and this was accomplished in the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 12th July 1790. This decree stipulated the following:
The administrative structure of the Church was reorganised; boundaries of dioceses were redrawn to
correspond with the administrative divisions of the state and every départment was to have a bishop –
this created 83 bishoprics, replacing the old 135
Clergymen would become paid state officials; a new salary structure would be put int force and clergy
would be required to reside in their dioceses.
Bishops and priests (all of the clergy) were to be elected; this would give French ‘citizens’ control
over their spiritual (as well as political) leaders. Catholics believed that the clergy are called to their
position and election therefore goes against this; it also ends up with lots of popular clergy. The Pope
would lose his ability to oppose clergy and most clergy oppose this idea.
The Civil Constitution effectively made the Church subservient to the state (effectively nationalising the
Church). Papal power to confirm (accept/reject) bishops was also outlawed. The Pope was in no position to
object to any of this since he was engaged in some rather delicate negotiations with the French state about his
Papal enclave at Avignon and he did not want to jeopardise his chances of retaining this territory. Nevertheless,
he gave no support to the Civil Constitution and some of the more conservative clerics in the Assembly, as well
as the higher-ranking clergy within France, were highly critical of the measure.
The Assembly dismissed a proposal by French bishops and clergy to hold a National Synod (meeting of the
French Church), to discuss the matter, on the grounds that synods had been abolished. In December 1790 a
reluctant Louis XVI was forced to accept the Civil Constitution. Though he was reluctant to accept which
suggested people that he did not truly want to accept the revolution, the changes that had been made and the
move away from the Ancien Régime
The oath to the Civil Constitution, November 1790
Doubts about the Church’s support for the Civil Constitution led the Assembly to decree on 27 th November
1790, that all clergy ‘shall swear… to be faithful to the nation, the law and the King and to maintain all their
power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly’. This split the clergy and was an indicator to the
loyalty to the regime.
Unless clerics were prepared to swear this oath, they were to be deprived of their offices and salaries.
Effectively, the oath way a way of determining which clerics were loyal to the revolution and the results
showed that a large number were not. Of 160 bishops, only 7 were prepared to swear and only around 55% of
the parish clergy (with variation by region), took the oath, although clearly there was greater support at this
level. When the Pope finally declared against the Civil Constitution in March 1791, the Papal Bull “Charitas’ of
April, 1791, even some who had formerly been supportive retracted their oaths. Those who choose not to take
the oath are known as refractory priests or non-jurying
The Pope suspended those who took the oath; the Assembly responded by
- Occupying Avignon and (after a plebiscite) annexing it to France
- Declaring, in November 1791, that all non-jurying or refractory priests were ‘counter-revolutionaries’.
Their income was stopped, and they were forbidden from using religious buildings. From May 1792,
refractory priests could be deported.
Impact of Church reforms
The purpose of the CCC was to draw a line under revolution (or so the property owners hoped) and therefore
things could return to normal. Large numbers of clergy fled abroad – joining the swelling numbers of nobles
who sough refuge from the revolutionary changes in foreign countries. However, it was not just the clerics who
were affected. Those living in the central areas of France around Paris and those on the border with Austria and
the Italian states were most in favour of the Civil Constitution. However, others particularly the more
conservative peasantry in the strongly Catholic parts of France – the west, north and north east and source of
the Massif-Central – were alarmed. They feared, wrongly that the Assembly was trying to change their further
Between 1789 and 1791, the National (Constituent) Assembly set about devising a new constitution that would
curb the powers of the monarch and provide, ‘liberty and equality’.
Church reforms
Why did the Assembly try to change the Church?
One of the first ‘victims’ of the Assembly’s desire for change was the Church. The association of the Catholic
Church with the Ancien Régime and the privileges enjoyed by the first estate clergy perhaps made it an obvious
victim of attack. The philosophes and the enlightenment movement in general were often scathing in their
criticisms of Church power, influence on intolerance. In 1782, writer Louis-Sebastien Mercier had complained
that Paris was ‘full of priests and tonsured clerics who serve neither the Church nor the state’, whilst monks
and nuns who devoted themselves to prayer and contemplation were seen as ‘wasters’ who contributed little to
the community. The philosophes also disapproved of binding religious vows which were often taken by those
barely mature enough to understand their full meaning. The Church was seen as: ideological Conservative; rich
as an institution as it owned the second most amount of land (after the Crown); it ensured people followed the
King; people were opposed to it because they were made to pay the tithe tax which was a 10 th of the income and
many were already poor
Some of those who spoke most vehemently in favour of Church reforms in the Assembly were clergymen
themselves. They included men such as Abbé Sieyès, Archbishop Talleyrand and Abbé Gregoire, all of whom
believed that the temporal power of the Church should be removed, thus allowing it to concentrate on spiritual
function, The attack on Church power that featured in 18th century anti-cleric literature and the long-running
issues of the state provided further motives for reform.
The Assembly though did want to reform the Church. They want to get rid of foreign influence and the holding
of an office or multiple offices – but they understand that the Church does provide a kind of moral code for
society so they do not want to be rid of it entirely
There was, however, another reason why Church reform was so attractive to the revolutionaries. At the end of
1789, France was still in a dire financial position. Nothing had been done to solve the problems that had
brought about the Estates-general in the first place and matters had actually gotten worse as peasants refused
to pay their taxes, The wealth of the Church provided a tempting prospect of financial gain. In the excitement of
the August Decrees, the clergy had agreed to give up the tithe and allow the estate to take over Church funding.
Conditions therefore were favourable for the confiscation of the Church’s considerable riches
Religious changes, August 1789-June 1790
A month of important changes, weakening Church power, were made in the early months of the revolution
Pluralism was abolished
They payment of annates was ended
The tithe, the Church tax and the right of the clergy to decide its own taxation in the don gratuit were
abolished
Separate Church assemblies (synods) were abolished
All Church property was nationalised on 2nd November 1789. This was perhaps another bit of
enlightened thinking as the Church had been so important in the Ancien Régime. People now had an
interest in keeping their new land and therefore stopping an absolutist King. The land they buy is
known as the biens nationaux and just under 50% of it goes to the bourgeoisie. The selling of the
Church land also made things more difficult to peasants and overall did not really improve the financial
situation.
Full citizenship was granted to Protestants in December 1789 and in September 1791 to Jewish people
– this possibly signalled the end of caring about religion and the beginning of religious freedom
All religious orders were dissolved, unless they could prove that they were contributing to the
community, for example by providing for the poor or sick or working in education/charity
Apart from weakening secular power of the Church, some of these measures provided the Assembly with a way
of relieving the state of the burden of debt. From February 1790, the state began to sell of monastic wealth and
, property and from June it sold Church land and possessions. This became the main means by which the new
government was able to keep the economy of the revolutionary state afloat.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
State control of the Church’s income demanded some Church reorganisation, and this was accomplished in the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 12th July 1790. This decree stipulated the following:
The administrative structure of the Church was reorganised; boundaries of dioceses were redrawn to
correspond with the administrative divisions of the state and every départment was to have a bishop –
this created 83 bishoprics, replacing the old 135
Clergymen would become paid state officials; a new salary structure would be put int force and clergy
would be required to reside in their dioceses.
Bishops and priests (all of the clergy) were to be elected; this would give French ‘citizens’ control
over their spiritual (as well as political) leaders. Catholics believed that the clergy are called to their
position and election therefore goes against this; it also ends up with lots of popular clergy. The Pope
would lose his ability to oppose clergy and most clergy oppose this idea.
The Civil Constitution effectively made the Church subservient to the state (effectively nationalising the
Church). Papal power to confirm (accept/reject) bishops was also outlawed. The Pope was in no position to
object to any of this since he was engaged in some rather delicate negotiations with the French state about his
Papal enclave at Avignon and he did not want to jeopardise his chances of retaining this territory. Nevertheless,
he gave no support to the Civil Constitution and some of the more conservative clerics in the Assembly, as well
as the higher-ranking clergy within France, were highly critical of the measure.
The Assembly dismissed a proposal by French bishops and clergy to hold a National Synod (meeting of the
French Church), to discuss the matter, on the grounds that synods had been abolished. In December 1790 a
reluctant Louis XVI was forced to accept the Civil Constitution. Though he was reluctant to accept which
suggested people that he did not truly want to accept the revolution, the changes that had been made and the
move away from the Ancien Régime
The oath to the Civil Constitution, November 1790
Doubts about the Church’s support for the Civil Constitution led the Assembly to decree on 27 th November
1790, that all clergy ‘shall swear… to be faithful to the nation, the law and the King and to maintain all their
power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly’. This split the clergy and was an indicator to the
loyalty to the regime.
Unless clerics were prepared to swear this oath, they were to be deprived of their offices and salaries.
Effectively, the oath way a way of determining which clerics were loyal to the revolution and the results
showed that a large number were not. Of 160 bishops, only 7 were prepared to swear and only around 55% of
the parish clergy (with variation by region), took the oath, although clearly there was greater support at this
level. When the Pope finally declared against the Civil Constitution in March 1791, the Papal Bull “Charitas’ of
April, 1791, even some who had formerly been supportive retracted their oaths. Those who choose not to take
the oath are known as refractory priests or non-jurying
The Pope suspended those who took the oath; the Assembly responded by
- Occupying Avignon and (after a plebiscite) annexing it to France
- Declaring, in November 1791, that all non-jurying or refractory priests were ‘counter-revolutionaries’.
Their income was stopped, and they were forbidden from using religious buildings. From May 1792,
refractory priests could be deported.
Impact of Church reforms
The purpose of the CCC was to draw a line under revolution (or so the property owners hoped) and therefore
things could return to normal. Large numbers of clergy fled abroad – joining the swelling numbers of nobles
who sough refuge from the revolutionary changes in foreign countries. However, it was not just the clerics who
were affected. Those living in the central areas of France around Paris and those on the border with Austria and
the Italian states were most in favour of the Civil Constitution. However, others particularly the more
conservative peasantry in the strongly Catholic parts of France – the west, north and north east and source of
the Massif-Central – were alarmed. They feared, wrongly that the Assembly was trying to change their further
