Constitution passed by the French Constituent assembly in 1790. Its terms stipulated one bishopric per department, thus reducing the number of clergy. The pope lost the right to confirm new bishops. There were now two Catholic Churches in France, those who had sworn loyalty to the Civil Constitution and those who had not. It was condemned by the pope in 1791.
The law of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (Fr. "Constitution civile du clergé"), passed July 12, 1790 during the French Revolution, subordinated the Roman Catholic Church in France to the French government.
It is often incorrectly stated that this law confiscated the Church's French land holdings or banned monastic vows: that had already been accomplished by earlier legislation.
Perhaps surprisingly, some of the support from this came from figures within the Church, such as the priest and parliamentarian Pierre Claude François Daunou, and, above all, the revolutionary priest Henri Grégoire.
Status of the Church in France before the Civil Constitution
Even before the Revolution and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the Catholic Church in France (the Gallican Church) had a status that tended to subordinate the Church to the State. Under the Declaration of the Clergy of France (1682) privileges of the French monarch included the right to assemble church councils in their dominions and to make laws and regulations touching ecclesiastical matters; furthermore, papal authority within France was severely limited by requirements of royal consent, and it was lawful to appeal from the Pope to a future council of the Gallican Church or to have recourse to the "appeal as from an abuse" ("appel comme d'abus") against acts of the ecclesiastical power.
Even prior to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy:
On August 4, 1789, tithes were abolished. On November 2, 1789, Catholic Church property that was held for purposes of church revenue was nationalized, and was used as the backing for the assignats.Thus, the changes brought about in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy were as much at the expense of the monarchy as that of the papacy.
Motivation of the Civil Constitution
The following interlinked factors appear to have been the causes of agitation for the confiscation of church lands Civil Constitution of the Clergy:
The French government in 1790 was nearly bankrupt;Debate over the Civil Constitution
On February 6, 1790, one week before banning monastic vows, the National Constituent Assembly asked its ecclesiastical committee (which was promptly expanded from 15 to 30 members) to prepare the reorganization of the clergy.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy came before the Assembly May 29, 1790.
The Assembly passed the Civil Constitution on July 12, 1790, two days before the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille.
Legal status of the Church in France under the Civil Constitution
As noted above, even prior to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, church property was nationalized and monastic vows were forbidden. Under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy:
There were 83 bishops, one for each Department, rather than the previous 135. electors had to sign a loyalty oath to the constitution.The tone of the Civil Constitution can be gleaned from Title II, Article XXI:
Before the ceremony of consecration begins, the bishop elect shall take a solemn oath, in the presence of the municipal officers, of the people, and of the clergy, to guard with care the faithful of his diocese who are confided to him, to be loyal to the nation, the law, and the king, and to support with all his power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly and accepted by the king.In short, new bishops were required to swear loyalty to the State in far stronger terms than to any religious doctrine.
The law also included some genuine reforms supported even by many within the Church.
Delay in implementation
For some time, Louis XVI delayed signing the Civil Constitution, saying that he needed "official word from Rome" before doing so. On July 28, September 6, and December 16, 1790, Louis XVI wrote letters to Pius VI, complaining that the National Assembly was forcing him to publicly accept the Civil Constitution, and suggesting that Pius VI appease them by accepting a few selected articles too. On July 10, Pius VI wrote to Louis XVI, indicating to the king that the Church could not accept any of the provisions of the Constitution. The Constitution attempted to change the internal government of the Church, and no political regime had the right to unilaterally change the internal structure of the Church. On August 17, Pius VI wrote to Louis XVI of his intent to consult with the cardinals about this, but on October 10 Cardinal Rochefoucauld, the Archbishop of Aix, and 30 of France's 131 bishops sent their negative evaluation of the main points of the Civil Constitution to the pope. On October 30, the same 30 bishops restated their view to the public, signing a document known as the Exposition of Principles ("Exposition des principes sur la constitution civile du clergé"), written by Jean de Dieu-Raymond de Cucé de Boisgelin
On November 27, 1790, still lacking the king's signature on the law of the Civil Constitution, the National Assembly voted to require the clergy to sign an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. On December 26, 1790, Louis XVI finally granted his public assent to the Civil Constitution, allowing the process of administering the oaths to proceed in January and February 1791.
Pope Pius VI's February 23 rejection of Cardinal de Lomenie's position of withholding "mental assent" guaranteed that this would become a schism.
Jurors and non-jurors
As noted above, the government required all clergy to swear an oath of loyalty to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
Most of these refractory priests lived in the countryside, and the Civil Constitution generated considerable resentment among religious peasants.
Meanwhile, the Pope repudiated the "jurors" who had signed the oath, especially bishops who had ordained new, elected clergy, and above all Bishop Louis-Alexandre Expilly de la Poipe.
In May 1791, France recalled its ambassador to the Vatican and the Papal Nuncio was recalled from Paris.
The Constituent Assembly went back and forth on the exact status of non-juring priests. (Loyal Catholics perpetrated similar violence against the "constitutional" priests.) On May 7, 1791, the Assembly reversed itself, deciding that the non-juring priests, referred to as prêtres habitués ("habitual priests") could say Mass and conduct services in other churches on condition that they would respect the laws and not stir up revolt against the Civil Constitution.
Repeal of the Civil Constitution
After Thermidor, the Convention restored freedom of religion (February 21, 1795), but the schism between the civilly constituted French Church and the Papacy was only resolved in 1801, when the Concordat was signed.
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