0:00
In my previous lecture, I outlined some of the issues that remained unresolved in
1790 and 1791, and which were creating tensions between, supporters
of the revolution and those who felt that already its reforms were too radical.
What I want to do today is turn to another of those tensions, one which
was to be a major turning point, and that concerns the reforms to the Church.
0:27
Remember that the National Assembly includes
large numbers, here they are in their
black clerical garb, of clerical deputies to
the Estates-General. Several hundred of them,
the majority of them parish priests, who are very
popular because they were the people who had started
to break ranks with privilege in 1789, and
join with the third estate, or commoner deputies.
There was a great deal of goodwill towards the parish clergy
of France, if not towards the aristocratic elite, of the Church.
When Parisians celebrate the achievements of the first year of the French
Revolution of the Champ de Mars in July 1790, the special music that's written
for that occasion by Francois-Joseph Gossec,
who's the director of the parish opera,
expresses that popular Catholic belief that God
is somehow watching over the French Revolution.
It's in no sense, hostile to the role of the Church:
We praise you, O God.
We confess to you as our Lord.
All the earth worships you as eternal father.
The Cherubim and Seraphim Ceaselessly proclaim You.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of the Glory of Your Majesty.
1:49
But from early on in the Revolution,
even though everybody expects that the Revolution
needs to reform the Church, even the
parish clergy, expect that there will be reform,
from early on in the Revolution, the Assembly takes measures
which begin to concern members of the former first estate.
2:10
First of all, when in November 1789, the National
Assembly resolves the fiscal crisis, the bankruptcy of the monarchy,
by seizing church property by placing it at the
disposal of the nation to be sold off at auction,
many parish clergy as well as the upper clergy of bishops
and archbishops are concerned that the church has lost its property.
2:37
Late in 1789 and early in 1790, when the full extent of the Declaration
of the Rights of Man starts to be played out in terms of religious freedom,
there are many Catholics, both members of the clergy
and parishioners, who are concerned that Protestants and Jews,
at least the Sephardi Jews of the south of
France, have been given equal religious rights to Catholics.
The Ashkenazi Jews of the east of France, by the way,
will have to wait until 1791 before they achieve full equality.
3:13
But its above all the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
which is passed on the 12th of July 1790 which
is to be a major turning point, which is to cause enormous division,
and rancor, and finally, even bloodshed across revolutionary France.
Note the date, this is just two days, before that great
celebration of unity and reform on the Champ de Mars, in Paris.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is the attempt of the National Assembly to
introduce reforms to the Church, which they
argue are purely about civil or secular matters,
they're administrative matters.
4:08
Very few parish priests were bothered that the salaries
of most parish clergy are increased, that the state will
now pay the clergy rather than the clergy extracting
tithes from their parishioners, as the basis of the payment.
They are not concerned either
4:26
that bishops would be paid a great deal
less than they had been under the old regime.
They do become bothered however, when the Assembly decides that there are far too
many churches than are really necessary for the spiritual life of the Church.
And introduces a measure by which only a population of
several thousand is entitled to have a parish priest and
a parish church, that many churches and smaller chapels in
the countryside are to be closed down for reasons of efficiency.
5:31
through the Pope, and the cardinals, and the archbishops, and the bishops,
the choice of the people,
at least active citizens, that were to make about who
would be their parish priests is one that is profoundly divisive.
Because as far as the Church is concerned
and many of the faithful, authority comes from God.
The choice of the parish clergy by the people is seen to be anathema
to a fundamental principle of authority, in the Catholic Church.
6:06
The clergy, if they are to remain as parish clergy,
are to be elected early in the new year in 1791.
And in November 1790 the Assembly decides that
any clergy who are elected have to take
an oath to uphold the constitution to be
faithful to the nation, the king, and the laws.
7:12
Many of those parish priests subsequently retract when, in April 1791, the
Pope declares that the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, indeed
the French Revolution as a whole, is anathema, and that those
priests who have taken the oath are, in effect, guilty of heresy.
They cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
They will be excommunicated from the church.
7:53
This is not, even right across the country.
And you might remember from my first lecture, that I drew a
crucial distinction between the clerical cultures
of Western France, particularly the northwest
and of the Paris basin and of the southeast of France.
And that's the way that the clerical oath played out
as well because, up here in the north west and west,
very few priests are prepared to take the oath,
whereas around Paris and down in the southeast the
vast majority are prepared to do that.
And I explained that, in a previous lecture by
the clerical culture that's so different between the two regions.
That in the west and northwest, villagers
are surrounded by hamlets, and small farms,
where the priests play a crucial
role. Some historians have described their parishes almost
as tiny theocracies, where the parish priest
is the most dominant person in the village.
A man from a prominent local family
who directly collects the tithe, administers charity,
who provides, the fulcrum of the community which comes
together only on Sundays from the surrounding hamlets, and outlying farms,
it is genuinely a community of souls. And when the Parish
priests in areas like this say we cannot accept the Civil
Constitution of the Clergy, it's anathema to the authority of the
Pope, then what is to be the case with their congregations?
Are they likely to see the priests that are elected as, in some sense, intruders?
Very different in the southeast, where the great
mass of the population lives in these concentrated large villages,
where they're not dependent on the local parish priest, for the
community solidarity, for news of the outside world. And where the mass
of the parish clergy are content to see themselves as in some
sense, citizen priests administering to the
spiritual needs of their secular congregations.