Civil Constitution of the Clergy

A commemorative plate from 1790 shows a curé swearing to the Constitution.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (French: Constitution civile du clergé) was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that sought the complete control over the Catholic Church in France by the French government.[1] As a result, a schism was created, resulting in an illegal and underground French Catholic Church loyal to the Papacy, and a "constitutional church" that was subservient to the State. The schism was not fully resolved until 1801. King Louis XVI ultimately granted Royal Assent to the measure after originally opposing it, but later expressed regret for having done so.

Earlier legislation had already arranged the confiscation of the Catholic Church's land holdings and banned monastic vows. This new law completed the destruction of the monastic orders, outlawing "all regular and secular chapters for either sex, abbacies and priorships, both regular and in commendam, for either sex". It also sought to settle the chaos caused by the earlier confiscation of Church lands and the abolition of tithes.[2] Additionally, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy regulated the current dioceses so that they could become more uniform and aligned with the administrative districts that had recently been created.[3][page needed] It emphasised that officials of the Church could not give their loyalty to anyone outside the First French Republic, specifically meaning the Papacy.[3][page needed] Lastly, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy made bishops and priests elected.[3][page needed] By having members of the clergy elected, those clergy within who accepted the State's terms lost their independence and were now subject to the State, since their parishioners would vote on the priest and bishops as opposed to these individuals being appointed by the Church hierarchy.[3][page needed]

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed and some of the support for this came from figures that were within the Church, such as the priest and parliamentarian Pierre Claude François Daunou, and, above all, the revolutionary priest Henri Grégoire, who was the first French Catholic priest to take the Obligatory Oath. However, almost all bishops opposed the law and refused to take the loyalty oath it required. Over half of lower clergy also refused.

The law was extremely divisive and proved to be a turning point in the French Revolution. Historian Hilaire Belloc described it as a failure that "lit the civil war" that would occur in the following years.[4]

  1. ^ Popkin, Jeremy D. (2010). A short history of the French Revolution. Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0205693573. OCLC 780111354.
  2. ^ Text of the Legislation From J.H. Robinson, ed., The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, 12 July 1790, Readings in European History, 2 vols. Boston: Ginn, 1906. Vol 2: pp. 423–427.
  3. ^ a b c d Carnes, Mark C.; Kates, Gary (2015). Rousseau, Burke, and revolution in France, 1791. W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0393938883. OCLC 908192433.
  4. ^ Belloc, Hilaire. "The French Revolution". p. 239.