The Church in France 1789-1870www.educationforum.co.uk

The Church in the Ancien Regime

• RC Church an integral part of feudal system• Provided the ‘ideology’ supporting absolute monarchy – the ‘divine

right of Kings’• Employees of the Church – the clergy represented a privileged elite

in Ancien regime system – the First Estate – exempt from tax, not subject to laws of country (Church law and Church courts), exempt from military service

• Church was wealthy owning 15% of all land and collecting 1/10th of everyone's income in church taxes (the tithe)

• Catholicism ran deep in rural France making much of the peasantry supporters of the Church, monarchy and the Ancien Regime system

• The urban population less tied to religion – emerging working class far more likely to be anti church or ant clerical – emerging middle class far more likely to be protestant and/or influenced by Enlightenment idea AND anti the power of RC Church

The Church in the French Revolution• One of the major reforms of the revolution was a series of

measures effectively taking state control of the church called The Civil Constitution of Clergy (1790-1792)

• Under these measures Church remained official religion of France but lost much of its privileges and power

Civil Constitution of Clergy• Church tithe abolished• Monastic orders such as Jesuits not allowed to be involved in

education• Full civil rights for protestants (1789) and Jews (1792)• In place of tithe Church lands confiscated by state and profits

used to pay clergy salaries• Exemption from tax abolished• Clergy to take an oath of allegiance to civil constitution –

many priests refused – major focus point for counter revolutionary forces

Consequences of Civil Constitution• Splits country into supporters of Pope and catholic

independence (monarchists, ultras, aristocrats and catholic peasants) and anti clericalists (republicans, liberals, workers, middle class, protestants and other minorities)

• Big regional differences – general rural-urban division of religious grounds

De-Christianisation During Revolution• By 1794 Robespierre and the Convention in power• Robespierre (heavily influenced by Enlightenment's JJ

Rousseau) tried to replace Catholicism with ‘the worship of Reason’

• Attempted to close churches, remove religious symbols – even Notre Dame turned into a temple of Reason

Consequences of de-Christianisation• Very popular amongst urban revolutionaries – ‘sans cullottes’• Huge backlash against policy from rural peasants• Policy slowed then dropped in face of widespread hostility

The Church under Napoleon I• Emperor Napoleon I reached a religious settlement with the

Pope and the Church called The Concordat of 1801:1.Pope’s role as head of RC Church in France accepted by

government.2.Catholicism recognised as ‘religion of majority’ AND freedom

of worship for Catholics guaranteed.3.Pope and church in return accepted permanent of loss of

church lands during the Revolution.4.Napoleon I retained the right to appoint bishops – which he

used to place supporters in positions.5.Tolerance of Protestants and Jews guaranteed in law.

Significance of Concordat• A compromise which fed the ‘bonapartist legacy’ that the

Bonapartes were ‘friends of Catholicism’ – religion had been under very real threat during the Revolution

Religion and the Bourbons• Catholics were enthusiastic supporters of the Restoration• 1815 settlement saw a revival of Catholicism across Europe as

absolutism was restored by Vienna Settlement• Bourbons claims to legitimacy based on religion• Restored to role in education and as the religion of France –

Jesuits return

Louis and Charles• Louis 16th more cautious but couldn’t contain the religious zeal

of the ‘ultras’ either during the White Terror or at the end of his reign

• Charles X with his feudal style coronation, belief in the ‘royal touch’ and Law of Sacrilege shatters the uneasy compromise in society set up by Napoleon – angers liberals, protestants, middle class and working class

• Religion a MAJOR factor in the downfall of Charles X

The Church and Louis Philippe• LP a deliberate attempt to steer a compromise between

Catholics and anti clericalism• Law of Sacrilege repealed and RC Church only to be ‘the

religion of the majority’- minority religious freedoms guaranteed

• LP NEVER popular with Catholics or legitimists or for that matter peasantry – seen as an ‘urban bourgeois’

• From 1832 LP adopted a policy of ‘appeasement’ towards Catholics granting them some concessions over church appointments – backfires – stokes up legitimist opposition culminating in an attempted coup by Duc de Berri 1832

• However LP regime always lacked support of RC Church (a reason for its fall?) – popular instead amongst protestants and sceptics (always the minority)

The Church and Education under Louis Philippe‘Church and education… the twin pillars of ruling elite hegemony’ (Magraw)Guizot’s 1833 Education Act unpopular with Catholics. A primary school in every village and a teacher training college in every department established by Guizot – new ‘bourgeois’ values of thrift and sobriety taught. Guizot believed education and the teaching of ‘moral values’ could calm social unrest. RC Church remained important BUT Guizot’s reform the start of much greater role for the State.Literacy up from 47-60% under LPGuizot also angered Catholics ny insisting catholic schools be inspected by the State

The Church and Napoleon III• Church and clergy fervent supporters of Louis Napoleon in

Presidential election campaign 1848 and first to approve of the later Coup D’Etat

WHY? Napoleon seen as better alternative to ‘godless socialism’/ a restoration of the Bourbons not practical/ Bonapartist legacy won support from peasants –seen as ‘church friendly’

The Church and Napoleon III• RC Church (and Napoleon’s catholic wife) also heavily

influenced foreign policy in Mexican adventure