The American Revolution (1775-1783) and the United States Declaration of Independence (1776) greatly influenced the French Revolution (1789-1794). France allied with the United States provided military assistance during the war with the United Kingdom. The military exchanges between the two countries created an ideological exchange of liberalism and republicanism. But after the revolution, the Catholic churches in both countries had a totally different result. So begins a college professor of spirituality, explaining the French Revolution to the Catholic Peace Weekly readers.
Before the French Revolution, Modern France was an absolute monarchical kingdom, as in the Middle Ages. In many countries of Europe, including France, there were three social classes. The first was the priests and monks who accounted for 0.5% of the total population, the second was the nobles (1.5% of the total), and the third the remaining 98%, the citizens. The king was beyond any of the classes. The common people paid the taxes. In France, there was a council composed of representatives of the three divisions of society which existed from the beginning of the 14th century, but not convened until 1614.
Louis XVI, reigning 1774-1792, convened the assembly in June 1789, to resolve the financial problems of the kingdom through taxation adjustments, as the finances of the kingdom worsened. When the priests and nobles, heard they would be taxed they rebelled. Here, too, the commoners complained and rebelled against the methods of the assembly and separated from the main group. They met in a building with a tennis court, where they pledged they would not disperse until they had a constitution. This happened On July 9, 1789, the National Assembly was renamed the National Constituent Assembly and prepared for a constitution. The French Revolution occurred when the citizens of Paris attacked the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy decided to abolish the tithing in August 1789 and in November of that year to nationalize the property belonging to the Catholic Church. In July 1790, they established the Catholic Church as dependent on the French government. Parish boundaries and national administrative boundaries were to be the same, citizens elect clergy, and the state appoints bishops. Pius Pius VI (1775-1799), told the priests to refuse to take the oath of allegiance.
The Vendée was the largest counter-revolutionary uprising of the French Revolution. Provincial residents weren't interested in the Paris-based revolution or its ideas and took up arms against the National Convention. Eventually, the forces supporting the French Catholic Church in and around Vendee in western France opposed the basic laws of the clergy and about 30,000 to 400,000 people died during the rebellion (1793-1801).
Napoleon Bonaparte appears on the stage (1769-1821), the first president of the First Republic of France made a concordat with Pope Pius VII (1800-1823). The French government guarantees that the liturgy of the Catholic Church can be freely and publicly held, while the president appoints bishops and priests who are not opposed to government policies and demanded a pledge of loyalty from the clergy. Also, after the revolution, the property confiscated by the government was not to be resisted. Pope Pius VII approved on July 1801 the Convention for the spiritual benefit of the Church, although many objected to the Convention because of the disadvantages to the Church. Later, Napoleon lost the support of the Catholic Church by occupying the Papal States in 1809. The Catholic Church regained the Papal States in the Wiener Kongress (1814-1815).
Gallicanism advocating the supremacy of the French king was strong. In the 18th century, French Catholic priests who were politically inclined tried to stay close to the French royal family, not only because of the aftermath of Gallicanism but also because of the economic advantages of tax exemption. The French Revolution, which showed displeasure to the French royal family and nobles, was equally disdainful of the Catholic Church, which had close ties with the French royal family.
An aristocratic politician, Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), became the prime minister of Louis XIII (1610-1643). In The Three Musketeers, a historical adventure novel, written in 1844 by Alexandre Dumas, the Cardinal was portrayed as a member of the villains which shows the antipathy the commoners felt for the Catholic Church after the Revolution.
In 1816 the higher clergy pledged unconditional obedience to Pope Pius VII and the writer Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) wrote in 1819 in the book "Du Pape" (On the Pope) in which Ultramontanism was the theme. Fortunately, the French Catholic Church began rebuilding its church and Catholic faith in France from the 1820s.
Externally the French Revolution was the reason for material and spiritual damage to the French Catholic Church— forfeiture of church property and banning liturgy. But internally, the French Revolution brought to the attention of the French Catholic clergy the hard lives of ordinary people and because of their privileges and attachment to earthly power were blind to what was happening in society. Thus, the French Revolution was paradoxically an opportunity to restore spiritual vitality to the French Catholic Church. A deep study of what happened has many lessons for the Church today.
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