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GREGOIRE, HENRI (1750—1831)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 562 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GREGOIRE, See also:HENRI (1750—1831) , See also:French revolutionist and constitutional See also:bishop of See also:Blois, was See also:born at Who near See also:Luneville, on the 4th of See also:December 1750, the son of a See also:peasant. Educated at the Jesuit See also:college at See also:Nancy, he became cure of Embermenil and a teacher at the Jesuit school at See also:Pont-a-Mousson. In 1783 he was crowned by the See also:academy of Nancy for his Eloge de la poesie, and in 1788 by that of See also:Metz for an Essai sur la regeneration physique et morale See also:des Juifs. He was elected in 1789 by the See also:clergy of the bailliage of Nancy to the states-See also:general, where he soon became conspicuous in the See also:group of clerical and See also:lay deputies of Jansenist or Gallican sympathies who supported the Revolution. He was among the first of the clergy to join the third See also:estate, and contributed largely to the See also:union of the three orders; he presided at the permanent sitting of sixty-two See also:hours while the See also:Bastille was being attacked by the See also:people, and made a vehement speech against the enemies of the nation. He subsequently took a leading See also:share in the abolition of the privileges of the nobles and the See also:Church. Under the new See also:civil constitution of the clergy, to which he was the first See also:priest to take the See also:oath (December 27, 1990), he was elected bishop by two departments. He selected that of .See also:Loire-et-See also:Cher, taking the old See also:title of bishop of Blois, and for ten years (1791—1801) ruled his See also:diocese with exemplary zeal. An ardent republican, it was he who in the first session of the See also:National See also:Convention (See also:September 21, 1792) proposed the See also:motion for the abolition of the kingship, in a speech in which occurred the memorable phrase that " See also:kings are in the moral See also:order what monsters are in the natural." On the 15th of See also:November he delivered a speech in which he demanded that the See also:king should be brought to trial, and immediately afterwards was elected See also:president of the Convention, over which he presided in his episcopal See also:dress. During the trial of See also:Louis XVI., being absent with other three colleagues on a See also:mission for the union of See also:Savoy to See also:France, he along with them wrote a See also:letter urging the condemnation of the king, but omitting the words d mort; and he endeavoured to See also:save the See also:life of the king by proposing in the Convention that the See also:penalty of See also:death should be suspended. When on the 7th of November 1793 See also:Gobel, bishop of See also:Paris, was intimidated into resigning his episcopal See also:office at the See also:bar of the Convention, Gregoire, who was temporarily absent from the sitting, See also:hearing what had happened, hurried to the See also:hall, and in the See also:face of a howling See also:mob of deputies refused to abjure either his See also:religion or his office. He was prepared to face the death which he expected; but his courage, a rare quality at that See also:time, won the See also:day, and the hubbub subsided in cries of " Let Gregoire have his way!

" Throughout the Terror, in spite of attacks in the Convention, in the See also:

press, and on placards posted at the See also:street corners, he appeared in the streets in his episcopal dress and daily read See also:mass in his See also:house. After See also:Robespierre's fall he was the first to See also:advocate the reopening of the churches (speech of December 21,1794). He also exerted himself to get See also:measures put in See also:execution for restraining the vandalistic fury against the monuments of See also:art, extended his See also:protection to artists and men of letters, and devoted much of his See also:attention to the reorganization of the public See also:libraries, the See also:establishment of botanic gardens, and the improvement of technical See also:education. He had taken during the Constituent See also:Assembly a See also:great See also:interest in See also:Negro emancipation; and it was on his motion that men of See also:colour in the French colonies were admitted to the same rights as whites.561 On the establishment of the new constitution, Gregoire was elected to the See also:Council of 500, and after the 18th See also:Brumaire he became a member of the See also:Corps Legislatif, then of the See also:Senate (18o1). He took the See also:lead in the national church See also:councils of 1797 and 18o1; but he was strenuously opposed to See also:Napoleon's policy of reconciliation with the See also:Holy See, and after the See also:signature of the See also:concordat he resigned his bishopric (See also:October 8, 18oi). He was one of the minority of five in the Senate who voted against the See also:proclamation of the See also:empire, and he opposed the creation of the new See also:nobility and the See also:divorce of Napoleon from See also:Josephine; but notwithstanding this he was subsequently created a See also:count of the empire and officer of the See also:Legion of See also:Honour. During the later years of Napoleon's reign he travelled in See also:England and See also:Germany, but in 1814 he had returned to France and was one of the See also:chief instigators of the See also:action that was taken against the empire. To the clerical and ultra-royalist See also:faction which was supreme in the See also:Lower Chamber and in the circles of the See also:court after the second Restoration, Gregoire, as a revolutionist and a schismatic bishop, was an See also:object of See also:double loathing. He was expelled from the See also:Institute and forced into retirement. But even in this See also:period of headlong reaction his See also:influence was See also:felt and feared. In 1814 he had published a See also:work, De la constitution francaise de l'an 1814, in which he commented on the See also:Charter from a Liberal point of view, and this reached its See also:fourth edition in 1819. In this latter See also:year he was elected to the Lower Chamber by the See also:department of See also:Isere.

By the See also:

powers of the Quadruple See also:Alliance this event was regarded as of the most sinister See also:omen, and the question was even raised of a fresh armed intervention in France under the terms of the See also:secret treaty of See also:Aix-la-Chapelle. To prevent such a See also:catastrophe Louis XVIII. decided on a modification of the See also:franchise; the Dessolle See also:ministry resigned; and the first See also:act of See also:Decazes, the new premier, was to carry a See also:vote in the chamber annulling the See also:election of Gregoire. From this time onward the ex-bishop lived in retirement, occupying himself in See also:literary pursuits and in See also:correspondence with most of the eminent savants of See also:Europe; but as he had been deprived of his See also:pension as a senator he was compelled to sell his library to obtain means of support. He died on the loth of May 1831. To the last Gregoire remained a devout See also:Catholic, exactly fulfilling all his obligations as a See also:Christian and a priest; but he refused to budge an See also:inch from his revolutionary principles. During his last illness he confessed to his See also:parish cure, a priest of Jansenist sympathies, and expressed his See also:desire for the last sacraments of the Church. These the See also:archbishop of Paris would only concede on See also:condition that he would retract his oath to the civil constitution of the clergy, which he peremptorily refused to do. Thereupon, in See also:defiance of the archbishop, the See also:abbe Baradere gave him the See also:viaticum, while the rite of extreme See also:unction was administered by the abbe See also:Guillon, an opponent of the civil constitution, without consulting the archbishop or the parish cure. The attitude of the archbishop roused great excitement in Paris, and the See also:government had to take precautions to avoid a repetition of the riots which in the preceding See also:February had led to the sacking of the church of St Germain 1'Auxerrois and the archiepiscopal See also:palace. On the day after his death Gregoire's funeral was celebrated at the church of the Abbaye-aux-Bois; the clergy of the church had absented themselves in obedience to the archbishop's orders, but mass was sung by the abbe Grieu assisted by two clergy, the See also:catafalque being decorated with the episcopal insignia. After the See also:hearse set out from the church the horses were unyoked, and it was dragged by students to the See also:cemetery of Montparnasse, the cortege being followed by a sympathetic See also:crowd of some 20,000 people. Whatever his merits as a writer or as a philanthropist, Gregoire's name lives in See also:history mainly by See also:reason of his whole-hearted effort to prove that Catholic See also:Christianity is not irreconcilable with See also:modern conceptions of See also:political See also:liberty.

In this effort he was defeated, mainly because the Revolution, for lack of experience in the right use of liberty, changed into a military despotism which allied itself with the spiritual despotism of See also:

Rome; partly because, when the Revolution was overthrown, the parties of reaction sought salvation in the " union of See also:altar and See also:throne." Possibly Gregoire's See also:Gallicanism was fundamentally irreconcilable with the Catholic See also:idea of authority. At least it made their traditional religion possible for those many French Catholics who clung passionately to the benefits the Revolution had brought them; and had it prevailed, it might have spared France and the See also:world that fatal gulf between Liberalism and Catholicism which See also:Pius IX.'s See also:Syllabus of 1864 sought to make impassable. Besides several political See also:pamphlets, Gregoire was the author of Histoire des sectes religieuses, depuis le commencement du siecle dernier jusqu'a l'epoque actuelle (2 vols., 181o); Essai historique sur See also:les libertes de l'eglise gallicane (1818) ; De l'influence du Christianisme sur la condition des femmes (1820; Histoire des confesseurs des empereurs, des rois, et d'autres princes (1824); Histoire du mariage des preetres en France (1826). Gregoireana, ou resume general de la conduite, des actions, et des ecrits de M. le See also:comte Henri Gregoire, preceded by a See also:biographical See also:notice by See also:Cousin d'See also:Avalon, was published in 1821; and the Men-wires ... de Gregoire, with a biographical notice by H. See also:Carnot, appeared in 1837 (2 vols.). See also A. Debidour, L'Abbe Gregoire (1881); A. Gazier, Etudes sur l'histoire religieuse de la Revolution Francaise (1883); L. Maggiolo, La See also:Vie et les ceuvres de l' abbe Gregoire (Nancy, 1884), and numerous articles in La Revolution Francaise ; E. Meaume, Etude hist. et biog. sur les Lorrains revolutionnaires (Nancy, 1882); and A. Gazier, Etudes sur l'histoire religieuse de la Revolution Francaise (1887).

End of Article: GREGOIRE, HENRI (1750—1831)

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