In August 1789, the state cancelled the taxing power of the Church. The issue of Church property became central to the policies of the revolutionary government. Declaring that all Church property in France belonged to the nation, confiscations were ordered, and Church properties were sold at public auction. In July 1790 the
National Constituent Assembly published the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy that stripped clerics of their special rights—the clergy were to be made employees of the state, elected by their parish or bishopric, and the number of bishoprics was to be reduced—and required all priests and bishops to swear an oath of fidelity to the new order or face dismissal, deportation or death. French priests had to receive papal approval to sign such an oath, and
Pope Pius VI spent almost eight months deliberating on the issue. On 13 April 1791, Pius denounced the constitution, resulting in a split in the
French Catholic Church. Over 50% became
abjuring priests ("jurors"), also known as "
constitutional clergy", and nonjuring priests as "refractory clergy".. In September 1792, the
Legislative Assembly legalized divorce, contrary to Catholic doctrine. At the same time, the state took control of the birth, death, and marriage registers away from the Church. An ever-increasing view that the Church was a counter-revolutionary force exacerbated the social and economic grievances, and violence erupted in towns and cities across France. In
Paris, over a 48-hour period beginning on 2 September 1792, as the
Legislative Assembly (successor to the National Constituent Assembly) dissolved into chaos, three Church bishops and more than 200 priests were massacred by angry mobs; this constituted part of what would become known as the
September Massacres. Priests were among those drowned in mass executions (
noyades) for treason under the direction of
Jean-Baptiste Carrier; priests and nuns were among the mass executions at
Lyons for
separatism, on the orders of
Joseph Fouché and
Collot d'Herbois. Hundreds more priests were imprisoned and made to suffer in abominable conditions in the port of
Rochefort.
Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793 After the
insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, there was a decisive turn away from the revolution's original principles of religious freedom, and in the late summer of 1793 dechristianization evolved into what Jonathan Israel describes as a "repressive, vandalistic, inquisitorial movement". A major spasm of dechristianization broke out during the autumn with many of the acts of dechristianization in 1793 being motivated by the seizure of Church gold and silver to finance the war effort. In November the
département council of
Indre-et-Loire abolished the word
dimanche (). The
Gregorian calendar, an instrument decreed by
Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, was replaced by the
French Republican calendar which abolished the
sabbath,
saints' days and any references to the Church. The seven-day week became ten days instead. It soon became clear, however, that nine consecutive days of work were too much, and that international relations could not be carried out without reverting to the Gregorian system, which was still in use everywhere outside of France. Consequently, the Gregorian calendar was reimplemented in 1795. Anti-clerical parades were held, and the
Archbishop of Paris,
Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel, was forced to resign his duties and made to replace his
mitre with the red "
Cap of Liberty". Street and place names with any sort of religious connotation were changed, such as the town of
Saint-Tropez, which became Héraclée. Religious holidays were banned and replaced with holidays to celebrate the harvest and other non-religious symbols. Many churches were converted into "temples of reason", in which deistic services were held. Just six weeks before his arrest, on 8 June 1794, the still-powerful Robespierre personally led a vast procession through Paris to the
Tuileries garden in a ceremony to inaugurate the new faith. His
execution occurred shortly afterward, on 28 July 1794.
Concordat of 1801 By early 1795, a return to some form of religion-based faith was beginning to take shape, and a law passed on 21 February 1795 legalized public worship, albeit with strict limitations. The ringing of church bells, religious processions and displays of the Christian cross were still forbidden. As late as 1799, priests were still being imprisoned or deported to penal colonies. Persecution only worsened after the French army led by General
Louis Alexandre Berthier captured Rome in early 1798, declared a new
Roman Republic, and also imprisoned Pope Pius VI, who died in captivity. However, after
Napoleon seized control of the government in late 1799, France entered into year-long negotiations with
Pope Pius VII, resulting in the
Concordat of 1801. This formally ended the dechristianization period and established the rules for a relationship between the Catholic Church and the French state. Victims of the
Reign of Terror totaled somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000. According to one estimate, among those condemned by the
revolutionary tribunals about 8 percent were
aristocrats, 6 percent clergy, 14 percent middle class, and 70 percent were workers or peasants accused of hoarding, evading the draft, desertion, rebellion, and other purported crimes. Of these social groupings, the clergy of the Catholic Church suffered proportionately the greatest loss. Anti-Church laws were passed by the
Legislative Assembly and its successor, the
National Convention, as well as by
département councils throughout the country. The Concordat of 1801 endured for more than a century until it was abrogated by the government of the
Third Republic, which established a policy of
laïcité on 11 December 1905. ==Toll on the Church==