Early career Born in
Rennes (
Ille-et-Vilaine), Lanjuinais, after a brilliant college career, which made him
doctor of laws and a qualified
barrister at nineteen, was appointed counsel to the
Breton Estates and, in 1775, professor of
ecclesiastical law in Rennes. At this period he wrote two important works which, owing to the distracted state of public affairs, remained unpublished,
Institutiones juris ecciesiastici and
Praelectiones juris ecclesiastici. He had begun his career at the bar by pleading against the
droit du colombier (feudal monopoly on
dovecotes), and when he was sent by his fellow-citizens to the
Estates-General of 1789 he demanded the
abolition of nobility and the substitution of the
Royal title king of the French and the Navarrese for
king of France and Navarre, and helped to establish the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy. On 7 November 1789, he requested that the ministers not be members of Parliament at the same time. Since the regulation found a majority, he was able to prevent an increase in
Mirabeau's power that sought to take over a ministerial post.
Convention and clandestinity Elected to the
National Convention in September 1792, he developed moderate, even
reactionary views, becoming one of the fiercest opponents of
Montagnards - although he never wavered in his support for the
French Republic. He refused to vote for the death of
Louis XVI, alleging that the nation had no right to despatch a vanquished prisoner. His daily attacks on The Mountain resulted, on 15 April 1793, in a demand by the
Paris Commune for his exclusion from the assembly, but Lanjuinais remained implacable - when the
Parisian populace under
François Hanriot invaded the convention on 2 June, he renewed his defiance of the victorious party. Placed under arrest with the
Girondists, he escaped to Rennes where he drew up a
pamphlet denouncing the
Montagnard Constitution under the curious title
Le Dernier Crime de Lanjuinais ("The Latest Crime of Lanjuinais", Rennes, 1793). Pursued by
Jean-Baptiste Carrier, who was sent to stamp out resistance in the west, he lay hidden until some time after the outbreak of the
Thermidorian Reaction (July 1794), but he was readmitted to the convention on 8 March 1795.
Later career He maintained his
liberal and independent attitude in the
Council of Ancients of the
French Directory, the
Senate of the
Consulate and
First Empire, and the
Chamber of Peers, being president of the upper house during the
Hundred Days. Together with
Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target,
Joseph-Marie Portalis and others he founded under the Empire an academy of legislation in Paris, and lectured on
Roman law. Closely associated with
oriental scholars, and a keen student of oriental religions, he entered the
Académie des Inscriptions in 1808. After the
Bourbon Restoration, Lanjuinais consistently defended the principles of
constitutional monarchy, but most of his time was given to religious and political subjects. He was President of the
Chamber of Representatives from 4 June to 13 July 1815. Comte Lanjuinais died in Paris. ==Works==