Priests of the French Revolution
Title | Priests of the French Revolution PDF eBook |
Author | Joseph F. Byrnes |
Publisher | Penn State Press |
Pages | 342 |
Release | 2015-02-05 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0271064900 |
The 115,000 priests on French territory in 1789 belonged to an evolving tradition of priesthood. The challenge of making sense of the Christian tradition can be formidable in any era, but this was especially true for those priests required at the very beginning of 1791 to take an oath of loyalty to the new government—and thereby accept the religious reforms promoted in a new Civil Constitution of the Clergy. More than half did so at the beginning, and those who were subsequently consecrated bishops became the new official hierarchy of France. In Priests of the French Revolution, Joseph Byrnes shows how these priests and bishops who embraced the Revolution creatively followed or destructively rejected traditional versions of priestly ministry. Their writings, public testimony, and recorded private confidences furnish the story of a national Catholic church. This is a history of the religious attitudes and psychological experiences underpinning the behavior of representative bishops and priests. Byrnes plays individual ideologies against group action, and religious teachings against political action, to produce a balanced story of saints and renegades within a Catholic tradition.
Two Rebel-priests of the French Revolution
Title | Two Rebel-priests of the French Revolution PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | 124 |
Release | 1975 |
Genre | History |
ISBN |
The History of the Clergy During the French Revolution
Title | The History of the Clergy During the French Revolution PDF eBook |
Author | abbé Barruel |
Publisher | |
Pages | 432 |
Release | 1794 |
Genre | Clergy |
ISBN |
Christianity and the French Revolution
Title | Christianity and the French Revolution PDF eBook |
Author | François-Alphonse Aulard |
Publisher | |
Pages | 168 |
Release | 1927 |
Genre | History |
ISBN |
The French Revolution and the Church
Title | The French Revolution and the Church PDF eBook |
Author | John McManners |
Publisher | Church Historical Society |
Pages | 188 |
Release | 1969 |
Genre | History |
ISBN |
A history of the Church during the French Revolution and its impact on the course of world history. The understanding of what happened to the Church during this period is seen as a distinct aid to one's understanding of the Revolution itself.
Unnatural Frenchmen
Title | Unnatural Frenchmen PDF eBook |
Author | E. Claire Cage |
Publisher | University of Virginia Press |
Pages | 262 |
Release | 2015-07-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0813937132 |
In Enlightenment and revolutionary France, new and pressing arguments emerged in the long debate over clerical celibacy. Appeals for the abolition of celibacy were couched primarily in the language of nature, social utility, and the patrie. The attack only intensified after the legalization of priestly marriage during the Revolution, as marriage and procreation were considered patriotic duties. Some radical revolutionaries who saw celibacy as a crime against nature and the nation aggressively promoted clerical marriage by threatening unmarried priests with deportation, imprisonment, and even death. After the Revolution, political and religious authorities responded to the vexing problem of reconciling the existence of several thousand married French priests with the formal reestablishment of Roman Catholicism and clerical celibacy. Unnatural Frenchmen examines how this extremely divisive issue shaped religious politics, the lived experience of French clerics, and gendered citizenship. Drawing on a wide base of printed and archival material, including thousands of letters that married priests wrote to the pope, historian Claire Cage highlights individual as well as ideological struggles. Unnatural Frenchmen provides important insights into how conflicts over priestly celibacy and marriage have shaped the relationship between sexuality, religion, and politics from the age of Enlightenment to today, while simultaneously revealing the story of priestly marriage to be an inherently personal and deeply human one.
Religion and Revolution in France, 1780-1804
Title | Religion and Revolution in France, 1780-1804 PDF eBook |
Author | Nigel Aston |
Publisher | CUA Press |
Pages | 452 |
Release | 2000 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780813209777 |
While the French Revolution has been much discussed and studied, its impact on religious life in France is rather neglected. Yet, during this brief period, religion underwent great changes that affected everyone: clergy and laypeople, men and women, Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. The 'Reigns of Terror' of the Revolution drove the Church underground, permanently altering the relationship between Church and State. In this book, Nigel Aston offers a readable guide to these tumultuous events. While the structures and beliefs of the Catholic Church are central, it does not neglect minority groups like Protestants and Jews. Among other features, the book discusses the Constitutional Church, the end of state support for Catholicism, the 'Dechristianization' campaign and the Concordat of 1801-2. Key themes discussed include the capacity of all the Churches for survival and adaptation, the role of religion in determining political allegiances during the Revolution, and the turbulence of Church-State relations. In this masterly study, based on the latest evidence, Aston sheds new light on a dynamic period in European history and its impact on the next 200 years of religious life in France.