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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
WHEN THE BISHOPS of the French Church were confronted with the final form of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790 they presented an almost united front of opposition to the new order. Their ideological and social solidarity remained substantially intact in the protracted exile which, with the victory of the revolutionary party, was the almost inevitable consequence of their shared refusal. This was nowhere more apparent than in London where the largest single concentration of exiled bishops gathered. But, given the general concord, there was a subtle variety of response, a continuation of the debate leading up to the Civil Constitution in which many of the bishops had taken part, to the events beginning with the Civil Constitution and ending with the Napoleonic Concordat, which throws some light on the attitudes of these men to their office of bishop. This paper focuses attention on four of the London bishops: La Marche, Dillon, Thémines and Boisgelin; and suggests, from their example, four possible views of, or approaches to, the episcopate.
1 For the ideological and social solidarity of the bishops see McManners, J. ‘Aristocratic Vocations: the Bishops of France in the Eighteenth Century’, Studies in Church History, 15 (Oxford, 1978) pp. 305–325,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Ravitch, N. ‘The Social Origins of French and English Bishops in the Eighteenth Century’, The Historical Journal, 8 (Cambridge, 1965) pp. 309–325.Google Scholar
2 The London bishops and their meetings are discussed by Plongeron, B. Conscience Réligieuse en Revolution (Paris, 1969), especially pp. 225–8.Google Scholar
3 Jean-Francois de la Marche (1729– 1806), Bishop of Saint Pol de Léon, 1772. Life by Kerbiriou, L. Jean-Francois de La Marche (Quimper, 1924).Google Scholar
4 See Bellenger, D. T. J. ‘The French Exiled Clergy and the English Catholics’, Recusant History, 15 pp. 433–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 For example in the Archives of the Archbishop of Westminster (Bishop Douglass’ Papers, VIII. Correspondence with Foreign Bishops, A: The Bishop of Saint Pol de Léon); Bishop of Clifton (Western Vicar Apostolic's Letter Books, 1791, 1792–1793, 1796–1797, 1800) and Bishop of Leeds (Bishop Gibson’s Papers, 1799, 1800, and 1801).
6 The portrait is used by F. X. Plasse as the frontispiece of the first volume of Le Clergé Français Réfugié en Angleterre (Paris, 1886).
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10 Arthur-Richard Dillon (1721–1806), Bishop of Evreux, 1753. Archbishop of Toulouse, 1758. Archbishop of Narbonne, 1763. There is an apologetic biography, Sabarthes, A. Arthur-Richard Dillon, Dernier Archevêque de Narbonne (Narbonne, 1943). He is a major figure in the Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne (English Edition, 3 vols., London, 1907–1908) and of his niece theGoogle Scholar Comtessede la Tour de Pin (Ed. F. Harcourt, London, 1969).Google Scholar
11 Quotation from Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne, 1, p. 12.
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13 Alexandre François Amedee Adon Anne Louis Joseph de Lauzière de Thémines (1742–1829), Bishop of Blois, 1776. For biographical details see Gallerand, J. Les Cultes sous la Terreur en Loiret-Cher, 1792–1795 (Blois, 1929), especially pp. 33-57.Google Scholar
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17 Jean de Dieu Raimond de Boisgelin de Cucé (1732–1804), Bishop of Lavour, 1765; Archbishop of Aix, 1770; Academician, 1776; Archbishop of Tours, 1802; Cardinal, 1803. There is a life by Lavequery, E. Le Cardinal de Boisgelin, (2 vols., Paris, 1920).Google Scholar
18 de Chateaubriand, F.-R. Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe (Libraire Gamier, Paris, 1953) 2, p. 114.Google Scholar
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20 Plongeron, B. La Vie Quotidienne du Clergé Français au XVIIIe Siècle (Paris, 1974) p. 92,Google Scholar ‘la moyenne d ’âge de I'episcopat Français en 1789 est relativement élevée: près de 60 ans.’