For anyone with even the remotest interest in international/ European history, French Revolution is no stranger. Spanning over 10 years from 1789 to 1799, this movement reshaped not only the whole of France, but, indeed, the entire European continent. The revolution was a radical social and political movement which shifted the center of gravity for France from monarchy to freedom of man and recognition of civil rights. Not only did the revolution got rid of feudalism, aristocracy and religious privileges, but also gave European society the concepts of equality, citizenship and inalienable rights, courtesy of a persistent assault from left-wing political groups and their supporting masses on the streets.
Where the revolution got rid of feudalism, absolute monarchy and other ills of that time, it also sized down, considerably, the power and authority of the Roman Catholic Church in France. For centuries, the Church and its clergy enjoyed autonomous power throughout Europe, and even became the cause of quite a few conflicts in history (read: the Holy Crusades). In pre-revolution France, the Catholic Church effectively overruled the state, with the clergy’s authority often surpassing that of the ruling monarch. For instance, under the Ancien Regime, the Church owned about 10% of the entire land in the Kingdom, making it the largest land owner. Then, on its own part, the Church was exempt from paying taxes to the government, but levied a 10% tax on income of its own for general population. Such acts were highly despised by quite a few groups. Then, there was the issue of severe discrimination against Protestants, which caused their entire population to support the demise of Roman Catholic Church in France after the revolution.
It must be noted that the Church’s authority did not evaporate right away – it took a fair bit of time and effort to achieve this. General resentment towards the clergy already prevailed, and when the revolution started, Church’s power started going down the hill with the opening of Estates General in May 1789. The First Estate comprised 130,000 members of the clergy. However, in June 1789, the National Assembly was created, rendering Estates General effectively redundant. The newly-formed National Assembly began enacting socio-economic reforms, and stripped the Church off its ability to impose taxes, and then went on to declare, on Nov. 2, 1789, that the property of the Church was “at the disposal of the nation.” This way, the clergy became part of the state, with state taking ownership rather than being vice versa, as things were pre-revolution. Moving forth, in February 1790, all religious orders were also dissolved, making the Church even weaker in the new state.
The final event in this chain of happenings came in the form of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, passed July 12, 1790. This constitution made all remaining clergymen employees of the state, establishing an electoral system for priests, bishops etc, and setting a state-determined pay rate for them all. This Civil Constitution was met with an uproar from a huge number of Catholics, owing to the fact that it basically lessened the Pope’s authority over French Church. Despite that, in November 1790, National Assembly made it obligatory for clergy to take an oath of loyalty to the Civil Constitution, thus forcing them to openly declare their alliances. This new act, despite the condemnation of Pope Pius VI, saw a nationwide 24% positive response from total clergy at that time.