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was adopted on August 26, 1789, and would soon be considered foundational for modern politics in France. These revolutionary actions ended the Concordat of Bologna from 1516 between King Francis I (1494–1547) and Pope Leo X (1475–1521), known especially for the sale of indulgences to embellish Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The adoption of this early Concordat had introduced a division between high clergy composed of courtesans and a lower clergy which was often poor and lacking in both status and possessions. This Concordat had recognized papal power over national councils where the king was accorded authority to name those to ecclesiastical positions—abbots, bishops, and archbishops.169

The Revolution introduced sweeping changes in France. Religious liberty was proclaimed and activities transferred from the Church to the State (i.e., civil status, marriage). The State introduced legal divorce, abolished religious crimes of blasphemy, heresy, and sorcery, and adopted a revolutionary calendar.170 Despite open revolt against the Church, the French people were not yet ready to exclude God from the life of the nation. Religious references remained in French official documents until the 1946 Constitution of the Fourth Republic (des droits inaliénables et sacrés) and were later excluded from the 1958 Constitution of the Fifth Republic still in effect to our day. Article 10, one of the most oft-cited statements of the 1789 Declaration, recognized the liberty of opinion and declared that no one should be disturbed for their opinions, not even religious ones, as long as their expression did not trouble the public order (Nul ne doit être inquiété pour ses opinions, même religieuses, pourvu que leur manifestation ne trouble pas l’ordre public établi par la Loi).

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy in July 1790 was preceded by other actions against the Church to weaken her position in France. A year earlier, in August 1789, the clergy lost its position as the first of the three orders in France. In November 1789, all the possessions, property, and holdings of the Church became property of the nation. The National Assembly elaborated what would become part of the future Constitution concerning the organization of the Church of France. Priests were required to take an oath of allegiance to the nation, to the king, and to the Constitution. Many clergy refused to obey this law. Their refusal was at the origin of political conflict which led revolutionary France toward a civil war.171 The Constitution of 1791 was short-lived and would be followed by several others as issues arose and were addressed in 1793, 1795, 1799, 1802, and 1804. The Constitution of 1795 founded the First Republic. The Constitution of 1802 established Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul for Life (Premier Consul à vie). The Constitution of 1804 named Napoleon emperor. That these were tumultuous times is an understatement.

      Many have tried to capture the essence and the seismic importance of the French Revolution. Evangelical missiologist Paul Hiebert writes,

The Holy Roman Empire had been in decline since the late Middle Ages, but it was the French Revolution that shattered the sacred foundations of history. The secular state emerged based on rationalism and the will of the citizens. Public life was now the realm of reason alone and had no place for a seemingly unknowable God. Religion was relegated to the private sphere of life and seen as imagination, and God ceased to be relevant to public life. A rigidly materialistic, atheistic philosophy emerged that reduced the spirit to matter and morals to social constructs defined in terms of material progress.172

According to Stumpf, “Some saw in the Revolution a contest of power whose effect was to destroy the legitimate power and authority both of the government and of the church, an effect that could only result in the further destruction of the institutions of the family and private property.”173 Former pope Benedict XVI (b. 1927) likewise understands the importance of the French Revolution in the disintegration of the spiritual influences without which Europe would not have come into existence. He asserts that religion became a private matter related to feelings, irrelevant in the public square, and reason became the supreme arbitrator to determine what is best for civil society. The pope argues,

The sacred foundation for history and for the existence of the State was rejected; history was no longer gauged on the basis of an idea of a preexistent God who shaped it; the State was henceforth considered in purely secular terms, founded on reason and on the will of the citizens. For the very first time in history, a purely secular State arose, which abandoned and set aside the divine guarantee and the divine ordering of the political sector, considering them a mythological world view.174

However, the Revolution was well received in many Protestant quarters, at least in its ideals if not in its reality. Protestants welcomed with favor the Revolution which brought about their emancipation from the intolerance and persecution at the hands of the Church.175 They had received limited civil status rights in 1787. Then in 1789 they were granted equal rights and the liberty of worship. The Assembly tacitly authorized them to organize at their discretion, which they did notably in opening places of worship in cities where that had been previously forbidden.176

The removal of the Catholic Church from public influence and the overthrow of the monarchy were among the objectives achieved by the Revolution. The tithe, the Church’s principal source of revenue, was eliminated in August 1789 in the name of fiscal justice. The Civil Clergy Constitution of 1790, which nationalized French Catholicism, was approved by Louis XVI. Tolerance was granted to non-Catholics and ecclesiastical properties were nationalized. The number of bishops was reduced. Priests and bishops were elected by districts and departments respectively and both became civil servants remunerated by the State. Pope Pius VI (1717–1799) condemned this action and priests were divided between those who swore loyalty to the Republic and those who looked to Rome for guidance. Persecution and division followed.177 Walker explains,

When the tremendous storm of the French Revolution broke, it swept away many of the privileges of the church, the nobility, the throne, and kindred ancient institutions. The revolutionary leaders were filled with rationalistic zeal. They viewed the [Catholic] churches as religious clubs. In 1789, church lands were declared national property. . . . The constitution of 1791 pledged religious liberty. Then in 1793 came a royalist and Catholic uprising in the Vendée, and in retaliation the Jacobin leaders sought to wipe out Christianity. Hundreds of ecclesiastics were beheaded.178

The Revolution would not remain unopposed by the Catholic Church. The Church had its defenders even if they are not as well remembered by posterity. The Counter-Revolution continued the battle for ideas and divided France into two camps reminiscent of the Wars of Religion. The battles were not only ideological but bloody and divided France into two parts.179 The counter-revolutionaries, many of whom had lost privileges, whose lands were confiscated and titles revoked, sought the restoration of the monarchy. In Magraw’s opinion, “Religion was the most divisive issue in French society. The counter-revolution’s fervour stemmed less from loyalty to King or seigneurs than from villagers’ determination to defend local religious cultures against a dechristianising Revolution.”180

Louis XVI himself was executed after being found guilty of treason by the Convention on January 21, 1793. Two groups, la Gironde and la Montagne, disputed his fate. The former group, a political entity formed in 1791 by several deputies from the region by the same name, argued for clemency.181 The latter group, among whom was Robespierre, referred to elevated places at the Convention where the political left sat led by Robespierre and Danton.182 They demanded the king’s death for public salvation and the necessities of the Revolution.183 According to Robespierre, the Revolution required virtue and terror, “virtue, without which terror is harmful; and terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing other than prompt, severe, inflexible justice. It is an emanation of virtue.”184 The death of the king prepared the way for further changes in the Church-State relationship. In 1795, the separation of Church and State was introduced for the first time constitutionally in France in terms close to the future law of 1905. The arrival of Napoleon would throw these separatist initiatives into confusion when he seized the initiative to bring religion into his service. Yet the future would reveal that many people freed from obligatory religious duties and rituals would soon fall away from an organized religion which no longer wielded political power. Over the next one hundred years the work of the Revolution was constantly threatened with the successive rise and fall of republics and empires. The battle for Republican values intensified while the Church fought vigorously

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