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(French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ʁi ɡʁeɡwaʁ]; 4 December 1750 – 20 May 1831), often referred to as Abbé
Grégoire, was a French Roman Catholic priest, constitutional bishop of Bloisand a revolutionary leader.
[edit]Early life
He was born at Vého near Lunéville, the son of a tailor. Educated at the Jesuit college atNancy, he
became curé (priest) of Emberménil in 1782. In 1783 he was crowned by the Academy of Nancy for his Eloge de la
poésie, and in 1788 by that of Metz for an Essai sur la régénération physique et morale des Juifs.
He was elected in 1789 by the clergy of the bailliage of Nancy to the Estates-General, where he soon made his name
as one of the group of clerical and lay deputies of Jansenist or Gallicansympathies who supported the Revolution.
He was one of the first of the clergy to join the third estate, and contributed notably to the union of the three orders;
he presided at the session which lasted sixty-two hours while the Bastille was being attacked by the people, and
spoke vehemently against the enemies of the nation. He later took a leading role in the abolition of the privileges of
the nobles and the Church.
[edit]Constitutional bishop
Under the new Civil Constitution of the Clergy, to which he was the first priest to take the oath (27 December 1790),
he was elected bishop by two départements. He selected that of Loir-et-Cher, taking the old title of bishop of Blois,
and for ten years (1791–1801) ruled his diocese with exemplary zeal. An ardent republican, it was he who in the first
session of the National Convention(21 September 1792) proposed the motion for the abolition of the monarchy, in a
speech in which occurred the memorable phrase that "Kings are in morality what monsters are in the world of
nature.".[1]
On 15 November he delivered a speech in which he demanded that king Louis XVI should be brought to trial, and
immediately afterwards was elected president of the Convention, over which he presided in his episcopal dress.
During the trial, being absent with other three colleagues on a mission for the union of Savoy to France, he along
with them wrote a letter urging the condemnation of the king, but attempted to save the life of the monarch by
proposing that the death penalty should be suspended.
When, on 7 November 1793, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel, bishop of Paris, was intimidated into resigning his
episcopal office at the bar of the Convention, Grégoire, who was temporarily absent, hearing what had happened,
faced the indignation of many deputies, refusing to give up either his religion or his office. This display of courage
ultimately saved him from the guillotine.
Throughout the Reign of Terror, in spite of attacks in the Convention, in the press, and on placards posted at the
street corners, he appeared in the streets in his episcopal dress and daily read mass in his house. After Maximilien
Robespierre's fall (the Thermidor), he was the first to advocate the reopening of the churches (speech of 21
December 1794).
He also tried to get measures put in place for restraining the vandalism, extended his protection to several artists and
writers, and devoted attention to the reorganization of the public libraries, the establishment of botanical gardens,
and the improvement of technical education. In fact, he coined the term, vandalism, in a series of three monumental
reports in 1794, i.e., Report on the Destruction Brought About by Vandalism,...[2] He is credited by scholars (e.g.
Joseph Sax) with the idea of preservation of cultural objects.
From this time onward the former bishop lived in retirement, occupying himself in literary pursuits and in
correspondence with other intellectual figures of Europe. He was compelled to sell his library to obtain means of
support.
In defiance of the archbishop, the Abbé Baradère gave him the viaticum, while the rite of extreme unction was
administered by the Abbé Guillon, an opponent of the Civil Constitution, without consulting the archbishop or the
parish curé. The attitude of the archbishop caused great excitement in Paris, and the government had to take
precautions to avoid a repetition of the riots which in the preceding February had led to the sacking of the church
of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois and the archiepiscopal palace. Grégoire's funeral was held at the church of the
Abbaye-aux-Bois. The clergy absented themselves in obedience to the archbishop's orders, but mass was sung by the
Abbé Grieu assisted by two clerics, the catafalque being decorated with the episcopal insignia. After the hearse set
out from the church the horses were unyoked, and it was dragged by students to the cemetery of Montparnasse, the
cortege being followed by a sympathetic crowd of some 20,000 people.
[edit]Works
De la littérature des nègres, ou Recherches sur leurs facultés intellectuelles, leurs qualités morales et leur
littérature (1808)
Histoire des sectes religieuses, depuis le commencement du siècle dernier jusqu'à l'époque actuelle (a vols.,
1810)
Essai historique sur les libertés de l'église gallicane (1818)
De l'influence du Christianisme sur la condition des femmes (1821)
Histoire des confesseurs des empereurs, des rois, et d'autres princes (1824)
Histoire du manage des primes en France (1826).
Grégoireana, ou résumé général de la conduite, des actions, et des écrits de M. le comte Henri Grégkoire,
preceded by a biographical notice by Cousin d'Avalon, was published in 1821; and the Mémoires ... de
Grégoire, with a biographical notice by H Carnot, appeared in 1837 (2 vols.).
Front pagre of his 1808 book on Negro literature