Civil Constitution of the Clergy

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (Constitution civile du clergé) was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that caused the immediate subordination of most of the Catholic Church in France to the French government. As such, a schism was created, resulting in a French Catholic Church loyal to the Papacy, and a "constitutional church" subject to the French state. The schism was not fully resolved until 1801. King Louis XVI ultimately yielded to the measure after originally opposing it. Earlier legislation had already arranged the confiscation of the Catholic Church's French land holdings and banned monastic vows. This new law completed the destruction of the monastic orders, outlawing "all regular and secular chapters for either sex, abbacies and priorships, both regular and in commendam, for either sex". It also sought to settle the chaos caused by the earlier confiscation of Church lands and the abolition of the tithe. Additionally, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy regulated the current dioceses so that they could become more uniform and aligned with the administrative districts that had recently been created. It emphasised that officials of the church could not provide commitment to anything outside France, specifically the papacy (due to the great power and influence it wielded). Lastly, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy made bishops and priests elected. By having members of the clergy elected, the church lost much of the authority it had to govern itself and was now subject to the people, since they would vote on the priest and bishops as opposed to these individuals being appointed by the church and the hierarchy within. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed and some of the support for this came from figures that were within the Church, such as the priest and parliamentarian Pierre Claude François Daunou, and, above all, the revolutionary priest Henri Grégoire, who was the first French Catholic priest to take the Obligatory Oath.