Civil Constitution of the Clergy

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy ( also: Civil Constitution, French: Constitution civile du clergé ) from 1790 was the basis for the integration of the Catholic Church in the altered by the French Revolution political system in France. She made the clergy to the popularly elected and salaried by the state officials of their parishes and dioceses.

Content and consequences

The French National Assembly had abolished the Catholic orders already on 13 February 1790. Since 22 May, the Assembly debated the seculars. On 12 July 1790, the Civil Constitution was adopted and proclaimed on August 24.

The adopted civil constitution was composed of four parts. This dealt with the ecclesiastical offices, the payment of the clergy and other questions. The competence areas of the dioceses were adapted to the new government units of the departments. Each department received a bishopric. Thus the number of bishoprics was reduced from 139 to 83. Parishes should be set up so that a minister should be responsible for 6000 inhabitants.

The bishops and pastors were as elected government officials. For the episcopal elections, there were meetings of electors of priests and lay at the level of the department. Comparable was the choice of the priest at the local level. The previous cathedral chapter were abolished, at their place, so-called Episkopalräte.

The clergy were now salaried state through the Civil Constitution. However, it remained significant hierarchical differences. So the Archbishop of Paris referred a salary of 50,000 livres, a village priest but only 1200 livres. Another point of the Civil Constitution was the tight binding of the clergy to the location of their office.

The Civil Constitution completed the development of the French church to a national church. Binding to the Pope was relaxed. Instructions from Rome were controlled by the government, set taxes to Rome and the Pope denied all ecclesiastical jurisdiction. About Bishop and pastor elections, the Curia was informed that without this would have an impact on the decision to take. Only as a symbol, as " visible head of the universal Church ," the Pope was recognized. All clerics had to take an oath to the Constitution of the Republic.

In 1791, Pope Pius VI refused. the Civil Constitution from. At this time about 55 % of the priests had done in rural communities, and between 25 % and 48 % in urban communities the required oath. Within the Catholic Church in France, it came after the declaration of the Pope to a split between constitutional faithful and loyal to Rome clerics, with deep impact on the population.