Civil Constitution of the Clergy

1790 French law

A commemorative plate from 1790 shows a curé swearing to the Constitution.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (French: Constitution civile du clergé) was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that sought the complete control over the Catholic Church in France by the French government.[1] As a result, a schism was created, resulting in an illegal and underground French Catholic Church loyal to the Papacy, and a "constitutional church" that was subservient to the State. The schism was not fully resolved until 1801. King Louis XVI ultimately granted Royal Assent to the measure after originally opposing it, but later expressed regret for having done so.

Earlier legislation had already arranged the confiscation of the Catholic Church's 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 tithes.[2] 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.[3][page needed] It emphasised that officials of the Church could not give their loyalty to anyone outside the First French Republic, specifically meaning the Papacy.[3][page needed] Lastly, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy made bishops and priests elected.[3][page needed] By having members of the clergy elected, those clergy within who accepted the State's terms lost their independence and were now subject to the State, since their parishioners would vote on the priest and bishops as opposed to these individuals being appointed by the Church hierarchy.[3][page needed]

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. However, almost all bishops opposed the law and refused to take the loyalty oath it required. Over half of lower clergy also refused.

The law was extremely divisive and proved to be a turning point in the French Revolution. Historian Hilaire Belloc described it as a failure that "lit the civil war" that would occur in the following years.[4]

## Document outline

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See also: Civil Constitution of the Clergy outline

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy has four titles with different articles.

* The document begins with an introduction on why the document was written.
* Title I focuses on the dioceses and how they were to be administered.
* Title II focuses on the administration of the dioceses and how elections were to take place.
* Title III focuses on payment because the Clergy was a salaried employee of the State.[5][page needed]
* Title IV focuses on the living requirements for bishops, parish priests, and the curates.

## Status of the Church in France before the Civil Constitution

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Even before the Revolution and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the Catholic Church in France (the Gallican Church) had a status that tended to subordinate the Church to the State. Under the Declaration of the Clergy of France (1682) privileges of the French monarch included the right to assemble church councils in their dominions and to make laws and regulations touching ecclesiastical matters of the Church or to have recourse to the "appeal as from an abuse" ("appel comme d'abus") against acts of the ecclesiastical power.

In this caricature, after the decree of 16 February 1790, monks and nuns enjoy their new freedom.

Even prior to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy:[6]

* On 11 August 1789 tithes were abolished.
* On 2 November 1789, Catholic Church property that was held for purposes of church revenue was nationalized, and was used as the backing for the assignats.
* On 13 February 1790, monastic vows were forbidden and all ecclesiastical orders and congregations were dissolved, excepting those devoted to teaching children and nursing the sick.
* On 19 April 1790, administration of all remaining church property was transferred to the State.

## Motivation of the Civil Constitution

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The following interlinked factors appear[weasel words] to have been the causes of agitation for the confiscation of church lands and for the adoption of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy:[7]

1. The French government in 1790 was nearly bankrupt; this fiscal crisis had been the original reason for the king's calling the Estates General in 1789.
2. The Church owned about six percent of the land in France.[8] In addition the Church collected tithes.
* The Church used the six percent of the land they owned for a multitude of purposes which included churches, monasteries, convents, schools, hospitals, and other establishments which served the people of France.[9]
3. Owing, in part, to abuses of this system (especially for patronage), there was enormous resentment of the Church, taking the various forms of atheism, anticlericalism, and anti-Catholicism.
4. Many of the revolutionaries viewed the Catholic Church as a retrograde force.
5. At the same time, there was enough support for a basically Catholic form of Christianity that some means had to be found to fund the Church in France.

## Debate over the Civil Constitution

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On 6 February 1790, one week before banning monastic vows, the National Constituent Assembly asked its ecclesiastical committee to prepare the reorganization of the clergy. No doubt, those who hoped to reach a solution amenable to the papacy were discouraged by the consistorial address of March 22 in which Pius VI spoke out against measures already passed by the Assembly; also, the election of the Protestant Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne to the presidency of the Assembly brought about "commotions" at Toulouse and Nîmes, suggesting that at least some Catholics would accept nothing less than a return to the ancien régime practice under which only Catholics could hold office.[10]

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy came before the Assembly on 29 May 1790. François de Bonal, Bishop of Clermont, and some members of the Right requested that the project should be submitted to a national council or to the Pope, but did not carry the day. Joining them in their opposition to the legislation was Abbé Sieyès, one of the chief political theorists of the French Revolution and author of the 1789 pamphlet "What Is the Third Estate?"[10]

Conversely, the Jansenist theologian Armand-Gaston Camus argued that the plan was in perfect harmony with the New Testament and the councils of the fourth century.[citation needed]

The Assembly passed the Civil Constitution on 12 July 1790, two days before the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. On that anniversary, the Fête de la Fédération, Talleyrand and three hundred priests officiated at the "altar of the nation" erected on the Champ de Mars, wearing tricolor waistbands over their priestly vestments and calling down God's blessing upon the Revolution.

In 1793, the War in the Vendée was influenced by the Constitution passing due to the devout population toward the Church among other social factors.

## Legal status of the Church in France under the Civil Constitution

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As noted above, even prior to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, church property was nationalized and monastic vows were forbidden. Under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy:

* There were 83 bishops, one per department, rather than the previous 135 bishops.[11]
* Bishops (known as constitutional bishops) and priests were elected locally; electors had to sign a loyalty oath to the constitution. There was no requirement that the electors be Catholics, creating the ironic situation that Protestants and even Jews could help elect the Catholic priests and bishops. Their proportion in the French population was however very small.
* Authority of the Pope over the appointment of clergy was reduced to the right to be informed of election results.

The tone of the Civil Constitution can be gleaned from Title II, Article XXI:

Before the ceremony of consecration begins, the bishop elect shall take a solemn oath, in the presence of the municipal officers, of the people, and of the clergy, to guard with care the faithful of his diocese who are confided to him, to be loyal to the nation, the law, and the king, and to support with all his power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly and accepted by the king.[2]

In short, new bishops were required to swear loyalty to the State in far stronger terms than to any religious doctrine. Even in this revolutionary legislation, there are strong remnants of Gallican royalism.

The law also included some reforms supported even by many within the Church. For example, Title IV, Article I states, "The law requiring the residence of ecclesiastics in the districts under their charge shall be strictly observed. All vested with an ecclesiastical office or function shall be subject to this, without distinction or exception."[2] In effect, this banned the practice by which younger sons of noble families would be appointed to a bishopric or other high church position and live off its revenues without ever moving to the region in question and taking up the duties of the office. The abuse of bishoprics by the nobility was further reduced in Title II, Article XI: "Bishoprics and cures shall be looked upon as vacant until those elected to fill them shall have taken the oath above mentioned."[2] This unified state control over both the nobility and the Church through the use of elected bishops and the oath of loyalty.

## Delay in implementation

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For some time, Louis XVI delayed signing the Civil Constitution, saying that he needed "official word from Rome" before doing so. Pope Pius VI broke the logjam on 9 July 1790, writing a letter to Louis rejecting the arrangement. On 28 July, 6 September, and 16 December 1790, Louis XVI wrote letters to Pius VI, complaining that the National Assembly was forcing him to publicly accept the Civil Constitution, and suggesting that Pius VI compromise with them by accepting a few selected articles. On 10 July, Pius VI wrote to Louis XVI, indicating to the king that the Church could not accept any of the provisions of the Constitution; insofar as the church could not tolerate a national legislature, much less one of such secularist and revolutionary inclinations, dictating the internal organization of the church. On 17 August, Pius VI wrote to Louis XVI of his intent to consult with the cardinals about this, but on 10 October Cardinal Rochefoucauld, the Archbishop of Aix, and 30 of France's 131 bishops sent their negative evaluation of the main points of the Civil Constitution to the Pope. Only four sitting bishops actively supported the Constitution. On 30 October, the same 30 bishops restated their view to the public, signing a document known as the Exposition of Principles ("Exposition des principes sur la constitution civile du clergé"), written by Jean de Dieu-Raymond de Cucé de Boisgelin

On 27 November 1790, still lacking the king's signature on the law of the Civil Constitution, the National Assembly voted to require the clergy to sign an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. During the debate on that matter, on 25 November, Cardinal de Lomenie wrote a letter claiming that the clergy could be excused from taking the Oath if they lacked mental assent; that stance was to be rejected by the Pope on 23 February 1791. On 26 December 1790, Louis XVI finally granted his public assent to the Civil Constitution, allowing the process of administering the oaths to proceed in January and February 1791.

Pope Pius VI's 23 February rejection of Cardinal de Lomenie's position of withholding "mental assent" guaranteed that this would become a schism. The Pope's subsequent condemnation of the revolutionary regime and repudiation of all clergy who had complied with the oath completed the schism.

## Oath controversy

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Members of the Catholic Church taking the oath that was required by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

Within the Civil Constitution of the Clergy there was a clause that required the Clergy to take an oath stating the individual's allegiance to France.[12] The oath was basically an oath of fidelity and it required every priest in France to publicly declare whether or not they believed the French state or the Pope had supreme authority in ecclesiastical matters.[1][page needed] This oath was very controversial because many priests believed that they could not put their loyalty towards France before their loyalty towards God. Conversely, refusal to make the oath signaled a rejection of the Constitution and, implicitly, the legitimacy of the French government (at the time, still including the King).[1][page needed]

On 16 January 1791 approximately half of those the law required to take the oath did so, with the remainder awaiting the decision of Pope Pius VI on what exactly swearing it signified and the appropriate response.[12] Among the higher ranks of the church the response was much more negative; only 7 of the 135 sitting bishops took the oath.[12][13]

In March 1791 Pope Pius VI announced that the oath was against the beliefs of the Church.[12] In doing so, he divided the church into “juring” and “nonjuring” clergy, with jurors being those who took the oath and nonjurors those who refused. The Pope condemned those who took the oath and went as far as saying that they were absolutely separated from the church.[3][page needed] Additionally, the Pope expressed disapproval of the Constitution of the Clergy in general and chastised King Louis XVI for assenting to it.[3][page needed] The law’s domestic opponents protested that the Revolution was destroying their "true" faith and this was also seen in the two groups of individuals that were formed because of the oath.[1][page needed] Those who believed that the Revolution was causing their "true" faith to be destroyed sided with the "non-jurors" and those who believed that the French government should have a say in religion sided with the "jurors".[1][page needed]

American researcher Timothy Tackett believes that the oath determined which individuals would let the revolution cause change and allow revolutionary reform; those who remained steadfast in their opposition would remain true to their beliefs for many years to come.[1][page needed] The oath controversy marked a turning point in the revolutionary process since it was the first piece of the Assembly’s agenda that provoked widespread opposition.[1][page needed]

## Jurors and non-jurors

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The rate of swearing priests in 1791. The department division is the current one.

As noted above, the government required all clergy to swear an oath of loyalty to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Only seven bishops and about half of the clergy agreed while the rest refused; the latter became known as "non-jurors" or "refractory priests".[12][13] In areas where a majority had taken the oath, such as Paris, the refractory minority could be victimized by society at large: nuns from the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, for example, were subjected to humiliating public spankings.[14]

While there was a higher rate of rejection in urban areas[citation needed], most of these refractory priests (like most of the population) lived in the countryside, and the Civil Constitution generated considerable resentment among religious peasants. Meanwhile, the Pope repudiated the "jurors" who had signed the oath, especially bishops who had ordained new, elected clergy, and above all Bishop Louis-Alexandre Expilly de la Poipe. In May 1791, France and the Vatican severed diplomatic relations. On June 9, the Assembly forbade the publication of papal decrees without its prior assent.

The Constituent Assembly vacillated on the appropriate measures against non-juring clergy. On 5 February 1791, non-juring priests were banned from preaching in public[3][page needed] in the hope that this would silence the opposition to the Constitution from religious quarters.[13] Marriages, baptisms, and other ceremonies presided over by a non-juring priest were forbidden.[13] However, non-juring clergy were permitted to celebrate the Mass and attract crowds because the Assembly feared that stripping them of all of their powers would create chaos and arouse sympathy for its clerical opponents.[13] The Assembly permitted non-juring priests to carry on with ceremonies of a private nature until a cooperative (juring) priest could be found for the relevant parish.[13] A large percentage of the refractory priests were not replaced until 10 August 1792, a year and a half after the first round of oath-taking; by the time they began to be replaced the Assembly had revised the legislation and it was not as significant that they were practicing Mass.[13][12]

At the beginning of the process, when the Assembly was stripping the clergy of their titles, they ignored the violent conduct of the most radical anticlerical elements.[13] However, the hostile reception that some juror priests received in their home parishes forced the Assembly to moderate its position.[15] On 7 May 1791, the Assembly relaxed the law, providing that the non-juring priests, referred to as prêtres habitués ("habitual priests") could continue to perform ceremonies as long as they did not agitate against the Constitution. The Assembly was forced to moderate because the "Constitutional Clergy" (those who had taken the oath) were rejected by many of their parishioners; lifting some of the restrictions on non-jurors was seen as necessary to arrest the growing schism in the French church.[13] The constitutional clergy often required the assistance of the National Guard to suppress incidents of disorder at their churches.[13]

Even within households, differences emerged between Papal loyalists and Constitutionalists. In many cases, women preferred to hear Mass from a non-juror while men adhered to the Constitutional Church.[13] On 29 November 1791, the Legislative Assembly, which had by then replaced the Constituent Assembly, decreed that refractory priests could only exacerbate factionalism and aggravate extremists. In November, new legislation deprived nonjuring priests of their ability to claim rights assigned to the clergy by the Civil Constitution; moreover, nonjuring priests were declared suspect and liable to arrest. Louis XVI vetoed this decree (as he also did with another text concerning the creation of an army of 20,000 men on the orders of the Assembly, precipitating the monarchy's fall), which was toughened and re-issued a year later.

The Holy September Martyrs, or Blessed Martyrs of Carmes (Bienheureux Martyrs des Carmes) were 191 Roman Catholics killed at the Carmes Prison in the September Massacres of 1792, consisting of three bishops, 127 secular priests, 56 monks and nuns, and five lay people, the vast majority non-jurors. They were beatified by Pope Pius XI in October 1926.

Persecution of Roman Catholics (that is, non-juring clergy and their followers) by the authorities intensified in the following year from schism within the church to full-throated de-Christianisation, paving the way for the introduction of two short-lived attempts to establish a new state religion, the Cult of Reason and the Cult of the Supreme Being in 1793–1794. During this time, numerous nonjuring priests were arrested and held on prison hulks where many died due to poor conditions aboard.

Victor Henri Juglar, Plundering of a church during the French Revolution of 1793, Vizille, Museum of the French Revolution

Although the Constitutional Church remained tolerated, it did not escape the most violent phase of the Revolution unscathed; the National Convention considered Catholicism in any form suspicious. Eight Constitutional bishops were executed on the guillotine, three had been important political figures in the first years of the Revolution: Fauchet, Lamourette, and Gobel. In 1793 Fauchet, disgusted by the Jacobin excesses, joined the moderate bloc in the legislature. He voted in the Convention with the Girondins, exerted himself against the King’s condemnation, prohibited clerical marriage in his jurisdiction and expressed deep sorrow for the errors and scandals both of his political and ecclesiastical career. After the insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, Fauchet was arrested and held at the Conciergerie. Along with his Girondin allies, he was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal on 30 October, and was guillotined on the following day, after having administered the absolution to his friend Sillery.[16]

Adrian Lamourette, Constitutional Bishop of Lyon, had likewise opposed the extremity of the Montagnards. He protested against the September Massacres, and supported the revolt of Lyon against the National Convention. After the Revolutionary government retook the city, Joseph Fouché arrested Lamourette, personally stripped him of his vestments and rode him through town on a donkey with a mitre on its head and a Bible and crucifix tied to its tail, so the mob could spit at and kick him. At the end of this procession the crucifix and Bible were publicly burned, and the donkey was allowed to drink out of the sacred chalice. Lamourette was then sent to Paris for trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal, which found him guilty and sentenced death. Thereafter, he humbly made the sign of the cross, renounced his oath, and declared that he had been the author of all the speeches upon ecclesiastical affairs which Mirabeau had delivered in his own name in the Constituent Assembly. He was guillotined on January 10, 1794.[17]

On 7 November 1793, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel, Constitutional Bishop of Paris, was forced to abjure in front of a large audience at the National Convention. Three days later, on 10 November, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame was seized and rededicated to the Cult of Reason. Despite his revolutionary principles, Gobel was executed together with Chaumette, Grammont, and many others as a "conspirator against the Republic", on 13 April 1794.

A similar fate befell Louis-Alexandre Expilly, Constitutional Bishop of Finistère, who had distinguished himself in the early stages of the Revolution. Having joined the Federalist uprising, he was condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Brest, and executed on 21 June 1794 only one month before the fall of Robespierre. He was the last person executed that day as he had been giving absolution to his fellows waiting at the scaffold. His diocese remained vacant until 1798.[18]

Another prominent victim was the former Constitutional Bishop of Yonne, Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne. On 15 November 1793, he had resigned from the priesthood, but his past as a cardinal and bishop made the government suspicious of him. He was arrested at Sens on 18 February 1794, and that same night died in prison, whether from a stroke or by poison; some said by suicide.[19]

## Repeal of the Civil Constitution

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See also: Concordat of 1801

After the Thermidorian Reaction, the Convention repealed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy; however, the schism between the civilly constituted French Church and the Papacy was only resolved when the Concordat of 1801 was agreed on. The Concordat was reached on July 15, 1801, and it was made widely known the following Easter.[20][21] The negotiators were Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, and representatives of the Papacy and, such as it remained, the nonjuring clergy.[21] The Concordat was the organic act of the Roman Catholic Church in France for a century; moreover, it legitimised and terminated the confiscations and church reforms that had been implemented over the course of the revolution.[21] The agreement also gave the French government the right to nominate bishops, reorganize parishes and bishoprics, and allowed for seminaries to be established or re-established.[21] In an effort to please Pope Pius VII, Napoleon agreed to subsidize the salaries of clerics in exchange for the legitimization of the state seizure of church property.

## See also

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* Jureur

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e f g Popkin, Jeremy D. (2010). A short history of the French Revolution. Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0205693573. OCLC 780111354.
2. ^ a b c d Text of the Legislation From J.H. Robinson, ed., The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, 12 July 1790, Readings in European History, 2 vols. Boston: Ginn, 1906. Vol 2: pp. 423–427.
3. ^ a b c d e f g Carnes, Mark C.; Kates, Gary (2015). Rousseau, Burke, and revolution in France, 1791. W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0393938883. OCLC 908192433.
4. ^ Belloc, Hilaire. "The French Revolution". p. 239.
5. ^ Hanson, Paul R. (2007). The A to Z of the French Revolution. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-1461716068. OCLC 856869661.
6. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: French Revolution". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
7. ^ McPhee, Peter (2009). Living the French Revolution, 1789–1799. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0333997390. OCLC 465524553.
8. ^ Tackett, Timothy (2014). Priest & parish in eighteenth-century France: a social and political study of the curés in a diocese of Dauphiné, 1750–1791. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400857142. OCLC 889250730.
9. ^ "The French Revolution and the Catholic Church". www.historytoday.com. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
10. ^ a b Catholic Encyclopedia
11. ^ Kagan, Donald; Ozment, Steven E.; Turner, Frank Miller (2001). The western heritage (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p. 643\. ISBN 978-0-13-027719-0.[verification needed]
12. ^ a b c d e f "Clergy's Oath to the Constitution". www.historyworld.net. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "The Subjugation of the Catholic Church: A Failed Attempt". www.ucumberlands.edu. Archived from the original on 7 March 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
14. ^ Colin Jones, The Great Nation, 2002 (Penguin 2003 p. 444, ISBN 978-0140130935)
15. ^ de Patris, B. Combes. Proces-verbaux des seances de la Societe Populaire de Rodez. Rodez, Carrere, 1912. p. 128
16. ^ Jervis 1882, p. 251.
17. ^ Jervis 1882, p. 252.
18. ^ Jervis 1882, p. 253.
19. ^ Paul Pisani, Repertoire biographique de l’Épiscopat constitutionnel (1791–1802), Picard, Paris, 1907, p. 83.
20. ^ "Civil Constitution of the Clergy | France". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
21. ^ a b c d "Concordat of 1801 | French religious history". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 6 March 2017.

## Sources

[edit]

* Jervis, William Henley (1882). The Gallican Church and the Revolution (PDF). London: K. Paul, Trench, & Company.
* Sciout, Ludovic (1872). Histoire de la constitution civile du clergé (1790-1801): L'église et l'Assemblée constituante. (in French and Latin). Vol. 1 (Paris: Firmin Didot 1872), pp. 182-189. (French text).

## External links

[edit]

* Civil Constitution of the Clergy, complete text in English
* Response of Pope Pius VI to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, 13 April 1791.
* France in Division Lists of those condemning the oath and its partisans, pp. 104–106 of The press in the French Revolution: a selection of documents taken from the press of the Revolution for the years 1789–1794, [edited] by J. Gilchrist and W.J. Murray, Melbourne, Cheshire and London, Ginn, 1971. At Internet Archive. Described as a satirical attack on p. 110 of Voices of the French Revolution [edited] by Richard Cobb and Colin Jones, Topsfield, Mass., Salem House Publishers, 1988. At internet Archive

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1790|

* Abolition of the Parlements (Feb–Jul 1790)
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1792|

* France declares war (20 Apr 1792)
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1793|

* Execution of Louis XVI (21 Jan 1793)
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* Marie Antoinette is guillotined (16 Oct 1793)
* Anti-clerical laws (throughout the year)

1794|

* Danton and Desmoulins guillotined (5 Apr 1794)
* Law of 22 Prairial (10 Jun 1794)
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* Robespierre guillotined (28 Jul 1794)
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1797|

* Coup of 18 Fructidor (4 Sep 1797)
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1798|

* Law of 22 Floréal Year VI (11 May 1798)

1799|

* Coup of 30 Prairial VII (18 Jun 1799)
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1793|

* First Coalition
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* Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies (24 Apr 1794)
* Second Battle of Boulou (Pyrenees) (30 Apr – 1 May 1794)
* Battle of Tourcoing (18 May 1794)
* Battle of Tournay (22 May 1794)
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* Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 – 7 Jun 1795)

1795|

* Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 – 7 Jun 1795)
* Peace of Basel

1796|

* Italian campaign (1796)
* Battle of Lonato (3–4 Aug 1796)
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* Battle of Neresheim (11 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Amberg (24 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Würzburg (3 Sep 1796)
* Battle of Rovereto (4 Sep 1796)
* First Battle of Bassano (8 Sep 1796)
* Battle of Emmendingen (19 Oct 1796)
* Battle of Schliengen (26 Oct 1796)
* Second Battle of Bassano (6 Nov 1796)
* Battle of Calliano (6–7 Nov 1796)
* Battle of Arcole (15–17 Nov 1796)
* Ireland expedition (Dec 1796)

1797|

* Italian campaign (1797)
* Naval Engagement off Brittany (13 Jan 1797)
* Battle of Rivoli (14–15 Jan 1797)
* Battle of the Bay of Cádiz (25 Jan 1797)
* Treaty of Leoben (17 Apr 1797)
* Battle of Neuwied (18 Apr 1797)
* Treaty of Campo Formio (17 Oct 1797)

1798|

* French invasion of Switzerland (28 January – 17 May 1798)
* French Invasion of Egypt (1798–1801)
* Irish Rebellion of 1798 (23 May – 23 Sep 1798)
* Quasi-War (1798–1800)
* Peasants' War (12 Oct – 5 Dec 1798)

1799|

* Second Coalition (1798–1802)
* Siege of Acre (20 Mar – 21 May 1799)
* Battle of Ostrach (20–21 Mar 1799)
* Battle of Stockach (25 Mar 1799)
* Battle of Magnano (5 Apr 1799)
* Battle of Cassano (27–28 Apr 1799)
* First Battle of Zurich (4–7 Jun 1799)
* Battle of Trebbia (17–20 Jun 1799)
* Battle of Novi (15 Aug 1799)
* Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 Sep 1799)

1800|

* Battle of Marengo (14 Jun 1800)
* Convention of Alessandria (15 Jun 1800)
* Battle of Hohenlinden (3 Dec 1800)
* League of Armed Neutrality (1800–02)

1801|

* Treaty of Lunéville (9 Feb 1801)
* Treaty of Florence (18 Mar 1801)
* Algeciras campaign (8 Jul 1801)

1802|

* Treaty of Amiens (25 Mar 1802)
* Treaty of Paris (25 Jun 1802)

Military leaders

France|

| French Army|

* Eustache Charles d'Aoust
* Charles-Pierre Augereau
* Alexandre de Beauharnais
* Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte
* Louis-Alexandre Berthier
* Jean-Baptiste Bessières
* Napoléon Bonaparte
* Guillaume Brune
* Jean François Carteaux
* Jean-Étienne Championnet
* Chapuis de Tourville
* Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine
* Louis-Nicolas Davout
* Louis Desaix
* Jacques François Dugommier
* Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
* Charles François Dumouriez
* Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino
* Louis-Charles de Flers
* Paul Grenier
* Emmanuel de Grouchy
* Jacques Maurice Hatry
* Lazare Hoche
* Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
* François Christophe de Kellermann
* Jean-Baptiste Kléber
* Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
* Jean Lannes
* Charles Leclerc
* Claude Lecourbe
* François Joseph Lefebvre
* Étienne Macdonald
* Jean-Antoine Marbot
* Marcellin Marbot
* François Séverin Marceau
* Auguste de Marmont
* André Masséna
* Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey
* Jean Victor Marie Moreau
* Édouard Mortier, Duke of Trévise
* Joachim Murat
* Michel Ney
* Pierre-Jacques Osten [fr]
* Nicolas Oudinot
* Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon
* Jean-Charles Pichegru
* Józef Poniatowski
* Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
* Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer
* Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier
* Joseph Souham
* Jean-de-Dieu Soult
* Louis-Gabriel Suchet
* Belgrand de Vaubois
* Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno

|

French Navy|

* Charles-Alexandre Linois

Opposition|

|  Austria|

* József Alvinczi
* Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
* Count of Clerfayt (Walloon)
* Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg
* Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze (Swiss)
* Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth
* Pál Kray (Hungarian)
* Charles Eugene, Prince of Lambesc (French)
* Maximilian Baillet de Latour (Walloon)
* Karl Mack von Leiberich
* Rudolf Ritter von Otto (Saxon)
* Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
* Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich
* Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen
* Johann Mészáros von Szoboszló (Hungarian)
* Karl Philipp Sebottendorf
* Dagobert von Wurmser

|

Britain|

* Sir Ralph Abercromby
* James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez
* Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
* Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany

Netherlands|

* William V, Prince of Orange

Prussia|

* Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick
* Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen

Russia|

* Alexander Korsakov
* Alexander Suvorov
* Andrei Rosenberg

Spain|

* Luis Firmin de Carvajal
* Antonio Ricardos

Other significant figures and factions

Patriotic Society of 1789|

* Jean Sylvain Bailly
* Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
* François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
* Isaac René Guy le Chapelier
* Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
* Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
* Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
* Nicolas de Condorcet

Feuillants
and monarchiens

* Grace Elliott
* Arnaud de La Porte
* Jean-Sifrein Maury
* François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy
* Guillaume-Mathieu Dumas
* Antoine Barnave
* Lafayette
* Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth
* Charles Malo François Lameth
* André Chénier
* Jean-François Rewbell
* Camille Jordan
* Madame de Staël
* Boissy d'Anglas
* Jean-Charles Pichegru
* Pierre Paul Royer-Collard
* Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac

Girondins|

* Jacques Pierre Brissot
* Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière
* Madame Roland
* Father Henri Grégoire
* Étienne Clavière
* Marquis de Condorcet
* Charlotte Corday
* Marie Jean Hérault
* Jean Baptiste Treilhard
* Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
* Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve
* Jean Debry
* Olympe de Gouges
* Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet
* Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux

The Plain|

* Abbé Sieyès
* de Cambacérès
* Charles-François Lebrun
* Pierre-Joseph Cambon
* Bertrand Barère
* Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot
* Philippe Égalité
* Louis Philippe I
* Mirabeau
* Antoine Christophe Merlin de Thionville
* Jean Joseph Mounier
* Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours
* François de Neufchâteau

Montagnards|

* Maximilien Robespierre
* Georges Danton
* Jean-Paul Marat
* Camille Desmoulins
* Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
* Paul Barras
* Louis Philippe I
* Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau
* Jacques-Louis David
* Marquis de Sade
* Georges Couthon
* Roger Ducos
* Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
* Jean-Henri Voulland
* Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai
* Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville
* Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas
* Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier
* Jean-Pierre-André Amar
* Prieur de la Côte-d'Or
* Prieur de la Marne
* Gilbert Romme
* Jean Bon Saint-André
* Jean-Lambert Tallien
* Pierre Louis Prieur
* Antoine Christophe Saliceti

Hébertists
and Enragés|

* Jacques Hébert
* Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
* Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
* Charles-Philippe Ronsin
* Antoine-François Momoro
* François-Nicolas Vincent
* François Chabot
* Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte
* Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel
* François Hanriot
* Jacques Roux
* Stanislas-Marie Maillard
* Charles-Philippe Ronsin
* Jean-François Varlet
* Theophile Leclerc
* Claire Lacombe
* Pauline Léon
* Gracchus Babeuf
* Sylvain Maréchal

Others|

| Figures|

* Charles X
* Louis XVI
* Louis XVII
* Louis XVIII
* Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien
* Louis Henri, Prince of Condé
* Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé
* Marie Antoinette
* Napoléon Bonaparte
* Lucien Bonaparte
* Joseph Bonaparte
* Joseph Fesch
* Joséphine de Beauharnais
* Joachim Murat
* Jean Sylvain Bailly
* Jacques-Donatien Le Ray
* Guillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes
* Talleyrand
* Thérésa Tallien
* Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target
* Catherine Théot
* Madame de Lamballe
* Madame du Barry
* Louis de Breteuil
* de Chateaubriand
* Jean Chouan
* Loménie de Brienne
* Charles Alexandre de Calonne
* Jacques Necker
* Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil
* List of people associated with the French Revolution

|

Factions|

* Jacobins
* Cordeliers
* Panthéon Club
* Social Club

Influential thinkers

* Les Lumières
* Beaumarchais
* Edmund Burke
* Anacharsis Cloots
* Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
* Pierre Claude François Daunou
* Diderot
* Benjamin Franklin
* Thomas Jefferson
* Antoine Lavoisier
* Montesquieu
* Thomas Paine
* Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* Abbé Sieyès
* Voltaire
* Mary Wollstonecraft

Cultural impact

* La Marseillaise
* Cockade of France
* Flag of France
* Liberté, égalité, fraternité
* Marianne
* Muscadin
* Bastille Day
* Panthéon
* French Republican calendar
* Metric system
* Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
* Cult of the Supreme Being
* Cult of Reason
* Temple of Reason
* Sans-culottes
* Phrygian cap
* Women in the French Revolution
* Incroyables and merveilleuses
* Symbolism in the French Revolution
* Historiography of the French Revolution
* Influence of the French Revolution
* Films

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