The Situation at The End of 1789 and The Adoption of The Constitution During The Great French Revolution

The situation by the end of 1789

• The nobility, clergies, and royalty were known as the counter-revolutionaries.

• Even with the revolutionary movement becoming so large, there was still lots of support for the king from the lower class in Catholic regions.

• There were multiple kinds of counter-revolutionaries. The most conservative of them believed that the ancien régime should return. The moderates believed that the king’s power should be toned down a little and were willing to accept some of the reforms. The problem with this was King Louis XVI was weak and was unsure of what side he should take, resulting in a disorganized counter-rebellion.

• On the other side, the revolutionists also had issues with what they wanted and how far they wanted to go. Peasants were not intelligent, and therefore were not able to know what reforms they wanted. All revolutionaries, though, believed in a certain part of what the Declaration of the Rights of Man gave, liberty, equality, property, and security. Problems with this arose when the people were unaware of how to take the next step, which ultimately led to little happening for either side.

• Another problem with the beginning of the French Revolution was the fact that there was no one willing to be a mediator between the revolutionaries and the counter-revolutionaries. The two most notable options were the Court of Mirabeau, but the counter-revolutionists did not trust him, and Lafayette, but he did not believe in supporting the extremist revolutionists.

The Civil Constitution 1790

• Reformers did not like the Church and created many laws which hurt the Church’s power, but the Church was fine with reforms. Then, a new set of laws was created, known as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy:

o The pope no longer had the power to choose and appoint the archbishops and bishops, with that power going to elected state representatives.

o There would be less bishoprics.

o Some of the Church offices would be removed.

o Clergies were now forced to be only a religious figure and were paid by the Church instead of the state.

• Even after the Civil Constitution, most members of the Church, and even King Louis XVI were recognizing and not appealing the reforms, until the National Assembly required clergies to take an oath of loyalty to the new Constitution. Only a minority of the Church members agreed to take this oath, and the pope began to declare that all the reforms of the revolutionaries were not beneficial to society.

• This controversial oath led to an even larger split between the French people, as there were the revolutionaries who believed in the Civil Constitution and the rest of the reforms, and the followers of the Catholic Church and its prevailing role in society.

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