king 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 of Louis XVI., 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 omitting
the words _a mort_; and he endeavoured to save the life of the king by
proposing in the Convention that the penalty of death should be
suspended.
When on the 7th of November 1793 Gobel, bishop of Paris, was intimidated
into resigning his episcopal office at the bar of the Convention,
Gregoire, who was temporarily absent from the sitting, hearing what had
happened, hurried to the hall, and in the face of a howling mob of
deputies refused to abjure either his religion or his office. He was
prepared to face the death which he expected; but his courage, a rare
quality at that time, won the day, and the hubbub subsided in cries of
"Let Gregoire have his way!" Throughout the 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 Robespierre's fall he was the first to
advocate the reopening of the churches (speech of December 21, 1794). He
also exerted himself to get measures put in execution for restraining
the vandalistic fury against the monuments of art, extended his
protection to artists and men of letters, and devoted much of his
attention to the reorganization of the public libraries, the
establishment of botanic gardens, and the improvement of technical
education. He had taken during the Constituent Assembly a great interest
in Negro emancipation, and it was on his motion that men of colour in
the French colonies were admitted to the same rights as whites. On the
establishment of the new constitution, Gregoire was elected to the
Council of 500, and after the 18th Brumaire he became a member of the
Corps Legislatif, then of the Senate (1801). He took the lead in the
national church councils of 1797 and 1801; but he was strenuously
opposed to Napoleon's policy of reconciliation with the Holy See, and
after the signature of the concordat he resigned his bishopric (October
8, 1801). He was one of the minority of five in the Senate who voted
against the proclamation of the empire, and he opposed the creation of
the new nobility and the divorce of Napoleon from Josephine; but
notwithstanding this he was subsequently created a count of the empire
and officer of the Legion of Honour. During the later years of
Napoleon's reign he travelled in England and Germany, but in 1814 he had
returned to France and was one of the chief instigators of the action
that was taken against the empire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account