He was made Canon of Trégnier in Brittany in 1775, and in 1780 transferred to a Canonry at Chârtres, united to the posts of Vicar-General and Chancellor. The revolutionary period approached, and Provincial Assemblies were called together, Sieyès being a member of the Assembly at Orleans in 1787. He published a succession of pamphlets in the course of the next two years, which added greatly to his literary and political reputation. The electors of Paris sent him as the twentieth member for their town to the States-General, where he represented the _Tiers d’État_ and not the clergy. He took a prominent part as soon as he entered this assembly; it was he who promoted the meeting of the Orders, framed the oath administered in the Tennis Court; and the division of France into Departments was entirely his work. His influence in the Assembly was so great that Mirabeau gave him the nickname of “Mahomet.” In February 1791 he was offered the Constitutional Bishopric of Paris, which he refused. He was elected member of the Convention in 1792, and appointed to the leadership of the Committee _D’Instruction Publique_. Sieyès was too prudent and, possibly, too humane to take any prominent part in that noisy and ill-regulated assembly; but at the trial of Louis XVI. he voted for death, without adding a single word beyond recording his vote; indeed, with the exception of the occasion when he publicly abjured his religious faith and declared he had ceased to be a priest, Sieyès never made a speech in the Convention, though he recorded his vote in favour of every revolutionary measure. He was asked, in later life, what he had done during the Terror. He replied significantly, “I lived.” In 1795 he went to Holland, and while in that country was offered a place in the Directorate, which he refused, but the _coup d’état_ of Vendemaire brought him out of his retreat, and he was named President of the Five Hundred (November 25, 1797). The following year he went as Ambassador to Berlin, and on May 16, 1799, he returned to Paris and replaced Rewbell in the Directorate. On June 19 he undertook the Presidency of the disorganised Government, his object being to make an end of Republicanism, and he joined forces with Bonaparte. During the Revolution of 18th Brumaire, Sieyès showed great ability and coolness, and Napoleon appointed him one of the three provisionary Consuls. He was soon succeeded by le Brun, after which his active political life may be said to have concluded, for Bonaparte, supported by the army, easily effaced his rival. The constitution planned by Sieyès was not even discussed, and Napoleon entirely destroyed his public influence by creating him a Senator, and bestowing upon him as a national gift the fine estate and château of Crosne.