Role of the Church in the French Revolution - Term Paper Example

Role of the Church in the French Revolution The church over the years has been revealed to have had great roles in shaping the world as it is known in modern times by having influenced politics, he economy and even society. In the case of France, the church had unique roles that ranged from politics to the society, and this saw the world France change dramatically through the French revolution, where it had roles that drew the revolution into place and even found its place after the revolution. As a result, this essay seeks to discuss the role of the church throughout the French revolution from before it took place, during the revolution and even after its occurrence. Before the French revolution, the church played the largest role in managing and running the country, and this is from the point of view of different scholars who were both within France and even foreigners. From an external perspective, the church played a key role before the French revolution in that it was one of the major sources of power due to the support it provided to the different leaders of the time. This was especially the case for the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, in which the church was perceived as the central source of socio-political power for all of France. The church provided unconditional support for the ruling royal monarchy, which is was more of an absolute monarchy than a democratic monarchy. Through the support that the church offered in an explicit to tis absolute monarchy, it controlled the renaissance of France in that it was the first to allow this process to commence before taking a hold of it and passing it to royalty. Among the royalty, the church was deemed to be source of absolute power owing to the support that the church offered to the monarchical leaders. This implied that the king was of a divine nature and could, therefore, not be challenged in any way and by anyone as he was an installation of God. It was the church that brought about this absolute nature of the monarchy and enforced the role of French kings who became self-proclaimed servants of the Lord. In addition to this declaration by the different kings, there was the element of kings having a theory “Theory of the Divine Right of Kings”, and from this, the church was responsible for having kings proclaim that they ruled by the will of God. This made them close to being of a divine nature in that they were not responsible to any man or creature on earth, but rather to God. The role of the church, therefore, was imposition of earthly leadership upon the people of France and supporting through religious values that were considered to be highly misguided during the revolution. However, in the period before the revolution, the church vested large amounts of power in the monarchy such that kings during this period exercised unlimited powers and the church did nothing about the evils that royalty committed. The church by the original vestment of spiritual leadership in France did not condemn any of the activities that royalty engaged in at any given, which was inclusive of wasteful practices by the leaders, as well as arbitral tax increments. This role of the church was indicative of negligence to the plight of the people, which was part of why the French revolution took place as the church backed every decision that the absolute made including execution and dispensation of justice, as well denial of basic rights to subjects, who were the French people. In addition to this, the church brought about confusion amongst the subjects of France by having overlapping duties and roles with the then government, or rather governments as this took place over a long time. Dispensation of justice was one of the parts that brought this confusion, where it contributed heavily to lack of justice and uniform law under which subjects could be governed. In France, there were three courts whose roles overlapped, one of them was the church’s court, whose rulings, and laws were contradictory with the royal and financial courts leading to widespread injustice and lack of guarantee of personal liberty. The church was known to deliver laws and rulings that were written in Latin, meaning that most of them were out of reach of the common people, meaning that they were unjust, as they could not be understood. This made the church very unpopular amongst the ordinary citizens, who were the majority as injustices were delivered by church courts against the common person while influential citizens abused the power of the church to suit their own needs with letters of cachet (Betros). The church’s role also included being part of the bourgeois in France where combined with nobility, the clergy made roughly one per cent of the entire French population. In spite of this, the church was highly privileged as it owned large tracts of land in France together with nobility, and collected all forms of dues from ordinary citizens as rates for land use. The church was one of the most powerful institutions in that they acquired large amounts of revenue from collection of dues from peasants, making them part of what drove the French economy. The church also played political roles besides proclaiming that the king had divine power and dominion over the people in that before the revolution, the church was part of nobility. This was to an extent of living in the royal court, where they became part of the ruling class. It was also the role of the church to keep critics of the king in check, as was the case of Voltaire who was forced to retract his writing on philosophy and leadership, which direct criticism against the king, and partially against the church. Voltaire criticised the church for its practices in oppressing the people and seeking to fulfil the needs of the rich at the expense of biblical ideologies. As the church was used to torment political critics of the French government, it secluded citizens from the country and attendance of church matters, which was the case for Voltaire in that he denied a church funeral in spite of having revoked some of his intellectual writings against the church and royal court, as well as the French government (Oliver 140). The church also enjoyed political privileges such as fiscal benefits in political consideration, where they were exempt from all forms of taxes as they were considered to be part of nobility. This is considering that all taxes came from peasants making the church unjust, and part of the main causes of French injustices as it had too much wealth in its hands already by owning a fifth of land in all of France. The church also enforced a fanatic like following of the church, especially for the Catholic Church amongst the peasants. Before the French revolution, the church was known to be a uniting force amongst the peasants and the bourgeoisie. This is because the church commanded respect for nobility and the monarchy so that peasants and the bourgeoisie paid their loyalties to nobility and the king so that they did not revolt against the monarchy and the king in spite of the oppression and unfair practices perpetrated against them. The church engaged in its unfair practices to maintain rapport with nobility and still manage to impose religious seniority amongst peasants (MacCaffery 300). Besides this, the church enforced religious practices that were not entirely for the benefit of the spiritual wellbeing of French citizens, as a large percentage of the population was catholic. In all this, the church played a role in formulating misleading ideologies that divided the church and its clergy into nobility and the third estate. The third estate was made up of all the junior clerics, who were opposed to the ideas that the nobles and senior clerics promoted that were superfluously selfishly inclined to the king and his cronies. The church also led factions of intolerance to minority religions and their followers, as it was these religious groups that called for reforms and highlighted the oppression that the church imposed. At the same time, certain nuns were highly beneficial in assisting peasants and the elderly by looking after the sick and the elderly. During the French revolution, the church lost much of its power, which means that it did not have much of a role to play, but it had one nonetheless. During the revolution, the church played an inconsequential role in France, where it became subject of revolutionary trends by losing much of its land, in which case most of the land was nationalized and then sold off to anyone interested (Blackbourn 779). It also lost its ability to collect tithe, which was ten per cent of all produce made by farmers and other Christian followers. This translated to loss of revenue for the church so that it had no socio-economic impact on the French society, except in contributing to the democratization of governance of the people. During the revolution again, there was mass decentralization of the government such that the church was split from the government to make the two separate entities that were independent from each other. As a result of this, the church gained a new role, which was either to support the revolution and denounce the ways of the church or quit being in the church service due to its abuses and wealth that it had amassed before the revolution. In this period, too, due to the many changes in governance and roles of different offices, the church was keen on protecting itself from the change, especially after the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, where the church was not given a special place in the country. In the times that followed the French revolution, the church had an active role, that was more than that which took place during the revolution, although less than the one it had before the same revolution. After the revolution, the church had an active role in attempting to restore its trust in the people after losing much popularity amongst French citizens before and during the revolution. In these times, the church sought to negotiate with the then leader, Napoleon Bonaparte in order to have an active role in its independent proceedings of religion. As a result, there came about division in the church between those that supported the new leadership and those that did not, which was similar to what had happened during the revolution, and this time it resulted in disrupted the indoctrination of an entire generation. It is this that then saw the Catholic Church lose its grip in France as anticlericalism came up and a large number of clerics were executed and others exiled (Blackbourn 778). Following these events, the church again turned into a passive role, where only monks and nuns were engaged in church activities, and a number of other clerics that embraced the revolutions. However, those that embraced the revolution took the church to a new level of leadership, where they inculcated their doctrines into the youth of the revolution’s generation. Besides this, one of the largest roles was the attempts that the church made to achieve a middle ground between Napoleon and the church so that the Catholic Church could re-establish itself again. This was in spite of the separation of church from government, meaning that unless there was a negotiation, the church did not stand a chance in re-establishment. As a result of this attempt, Napoleon struck a deal with the Concordat in 1815, which was the first time the church managed to win over the government in that radical anti-clericalism and extreme loyalty to the catholic church were balanced (Hosack 32). It is in this that the church functioned as a reconciler between two warring religious factions, and played politics by supporting the new government of Napoleon Bonaparte. This is following the signing of the Concordat that saw all clerics take an oath of loyalty in order for church functions to proceed. These included indoctrination of the French populace and erection of seminaries that did not enjoy government funding. This role of negotiating with the leaders was one of the largest and striking a deal and even larger in that, the church to let power slip further from them by allowing the king to appoint bishops, and this was no longer the pope’s duty (Hosack 33). As a result, the church played a significant role in allowing the church to be used for political purposes, which was similar to what the church was used for previously before the revolution. In addition, there was also the role of the church in endorsing Napoleon by going as far as taking an oath to support him, which guaranteed that there would be no opposition or future revolutions. This saw the church’s functions shift from seeking redress from the public and into being a puppet for Napoleon. Altogether, the church played significant roles over the years leading to, during and even after the revolution, where the church became part of unpopular institutions with the public. This was following its role in politics, social unrest and even economic oppression of French citizens during its influence in these activities. However, it can be noted that the role of the church in post revolution France was similar to that of pre-revolution France, except that it in post-revolution France the church lacked the power it originally had. During the revolution, the church also did not much influence or roles to make any significant impact on France due to warring factions. Works cited Betros, Gemma. "The French Revolution and the Catholic Church | History Today."History Today | The World's Best History Writing. n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2013. . Blackbourn, David. "The Catholic Church In Europe Since The French Revolution. A Review Article." Comparative Studies in Society and History 33.04 (1991): 778. Print. Hosack, Kristen Napoleon Bonaparte’s Concordat and the French Revolution. 2010.Web. 21 Sep. 2013. MacCaffrey, James. History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2006. Print. Oliver, Edmund Henry. The social achievements of the Christian church. Vancouver: Regent College Pub., 2004. Print. Read More