Patriot and Priest

In 1790, the French revolutionary government reformed the Catholic Church and demanded that clerics swear an oath of allegiance to the nation and its vision for French Catholicism. Although half of France's parish clergy refused to accept the state-sponsored reforms, others became embroiled in this decade-long ecclesiastical experiment. This included Jean-Baptiste Volfius, a patriot, priest, and professor who embraced the changes in France and believed in the revolution's potential to create a purer church. Patriot and Priest presents a social and intellectual history of the French constitutional church in the Côte-d'Or and the career of Volfius, who became its bishop in 1791, as he struggled to create and run the church. Annette Chapman-Adisho addresses the daily experience of the constitutional clergy over the course of ten years, exploring the interactions between priests and local and national authorities, the response of the laity to the divisions in the French Catholic Church, the evolution of these issues over time, and the eventual reconciliation of the clergy following the Napoleonic Concordat with Pope Pius VII in 1801. Using a rich collection of archival sources, this book demonstrates that although the constitutional church was ultimately a failed project, its legacy had a lasting impact on the catholic Church in France. Tracing the social, political, and theological history of this reform effort, Patriot and Priest offers new insights into the French Revolution and its impact on French Catholicism.

Contributor: Annette Chapman-Adisho Annette Chapman-Adisho is associate professor of history at Salem State University.

"This book does what few others do: it puts anecdotal and personal flesh over the skeletal history of the Revolution's experiment in reforming the French Catholic Church to suit its ideology. It is also rare in that it is a micro-historical study of a single diocese whose bishop managed not only to survive the whole ordeal but also to keep both his faith and fidelity to the Revolution more or less intact from auspicious beginning to inglorious end. The month-by-month experiential details of the careers of Volfius and his subordinates are priceless in their occasional ups but far more frequent downs." Dale Van Kley, Ohio State University ---

"Chapman-Adisho is to be complimented for rescuing Volfius and the Constitutional Church in Burgundy from oblivion. This is a meticulously researched study that makes an important contribution to the study of clergy loyal to the French Revolution. One hopes that others will follow in her footsteps [Patriot and Priest] is original, timely and to be welcomed." Journal of Ecclesiastical History

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“Chapman-Adisho has made an admirable addition to the historiography of the revolution in the provinces. In particular, she deftly navigates the effect of the massive ecclesiastical reforms of the revolution on the life of one priest in particular and France’s provincial clergy in general.” XVIII. New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century