Monday, October 22, 2007

The French Revolution and the Church

My kind of article. Some of the main characters from my novels are mentioned here, including Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Talleyrand. The Church dies but rises again. To quote:
At one point Pope Pius VI warned King Louis XVI that he was leading France into heresy and error by approving the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. This warning from the Pope was the beginning of this truly believing and pious French King's total alienation from the Revolution; all along he had tended to fight harder against the revolutionary measures imposed on the Church than against those curbing his own royal power. In the end, of course, the King's opposition to the Revolution brought him death on the guillotine; King Louis XVI truly was a martyr for his Catholic faith.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the article! I took a class on Church history as a sophomore in college so it was a good (long) refresher on the time period.
Messy and dirty politics--unsurprising. Yet French Catholics maintained the faith.

elena maria vidal said...

Well, the royal family and the peasants in the Vendee certainly remained faithful. Not sure about everybody else though.

Anonymous said...

You have always described his death as that of a martyr.

elena maria vidal said...

Yes, because he was. Pope Pius VII thought so, too.