24
Ibid., pp. 185f.
25 Claudy
Valin,
La Rochelle – La Vendée 1793 (Paris, 1997) pp. 423f.
Chapter 9 Th
e End of the Bishop of Saintes
1 Denys Joly d’Aussy, AHSA II, pp. 305–40, reprinted as Annexe Historique in Nicolas Faucherre and Antoine Pellerin, Crazannes, logis alchemique (Paris, 2003), p. 206.
2 Louis Audiat, Deux Victimes des Septembriseurs (Paris, 1897), pp. 11f.
3 Claude-Furey-André Legrix, Journal de M. l’Abbé Legrix (1781–91), Receuil 2/1
(Saint-Jean-d’Angely, 1867), p. 3, n. 9.
4 G. Lenotre, La Maison des Carmes (Paris, 1933), p. 10.
5
Marillet, Volume 1, pp. 20ff .
6 Th
ey were ‘a church within the church’ that followed the teaching on spirituality and church organization of the seventeenth-century Bishop Cornelius Jansen.
7
P. Lemonnier (ed.), Augustin-Alexis Taillet, ‘Église de Saintes depuis 1789 jusqu’à la fi n de 1796’, AHSA XXI (1902), p. 253.
8
Legrix: p. 53.
9
Still preserved in the impressive church dedicated to him on the hill above Saintes.
10
Ibid., p. 6.
11 Colin
Jones,
Th
e Great Nation (London, 2002), pp. 226–35.
12 Grégoire was among the first of the clergy to join the third estate deputies who had made their ‘Tennis Court Oath’ not to disperse until they had been recognized by the king as the National Assembly. He was a leading opponent of slavery and later, as a deputy in the National Convention, he opposed the king’s execution. He was elected constitutional bishop of the Loir et Cher department, and a member of the Council of Five Hundred under the Directory. Even during the Terror, he continued to wear his purple cassock openly in defiance of the law.
13 William
Doyle,
Jansenism (Basingstoke, 2000), p. 83.
14
Taillet: ‘Église de Saintes’, p. 255.
15
Legrix: p. 53.
16
Taillet: ‘Église de Saintes’, p. 256.
17 Arch. Dep. Chte. Mtme., L696 ter, 6. Th
e bishop’s printed ordinance is also con-
tained in this dossier, as is the lawyer Héard’s four-page response.
18
Arch. Dep. Chte. Mtme., L695, 2.
19
Arch. Dep. Chte. Mtme., L696 ter, 6.
20 Lenotre:
La Maison, p. 10, n. 2.
21
Marillet, Volume 3, pp. 113ff .
22 Th
is is not borne out by the account given of the protection that Regnaud de Saint-Jean d’Angély off ered the queen (see concluding chapter).
23
Ibid., pp. 147–9.
24
After the king’s younger brother, the future King Charles X (1824–30).
25
Ibid., p. 151.
Notes
243
26 Th
ese priests were ‘animated’ (a suitable French term) by the principal of the college, the Abbé Jacques-Henri Émery, who, even after his incarceration in the Conciergerie, normally the ante-room to the guillotine, managed to organize young priests clandes-tinely to administer rites for the dying to Catholics from places within the crowd that watched as the tumbrels passed. Robespierre left him in gaol rather than executing him, so ‘that lamentation and hysteria might cease’. James Wassermann (ed), UnaBirch, Secret Societies (Lake Worth, 2007), pp. 150–1.
27 Lenotre:
La Maison, pp. 4–19.
28
Taillet: ‘Église de Saintes ’, p. 259.
29 Lenotre:
La Maison, pp. 19f.
30 Th
ese are the same decrees as applied to the Vendéan priests murdered at La Rochelle six months later (see Chapter 5).
31
Ibid., pp. 41–5.
32
Taillet: ‘Église de Saintes’, pp. 259–61.
33
According to Colin Jones, a more realistic fi gure is between 1,100 and 1,500. Th e
Great Nation (London, 2002), p. 461.
34
Marillet, Volume 3, pp. 146f.
35 ‘Th
e tocsin that will sound is not the warning of alarm; it is the call to charge against the enemies of the nation. Gentlemen, to overwhelm them we must have Audacity, more Audacity, always Audacity – and France is saved.’
36
Full and suitably horrifi c accounts in the last 30 years in English of the September Massacres include those by Christopher Hibbert, Th
e French Revolution (London,
1980), pp. 169–80; and Simon Schama, Citizens (London, 1988), pp. 631–9. See also the important comments by William Doyle, Th
e Oxford History of the French
Revolution (Oxford, 1989), pp. 191–2.
37
Baron Chaudruc de Crazannes, ‘Inventoire des Meubles de Mgr de La Rochefoucauld au Château de Crazannes’, RSA XXVI (1907), pp. 34–6.
Chapter 10 A Tribulation of Oath Takers
1 Claude-Furey-André Legrix, ‘Canon of the cathedral church of Saintes’, Journal de M. l’Abbé Legrix (1781–91), Receuil 2/1 (Saint-Jean-d’Angely, 1867), p. 51.
2
Ibid., p. 52.
3
Ibid., pp. 53–4.
4
Ibid., p. 54.
5 A. Th
ibadeau, ‘Extrait des déliberations du district de Saintes’, Receuil XX (1923–31), p. 44.
6
Now in use as a conference hall known as the Salle Saintonge.
7
Legrix, p. 55.
8 Louis Audiat, Deux Victimes des Septembriseurs (Paris, 1897), p. 285.
9
Taillet, ‘Eglise de Saintes’, p. 308.
10 As we have seen, Pierre-Louis de La Rochefoucauld was still alive and living in Paris.
11 Ibid.
12 Th
ibadeau, ‘Extrait des déliberations’, p. 44.
13 Quoted in Pierre-Damien Rainguet, Biographie Saintongeaise (Saintes, 1851) (reprinted Geneva, 1971), p. 501.
244 Th
e Unseen Terror
14
Ibid, p. 502.
15
Ibid, p. 503.
16 Ibid.
17
Ibid, p. 503 n. 1.
18
Marillet, Volume 2, pp. 111–2.
19
Glastron survived to go into exile and died as curé of La Vallée in 1813.
20 Ibid.
21
Taillet, ‘Eglise de Saintes’, p. 283.
22
Marillet, p. 112f.
23
Ibid., p. 115.
24 Ibid.
25
Ibid., p. 116.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28
Ibid., p. 117.
29
Ibid., p. 118.
30
Tailllet, ‘Eglise de Saintes’, pp. 308–12.
31
Ibid., pp. 313–5.
32 John
Hardman,
Louis XVI (London, 1993), p.225.
33
Saintes et l’Histoire de ses Rues (Société d’Archéologies et d’Histoire de la Charente-Maritime), p.194f.
34
Mirabeau was licentious, immoral, a menace to his family’ reputation, but was taken into the confi dence of the royal family, and his premature death was a factor in the slide into regicide because the king no longer had a spokesman in the National Assembly.
35
Taillet, ‘Église de Saintes’, p. 316.
36
Ibid., n.1. For an imaginative account of Robinet’s motivations, see Michel Th eodo-sevic, Robinet, Évêque de
Saintonge (Saint-Jean-d’Angély, 2004), with illustrations of the area à l’époque by Ann Bosset.
37
Taillet, ‘Église de Saintes’, p. 318, n.1.
38 Ibid.,
318f.
39 Ibid.,
319.
40 Ibid.
41 Perhaps it was he who was chosen as defence counsel by those charged with the murder of the priests on the quay at La Rochelle on March 21 and 22, 1793
(Chapter 5).
42
Marillet, Volume 4, p.70.
43
Taillet, ‘Église de Saintes’, p. 319, n. 2, by the more charitable Lemonnier.
44 Th
ere may be come confusion for readers in English in this and subsequent chapters.
In France the curé is what the English rector or vicar is. Th e vicaire is an assistant priest,
called the curate colloquially in English.
45 See pp. 34–35.
46
Taillet, ‘Église de Saintes’, pp. 333–334.
47
Ibid., p. 334, n.1.
48 See pp. 19–29. Th
e memorial tablets were put up after the Second World War,
p. 15.
Notes
245
Chapter 11 National Property and Closed Convents
1 William Doyle, Th
e Oxford History of the French Revolution (Oxford, 1989), p. 69.
2 Robin Harris, Talleyrand, Betrayer and Saviour of France (London, 2007), p. 46.
3 Colin Jones, Th
e Great Nation (London, 2002), p. 201.
4 Robert Darnton, Forbidden Best-sellers of Pre-revolutionary France (London, 1997), pp.
249ff ; and Chantal Th
omas, Th
e Wicked Queen (ET Julie Rose, NY, 1999), passim.
5 Quæorens, ‘La Municipalité de Saint-Saturnin de Séchaud pendant la periode révolutionnaire,’ RSA XXVI (1906), p. 393.
6 Th
e Department of the Charente-Maritime acquired the abbey in 2002 and has conserved what remains of the remarkable romaine buildings.
7 Claudy Valin, Autopsie d’un Massacre (Saint-Jean-d’Angély, 1992), pp. 131–5.
8 Francine Ducluzeau (ed.), Histoire des protestants charentais (Aunis, Angoumois, Saintonge) (Paris, 2001), pp. 215–34.
9 Extrait de la Gazette des Tribunaux, Médiathèque-municipale-François-Mitterand, Saintes, FetAdew S.21764Mar.
10
It is now the Médiathèque François-Mitterand de Saintes where Marillet’s Histoire secrete is kept.
11
X, ‘La Mort de l’Abbaye de Saintes’, RSA XLI (1926), pp. 315–9, and ‘La Mort de l’Abbaye de Saintes, (suite)’, RSA XLII (1927), pp. 21–5.
12
‘La Mort de l’Abbaye de Saintes’, pp. 316f.
13
Ibid., pp. 317f.
14
Inability to decide anything without a previous order from the authority in the grade above is very signifi cant: the culture of the revolutionary years was in that respect no different from what had preceded it. Society was still deferential, even if the people who commanded the deference had changed.
15
Marillet, Volume 3, p. 55.
16
‘La Mort de l’Abbaye de Saintes’, p. 319.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19
‘La Mort de l’Abbaye de Saintes (suite)’, p. 22.
20
Ibid., p. 24.
21
Anatole Laverny, ‘Deux Prêtres de l’Ancien Diocèse de Saintes’, RSA XXVIII (1908), pp. 25ff .
22
Marillet, Volume 4, p. 72.
23
‘La Mort de l’Abbaye de Saintes (suite)’, p. 24.
24
Ibid., p. 23.
25 Ibid.
26
It is remarkable that the beautifully carved pendant of the Virgin and Child in what is now the auditorium in the abbey survived all the hammering and chiselling.
27
Ibid., p. 25.
Chapter 12 Disappearing Priests
1
After his time in Bilbao, Saint-Médard made his way to England. He was back in the Saintonge in 1802, where he died 20 years later. He was made vicar-general of the new diocese of La Rochelle, which included Saintes, after the Concordat.
2 AHSA XII (1892), p. 440.
246 Th
e Unseen Terror
3 P. Lemonnier, La Déportation Ecclésiastique à Rochefort, 1794– 1795 D’Après les documents offi
ciels, Publication de la société des archives historiques de la Saintonge et de l’Aunis (La Rochelle, 1916), pp. 1–45.
4
Arch. Nat. F 19,412,414, quoted by Lemonnier op. cit.
5 Th
e first two of these laws were used to ‘justify’ the murder of six priests on the quay at La Rochelle on 21–22 March 1793 (see Chapter 5).
6
Arch. Nat. D XVI. 3 – 31 – 180, quoted by Lemonnier op. cit.
7 Lemonnier: La Déportation, pp. 20–4.
8
Ibid., p. 36.
9
Ibid., pp. 25–7.
10
Ibid., p. 32.
11
Ibid., p. 43.
12
Ibid., p. 44.
13 Yves
Blomme,
Les Prêtres Déportés sur les Pontons de Rochefort (Saint-Jean-d’Angély, 1994), p. 149.
14 1852–70.
15
Ibid., pp. 60–2.
16 Th
e frigate built at Rochefort to take the marquis de Lafayette to support the Americans against the British in 1778, a replica of which is now being built in a dry dock there.
17 Dominique
Droin,
L’histoire de Rochefort, Tome 2 (Saint-Laurent-de-Prée, 2002), pp. 204 and 206.
18
Ibid., pp. 313f.
19
Ibid., p. 315.
20 Blomme:
Les Prêtres Déportés, facing p. 96.
21 P. Lemmonier, ‘Les Journées de 21 et 22 mars 1793 à La Rochelle’, RSA XXXII (1912), pp. 66–74.
22 In
modern
Tunisia.
23 Blomme:
Les Prêtres Déportés, pp. 128f.
24
Ibid., pp. 78–9.
25
Ibid., pp. 80–5.
26
Ibid., p. 86.
27
Ibid., p. 94.
28 Droin:
L’histoire de Rochefort, p. 326.
29 Blomme:
Les Prêtres Déportés, p. 95.
30 Th
e exploitation of oyster beds had not yet become the major industry of the coast.
31 Droin:
L’histoire de Rochefort, p. 326.
Chapter 13 Persecution and Reinstatement
1 Th
e prominent Jansenist, among the fi rst to take the civil oath, by then the constitutional bishop of Loir and Cher and a member of the National Convention.
2 Yves Blomme, Les Prêtres Déportés sur les Pontons de Rochefort (Saint-Jean-d’Angély, 1994), pp. 113–4.
3
Ibid., p. 114.
4
Marillet, Volume 4, p. 130.
Notes
247
5
Ibid., p. 131.
6
Ibid., p. 133.
7
Ibid., p. 138.
8
Ibid., pp. 139–46.
9 Colin Jones, Longman Companion to the French Revolution (London, 1988), p. 244.
10
Marillet, Volume 4, pp. 147–53.
11
Ibid., pp. 174f.
12
Ibid., pp. 177ff .
13
Ibid., pp. 200f.
14
Ibid., p. 202.
15
Ibi
d., pp. 211f.
16
Ibid., p. 270.
17
Receuil, Tome VI (1881–3), pp. 224–59.
18 Dominique
Droin,
L’histoire de Rochefort, Tome 2 (Saint-Laurent-de-Prée, 2002), p. 358.
19
Ibid., p. 340.
20 Blomme:
Les Prêtres Déportés, pp. 145f.
21 Ibid.
22 Elaine and Jimmy Vigé, Brouage, Ville d’histoire et Place fort (Saint-Jean-d’Angély, 1989), pp. 170–98.
23
In spite of his attachment to the Pope, de Coucy refused to acknowledge Bonaparte’s Concordat with Pius VII, and was one of the leaders of the Petite Église, which continued to maintain its independence of successive French regimes well into the twentieth century. Nevertheless, at the request of Louis XVIII he accepted nomination as Archbishop of Reims in 1817 but he did not take up the post until four years afterwards. Declared a Peer of France in October 1822, he died at Reims on 8 March 1824 in his 78th year.
24 Th
einer, Histoire des Deux Concordats, Tome II (Paris, 1858), p. 21.
25 Georges
Rodriguez,
L’Église en Aunis et Saintonge (Royan, 1989), pp. 140ff .
26 Paul
W.
Schroeder,
Th
e Transformation of European Politics 1763–1848 (Oxford, 1994), p. 224.
27
It was a politician from Pons in the Charente-Inférieure who was largely responsible for the passing of the 1905 legislation, Émile Combes.
28
‘Registre des Délibérations du Conseil Municipale d Jonzac’, RSA IX (1898), p. 392, quoted in Jean-Noël Luc (ed.), La Charente-Maritime, L’Aunis et la Saintonge des origines à nos jours (Saint-Jean-d’Angély, 1981), p. 320.
Chapter 14 Hope and Disillusion
1 Arch. Dep., Char. Mtme., L458, edited by Quæorens, ‘La Municipalité de Saint-Saturnin de Séchaud pendant la periode révolutionnaire’, RSA XXVI (1906), pp. 321–39 and 391–403.
2 William Doyle, Th
e Oxford History of the French Revolution (Oxford, 1989), p. 124.
3
He was the notary who carried out the inventory on Bishop de la Rochefoucauld’s property at Crazannes in September 1792.
4 Quæorens: ‘La Municipalité de Saint-Saturnin’, pp. 322f.
5
Ibid., p. 323.
6 Jacques Lamare, La Vie rurale avant et pendant La Révolution (Niort, 1982), pp. 139–42.
248 Th
e Unseen Terror
7 Colin Jones, Longman Companion to the French Revolution (London, 1988), pp. 241f.
8
1791, written out in full.
9 Quæorens: ‘La Municipalité de Saint-Saturnin’, p. 329.
10
Ibid., p. 330.
11
Ibid., pp. 330ff .
12
Ibid., p. 394.
13 A.
Th
ibadeau, ‘Extrait des déliberations du district de Saintes’, Receuil XX (1923–31), p. 44.
The Unseen Terror Page 35