Pre-Revolutionary France has not fared well in modern historiography. It is generally characterized as a decadent culture, mired in steep decline across every facet of society. The clergy is singled out for particular abuse. Pro-Revolutionary propaganda has tended to portray the French clergy as ignorant, superstitious, hostile to political and scientific progress, and entirely beholden to the interests of the corrupt nobility. It is even alleged that the ignorance and aloofness of the clergy was a contributing factor to the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789.
But what was the true state of the clergy in pre-Revolutionary France? Such a question is broad and requires consideration of many factors, such as discipline, charitable work, piety, education, and pastoral care. A comprehensive study of so many variables would be truly immense and is beyond the scope of our poor abilities. We shall, however, conduct a general survey of the French clergy during the 17th and 18th centuries based on the testimonials of contemporaries (most of them non-Catholic and some even anti-Catholic). We shall focus in particular on the reigns of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI, spanning the years of 1643 to 1789, roughly a century and a half.
The Testimony of Edmund Burke
A compelling testimony to the state of the French clergy on the eve of the Revolution comes from English politician and philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797), as found in his famous 1790 essay Reflections on the Revolution in France. Though an Englishman and a Protestant, Burke was sympathetic to Catholic France and hostile to the revolutionary movement. In his essay, Burke reminisced glowingly about his encounters with French Catholic clergy in 1780, nine years before the outbreak of the Revolution. Burke wrote:
When my occasions took me into France, towards the close of the late reign, the clergy, under all their forms, engaged a considerable amount of my curiosity. So far from finding the complaints and discontents against that body which some publications had given me reason to expect, I found the clergy in general persons of moderate minds and decorous manners…I had not the good fortune to know a great many of the parochial clergy; but in general I received a perfectly good account of their morals, and of their attention to their duties. With some of the higher clergy I had a personal acquaintance; and of the rest of that class, very good means of information…they were more fully educated than the military noblesse; so as by no means to disgrace their profession by ignorance, or by want of fitness for the exercise of their authority. They seemed to me, beyond the clerical character, liberal and open; with the hearts of gentlemen, and men of honour; neither insolent nor servile in their manners and conduct. They seemed to me rather a superior class, a set of men, amongst whom you would not be surprised to find a Fénelon.
…I spent a few days in a provincial town, where, in the absence of the bishop, I passed my evenings with three clergymen, his vicars general, persons who would have done honour to any church. They were all well informed; two of them of deep, general and extensive erudition, ancient and modern, oriental and western; particularly in their own profession. They had a more extensive knowledge of our English divines that I had expected; and they entered into the genius of those writers with critical accuracy…
You had before your revolution about an hundred and twenty bishops. A few of them were men of eminent sanctity, and charity without limit. When we talk of the heroic, of course we talk of rare virtue…if this letter should ever come into their hands, I hope they will believe there are those of our nation who feel for their unmerited fall, and for the cruel confiscation of their fortunes, with no common sensibility. (1)
A Freemason Praises the Morals of the French Clergy
Another valuable testimonial comes from the dramatist and writer Louis-Sebastien Mercier (1740-1814). The observations of Mercier are of particular import because Mercier was a Freemason, and as such was certainly no Catholic partisan. Nevertheless, even the Freemason Mercier was compelled to admit to the moral uprightness of the Catholic clergy in his own time. In his 1775 work Mon Bonnet de Nuit, Mercier writes of the parochial clergy during the reign of Louis XV in the following manner:
I know many of these good country curates. Notwithstanding the extreme modicity [meagerness] of their livings, they find means of doing infinitely more good, than possessors, however generous, of millions. Their judicious and active charity creates for them a thousand resources. Their lives are innocent; their manners decent: they live far from the noise and notice of the world. Unknown, forgotten and content, their lives pass in the practice of the duties enjoined by the Gospel. How pleasing it is to me to render, thus publicly, justice to a portion of men, I so greatly honour! (2)
This passage is noteworthy as Mercier speaks specifically about the moral virtues found in the French clergy. It is common in literature and film to present the French clergy of this period as immoral, worldly, and aloof from the needs of the poor. Mercier’s passage, on the contrary, presents them as the unparalleled lights of French society, full of virtue and charity, working humbly to better the lives of their flock. Mercier’s accounts are generally considered very trustworthy on such matters; modern French historian Robert Darnton says of Mercier, “There is no better writer to consult if one wants to get some idea of how Paris looked, sounded, smelled, and felt on the eve of the Revolution.” (3)
Holy Exemplars Among the French Episcopacy
Well and good when it comes to poor country curates, but what about the episocpate? Were not French bishops of the late Ancien Regime gluttonous and lecherous, drowning in wealth and distracted by worldliness?
On the contrary, the episcopacy, too, offers eminent examples of piety and education. Though worldly, corpulent bishops certainly existed in pre-Revolutionary France (as they do in every age), there are more than enough examples of holy bishops to contradict the stereotype. A great example is Paul Godet des Marais, Bishop of Chartres (1647-1709). His virtue and piety are praised by none other than the Deistic socialist Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), himself not prone to flattery, especially towards members of the hierarchy. Saint-Simon says of the Bishop of Chartres:
This prelate was very learned, and particularly skilled in theology. His possessed wit, firmness of character, and elegance…His disinterestedness, piety, and rare probity were his only lustre. His conduct, doctrine and discharge of episcopal duty were irreproachable; his visits to Paris were both few and short.” (4)
Another bishop, François Chevalier de Saulx, the Bishop of Alais, tells the story of how Godet des Marais, already renowned for holiness, was first selected to be Bishop of Chartres and went on to become the confessor to the Madame de Maintenon, mistress to Louis XIV. He relates:
The person who took the news of his nomination to the bishopric of Chartres found him on his knees before a crucifix, in a small room, all the furniture of which consisted of a chair, a table, and a map of the holy land. He was only induced to acquiesce in his nomination by the order of his superiors. In 1693, the poor of his diocese being in great distress from a scarcity of provisions, he assigned over to them, without reserve, the whole of his revenue. All his stock of plate consisted of a single spoon, and a single fork; and these he once sold to relieve a poor man. Louis XIV wished to appoint him counselor of state and to nominate him to the rank of cardinal: he refused both dignities. He preached frequently and was little praised, though he made many converts to virtue. His letters to Louis XIV and other sovereign princes (to the pope, to the King of Spain) were worthy of the first ages of the Church.” (5)
As confessor to Madame de Maintenon, Paul Godet des Marais would have been one of the most well-connected bishops in the episcopacy, only one degree removed from the throne of the Sun King himself. If anyone were likely to be mired in worldliness, it would have been Godet des Marais. Yet we see him living in simplicity, praying without ceasing, refusing dignities the king wished to heap upon him.
Paul Godet des Marias was not a unique case. The French church at the time contained many such bishops. The state of the episcopacy at the turn of the 18th century may be summed up by French historian Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle, who said:
Never did the clergy of France display greater dignity of conduct, or more exalted talents, than under Louis XIV. A considerable number revived in themselves the zeal and profound doctrine of the fathers of the Church, uniting the inspired tone of the sacred writings with a happy imitation of the best models of antiquity, and enforced their authority still more by their virtues than their writings. (6)
Pastoral Care of Commoners
Besides the general quality of the episcopacy and the curates, which we have already mentioned, it is worthwhile to point out that the common folk were well looked after and educated by their pastors, especially through the practice of parish missions, which were just then taking off during the late 17th century and have continued to this day. An insight into the lives and work of the mission priests is given by Jean-Sifrein Maury, Archbishop of Paris (1810-1817), who said:
In the missions among the villagers…we find truly apostolical men, and real orators, gifted with a strong and bold imagination, acknowledging no other success than the conversions of repenting sinners and no other applause than their tears. Occasionally they fail in taste and descend into too familiar details, I admit it; but, they open a breach; they force their way and place themselves in the midst of conscience. They inflame the imagination, but they forcibly strike the senses. But the multitude follows and listens to them with enthusiasm. (7)
Conclusion
Any age has its ignorant, dissenting or immoral priests and prelates— witness some of the poor examples within the hierarchy of the United States! While the French clergy of the Ancien Régime certainly had problems, it is nevertheless a distortion to portray them as wholly inept, worldly, and unconcerned with their spiritual duties. There are always tares along with wheat in the field of the Lord, but in France, just as anywhere, the truths of the Gospel never ceased calling men and women to live lives of radical dedication to our Lord in piety and holiness.
(1) Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Doubleday: New York, NY., 1989), 160-162
(2) Charles Butler, Church of France (Hansard & Sons, 1817), 221
(3) Robery Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (W.W. Norton & Co: New York, NT, 1996), 120
(4) Butler, 19
(5) Ibid.
(6) Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle, Histoire de France durant le dix-septieme siecle livre, Vol. 4
(7) Jean-Sifrein Maury, Essay on the Eloquence of the Pulpit, 18. Translated by John Neale Lake (Andrews & Penniman, Baltimore, 1797), 62-63. Available online at https://quod.
lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N24525.0001.001/
Phillip Campbell, “The Quality of the Clergy in Pre-Revolutionary France,” Unam Sanctam Catholicam, Nov, 27, 2011. Available online at https://unamsanctamcatholicam.com/2025/10/the-quality-of-the-clergy-in-pre-revolutionary-france