Henri Grégoire

Henri Grégoire was born in 1750 at Vého near Lunéville, the son of a tailor. He received a good education at the Jesuit College in Nancy.  He became a curé of Emberménil.

In 1789 he was elected by the First Estate (the clergy) to the Estates General.  He was more than happy to join the Third Estate when they called for the other Estates join them.  He also supported the reform of the church within France.  He was the first clergyman to take the oath under the rules of Civil Constitution of the Clergy.  He would become the Bishop of Blois under the new regime.

He was one of the key early movers in France in the Society of the Friends of the Blacks.  He would write several pamphlets condemning the slave trade.  He insisted that free blacks should have the same rights as white people in the French colonies.  He would also campaign on improving rights for Jews across France.

He supported the abolition of the monarchy and demanded that Louis XVI should be brought to trial for his crimes against France.  When the King was trialled and found guilty Grégoire did seek for a temporary suspension of his execution in this he was not successful.

Despite the rising swell of dechristianisation and the opposing movement of the Cult of Supreme Being let alone rabid anti-clericalism circulating in political pamphlets Grégoire continued to wear his episcopal dress.  He was attacked in the press and in the Convention but he survived the Terror and after the fall of Robespierre he called for the reopening of churches across France.

He was part of the Five Hundred under Bonaparte’s reign he would resign as a bishop when the First Consul signed the Concordat with the Pope in 1801.  Despite being awarded the title of count by Bonaparte he would oppose the creation of the French Empire, oppose the Emperor’s divorce of Josephine and be stridently opposed to the return of the Corsican from his exile in Elba.

He would live until 1831 and never retract the oath he made to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.