Rachel Evans
France has had a long historical association with the Catholic Church, dating back to the early centuries of Christianity. The country's founding and subsequent history were significantly influenced by Catholic beliefs and practices, which played a pivotal role in shaping its cultural, social, and political landscape. From the early adoption of Christianity to the French Revolution and beyond, the interplay between the state and the Church has been complex and often contentious, with periods of religious revival and persecution shaping the country's religious landscape.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| First written records of Christians in France | 2nd century |
| Conversion of Clovis I from paganism to Catholicism | 496 |
| Formation of the political and religious foundations of Christendom | 800 |
| French government's longstanding historical association with the Catholic Church | 800 |
| French Revolution | 1789-1799 |
| Heavy persecution of the Catholic Church | Post-French Revolution |
| Religious revival in France | Post-French Revolution |
| Official policy of the French Republic | Laïcité (absolute neutrality of the state with respect to religious doctrine) |
| Percentage of Catholics in France in 2020 | 47%-88% |
| Stronghold for the Traditionalist Catholic movement | Recent decades |
| Role of the Catholic Church during World War II | Attempts at justification for silence on the status of Jews |
| Recognition of the role of Catholics in the rescue of Jews | Post-World War II |
| Post-war France | Deeply rooted and widespread Catholic values and beliefs |
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What You'll Learn
Clovis I's conversion to Catholicism in 496
Clovis I, born around 466, was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler. He succeeded his father, Childeric I, as king of the Salian Franks in 481 and ruled until his death in 511. Clovis's kingdom began in the region encompassing modern Belgium and northeastern France, expanded south and west, and became the most powerful in Gaul.
Clovis was born a pagan but converted to Catholicism in 496. He was baptized by Remigius in Reims, France, and his conversion is considered pivotal in Frankish history. Before accepting Catholicism, Clovis was interested in the Christian heresy of Arianism and even considered adopting it. However, his Catholic wife Clotilde, a Burgundian princess, persuaded him to abandon paganism and adopt Catholicism. Clovis's adoption of Catholicism instead of Arianism led to widespread conversion among the Franks and eventually to religious unification across what is now modern-day France, the Low Countries, and Germany.
Clovis's conversion to Catholicism was significant for several reasons. Firstly, it set him apart from other Germanic kings of his time, such as those of the Visigoths and the Vandals, who had converted to Arian Christianity. By embracing Catholicism, Clovis gained the support of the Catholic Gallo-Roman aristocracy, which aided him in his later campaigns against the Visigoths. Additionally, Clovis's conversion strengthened his alliance with the Catholic bishops of Gaul, whom he recognized as his natural advisers and whose rights and property he protected.
Clovis's Catholic baptism was also important in the subsequent history of Western and Central Europe. His conversion to Catholicism established a strong link between the Crown and the Catholic Church, which continued throughout French history. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, forming the political and religious foundations of Christendom and further solidifying the French government's association with the Catholic Church.
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The French Revolution's impact on the Catholic Church
On the eve of the French Revolution, the French state was nearly bankrupt. The Revolution opened the way for a new approach that involved the Church. On 4 August 1789, the clergy agreed to give up the tithe and allow the state to take over its funding. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, adopted on 26 August, made no mention of the Catholic Church's special position. The French Catholic Church, known as the Gallican Church, recognised the pope's authority as head of the Roman Catholic Church but had negotiated liberties that privileged the authority of the French monarch.
The Revolution's impact on the spiritual aspects of French culture was the result of several policies devised by various French governments between 1789 and the Concordat of 1801. They formed the basis of the gradual trend toward dechristianization, later transformed into a less radical laïcité. Most scholars argue that the revolutionary government's goal between 1793 and 1794 was to reclaim the vast land, power, and money held by the Church in France and to terminate religious practice and exterminate religion itself. La Constitution Civile du Clergé (The Civil Constitution of the Clergy) was a law passed on 12 July 1790 that resulted in the immediate subordination of the Catholic Church in France to the French government.
The campaign against the Church was cruel and diabolical. On 17 July 1794, sixteen members of the Carmel of Compiègne: eleven Discalced Carmelite nuns, three lay sisters, and two externs were guillotined for refusing to take the obligatory oath called the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. They were buried in a common grave where a single cross now marks the remains of over one thousand guillotine victims.
The French population gradually split between those who supported the 'Constitutional Church' and those who remained loyal to the refractory priests. An oath became a referendum on whether one's loyalties were to Catholicism or the Revolution. Over 50% of parish clergy swore their loyalty to the Constitution, while those who refused were labelled 'non-jurors' or 'refractory priests'. A growing number fled overseas, joining the nobles and clergy who had already emigrated.
Napoleon came to power in 1799 ready to accommodate the continued presence of religious belief and practice in French society, not least to dampen counter-revolutionary opposition. Napoleon negotiated a reconciliation with the Church through the 1801 Concordat, whereby the State would subsidize Catholicism (recognised as the majority religion of the French), as well as Judaism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism.
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Napoleon Bonaparte's Concordat with the Church
The French Revolution (1789–1799) was followed by heavy persecution of the Catholic Church. The National Assembly had taken Church properties and issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which made the Church a department of the state, effectively removing it from papal authority. The revolution also stripped the church of its old rights and privileges, seized much of its land, and sold it to secular landholders. The increasingly radical French Revolution seemed on the verge, under Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety, of starting a new religion.
Napoleon Bonaparte, who became the First Consul of the French Republic in 1799, negotiated a reconciliation with the Church through the Concordat of 1801. The Concordat was an agreement between the First French Republic and the Holy See, signed by Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII on 15 July 1801 in Paris. It remained in effect until 1905, except in Alsace–Lorraine, where it remains in force. The Concordat sought national reconciliation between the French Revolution and Catholics and solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France, with most of its civil status restored.
Napoleon took a utilitarian approach to the role of religion. He could now win favour with French Catholics while also controlling Rome in a political sense. As part of the Concordat, Napoleon presented another set of laws called the Organic Articles, which controlled Papal control over bishops, favouring government wishes. The Concordat restored some ties to the papacy, but it was largely in favour of the state, which now had greater power over the Pope than previous French regimes. The Catholic Church gave up all its claims to Church lands that were confiscated after 1790, and the Pope agreed to accept the seizure of church property.
The Concordat of 1801 also provided for the State to subsidize Catholicism, as well as Judaism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. It declared that "Catholicism was the religion of the great majority of the French" but not the official state religion, thus maintaining religious freedom. The First Consul (Napoleon) was given the right to nominate bishops, and the bishoprics and parishes were redistributed. Seminaries were again made legal, and the government engaged to give bishops and curés suitable salaries.
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The Catholic Church's role in New France
The Catholic Church has had a long and complex history in France, dating back to the early days of Christianity. While France has not been founded on Catholic beliefs per se, the Catholic Church has undoubtedly played a significant role in the country's history, including in its colonies, known as New France.
In the 16th century, the Catholic Church was the dominant form of institutionalized Christianity in Western Europe, and France was no exception. The Pope, as the head of the Church, held immense spiritual and temporal power, and the French monarchy had a longstanding historical association with the Church. This relationship was solidified in 800 when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, establishing the political and religious foundations of Christendom.
The Catholic Church played a significant role in the establishment and administration of New France. The Church was highly influential in France, and as the colonists were predominantly Catholic, it was also influential in the colonies. The Bishop, appointed by the King of France with the Pope's approval, was the head of the Church in New France. He oversaw the secular and regular clergy and had a great deal of influence over the colony's administrators, including the Governor and the Intendant. The Bishop was also part of the Sovereign Council, which governed the colony.
The Catholic Church in New France was also involved in the social and spiritual lives of the colonists. Religious restrictions, such as not working on Sundays or eating meat during Lent, were imposed, and the Church prohibited certain social events like evening dances. Sunday mass was an important gathering for the colonists, and priests used this opportunity to communicate messages and orders from the colony's authorities. The Church also played a role in education and healthcare, with the founding of schools and hospitals, such as the first hospital in New France, Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, founded by the Augustines in 1639.
Several religious communities, including the Jesuits, the Augustines, the Hospitalières, and the Ursulines, arrived in New France in the 17th century. These communities played a critical role in the settlement and defence of the colony, particularly in their work with the Indigenous people. The Jesuits, for example, established missions among the Wôbanakiak, the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk), and the Wendats, while the Sulpicians ministered to the Iroquois people.
The Catholic Church in New France served as an adjunct of the state, assuming that all inhabitants of the colony were members of the Church and that faithful Catholics were loyal subjects. This assumption of religious uniformity contributed to the Church's influence and power in the colony.
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Anticlericalism in the Third Republic
The French Revolution (1789–1799) was followed by heavy persecution of the Catholic Church. Anticlericalism became extremely violent during this period, as revolutionaries claimed that the church played a pivotal role in the systems of oppression that led to the revolution. Many clerics were killed, and French revolutionary governments tried to put priests under state control by making them employees. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, adopted on 26 August 1789, made no recognition of the special position of the Catholic Church. With all authority located henceforth within the nation, the Church now found itself open – and vulnerable – to further reform.
The creation of the Third Republic in 1871 intensified the old-time conflict between clericals and anticlericals. Anticlerical legislation was enacted by the victorious republicans. The Jesuits were suppressed in 1880, and the Ferry laws (1881–82) established free, secular education, compulsory civil marriage, and the opportunity for divorce. Anticlerical international gatherings in Paris during the 1880s led to the establishment of the Fédération nationale de la libre pensée, a strongly anti-clerical society uniting socialists, anarchists, and liberals. The separation of church and state, enacted in 1905, abolished the Concordat of 1801, thereby ending the state salaries that had supported the clergy throughout the century.
In the years following their relocation outside France, boarding schools of congregants were accused by some senators of trying to "recruit" French youth from abroad, supposedly placing the French Republic "in jeopardy". Republicans' anti-clericalism softened after World War I as the Catholic right-wing began to accept the Republic and secularism as allies against socialism. Anticlericalism after 1945 tended to be a matter of historical opposition, favored by communist, socialist, and some middle-class parties, rather than a response to actual circumstances.
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Frequently asked questions
The French Revolution (1789–1799) was followed by heavy persecution of the Catholic Church. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, adopted on 26 August 1789, made no recognition of the special position of the Catholic Church. The Enlightenment intellectuals of the time criticised the Church and systematically questioned every aspect of French government and society.
The French Revolution opened the way for a new approach to the Catholic Church in France. The clergy agreed to give up the tithe and allow the state to take over its funding. The Revolution also witnessed the rise of revolutionary 'cults' that worshipped in former churches, now known as 'temples of reason'. However, these cults failed to gain popular support, and Catholicism remained resilient.
Napoleon Bonaparte negotiated a reconciliation with the Church through the 1801 Concordat, which recognised Catholicism as the majority religion of the French. During his rule, numerous religious congregations were revived or grew rapidly, and he accommodated the continued presence of religious belief and practice in French society.
In recent decades, France has emerged as a stronghold for the Traditionalist Catholic movement. In the 20th century, dechristianization made deep inroads, but by the 21st century, estimates of the proportion of Catholics in France range between 47% and 88%, including lapsed Catholics.
