born Dec. 4, 1750, Vého, Lorraine, France
died May 20, 1831, Paris
French prelate who defended of the Constitutional Church in the French Revolution as well as the rights of Jews and blacks.
Elected to the National Assembly (1789), he worked to unite the clergy with the Third Estate . Initially opposed to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy , he later became the Constitutional bishop of Loir-et-Cher (1790). In the de-Christianizing campaign of 179394, he continued to wear clerical dress and profess his faith openly. After the collapse of the Jacobin regime, he was a leader in restoring freedom of worship and reorganizing the church. He opposed Napoleon 's regime and the Concordat of 1801 that ended the Constitutional Church. He supported the independent republic of Haiti created in 1804. He served as adviser to the Jewish council convened by Napoleon in 1807.