GREGOIRE, HENRI

born Dec. 4, 1750, Vho, Lorraine, Fr. died May 20, 1831, Paris French prelate who was a defender of the Constitutional Church, the nationalized Roman Catholic Church established in France during the Revolution. Born into a poor peasant family, Grgoire entered the priesthood and became cur of Embermnil. In 1789 he was elected to the States General as a deputy for the clergy. After the Third Estate (the unprivileged order) converted the States General into the Revolutionary National Assembly (June 17, 1789), Grgoire worked for the union of the clergy with the Third Estate and for the abolition of Negro slavery. After expressing his objections to certain features of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which set forth the plan for nationalizing the church and was enacted in July 1790, he took the oath of allegiance to the government and then became the Constitutional bishop of Loir-et-Cher (the diocese of Blois). As deputy of the third Revolutionary assembly, the National Convention, Grgoire in September 1792 proposed the abolition of the monarchy and in November demanded that Louis XVI be brought to trial. During the de-Christianizing campaign of late 1793 and early 1794, Grgoire continued to wear clerical dress and to profess his faith openly; as a member of the Committee of Public Instruction, he tried to save monastery libraries and religious works of art. After the collapse of the radical democratic Jacobin regime in July 1794, Grgoire was instrumental in securing the restoration of freedom of worship and guided the reorganization of the Constitutional Church. Grgoire opposed the coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799), by which Napoleon Bonaparte seized power. His election to the Senate in 1801 was regarded as a protest against Napoleon's consular regime and against the Concordat of 1801, which was a reconciliation with Rome that marked the end of the Constitutional Church. Grgoire voted against the proclamation of the empire in 1804 and proposed the deposition of Napoleon in 1814. After the Second Restoration of the monarchy in 1815, Grgoire stood firmly by his views on the Civil Constitution. In 1819 he was elected a deputy but was not allowed to take his seat, resulting in a cause clbre.