Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Henri Grégoire

GRÉGOIRE, Henri (1750-1831), bishop of Blois and French revolutionist, was born at Yeho near Luneville, 4th December 1750. After studying at Metz and Nancy, he became cure of Embermesnil and professor at the college of Pont-a-Mousson. In 1783 he was crowned by the academy of Nancy for his loye de la Poeaie, and in 1788 by that of Metz for an Essai sur la regeneration 2>hysiqi(e ct morale des Jidfs. He was chosen in 1789 by the clergy of the district of Nancy to represent them in the states- general, where he took a leading part in the deliberations, and gave energetic support to the republican?. Along with four other cures he abandoned his order and joined that of the tiers ctat ; he presided at the permanent sitting of sixty- two hours while the Bastile was being attacked by the people, and made a vehement speech against the enemies of the republic ; and he subsequently took a prominent ^hare in abolishing the privileges of birth and religion. Under the new constitution of the clergy he was chosen bishop by the department of Loir-et-Cher, taking the title of bishop of Blois. As a member of the national assembly he pro posed the motion for the abolition of the kingly office, which was carried by acclamation. During the trial of Louis XVI., being absent with other three colleagues on a mission for the union of Saxony to France, he along with them wrote a letter urging the condemnation of the king, but omitting the words a mort ; and he endeavoured to save the life of the king by proposing in the assembly that the penalty of death be suspended. His subsequent action was very influential in moderating extreme republican views: he opposed the national renunciation of Christianity, and was the first to advocate the reopening of the churches; exerted himself to get measures put in execution for re straining the vandalistic fury against the monuments of art ; extended his protection to artists and men of letters, and obtained for them pecuniary encouragement from the state ; and devoted much of his attention to the reorganization of the public libraries, the establishment of botanic gardens, and the improvement of technical education. He also took a great interest in negro emancipation, and on his motion men of colour in the French colonies were admitted to the same rights as whites. On the establishment of the new constitution, Gregoire was elected to the council of 500, and after the 18th Brumaire he became a member of the new legislative assembly, In this capacity he voted in the minority of five against the proclamation of the empire, and opposed the creation of the new nobility and the divorce of Napoleon from Josephine; but notwithstanding this he w r as subsequently created a count of the empire and officer of the legion of honour. During the later years of Napoleon s reign he travelled in England and Germany, but in 1814 he had returned to France and was one of the chief instigators of the action that was taken against the empire. After the second restoration he was excluded from the Institute, and when in 1819 he was elected to the assembly by the department of Isere, his election was annulled. From that time, therefore, he lived in retirement, occupying himself in literary pursuits and conducting a voluminous correspondence with most of the eminent savants of Europe; but as he had been deprived of his bishopric and of his pension as a senator, he was compelled to sell his library to obtain the means of support. He died at Paris, May 20, 1831. As he had remained steadfast to his republican principles the ecclesiastical authorities refused him the last offices of religion, and the rites of Christian sepulture, but through the intervention of the civil power mass was said over his body in the church of the Abbaye aux Bois by a proscribed priest ; and after the hearse set out from the church the populace unyoked the horses and themselves drew it to the cemetery of Mont Parnasse. Gregoire forms a striking exception to most of the French revolutionists in combining zeal for republicanism with, a moderation which sought to check every form of licence, and with a steadfast adherence to the religion of which he was a priest ; and it was further a remarkable feature of his character that, though a sincere Roman Catholic, he was thoroughly tolerant of the religious views of others.

Asides several political pamphlets, Cregoire was the author of Histo ire des sectcs religieuses, depuis Ic commencement du siecle dernier jusqu a Vepoque actuelle, 2 vols., 1810; Essai historiqv.e sur les libertes de Veglise gallicane, 1818; DC I influence du Christianisme sur la condition des fcrnmes, 1821 ; IHstoire dcs confcsscurs, des cmpcreurs, dts rois, et d autres princes, 1824; IHstoire du mariaye dus prttres en France, 1826. Gregoircana, ou resume general de la conduitc, des actions, et dcs Merits de M. Le Comic Henri Greyoire, preceded by a biographical notice by Cousin d Avallon, was published in 1821 ; and the Memoircs ccchsiastiqucs, politiqucs, ct litteraircs de Gregoire, with a biographical notice by H. Carnot, appeared in 1840.