[Le Coz, Claude] Accord des vrais principes de l'eglise, de la morale et de la raison, sur la constitution civile du clerge de France. Par les eveques des Departemens, membres de l'assemblee nationale constituante. Paris, Desenne; Chez Pichard le jeune; Chez Leclere, 1791. [Bound with] Lettre des eveques constitutionnels, membres de l'Assemblee constituante, au Pape, en lui envoyant l'ouvrage fait pour la defense de la Constitution civile du clerge. 8vo. 238, 16 pp. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt spine.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that caused the immediate subordination of most of the Catholic Church in France to the French government. A schism was created, resulting in a French Catholic Church loyal to the Papacy, and a "constitutional church" subject to the French state.
One stipulation of this constitution was that the appointment of priests and bishops in Revolutionary France would be by vote as opposed by the church.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed and some of the support for this came from figures that were within the Church, including the revolutionary priest Henri Grégoire, who was the first French Catholic priest to take the Obligatory Oath. However, almost all bishops opposed the law and refused to take the loyalty oath it required. In addition, over half of lower clergy also refused.
The law was extremely divisive and proved to be a turning point in the French Revolution, becoming one of the causes of the coming civil war within France in the 1790. It would be repelled in 1801.
Condition: Minor rubbing, chip to side of front board. Lacking spine label. Front endpaper loose. Occasional spotting.