Grégoire, Henri

(1750-1831) (Abbé Grégoire)

   ecclesiastic, political figure

   Born in vého, near Lunéville, Henri Grégoire, or abbot Grégoire as he is known, was a deputy for the clergy to the estates general in 1789. He joined the Third Estate at the time of the revolution of 1789 and was a representative for the extreme Left to the Constituent Assembly. There, he was a supporter not only of the abolition of all privileges, but also favored universal suffrage, and was the first to take the oath of loyalty to the civil constitution of the clergy (November 1790). Constitutional bishop of Blois (1791), he was elected to the Convention, where he helped to pass the decrees that granted civil and political rights to Jews and abolished slavery. He also initiated an inquiry that would lead to a debate about suppressing the use of patois and promoting the French language (1790-91). A member of the Council of Five Hundred (1795), then the Legislative Corps (1800), and senator (1802), abbot Grégoire tried without success to organize a Gallican church (see gallicanism) (national councils of 1797 and 1802). opposed to the First Consul and the concordat, he supported the overthrow of napoléon i and, under the Restoration, took his place with the liberal opposition as a deputy for Isère (1819). Abbot Grégoire is the author of, among others, Histoire des sects religieuses (1810), and his Mémoires (posthumous, 1839).