The Protestant Reformation was widely perceived by the Roman Catholic Church in the nineteenth century as the first of two major and overlapping catastrophes, periods of profound change, spreading uncertainty, anxiety and chaos. It had at least, however, in response, inspired the vigorous, creative—and repressive—movement identified with the Counter-Reformation (inaugurated by the Council of Trent (1545–63)). The second period, represented by the French Revolution, beginning in 1789, and continuing in 1848, similarly represented a massive transformation, threatening destructive anarchy, and also stimulating a powerful counter-revolution. During these reactionary phases, the clergy, in collaboration with state institutions and social elites and the faithful in general, desperately sought to defend the Church they believed to be the only repository of the true faith of Jesus Christ, to fortify belief, combat the ‘Satanic’ forces of moral corruption and revolutionary disorder and to create a ‘counter-society’, the société parfaite.1 For the historian, understanding these complex processes of politico-religious confrontation and their profound impact at both national and international levels requires a recognition of context, as well as comprehension of the people involved—the historical actors—their institutional loyalties, mindsets, and social roles.
After 1789, the vast majority of churches and monastic buildings in France had been vandalized and then closed. Perhaps 20,000 priests left holy orders and a further 30,000–40,000 had emigrated; many were murdered.2 While some communities sought to safeguard their religious heritage, as a public act, Christian worship largely disappeared.3 Changing political circumstances leading to the Napoleonic Concordat, followed in 1815 by the restoration of the Bourbons in the person of Louis XVIII, would, however, eventually facilitate the renewed transmission of traditional faith together with theological/ideological and institutional regeneration, the gradual restitution of religious institutions and of the physical fabric of the Church.4 The latent strength of religious commitment and its revitalization, together with the ‘devotional revolution’ experienced during the nineteenth century, represented a dynamic process of (re)Christianization.5 A massive and continuing effort would also be necessary to combat the longer-term secularizing forces set in motion by a complex of economic, social and cultural changes.6
Every new confrontation, and particularly the revolutionary movements in 1830 and 1848, ensured that memories and fear of persecution would be reawakened. The establishment of ‘universal’ suffrage in 1848 would, however, promote conservative as well as democratic mobilization and substantially reinforce the political influence of the Church, its priests and of the Catholic laity. Through the inculcation of a clerical vision of society and politics, militant Catholicism would energetically promote religious and ‘moral’ revival, together with counter-revolutionary political strategies. A reinvigorated Church would respond positively to the charismatic leadership of its popes in adopting doctrinal and ideological positions towards the modern world based upon an overwhelmingly pessimistic and fundamentally intransigent position of défense religieuse.7 Such an outlook could, however, be combined with an apocalyptic confidence in the Second Coming of Christ which would inaugurate the final defeat of Satan and sin.8 Appeals to old spiritual and moral verities, together with the centralization of doctrinal authority within the Church, and trends towards greater uniformity of practice, were encouraged by the exploitation of emerging modern technologies and particularly of the communications systems (rail, telegraph, education and the mass media), which facilitated the transmission of ideas, religious mobilization and an ‘assertive confrontation’.9
Understanding ‘the dynamics of religious change’,10 and the capacity of the Church to define and to affirm its own interests, as well as to shape social attitudes and political ideologies depends on a profile of the clergy, of their outillage mental and their key role as cultural intermediaries.11 This should take into account the recruitment and training of priests and the hierarchical organization of the Church. Theology, evolving patterns of spirituality, ritual and symbolic representation and the relations between dogma and practice revealed by pastoral care and popular religiosity are all within our remit. A traditional top-down perspective has deliberately been adopted in recognition of the ‘overbearing hierarchical and doctrinal elitism’ of the religious institution,12 as well as the determination and enhanced capacity of the Papacy to impose a sense of discipline and moral order on both the lower clergy and the laity. The sources of internal unity and division, and the nature of the power struggles characteristic of any large organization similarly need to be delineated. The crucial questions are: Who were the clergy? Why did they think and behave as they did? How much influence did they wield?
A series of questions also needs to be posed concerning ‘the dialectical relationship between clerical representations and the reality lived or conceived by Christians’ and the wider practice (or rejection) of religion.13 How was the message received? Articulated initially by the Apostles, by the Fathers, councils and popes, and commented upon by numerous theologians and canon lawyers in a complex technical and rebarbative language. those theological ideas, approved by the religious hierarchy, were subsequently presented to the population in simplified form in sermons, catechisms, through confession, as well as in popular works of piety. How did these religious ideals influence individual perceptions, expectations and behaviour, as well as wider social relationships? Was religion—as an ideology—a more powerful motivating factor than class allegiance? To what extent did the Church and religion serve as integrative or as divisive forces in social and political life? How did relationships between the temporal and spiritual domains evolve? This will lay the ground for an assessment of the influence of the Church within social and cultural systems undergoing rapid change, in which the intensity of religious practice varied considerably between localities, and where seemingly contradictory processes of secularization and religious renewal were underway.
As well as representing a ‘source of personal inspiration and private sustenance, an interior form of mystical experience, faith is to a large degree socially constructed through interaction between the representatives of a hierarchical institution (the Church) and individuals belonging to distinct and diverse social milieux and parish communities’.14 Faith can be expressed in discourse, through material forms and representations, through the adoption of a sense of identity and also by means of political activity judged to be in the interests of the institution and of those values perceived by its leading decision-makers to be in need of protection and reinforcement. In these circumstances, the religious and the secular easily become confused. Thus, rather than simply offer an institutional history or a history of theology, it is also my intention to focus on the social contexts, the gendered processes of family and community socialization, and the developing social networks within which power was exercised, and ideas constructed, adapted and diffused, as well on the relationships between dogma and practice. It is also worth constantly bearing in mind that ‘the faith of a past age is of its age’15 and that ‘men and women of the past deserve to be considered on their own terms and in the context of their own social and cultural milieux’.16 In a book about the Roman Catholic Church in an age of revolution, contextualization is everything.17
Discussion of the Church as an institution in crisis, of the recruitment and instruction of its bishops, parish clergy, and the members of religious orders, of its hierarchical structures and internal discipline, and of the need to compensate for the losses suffered by its people and physical fabric during a period of revolutionary upheaval (Chap. 2) provides the basis for an exploration of its evolving doctrine(s) and sense of purpose (Chap. 3); for an assessment of the pastoral care provided to the parish community (Chaps. 4 and 5); and of the leadership and moral qualities of the clergy (Chap. 6); before final consideration of the reception of the religious message(s) (Chaps. 7 and 8). The period which began in 1789 in catastrophe, ended, in 1870, with the declaration of Papal Infallibility at the Vatican Council, the culminating act of the long and largely successful era of re-affi...