1. Maurice Hutt argues that the bas-clergé and “patriots” never really shared the same reformist vision of an ideal society. See his “The Curés of the Third Estate: the Ideas of Reform in the Pamphlets of the French Lower Clergy in the period 1787–1789,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 8 (1957): 92,Google Scholar and “The Role of the Curés in the Estates General of 1789,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 6 (1955): 190–220.Google Scholar See also, for example, McManners, John, French Ecclesiastical Society under the Ancien Régime: A Study of Angers in the Eighteenth Century (Manchester: 1960),Google Scholar especially chap. 7; and Necheles, Ruth F., “The Curés in the Estates General of 1789,” Journal of Modern History 46 (1974): 425–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Timothy Tackett notes that the priests in his region of interest were remarkably loyal to reform, “The Citizen Priest: Politics and Ideology among the Parish Clergy of Eighteenth-Century Dauphiné,” Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture 7 (1977): 307.Google Scholar Members of the Third Estate and priests who advocated reform quickly assumed the title “patriot,” arguing that it was patriotic to support the purpose of the Estates General and the expressed will of the King. The title stuck, even after it became clear that the King no longer supported further reform. Those who opposed further reform and became the troops of the counterrevolution became known as “royalists,” at least in Nîmes. At the same time, priests who took the oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy became known as “constitutionalists” and were said to be “constitutional.”

2. The names of curés who adhered to reform in 1789 are recorded at the end of the Requête au Roi (n.p., 1789), Archives Nationales (hereafter cited as AN), Series Ba 57(2), file 141, dossier 6, document 13, while the list of priests in the Department of the Gard who swore and refused is deposited in the Archives Départementales du Gard (hereafter cited as AD Gard), 1L.8, 209, and is reprinted in Rouvière, François, Histoire de la Révolution française dans le département du Gard, 4 vols. (Nîmes, 1887–1888), 1:518–529,Google Scholar and in Durand, Albert, Histore religieuse du département du Gard pendant la Rèvolution française, 3 vols. (Nîmes, 1918), 1:421–431.Google Scholar

3. For a longer analysis of the development of regional reform sentiment, see Allen, Edward A., “The Genesis of Revolution in the Gard: The Convocation of the Estates General of 1789 in the Sénéchaussée de Nîmes,” (Ph.D. diss., Tulane University, 1982),Google Scholar pt. 2, chap. 2.

4. “Les Prévôts, dignities, chanoines & Chapitre de l'église cathédrale de Nismes à [?, probably Necker or Villedeuil], Nîmes ce 25e novembre 1788,” AN, Ba 57(2), file 141, dossier 6, document 1; and “Mémoire: Sur le droit de l'église cathédrale de Nîmes de concouir à l'Election des Députés aux Etats Généraux du Royaume dans les assemblées convoquées par Bailliage et Sénéchaussée,” [undated, but probably around 25 November 1788], AN, Ba 57(2), file 141, dossier 6, document 2, On the hostile relationship between the upper clergy and village priests in the region, see Allen, Edward A., “Popular Resistance to Ecclesiastical Taxation: Dîme Controversies in Lower Languedoc and their Social Consequences, 1750–1789,” in Proceedings of the Fifteenth Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 21–24 02 1985, (Baton Rouge, 1985).Google Scholar

5. “Les Curés congruistes du diocèse de Nîmes to [?, probably Necker or Villedeuil] à Marguerittes près Nismes en Languedoc, 16e décembre 1788,” AN, Ba 57(2), file 141, dossier 6, document 9. A similar protest was launched simultaneously by the curés of the diocese of Toulouse. SeeChassin, Charles L., Les Cahiers de Curés en 1789 (paris, 1882), p. 124,Google Scholar citing protests in AN, B.3, fols. 249–262. The translation is mine.

6. “Joannis, curé to [?, probably Necker or Villedeuil], à Marguerittes près Nismes bas Languedoc, 17e décembre 1788,” AN, Ba 57(2), file 141, dossier 6, document 10. This letter describes and transmits a now missing “Mémoire” that it indicates was composed “au nom des curés congruistes du diocèse de Nîmes, le 27e du mois dernier [November].” See also André, Abbé René, Histoire de Marguerittes (Nîmes, 1983), pp. 155, 196–198,Google Scholar who notes that Joseph Joannis was curé at Marguerittes since 1773 and that he had established a reputation as a talented preacher.

7. Délibération des trois ordres de contribuables du diocèse de Nîmes. Du lundi 29 Décembre 1788 (Nîmes, 1789), pp. 7 and 13–16;Google Scholar AD Gard, Fonds Légal/613.

8. “Joannis, curé to [?, probably Necker or Villedeuil], à Marguerittes preès Nismes, 12e janvier 1789”, AN, Ba 57(2), file 141, dossier 6, document 11. In February, curés of the diocese of Uzès issued a similarly radical demand for representation at the Estates General in February. Led by a group of middling village priests (that is, priors-curé), these curés complained in graphic terms about the condition of ordinary people and village priests. See “Mémoire addressée à Monseigneur de necker Minister d'état, et Directeur général des finances par MM. les curés du diocèse d'uzès,” (27 February 1789), AN, H.942–943, file 2, document 72; and “Les curés du diocèse d'uzès,” “Requête au Roi,” (22 February 1789), AN, H.942–943, file 2, document 124. Neither document mentions the other.

9. “Les Curés du Diocèse de Nîmes to Necker, Nîmes le 28 janvier 1789,” reprinted by Rouvièe, Fran'ccehil;ois, “Requête des Curés, 1789,” Lundis révolutionnaires: Etude sur l'histoire de la Révolution dans le Gard (Nîmes, 1891), pp. 24–25;Google Scholar and Requėte au Roi (Nîmes, 26 01 1789),Google Scholar AN, Ba 57(2), file 141, dossier 6, document 13, which is signed by 71 curés of the Diocese of Nîmes and which claims that those who did not sign were either “sick or absent.”

10. “Adresse au ROI par les Curés du Diocèse de Nismes,” Journal de Nismes 8, 19 02 1789, pp. 65–67.Google Scholar Said the author: [Some] people dare to advance [the opinion] that the Curés, above all the ones on portion congruë, being neither property owners nor taxpayers, but mere pensioners, ought to be excluded from the Estates General, which are only a purely economic Assembly. The Curé of Marguerittes has demonstrated the fallacy of this assertion, in a written letter to H[is] M[ajesty's] Ministers, which he has attached to this request.” Joannis later sent yet another, even more strident attack on the wealth of the upper clergy to the Ministers. See “Joannis, curé to [?, probably Necker or Villedeuil], Nîmes 10 février 1789,” AN, Ba 57(2), file 141, dossier 6, document 12.

11. The Règlement allowed all curés to attend a regional (that is, Sénéchaussée) assembly and to vote, either in person or by procuration. “Règlement fait par le Roi pour l'Exécution des lettres de Convocation du 24 Janvier 1789,” in Brett, Armande, Recueil des documents sur la convocation des Etats-Généraux de 1789,4 vols. (Paris, 1898–1913), 1.28.B, pp. 66–67.Google Scholar

12. “Instructions & pouvoirs que la Chambre Ecclésiastique de Ia Sénéchaussée de Nîsmes donne à ses députés aux Etats généraux,” (March 1789), AN, B.3, vol. 96, fols. 465–476, and reprinted in Devic, Claude and Vaissete, Jean, Histoire générale de Languedoc, avec des notes et les pièces justificatives, 15 vols. (Toulouse, 1872–1892),Google Scholar vol. 14, cols. 2552–56; and Duclaux-Monteil, J., “Etats-Généraux de 1789: Election des Députés du Clergé, de la Noblesse et du Tiers-Etat dans la Sénéchaussée de Nîmes, comprenant les Diocéses de Nîmes, d'Alais et d'Uzès” Mémoires & Comptes-Rendus de la Société Scientifique б Littéraire d'Alais 5 (1873):43.Google Scholar

13. James Hood has explored this phenomenon of the translation of longstanding hostilities into revolutionary and counterrevolutionary terms in a number of articles. See especially “Protestant-Catholic Relations and the Roots of the First Popular Counterrevolutionary Movement in France,” Journal of Modern History 43 (1971): 245–275,Google Scholar and “Permanence des conflits traditionnels sous la Révolution: l'exemple du Gard,” Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine 24 (1977): 602–640,Google Scholar in which he exploits a vast quantity of the available primary source materials concerning the first year of Revolution in the Gard.

14. Hood cites the example of the “curé of Courbessac, who at the beginning of 1789 had agitated against episcopal authority, [and] engaged before the end of the year in antiCalvinist propaganda”; “Patterns of Popular Protest in the French Revolution: the Conceptual Contribution of the Gard,” Journal of Modern History 48 (1976): 272.Google Scholar

15. Described by Goiffon, AbbéEtienne in Monographies Paroissiales, Paroisses de l'Archipréte d'Alais (Nîmes, 1916), p. 103,Google Scholar and in other, similar works

16. The evidence suggests quite the opposite of the convocation process—that it was remarkably free of intimidation and that people generally felt free to express their true sentiments. See my study of “The Genesis of Revolution in the Gard,” pp. 10–20 and passim, which presents much of this evidence.