Revolution confuses nationality. The French Revolution drove from France’s shores many émigrés who carried the conviction that they, rather than the masters of the new order, enshrined the true France. This sentiment was encouraged by the experience of exile which produced an exaggerated consciousness of Frenchness, especially among the clergy.
This paper has two intentions. Firstly it wishes to show how internal and external influences worked on the exiles in England to create a mentality of deep separation. Secondly it wishes to hint at the implications of this separation especially in that highly developed sense of religio-national identity which became so clear a characteristic of the emigration.