He was a curate of the church of St Roch, Paris, when he was engaged as tutor to the children of the marquis of Choiseul, brother of Louis XVs minister, an appointment which proved to be the first step to fortune.

He was one of the leaders of the attack on the Bastille, and on 5 August 1789 he delivered an eloquent discourse by way of funeral sermon for the citizens slain on 14 July, taking as his text the words of St Paul, "Ye have been called to liberty".

During the next winter he organized within the Palais Royal the Social Club of the Society of the Friends of Truth, presiding overcrowded meetings under the self-assumed title of procureur general de la vérité.

He protested against the execution of Louis XVI in the Journal des amis (26 January 1793), and next month was denounced to the convention for prohibiting married priests from the exercise of the priesthood in his diocese.

[2] Despite his role in the church, earlier authors of this entry suggest he was a member of the atheistic secret society the Illuminati,[4] "whose Plan is to overturn all Government and all Religion, even natural; and who endeavour to eradicate every Idea of a Supreme Being, and distinguish Man from Beast by his Shape only.