Refractory clergy

It controlled roughly 10% of all French land, levied mandatory tithes upon the populace, and collected revenues from its estates, all of which contributed to the Church's total income, which it was not obliged to disclose to the state.

[4] Nonetheless, these events show that a desire to check the power and privileges of the Church was gaining momentum before the Revolution erupted.

In an attempt to find a peaceful resolution to mounting popular unrest and calls for reform, King Louis XVI first convened the Assembly of Notables in 1787 and then revived the Estates-General in 1789.

During the 1787 Assembly, clerical representatives strongly opposed any reforms directed towards the Church,[5] but by the meeting of the Estates-General, internal divisions began to form.

[9] New bishops were forbidden from seeking confirmation from the Pope, but were allowed to write him to inform him of their position and reassert a unity of faith.

While "reform" had been the stated goal by revolutionaries before, anti-religious rhetoric calling for the abolishment of the Church as a whole began to gain prominence.

Never had royalists or other counter-revolutionaries had popular constituencies, but there were many who believed the state had no right to meddle in the affairs of God to this degree and were loyal to their local priests.

Some were vehemently ethically opposed, such as Maximilien Robespierre, who argued that atheism was a dangerous product of aristocratic decadence, and believed that a moral society should at least acknowledge the provenance of a Supreme Being.

Others had more practical objections, knowing that deep-seated religious beliefs would not be eliminated quickly, and that mobilizing popular support for the Revolution was of top importance.

Louis was a devout man, and while he was required to give public approval to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, in private he rejected it.

The attack on the clergy was potentially the tipping point that eventually led to the King's doomed flight to Varennes in June 1791.