Réparer son erreur

• Published in: Chrétiens et sociétés XVIe-XXe siècles Vol. 29; pp. 139 - 162
• Main Author: Guillaume Colot
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: Laboratoire de Recherche Historique Rhône-Alpes (LARHRA UMR 5190) 01-04-2023
• Subjects: civil constitution of the clergy; Oath; retraction
• ISSN: 2267-7143; 1965-0809
• DOI: 10.4000/chretienssocietes.9650

Between 1789 and 1790, more than 200 newspapers were created in Paris. Fewer than those called « revolutionary » newspapers and which appeared at the same time as the Patriote movement in the summer of 1789, there are newspapers that devote all of their lines to evoking religious questions concerning French Catholics and the Church of France. A first moment provoked the appearance of new newspapers at the time of the discussions and the vote of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790). This law, as well as the oath that will accompany it, feeds a real editorial schism as well as dogmatic that can be read day after day in the Parisian sheets. A few weeks after the obligation to take the oath, some newspapers publish advertisements of the taking of the oath while others publish retractions. These are short texts often accompanied by justifications to explain their reversal. The analysis of these explanations is essential to try to identify the identity of this group as well as the feelings that cross it. Against the official discourse that tries to preserve a semblance of national unity undermined by the major reforms of parliamentarians, « the retracted » reluctantly assume the costume of the adversary or even enemy, carrying the vices and evils denounced by the newspapers and constitutional priests (sworn). A mirror game is set up where the image built by the editors is totally reversed from one newspaper to another.