BERNIER, ETIENNE-ALEXANDRE. – Bishop of Orléans, b. 11 Oct 1762 at Daon, d. 1 Oct 1806 in Paris. Doctor of theology, parish priest of St-Laud in Angers, he refused to take the oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. He was one of the leaders of the Vendée uprising, but in 1799, after 18 Brumaire, he began negotiations with the republican government and persuaded the rebels to end the revolt. A Gallican, he was chosen by the First Consul to conduct, together with Spina, the initial negotiations for the Concordat of 1801. He secretly hoped to become Archbishop of Paris, but the elderly Belloy was preferred. Nevertheless, in April 1802 the legate Caprara granted him the right to participate in the episcopal administration of Paris, a position that led him to hope for a nomination as coadjutor. In October 1802 he became Bishop of Orléans. Pius VII created him a cardinal, but the appointment was reserved in pectore, since Napoleon, mindful that B. had been one of the most ardent of the Vendéans, opposed its publication, and it was never made public.
BERNIER, ETIENNE-ALEXANDRE
BIBL.: I. Rinieri, La diplomazia pontificia nel sec. XIX (Il Concordato tra Pio VII e il Primo Console, anno 1800-1802), Rome 1902, passim; F.-D. Mathieu, Le Concordat de 1801, Paris 1903, esp. pp. 48 ff.; L. De Lanzac de Laborie, Les débuts du régime concordataire à Paris: l’épiscopat du card. De Belloy (1802-1805), in Revue des questions historiques, new series, 38 (1907), esp. pp. 133 ff.; J. Leffon, E. B., lettres, notes diplomatiques, mémoires, rapports inédits, Paris 1932; id., E.A.B., Évêque d’Orléans, 2 vols., ibid. 1948. Silvio Furlani