BERNIER, ETIENNE-ALEXANDRE. - Bishop of Orléans, b. 31 Oct. 1762 at Daon, d. 1 Oct. 1806 in Paris. Doctor of theology and parish priest of St-Laud d'Angers, he refused to take the oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. He was one of the leaders of the Vendée insurrection, but in 1799, after 18 Brumaire, he began negotiations with the republican government and persuaded the rebels to put an end to the uprising. A Gallican, he was chosen by the First Consul to conduct, in his name and 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 to him. Nevertheless, in Apr. 1802 the legate Caprara granted him the right to take part in the episcopal administration of Paris, an office that led him to hope for appointment as coadjutor. In Oct. 1802 he became bishop of Orléans. Pius VII created him cardinal, but he was reserved in pectore, because Napoleon opposed the publication, mindful that B. had been one of the most ardent Vendée insurgents; and it was never published.
Bernier, Étienne-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, especially p. 48 ff.; L. De Lanze de Laborie, Les débuts du régime concordataire à Paris: l'épiscopat du card. De Belloy (1802-1808), in Revue des questions historiques, new series, 38 (1907), especially p. 133 ff.; J. Leflon, E. B., lettres, notes diplomatiques, mémoires, rapports inédits, Paris 1932; id., E. A. B., Evêque d'Orléans, 2 vols., ibid. 1948. Silvio Furlani
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“BERNIER, ETIENNE-ALEXANDRE.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. II (1949), p. 840. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/bernier-etienne-alexandre.