JACQUES-ANDRÉ EMERY. - Superior General of the Sulpicians, b. at Gex on 26 Aug. 1732, d. at Paris on 28 Apr. 1811. He entered the novitiate of St Sulpice in Nov. 1757 and was ordained priest on 11 Mar. 1758. Professor of dogmatic theology at the Seminary of Orléans from 1759 to 1765, and of moral theology at Lyons from 1765 to 1775, he subsequently became superior of the Seminary of Angers (1776–82). On 10 Sept. 1782 he was appointed Superior General of the Company of St Sulpice, following the resignation of M. Le Gallic. In this role, as well as in his work of reforming the seminaries to which he devoted particular attention, Emery demonstrated wisdom, prudence, and firmness—qualities that characterized his entire conduct during the turbulent period in which he lived.
During the Revolution and the Empire he was truly the conscience of the French clergy, offering moderating counsel especially to the fiery Cardinal Maury and to Cardinal Fesch, Napoleon’s uncle.
The question of the oaths demanded by the civil authority gave rise to delicate problems that Emery had to resolve in the absence of the bishops who had emigrated abroad. The oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy he regarded as an usurpation by the State; Emery refused to take it, and all the members of the Company followed his example.
As for the oath of liberty-equality imposed on 3 Sept. 1792, considered purely civil and therefore extraneous to religious matters, Emery authorized and took it himself, in the general interest of the Church, while the clergy—especially those in exile, ignorant of the state of the Church in France—judged it illicit. On 15 Mar. 1793, Emery issued a declaration explaining the meaning he had given to the oath he had taken. Nevertheless, on 16 July of the same year the Holy See ordered that it not be taken, deeming it equivocal.
Meanwhile, Emery had been imprisoned in Sainte-Pélagie and then released thanks to the intervention of his cousin Mme de Ville (19–31 May 1793). He was arrested a second time on 16 July of the same year and remained in prison until 23 Oct. 1794. After his release he was obliged to leave Paris because of attacks by the constitutionalists in the *Annales de la Religion*. He withdrew to Gex, then to Nyon in Switzerland, and from there wrote to Pope Pius VI to inform him of the conditions in France; he returned to Paris in July 1796.
The Brumaire coup d’état raised new problems: Cardinal Maury, in agreement with the Count of Provence (Louis XVIII), sought to incite the Roman Curia against the Consulate, and the ecclesiastics in exile thought they could serve the cause of religion by their attachment to the monarchy.
Meanwhile, the First Consul had already begun negotiations for the Concordat, and Emery contributed his prudence to the process. He distrusted Bernier, an ambitious and compliant negotiator; he established relations with Spina, the papal envoy; he had an audience with the First Consul and warned him against those around him, in particular Fouché. After the signing of the Concordat, he had frequent meetings with the nuncio Caprara, to whom he provided information on the state of the Church, and he exercised his influence on Portalis while keeping the intriguer Bernier at a distance. Following the resignation of most of the bishops of the old regime and the reduction in the number of ancient dioceses, measures consecrated by Pius VII’s brief *Tam nulla*, the see of Arras was offered to Emery; but he refused II.
Emery’s influence meanwhile grew among the bishops, and he assumed a role of capital importance in the history of the Church in France. He formally condemned the Organic Articles in the name of theology and canon law; and he gave very wise advice regarding the retractions to be imposed on the ten constitutional bishops, who had become concordatory bishops, on numerous ecclesiastical questions that arose especially after the death of Portalis.
From Sept. 1800, in order to restore the formation of the clergy, he reopened the Seminary of St Sulpice. He then reconstituted the Company of the Priests of St Sulpice, and to the older Sulpicians who had had to abandon the seminaries to take up other posts he asked them to resign those posts in order to devote themselves entirely to the service of the seminaries and thus restore the Sulpician tradition in all its rigour.
Emery also devoted himself directly to the organization of the Church in France for the application of the Concordat, and defended the Pope against Napoleon’s pretensions. He criticized the *Catéchisme impérial*, and in 1807 Napoleon opposed him with Abbé Fleury in order to set forth his doctrine on the liberties of the Gallican Church and the rights of the Holy See. Meanwhile, by express will of the Emperor, Emery was appointed a member of the Council of the University. But he had a bitter enemy in Fouché, who procured the imperial decree of 15 Feb. 1810 suppressing the Company of St Sulpice. Emery was therefore obliged to retire to his country residence at Issy. It was in this year that the ecclesiastical court of Paris issued its sentence on the invalidity of Napoleon’s marriage to Joséphine de Beauharnais; the sentence was recognized and approved by Emery.
The Ecclesiastical Commission of 1811 raised delicate problems regarding the canonical institution of the bishops appointed by the Emperor. During the session of 17 Mar., while the members of the Council were on vacation, Emery, questioned by Napoleon, replied by defending the rights and authority of the Holy See; the Emperor congratulated him on his courage, as did Talleyrand. At this moment Emery’s health was failing; he died a few days later.
Among Emery’s works that deserve to be remembered: