GRÉGOIRE, HENRI. - French constitutional bishop, b. 4 Dec. 1750 at Vého (Lorraine), d. 26 May 1831 in Paris. He studied theology at the Seminary of Metz and was ordained a priest in 1775. A vicar at Merimont and curate at Emberménil, he was elected in 1789 as a deputy to the Estates General. From the order of the clergy, he joined the Third Estate among the first and on the night of 4 Aug. 1789 he became a fervent advocate of the abolition of ecclesiastical privileges and above all supported the suppression of the annates.
Imbued with Gallican ideas, he was among the most strenuous supporters of the civil constitution of the clergy; he deluded himself into believing he could reconcile the Catholic religion with the extremism of the new ideas and was the first to take the required oath. Elected constitutional bishop in the departments of Sarthe and Loir-et-Cher, he opted for the see of Blois (1790). Too late did G. realize the error he had committed: only in the session of 17 Brumaire of Year II, when the bishop of Paris, Gobel, frightened by the threats of the revolutionaries, came to the tribune to abjure his faith and lay down the episcopal insignia, did G. disdainfully refuse to follow his example and, in the name of freedom of worship, proclaim the right to remain faithful to religion.
After the fall of Robespierre he spoke in favor of religious freedom and, although his words met with the opposition of the Assembly, the Convention nevertheless approved shortly thereafter a law guaranteeing the right to celebrate worship publicly. This positive side of G.'s conduct is, however, overshadowed by the continual struggle he waged against the Holy See and against the Catholics who remained faithful to the visible Head of the Church. He remained a resolute supporter of the constitutional Church; he formed a Comité des évêques réunis; he founded a dedicated newspaper, the Annales de la religion; he gave impetus to the election of bishops in accordance with what the law on the civil constitution of the clergy prescribed; he extended this law to the French colonies in America and established new dioceses there with titulars appointed by him. After the Concordat of 1801 G. had to renounce the administration of the diocese of Blois. He left France together with the Jansenist Degola, his friend, and made a journey through England, Holland and Germany. Having returned to his homeland, he was appointed senator for life by Napoleon, but, mindful of the Concordat which had forever destroyed all his hope of detaching the French Church from Rome, he systematically opposed imperial policy. After the Restoration he stood as a candidate in the elections to the Chamber in 1819 and succeeded in becoming a deputy, but because of his past the election itself was annulled. At the point of death he refused to retract the oath he had taken to the civil constitution of the clergy and therefore did not receive a religious burial. He wrote a great deal: the Histoire des confesseurs, des empereurs, des rois et d'autres princes and the Histoire des sectes religieuses are on the Index (decrees of 11 June 1827 and 18 Aug. 1828).