GREGOIRE, HENRI (1750-1831), French revolutionist and constitutional bishop of Blois, son of a peasant, was born at Veho near Luneville, on Dec. 4, 1750. Educated at the Jesuit col lege at Nancy, he became cure of Embermenil and a teacher at the Jesuit school at Pont-a-Mousson. In 1783 he was crowned by the academy of Nancy for his Eloge de la poesie, and in 1788 by that of Metz for an Essai sur la regeneration physique et morale des Juifs. He was elected in 1789 by the clergy of the bailliage of Nancy to the states-general, where he became conspicuous in the group of deputies of Jansenist or Gallican sympathies who sup ported the Revolution. He presided at the permanent sitting of sixty-two hours while the Bastille was being attacked by the peo ple, and made a vehement speech against the enemies of the nation. He subsequently took a leading share in the abolition of the privileges of the nobles and the Church. Under the new civil constitution of the clergy, to which he was the first priest to take the oath (Dec. 27, 1790), he was elected bishop by two depart ments. He selected that of Loire-et-Cher, taking the old title of bishop of Blois, and for ten years (1791-1801) ruled his diocese with exemplary zeal. In the first session of the National Conven tion (Sept. 21, 1792) he proposed the abolition of the kingship, asserting that "kings are in the moral order what monsters are in the natural." On Nov. 15, he demanded the king's trial, and was elected president of the Convention. During the trial of Louis XVI., being absent on a mission for the union of Savoy to France, he wrote a letter urging the condemnation of the king, but omit ting the words a mort; and later proposed in the Convention that the penalty of death should be suspended.
When on Nov. 7, 1793 Gobel, bishop of Paris, resigned his epis copal office at the bar of the Convention, Gregoire refused to abjure either his religion or his office. His courage won the day and the hubbub subsided in cries of "Let Gregoire have his way !" Throughout the Terror, in spite of attacks in the Convention and in the press, he appeared in the streets in his episcopal dress and daily read mass in his house. After Robespierre's fall he spoke in support of the reopening of the churches on Dec. 21, 1794. He initiated measures for restraining vandalistic fury against monu ments of art, and devoted his attention to the reorganization of the public libraries and technical education. On the establishment of the new constitution, Gregoire was elected to the Council of 500, and of ter the 18th Brumaire he became a member of the Corps Legislatif, then of the Senate (18o1). He took the lead in the national church councils of 1797 and 1801, but was opposed to Napoleon's policy of reconciliation with the Holy See, and after the signature of the concordat he resigned his bishopric (Oct. 8, 18o1). He voted with the minority in the Senate against the proclamation of the empire, but he was subsequently created a count of the empire and officer of the Legion of Honour. Dur ing the later years of Napoleon's reign he travelled in England and Germany, but returned in 1814 and was concerned in the over throw of the Empire.
Gregoire, as a revolutionist and a schismatic bishop, was an object of double loathing to the clerical and ultra-royalist faction. He was expelled from the Institute and forced into retirement, but his influence was still felt and feared. His work, De la constitution f rancaise de l'an 1814, (1814) in which he commented on the Charter from a Liberal point of view, reached its fourth edition in 1819. In that year he was elected to the Lower Chamber by the department of Isere. By the powers of the Quadruple Alliance this, event was regarded as of the most sinister omen, and the question was even raised of a fresh armed intervention in France under the terms of the secret treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Louis XVIII. decided on a modification of the franchise; the Dessolle ministry resigned; and the first act of Decazes, the new premier, was to carry a vote in the chamber annulling the election of Gre goire. From this time onward the ex-bishop lived in retirement. occupying himself in literary pursuits. He died on May 20, 1831. To the last Gregoire remained a devout Catholic, fulfilling his obligations as a priest ; but he refused to modify his revolutionary principles. The refusal of the archbishop of Paris to allow him the last sacrament roused great excitement in Paris, and the gov ernment had to take precautions to avoid riots.
Besides several political pamphlets, Gregoire was the author of His toire des sectes religieuses, depuis le commencement du siecle dernier jusqu'd l'epoque actuelle (2 vols., 1810) ; Essai historique sur les liber tes de l'eglise gallicane (1818) ; De l'influence du Christienisme sur la condition des femmes (1821) ; Histoire des confesseurs des empereurs, des rois, et d'autres princes (1824) ; Histoire du mariage des pretres en France (1826) . Gregoireana, ou resume general de la conduite, des actions, et des ecrits de M. le Comte Henri Gregoire, preceded by a biographical notice by Cousin d'Avalon, was published in 1821 ; and the Memoires ... de Gregoire, with a biographical notice by H. Carnot, appeared in 1837 (2 vols.) . See also A. Debidour, L'Abbe Gregoire (1881) ; A. Gazier, Etudes sur l'histoire religieuse de la Revo lution Francaise (1883) ; L. Maggiolo, La Vie et les oeuvres de rabbi Gregoire (Nancy, 1884), and numerous articles in La Revolution Francaise; E. Meaume, Etude hist. et biog. sur les Lorrains revolution naires (Nancy, 1882) ; and A. Gazier, Etudes sur l'histoire religieuse de la Revolution Francaise (1887) .