FAUCHET, CLAUDE , French revolutionary bishop, was born at Dornes (Nievre) on the 22nd of September 1744. He was a curate of the church of St. Roch, Paris, when he was engaged as tutor to the children of the marquis of Choiseul. He was successively grand vicar to the archbishop of Bourges, preacher to the king, and abbot of Montfort-Lacarre. The "philo sophic" tone of his sermons caused his dismissal from court in 1788 before he became a popular speaker in the Parisian sections. He was one of the leaders of the attack on the Bastille, and on Aug. 5, 1789 he delivered an eloquent funeral sermon for the citizens slain on July 14. In September he was elected to the Commune, from which he retired in October 179o. The last oc casion on which he carried his public with him was in a sermon preached at Notre Dame on Feb. 14, 1791. In May he became constitutional bishop of Calvados, and was deputy to the Legisla tive Assembly, and afterwards to the Convention. At the king's trial he voted for the appeal to the people and for the penalty of imprisonment. He protested against the execution of Louis XVI. in the Journal des arnis (January 26, 1793), and next month was denounced to the Convention for prohibiting married priests from the exercise of the priesthood in his diocese. He remained secre tary to the Convention until the accusation of the Girondists in May 17 93. In July he was imprisoned on the charge of support ing the federalist movement at Caen, and of complicity with Charlotte Corday, whom he had taken to see a sitting of the Convention on her arrival in Paris. Of the second of these charges he was certainly innocent. With the Girondist deputies he was brought before the revolutionary tribunal on Oct. 3o, and was guillotined on the following day.
See Memoires ... ou Lettres de Claude Fauchet (5th ed., 1793) Notes sur Claude Fauchet (Caen, 1842).