GREGOIRE, HENRI, the most remarkable among the so-called "constitutional" bishops of France, was born of poor parents at Vebo, near Luneville, Dec. 4, 1750, Having received his education from the Jesuits at Nancy, he entered into orders, and for some time held a professorship at the Jesuit college of Point-a-Mousson. A work of his, published in 1778, on the Amelioration of the andition of the Jews, attracted con siderable notice. It was translated into English, and crowned by the royal society of Metz. Gregoire, soon after his ordination, was appointed cure of Embermesnil, in Lor raine; and at the election for the states-general in 1789, he was chosen one of the deputies of the clergy. An ardent democrat in all his views, he attached himself from the first to the Tiers-etat party, and acted a prominent part in the subsequent drama; he was one of the chief advisers of the secession, took the oath of the Tennis court with the rest. and supported the abbe Sieyes in the proposal for constituting the seceders into the national assembly, of which he became one of the secretaries. From that time forward, Gregoire pursued his course without hesitation. lie was one of the most enthusiaStic on occasion of the famous session of the night of Aug, 4, in the abolition and renunciar tion of the privileges of the nobles and clergy. Gregoire carried into every department the stern democracy to which he was devoted, and which he identified with the Chris tian-brotherhood of the gospel. Upon the fundamental doctrine of the revolution—time "rights of matt" he sought to ingraft his own early advocacy of the Jews and of the negroes. Carrying the same views into questions of church-polity, he was a zealous supporter of the civil constitution of the clergy. was the first of his order to take the oaths, and was elected the first "constitutional bishop" of the department of Lour-et Cher. He was chosen for two places, but accepted tins, although the old and legitimate bishop, Monseigneur de Themincs, was still alive. When at the blasphemous Bast reason, the miser,able-Gctel,, constitutional bishop of Paris, having publicly renounced Christianity, a Hiriiiar reliunnition Was demanded frOuti Gregoire by the infuriated rabble, he firmly confronted the danger, and refused. Through the later phases of the
revolution, under the directory, Gregoire continued to take a part in public affairs; and to his interference are due many of the measures connected with the public organiza tion of literature and science, which still bear their fruits in the French system of admin istration. After the 18th Brumaire, lie became a member of the corps legislatif. His extreme republicanism was highly distasteful to Bonaparte, and it was only after a third attempt that he was appointed member of the senate. On the conclusion of the concordat between Pius VII. and Bonaparte, lie ceased to exercise ecclesiastical func tions, as he could not be induced to give the retractations which the church authorities required. True to his old principles, he resisted every step towards the establishment of the absolute authority of Napoleon; and, in 1814, he was one of the first to pronounce against the empire. On the restoration, he was one of the most earnest in demanding from the king the acceptance of the constitution. During the " hundred days," he attracted no notice; but after the return of the king, lie was excluded from the senate, and ceased thenceforth to hold any public place. During. this enforced retirement, and in the intervals of leisure in his earlier political life, lie published several works, literary, religious, political, historical, and polemical; the most voluminous of which are a Cro nigue Religieuse, in 6 volumes, and a Histoire des Seetes Religieuses, also in 6 volumes, but incomplete. When upon his death-bed, an effort was made by the archbishop of Paris to induce him to express his regret for the uncanonical and schismatical proceedings of his earlier career; but he persistently declined to make any retractation. In conse quence of his refusal, the archbishop directed that the last rites of the church should be withheld. Notwithstanding this prohibition, the last sacraments were administered to Gregoire by the abbe Guillon, and he died May 23, 1831.