GREGOIRE, grh'gwar', HENRI ( 1750-1831). Constitutional Bishop of Blois, in France. He was born of poor parents at Who, near Lune ville, December 4, 1750. He received his educa tion from the Jesuits at Metz and Nancy, and entered into orders. In 1788 he published Essai sur la regeneration civile, morale et politique des Juifs, which attracted considerable• notice and was crowned by the Academy of Metz. He had meanwhile become curb 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 deserted his own class for the Third Estate, and immediately began to play a prominent part in the :Revolution. He was one of those who ad vised the secession of the Third Estate, and be came one of the secretaries of the National As sembly. He was one of the most enthusiastic advocates, on the night of August 4th, of the abolition of the privileges of the nobles and clergy. He also gave his support to the civil Constitution of the clergy, and later accepted election as a constitutional bishop from the De partment of Loire-et-Cher, taking the title of Bishop of Blois, although the old Bishop (De The mines) was still alive. In the debates of the Convention Gregoire continued to be prominent as the representative of his diocese. He was an ardent advocate of the abolition of the kingship and the establishment of a republic. Ile favored the condemnation of Louis XVI., but sought, by proposing the suspension of the death penalty, to save the life of the unfortunate monarch; nor would he vote for his execution. Already, in 1789, Gr6goire had figured as an advocate of negro emancipation, and in 1793 he further in terested himself in behalf of the oppressed race, the result being that by a decree of February 4, 1794, slavery was abolished in all the French possessions. After returning from an important diplomatic mission to Savoy in 1793, Gregoire acted on the Committee of Public Instruction, and devised measures for the protection and as far as possible the encouragement of art, science, and literature. On November 7, 1793, when Gobel, the recreant Bishop of Paris, renounced the Catholic religion and proclaimed the cult of Rea son, GrCgoire, who was pressed to do likewise, bravely refused. He showed his tolerant spirit
by advocating the granting of full civil rights to Jews resident in France. Throughout the later phases of the Revolution, and under the Direc tory, Gregoire continued to take part in public af fairs; and to his activity are due many of the measures connected with the public organization of literature and science which still form a part of the French system of administration. After the 18th Brumaire he became a member of the Five Hundred, and in 1801 was raised to the Sen ate. He opposed the proclamation of the Empire, and after the conclusion of the' concordat between Pius VII. and Bonaparte he ceased to exercise his ecclesiastical functions. Although he was created a Count of the Empire and an officer of the Legion of Honor, Gr6goire resisted every step toward the establishment of the absolute author ity of Napoleon, and in 1814 he was one of the first to pronounce against him. On the Restora tion he was most earnest in demanding from Louis XVIII. the acceptance of the Constitu tion. During the Hundred Days he attracted no notice; but after the second return of the King he was excluded from the Senate, and, when chosen as a Deputy from the Department of Isere, in 1819, his election was annulled. The last years of his life were spent in poverty and obscurity, for he had been expelled from the Institute and refused his pension as an ex Senator. He died at Auteuil, May 28, 1831, un reconciled to the Church, which refused him the last offices of religion.
Gregoire was a voluminous writer on political and ecclesiastical subjects. among his most im portant works being: Histoire des sectes reli giruses (1810), and Essai historique sur les libertes de Peglise gallieane (1818). For his life, consult: Carnot (editor)„1Iemoires ceelesias tiques, politigues et lit teraires de Gregoire (Paris, 1839) ; Gregory. Gregoire, the Priest and the Revolutionist (Leipzig. 1876) ; Pressenstt, L'eglise et la revolution francaise (Paris. 1864) : Grazier, Etudes sur Phistoire religieuse de la revolution francaise (Paris, 1887).