Grégoire, Henri
Grégoire, Henri
(äNrē` grāgwär`), 1750–1831, French priest, writer, and revolutionist. A Jansenist (see under Jansen, CornelisJansen, Cornelis, 1585–1638, Dutch Roman Catholic theologian. He studied at the Univ. of Louvain and became imbued with the idea of reforming Christian life along the lines of a return to St. Augustine.
..... Click the link for more information. ), he was prominent in the States-General of 1789 and supported the union of the lower clergy with the third estate. He fought clerical and noble privilege and proposed abolition of the law of primogeniture. Grégoire took the oath of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (even though it was condemned by the pope) and became constitutional bishop of Blois in 1791. He maintained his religious beliefs throughout the Terror and fought for religious freedom under the Directory. As a senator under the Consulate, he opposed the Concordat of 1801Concordat of 1801,
agreement between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII that reestablished the Roman Catholic Church in France. Napoleon took the initiative in negotiating this agreement; he recognized that reconciliation with the church was politic.
..... Click the link for more information. and, resigning his see, became a simple priest. Although he opposed the empire, Napoleon I made him a count. In 1819 he was elected to the chamber of deputies but, as a radical and a dissident priest, was refused his seat. Grégoire died in poverty; his burial was the scene of a great liberal demonstration. His writings, some of which have been translated, deal chiefly with Jansenism, racial equality, and international cooperation.
Grégoire, Henri
Born Dec. 4, 1750, in Vého, near Lunéville; died May 28, 1831, in Paris. Participant in the Great French Revolution.
The son of a poor peasant, Grégoire was a priest who gained popularity as an opponent of Negro slavery. In 1789 he was elected to the Estates General, in which he supported the proposal that the lower clergy join the deputies of the third estate. He was the first to swear allegiance to the new so-called civil clergy, which came into existence in 1790. Elected a deputy to the Convention in 1792, at its first meeting Grégoire called for abolition of the monarchy. In 1793 he proposed a draft for a declaration on questions of international law, based on the principle of the recognition of the sovereignty of every people. Grégoire reacted favorably to the coup d’etat of 18th Brumaire. During the restoration of the Bourbons (1814 and 1815–30) he was attacked by the reactionary monarchist clergy. Grégoire was well known in Russia, and from 1814 to 1821 he was an honorary member of the University of Kazan.
WORKS
Essai historique sur les libertés de l’Eglise gallicane.... Paris, 1818.Histoire des sectes religieuses . . ., vols. 1–6. Paris, 1828–45.
Mémoires . . ., vols. 1–2. Paris, 1837.
Grégoire, Henri
Born Mar. 21, 1881, in Huy; died Sept. 28, 1964, in Brussels. Belgian Hellenist, Byzantine scholar, and Slavist.
Grégoire became the director of the Institute of Slavic and Eastern Philology and History at the University of Brussels in 1935. In 1946 he became the head of the Institute of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies in Brussels. He was the founder and editor of the journal Byzantion (beginning in 1925). He edited literary and historical monuments, including inscriptions of the Byzantine period from Asia Minor, and studied Byzantine literature, particularly the epic Digenis Akritas (in its associations with other literatures, including ancient Russian). A fundamental break with traditional views, which sometimes led to unjustified associations, was inherent in Grégoire’s works.
PUBLICATION
Recueil des inscriptions grecques chrétiennes de l’Asie Mineure. Paris, 1922.WORKS
Digenis Akritas. New York, 1942.A. P. KAZHDAN