were required to sign an oath affirming their loyalty to the constitution. There was no requirement that the electors be Catholic, so this created the ironic situation that Protestants and Jews could elect nominally Catholic priests and bishops. Under the Civil Constitution, new bishops were required to swear their loyalty to the State in far stronger terms than they ever had under any prevailing religious doctrine. From the beginning of 1791, landowning priests were forced from their parishes, and they were replaced by elected priests, without property, who had sworn an oath to the Civil Constitution. More importantly, the possessions of the clergy, and other property which had been owned by the Church for centuries, were put up for sale in order to refill the coffers of the royal treasury, which, as had become painfully obvious during the crisis of the Estates-General, were virtually empty. Naturally, reactions to these new laws were strong and varied. A substantial number of French citizens heartily approved, and even the reformist faction within the Church could not find fault with some of the measures, especially those that denied the Church the right to continue to operate like a business, rather than as a spiritual institution. Others were adamantly, even violently, opposed. Predictably, those who abhorred the ecclesiastical reforms were also those who, most doggedly, supported the monarchy. Reactions also varied geographically. An interesting indicator of local sentiment was the percentage of priests who were willing to swear allegiance to the new Constitution. In dioceses near Paris and in the southeast, more than nine of ten priests were willing to take the oath. On the other hand, the percentage of swearing priests was lowest in Brittany, in some small pockets in the northeast, and in Nîmes and Toulouse in the south, all between one-third and one-half. Jean Chouan, given his situation as a displaced employee of the abbé, Alexis Ollivier, could not remain passive. References External links 1757 births 1794 deaths People from Saint-Berthevin Royalist insurgents during the French Revolution