Page "French Revolution" Paragraph 147

It was this determined resistance to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the dechristianisation campaigns that played a major role in the re-emergence of the Catholic Church as a prominent social institution.

In fact, Olwen Hufton notes about the Counter-Revolutionary women: “ for it is her commitment to her religion which determines in the post-Thermidorean period the re-emergence of the Catholic Church …”.

Although they struggled, these women were eventually vindicated in their bid to reestablish the Church and thereby also to reestablish traditional family life and social stability.

This was seen in the Concordat of 1801, which formally reinstated the Catholic Church in France.

This act came after years of failed attempts at dechristianisation or state-controlled religion, which were thwarted in part due to the resistance of devout counter-revolutionary women.

After the upheaval of the revolutionary period, the reestablishment of the Church was seen by many people as a welcome return to normalcy.