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So I Was just reading over the 2010 thread AH Challenge: Make France Protestant! and all the discussions reasonably enough focused on the Huguenot wars of religion. I was wondering if there was any possibility of establishing a Anglican/Episcopalian style Gallican National church during either the Republican or Napoleonic periods? In OTL the separation of church and state in the long run greatly benefited the Vatican's direct control over national clergies since Monarchs no longer played a role in the selection of Bishops. Under a strong leader like Napoleon this wasn't a problem, but by the 3rd Republic, the RCC in France was under the direct control of Rome, and had a major influence on far-right politics due to the Vatican's extreme anti-modernist stance during this period. A liberal Episcopalian-style Church established by 1789 would probably have had less hostility to the Republic. Cynic that he was, Napoleon would probably have preferred to play the role of Henry VIII and establish an Episcopalian Gallican church under his patronage. The problem was that the loyal adjuring clergy who accepted the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, were precisely the ones who had stayed in France during the reign of terror and been exterminated and discredited to the laity. The nonjuring Emigres that survived came from the most ultra-montanist legitimists. This shaped the role of the Church in French politics through the 19th century especially in its virulent anti-Republicansim.

It seems like the best bet for the Gallican Church to survive independent of Rome is during the liberal period 1789-1792. The Jacobins certainly had the power to set up a national church if they had so desired, but obviously Robespierre had little interest in setting up a Henry VIII Anglican-style Christianity.

Interestingly during the Civil Constitution Clergy period, political arguments were made similar to the Anglican-branch theory, that recognized the Pope as Bishop of Rome but said that his authority extended no further, and that all Bishops were equal.

Assuming a national Church followed the Anglican high church model of basically preserving Catholic liturgy and essentially being Catholicism without the Pope, the uneducated laity might have been less disturbed and not have associated the secular revolution with the antichrist to the same degree sparking Vendee style uprisings. It would certainly have had a less explosive affect than the Cult of Reason. With all the domestic and external strife facing France it might seem like a bad time to launch a new Protestant Reformation, but on the other hand Rational Deism was probably an even bigger alienation to the masses.

As far as foreign policy is concerned, the Hapsburgs are going to be enemies anyway, so a Magisterial Protestant church could open the way for French leadership in a North German Protestant confederation and possibly better relations with Britain and Scandinavia in the longrun.

The Huguenots are only 2% of the population at this point, so would probably play only a minor role, although this would aid in a revival. Probably the Jansenists could play a more significant role. Their highpoint had already been passed by the 1730s, but they still had a strong underground current and would be in a stronger position to quickly revive in than the Huguenots.

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic government would most likely only encourage theological debates out out of Machiavellian real-politick, but theres always the precedent of these sorts of things spinning out of control and a genuine Evangelical pietist movement sweeping across France and Europe and frightening the Enlightenment based leadership.

Anyway I look forward to any thoughts on this topic, and maybe some predictions as to how this might play out longterm into the 20th century.
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