Talk:Civil Constitution of the Clergy

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I'm the primary author of this page - at least so far - but I'm much less satisfied with it than I am with most of my writing in Wikipedia. I'm afraid I may somewhat have violated the rule "write what you know". I've been doing my best to research this and write something accurate, because it is an important topic, but it is obvious that there is a lot of misinformation in print and on the web relating to this subject. For example, it is a commonplace, but (I'm certain) false that the Civil Constitution of the Clergy deprived the Church of its lands. I am quite sure that had already happened before the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed into law in July 1790, let alone signed by Louis XVI in December.

What I'm least sure of in the article is the list of earlier revolutionary legislation (before the Civil Constitution) about Church matters. I'm sure the picture I present is basically right, but I'd love for someone expert on the topic to review particular dates and details.

Also, the article could use much more on the actual debate about adopting the Civil Constitution, and no doubt other areas could be improved as well.

Jmabel 06:55, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)

[edit] "sanctioned by King Louis XVI on August 24"

...is what my books say - what happened that day opposed to the story we have here? On the 26 December, on the other hand, the nation's clergy had to give an oath on a constitution yet to be written, which here mentioned as the day the king signed???--Flammingo^Parliament 23:54, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Care to identify your books? It's really hard to know how sources compare to each other when they are unnamed.

I believe, though I'm not sure, that what is here follows the Catholic Encyclopedia. Worth someone following up. In any case, the article could be improved by clear inline citations; we weren't really doing those back when this was written. - Jmabel | Talk 07:45, 13 December 2006 (UTC)