Overview

The End of an Élite is the first scholarly study in English of the bishops of the French church at the outbreak of the French Revolution. The 130 members of the episcopate formed an élite within an élite, the First Estate of France. Nigel Aston explores the role of the episcopate in national and provincial politics in the last years of the ancien régime. He traces the policies and patronage of episcopal ministers such as Lomiénie de Brienne and J.-M. Champion de Cicé, who were as much politicians as pastors, and examines their relationships with their fellow bishops. Dr Aston emphasizes the leading role of the bishops in the Assemblies of Notables and offers a fresh interpretation of clerical elections to the Estates-General of 1789. This is an intensively researched and immensely readable account, which will be invaluable to all historians of late eighteenth-century France.

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9780198202844

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Reviews

It is rare that doctoral monographs are converted with fluency and distinction into influential academic books. However, in this invigorating and scholarly analysis of French prelates in the build-up to the French Revolution, Aston has capably managed the transition. Aston's study is an engaging and useful assertion of the important and conscientious role played in this crucial period by the French high clerisy ... in the fluency of his prose, the depth of his research and the importance of his subject, Aston has produced a valuable addition to the history of late eighteenth-century France. Peter Spence, History, Vol. 81

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