ABSTRACT
The declaration, broader in scope than the American Bill of Rights, formulated in abstract and universal terms, suggesting that the principles it contained were valid not only in France but throughout the world. Many historians have called this period the "liberal revolution", because it was characterized by the enactment of fundamental legislation incorporating the principles of individual liberty announced in the Declaration of Rights. But the issue that most visibly threatened the liberal revolution grew out of the Assembly's attempt to reform the French Catholic church. The religious conflict led directly to the undermining of the National Assembly's constitutional system because it helped drive Louis XVI to make an open break with the Assembly. It was the nature of the reforms imposed, and the lack of consultation with the church, that caused conflict. But the reform overturned the hierarchical structure of the church, under which authority descended from God through the pope to the bishops, who in turn consecrated priests.
