ABSTRACT
Late eighteenth-century outbursts of French republicanism and anti-clericalism threatened the security of the communities of English nuns who had lived in exile in France since the mid-seventeenth century. This chapter reveals the relationship of the English communities with 'intruded' clergy (those who took civil oaths required by the French state) and revolutionary officials. It discusses the nuns' prodigious efforts at continuing their spiritual lives and explores their Rule despite the illicitness of their religious activities. The chapter examines the political discourse used by the English nuns in order to maintain their religious life and retain their properties. Primary sources disclose women fearful of imprisonment and violence but willing to take risks to maintain some semblance of their spiritual lives. They were doggedly convinced of their rights as British and French subjects to maintain their way of life as well as the property they owned and managed.
