ABSTRACT
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790 and the Decrees of Separation of Church and State in 1795 brought about a new policy in terms of funding religion. The French Revolution tried to impose the authority of the State over the Church by means of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy aims at organizing a national religion in a France open to religious freedom. As the national religion, the Church of France, reorganized by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, saw its Gallicanism intensify and its organization thrown into disarray: dioceses were reworked along the lines of the French departemental divisions, bishops had to be elected, priests too. Protests led the Government to study the problem of separation in financial terms and the Finance Committee entrusted Cambon with preparing a report which concluded by stopping all payments.
