ABSTRACT
In the early years of the French Revolution (1789–1791), there was a possibility that the French Gallican Church could have remained in the new France the revolutionaries sought to create. Catholicism bonded diverse groups in France into a coherent and shared social identity. In studying the letters written by nuns between 1789 and 1791, readers will gain a picture of women who saw their services in teaching, nursing, and charity as useful to the public good in France. Similarly, in the debates in the National Assembly, the representatives argued that being a good French citizen necessitated being a Christian. It was only after 1791 that the nuns had to choose whether their obedience was to church or state first. This chapter proposes a second path that the revolution could have followed: one in which religion underpinned revolutionary changes.
