ABSTRACT
France was the country to make the breach in the old order founded on the principle of state religion and one of the closest overlappings of religion and society, even if with some sovereign's political motives took precedence over religion. The founding act was the drawing up of article X in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 August 1789. The Constituent Assembly overturned the church's organization from top to bottom without burdening itself with its specific constitution. The Assembly grew impatient and soon imposed on all ecclesiastics exercising public office an oath of loyalty to the Constitution, including adherence to the contentious bill. The Consul's desire to re-establish religious peace arrested the cycle of persecutions and brought to a close a decade that had been like a final religious war.
