1790

The French Revolution shifted power away from the Catholic Church. Property was confiscated, and the crop tax and special clergy privileges eliminated. With the 1790 “Civil Constitution of the Clergy,” the clergy became employees of the state, and the church became a subordinate arm of the secular government.

January 21, 1793

King Louis XVI was executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris.

1793 – 1794

Reign of Terror was a period of the French Revolution from September 5, 1793, to July 27, 1794. With civil war spreading from the Vendee and hostile armies surrounding France on all sides, the Revolutionary government decided to make “Terror” the order of the day (September 5 decree) and to take harsh measures against those suspected of being enemies of the Revolution (nobles, priests, and hoarders). In Paris a wave of executions followed. In the provinces, representatives on mission and surveillance committees instituted local terrors. The Terror had an economic side embodied in the Maximum, a price-control measure demanded by the lower classes of Paris, and a religious side that was embodied in the program of de-Christianization: traditional Christian holidays were abolished and Catholic priests were imprisoned and executed.

During the Terror, the Committee of Public Safety exercised virtual dictatorial control over the French government. In the spring of 1794, it eliminated its enemies to the left (the Hébertists) and to the right (the Indulgents, or followers of Georges Danton). Still uncertain of its position, the committee obtained the Law of 22 Prairial, year II (June 10, 1794), which suspended a suspect’s right to public trial and to legal assistance and left the jury a choice only of acquittal or death. The “Great Terror” that followed, in which about 1,400 persons were executed.

1797

Louis Auvray marries in St. Louis, Upper Louisiana (Spanish ruled), North America. His marriage record says he is a native of the Diocese of Lisieux, Royaume de France (Kingdom of France). We do not know exactly when he arrived in America. We do know that the Diocese of Lisieux was eliminated during the revolution. And King Louis had been dead since 1793.