Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Bias Parent curé Jacobin, agent national du district de Clamecy en l'an II

1988; Armand Colin; Volume: 274; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3406/ahrf.1988.1230

1952-403X

Nicole Bossut,

Historical and Literary Studies

Unknown to local or national historiography, Jean François Parent, called Bias Parent, is studied here at the various stages of his career which is typical of a whole group of priest who became militant Jacobins. This priest and philosophe came from Clamecy, became the patriotanayor of the commune of Rix and was the leader of the town from the beginning of the Revolution when he took a stand in the work disputes in Clamecy between the wood floaters and those that exploited them. His encounter with Fouché in August 1793 was to determine his political career and he became one of the organizers of the dechristianizing crusade in the Nièvre department. Having left the priesthood himself, he had to face the various kinds of resistance caused by these measures and recommended an active policy of education. As agent national, he played an important part in the strike of the wood floaters who engaged their action in February-March 1794 and he had to face the problem of imposing the maximum on wages, even while continuing to defent the most underpriviledged. Neither a « red priest » nor a « pre-socialist », this Jacobin, so close to the people persecuted in the year III, remained faithful to his Jacobin opinions until his death in 1802.