Hilarion-François de Chevigné de Boischollet

Hilarion-François de Chevigné de Boischollet (born June 6, 1746 in L'Herbergement , Département Vendée , † February 23, 1812 in Nantes ) was a French bishop .

Life

Hilarion-François de Boischollet was born in 1746 at Bois Cholet Castle in near L'Herbergement. The noble family had produced several important naval officers. Since Hilarion-François was not eligible for a military career because of a slight physical handicap, he decided to pursue a career in the church. He studied in Paris, earned his academic degrees at the Sorbonne and, after ordination, was first canon and archdeacon at the cathedral of Nantes , then vicar general of Bishop Charles-Eutrope de La Laurencie .

After the outbreak of the revolution , he refused to take the oath on the civil constitution for the clergy and went into exile . In Belgium he joined Prince Condé's army in exile as a chaplain . After the end of the reign of terror and the overthrow of Robespierre on the 9th of Thermidor , he returned to Nantes and - regardless of the danger - continued to exercise his priestly office in secret for six years. At the proposal of the Abbé Bernier , the first consul ( Napoleon Bonaparte ) appointed him Bishop of Séez on April 9, 1802 . On May 16, he was consecrated in the church of Saint-Roch in Paris by Mgr. Roquelaure , former bishop of Senlis and archbishop of Mechelen, and was solemnly enthroned on July 25 in Séez.

Bishop Boischollet took over his office at a difficult time. His predecessor, Jean-Baptiste du Plessis d'Argentré († 1805), who lived in exile, still had many followers in the diocese and the constitutional bishop Lefessier († 1806) was still alive. Boischollet had also only accepted the appointment after Mgr. Du Plessis d'Argentré had given his consent through his vicar general, the Abbé de Malherbe, and, since his legitimacy was repeatedly challenged, was forced to declare his again in 1803 The previous one. Once in office, Boisschollet set about reorganizing his diocese, restored by the 1801 Concordat . He rearranged the congregations and provided them with priests, some with legitimate ones, some with former constitutional ones who were reintegrated into the hierarchy; He kept the old holiday calendar and issued a new one, which led to considerable displeasure among adherents of the old order and later had to be revised in part. The bishop also reorganized the training of priests and had priests come from outside, which also made little friends with his opponents; In 1806 he received the old seminary building back from the government. On December 2nd, 1804 Mgr. Boischollet assisted Napoleon I at the imperial coronation in Notre-Dame . Appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor and Baron (baron de l'empire) by decree of April 15, 1810, Mgr. De Boischollet soon fell out of favor with the emperor, who on June 1, 1811, in a sudden surge of anger his his Relieved of office and banished to Nantes . Count Roederer , who was an eyewitness, documented the brief but intense argument in his memoir ("Vous êtes un mauvais sujet! Donnez votre démission sur l'heure.").

Bishop Boischollet died of a stroke on February 23, 1812 and was buried in Saint-Étienne de-Montluc . His successor, Bishop Charles-Frédéric Rousselet , had the remains brought to Séez in 1875 and buried in the bishop's crypt.

literature

• Levot, Prosper Jean: biography bretonne. Cauderan [et al.], Vannes [et al.] 1852-1857.
• Honoré Fisquet : La France pontificale (" Gallia Christiana "). Repos, Paris 1864–1871.
• Jean François Eugène Robinet, Adolphe Robert, Julien Le Chaplain: Dictionnaire historique et biographique de la révolution et de l'empire: 1789–1815. Libr. Historique de la révolution et de l'empire, Paris [1898].
• L'Épiscopat français: Depuis le Concordat jusqu'à la Séparation (1802-1905). Librairie de Saints-Pères, Paris 1907.
• Joël Pérocheau: Dictionnaire Historique des Vendéens Célèbres. 1994.
• François Certain: Les raisons du plus fort. Napoléon exile Hilarion de Boischollet, éveque de Séez . In: Bulletin de la Société historique et archéologique de l'Orne . tape 126 , no. 2 . Alençon 2007, p. 31-51 .