About

A cobbler’s son from the papal Comtat who made his name as a court preacher and entered the Académie française in 1785, Maury was elected for the clergy of Péronne and became, with Cazalès, the leader of the right in the Constituent Assembly. He spoke against the decrees of August 1789, against the seizure of Church property and against the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, and was the most persistent clerical adversary of Mirabeau. He emigrated in October 1791, was made a cardinal by Pius VI in 1794, and was the only French cardinal at the conclave that elected Pius VII. He afterwards rallied to Napoleon and took charge of the diocese of Paris in 1810 in defiance of the pope, who was then his prisoner. Disgraced at the Restoration, he died at Rome in 1817.