About

A titular bishop of Lydda and suffragan of Basel, Gobel was elected to the Estates-General by the clergy of Belfort and Huningue. He was the first bishop in the Constituent Assembly to take the oath required by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and was elected constitutional metropolitan bishop of Paris in March 1791. On 7 November 1793, following pressure from the Paris Commune and supporters of dechristianisation, he appeared before the Convention with several vicars and priests and renounced the exercise of his clerical functions. His declaration did not explicitly renounce the Catholic faith. Three days later, Notre-Dame hosted the ceremony later known as the Festival of Reason. Arrested in March 1794, Gobel was tried with Chaumette and others on charges of conspiracy and guillotined on 13 April 1794.