Etienne-Alexandre Bernier

Biography

After having faitses studies with the college of Angers, he embraced the ecclesiastical state, and became, still rather young, priest of the parish of Saint-Laud to Angers. When the French revolution arrived, he did not want to lend the oath required by the civil Constitution of the clergy, and arrived however, like many priests of the dioceses of the West of France, to avoid the deportation, marked at the end of 1792 against the insermentés ecclesiastical .

As soon as the Guerre of the Vendée had burst in March 1795, it went to the Armée with Anjou, where it was preceded by some reputation concerning its zeal and its capacity. When after their first successes, the Vendean ones trained a superior council to establish in the country revolted an appearance of order and of administration, Bernier belonged to this council. Gabriel Guyot de Folleville lost all its influence, and the Bernier abbot became the apostle of the Vendée .

The Bernier abbot acquired soon ascending universal on the catholic and royal army. He gave good councils to the generals, and could lend himself to the military spirit without derogating too much from his ecclesiastical character

When the Bernier abbot had become kind one of the first characters of the army, one started to foresee a goal of ambition in all his control; one realized how much he sought to return absolute and to perpetuate the domitation which it had acquired. It was discovered that it sowed the discord everywhere, flattering the ones at the expense them others, to more surely control. Often the generals were obliged to repress the claims of the superior council, which sought to set up in government. The respect which one had for the Bernier abbot was always weakening.

Soon the disasters of the army made truce to any project of ambition; it was driven out beyond the the Loire. In the middle of these circumstances, the Bernier abbot always showed much constancy and firmness. Unceasingly it employed all its efforts to revive the courage of the soldiers; however, after the demolished of Granville, it was shown to have wanted, with Mr. of Talmont, to leave the army and to pass in England; and, although one can hesitate to suppose this project to him, the Vendean chiefs remained the majority about it persuade.

When the Déroute of Savenay had completely dispersed the fugitive army, the Bernier abbot remained hidden in Brittany. He did not lose courage, he composed of the sermons, he tried to move the peasants, to raise the country; but indicator which it did not make a success of, it crossed the Loire perilously, returned in Poitou, and arrived at the army of Cart, from where it passed soon in the army of Anjou which Stofflet ordered. It was the shortly after its arrival which Marigny was carried out by the orders of Stofflet. This death was generally allotted to the influence of the priest of Saint-Laud.

From this moment, the Bernier abbot became the true chief of the army of Anjou; Stofflet did not act that by its councils the proclamations were written by the Bernier abbot; it was him which corresponded with the emigrants and the foreign powers; it did not even need to employ the address to dominate; because Stofflet, insolate with respect to very other, was humble towards him. When the Vendean chiefs believed in connection with concluding with the republicans a peace which could be neither long nor sincere, it was the Bernier abbot who negotiated, which discussed the conditions.

When Cart took again the weapons and broke peace, Stofflet affected contrary to appearing faithful to with it; the general Hoche had even a conference with him; the Bernier abbot carried the word, and could captivate the republican general so well, that this one proposed the government to employ Stofflet and to the priest of Saint-Laud to pacify the country. However, at the end of a few months, the promises of the princes of the House of Bourbon and England, the authorities of the emigrants, and still fear to be easily deceived more of the policy of the general Shakes, determined the Bernier abbot to revive the war in Anjou; it was not long: measurements were so well taken, that Stofflet could not even gather its army; and soon he wandered into fugitive, as well as the priest of Saint-Laud, whom one still sought with more eagerness.

The February 25th 1796, the Bernier abbot made say to Stofflet to come to find it in a smallholding where it was hidden. During the message, he learns that this retirement was not very sure: he leaves it. Stofflet arrives; and like the priest of Saint-Laud, thinking only of its own safety, had not made him deliver any opinion, it spends the night in this asylum. One invests the house, believing to seize the Bernier abbot; and one takes Stofflet, which, few days after, was sent to the torment. The Vendean ones allotted this misfortune to the Bernier abbot: however it preserved its influence on the chiefs, and one saw it almost as powerful near Autichamp as at Stofflet, his predecessor; it was even at this time that it was named general agent of the catholic armies close the foreign powers.

He refused to go to London, and continued to support his party, seeking in his letters to make illusion with the princes and the English on the weakness of these remains which no help could revive. Finally he despaired of his cause; he asked to the Hoche general a passport to go in Suisse: it was granted to him but he had only wanted to make pretense leave the country; there remained hidden there. It maintained several correspondences with the inside and the outside; made plans of insurrection unceasingly; sometimes seeking to put at the head of the party lower men by their position and their character and that it had been able to control, sometimes trying to approach the more considerable chiefs; but its influence was worn; it did not inspire any confidence: one took again the weapons and it could not play any part.

Little time after, Napoleon Bonaparte, having taken in hand the reins of the State, dealt with subjecting and pacifying the Vendée. The Bernier abbot seizes at once this occasion to become a large character. While the Vendean chiefs still hesitated in the control which they were to hold, the priest of Saint-Laud is established near the consular government like the representative of the Vendean ones; he managed to give of his importance and his capacity in the departments of the West exaggerated an enough idea; one listened to his councils, one requested information to him.

However one realized rather quickly that, if it were useful, it was far from being necessary. At the same time it was lacking of much that it produced with Paris an effect proportioned with its fame. It had to preach, the birthday day of the September 2nd, with the church of the Carmelite friars of the Rue of Vaugirard. The Bernier abbot was found cold and affected.

However the First consul indicated it to be one of the Plénipotentiaire S charged to treat Concordat with the envoy of the pope. This negotiation, that Bernier did not direct, but where it showed a spirit very reconciling, could have placed it at the first rank of the clergy which the return of the religion was going to bring back to France. It was only made bishop of Orleans. When the pope came to Paris in 1804, one believed to disentangle that the bishop of Orleans sought to be established with the Holy Father in close relations, and to gain its favor without the duty with any protection.

In 1806, it returned to Paris, where it had not come for more than two years, while before its voyages were frequent; it there fell sick and died of a bilieuse fever, on October 1st.

Publications

Bernier, known as the historical Dictionary of the Musicians , is author of the words and the music of the Réveil of Vendean the . It was said that the Bernier abbot had written some notes on the war of the Vendée, and that it had made them burn before his death.

When the history of this war by Alphonse de Beauchamp appeared, one inserted in the Gazette of France of the observations of the Bernier abbot to rectify some facts and to fight some opinions advanced by the author.

pastoral Letter… (Ordering neuvaine and song of Te Deum in thanksgivings of the re-establishment of the catholic worship.) . Orleans: impr. of Rouzeau-Amount, (S.D.), in-4 ̊, 8 p.

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