Role of the Church in the French Revolution Term Paper

Role of the Church in the French Revolution - Term Paper Example In addition to this declaration by the different kings, there was the element of kings having a theory â€Å"Theory of the Divine Right of Kings†, and from this, the church was responsible for having kings proclaim that they ruled by the will of God. This made them close to being of a divine nature in that they were not responsible to any man or creature on earth, but rather to God. The role of the church, therefore, was imposition of earthly leadership upon the people of France and supporting through religious values that were considered to be highly misguided during the revolution. However, in the period before the revolution, the church vested large amounts of power in the monarchy such that kings during this period exercised unlimited powers and the church did nothing about the evils that royalty committed. The church by the original vestment of spiritual leadership in France did not condemn any of the activities that royalty engaged in at any given, which was inclusive of wasteful practices by the leaders, as well as arbitral tax increments. This role of the church was indicative of negligence to the plight of the people, which was part of why the French revolution took place as the church backed every decision that the absolute made including execution and dispensation of justice, as well denial of basic rights to subjects, who were the French people. In addition to this, the church brought about confusion amongst the subjects of France by having overlapping duties and roles with the then government, or rather governments as this took place over a long time. Dispensation of justice was one of the parts that brought this confusion, where it contributed heavily to lack of justice and uniform law under which subjects could be governed. In France, there were three courts whose roles overlapped, one of them was the church’s court, whose rulings, and laws were contradictory with the royal and financial courts leading to