Asked by caleb

Most of the people of France were devoted Roman Catholics. How
did the Pope and the Catholic Church respond to the uprising of the people of France?

The leaders of the Catholic Church did not support the uprising of the lower classes--they supported the wealthy nobles.

The Pope and the Catholic Church hired soliders and sent them to help fight the French king’s army.

The Pope and the Catholic Church sent money and supplies to support the efforts of the revolutionary army.

The Pope announced that the Catholic Church was would remain neutral, unwilling to come between a ruler and his people.

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
The first statement is correct: the Church leadership did not support the popular uprising — they sided with the monarchy and the traditional social order.

Brief explanation:
- The French Revolution nationalized Church lands (1790) and the National Assembly passed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), which subordinated the Church to the state and required clergy to swear an oath to the new regime.
- Pope Pius VI and the senior Church hierarchy condemned the Civil Constitution and refused to recognize the new, state-controlled Church. Many bishops and high clergy supported the king and the ancien régime.
- This produced a split: "refractory" clergy who refused the oath were persecuted or forced into exile, while some lower clergy and many ordinary Catholics did sympathize with local grievances and some took the oath.
- The Pope did not personally hire soldiers or send troops, nor did the Vatican officially stay neutral; it opposed the revolutionary measures. The material military intervention against revolutionary France came from Catholic monarchs (e.g., Austria, Prussia), not the Pope’s forces.