During the
French Revolution, a
constitutional bishop was a
Roman Catholic bishop elected from among the clergy who had sworn to uphold the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy between 1791 and 1801. Constitutional bishops were often priests with less or more moderate
Gallican and partisan ideas, of a less or moderate nature. They were elected locally by the same body of electors that elected the députés of the future
Legislative Assembly. They organised national councils in 1797 and 1801 to mark their independence from the
pope, who usually called such councils. On the signature of the
1801 concordat,
pope Pius VII and
Napoleon I of France both demanded that the constitutional bishops and the remaining
Ancien Régime bishops who had not sworn to uphold the Civil Constitution all resign their episcopal seats so that new holders could be appointed to the sees. 15 constitutional bishops refused to resign, feeling that their election to their episcopal seats were still valid (one such bishop,
Henri Grégoire, signed himself as bishop of
Loir-et-Cher right up until his death).