1789: The French State Seizes the Wealth of the Catholic Church
Revolutionary France did not just curb the power of the church, it stripped it bare. On this day in 1789, the National Assembly voted to confiscate all church property across the country: land, monasteries, cathedrals, religious artworks and sacred valuables, declaring it all now belonged to the nation.
The seized wealth was converted into assignats, paper currency issued against the value of the stolen assets, to drag the state out of crushing debt and fund the revolution itself. It was an audacious act of theft dressed as reform, one that permanently broke the financial independence of the Catholic Church in France and set the stage for the brutal persecution of clergy that followed in the years ahead.
