Claude-Emmanuel Joseph Pierre, Marquess of Pastoret (24 December 1755, in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

– 28 September 1840, in Paris) was a French lawyer, author and politician.

Biography

Pastoret was elected member of the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

on the strength of his "''Zoroastre, Confucius et Mahomet comparés comme sectaires, legislateurs et moralistes''". He was Venerable Master of " Les Neuf Sœurs" (A Parisian

Freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

chapter) from 1788 till 1789. In 1790 Claude-Emannuel Pastoret, then president of the Parisian electoral body to the National Assembly, was offered the offices of

Minister of Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

and

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

by the desperate King

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

. He declined the honours and was elected "procureur géneral syndic du département de la Seine". It was in that capacity that he was responsible for the transformation of the église Sainte-Génevieve into a temple for the remains of great citizens of the new state were to be honoured: the Panthéon, Paris. In the

National Assembly (French Revolution) During the French Revolution, the National Assembly (french: Assemblée nationale), which existed from 17 June 1789 to 29 September 1791, was a revolutionary assembly of the Kingdom of France formed by the representatives of the Third Estate ( ...

, he pleaded for the abolition of slavery and the secularisation of the civil state, but he was not a deputy. Elected to the Legislative Assembly by the electors of Paris (September 1791), he was honoured as the first deputy to be elected President (3–17 October 1791). It was common for intellectuals to be elected to public office, and he joined such noteworthies as

Condorcet Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet (; 17 September 1743 – 29 March 1794), known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher and mathematician. His ideas, including support for a liberal economy, free and equal p ...

. He most frequently allied himself with the constitutionalist faction and was highly respected by the opponent

Girondist The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...

faction. He would undertake a variety of projects during the course of the Assembly, including requesting repressive measures against émigrés, the abolition of the New Year address to the

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

and the deletion of the purely honorific designations (and a more egalitarian form of social address). He voted for the abolition of the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

and made a long speech to propose to raise a "statue of liberty" on the ruins of the

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was stor ...

. However, he realised, as time went by, that the reforms that he had been the first to demand increasingly threatened the royal authority he was trying to protect. Several times, he went up to the rostrum to separate the cause of

from that of the advisors to the

, and he denounced the Protests of 20 June 1792. After the fall of the French Monarchy (10 August 1792), to secure his own safety, he fled to

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bo ...

and then into the

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Sa ...

region, from where he returned only after the

fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...

(9 Thermidor II, or 27 July 1794). Elected by Var to the

Council of Five Hundred The Council of Five Hundred (''Conseil des Cinq-Cents''), or simply the Five Hundred, was the lower house of the legislature of France under the Constitution of the Year III. It existed during the period commonly known (from the name of the ...

and called, a few days later (6 December 1795), at the Institute, he took his place in the Council among the moderates when he spoke in favor of the freedom of the press, the fugitive priests and parents of émigrés. He also defended royalists and asked that for the remains of

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the princi ...

to be transferred to the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...

, proposed the closure of the popular societies and accused the Directors

Barras Barras may refer to: Places * Barras, Cumbria, England * Barras, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France * Barras, Piauí, Brazil * Duas Barras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil * Sete Barras, São Paulo, Brazil Other uses * Barras (surname) * Barras (market ...

, Rewbell and La Révellière of fomenting unrest and attracting the hatred of the people on the assembly. In 1795, he managed to cancel the condemnation to death in-absentia on his friend, the comte de Vaublanc, (who would be the ultra-royalist

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in 1816), because of his involvement in the royalist insurrection of 13 Vendémiaire IV (5 October 1795). In the end, they both fell from grace and were forced to flee into exile together after a sentence of exile was passed against them following the coup d'état of 18 Fructidor V 4 September 1797). Under Napoleon's

First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental E ...

, he worked on a university career. Under

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

, he was awarded a French peerage for his extensive work on the Constitutional Charter. In 1830, he refused to vow loyalty to

Louis-Philippe Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

and was deprived of all his functions. His written works include a "Traité des lois pénales'' and an impressive "Histoire de la législation'' (11 vol.).

References

Daniel Ligou ed, "Dictionnaire de la Franc-maçonnerie" (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1987) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pastoret, Claude-Emmanuel De 1755 births 1840 deaths Politicians from Marseille French marquesses Counts of the First French Empire Feuillants Members of the Legislative Assembly (France) Deputies to the French National Convention Members of the Council of Five Hundred Members of the Sénat conservateur Collège de France faculty Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques Members of the Chamber of Peers of the Bourbon Restoration French male writers French Freemasons Members of the Académie Française Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres