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

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

– 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 on the strength of his "''Zoroastre, Confucius et Mahomet comparés comme sectaires, legislateurs et moralistes''". He was Venerable Master of "

Les Neuf Sœurs La Loge des Neuf Sœurs (; The Nine Sisters), established in Paris in 1734, was a prominent French Masonic Lodge of the Grand Orient de France that was influential in organising French support for the American Revolution. A "Société des Neuf S ...

" (A Parisian Freemason 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 and Minister of Justice by the desperate King

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

. 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 (), which existed from 17 June 1789 to 9 July 1789, was a revolutionary assembly of the Kingdom of France formed by the representatives of the Estates of the realm#Third Estate, 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, political economist, politician, and mathematician. His ideas, including suppo ...

. He most frequently allied himself with the constitutionalist faction and was highly respected by the opponent Girondist 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 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 The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

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 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 stormed by a ...

. 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 Crown, 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 is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

and then into the

Savoy Savoy (; )  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 and west and to the Aosta Vall ...

region, from where he returned only after the fall of

Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre fer ...

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

Council of Five Hundred The Council of Five Hundred () was the lower house of the legislature of the French First Republic under the Constitution of the Year III. It operated from 31 October 1795 to 9 November 1799 during the French Directory, Directory () period of t ...

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 principal so ...

to be transferred to the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...

, proposed the closure of the popular societies and accused the Directors Barras, 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 or French Empire (; ), also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from ...

, 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. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

, 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 I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his throne ...

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 Academic staff of the Collège de France 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