Jean-Baptiste Royer

Born in Cuiseaux (Saône-et-Loire) on October 8, 1733, died in Besançon (Doubs) on April 11, 1807, son of a doctor, he entered the orders and became parish priest of Chavanne, near Lure. On April 16, 1789, he was elected deputy of the clergy at the States General by the bailiwick of Aval.

On March 1, 1790, Royer was admitted to sit as a member of the assembly, replacing the parish priest of Arbois, who had resigned. Royer took the civic oath and, after the session, was elected constitutional bishop of the Ain (February 1791) and crowned in Paris.

On September 5, 1792, the department of Ain sent him to the National Convention by 290 votes (372 voters), the third of 6.

Royer took his place among the most moderate. At the 3rd roll call, in the king's trial, he replied:

"Whatever the opinions, I respect them. By abolishing royalty, we have decreed the unity, the indivisibility of the republic; we have recognized the sovereignty of the people; we have demanded its sanction for the Constitution. I believed that I had a duty to my constituents to consult them on the judgment that we are going to render. You rejected the appeal to the people. I vote for the confinement of Louis during the war and for the banishment to peace."

A friend of the Girondins, he protested against the events of May 31, and was among the 73 deputies who were banned. He was arrested and only regained his freedom after the 9th Thermidor and returned to the Convention on the 18th Frimaire, Year III. There he made a speech expressing his hatred for those "on whom the Convention calls for public indignation".

Elected, on 4 Brumaire, An IV, to the Council of Five Hundred by the choice of his colleagues in the Convention, Royer denounced a royalist movement in the Haute-Loire, had a project on the treatment of the Fifteen Twenty adopted, spoke in favor of freedom of worship, and left the Council in An VI to become bishop of the department of the Seine: he was installed at Notre-Dame on August 25, 1798.

Resigning in 1801, he retired to Besançon with Archbishop Lecoz, who appointed him canon of his cathedral.

Royer retracted his oath to the Pope and dedicated himself, in the last years of his life, to the service of the sick.