Jean-Louis Gouttes
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2012) |
Jean-Louis de Gouttes (1739 - 7 March 1794) was a cleric and a French statesman of the Revolution.
Biography
Born in Tulle, in Limousin province, he joined a regiment of dragoons as a young man before becoming a priest.
Curé of a parish near Bordeaux, then of Argilliers in the Franche-Comte, he was one of the leaders of the lower clergy of his diocese, demanding higher salaries for the impoverished parish priest.
He is elected (27 March 1789) by the sénéchaussée of Béziers in Languedoc, to the First Estate of the Estates General, with 185 votes in 3111. He served a term as president of the National Constituent Assembly 29 April to 8 May 1790.
In 1791, he is consecrated as Constitutional bishop of Saône-et-Loire in replacement of Talleyrand, who had resigned from the position he held under the ancien régime as Bishop of Autun. On 3 September, he was elected administrator of the département.
Having protested against dechristianisation and against the Reign of Terror, he is arrested by decree of the Committee of Public Safety. Sentenced to death on 6 Germinal Year II, he is guillotined the next day, 7 March 1794.