French Revolution
On 30 April 1789, the clergy of Paris elected him deputy to the Estates General. His two brothers were also called there.
The Archbishop of Paris sat, "in these stormy assemblies, with the minority faithful to God and to the King." He opposed the meeting of the three orders, and on 19 June proposed:
to verify the powers of the clergy chamber and its constitution in an active chamber;
to persevere in the pure and simple adhesion of the conciliatory plan proposed by the commissioners of the King;
to communicate the present deliberation to the orders of the Third Estate and the nobility;
to send a deputation to the King to implore him to occupy himself, in his wisdom, with the means of establishing a correspondence between the three orders of the Estates General.
Resulting at 135 votes approving this proposal, 127 voted in opposition, and 12 more joined with reservations. The motion, defeated by four votes of majority, made Archbishop Juigné very unpopular. On 24 June, as he was leaving the Assembly at Versailles, his carriage was attacked by — allegedly — people who he had given food some months prior. On the 27th he agreed to meet with the Third Estate, and his accession was hailed by the general acclamations of the assembly.
At the end of the night of 4 August he proposed to sing a "Te Deum" of rejoicing, and on the 11th, he renounced the ecclesiastical tithes:
In the name of my confreres, in the name of my co-operators, and of all the clergy who belong to this august Assembly, we are giving ecclesiastical tithes to the hands of a just and generous nation. May the Gospel be proclaimed, may divine worship be celebrated with decency and dignity, may the churches be provided with virtuous and zealous priests; that the poor of the people are helped, this is the destination of our tithes, that is the end of our ministry and our vows. We entrust ourselves to the National Assembly, and we have no doubt that it will afford us the means to honor worthily and equally sacred objects.
On 20 September, he offered the silverware of the churches, and on 14 April 1790, sent to the assembly his civic oath.
