Like his father, he became a pastor, and distinguished himself by his zeal for his co-religionists, working energetically to obtain the recognition of the civil rights which had been granted to them by Louis XVI in 1788. Having gained a great reputation by his Histoire primitive de la Grèce, he was elected deputy to the States General in 1789 by the third estate of the bailliage of Nîmes.
In the Constituent Assembly he worked on the framing of the constitution, spoke against the establishment of the republic, which he considered ridiculous, and voted for the suspensive veto, as likely to strengthen the position of the crown. In the Convention he sat among the Girondists, opposed the trial of Louis XVI, was a member of the commission of twelve, and was proscribed with his party. He remained in hiding for some time, but was ultimately discovered and guillotine.
See JA Dartique, Rabaut St-Etienne a l'Assemblée Constituante (Paris, 1903); and A Lods, "Correspondance de Rabaut St-Etienne" in La Revolution française (1898), "L'arrestation de Rabaut St Etienne" in La Revolution française for 1903 (cf. the same review for 1901), and "Les debuts do Rabaut St-Etienne aux Etats Généraux et a Ia Convention" in the Bulletin historique de la Société de l'histoire du protestantisme français (1901), also an Essai sur la vie de Rabaut Saint-Etienne (1893) seilarately published. An edition of the Œuvres de Rabaut Saint-Etienne (2 vols., 1826) contains a notice by Collin de Plaacy.
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