From the 1600s, France, ruled by Louis XIV, became the leading Roman Catholic kingdom fulfilling a role previously held by Spain and Portugal. Meanwhile, the ideas of the Enlightenment were at work in society and in the church. The philosophes, the intellectuals of the Enlightenment, while acknowledging the church's contribution in terms of morals, social order and care for the needy, also found much to criticise in terms of the church's intolerance, authoritarianism, dogmatism, attitudes towards celibacy, and its huge wealth. This generated a groundswell of anticlerical (anti-church, anti-priest) sentiment in society. A telling moment, indicative of the change of mood was the suppression, by the Pope in 1773, of the Jesuit monastic order considered too reactionary. Another telling incident came in 1781, Louis XVI allegedly rejected one candidate for bishop of Paris saying, "The Archbishop of Paris should at least believe in God!" It all culminated in the French Revol...