Scandal in the Parish: Priests and Parishioners Behaving Badly in Eighteenth-Century France

In 1770, the priest Nicolas Vernier was accused of neglecting church services, inappropriate behaviour in the confessional, financial improprieties, and affairs with the village schoolmistresses. In a contentious church court case, parishioners described all of their priest's wrongdoings, and in turn, he detailed many of theirs. Ultimately, Vernier finished his career as a cathedral canon in another diocese.

Scandal in the Parish recounts Vernier's story and many similar eighteenth-century c...