Starting with the French Revolution and continuing through the 19th Century, the French populace on the whole was weary of the church as a whole, which includes monasteries and convents. This distrust and weariness of the church stems from the church being seen as an oppressor in France. Contributing evidence to this is the Civil Constitution passed by the National Assembly in 1790 and reluctantly approved by Louis XVI. The Civil Constitution made the Catholic Church in France have elected bishops instead of appointed Bishops in an effort to make the church more of a democratic institution, but this was highly controversial in France and was incredibly unpopular with certain groups, leading to its abandonment in 1791. This exemplifies the distrust of the French with the Church.
Source: Citizen Bishops: Episcopal Elections in the French Revolution Malcolm Crook The Historical Journal Vol. 43, No. 4 (Dec., 2000) , pp. 955-976 Published by: Cambridge University Press