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"Who was Robert de Saint-Vincent (1725–1799)? Historiography offers two different images of this individual: one, the passionate opponent of absolute monarchy and a severe Jansenist who defended civil tolerance for Protestants; the other, the “September 25, 1788, man,” who aspired to cast 1789 in the same mold as 1614. Self-focused documents recently rediscovered, including his memoir of emigration and a fragment of his correspondence for the years 1789–1790, endow this individual and his world with beliefs of convincing coherence. Robert de Saint-Vincent believed in a just monarchy and saw as ministerial despotism any form of absolute power: “No King without Parliament.” From then on, his dissatisfaction is understandable, as are his impression of being betrayed by his colleagues and his perception of the Revolution as absolute evil and a vast Jesuit plot."