Who was Robert de Saint-Vincent (1725-1799) ? The historiography offers two different images of this personnage : one, the passionate opponent of Absolute Monarchy, a severe jansenist who defended civil tolerance for Protestants ; the other, the « the man of 25 September 1788 », who aspired to cast 1789 in the samemould as 1614. The ego-documents recently rediscovered (his mémoires of émigration, and a fragment of his correspondance for the years 1789-1790) endow this individual and his system of thought with a convincing coherency. Robert de Saint-Vincent believed in the monarchy of justice, and regarded asministerial despotismany formof absolutist power. Not a King without Parlement. From then on, his dissatisfaction is understandable : his impression of being betrayed by his colleagues, and his perception of the Revolution as a total evil, an immense jesuit plot.