At the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Pius VI witnessed the suppression of the old Gallican Church as well as the confiscation of pontifical and ecclesiastical possessions in France. It also saw an effigy of himself burnt by the Parisians at the Palais Royal. He saw the events as a sign of opposition against the social order ordained by God and also viewed it as a conspiracy against the church. The pope condemned both the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and supported a league against the revolution. He issued two briefs - "Quod aliquantum" (1791) and "Caritas" (1791) - to condemn the ecclesiastical reforms that were proposed.