The legitimate Bishop Louis Maria de Nicolai died in 1791, leaving the diocese vacant. On 11 November 1791 Pope Pius VI appointed Charles-Nicolas de Bécave to be the Vicar-Apostolic of the Diocese of Cahors in the absence of a bishop; he served until the appointment of a new bishop in 1802. Both the Constitutional Church and the Roman Catholic Church were severely stressed in 1793 and 1794 by the Terror, and the discovery that Reason was to replace Faith as the governing principle in France.