Together the brothers wrote two major works, "Reflections on the State of the Church in France in the 18th century and Its Current Situation" and "The Tradition of the Church on the Institution of Bishops", which they published anonymously in Paris in 1808. The books urged a religious revival in the nation with an active role by the clergy. They defended the Holy See as the true authority over the Catholic Church in France. The government of the Emperor Napoleon judged the ideas of the books dangerous and banned their further printing. The following year they published a translation of the work of the noted 16th-century spiritual writer, the Benedictine Abbot Louis de Blois.