The diocese was created in 1788, but the new bishop, Étienne-Jean-Baptiste-Louis des Gallois de la Tour, although appointed by King Louis XVI on 29 May 1789, had not been approved by Pope Pius VI before the outbreak of the French Revolution in July 1789. Under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy there was erected a diocese of Allier, with a Constitutional Bishop resident at Moulins. The French government, however, did not have the canonical power to erect dioceses, and therefore this new diocese was in schism with Rome. The first Constitutional Bishop, Msgr. François-Xavier Laurent, had been a curé in the diocese of Autun before becoming a member of the Estates General; after his election by the voters of Allier, he was consecrated in Paris on 6 March 1791 by Constitutional Bishop Gobel. In 1793 he abdicated and married. Laurent died in 1796, or 10 May 1821. The appointment and consecration of Laurent, as well as the erection of the Diocese of Allier, were annulled by Pope Pius VI. Laurent's consecration was labelled blasphemous and schismatic. Under the Concordat of 11 June 1817 the diocese of Moulins was re-established, from parts of the dioceses of Autun, Bourges, and Clermont-Ferrand, to cover the department of Allier. The implementation of the Concordat was delayed, however, by various circumstances brought about by the Hundred Days and the occupation of France by the Allies, as well as by the lack of funds both on the part of the French monarchy and the Papacy, to say nothing about the machinations of ministers and diplomats. On 6 October 1822, Pope Pius VII issued a bull which created fourteen dioceses in France, including Moulins. The first bishop was appointed in 1822, and in the same year the medieval collegiate church at Moulins was established as the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, the seat of the diocese. The diocese of Moulins was made a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Sens. This situation continued until 8 December 2002, when a major reorganization of the French diocesan structure made Moulins a suffragan of the Archbishop of Clermont. The current bishop is Laurent Jean Lucien Marie Percerou, appointed in 2013.
