 He was consecrated at Tulle on 29 April by Jean-Jacques Brival.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.