RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
French Revolution
of aiding in the destruction of morals. In the scene just portrayed a Protestant minister took part — Julien, of Toulouse, declaring that Protestantism also had its charlatanry, and that henceforth he would have no other sanctuary than that of the law, no deity than freedom, no Gospel than the republican constitution. He died at the guiho-'ine in Apr., 1794. Bishop Gregoire was the only ecclesiastic of the convention to oppose this unworthy movement. His stand was bold and his declaration emphatic that his religion was a part of his most solemn convictions; his office was from the hands of the people, but his call to it came neither from the people nor the convention. He was violently assailed, but remained steadfast, continued to wear ecclesiastical dress, and presented so imposing a mien that no one ventured to lay hands upon him.
The Paris council instituted, in celebration of the abolition of the Roman Catholic religion, a feast of
reason, carried out on the twentieth of
7. Ra- Brumaire (Nov. 10), 1793, in Notre
tionalistic Dame, in which a so-called temple of
Cults philosophy was erected, in which sat
Introduced, as the representative of reason an opera
singer, Mademoiselle Maillard. The celebration was continued in the national convention, whither the representative of reason was carried in a sedan-chair, was proclaimed goddess of the feast, of freedom, and reason. The procession then went again to the cathedral, where the celebration was held and hymns were sung to reason. This ceremony was imitated in other parts of the country, the sanction of the convention having been given to the new cult of reason. On Nov. 13 the subordinates of the convention were empowered to receive the renouncements of the clergy and the latter were urged to abjure Christianity. In the festivals the churches were often plundered and the treasures appropriated as state property. Proposals were made to destroy the towers which held the bells and the sculptures of Notre Dame on the ground that they implicitly opposed equality. The convention received reports from various quarters of the burial of Christianity and the abolition of the worship of God. In cases where the clergy submitted to the demands made upon them, the fact was noted and celebrated as the triumph of philosophy over prejudice and error, while the churches were stripped of adornment and turned into temples of reason or even put to ignominious uses- Books of prayer or hymns were burned, the citizens were forbidden to keep Sunday as a holy day, while on Nov. 22 all bishops and clergy who had renounced their functions were assured of pensions. In spite of all this there were many, especially women, who still went to the churches for prayer and worship. i^ven in the convention the voice of Robespierre was raised against the prevalent tendency, and on Nov. 21 at the Jacobins' club he declaimed against Hebert, who had just delivered a harangue upon the dangers of fanaticism and priesthood. He declared that there were men who under the pretense of destroying superstition made a sort of religion of atheism. This might do for aristocrats, but the people needed a Supreme Being to watch over oppressed innocence
and to punish victorious crime. But the representatives of atheism were not to be overthrown without a struggle. A few days later they put through the city co^cil a decree to close the churches and making ot all who contraverted this suspicious persons.
Chaumette, however, secured a partial recall of this resolution, and on Nov. 26 Danton carried the resolution in the convention that the 8. The antireligious masquerades should cease Turn in and that an end be put to the persecu- Affairs. tion of the priests, while no obstacle was to be laid in the way of any worship, the decree for freedom of worship passing the convention on Dec. 6. Robespierre began to pose as the patron of religion; and though he was far from desiring to give to the priests their earlier power, declaring them to be in religion what charlatans were in medicine and that the true priest of the Highest Being was nature, whose temple was the universe and his worship virtue, yet he prevailed upon the convention, May 7, 1794, to make the following declaration: The French people acknowledges the existence of a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul; it recognizes that the worthy worship of him is the fulfilment of man's duties, the first of which are the detestation of faithlessness and tyranny, the punishment of tyrants and traitors, and the support of the unhappy; festivals shall be appointed with the object of bringing mankind again to the thought of the deity. The first of the festivals provided for was celebrated June 8, 1794, at which Robespierre, then president of the convention, appeared in gay costume and delivered a political-moral address. Though shortly after Robespierre went to the scaffold charged with making for himself a priesthood, his speeches marked the turning-point in favor toward religious belief. On May 30, 1795, the use of the churches was granted to their former possessors, though the public announcement of service, as by the ringing of bells, was forbidden. The constitution of Aug. 22, 1795, granted freedom in matters of religion to all who submitted to the law. Oversight by regular authorities was provided for, the clergy was forbidden to interfere in the matter of the registry of vital statistics and to publish foreign documents hostile to the republic. The last was aimed against the pope, who by rescripts was continually endeavoring to control the French Church. Full freedom was given to the rearing of religious sects, and owing to this was a remarkable development of " Theophilanthropists," which reduced all religious teaching to the doctrines of God and of immortality and the moral ideas which flowed from them. The dispersal of these sects caused no little trouble later when Napoleon, after the signing of the concordat (see Concordats and Delimiting Bulls, VI., §§ 1- 2), forbade their meetings, especially those of the Theophilanthropists, whose sect had spread widely over France. Even after the decree of 1795 the persecutions of religion did not entirely cease. In Oct. , 1795, the convention threatened with death all exiled clergy if they returned to France. But the lot of the religious was making advance toward betterment during the year 1796 and the first part of 1797.
French Revolution Fresenius