2. Laws Passed by Revolutionaries
The plan of de-christianization waged against Catholicism, and eventually
against all forms of Christianity, included:
confiscation of Church lands, which were to be the security for the
new Assignat currency
removal of statues, plates and other iconography from places of worship
destruction of crosses, bells and other external signs of worship
the institution of revolutionary and civic cults, including the Cult of
Reason and subsequently the Cult of the Supreme Being,
the enactment of a law on October 21, 1793 making
all nonjuring priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death
on sight.
The climax was reached with the celebration of the goddess "Reason"
in Notre Dame Cathedral on 10 November 1793.
The de-christianization campaign can be seen as the logical extension of the
materialist philosophies of some leaders of the enlightenment, while for
others it was an opportunity to unleash resentments against the Church
and clergy.
3. The Beginnings
August 1789-the State cancelled the taxing power of the
Church. The issue of church property became central to
the policies of the new revolutionary government.
Declaring that all church property in France belonged to
the nation, confiscations were ordered and church
properties were sold at public auction.
July 1790, the National Constituent Assembly stripped
clerics of their special rights — the clergy were to be
made employees of the state, elected by their parish or
bishopric, and the number of bishoprics was to be
reduced — and required all priests and bishops to swear
an oath of fidelity to the new order or face dismissal,
deportation or death.
4. Church Response
French priests had to receive Papal approval to sign
such an oath, and Pius VI spent almost eight months
deliberating on the issue.
April 13, 1791, the Pope denounced the Constitution
resulting in a split in the French Catholic church.
Abjuring priests ("jurors") became known as
"constitutional clergy", and nonjuring priests as
"refractory clergy".
5. More power lost:
September 1792, the Legislative Assembly
legalized divorce, contrary to Catholic doctrine.
took control of the birth, death, and marriage
registers away from the Church.
***An ever-increasing view that the Church was a
counter-revolutionary force exacerbated the social and
economic grievances and violence erupted in towns
and cities across France.
6. September Massacres
September 2 and 3, 1792- the Legislative
Assembly dissolved into chaos, three Church bishops
and more than two hundred priests were massacred
by angry mobs.
Priests were among those drowned in mass
executions for treason
priests and nuns were among the mass executions
at Lyons, for separatism
Hundreds more priests were imprisoned and made
to suffer in abominable conditions in the port
of Rochefort.
7. Anti-Church Laws
1793 were motivated by the seizure of church gold
and silver to finance the war effort.
In November 1793, the département council
abolished the word dimanche
The Gregorian calendar was replaced by the French
Republican Calendar which abolished
the sabbath, saints' days and any references to the
Church.
8. Anti-clerical parades were held
Street and place names with any sort of religious
connotation were changed, such as the town of St.
Tropez, which became Héraclée.
Religious holidays were banned and replaced with
holidays to celebrate the harvest and other non-
religious symbols.
9. The Fall of Robespierre
1794-Robespierre, the leader of the revolution, was
overthrown and killed for being to cruel and
vindictive to the Church and others.
1795 a return to some form of religion-based faith
was beginning to take shape
February 21, 1795 legalized public worship, albeit
with strict limitations. The ringing of church bells,
religious processions and displays of the Christian
cross were still forbidden.
10. The Beginning of the End
As late as 1799, priests were still being imprisoned or
deported to penal colonies and persecution only
worsened after the French army captured Rome and
imprisoned Pope Pius VI, who would die in captivity
in France in August 1799.
When Napoleon took control and signed a n
agreement with the new Pope, Pius VII, formally
ending the anti-Catholic period and establishing the
rules for a relationship between the Roman Church
and the French State.
11. Victims of the Reign of Terror
totaled somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000.
Estimates
8 percent were aristocrats,
6 percent clergy,
14 percent middle class,
70 percent were workers or peasants
Of these social groupings, the clergy of the Roman Catholic
Church suffered proportionately the greatest loss.
12. Effects on the Priesthood
about twenty thousand constitutional priests were forced to abdicate and
hand over their letters of ordination
six thousand to nine thousand of them were coerced to marry.
Many abandoned their pastoral duties altogether. Nonetheless, some of
those who had abdicated continued covertly to minister to the people.
approximately thirty thousand priests had been forced to leave France, and
others who did not leave were executed.
Most French parishes were left without the services of a priest and
deprived of the sacraments.
Any non-juring priest faced the guillotine or deportation to French Guiana.
By Easter 1794, few of France's forty thousand churches remained open;
many had been closed, sold, destroyed, or converted to other uses.
Victims of revolutionary violence, whether religious or not, were popularly
treated as Christian martyrs, and the places where they were killed became
pilgrimage destinations.
Catechizing in the home became more common. The long-term effects on
religious practice in France were significant.
