Michel Vovelle

THE Revolution MICHEL VOVELLE In Paris in the winter and spring of 1793-94, a sudden and violent attempt at "dechristianization"—a willful endeavor to eradicate religious institutions, practices, and beliefs—flared up, crowned by the effort to set up a new cult, that of Reason. In this lively and well-researched book, Vovelle asks how we should evaluate this episode: as little more than a tragic accident, the folly of a day from which the profound faith of the masses nevertheless emerged intact? Or as a momentous break in religious history which has lasted to the present day? Or—a third possibility—as a symptom of the true state of popular indifference which had already begun with the philosophical propaganda of the Enlightenment? Drawing on a rich body of documentary evidence, Vovelle traces the growth of the revolutionary movement against the Church and uses several indicators: the surrendering of Church silverware, the taking down of bells, acts of iconoclasm, the burning of idols, and the closure of churches. He draws conclusions from these traumatic events about the history of the "dechristianizing" mentality in early modern Europe. Written by one of the foremost authorities on the French Revolution, The Revolution against the Church will be of interest to students and researchers in the history of France and the history of religion. The Revolution against the Church The Revolution against the Church From Reason to the Supreme Being MICHEL VOVELLE Translated by Alan Jose Ohio State University Press Columbus First published in the United States by the Ohio State University Press. First published in the United Kingdom by Polity Press in association with Basil Blackwell Ltd. and with the assistance of the French Ministry of Culture. Copyright ©Editions Complexe, 1988 English translation ©Polity Press, 1991 All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0-8142-0577-1 Text design by Blackwell Publishers Jacket design by Miller, Craig and Cocking Design Partnership Type set by Graphicraft Typesetters Ltd., Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by Billing and Sons Ltd., Worcester The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. © 987654321 Contents List of figures vi List of tables vii 1 The adventures of Reason 1 2 At the origins of dechristianization 12 3 The dechristianizing wave 25 4 A clean sweep 39 5 The abdication of the priests 62 6 The married priests 83 7 From Reason to the Supreme Being 98 8 The dechristianizers 123 9 The resistance to dechristianization 149 10 Dechristianization revealed 167 Appendices 177 Chronology 179 Figures 183 Bibliographical notes 197 Bibliography 199 Index 203 Figures Figure 1 Chronology of dechristianizing addresses: typology Figure 2 Overall distribution of dechristianizing addresses Figure 3 The six groups obtained (figures 1 and 3) based on the graphic treatment are visualized above in a way which positions the chronological stages of the receipt of dechristianizing addresses by the Convention Figure 4 Chronology of dechristianizing addresses by theme: distribution by month, for every hundred addresses on each theme Figure 5 Abdicating priests (numbers) Figure 6 Abdicating priests, in relation to the total numbers of clergy bound by the constitutional oath (in %) Figure 7 Married priests (numbers) Figure 8 Married priests, in relation to the total numbers of clergy bound by the constitutional oath (in %) Figure 9 Addresses relating to the removal of plate from churches Figure 10 Married priests, for every hundred abdicating priests Figure 11 Addresses relating to the cult of Reason Figure 12 Addresses relating to civic festivals Figure 13 Addresses relating to the Supreme Being Figure 14 Addresses on the cult of the Supreme Being in relation to the cult of Reason Figure 15 Resistance to dechristianization Figure 16 Popular societies Figure 17 Administrations (departments, districts) Figure 18 Municipalities Figure 19 The intensity of dechristianization Figure 20 Priests taking the oath of fidelity to the civil constitution of the clergy: 1791 Figure 21 Religious practice, 1945-66 Figure 22 The cult of the martyrs of Liberty, following revolutionary toponymy Figure 23 The revolutionary toponymy Figure 24 Concordance of the Gregorian and Republican calendars (Year 2) Tables Table 5.1 Percentages of abdicators by categories of origin Table 5.2 Ages of abdicating priests Table 6.1 The number of married priests Table 6.2 The types of married priests Table 6.3 Occupations of married priests Table 6.4 Priests' families Table 8.1 The sources of addresses Table 8.2 The evolution of addresses issued to the National Convention month by month in the southern half of France Table 8.3 Percentage of dechristianizing addresses by source of issue in the north-west quarter 1 The adventures of Reason In the philosophical story from which the title of this essay is borrowed, Voltaire sketched in metaphorical terms the 'adventures of Reason' in the way that a philosopher of his time might have seen them. Hidden in a well, with her daughter Truth for company, Reason did not have many opportunities during the course of history for actually venturing out into the open. Suddenly a lull gave her the chance. In the Europe of Enlightened Princes, from Prussia to Tuscany or Portugal, she was able to set out on a journey to measure the progress of science, of law, and above all of tolerance, casting back into the darkness of a dead past butchery and torture - that is, the legacy of fanaticism and superstition. The fable ends badly. Having witnessed the persistent reversion to barbarism among men who were murdering and savaging each other, mother and daughter go back into their well, still hoping to come out one day - if not for good (Voltaire's optimism does not go that far) then at least occasionally when there is an opportunity. It is an understatement to say that the philosopher would have been unable to recognize himself in the adventure we are now about to recount. In the space of six months - say from Brumaire to Germinal in Year 2 - Reason forced its way through, in republican France, at the time of the most intensive struggle on the fronts of both civil and foreign war, repudiating the elitist model of progress which had come from above and imposing itself as the ultimate outcome of a new world. But the conclusion is the same. It was an episode with no tomorrow, a parenthesis which was incongruous and - even worse - culpable in the eyes of enemies as well as those of many friends of the Revolution; and so the cult of Reason moved back into the ranks of memories to be concealed and forgotten. Analysis, and still more, understanding, implies a persistent attempt in this whole area to overcome a taboo which is none the less real. Whether 2 The adventures of Reason intentionally or not, a silence was established, anathematizing one moment of 'delirium', associating the adversaries of the Revolution in an unconscious complicity with those who made use of it, without daring to claim back this part of their inheritance. The impossible serenity In the preface to a work still referred to today, which he dedicated in 1906 to the 'cult of Reason and (to the) cult of the Supreme Being5, Alphonse Aulard emphasized how the historiography of the nineteenth century had been powerless to free itself from a normative interpretation of the phenomenon, leading to a value judgement which was generally unfavourable. Michelet, he recalled, condemned equally both the abstraction of the cult of Reason and the elitism of the cult of the Supreme Being, dreaming instead of a 'religion of our native land and of humanity', which would be more in keeping with popular feeling and with the spirit of France itself. Edgar Quinet, far from being shocked by the iconoclastic audacity of the 'prudent Polyeuctes'# (to use Aulard's expression) came to the paradoxical conclusion that 'all that needed to be done was simply to convert Revolutionary France to protestantism.' Then there were the more liberated spirits, capable of a higher vision. Aulard's initiative, written at the dawn of 1900, was seen by the erudite positivists who wrote monographs as failing to face up to the real problems. No concessions were made in this dispute, which listed in the works of clerical authors - whether ecclesiastic or not - the victims and the outrages. The works of their adversaries revealed their difficulty in extricating themselves from the ligh stakes of the anticlerical battle at the turn of the century. We have learned to be more indulgent towards these learned authors of end- of-the-century monographs, and to appreciate the documentary assets we owe them, at least when they were not blinded by passion. How many hagiographical notices have we read which are so scrupulous in praising the heroism of these confessors of the faith that they cover with Noah's mantle the realities not only of the other church - which is less heroic, or at least differently motivated - but also of a France which in 1793 was no longer the united Christendom that was the dream? Thus, to take only one example, we search in vain in the four volumes of the history of the Church in Avignon during the Revolution, by Canon Soullier, for any trace of the 200 abdicated priests from the department of Vaucluse. * Polyeucte: a tragedy by Corneille (1606-84). Polyeucte drives away his wife unless she is willing to go to the stake with him as a Christian martyr.

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