THE CULT OF THE MARTYRS OF LIBERTY:

RADICAL RELIGIOSITY IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

A Thesis

Presented to

The Faculty of Graduate Studies

of

The University of Guelph

by

ASHLEY SHIFFLETT

In partial fulfillment of requirements

for the degree of

Master of Arts

July 2008

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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada ABSTRACT

THE CULT OF THE MARTYRS OF LIBERTY: Radical Religiosity in the French Revolution

Ashley Shifflett Advisor: University of Guelph, 2008 Dr. William S. Cormack

The Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty emerged as a popular and spontaneous manifestation of sans-culotte affections for Jean-Paul Marat. In death, Marat became a focus for this group's religious sensibilities, and he was transformed into the object of a religious cult which mocked Catholic orthodoxy and venerated revolutionary radicalism. This thesis seeks to qualify Albert Soboul's conclusions on the Cult of Martyrs by examining it as a cultural expression of the sans-culottes' anti-clericalism as well as of their political and social ideals, in light of recent interpretations on Revolutionary religiosity. The celebration of martyrdom was a point of conflict between the revolutionary bourgeoisie and the sans-culottes. This conflict can be seen in efforts by the National Convention and the Paris Commune to control the Cult of Marat by incorporating it into the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty, which conformed to classical republican ideals. Efforts to supplant the Cult of the Martyrs came with the imposition of Robespierre's Cult of the Supreme Being, and he attempted to channel popular religious energy in new directions until his overthrow. During the Thermidorian Reaction, the jeunesse doree attacked the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty. The Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty continued as a rallying point for former Jacobins who attempted to appeal to the sans-culottes. Along with other aspects of the French Revolution which shaped the modern revolutionary tradition, the cults of Year II of the Republic point to the importance of secular commemoration and hero-worship during times of revolution. Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Bill Cormack. I am deeply indebted to him for his patience, for his meticulous editing, and for his guidance throughout my years at the University of Guelph. His enthusiasm for French Revolutionary history is truly infectious.

I would also like to thank Professor Sofie Lachapelle who co-advised this project until its final stages and whose enthusiasm and encouragement was a great asset.

I would also like to extend thanks to Professors Peter Goddard and Susannah Humble-Ferreira, who served on my committee.

I wish to express special appreciation to my family and friends. Particular thanks go out to my parents, Mike and Sue Shifflett, for their love and support; to Jean-Luc and Patricia Rimonteil, whose door is always open pour les vacances en France; to my brother, Geoffrey Shifflett for his help at the Paris archives and for keeping my spirits up when the going was tough; to my colleagues and friends Brodie Richards and Natalie Dube who read various draft chapters of this thesis while it was still very much a work in progress; and to Donny McBrayne, for always understanding and being my rock.

Last but not least, to my grandmother, Mae Rose Shifflett, who taught me to read French and who provided invaluable assistance - this thesis is dedicated to her.

Ashley Shifflett July, 2008

1 Contents

-Acknowledgements i

-Contents ii

-Abbreviations iii

Chapter 1: THE HISTORIANS AND THE CULT OF THE MARTYRS OF 1 LIBERTY

Chapter 2: SANS-CULOTTES SENSIBILITIES AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 19 CULT OF MARAT

Chapter 3: THE NATIONAL CONVENTION AND THE CULT OF THE 48 MARTYRS OF LIBERTY

Chapter 4: THE DECLINE OF THE CULT OF THE MARTYRS OF LIBERTY: 80 L'ETRE SUPREME, YOUTH HEROES AND THE JEUNESSE DOREE

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 104

-Bibliography 108

ii Note on Abbreviations

AN = Archives Nationales, Paris

BHVP = Bibliotheque de la Ville de Paris Chapter I: The Historians and the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty

The Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty was an important element of French

Revolutionary culture, which emerged during the first year of the Republic. The Cult worshipped three martyrs of the Revolution: Michel Lepelletier, a member of the

Convention who was assassinated by a fellow noble for voting in favour of the execution of the King; Jean-Paul Marat, a Jacobin deputy and radical journalist who was assassinated by Charlotte Corday in response to the purge of the Girondins from the

Convention; and Joseph Chalier, a Jacobin activist in Lyon who was guillotined by

Federalist rebels. These martyrs formed a new trinity, which, in revolutionary culture, replaced the Holy Trinity of Roman Catholicism. As well as linking the Cult to dechristianization, this new trinity represented three key crises of the Republic and served the important purpose of justifying radical measures: the execution of the king, the purge of the Convention and the repression of Federalism. The Cult of Martyrs was an important ideological tool through which the Jacobins and the sans-culottes articulated the values of the Republic and justified their actions. Yet the celebration of martyrdom became a source of conflict between the groups, and it reflected their different cultural, social and political objectives. While historical study of the revolutionary cults has focused on the more prominent Cult of the Supreme Being, as well as on the Festival of

Reason, the study of the Cult of Martyrs provides important insight into the popular movement, its relationship to the Jacobin government, and the contribution of the sans­ culottes to French Revolutionary culture.

Historians have debated the nature of the Cult and have studied it in terms of its religious and political implications. In the early nineteenth century, contemporaries of

1 the Revolution, such as Abbe Gregoire, tended to view the revolutionary cults as solely political creations with specific political purposes, thereby refusing the Cult of Martyrs any truly religious nature.1 This trend continued with historian Alphonse Aulard, who also saw the revolutionary cults as political. Aulard characterized the Cult of Marat as an

"expedient of popular patriotic defence" and the martyrs as "a trinity of the victims of patriotism."2 In the twentieth century, Richard Cobb viewed the Cult of Marat in a similar manner, as part of the process to replace Christianity with a religion of the nation:

"A kind of'patriotic religion', hazy in outline, confused in doctrine."

The first historian to specifically examine the cults and their religious content was

Albert Mathiez, who saw the cults in terms of a religious struggle against the Catholic

Church, but also as a true revolutionary religion. Mathiez considered the revolutionary festivals to be the result of a desire to replace Catholic worship with a new cult capable of offering its participants a similar spiritual satisfaction.4 This approach explained the conscious transposition of Catholic ceremony onto new forms of worship. Later in the twentieth century, historian Albert Soboul saw this study as superficial because Mathiez had "poorly characterized the religious reality, by identifying the religious with the collective."5 According to Soboul, "with the development of rationalism during the previous century, religion became specialized and then occupied merely one part of the

1 Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," in New Perspectives on the French Revolution: Readings in Historical Sociology, edited by Jeffry Kaplow, (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1965)339. 2 F.A. Aulard, Le Culte de la Raison et le Culte de L'Etre Supreme (1793-1794): Essai Historique. (Paris: G. Bailliere, 1892)203,202. 3 Richard Cobb, The People's Armies: The Armies Revolutionaires: instruments of the Terror in the Departments. April 1793 to Floreal Year II. translated by Marianne Elliot, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987)455. 4 Albert Mathiez, Les Origines des Cultes Revolutionnaires (1789-1792). (Paris: Societe Nouvelle de Librairie et d'Edition, 1904) 143. 5 Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," 340.

2 collective life."6 For Soboul, the religious act needs to be considered as a whole and he examined both the Cult of the Patriot Saints and the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty, suggesting that French Revolution historians had neglected the study of the cults "as nothing but pragmatic political attempts."

Albert Soboul's interest in the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty originated in his study of the popular movement, and any examination of the Cult is linked to the history of the sans-culottes because of their involvement in its creation. Soboul's The Parisian

Sans-Culottes in Year II is the defining work on the nature of the sans-culottes in terms of their economic and political contributions to the Revolution.8 Soboul saw the sans­ culottes, though in alliance with the Jacobin bourgeoisie, as an autonomous movement pursuing separate objectives. His study examined the sans-culottes as an autonomous group with their own definition of the Republic and the Revolution. This autonomy represented the sans-culottes' importance in the Revolutionary period and their significance for historians and revolutionary historiography.

This recognition of their political autonomy, along with Soboul's definition of the social composition of the sans-culottes, have remained the two most important contributions of his study. Soboul refuted Michelet's general and non-specific use of the term "people" in his History of the French Revolution, and instead defined this group as primarily those of the artisan classes, those who "worked with their hands."9 He emphasized that there was no coherent class-consciousness because the sans-culottes

6 Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," 340. 7 Ibid, 338. 8 Albert Soboul, Les Sans-Culottes parisiens en l'an II: mouvement populaire et gouvernement revolutionnaire 2 juin 1793-9 thermidor an II. (Paris, 1956). The Sans-Culottes: The Popular Movement and Revolutionary Government. 1793-1794. (1968), translated by Remy Inglis Hall, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980). 9 Ibid, 22.

3 included members of different economic classes: employers and employees, shopkeepers and workers who owned no property. Instead, the group had a political cohesion that contributed to the fragility of the movement: "The masses considered social characteristics insufficient to define a sans-culotte, a counter-revolutionary worker could not be a good sans-culotte, but a patriotic and republican bourgeois was willingly labeled one."10

The sans-culottes judged an individual's character from his or her outward appearance as evidence of that person's sense of equality. They resented being referred to as from a lower order, and referred to those opposed to their political views as

"aristocrats."11 Holding egalitarian concepts of social relations close to heart, the sans­ culottes believed in limited property ownership. This quality permitted the heterogeneous nature of the movement, as some small shopkeepers and workshop masters fell under the category of property owners. Soboul attributed the rise of the sans-culottes largely to the economic crises of the Old Regime, which accounted for the insistence on price controls such as the maximum.

According to Soboul, the crisis of 1793 instigated the popular alliance because the

Jacobins needed sans-culotte support to gain control of the Convention.13 Soboul saw autonomy in the sans-culottes' actions because their opposition to the aristocracy expanded as the Revolution progressed to include the upper echelons of the Third Estate

- the bourgeoisie.1 The sans-culottes' inclination towards popular violence demonstrated their severe hostility towards the "counter-revolutionaries:" "Many

10 Albert Soboul, The Sans-Culottes. 23. 11 Ibid, 92. 12 Ibid, 43-44. 13 Ibid 13. 14 Ibid, 6.

4 militants ... insisted upon the creation of a revolutionary army [and] demanded that it be accompanied by a mobile guillotine."15 Their autonomy was also apparent in their social aspirations, most importantly their struggle for the rights to equal incomes, to limited property ownership, to national defense, to work and public assistance, and to the availability of equal education as "a means of ameliorating their lot, to rise in society and to destroy an empire of wealth."16 Soboul attributed the group's defeat to its social composition, which inherently led to a non-cohesive political program: "Composed of many socially disparate elements, the sans-culottes were undermined by internal dissent, which explains both their inability to establish a coherent program and ultimately, their political defeat."17

Soboul's interpretation of the sans-culottes, united as consumers, is strongly based on historical materialism. He interpreted their actions and behaviour as largely the product of economic conditions, further relating the sans-culottes to the means of production, and believed, like Marx, that "the sans-culottes did not understand that when the small enterprise regime reached a certain point in its development it would generate the agents of its own destruction."18 They were progressive in their politics and retrograde in their economics. For instance, they did not demand the abolition of private property. They saw education as the great equalizer, which subsequently would allow for equal opportunities to work. Further, they aggressively held to Rousseau's concept of direct democracy and believed that the sovereign people held the right to insurrection.19

Transparency in government was essential to prevent conspiracies and plots. Though

15 Albert Soboul, The Sans-Culottes. 18. 16 Ibid, 87. 17 Ibid, 20. 18 Ibid, 93. 19 Ibid, 107, 129-30.

5 they believed in unanimity and did not permit dissention, much like the middle-class

Jacobins, the aforementioned aspirations and qualities demonstrate a distinct self-interest separate from that of the members of the National Convention, which made the sans- culottes clearly a distinct and autonomous militant force.

Soboul's understanding of the sans-culottes influenced his examination of the

Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty where he assessed the strength of religious sentiment of those who took part in ceremonies of the Revolution. He sought to study the Cult not as a creation of the bourgeois government, but instead as a popular cult that would shed light on the spontaneity of the masses and that would contribute to historians' greater understanding of the development of religious sentiment during the Terror. Yet Soboul's interpretation of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty is somewhat ambiguous regarding the fundamental nature of the cult. According to Soboul, the assassination of Jean-Paul

Marat on July 13, 1793, caused "the awakening of a popular veneration which remains one of the most original characteristics of the sans-culottes' mentality," and he argues that, for the sans-culottes, Marat's soul was truly immortal, taking it beyond the official

George Rude and Richard Cobb have also examined sans-culotte autonomy in important works. Rude reinterpreted the crowd using police records and argued that the crowd was composed of the menu people, namely the small tradesmen, urban artisans, and journeymen, whose primary motives were economic stresses centred around their need for subsistence, in particular foodstuffs. These were the men and women that Soboul had defined as the sans-culottes. Although believing that the sans-culottes had been wooed by the Jacobins into providing their militant support and permitting the Jacobins to seize control of the Revolution in 1793, Rude argued that the sans-culottes were politically autonomous, expressing their own political demands, despite their impregnation with slogans and ideas of the political groups contending for power. See George Rude, The Crowd and the French Revolution, (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1959) 232. Cobb instead approached the study of the social and political autonomy of the sans-culottes with an individualist perspective. Cobb's study of the sans-culotte mentality led him to characterize these individuals based on their collective and public nature. He thus argued that the sans-culottes were not defined by wealth, but instead by one's moral and civic duty. In direct contrast to Soboul, who saw the sans-culottes in many ways as politically advanced, Cobb emphasized the political gullibility of the revolutionary man, a political novice: "He believed what he was told, especially in matters of public affairs." See Richard Cobb, "Revolutionary Mentality in France," The French and their Revolution, edited by David Gilmour, (New York: The New Press, 1990) 7-23; and "Some Aspects of the Revolutionary Mentality," in New Perspectives on the French Revolution: Readings in Historical Sociology, edited by Jeffry Kaplow, (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1965), 305-337.

6 meaning that Marat was immortal in the national collective memory. For the sans­ culottes, Marat was sacred in the same manner that the Catholic saints had been, and they hoped that he would grant success and greatness to the Revolution. Yet Soboul also examined the imagery borrowed from Antiquity and the elements borrowed from

Catholicism, and argued that these 'rites' were essentially political, exalting above all the civic sentiments of the sans-culottes.22 The cult became most prominent during

September of 1793 when corteges of the Cult replaced the processions of Catholic worship. As far as the new religiosity is concerned, Soboul argues that though "one senses a religious fervor; ... precise manifestations of [this new religiosity] cannot be found."23 Ultimately for Soboul, the borrowings of Catholicism did not imply veneration or constitute a real religiosity.

Soboul's interpretation of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty as solely a sans­ culotte creation is problematic, especially in his discussion of the inclusion of Chalier in the new revolutionary trinity. For Soboul, the inclusion of Chalier represents the

Jacobins' attempt to emphasize republican virtues and to assert their influence over the

Cult. Reflecting a broader interpretation of class conflict, Soboul saw a fundamental difference in cult behaviours between the sans-culottes and the Jacobins whose classical culture compelled them to revert back to memories of Antiquity. The sans-culottes, in contrast, borrowed elements from the Catholicism in which they had been raised, which demonstrates the continuity between the traditional and the new cults. Soboul sees the

Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty as a sans-culotte creation and, while he does admit that there were members of the lower bourgeoisie who participated in the Cult, he still sees

21 Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," 343. 22 Ibid, 345. 23 Ibid, 346.

7 the sans-culottes as incapable of adequately organizing the Cult without the influence of the bourgeois "theologians." He concludes: "the common people were incapable of formulating the theology of new cults."

Soboul analyzed the Cult of the Maryrs of Liberty within the larger Marxisst interpretation of the French Revolution. Since the 1970s revisionist historians, Francois

Furet prominent among them, subjected this interpretation to withering criticism. This revisionism encouraged new examinations of revolutionary culture. Both Mona Ozouf s

La Fete Revolutionnaire, 1789-1799, and Emmet Kennedy's A Cultural History of the

French Revolution refer to the Cult of Marat and offer some interpretation of its religiosity, although both dismiss the Cult as largely popular and insignificant. Ozouf s interpretation of the Cult of Marat stemmed from her interest in revolutionary culture and festivals. She suggests that despite changes in different Revolutionary festivals, there was a singular festival that was altered slightly in its political nature and content to invoke particular messages. While the structure of these festivals might be the same, emphasizing the importance of the cultural form, the intent of the festivals varied along with the changing political priorities of the Revolution. Often overlooked, Ozouf saw the revolutionary festivals as the "linchpins" of the entire Revolution for they demonstrated how the Revolution redefined the sacred to create social unity in a new French society.26

Festivals became anti-heroical and all encompassing, thereby representing the Jacobin ideal of regeneration and the moulding of a new French citizenry.27 Smaller festivals

24 Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the French Revolution," 350. 25 Francois Furet, Interpreting the French Revolution, translated by Elborg Forster, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981). 2 Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Harvard University Press, 1988)282. 2 James A. Leith has also studied Jacobin propaganda in terms of the regeneration policy in his work suggesting that propaganda and symbolic meanings were employed by the Jacobins to "mould a new

8 tended to recycle elements of older, more traditional festivals, remaking the celebration only thematically. Ozouf, however, refuted Mathiez's argument that these festivals were and attempt to substitute a revolutionary religion for Catholicism because "a desire to substitute one cult for another may also have a political motivation."28 While they borrowed from Catholicism, these festivals had the purpose of unifying the people.

Regarding the Cult of Marat, Ozouf denies that Marat was being deified or even sanctified and she dismisses the emphasis placed on the use of traditional vocabulary in the cult, particularly the reference to Marat and others as 'martyrs.' According to Ozouf, the term 'martyr' was a common word that had lost its religious meaning within the vocabulary of revolutionary heroics, and this points to the association of Marat with figures such as Lepelletier and Chalier, but also with the great men of Antiquity and of philosophy.

Emmet Kennedy provides perspective on the "long-term in cultural history - on what had been going on for decades, even centuries, and would continue, in spite of revolutionary upheaval, for decades to come" including cultural institutions such as the

-J A

Church. For Kennedy, the Revolution did not profoundly change French cultural tradition, but merely produced a political framework and a revolutionary tradition: "A violent upheaval like the French Revolution could not have been expected to give birth to many durable cultural creations. Chained to the interests and passions of factions, culture served political ends."31 The cultural creations of the Revolution existed only briefly due citizenry" and he subsequently connects this to the modern totalitarian states of the twentieth century. See Media and Revolution: Moulding a New Citizenry in France during the Terror. (Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1968). 28 Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution. 26. 29 Ibid, 266. 30 Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution, xxi. 31 Ibid, 374.

9 to their dependence on revolutionary politics. In his examination of the Cult of Martyrs,

Kennedy agreed with Soboul and Ozouf: "the borrowings from Catholicism did not

"imply an attitude of veneration" or constitute a real religiosity"32 He argued that the old symbols of Catholicism were reemployed in a new civic religion, of which the Cult of the

Marytrs of Liberty was a part, and whose main purpose was the "reeducation" of the populace.

Recent studies in the area of the press and public opinion in the eighteenth century have led to new interests in the Cult of Martyrs of Liberty and specifically in the commemorations of its central figure, Marat. Jean-Claude Bonnet edited a collection of works by French scholars who delved into the study of the death of Marat for the purpose of studying an event through its effects on a society in turmoil. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, the main source for these scholars was the newspaper and journals of the press in Paris in 1793, which are useful because they recount the assassination and record the impact of the event on the populace, while presenting the

"watchwords" through which the authorities immediately mediated the risks of spontaneous demonstrations. Jean-Claude Bonnet himself contributes two important studies to his edited work La Mort de Marat. The first of these articles examines the impact of Marat as a journalist with his journal and persona, "L'Ami du Peuple." Bonnet argues that Marat's newspaper can be seen as a sort of barometer of public opinion during periods of intense revolutionary crisis and, despite imitators of Marat both prior to

Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution. 336. Ibid, 337. La Mort de Marat, edited by Jean-Claude Bonnet (Paris: Flammarion, 1986).

10 and after his death, that "L'Ami du Peuple" remains unique in this quality. Bonnet's second contribution, entitled "Les Formes de Celebration," examines the rites of the Cult of Marat through its various phases from July 1793 to what he describes as its culmination in November. According to Bonnet, the "maratienne liturgy is based primarily on an important academic genre" of the century, and he connects the cult with the general redefinition of a "great man" during the Republican period of the

Revolution.36 Marat's attacks on the members of the Academy of Sciences as "modern charlatans" spurred revolutionaries to instead recognize men who excelled in the national representation and militant popular societies.37 Generally academic competition was overshadowed by civic emulation and thus "great men" were redefined as the men of the

Enlightenment and Antiquity who extolled these virtues.38

Jacques Guilhaumou also used the Parisian press to study the death of Marat and the revolutionary culture that emerged from its impact on society. Guilhaumou's study examines the variations of the accounts of Marat's death and the uncertainty that remained in the attitude of the crowd, and how this led to calls for action, for new punishments for Charlotte Corday, and for Terror. According to Guilhaumou, Marat's assassination was a catastrophic event in Paris and there was a direct relationship between the journalist's death and calls for a policy of Terror from the sans-culottes.39

Lise Andries also uses the press to examine Marat's appearance in almanacs between

1792 to 1797, in which it is demonstrated that the Cult had at least semi-official

35 Jean-Claude Bonnet, ""C'est une journaliste qu'on assassine," in La Mort de Marat. (Paris: Flammarion, 1986)36. 36 Jean-Claude Bonnet, "Les Formes de Celebration," in in La Mort de Marat, edited by Jean-Claude Bonnet, (Paris: Flammarion, 1986) 104. 37 Ibid, 105. 38 Ibid, 106. 39 Jacques Guilhaumou, "La Mort de Marat a Paris (13 juillet-16 juillet 1793)," in La Mort de Marat, edited by Jean-Claude Bonnet, (Paris: Flammarion, 1986) 57.

11 recognition as it became promoted in almanacs after Marat's death, which served the purpose of widespread and affordable propaganda to the provinces.

James A. Leith's study of the Cult of Marat stemmed from his interest in the symbolic importance of the sans-culotte as a representative of the new Republican ideals and he brought the study back to the cultural autonomy of the sans-culottes. Leith's study of the images of the sans-culottes emphasized the cultural and ideological impact of this group in its exploration of religious associations with specific symbols and iconography. Leith studied the religious quality of the Cult and examined its "creeds, symbols, rituals, sacred music, an eschatological vision, and special times and places devoted to what is considered of ultimate value."42 Leith argued that people refrained from touching the busts of the martyrs due to an element of reverence, and further that

"the invocations which were used on such occasion belonged to an accepted rhetoric."

Therefore Leith did not see the Cult of Martyrs as simply a political phenomenon, but rather as something which invoked actual religious sensibilities.

Until recently, the most comprehensive study of the Cult of Marat was Ian

Germani's Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution, which examines the reactions to Marat's assassination and the Cult in terms of mentalities and ideology. Unique to this study is Germani's contrast between the formation of the Cult in

Lise Andries, "Marat dans les occasionnels et les alamanchs (1792-1797), in La Mort de Marat, edited by Jean-Claude Bonnet, (Paris: Flammarion, 1986) 85. 41 Leith studied the revolutionary paintings, plays, and symbols, which proliferated around new ideas about the nature of the State and the duty of its citizens. Leith argues that as the sans-culottes arrived on the scene as a powerful political force, they became conspicuous in revolutionary art as the archetype of the new Republican and the good citizen. For more see, "Images of the Sans-Culotte" in Iconographie et Image de la Revolution Francais, edited by Claudette Hould and James A. Leith, (Montreal, 1990) 130-159. 42 James A. Leith, "On the Religiosity of the French Revolution," in Culture and the Revolution: Cultural Ramifications of the French Revolution, edited by George Levitine, (University of Maryland at College Park, 1989)171. 43 Ibid, 171.

12 Paris, where Marat was revered, and its subsequent forced adoption by provincials, many of whom hated Marat and Jacobin policies and whose cult consequently lacked sincerity.

While the Convention tried to discourage the Cult and the sans-culottes in Paris after it had exploited their alliance to seize control of the Revolution, in the provinces the

Convention employed the opposite policy and used the image and memory of Marat to control the populace and stifle counterrevolution.44 Germani expands on provincial attitudes towards the symbols of Jacobinism, such as the Girondin creation of an anti-

Jacobin image of Marat, in "Anti-Jacobin Images of Jean-Paul Marat," where he demonstrates that the image of Marat perpetuated by counterrevolutionary propagandists was just as important as a rallying point for opposition to the Jacobin Republic as the pro-

Jacobin image of Marat was for popular support.45 For Germani, the eventual disappearance of the Cult can be tied directly to the decline of the Jacobins and their loss of control of the Revolution. The Cult's decline was a reaction against the Terror:

Marat's image was remade into that of a bloodthirsty villain and a symbol of Jacobin crimes.

Leith and Germani have also taken the study of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty further in their studies of the peripheral martyrs of the Revolution: the youth heroes.

Leith has demonstrated that the 'cult of heroes' reached its peak in 1793-1794 and he attributes this primarily to the execution of the king, who, "formerly the sacred centre of

Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. (Lewiston/Queenston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992) 99. 45 Ian Germani, "Anti-Jacobin Images of Marat," in The Consortium on Revolutionary Europe Proceedings 1986. edited by Warren F. Spencer and David M. Vess, (Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Department of History, 1986) 138.

13 the state, left a void to be filled."46 Further, Leith reiterates a point originally made by

Alexis de Tocqueville that the French Revolution was developing at this point into a sort of religious movement.47 According to Leith, "only martyrs - secular saints - were needed to complete the array of substitutes for the religion of the Old Regime."48 While

Lepelletier, Marat, and Chalier were important in this program of integrational propaganda, which sought to unite the citizenry around new ideals and institutions, youth heroes also played an important role in two ways. First, children were not tied to political disputes and were virtuous in their innocence; and second, youth heroes were extremely important in republican education as "behavioural models that were the same age as the students themselves."49 The cult of young heroes was therefore intended to inspire young republicans and its peak was to be the festival honouring Bara and Agricol Viala planned for 10 Thermidor, 1794, though the fall of Robespierre prevented it from taking place.

Thermidorians argued that the festival had been planned to counter mounting opposition to Robespierre, but according to Leith, the cult of heroes did not end there, but simply was transformed into the commemoration of military heroes under the Directory and the

Consulate.50

Germani assigns responsibility for engineering of the cult of heroes to

Robespierre while arguing that the legitimacy of the Revolutionary Government and the

"perceived sanctity of the Terror" were both dependent on the images of the Jacobin

James A. Leith, "Youth Heroes of the French Revolution," in The Consortium on Revolutionary Europe Proceedings 1986, edited by Warren F. Spencer and David M. Vess, (Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Department of History, 1986) 127. 47 Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution, (1856), translated by Stuart Gilbert, (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1978) 10-13. 48 James A. Leith, "Youth Heroes of the French Revolution, 128. 49 Ibid, 128. 50 Ibid, 134-5.

14 Republican heroes of Year II.51 The martyrs of the Revolution served "to shield the

Jacobin government against charges of partisan extremism" because the martyrs were represented as "human, virtuous, and with allegiance to the Patrie"52 In terms of sans­ culotte involvement in this process, Germani believes that the sectional militants appealed to the memory of Marat to justify terrorist repression. Therefore, after Marat's assassination, "the Jacobin authorities did their best to resist the clamour for vengeance that emanated from the sections ... Despite Jacobin attempts to keep the popular movement at arm's length, the pressure of circumstances and of the sans-culottes had prevailed and terrorism had become a policy of government."53 Germani maps out the process of heroization that occurred later in 1793-94 - the new emphasis on parliamentary heroism, the unblemished purity of the youth heroes - leading to the question of whether a political regime could support itself upon non-political heroes?

Germani's answer is no: the problem for Robespierre was that "Marat remained the ultimate symbol of Jacobinism, but also factionalism and extremism rather than unity and patriotism."54 Robespierre's efforts to restrain the Cult of Marat thus contributed to the alienation of the popular movement.55

Recently the historiography of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty has reintroduced the interpretation of the religious element in the context of new interest in the commemoration of death and the lieux de memoire.56 Examination of the

51 Ian Germani, "Robespierre's Heroes: The Politics of Heroization during the Year Two," in The Consortium on Revolutionary Europe Proceedings 1988, edited by Warren F. Spencer and David M. Vess, (Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Department of History, 1988) 134. 52 Ibid, 134. 53 Ibid, 137. 54 Ibid, 150. 55 Ibid, 151. 5 In 1992, Pierre Nora edited an important volume on the construction of the French past. It contained a number of important essays concerning the lieux de memoire. Relevant to this study of commemoration

15 revolutionaries' struggle to legitimate the Revolution and its institutions, while creating a new national history and collective memory, can be found in Joseph Clarke's most recent work on revolutionary commemoration. This study focuses on the language of commemoration during the Revolution and argues that while the architectural and ceremonial structures that defined commemoration of the dead had been altered during the first part of the Revolution, eulogies to Marat of 1793 remained saturated with biblical allusions and messianic motifs.

Clarke examines the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty within the larger context of revolutionary commemoration and criticizes recent works by historians for being overly political and elite. He argues that the eighteenth century was still a time when religious practice remained the rule for the overwhelming majority and that the rites relating to death generally proved resistant to the onset of secularizing change.58 Therefore, his study does much to discover the limits of cultural change in a time of Revolution. He believes that commemoration of the Revolution's dead fundamentally changed between the summer of 1791 and the onset of the Terror, and that the Cult of Marat was a part of this change that continued into Year II. By investigating the rupture with the rites of the past, as well as the continuities and apparent confusion during the Revolution's most

was Ozouf s essay on the creation of the Pantheon in Paris during the French Revolution. She argued that it was created with the intended ability to serve as a living national memorial for France to unite around its great men. It failed because it was unable to create a new collective memory honouring "great men," a term that was too broadly defined based on changing perceptions from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries over what was referred to as "personal merits." Ultimately, the revolutionary process of putting great men into the Pantheon, and the inherent vagaries in the process of Pantheonization, cast disrepute over the monument and the apotheosis it was intended to honour. For more see, Mona Ozouf, "The Pantheon: the Ecole Normale of the Dead," in Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past. Volume III: Symbols, edited by Pierre Nora, Translated by Arthur Goldhammer, 1992: 325-348. 5 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France, 170-171. 58 For Clarke, "the commemoration of Marat's memory was marked by an extraordinary outpouring of religious words and images" and "these tributes cannot easily be contained within the secularized certainties of'une memoire republicaine.'" This is what Clarke criticizes Ozouf and Bonnet for having done. Ibid, 185.

16 radical phase, he concludes that the need to make the memory of the dead serve a clearly defined political purpose set clear limits on the democratization of Revolutionary remembrance. Importantly, not all sense of the sacred disappeared and this is evidenced in the commemorations of Marat.59 Thus Clarke's study challenges the ambiguity of

Soboul's conclusions, and suggests that the sincere religiosity of the Cult of Martyrs cannot be dismissed.

This examination will look at the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty within the popular movement, as an evolving phenomenon that originated as a grassroots movement and culminated in a Jacobin-imposed Cult of the Supreme Being which was devoid of traditional religious forms. This study will begin with an examination of the popular and spontaneous roots of the Cult in the commemorations of Marat in the Parisian sections and popular societies who were beginning to flex their political influence after the purge of the Convention in the summer of 1793. Sans-culotte affection for Jean-Paul Marat as a champion of social egalitarianism inspired his veneration as a martyr after his death. The anti-clerical sentiments of the sans-culottes help to explain why the 'Cult of Marat' incorporated traditional Catholic forms as a means of blaspheming Catholic rituals.

Thus, the Cult of Marat foreshadowed the dechristianization movement of the autumn months of 1793.

The second chapter will examine the inherent connections between the Cult of

Marat and the sans-culottes' dechristianization movement. It will also examine the expansion of the Cult due to the impositions made by the revolutionary authorities, particularly the National Convention and the Commune. These impositions caused a fundamental shift from the veneration of an individual towards the emulation of martyrs

59 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 278.

17 who were more in keeping with the bourgeois revolutionaries' idea of republican heroism. This will be accomplished through an examination of the inclusion of

Lepelletier and Chalier into the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty. It will be demonstrated that the 'Cult of Marat' was not acceptable to revolutionary leaders such as Danton and

Robespierre who did not support the Cult because it operated outside the realm of government control.

The final chapter will examine the full imposition from above of Maximillien

Robespierre's Cult of the Supreme Being, and the appearance of new and acceptable martyrs - youth heroes - who were engineered into figures for emulation and promoted as nationalist military heroes rather than champions of social equality. Robespierre's cult expressed the ideals of the middle-class Jacobin radicals rather than the lower class militant sans-culottes. While the Revolutionary Government maneuvered to crush the political influence of the popular movement, the imposition of the Cult of the Supreme

Being resulted in the cultural alienation of the sans-culottes and their abandonment of the

Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty, which now celebrated fundamentally Jacobin heroes. This final chapter will also examine the Thermidorian reaction and the final destruction of the

Cult by the jeunesse doree, whose ruthless actions and mocking of the sans-culottes' celebration of a man whom they associated with the Terror finally put an end to the popular veneration of Marat. This thesis seeks to quality Soboul's conclusions on the

Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty by examining it as a cultural expression of the sans­ culottes' anti-clericalism, as well as their political and social ideals, in light of recent interpretations.

18 Chapter II: Sans-Culotte Sensibilities and the Beginning of the Cult of Marat

The Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty originated in the sans-culottes' affection for

Jean-Paul Marat, which stemmed from their perception of the journalist as a champion of direct democracy, insurrection, price controls and Terror. In death, Marat also became a focus for sans-culotte religious sensibilities, as well as political and social aspirations.

Despite being from different economic classes, ranging from urban property owners to artisans, members of this group were generally anticlerical and opposed to what they perceived as the hypocrisy and oppression of the Roman Catholic Church. For the sans­ culottes, Marat represented a virtuous opposite. In his newspaper, L 'Ami du Peuple,

Marat had expressed the sans-culottes' political, social and economic definition of the new Republic and thus became the centre of sans-culotte affection. After his death, the sans-culottes transformed him into the object of a religious cult which mocked Catholic orthodoxy and venerated revolutionary radicalism.

The Cult of Marat was a cultural expression of both the sans-culottes' anti- clericalism and their political and social ideals. By the summer of 1793 the popular movement wielded a great deal of political influence through its alliance with the

Montagnard deputies who had used the popular alliance to purge their political rivals from the National Convention. Immediately following his murder, Marat became a sacred and venerated "martyr of liberty" and a rallying point for the sans-culottes' anti­ clerical sentiments and their political and economic program of Terror. While the Cult of

Marat incorporated elements of a typically religious quality, it was not a part of a new and coherent republican faith. The Cult of Marat was instead a popular and spontaneous

19 manifestation of sans-culottes' attitudes and sensibilities during the summer of 1793, which foreshadowed dechristianization and the official beginning of the Terror.

The sans-culottes had been politically active since the beginning of the

Revolution and by August 1792 they dominated the forty-eight sections of Paris. The sans-culottes performed daily acts of civisme, or devotion to revolutionary public spirit, and petitioned the Convention from the sections. They gained political influence with the formation of the insurrectionist Commune, which had organized the journee of August

10. The influence of the Parisian sections increased dramatically with the purge of the

Girondins from the National Convention. In 1793 the Montagnards, including the twenty-four deputies elected from Paris, recognized the need for an alliance with the sections to purge their political rivals from the Convention. This alliance required the purged Convention to address and implement some of the sans-culottes' political and socio-economic ideas. The sections were in favour of the purge since the Girondins had denounced the sans-culottes as "anarchists, blood-drinkers, and septembriseurs," attempted to impeach Marat in April for inciting popular violence, and had called for the creation of a Departmental Guard to protect the Convention from the Paris mob. After one failed attempt on May 31, the Commune presented a petition for the arrest of the deputies to the Convention on June 2. The Montagnards, who were able to influence the

Plaine, voted for the arrest of 29 deputies. This purge left the Montagnards in control of the National Convention.3 Thus, during the summer of 1793, the sections reached the

1 R.B. Rose, The Making of the Sans-Culottes: Democratic Ideas and Institutions in Paris. 1789-92. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983): 156-161. 2 William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution. ("Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2002), 244. 3 William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution. 235.

20 height of their influence as the Montagnards could not afford to ignore sans-culottes' demands.

Although not members of a single social class, the sans-culottes were drawn from the lower orders of Parisian society and they pursued different objectives from all but the most radical of deputies in the Convention. Their deep resentment of social inequalities manifested itself in a hatred of the aristocracy and wealth in general. The sans-culottes sought salvation from social oppression and inequality in a democratic Republic. They lobbied for Rousseau's concept of 'direct democracy,' which they derived from their interpretation of popular sovereignty: every citizen would have a direct say in the decisions of government because, ultimately, the sovereignty of the nation rests with the people. Direct democracy was to be supported by the right of the sovereign people to insurrection as democracy for the sans-culottes had come to mean, "popular political mobilization to secure the virtuous defense of the Revolution against the treasonous, conspiratorial enemies at home and abroad."5

In addition to their political ideas, the sans-culottes shared a growing sense of anticlericalism. This is not to imply that the sans-culottes were not Christian, but they did oppose the social, political and economic influence of the Roman Catholic Church.

Jacques-Louis Menetra, a Parisian glassworker and property-owner, expressed anticlericalism in his autobiography which can be seen as an example of sans-culottes' general disaffection with the Catholic Church prior to and during the Revolution.

4 Francois Furet, C. Mazauric and L. Bergeron, "The Sans-culottes and the French Revolution," in New Perspectives on the French Revolution: Readings in Historical Sociology, edited by Jeffry Kaplow (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1965) 228. 5 Theda Skoppol and Meyer Kestenbaum, "Mars Unshackled: The French Revolution in World-Historical Perspective," in The French Revolution and the Birth of Modernity, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990) 19-20.

21 Menetra believed the Revolution needed to overcome the hypocrisy, greed and ambition of the clergy, and his sentiments indicate that the disaffection of the sans-culottes from the Church occurred due to their sense of social and economic injustices:

The revolution was supposed to secure the happiness of the French people by confining the king to his throne and returning to it all the rights that the parlements, the priesthood, the nobility had usurped under the leadership of ministers [who were] inept [and] outrageous liars who thought only of their pleasures and their ambition, trampling the constitution of the state underfoot, or making it serve their whims... [There was] nothing to do but make use of the wealth of the clergy, which could contribute to the State's burden. But these immoral men who constituted a second authority by means of all the chimeras invented by lies and sustained by ignorance backed up by fanaticism and superstition, these creatures preferred to see the Nation fall into adversity, into decrepitude, rather than make the slightest sacrifice. Thus they were and will always be the cause of misfortune in those nations that they uphold with their ancient Gothic prejudices. Men of this kind know nothing but to dominate and they wish to rule by their dogmas and fabulous mysteries.6

This impression of the clergy is one that was formed throughout Menetra's life, which he tells as a series of anecdotal stories of pranks and tricks he either witnessed or played himself. One of his earliest impressions of the clergy was formed on the Sunday of

Corpus Christi when a grocer and a sculptor tricked spectators into believing that the

statue of the Virgin Mary turned her head at the precise moment that the procession passed, as if she was watching the festival:

Suddenly men posted there began shouting Miracle! She was actually watching the procession pass by. The scandalous story of the miracles showed plainly what the grocer was up to, with another man, a sculptor, another crook of the same type. The priests pretended to believe (and) the vulgar who love novelties particularly the Virgin who produced several.. .7

Menetra often emphasizes his skepticism for miracles. Another memorable event from Menetra's childhood involved his visit to the abbey of Saint Denis, where he overheard the priests arguing over the identification of the relics and which saints they

Jacques-Louis Menetra, Journal of Mv Life, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), 217-218. Jacques-Louis Menetra, Journal of Mv Life. 19.

22 had belonged to. This left Menetra with the lasting impression that they were "trinkets invented by fanaticism and perpetuated by superstition...brought there not (by) faith, but by the ignorance and simplicity of our early ancestors and the bad faith of those who governed the peoples to keep them in harness." 8 He was further critical of the dishonest priests and their greed for wealth as demonstrated in the episode of his stepmother's funeral, when his father asked Menetra to watch the priest performing the service and to count the candles to ensure that they were getting what they paid for. After noticing that the candles placed around the body had in fact been burned before, Menetra told his father who thus refused to pay the priest.9

For the sans-culottes, their mistrust of the Church stemmed from their perception of the clergy as hypocritical and greedy. They believed that they were oppressed by the wealthy, and next to the aristocracy, the Church represented the wealthiest of institutions.

These anticlerical sentiments suggest why the sans-culottes admired Marat, who represented everything the Church was not. He was a champion for social equality and had attacked the wealth and greed of the clergy himself in his newspaper.

With his newspaper, L 'Ami du Peuple, Marat had an exceptional influence over popular sentiments. The newspaper transformed him from the failed scientist of the pre-

Revolution years to the champion of social egalitarianism of the sans-culottes. The sans­ culottes related to Marat and his lifestyle, which was often verging on poverty, and to the manner of his speech which was often very plain.10 In his paper, he claimed, "My principles are known, my morals are known, my kind of life is known... just lay your

Jacques-Louis Menetra, Journal of Mv Life. 21. 9 Ibid, 25. 10 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 176.

23 eyes on my writings."11 The engineering of his persona "l'Ami du Peuple" began long before his death. On September 25 1792, when Marat was accused of wanting to introduce a revolutionary dictatorship, an accusation which was not entirely unfounded, he climbed to the podium in the National Convention and, firing his pistol, threatened to end his life then and there, as well as the sufferings of his attackers.12 This dramatic flair was important in establishing the mystique of Marat which was a main source of the sans-culottes' affection for the journalist.

An important part of the sans-culottes' perception of Marat was as someone who viewed politics through their eyes and championed their political agenda. The primary component of this program was the ideal of direct democracy, which the sans-culottes drew from their understanding of Rousseau. Marat had been a proponent of this theory since the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly and the debates over the king's suspensive veto in 1789. The idea of direct democracy derived from the idea of the general will of the people: "Za souveraine puissance absolue et illimitee ne pent jamais resider que dans le corps du peuple, parce qu 'elle est le resultat de la volonte generale, et que le peuple pris collectivement ne peut jamais vouloir son mal, se vendre ou se trahir." Yet, in a state the size of France, it would be impossible to implement the idea of direct democracy without national representation. Thus for Marat, it is necessary to put limits on the power of representatives: "Quant a ses representants, leur autorite doit toujours etre limitee; autrement, maitres absolus de I 'Empire, Us pourraient a leur gre enlever les droits des citoyens, attaquer les his fondamentales de I Etat, renverser la

11 Jean-Claude Bonnet, "C'est un journaliste qu'on assassine," 24. 12 Ibid, 26. 13 Jean-Paul Marat, Le Publiciste Parisien, no. 5, (September 15, 1789) French Revolution Research Collection 1/2 1 of 57, 47.

24 constitution et reduire le peuple en servitude.'" Marat shared with the sans-culottes a fundamental mistrust of representative government and was concerned that the sovereignty no longer lay with the people, but instead in the hands of a few. Marat argued that representatives did not represent the common good of the people because their

interests were that of a particular class. Marat's specific cause for alarm was the

Constitution of 1791, which introduced the division between active and passive

citizenship. He emphasized that the equality established in France after the abolition of

privilege was in fact a deception. Marat critiqued the Constitution of 1791 in his

newspaper on August 16, 1791. He argued that:

il est faux que les peres conscripts aient, comme ils s'en targuent, aboli toute institution qui blesse la liberte et l'egalite des droits; puisqu'ils ont commence par etablir comme base de leur travail les distinctions les plus humiliantes, les plus injurieuses et les plus injustes, en excluant du droit de cite, de l'eligibilite aux employs publics et de l'honneur de servir la patrie, la classe innombrable des infortunes declares inactifs, non habiles aux functions d'electeurs, d'administrateurs, de juges et de representants du peuple.

Marat was instead committed to the right of the citizens to supervise, to denounce, and to

revoke their deputies: "pour parer aux voies secretes de corruption, il importe que les

commettants fassent usage du droit qu'ils ont de revoquer lespouvoirs d'un depute qui

abandonnerait continuellement les interits de la patrie et de poursuivre la punition d'un

depute qui lui aurait manque defoi." Further,

Le salut de l'Etat etant la loi supreme et l'obligation d'y veiller le premier des devoirs du citoyen, denoncer a la patrie comme traitres tous ceux qui attaquent les droits du people et mettent en danger la liberte publique, est non seulement le droit des habitants de chaque village, de chaque bourg, de chaque ville, de chaque province; mais

Jean-Paul Marat, Le Publiciste Parisien, no. 5, (September 15, 1789), 47-48. 15 Jean-Paul Marat, L'Ami du Peuple, No. 531, (August 16, 1791) French Revolution Research Collection 1/2 32 of 57, 2. 16 Jean-Paul Marat, Le Publiciste Parisien, (September 15 1789) 49.

25 le droit de chaque individu.

Linked closely to direct democracy, the sovereignty and general will of the people was another political concept that Marat advocated - the natural right to insurrection.

Insurrection was the means by which the lower classes participated in and advanced the

Revolution. On June 30, 1790, Marat acknowledged their participation and importance:

"There is no doubt that the Revolution is due to the insurgency from the small people, and it is no less certain that the storming of the Bastille was mainly due to the 10,000 poor workers of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine."18 Marat's theory of insurrection, which he first suggested in The Chains of Slavery (1774), but which also featured prominently on numerous occasions in L'Ami du Peuple, included the idea that the people only owe respect to just laws. Popular violence was legitimized by the sum of the inequities of despotism which had accumulated over the centuries. For Marat, insurrection was a necessity for the people to prevent their rights being encroached upon by authorities with despotic intentions. On November 10, 1789, Marat legitimized insurrection because "/e peuple ne se souleve que lorsqu'il est pousse au desespoir par la tyrannie" and thus insurrection, and the popular violence which accompanied it, was "toujours juste dans son principe, quoiqu'elle ne soitpas toujours eclair ee dans ses effets" Insurrection was the natural defense of the people against despotism:

nous sommes esclaves et nous le sommes pour toujours, si nous n'abjurons enfin cette funeste doctrine, qui fait toute notre faiblesse et toute la force de nos oppresseurs, qui eternise l'anarchie parmi nous, ... Non, nous ne devons respect qu'aux

17 Jean-Paul Marat, Le Publiciste Parisien, no. 5, (September 15, 1789), 50. 18 Jean-Paul Marat, L 'Ami du Peuple, (June 30, 1790) French Revolution Research Collection 1/2 8 of 57, 1-2. 19 Jean-Paul Marat, L 'Ami du Peuple, (November 10, 1789) French Revolution Research Collection 1/2 3 of 57, 47.

26 lois sages, et soumission qu'aux lois justes.

Marat's mistrust of representatives also stemmed from a deeper concern over the hatching of conspiracies and plots by false friends of the Revolution. The sans-culottes shared these anxieties over plots which drove their participation in the prison massacres in September 1792. On January 23, 1793, after the execution of Louis XVI, Marat wrote,

"Le supplice de Louis XVI, loin de troubler la paix de I 'etat, ne servira qu 'a I 'affermir, non-seulement en contenant par le terreur les ennemis du dedans, mais les ennemis du dehors."21 It brought forward the need for absolute unity of the Republic, and the indivisible general will of the people. Marat emphasized this point: "Pour vainere les legions innombrables de nos ennemis, le premier point est d'etre unis entre nous.'''

For the sans-culottes, Marat spoke the truth when he predicted betrayals and unmasked the "false friends" of the Republic in his newspaper. One of these "false friends" was General Lafayette, whom Marat denounced: "Avec quelle astuce ce general, chef des conspirateurs, cherche a vous endormir enfeignant de se rapprocher des amis de la liberie7"23 He took this accusation further on October 12 by calling for Lafayette's head: "Citoyens je vous le repete: vous vous faites illusion; la machine ne marchera point, ...jusqu 'a ce que la hache vengeresse ait abattu les tetes criminelles desprincipaux conspirateurs, commenqantpar celle de I'indigne general." 4 Marat constantly agitated the populace to be vigilant and suspicious of authority, and he led by example. Not only

20 Jean-Paul Marat, L 'Ami du Peuple, no. 630, (April 25, 1792), French Revolution Research Collection. 1/2 38 of 57, 8. 1 Jean-Paul Marat, Journal de la Republique Frangaise, no. 105, (Janvier 23, 1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 1/2, 48 of 57, 3. 22 Ibid, 4. 23 Jean-Paul Marat, L 'Ami du Peuple, No. 239, (October 3 1790), French Revolution Research Collection. 1/2, 14 of 57, 7. 24 Jean-Paul Marat, L 'Ami du Peuple, No. 248, (October 12 1790), French Revolution Research Collection. 1/2, 15 of 57, 7.

27 did Marat accuse Lafayette of being a traitor, but he also alluded to accomplices within the military and constituted authorities:

Dans chaques departement, tous les ennemis de la revolution, et forme des listes de proscription de tous les bons patriotes a corrompre ou a immoler. Peut-on douter qu'il n'existe toujours des companies de famine, dont l'adminstrateur parisien des subsistences est le directeur generate, et dont les municipaux des provinces sont les associes.

Marat accused Lafayette primarily of inciting counterrevolution in the provinces and he

called on the people to advise him of the plots which came to their knowledge: "I'ami du peuple invite tous les bons citoyens a lui faire passer des renseignements exacts sur les associations de toutes les villes et les agents parisiens qui s 'y trouvent, il invite le club

Jacobins et ses freres d'armesa faire circuler dans tout I'empire franqais la meme

invitation." Marat warned:

Si vous ne sortez de votre lethargic Si vous ne vous mettez en defense. Si vous n'exterminez enfin jusqu'au dernier rejeton la race impie de vos ennemis...La liberie n'aura-t-elle ete pour vous qu'un songe douloureux? Apres avoir rompu vos fers, en reprendrez-vous de plus lourds?27

These denunciations maintained the sans-culottes' anxieties over the threats to the

Revolution from within France and the need to uncover these 'false-patriots' and their plots against liberty. More importantly, however, Marat's denunciations of Lafayette, a revolutionary hero in 1790, seemed vindicated when the general defected to the Prussian

army on August 17, 1792. Thus, to his public, Marat was considered to be a prophet.

Beyond his political radicalism, the sans-culottes' affection for Marat was based

on his fierce support for the socio-economic concerns of the people. The sans-culottes' perception of Marat as a champion of social egalitarianism can be found in the large

Jean-Paul Marat, L 'Ami du Peuple, No. 248, (October 12 1790), 6. Ibid, 7. Jean- Paul Marat, L 'Amidu Peuple, (October 3, 1790) 8.

28 number of sans-culottes correspondents who often wrote letters to him concerning their grievances. An example can be found in a letter from the masons of Sainte-Genevieve, which Marat published in L'Ami du Peuple on June 12, 1791. The letter begins "Chere prophete, vrai defenseur de la casse des indigents, permettez que des ouvriers vous devoilent toutes les malversations.,"28 In this letter, the masons complained that those who employed them were conspiring against them and taking away the work. The masons appealed to Marat by giving proof that their employers were not patriotic because they

"s'etaient caches dans des souterrains les 12, 13, et 14 juillet," indicating that they had not participated in the journee that stormed the Bastille.29 The masons then turned to the issue of their wages, which were 48 sols per day. Their grievance was that, without substantial work, they "«e sommes occupes au plus que six mois dans I 'annee, ce qui reduit nos journees a vingt-quatre sols."30 This amount, they claimed, was not substantial enough to feed, cloth, lodge, and entertain their families, while their employers, utandis que nos vampires habitent des palais, boivent les vins les plus delicats, couchant sur le duvet, sont traines dans des chars dores." This letter points to the nature of the relationship between Marat and the Parisian workers, which formed the basis of the sans-culottes' veneration for the journalist. The emphasis on Marat as a

'benefactor of the people,' someone who understood poverty and humanity, was a recurring theme in the eulogies of the Cult of Marat.

Marat also shared the sans-culottes' hatred of the wealthy, and he expressed their demand for limits on property. In the Convention Marat had advocated that the

Jean-Paul Marat, L 'Ami du Peuple, no. 487, (June 12 1791) French Revolution Research Collection. 1/2 29 of 57, 1. 29 Ibid, 2. 30 Ibid, 4. 31 Ibid, 4.

29 confiscated property of the church be made into public workshops for the employment of the poor, and he proposed other schemes for enterprises at the government's expense to ensure employment to the workers and more equal distribution of land. Marat's Projet de declaration des droits de I'homme et du citoyen reiterated these arguments, primarily the Rousseauiste distinction between the state of nature and society, and claimed that men having received the same natural rights must conserve this equality in the social state in the form of civil rights which provide security against all oppression. According to

Marat,

La loi doit meme prevenir leur trop grande inegalite, en fixent des limites qu'elles ne puissant franchir. Et, de fait, sans une certaine proportion entre les fortunes, les avantages que reduisent Presque a rien.33

He reaffirmed that the disadvantaged have a right to take by force, if necessary, the surpluses of the rich: "Dans une societe ou les fortunes sont tres inegales et oil les plus grandes fortunes sont presques toutes le fruit de I 'intrigue, du charlatanisme, de la faveur, des malversations, des vexations... ceux qui regorgent du superflu doivent subvenir aux besoins de ceux qui manquent du necessaire" Marat's Plan de legislation criminelle was heavily influenced by Rousseau and specifically addresses the needs of the poor. Marat distinguished between natural rights and the rights of man in society, and his analysis of eighteenth-century society revolved around limited rights to property, arguing that usurpation is the basis of all propriety. Marat wrote,

Les hommes ne se sont reunis en corps que pour leur interet commun; ils n'ont fait des lois que pour fixer leurs droits

32 Louis R. Gottschalk, Jean-Paul Marat: A Study in Radicalism. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), 101. 33 Jean-Paul Marat, "Projet du declaration des droits de I'homme et du citoyen," (1780) in Ecrits, edited by Michel Vovelle (Paris, Messidor/Editions Sociales, 1988) 93. 34 Jean-Paul Marat, "Plan du legislation criminelle," (1780) in Ecrits. edited by Michel Vovelle (Paris, Messidor/Editions Sociales, 1988) 94.

30 respectifs, et ils n'ont etabli un gouvernement que pour s'assurer la jouissance de ces droits... s'ils renonceront a la liberie naturelle, ce fut pour acquerir la liberte civile; s'ils renonceront a la communaute primitive des biens, ce fut pour en possedor en proper quelque partie.35

According to Marat, individuals enriched themselves always at the expense of others, causing the riches to accumulate in a small number of families through inheritance. This left a class of indigents who would "laisseront leur posterite dans la misere." For

Marat, to prevent the people from having to resort to theft in times of need, society owed to its members subsistence and aid in sickness and old age through a system of guarantees.37 Everything stolen, according to Marat, supposes the right to property, which is usurped by the one who is stronger, but "Z-e droit de posseder decoule de celui de vivre: ainsi, tout ce qui est indispensable a notre existence est a nous, et Hen de superflu ne saurait nous appartenir legitimement, tandis que d'autres manquent du necessaire."3* But to maintain itself, society forces the indigent to respect the established order:

Sur une terre partout couverte des possessions d'autrui, et dont ils ne peuvent rien s'approprier, les voila done reduits a perir de faim. Or, ne tenant a la societe que par ses desavantages, sont-ils obliges d'en respecter les lois? Non, sans doute; si la societe les abandonne, ils rentrent dans l'etat de nature; ... tout autorite qui s'y oppose est tyrannique, et le juge qui condamne a mort n'est qu'un lache assassin.39

Attached to the Plan du legislation criminelle, was the "Plaidoyer du Pauvre," in which

Marat again emphasized the importance of the natural right to existence over the right to property. He imagined the ideal plea of a poor person condemned for stealing brought before a judge and legitimized the recourse to violence and insurrection by the oppressed

Jean-Paul Marat, "Plan du legislation criminelle," (1780), 87. Ibid, 88. Ibid, 88. Ibid, 89. Ibid, 88.

31 classes. According to the condemned indigent, "qui vole pour vivre, tant qu 'il ne peut faire autrement, ne fait qu'user de ses droits."w He dared the judiciary authorities: "Et

ne me dites pas que tous ses membres, jouissant des memes prerogatives, peuvent en tirer

les memes avantages: le contraire n 'est que trop evident."

The most important issue for the sans-culottes was the price of bread, and in 1792

subsistence issues weighed heavily on their minds. This was due to food shortages in the

Republic, primarily due to equipping the armies at the front. The price of grain had

soared for a number of reasons, including a general economic crisis, an immediate

industrial crisis aggravated by the Revolution, and a monetary crisis provoked by the

circulation of paper money called assignats42 In November 1792, Marat addressed the

price of bread in his newspaper and analyzed the causes of and remedies for starvation in

France. The causes Marat identified were: fear of starvation, which then inspired

hoarders to stockpile grain; the policy of exporting grains to Holland and Italy where they

were accumulated by hoarders; the incompetence of the Ministry of the Interior which

created famine with the provisions for the armies; and lastly, the fear of farmers to

receive "Bills of Confidence" in payment.43 The sans-culottes saw in Marat an attentive

and well-informed observer because his polemics fit with their own fears and

preoccupations. He denounced Roland, a member of the Girondin faction whom he

accused of hoarding, and advocated the opening of all merchant stores with force to find

the hoarders. Marat insisted that the price of bread was unbearable to working classes:

Le pain est hors de prix, dans quelques-uns les pauvres manoeuvres

40 Jean-Paul Marat, "Plan du legislation criminelle," (1780), 90. 41 Jean-Paul Marat, "Plaidoyer du Pauvre" (1780) in Ecrits. edited by Michel Vovelle, (Paris, Messidor/Editions Sociales, 1988) 90. 42 Michel Vovelle, Ecrits. (Paris: Messidor/Editions Sociales, 1988) 226. Jean-Paul Marat, Journal de la Republique Frangaise, No. 56 (November 25, 1792), French Revolution Research Collection. 1/2 45 of 57, 6.

32 ne sauraient gagner de quoi se rassasier; deja ils commencent a se soulever, bientot l'insurrection sera generate si on ne s'empresse d'y remedier; et quand une fois le people, en proie aux machinations des accapareurs et a la crainte de mourir de faim, sera souleve, quelle main assez puissante pourra faire rentrer dans son lit ce torrent deborde?

Marat continued this campaign to lower the price of bread throughout the first months of 1793. By March, the problem had not yet been resolved and his writings reflected his outrage. Marat was concerned that the reduction in the value of the assignats was increasing the price of foodstuffs to exorbitant prices making it "impossible aux classes indigentes d'y atteindre; ces classes sont les deux tiers de la nation: attendez- vous done a voir eclater les plus affreux desordres et peut-etre le renversement de tout gouvernement, car un peuple affame ne connait point de lois." On May 4, 1793,

Marat's efforts in the Convention resulted in the passing of a decree to aid the families of volunteers at the front out of public funds. Until there was complete equality of wealth in

France, Marat thought that there ought to be a public fund, which would pay families' debts if they could not pay them, through no fault of their own. Marat had also proposed a progressive income tax to help establish a more equal distribution of wealth in France.

His demands for a redistribution of wealth to benefit the poor were reflected in the motto of his newspaper: Ut redat miseris, abeat fortuna superbis. These ideals of social egalitarianism explain the sans-culottes' affection for Marat and why they venerated him in the'Cult of Marat'

The veneration of Marat began immediately following his assassination and occurred in a period of intense political factionalism. The purge of the Convention on

June 2 had created opposition to the now Montagnard-dominated Convention in the

44 Jean-Paul Marat, Journal de la Republique Frangaise, No. 56 (November 25, 1792), 3-4. 45 Jean-Paul Marat, Journal de la Republique Frangaise, No. 137 (March 1, 1793) French Revolution Research Collection. 1/2, 50 of 57, 6. 46 Louis R. Gottschalk, Jean-Paul Marat: A Study in Radicalism. 102.

33 provinces. On June 10, an influential group of Girondin fugitives arrived in Caen in the

Department of Calvados.47 The Girondins enjoyed much support in cities like Caen. On

June 15, Departmental authorities drafted a manifesto denouncing the "conspiratorial commune [Paris], engorged with blood and gold, which holds our representatives captive."48 On June 22 the general assembly, representing the majority of the town's sections, adopted a motion against the continuation of anarchy. On July 7, a military parade was held in which 2500 republican rebels opposing the Montagnard-dominated

Convention, marched.49

Charlotte Corday, Marat's would-be assassin, witnessed these events and was greatly influenced by them.50 Girondin identification of Marat with all that was terrible in the Revolution led her to believe that by killing Marat she could strike a decisive blow against Jacobin ambitions.51 Girondin attacks on Marat began shortly after August 10,

1792. The attacks took particular form after the September Massacres, for which the

Girondins held Marat responsible. The massacres, which took place between September

2 and 6, and reflected sans-culottes' anxieties concerning a plot being hatched in the prisons of Paris. They took matters into their own hands and, in a horrific demonstration of popular justice and mob violence, the sans-culottes killed roughly 1100-1400

Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. (New York: Vintage Books, 1989) 728. 48 Ibid, 729. 49 Ibid, 729. 50 Despite her former aristocratic roots, Corday was a republican, though one fundamentally opposed to the Jacobins and to what the Montagne represented, and she decided to kill Marat in order to help the Girondin cause. By the age of 25, she was living in Caen beside the Girondin headquarters and had been alienated by the Revolution because of the Constitutional Oath of the Clergy and the death of Abbe Gombault, cure of Saint-Gilles in Caen, who had given the last rites to her mother who died in childbirth in 1782. Asa refractory priest, dispossessed of his living, he had been tracked down while in hiding in the forests outside the city, and was the first to be guillotined in Caen, on April 5, 1793. See Jean- Denis Bredin, On ne meurt qu'une fois. Charlotte Corday. (Paris: Fayard, 2006) 111. 51 Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 36-37.

34 prisoners, or about one half of the prison population in Paris. The sans-culottes who carried out the killings thought they were both necessary and beneficial. The Commune also voted to pay them for their work, even though the massacres horrified most who had witnessed them. On September 25, 1792, Pierre-Victurnien Verginiaud accused Marat of being a septembriseur, that is a sympathizer and instigator of the prison massacres, and called him "un homme enfin tout degouttant de calomnie, de fiel et de sang." On

February 26, 1793, Jean-Baptiste Boyer-Fonfede blamed Marat for the popular violence:

"Yesterday Marat preached pillage. Yesterday evening pillage took place."54 Anti-Marat sentiments in the National Convention culminated in the impeachment trial of Marat in

April of 1793, the outcome of which was an acquittal.

Anti-Jacobin images of Marat were spread to the provinces in a number of ways.

Of particular importance is the dissemination through the press, especially Antoine-

Joseph Gorsas's Courrier des departements, and letters that were written by moderate deputies to their constituents in the provinces. These letters presented a consistently negative view of Marat and were often reprinted and widely distributed in the provinces.55 One attack on the Montagne distributed in Caen used Marat's own literary techniques and denunciatory style:

Let Marat's head fall and the Republic is saved... Purge France of this man of blood,... he sees Public Safety only in a river of blood; well then his own must flow, for his head must fall to save two hundred thousand others.56

Sentiments against Marat can also be seen in a letter written and sent later in April 1793 from the Calvados to the National Convention which denounced the clique of Jacobins,

52 William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution. 191-2. 53 Vergniaud, (September 25, 1792), Moniteur Universel. ieudi 27 septembre 1792, Vol. 14, 50. Quoted in Ian Germani, "Anti-Jacobin Images of Jean-Paul Marat," 139. 55 Ibid, 139. Quoted in Simon Schama, Citizens. 730.

35 who were corrupting the National Convention: "Your divisions are the source of your troubles. It is a Marat, a Robespierre, a Danton who preoccupy you and incite you and you forget that an entire people are suffering."57 Charlotte Corday is likely to have read these attacks on Marat and Jacobins, and was influenced by them to commit the assassination.

The assassination of Marat immediately provoked fear, anger and popular veneration in Paris. Nearly 2000 sans-culottes gathered outside his home in the rue des

Cordeliers due to the rumours of his murder.58 An accompanying rumour of the outbreak of plague at the Hotel-Dieu demonstrates how the popular imagination associated Marat's death with catastrophe and the wrath of God.59 Journals printed during the night of July

13-14 featured Corday's image. The festival for the celebration of the fall of the Bastille was a failure because the sans-culottes, keeping vigil outside the home of Marat, did not attend. Women in the crowd recited funeral prayers for Marat's soul. Popular outrage accompanied the grief and it focused on the assassin's punishment. Many sans-culottes considered the guillotine too humane for such crime. This manifested itself in calls for retribution, which made the Montagnards in the Convention uneasy.61 Newspaper editorials immediately began calling for Corday's execution. The Jacobin deputies sought to connect Corday to a Girondin plot against the Convention, but she insisted that she had designed the assassination herself.62

Quoted in Simon Schama, Citizens. 730. 58 J. Guilhaumou, "La mort de Marat a Paris (13-17 juillet 1793)" 41. 59 Ibid, 63. 60 Ibid, 51. 61 Ibid, 56. 62 Corday refused the services of a priest who had taken the Constitutional Oath and in a letter to Barbaroux, she wrote, "I have never hated a single being... and I pray that those who regret my passing consider that one day they will rejoice to see me enjoy the repose of the Elysian fields with Brutus and the

36 In addition to calls for retributive justice, there were calls for Marat's apotheosis and pantheonization. On July 14, Jacques Hebert delivered a eulogy to Marat and proposed that the National Convention give Marat his deserved apotheosis. The Section

Droits-de-VHomme, which swore to avenge Marat's death, supported this call and other

Parisian sections followed suit.63 Evidence that the authorities were not ready to involve themselves in the Cult of Marat can be seen in response to the calls for pantheonization.

Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette of the Commune most clearly rebuffed these demands by claiming that Marat, as a sans-culotte, belonged only in the "Temple of Nature." The

Convention intended Marat's funeral, which was designed by Jacques-Louis David, to direct the spontaneous popular emotion of the Cult of Marat into useful channels.65 In the evening of July 16, Marat's body, which had been embalmed and put on display in the

Church of the Cordeliers for two days, was placed on a funeral bier surrounded by girls dressed in white carrying cypress branches and incense. The procession of twelve men carrying Marat's body moved through the streets of Paris followed by some members from the National Convention, who were themselves followed by representatives from the Paris Commune, the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the sectional assemblies. A mass of

ancients. For the moderns, there are so few patriots who know how to die for their country; everything is egoism; what a sorry people to found a Republic." See Ibid, 740-1. 63 Morris Slavin, The Revolution in Miniature: Le Section Droits-de-rHomme, 1789-1795. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984) 345-6. 64 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France 145. Marat had in fact been the most outspoken critic of the Pantheon since the initial proposals for the project, and it is highly likely that he would not have wanted the recognition or honours of the Pantheon bestowed upon him. Marat believed that man was only capable of producing "false gods:" I shall not dwell here on the ridiculous spectacle of an assembly of vile and inept low-lifes setting themselves up as judges of immortality. How can they be so stupid as to believe that the present generation, much less the future races of mankind, will subscribe to their pronouncements." Quoted in Mona Ozouf, "The Pantheon: The Ecole Normale of the Dead" in Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past: Volume HI: Symbols edited by Pierre Nora and Lawrence D. Kritzman, translated by Arthur Goldhammer (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998) 342. David Lloyd Dowd, Pageant-Master of the Republic. (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1948) 106.

37 citizens, dominated particularly by women, followed these groups. Because the funeral was pushed ahead, due to the decay of the body in the summer heat, there was no time for deputies outside of Paris to arrive in time for the new schedule. Thus the funeral was very much a popular affair dominated by the Cordeliers, the popular societies, and the sections.

The assassination of Marat on July 13 gave the sans-culottes a central figure and martyr for their cause of social egalitarianism. Their spontaneous celebration of the Cult of Marat was a cultural manifestation of their hatred for the Church. The sans-culottes venerated Marat by mocking Catholic rites and symbols. These blasphemous activities included desecrating important religious figures such as Jesus by comparing them to

Marat. In late July 1793, a brochure appeared comparing Marat with Jesus, who had also fallen under the blows of fanaticism while working to bring about the salvation of mankind. The comparison was made again in the ceremony which marked the instillation of Marat's heart in the Cordeliers Club on July 28. A eulogist emphasized how Marat led a poor and frugal life:

O heart of Jesus, O heart of Marat... you have the same right to our homage. O heart of Marat, sacred heart... can the works and benevolence of the son of Mary be compared with those of the Friend of the People and his apostles to the Jacobins of our mountain?... Their Jesus was but a false prophet but Marat is a god. Long live the heart of Marat... Like Jesus, Marat loved the people ardently... Like Jesus, Marat detested nobles, priests, the rich, the scoundrels.67

Guiraut's Oraison Funebre de Marat described the story of Marat's life in terms of the sacrifices, hardships and persecution he suffered, of Marat's time in exile, and how he

Quoted in Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution: Patriot Saints and Martyrs of Liberty," 343. 67 Quoted in Simon Schama, Citizens. 744.

38 was "prive de toutes correspondances; poursuivi, espionneT Orators also emphasized how Charlotte Corday gained access to Marat through an appeal to his sense of humanity.

In Lebois's report on the assassination, he claims,

Marat, always concerned about the outcome of the people, and believing that it was probably some advice or denunciation, especially in this moment when the Republic is in great danger, and when the people had so much to fear, he said, "let her enter."

Thus a cult began to form which explicitly compared the assassinated journalist to Jesus

Christ.

The sans-culottes also used religious allegory to compare Marat to Moses and the prophet Elijah. Marat and later Lepelletier were compared to Moses in two separate manners. First, Marat was compared with Moses in terms of being able to denounce the

"infected" parts of the national representation.70 Secondly, Marat and Lepelletier were compared to Moses in terms of being legislators of the people. Marat was also compared with Elijah the prophet of Israel who resisted the tyranny of heathenism that existed under the reign of Ahab and Ahaziah. Elijah's influence had been so great that he was cast in the role of the herald to the Messiah. This use of allegory emphasizes the sans­ culottes' belief in the truthfulness of Marat. This truthfulness, which was sometimes referred to as prophetic power, indicates why after Marat's death some considered his writings to be a new gospel. The women of the Societe des Republicains-Revolutionaires

Guirault, "Oraison Funebre," French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77a no. 16,4. 69 Lebois, "Details de l'assassinat Commis samedi 13 juillet 1793, sur la personne de Marat," French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77a, no. 18, Paris, 1793, 3-4. 70 Jean-Claude Bonnet, "Les Formes de Celebration," 110.

39 took an oath to raise their children in the Cult of Marat and to use his writings as the new

Holy Scriptures.71 Republicans vowed to raise their children by his "evangile."

If the emerging Cult of Marat reflected popular anti-clericalism, another sign of anti-Catholic sentiment in France in the summer of 1793 was that many parents baptized their children with the names of the republican heroes rather than giving them traditional

Christian names. Some adult citizens even abjured their Christian names and announced new substitutes. The most popular names were Marat, Gracchus, and Brutus. The latter were the Greco-Roman figures most commonly associated with Marat, though the list of republican figures was extensive. Marat's position on the periphery of French society was compared with that of Aristides "the Just," the Athenian statesman and general who fought at Marathon and was ostracized through the influence of his political rivals.

Marat was also compared with Brutus, the Roman senator and leader of the conspiracy to kill Caesar. Other Greco-Roman names included: Cato "the Censor," a Roman statesman and writer; Gracchus in honour of the Gracchi, brothers who in attempting to reform agrarian laws in favour of the poorer citizens were killed by an aristocratic faction; and

Regulus, a Roman general and consul who was captured by the Carthaginians in the first

Punic War, and was tortured to death for advising Rome against accepting the

Carthaginian terms of peace. This practice of choosing republican names was not exclusive to the sans-culottes, as bourgeois dechristianizers such as Couthon, had by late

August adopted the name of Aristides.74 This trend in fact appeared before Marat's death,

71 Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," 343 and Mona Ozouf, "Revolutionary Religion," in A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989) 569. 72 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 184. 73 Jean-Claude Bonnet, "Les Formes de Celebration," 110. 74 R.R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989) 147.

40 as evidenced by a letter to the Friend of the People in which a mother tells him of her choice to name her son Marat.75 Marat's name came to take on an almost sacred and religious meaning after his death, however, and this can be seen in the tendency of the sans-culottes to protect it from misuse. For instance, the section Droits de I 'Homme took up the defense of the name by attacking citizens with the name Marat whom they believed to be abusing it.

There was also a proliferation of new relics in the Cult of Marat, which were meant to blasphemously replace and mock the relics of the Christian saints. The most important of these new relics was that of Marat's heart, which the Jacobin Club had recognized as the rightful property of the Cordeliers on July 15. Women mourning the journalist's death outside his home tried to collect Marat's blood, which for them

77 symbolized the "seed of Marat" from which future republicans would be born. In addition to the bodily relics of Marat, his writings were displayed as relics.

In the summer of 1793, churches were re-adorned with the new symbolism of the 78

Cult of Marat and the other martyrs of liberty. Desecrated Catholic churches were frequently used for revolutionary commemorations of Marat. This was likely for a number of practical reasons including acoustics and affordable space, however there is evidence that distinct places of worship were planned including proposals to build a pyramid in honour of Lepelletier and Marat, which Richard Cobb suggested represented a • 70 revolutionary consciousness that went beyond mere iconoclasm. The tomb of Marat in

75 Letter to Marat, dated April 19, 1793, as quoted in Jean-Claude Bonnet "Les Formes de Celebration," 118. 76 Morris Slavin, The Revolution in Miniature. 349. 77 J. Guilhamou, "La mort de Marat a Paris (13-17 juillet 1793)," 71. 78 Jean-Claude Bonnet, "Les Formes de Celebration," 120. 79 Richard Cobb, The People's Armies. 455-6.

41 the garden of the Cordeliers became a site for pilgrimage. Designed by J.F. Martin to be in sync with nature, the tomb was a popular site for those paying respects to Marat. On

July 26, a deputation from the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women announced their intention to erect an obelisk to honour Marat, in lieu of Pantheonization by the

National Convention, and on the Place du Carrousel the section de la Franciade dedicated a small obelisk to Marat and Lazowski, the men of August 10. Jean-Claude

Bonnet has also found evidence of a tomb of greenery in the middle of the Champs-

Elysees as well as mausoleum and temples dedicated to Marat in the provinces. This new geography of the Cult attacked the clergy's monopoly over rites of mourning.

Clerical participation disappeared from all religious rites of the Cult. In fact, abjuring priests used the rituals of the Cult to affirm their devotion to the Revolution. For example, Pigeard, a parish priest, burned his letters of ordination before the busts of

Marat and Lepelletier.81 In a festival to celebrate Chalier, in Lyon, the images of the saints were burned.

Curiosities and trinkets produced for the Cult of Marat replaced the images of

Christian saints and martyrs. Marat's image was represented on fans, plates, box lids, pins, rings and medallions. In addition to being carried with worshippers, these were also used to decorate small fireplace-sized obelisks to Marat, which became personal shrines in homes.83 In addition to venerating Marat, artists began to adorn Marat in portraits with symbols of Catholic martyrdom, including the halo and the palm.

Jean-Claude Bonnet, "Les Formes de Celebration," 115-116. 81 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France, 168. 82 R.R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled. 148. 83 Jean-Claude Bonnet, "Les Formes de Celebration," 117. A number of these objects can be seen in the collections of the Musee Carnavalet in Paris.

42 In the summer of 1793, civic processions in honour of Marat replaced the traditional Catholic processions, and the sans-culottes mocked these processions by holding multiple corteges for Marat. These ceremonies often included liberty trees.

Since 1790, commitment to the ideals of the Revolution was shown in the rite of planting a liberty tree. James Leith has traced the roots of liberty trees to the peasant rituals of spring that involved dancing around the Maypole. In the Judeo-Christian tradition a strong tradition of religious meaning was tied to symbolic trees in the Garden of Good and Evil, and in the Greco-Roman tradition gods were believed to occupy and live around certain trees.84 One example of a procession celebrating Marat as a martyr of liberty was that connected to the celebration of August 10 in the department of the Loiret. The cortege for Marat and Lepelletier arrived on the Place de la Republique, and surrounded the liberty tree and the Hotel de Ville. A funeral pyre was set up and a "civic fire" was lit for the purpose of destroying "torn les vains titres de lafeodalite, de la servitude, ont ete brules pour etre oublies a jamais."

The blasphemy of mocking the rituals of Catholicism also included the new oral rites of the Cult of Marat, which began in the summer months of 1793. As early as mid-

August, prayers and oaths were incorporated into ceremonies. These prayers and oaths reflect a belief that the martyrs of liberty had a divine power to affect the outcome of events in the Revolution. An example can be found in the festival celebrating August 10, in Loiret. The commemorations of Lepelletier and Marat were the central part of this festival, and during the speeches a prayer was invoked:

84 James A. Leith, "On the Religiosity of the French Revolution," 174. 85 Bignon, "Departement du Loiret, 10 Aoflt 1793, Fete de l'unite & de Pindivisibility de la Republique et Inauguration des bustes de Lepelletier & et de Marat..." French Revolution Research Collection. 12/648, 18.

43 Apotres & martyrs de la liberie, puissant vos images placees dans ce sanctuaire, nourrir & perpetuer parmi les administrateurs le feu divin qui fait & consolide les revolutions! Puissent tous les citoyens, en vous contemplant, se penetrer de plus en plus du saint amour de la patrie, & devenir les emules de votre devouement pour elle!

The rites of the Cult of Marat began with a series of ceremonies that incorporated new republican symbolism. These rites began with the exhibition of the body of Marat at the Church of the Cordeliers in the days following his assassination, which was reminiscent of David's presentation of Lepelletier's body the previous January. An interesting feature of these early ceremonies, which points to a break with the Catholic past, was the abandonment of the traditional funerary black in funerary decor and the fashion of mourning. At the Cordeliers, the background to the exhibition was the tri­ colour drapes, which were provided by the citizen Palloy. The tri-colour draperies were clearly representative of the revolutionary ideals that Marat was associated with both in life and in death. These drapes became essential in commemorations of Marat as is evidenced by the number of letters to Palloy from members of sectional assemblies and

07 popular societies asking for the use of his tri-colour in order to commemorate Marat. In addition, fashion changed as men wore the red Phrygian bonnet and women wore red ribbons and clothes mixed in several shades of pink, yellow and blue. At Marat's funeral, 00 .

David himself wore a light yellow bolero. Marat's body was decorated with a crown of oak leaves, which were a symbol of Marat's immortality, and surrounding him were the

Bignon, "Departement du Loiret, 10 Aout 1793, Fete de l'unite & de l'indivisibilite de la Republique et Inauguration des bustes de Lepelletier & et de Marat..." French Revolution Research Collection. 12/648, 15. 87 BHVP MS 815 111-174, there are a number of letters written to Palloy from the sections and popular societies asking for the use of his tri-colour in their ceremonies to inaugurate the busts of Marat and Lepelletier. 88 Jean-Claude Bonnet, "Les Formes de Celebration," 114-115, and Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults During the French Revolution," 344. Green was the only colour that was absolutely abandoned as it had come to symbolize the counterrevolution because of the green ribbons on the bonnet that Charlotte Corday wore when she killed Marat.

44 attributes of his martyrdom - more relics for the Cult - including the bathtub in which he had been murdered, his bloody robe, the box desk, inkwell, and paper with which he

• • 89 wrote his paper. Surrounding the hall, were his writings.

In late July, a number of ceremonies were held by the sections and popular societies in Marat's honour. On July 25 deputies of the National Convention, despite their efforts not to celebrate Marat in the summer of 1793, placed a bust of Marat in the meeting hall next to David's painting of Lepelletier. The deputies voted to send plaster to the provinces so even the smallest of towns could inaugurate busts of the martyrs of liberty. These busts were to be placed in courts, theatres and meeting places. On July

28, the Cordeliers held an apotheosis for Marat at the Club, which was no doubt a response to the reluctance of the Convention to grant the honours of the Pantheon to

Marat. On July 15, they received permission from the Commune and the Jacobin Club to keep the embalmed heart of Marat, which was hung in an urn at the entrance to their meeting hall. This ceremony was attended by 24 members of the Convention, 12 members of the Commune, and other deputations from the clubs and sections of Paris.91

At the centre of the ceremony was an altar in the Luxembourg Garden, where Marat's bust was placed along with a number of his writings and the embalmed heart. The speeches given were particularly blasphemous: Precious remains of a God! Shall we then betray your spirit? You ask us for vengeance, and your assassins still live! Rouse yourselves, Cordeliers! The time has come! Let us rush to avenge Marat; let us rush 92 to wipe away the tears of sorrowing France.

Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 72-3. 90 Jean-Claude Bonnet, "Les Formes de Celebration," 117. 91 Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 59. 92 Quoted in Ibid, 64.

45 Thus the ceremony at the Cordeliers on July 28 can be interpreted as the first attempt to commit blasphemy against Jesus by according to Marat a divine status.

In August the ceremonies became slightly more elaborate, and they confirmed the symbolic and ritualistic characteristics of the Cult of Marat. They were held in churches on days of rest. Busts, effigies and sarcophagi represented Marat, and blue-gray draperies, candelabra, cypress garlands, and inscriptions of the republican virtues often surrounded these representations. On August 4, the Fraternal Society of the Patriots of

Both Sexes placed busts in their meeting room, followed on August 8 by the Section

Contrat-Social exposing an effigy of the representative of people lying on his deathbed in their meeting hall. Also on August 8, a representation of Marat's body was presented on his deathbed at Saint-Eusctatius Church and the "ugly spectacle" was accompanied by a eulogy of the story of Marat's unhappy life.93 On August 16, the Societe des Hommes- du-Dix-Aout listened to a funeral oration for Marat in their meeting. On August 18, at the

Bonne-Nouvelle Church, an effigy of Marat was presented, decorated with blue drapery spangled with stars, cypress garlands and inscriptions and there was a representation of the bathtub in which Marat had died in the background.94

The rise of the Cult of Marat coincided with increasing popular pressure on the

National Convention. Sans-culotte anxieties continued to grow over the summer of 1793 as economic circumstances worsened. The supply of foodstuffs caused intense panic as butchers were denounced over meat prices, and rumours spread of blockades on the Seine to cut-off Paris. Since the purge of the Convention, the value of the assignat had dropped

93 Jean-Claude Bonnet, "Les Formes de Celebration," 114. 94 Description of ceremonial ensemble in Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution,"344. For Germani's claim that Lepelletier and Marat were not associated together prior to September 1793, see Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 70.

46 to about 22 percent of its face value. Despite a good harvest, hot weather had produced drought-like conditions and mills were unable to process the wheat into flour. News of the surrender of Toulon on September 2 intensified this climate of anxiety and provoked an uprising against the Convention.

On September 5, the Commune used its authority to close the workshops to ensure the success of the uprising. Armed sans-culottes encircled the Tuileries where the

Convention was sitting and inside, Chaumette denounced the shortages and the inability of the existing laws to effectively deal with hoarders and speculators. Terror was made the "Order of the Day." In the following days, a series of concessions to the sans­ culottes' demands were implemented. Bending to the sans-culottes' pressure, the

Convention voted to organize the armee revolutionnaire, which it had originally voted to create on June 2. It was to be composed of the most patriotic of sans-culottes who would be deployed to find and punish traitors, hoarders, moderates, and political suspects.

Richard Cobb has demonstrated that the armies revolutionnaires "arose out of the administrative anarchy preceding the law of 14 Frimaire, and like the institutions of the sections, the armies tended towards decentralization and towards a kind of popular

Federalism and counter-authority which threatened to break away from the Convention and its Committees altogether."96 On September 11, the maximum was decreed on grain and fodder, and was followed on September 14 by the reorganization of the

Revolutionary Tribunal. The Law of Suspects was decreed on September 17, and the

Convention gave the local revolutionary committees the task of drawing up lists of suspects on September 20. These decrees gave the sans-culottes the instrumental means

95 William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution. 250. 96 Richard Cobb, The People's Armies. 2.

47 to put their program on economic issues, the exposure of suspects and traitors, and anti- clericalism into effect on a much larger scale. The creation of the armees revolutionnaires ushered in a period of anarchic and uncontrolled Terror and the dechristianization campaign, which resembled the popular and spontaneous quality of the

Cult of Marat. Although the uprising of 5 September 1793 appeared to implement the sans-culottes' agenda, its more important result was the creation of the Revolutionary

Government, which would end the popular movement's ability to influence the

Revolution's direction. Yet the new strength of the National Convention would lead to the expansion of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty in the autumn of 1793.

48 Chapter III: The National Convention and the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty

Despite the increase in the number of celebrations of the Cult of Marat, which peaked in the autumn months of 1793, the National Convention disapproved of the popular cult because of its links to radical dechristianization and its veneration of the controversial journalist. The revolutionary authorities sought to control the Cult of Marat by incorporating it into the more formal Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty, which was far more acceptable to their classical republican ideals. The National Convention and the

Commune expanded the Cult of Marat to include Michel Lepelletier de Saint-Fargeau and Joseph Chalier as new 'martyrs of liberty.' Impositions from above fundamentally changed the Cult of Marat from the spontaneous and popular grassroots movement of the summer of 1793 to the more widespread but short-lived phenomenon of the Cult of

Martyrs of Liberty, which emphasized classical symbolism and the emulation of republican virtues.

The Cult of Marat was inextricably linked to the dechristianization movement, which stretched from late September 1793 to March 1794, because of its spontaneous, popular, and blasphemous qualities and the revolutionary authorities rejected it for these reasons. The sans-culottes in the armies revolutionnaires and the representants-en- mission were the main instigators of dechristianization, but their activities were not authorized by the Convention. Certain measures taken by the Convention including the desecration of the royal tombs of Saint-Denis in August and the adoption on October 5 of a new republican calendar did encourage dechristianizers, but generally, the Convention did not support this program. Dechristianization emerged in the context of uncontrolled

49 and anarchic Terror in the late summer and early fall of 1793 which was being pursued ruthlessly in the provinces and driving a wedge between Paris and the rest of France.

Perhaps the most infamous of the representants-en-mission was Joseph Fouche, a former priest from western France who had seen the ability of the clergy to influence the populace against the Revolution. Fouche preached against celibacy and ordered priests to marry nuns because he believed that clerical celibacy hindered the Republic by reducing the number of children produced.1 He also denied immortality of the soul and posted the words, "Death is an eternal sleep" above cemeteries. Dechristianization made no distinctions between priests who had taken the Constitutional Oath of the Clergy and those who had not.2 Dechristianizers created a reign of religious terror in the provinces with their brutal practices, which included the burning of priests' letters and "drinking to the health of the Republic from the bishop's chalice." 3 In addition, the armees revolutionnaires, composed of the most radical of sans-culottes, were deployed to discover and punish traitors, hoarders, moderates, and political suspects. The armees revolutionnaires enabled the sans-culottes to spread their dechristianization program on a larger scale. Dechristianization began with the vandalism of churches and with the institution of explicitly non-religious patriotic ceremonies. It was most far-reaching in the Paris basin, the north, the centre and parts of the southeast.4 Many priests in France had abdicated, fled, gone into hiding or been arrested.

In addition to its concern regarding popular and spontaneous dechristianization, the Convention was also alarmed at the choice of Marat as a figure of popular veneration.

1 William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution. 260. 2 Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution. 338-9. 3 Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, 93. 4 Suzanne Desan, Reclaiming the Sacred: Lav Religion and Popular Politics in Revolutionary France. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), 9.

50 Even the Jacobin deputies sought to control revolutionary radicalism and Marat was beyond the limits of its respectability. Jacobin reluctance to let radicalism go any further can be seen in their support for the arrest of the enrages and their leader, Jacques Roux, who denounced the Montagnards for not taking more drastic action against hoarders. The bourgeois revolutionaries in the National Convention attempted to remedy the problem of popular veneration of Marat by trying to incorporate the Cult of Marat into the larger, state directed Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty. These celebrations emphasized the emulation of the men who had died for the Republic. This focus on men worthy of emulation contributed another important component to the Cult of Martyrs: a new republican trinity. The Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty differed essentially from the Cult of Marat in that it did not borrow from the old Catholic forms, but instead from classical symbolism, ideals of heroism, and the emulation of republican virtues.

The first martyr of liberty to be incorporated into the Cult was Michel Lepelletier de Saint-Fargeau, who had became a republican martyr six months prior to Marat's death.

A former noble and a deputy in the National Convention, Lepelletier was fatally stabbed by Paris, a former bodyguard of the king, in a cafe in the Palais-Royale, on January 20,

1793. He was murdered for voting for the execution of king. According to Joseph

Clarke, Lepelletier was not an appropriate revolutionary martyr given his general anonymity in the National Convention.5 Yet Lepelletier was not just an anonymous face.

He had been a president of the Parlement of Paris, and he had been an active reformer in the Constituent Assembly. Most importantly, he was a prominent member of the

Committee of Public Instruction and had drafted a republican educational reform plan

5 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 175.

51 that was based heavily on the Spartan-style education system.6 As a martyr, Lepelletier had the potential to appeal to both the elite and popular segments of society because of his unselfish renunciation of privilege and his legislative accomplishments regarding education.

In January 1793, prior to the popular veneration of Marat by the sans-culottes, the commemoration of public figures was not yet completely devoid of Catholic influences.

The Convention's commemoration of Lepelletier demonstrates the new tendency to incorporate classical symbolism along with a reduced number of Catholic forms.

Following Lepelletier's assassination, the Convention arranged for the corpse to lie in state for three days in the Place Venddme where Louis XIV s statue used to stand. The body was not cleaned up, "it lay nude, livid and bloody,"7 and the wound was exposed to demonstrate suffering and sacrifice in the tradition of artistic representations of Christian martyrs. Despite these Christian parallels, David's plan for the funeral looked to the classical tradition of bloody sacrifice to represent the constant danger to the Republic.

Lepelletier's body was decorated with laurels, which represented victory over death, and a civic crown, which was symbolic of veneration for the Roman past. Robespierre gave a eulogy and, after a number of speeches, Lepelletier's body was lowered and carried through the streets. The procession included a pause at the Jacobin Club, which can be interpreted as a Montagnard effort to associate Lepelletier's memory with the Montague.

Although he had voted for the death of the king, Lepelletier had in fact never set foot in the Jacobin Club and thus an effort was made to politically manipulate the collective

6 Emmet Kennedy, A Cultural History of the French Revolution. 166-7. 7 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 155.

52 memory to associate the virtues of Lepelletier with the Jacobins. It was here that

Lepelletier's daughter, Suzanne, was adopted by the nation.9 From the Jacobin Club, the body was carried to the Pantheon for Lepelletier's apotheosis, which had been granted to the martyr by decree of the National Convention on January 21, 1793. The motion had been proposed by Barere, seconded by Robespierre and endorsed by Danton. The absence of clergy from the ceremony was striking and left an impression with the mourners. The impact that LePelletier's funeral had on the participants and witnesses can be seen in the journal of Raymond Aubert, who reflected, "This was never before done to a man found dead in public. This is a show. This is a funeral of a new type, without a priest. It is a

Roman ceremony."11

This break from the Catholic past was essential for the incorporation of classical symbolism into the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty and also served to justify the

Convention's actions in executing the king as a traitor after. This association of

Lepelletier with the Revolution is seen in David's address to the French people, which he made in the National Convention on January 23:

Citoyens, ce n'est pas un homme seul qui a ete frappe, c'est vous: ce n'est pas Michel Lepelletier qui a ete lachement assassine, c'est encore vous: ce n'est pas un depute sur la vie dequel les coups ont porte, c'est sur la vie de la nation, c'est sur la liberte publique, c'est sur la souverainete du peuple.1

Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 158. 9 "Decret de la Convention Nationale, du 21 Janvier 1793, l'an second de la Republique Francaise. Qui decerne les honneurs du Pantheon Francois a Michel Le Pelletier..." BHVP MS 815 96. 10 Ibid. 11 Raymond Aubert, "Jeudi 24," (1793), Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris sous la Revolution: 1791-1796. (Paris: Editions France-Empire, 1974), 220. 12 Jacques-Louis David, Moniteur Universel, 29 Janvier 1793, Vol 15, 295.

53 David wanted the people to follow Lepelletier's lead and to emulate his virtues. He hoped that "the children of the future generations would be inspired to emulate

Lepelletier, to "fight or die" for the principles of the Revolution."

Following the funeral the National Convention continued to remind the people to emulate Lepelletier's virtues with the promotion of images of the martyr of liberty.

David demanded a marble monument in addition to the apotheosis to honour Lepelletier.

A commission for the statue of Lepelletier was awarded by public contest. A month later, again at David's request, a bust of Lepelletier constructed by Fleuriot was placed next to that of Brutus in the National Convention.14 These efforts inspired the sans­ culottes in Paris to hold their own commemoration of Lepelletier. On February 9, the

Section Droits de I 'Homme planned a funeral oration in his honour and also performed the new rite of inaugurating his bust. The section invited the National Convention to send a delegation for the ceremony and twelve of its members attended.15 This ceremony for Lepelletier, held by a section, was rare this early in 1793. The Section Droits-de-

VHomme had a geographic connection with Lepelletier, however, as the Hotel Saint-

Fargeau, the family's Paris home, was located within the eastern boundary of the section.

Generally though, the sans-culottes of Paris felt no real connection with Lepelletier, who was in fact a martyr for the Jacobin cause.

Outside of Paris, commemoration of Lepelletier as a revolutionary martyr also flourished. It tended to follow a combination of traditional and secular models of

Catholic and Roman rites seen in the Parisian funeral for Lepelletier designed by David, as there is evidence of these commemorations not yet being entirely devoid of Catholic

13 David Lloyd Dowd, Pageant-Master of the Republic. 79. 14 Ibid, 101. 15 Morris Slavin, The Revolution in Miniature: Section Droits-de-1'Homme. 1789-1795, 357.

54 forms. In Lyon, a monument to Lepelletier was placed on the former site of a statue of

Louis XIV and a procession wound its way to the town's liberty tree. At Auxerre in the

Yonne, which Lepelletier represented in the National Convention, there were three festivals staged in his honour in 1793.17 Yet some towns mourned Lepelletier in a purely

Catholic tradition. For instance, on February 3 a requiem was held for Lepelletier in Aix- en-Provence.18 Though historian Joseph Clarke has claimed that these were "coaxed," ceremonies and commemorations held for Lepelletier initiated the Cult of the Martyrs of

Liberty without specific orders from the National Convention to replicate the funeral in

Paris.19 This suggests the genuine sincerity of the participants and demonstrates that some aspects of Catholicism remained in popular commemorations.

During the first half of 1793, the essential qualities of a republican martyr began to be shaped and defined, and many elements of Catholicism were abandoned.

Lepelletier's action of voting for the death of the king began the process of associating martyrs not with the Christian idea of being persecuted for one's faith, but instead with republican virtues. The emerging conception of martyrs was of those who died while performing stoic, selfless duties for the Republic, thereby placing their love for the nation above their love for themselves. These actions are what led to the martyrs being granted

"immortality" and reveals the appearance of a new dual meaning of immortality with a secular meaning and a meaning that draws heavily on Catholicism. In the funeral for

Lepelletier, the martyr was crowned with the wreath of immortality.20 Clarke

16 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 159. 17 Ibid, 175. 18 Michel Vovelle, Les Metamorphoses de la fete en Provence de 1750 a 1820. (Paris: Flammarion, 1976), 118. 19 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France, 177. Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 44.

55 emphasized that "an essentially Christian, if not exclusively Catholic, understanding of immortality remained deeply ingrained in Parisian popular culture throughout the

Terror."21 Yet revolutionaries also associated immortality with the idea of sacrifice for the patrie, which was central to the Cult. This can be seen when on October 20, 1792,

Gonchon from the section de Bonne-Nouvelle, concluded his address to the Convention with the following characterization of the "hommes du 14 juillef: "They have lived for liberty; they will know how to perish to defend it; This kind of death does not frighten them. To sacrifice oneself for the good of the patrie, that is not to die; it is to take shortest path to arrive at immortality."22 Many documentations of the Cult make reference to immortality in the sense that the martyrs will be ever-present in the minds of republicans and therefore immortal. In August, in a celebration of Marat and Lepelletier, the eulogist exclaimed "Marat, like Lepelletier, spilled his blood for his country, but like Lepelletier, he shall... live eternally in the memory of men."23 This ambiguity makes it difficult to establish what the participants in the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty meant precisely when they referred to the martyrs as "immortal."

Dying for the Republic was considered by the Convention to be worthy of immortality through emulation of one's republican virtues, and the Cult of the Martyrs of

Liberty incorporated the importance of the martyrs' last words as a sign of their pure, patriotic and heroic qualities.24 The importance placed on a dying man's last words does reflect an element of the Catholic belief in their sincerity. This can particularly be seen in

21 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 193. 22 Gonchon, Addresse des citoyens du faubourg Saint-Antoine... a la Convention Nationale. October 20 1792 (Paris, de l'imprimerie nationale), 8. Melvin Collection 3052. 23 Bignon, "Departement du Loiret, 10 Aoiit 1793, Fete de l'unite & de l'indivisibilite de la Republique et Inauguration des bustes de Lepelletier & et de Marat..." (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 12/648, 15. 2 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 158.

56 the way that participants in the Cult treated the supposed final words of Lepelletier. At

Lepelletier's funeral, there were two plaques on the funeral bier that emphasized this point. They stated that Lepelletier's last words were "I die content that the tyrant is no more." This, along with the virtuous phrase: "I am satisfied to spill my blood for the country, I hope that it will serve to consolidate liberty and equality," were engraved on a plaque below the bier that Lepelletier was laid on during the funeral.25 These heroic sentiments were meant to convey to the spectators Lepelletier's virtuous and stoic nature.

This tendency appeared again in the festivals honouring Marat and Lepelletier later in

August. In a eulogy during the festival of August 10 in the Department of the Loiret, these sentiments were reaffirmed: "Paris, ancient guard, has lent his patricidal hand,

Michel Lepelletier dies victim for his strong commitment to his duties. 'I am satisfied,' he shouts before he renders his last breath, 'I hope that my blood will serve to consolidate the liberty and equality, and to recognize their enemies.'"26 These commemorations continued sporadically through the first part of 1793, most prominently in David's painting of Lepelletier on his deathbed which he presented to the Convention on March

29. It presents the slain deputy in the tradition of a Christian pieta, thereby reinforcing the idea in the collective memory of Lepelletier as a martyr of the Revolution.

The second martyr imposed on the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty was Joseph

Chalier who was introduced by a prominent member of the Paris Commune into the revolutionary trinity in November 1793. The incorporation of Chalier represents another

25 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 158. 26 Bignon, "Departement du Loiret, 10 Aout 1793, Fete de l'unite & de 1'indivisibility de la Republique et Inauguration des bustes de Lepelletier & et de Marat..." (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 12/648, 11. 27 Jacques-Louis David, "Discours prononce a la Convention Nationale le 29 mars 1793, en offrant un tableau de sa composition, representant Michel Lepelletier au lit du mort," (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 12/442.

57 effort, this time by the Commune, to establish a martyr that met both popular and Jacobin criteria. Various ceremonies held by the sections demonstrate popular efforts to blaspheme the Catholic trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and to create a new Revolutionary trinity of the Martyrs of Liberty. On September 22, the Pantheon-

Frangais section created a veritable republican trinity by joining Marat and Lepelletier with Brutus.28 Brutus, as a hero of Antiquity, was less valuable than a contemporary

French martyr of the Revolution. Furthermore, various conflicting groups could manipulate the image of Brutus to their own causes because their definition of 'the tyrant' was subjective. For instance, counter-revolutionaries came to associate Brutus with

Charlotte Corday for killing Marat.29 Thus, after November 1, 1793 (11 Brumaire) a

French Revolutionary trinity was completed with the addition of Joseph Chalier.

The inclusion of Chalier in the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty brings to light not only the conflict between the sans-culotte and Jacobin representations of martyrs - veneration versus emulation - but demonstrates an effort to bridge these differences.

Chalier's inclusion was propagated by the sans-culotte leader, Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette, the Procureur-general of the Commune in Paris. Chaumette was conscious of the tensions between the popular veneration of Marat and the Jacobin reluctance to idolize this controversial revolutionary. Chaumette, in keeping with his personal aim of spreading dechristianization in Paris, introduced Chalier to the Cult in neoclassical terms, fitting with the Jacobin admiration of Rome and Antiquity. On 11 Brumaire, Chaumette gave a funeral oration for Chalier before the general council of the Commune and in it,

Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," 345. Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti Hero of the French Revolution. 209.

58 "he appeared more as a hero from Antiquity than a saint of a new religion." According to Soboul, "The praise of Chalier's republican virtues, the account of his last moments, and his final, rather Socratic words, all contributed to creating an image of the new martyr which was very apt to strike the popular imagination, to make him worthy of entering the republican Pantheon."

Joseph Chalier, unlike Marat, was not identified as a martyr of liberty for his adherence to sans-culottes' principles, but instead for his loyalty to the Convention. The

Federalist Revolt had challenged the National Convention's legitimacy and control of

France in the spring and summer of 1793. Over two thirds of France was in revolt including Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, and parts of Normandy, Caen, and Brittany.

Chalier had been a silk manufacturer in Lyon, a great industrial centre known for silk manufacturing as well as for a rich Catholic tradition.32 Chalier was frustrated at being so distant from national politics and this deepened by the feeling that revolutionary opportunities in Paris had been missed in Lyon. The progress of the Revolution in Lyon seemed blocked by the wealthy and influential bourgeois classes. By 1792, however, an ideological reorientation was occurring amongst the democratic left in Lyon and its leadership was passing into the hands of elements that were hostile to the Lyonnais elites.

The Jacobin Club's ascendancy was reaffirmed in the first important election of 1792 when, in May, its candidate, Joseph Julliard, was voted commandant-general of the

National Guard.34

Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution,", 347. 31 Ibid, 347. 32 R.R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled, 153. 33 W.D. Edmonds, Jacobinism and the Revolt of Lyon. 1789-1793. (Toronto: Clarendon Press Oxford, 1990), 55-56. 34 Ibid, 114-115.

59 At the beginning of 1793, the Jacobin radicals led by Chalier came to power with support from the Representatives on mission. Chalier imposed a Jacobin municipality whose policies the industrial and merchant aristocracies resisted. As early as February

1793, he convened a general assembly of clubs that began with a forced oath to abide by the decisions the meeting was about to make. Chalier proceeded to announce the implementation of a revolutionary tribunal in Lyon and claimed that 900 heads were needed to ensure the safety of the city.35 His antics managed to alienate even the orthodox

Jacobins in Lyon who, in the atmosphere of paranoia, believed themselves to be listed as

"moderates." Since Chalier's radical regime had received initial support from the

Representatives on mission from the Convention in Paris, "the coups against the local radical administrations soon developed into defiance of the Montagnard Convention."

Opponents of Chalier's radical regime arrested him on May 29 and sent him to the guillotine on July 17, 1793.

Shortly after Chaumette's eulogy in the Paris Commune at the beginning of

November, Chalier began to be incorporated into the Cult of Martyrs of Liberty by the popular societies. Sans-culottes in the streets had no connection to Chalier. When he was included in their festivals, which was rare, symbols and images of Antiquity were often also incorporated on a far greater scale than in previous ceremonies for Marat and

Lepelletier. He was represented predominantly as being happy that he shed his blood and gave his life for the Republic. After Chalier's execution in Lyon on July 17, the letter he wrote in prison to his family was often quoted in eulogies. It was meant to demonstrate

Simon Schama, Citizens. 727. 36 William S. Cormack, Revolution and Political Conflict in the French Navy. 1789-1794. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995) 177, 179.

60 his innocence and his virtue, and thus why he was worthy of immortality through

emulation:

Chalier, your brother, your parent and your friend will die because I swear to be free and that the people of Lyon also be free... Remember me; I love all humanity and liberty; and my enemies and my torturers who are also my judges lead me to death. Goodbye... I embrace all those who will remember me, I love you like I love all of humanity, Goodbye, hello, I am going to rest in the centre of the eternal.

Chalier's worthiness of immortality and emulation can be seen in the example of the civic

festival in honour of the martyrs of liberty and the inauguration of their busts in the

Societe Fraternelle des deux Sexes de la Section du Pantheon Frangais. In the speech

given in this club on 1 Frimaire (November 21, 1793), Chalier's captors were portrayed

as "brigands who gave themselves the title of the tribunal."38 The following is an excerpt

from the speech:

Alors ces vils conspirateurs le tranerent dans les cachots; une assemblee de brigands s'arrogeant le titre de tribunal, le fit comparoitre devant elle; le crime osa juger la vertu! Chalier se presenta avec fermete a ces hommes qu'un seul de ses regards eut du confondre. Ses reponses furent celles de l'innocence et de la raison. Mais l'innocence et la raison n'etoient-elles pas un crime aux yeux de pareils juges? Chalier fut condamne a mort; et se derniers momens furent consacre a donner des avis salutaires a ses nieces, a leur ecrire du fond de sa prison, pour les consoler lui-meme, pour les entretenir de son bonheur: car il se trouvoit heureux de mourir pour la liberie. II vit d'un ceil serein arriver l'heure de son trepas qu'il regardoit comme celle de son proper triomphe. Trois fois le fer meurtrier frappa sa tete sans l'abattre; car nos feroces ennemis se faisoient un barbare plaisir de prolonger ses douleurs; et trios fois profitant de cet intervalle cruel qui le separoit de la mort, d'une voix foible et defaillante, il cria vive la republique, et s'adresssant au bourreau, attche-moi done ma cocarde, dit-il, je meurs pour la liberie.39

37 "Letter from Chalier to his family, Lyon, July 16, 1793" (1793), in Die Sansculotten von Paris: Dokumente zur Geschichte der Volksbewegung 1793-1794. edited by Walter Markov and Albert Soboul, (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1957), 204, 206. 38 "Discous prononce dans la Societe Fraternelle des deux Sexes de la Section du Pantheon Francais, Le Premier frimaire, a la Fete de 1'inauguration des bustes de Marat, Lepeletier and part le citoyen Paris, officier municipal." (1793). French Revolution Research Collection 6.2 77a No. 9, 6. 39 Ibid, 6.

61 The speech continues to portray Chalier as a martyr, in the manner of the great Socrates, and to laud him as an example for those battling the counter-revolution: "Chalier comme

Socrate, a considere son supplice comme un avantage; il a vu que la mort d'un homme de bien n'etoit jamais que le soir d'un beau jour. Oui, Chalier est peut-etre de tous les heros de la revolution, celui qui a donne I 'example le plus sublime.'''' Using such rhetoric, Chalier was imposed from above into the Cult as a new martyr.

The popular celebrations of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty increased dramatically in September 1793 through Frimaire, Year II. These were orchestrated by the popular societies in the sections and often included the inaugurations of the busts of

Marat and Lepelletier, accompanied by hymns and processions. Clarke has calculated that in Brumaire (October 22 - November 20 1793) alone, there were twenty-four ceremonies held in Marat's honour.41 The reason for this is twofold. First, the proliferation of ceremonies can be explained by the political influence and position of the sans-culottes in the sections by the end of August. Second, it can be explained by the growth of the dechristianization campaign, which attacked the traditional religious forms at the same time that the popular celebrations of Marat were becoming more widespread.

The impositions made by the Paris Commune on the Cult of Marat can be seen most prominently in the Festival of Reason, which was held on November 10, 1793. The

Festival of Reason was the culmination of the Cult of Reason, which was a combination of Hebertist politics and militant dechristianization. The Cult of Reason was far from coherent, but its festivals did encompass a number of common practices including the

40 "Discous prononce dans la Societe Fraternelle des deux Sexes de la Section du Pantheon Francais..." (1793) French Revolution Research Collection 6.2 77a No. 9, 7. Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 178.

62 rededicating of churches to Reason, the recantation of oaths by priests, processions mocking Catholicism and ceremonies dedicated to the Martyrs of Liberty. The Cult of

Reason was inherently linked to dechristianization. It was Chaumette, inspired by

Fouche's tactics in Nievres, who brought the dechristianization campaign to Paris by convincing the Commune to adopt it as an official policy.42 On October 23, the

Commune decreed that the images of the kings were to be removed from the facade of

Notre Dame, and busts of Marat began to replace religious statuary. On November 7 the

Convention received treasures taken from the churches of Nievres by Fouche and the

Bishop of Paris abjured his vows. These events encouraged the Commune to decide that the festival of Liberty, planned for the following Sunday, would be moved from the

Palais-Royal to Notre Dame, renamed 'Temple of Reason:' "to celebrate the triumph that

Reason has just won over the prejudices of eighteen centuries."43 The Festival of Reason was the climax of the dechristianization program in Paris and it was characterized by theatrical representations of young women, representing Liberty and Reason, triumphing over fanaticism and superstition.

The Festival of Reason inspired many similar festivals in the provinces. These ceremonies included the planting of liberty trees, young women representing Liberty and

Reason, and dignitaries bestowing honours on Marat and Lepelletier. While the Cult of

Reason was far from generally accepted, some towns, especially in the Yonne, adopted the Cult. According to Suzanne Desan, these towns included Auxerre, Sens, Saint-

William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution. 261. 43 Quoted in Mona Ozouf, "Revolutionary Religion," in A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, edited by Francois Furet and Mona Ozouf, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989) 564. 44 John McManners. The French Revolution and the Church. (New York: Harper & Row, 1969), 100-101.

63 Florentin, Joigny, Chablis, and Avallon. The success of the Cult of the Martyrs of

Liberty in these areas is likely due to the fact that Lepelletier represented the Yonne in the Convention.

While no longer entirely popular or spontaneous, the Cult of the Martyrs of

Liberty was integrated into the Cult of Reason and its continued celebration in the popular societies and sections demonstrates its connections with the dechristianization movement. The sans-culottes celebrating the Cult of Reason were still free to interpret how they would celebrate the martyrs of liberty. On October 30 (9 Brumaire), the

Temple section celebrated a festival and articulated the specific role of the new Cult in dechristianization.46 This opposition to Catholicism also varied in form and was utilized by popular societies to prove their loyalty to the Convention in Paris. The popular society of Bouchain used the Cult of Martyrs to establish its loyalty to the Republic. In a letter to the National Convention, the society announced that three priests had renounced their priestly functions and vowed, "to never preach anything but the principles of the natural religion."47 The town's church was to become a civic lycee and clubists requested busts of Marat and Lepelletier for this school "in order for the sanctuary to be decorated by idols worthy of veneration... we shall place them on the altar of the useless Christ"

The popular societies and sections often wrote to the Committee of Public

Instruction with specific demands related to their celebration of the Cult of the Martyrs, but these can again be seen as opportunities to assert their loyalty to the Republic. This

45 Suzanne Desan, Reclaiming the Sacred. 54. 46 Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," 346-7 and Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 70. 47 "Letter to the National Convention from the Popular Society of Bouchain..." (n. d.) Papers of the Committee of Public Instruction, AN F17 1008 A No. 1365, 3.

64 can be seen in the letter of the Section of Paris to the Committee demanding that the paintings by David of the republican martyrs of liberty be placed in all the revolutionary tribunals for the purpose of terrifying the suspects: conspirators in seeing these works would receive the punishment that they deserve.49 The popular society of Bouchain also expressed its concerns: "You speak of the wrongs which desolate our regime... placed next to the crimes committed around us by the satellites of despots, the progress gained in one city that it surrounds, the civisme, the Reason, and the Philosophy." The account sent to the Committee of Public Instruction from the Section-des-Arcis emphasized efforts to educate children with the lessons of Republicanism using the martyrs of liberty as examples. On 30 Brumaire Claude Lamy, a twelve year-old from the lycee, gave a speech in which he held up Marat and Lepelletier as examples to emulate: "Both are equally dear. Lepelletier, for having founded the reign of liberty, and Marat for his zeal of transmitting the principles to posterity."51 An extreme example of proving devotion to the revolutionary authorities is that of the request of the Commune of Castillones, whose members requested that the Committee of Public Safety allow them to change the name of their town, which recalled the days of feudalism, to "Marathon" in order to fully republicanize their town and people:

We ask you also with instance to authorize us by a decree to change Castillones' feudal name, to that of Marathon, which will present to our spirit two very delicious memories: that of Marat and that of the famous place in Greece where the satellites of Asiatic despots failed against republican

"National Convention Committee of Public Instruction, petition from the section of Paris, popular society of the French Guard," (n.d.), AN F17 1007 No. 1233 2. 50 "Letter to the National Convention from the Popular Society of Bouchain..." (n. d.) Papers of the Committee of Public Instruction, AN F17 1008A No. 1365, 3. "La Section des Arcis envoyee un discours prononce par le C. Lamy, age de 12 an, le jour de la fete civique de 1'inauguration des bustes de Marat et Lepelletier, le 30 Brumaire," (1793), Papers of the Committee of Public Instruction, AN Fl 7 1007 No. 1236, 2.

65 virtue.

The sans-culottes' festivals in Marat and Lepelletier's honour held in autumn

1793 continued to mock Catholicism and to flout their program of Terror and social egalitarianism. The ceremonies continued to take place on Sundays, and then on the decadi after the implementation of the new revolutionary calendar on October 5. On

September 1, the Fontaine-de-Grenelle section proceeded to inaugurate busts of Marat and Lepelletier.53 Two weeks later, on September 15, the Montagne Section held an apotheosis for both Lepelletier and Marat.54 On the same day the Moliere-et-Lafontaine section, renamed the Brutus Section, held a ceremony in honour of these two martyrs in the Church of Saint Joseph on the rue Montmartre. The sans-culottes continued to emphasize how the martyrs of liberty represented their ideal view of the Republic in these processions. This ceremony by the Brutus section included a separate funeral for Marat and Lepelletier. Lepelletier was celebrated as a man of reason, who had shunned a life of privilege and acted as a founder of the Republic: "Born from a caste that thought themselves privileged, LePelletier disliked the false light..."55 These sans-culottes also focused on Lepelletier's accomplishments, particularly his education plan, which reflected their belief in the right to education for all as the great equalizer: "He knew that a people cannot stay free for long when the basis of his education was prejudice: he had just finished an important work on national education, when a satellite of despotism

"Letter from the Commune of Castillones to the Committee of Public Safety, asking to be called "Marathon,"' (n.d.), AN F17 1007 No. 12 73, 2. 53 Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," 345. 54 Ibid, 345. 55 "Discours prononce a la Section de Brutus, par Charlemagne Fils, ... jour ou cette Section celebra une pompe funebre en l'honneur de LePelletier et de Marat (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77a No. 12,5.

66 struck him with an iron of assassination..." Marat was instead glorified for his denunciation, his vigilance, and his suffering. Above all, both martyrs were remembered and celebrated as "incorruptible" and patriotic.57 This was again seen in a cortege in the

Lombard Section to celebrate Marat where a detachment of the armee revolutionnaires carried a placard that read "terreur des royalists & des accapareurs."5% While his fellow deputies in the Convention may have viewed Marat as a peripheral and sick man, the sans-culottes saw him as the Revolution's most central figure and champion: "Marat etoit pauvre, il etoit incorruptible, son caractere inflexible contre les despotes et les intrigants a double face, son dme ardente sans cesse occupee de tout ce qui pouvoir assurer le bonhuer du Peuple, lui ont valu la mort."59 This illustrates the sans-culottes' image of Marat as a man who suffered for embodying the principles of the Revolution, and it demonstrates how the sans-culottes transformed him into a martyr of the People's cause.

By October, the effects of the authorities' imposition of classical symbolism resulted in the popular ceremonies in the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty becoming progressively more centered around abstract ideas of reason and liberty, and abandoning the use of religious allegories. On October 11, (20 Vendemiaire), a festival was held by the Section de la Cite where the busts of the martyrs were consecrated in a Roman manner.60 On October 22, Citizen Pannequin gave a eulogy for Marat and Lepelletier to the popular assembly of the Piques Section, as "a lesson for all people and an oracle for

56 "Discours prononce a la Section de Brutus, par Charlemagne Fils, ... jour ou cette Section celebra une pompe funebre en 1'honneur de LePelletier et de Marat (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77a No. 12,6. 57 Ibid, 7. 58 "Ordre de la Marche," (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77a, 2. 59 Ibid, 6-7. Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 73.

67 all centuries."61 Religious allegory was replaced with references to nature: " From the very beginning of their careers, these men did not always appear as what they could become. The majestic flow is often but a stream in its source."62 The eulogy emphasized the usefulness of Marat and Lepelletier as "beneficial stars" and "regenerators"63 and explained how they merited their immortal status in the hearts of men: Lepelletier for rejecting his noble birth and wealth, for representing the nation, for drafting his education plan and for voting for the death of the king; Marat for being the "minister sent by the

God of nature, to carry the word of life amongst the people who walked in the shadow of death," for his written works, for "his patience, his steadfast effort," and for his suffering.64

Processions held by the sans-culottes became an even larger component in the ceremonial of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty in October, but now with a larger degree of classical symbolism and themes incorporated. Catholic processions, which formed an important part of traditional popular life, had continued in Paris until the spring of 1793, but they were incorporated into the cult as corteges for the martyrs.65 The sans-culottes added republican themes and symbols to the traditional processions of hymns, street altars, and images of saints to inspire civic patriotism.66 On October 6, the Halle-au-Ble and Guillaume-Tel sections included a procession through the streets of their quarters. On

October 9, the Piques Section held another procession. On Sunday October 13, the

Revolutionnaire-section, formerly the Pont-Neuf section, formed a long cortege through

61 Pannequin, "Eloge de Marat et Lepelletier; prononce par le Citoyen Pannequin, en presence de 1'Assemblee Populaire de la Section des Piques le ler jour du second mois de l'an II de la Republique Francaise, une et indivisible." (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77a, No. 14, 1. 62 Ibid, 2. 63 Ibid, 2. 64 Ibid, 6, 8. 65 Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," 345. 66 Ibid, 346.

68 the streets of its quarter with banners and statues of the martyrs, patriotic choirs and military bands.67 Catholic forms were not yet entirely abandoned. An elaborate procession of the Museum section (David's section) went through the streets surrounding the Louvre, and concluded in a funeral ceremony at the Convention with hymns and patriotic speeches tinted with a vague religiosity. The sans-culottes received a sort of communion in the memory of the martyrs.68

As music came to be incorporated into the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty, the

Convention began to commission songs that borrowed the tunes of popular songs and hymns. Leith has demonstrated that the composition of these songs dramatically increased in 1793, and peaked sharply with almost 60 new songs appearing during

1794.69 Songs were often sung by the sans-culottes at the inauguration of busts of the martyrs of liberty. These songs provided explicit imagery and emphasized the sacrifice that the martyrs made for the Revolution:

Premiers martyrs de la Patrie, Des tyrans eternels fleaux, Vous, dont une horrible furie, Vendit le sang a ces bourreaux, N'attendez point d'encens, des larmes D'un Peuple de Republicains; Vos honneurs sont dans vos destines, Votre vengeance est dans nos armes. Vengeance, Citoyens! Victims trop de fois Frappons nos assassins, les pretres et les rois.

These images of how the martyrs "sold their blood," and that their "vengeance is in our arms," were used to implant ideas that the Republic must be defended against those

Albert Soboul, "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults during the Revolution," 345-6. 68 Ibid, 346. 69 James A. Leith, "On the Religiosity of the French Revolution," 179. 70 "Hymne en L'Honneur de LePeletier et de Marat," (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77,1.

69 "assassins" who oppose it: the priests, the kings, the hoarders, the Girondins, and the wealthy.

An important ideological difference between the Cult of Marat and that of the

Martyrs of Liberty was the conflict over the veneration of Marat versus the emulation of the martyrs' republican virtues. In the Convention, the Committee of Public Instruction promoted the emulation of republican virtues by providing the people with examples to emulate. The most important of these were the martyrs of liberty and this was accomplished through official publications such as almanacs and etrennes.

An essential tool for the Committee of Public Instruction was the almanac, which was very popular among the lower classes and could be used effectively for propaganda purposes. Almanacs in late-eighteenth-century France were similar to the books of hours of the middle ages and were meant to be books of daily use for the entire year.71 These books were especially important for spreading ideas outside of the urban centres because they were cheap and thus affordable to rural readers. Lise Andries has identified up to nineteen almanacs that mention the assassination or episodes in the life of Marat, and has concluded that by 1792 they included information on the history of the Revolution, changes in the status of the French people, the idea of the citizen, of his rights, duties and expectations, France's defence. She argues that almanacs became, by 1793, tools of political propaganda.72 While they still tended to include the lunar calendar, the cultivation schedules, the eclipses and health precautions for certain seasons, the almanacs of Year II, began to include the revolutionary calendar, as well as patriotic

1 Lise Andries, "Marat dans les occasionnels et les almanachs (1792-1797)," 81. 72 Ibid, 82.

70 verses and songs, episodes from Marat and Lepelletier's lives, and prints and images of the other republican martyrs.

The Etrennes en memoire de Marat et Lepelletier, Martyrs de la Revolution, which appeared in Year II, was related to the almanacs of the eighteenth century but was political in tone and focused on poems and songs. It was a thick volume but cost only 15 sols, and thus was available to a wide audience. Considering that freedom of the press had largely been eliminated during the Terror, it can be assumed that the Etrennes reflected the views of the Revolutionary Government and its support for the Cult of the

Martyrs of Liberty. The Etrennes contains patriotic songs, a copy of the new revolutionary calendar, verses to be placed under the martyrs' busts, as well as episodes from their lives. The print on the cover depicts Marat, Lepelletier, Chalier and Bara, a youth hero, as the martyrs of the "temple de gloire."73 They are represented among an ensemble of republican symbols including the republican alter, a fasces, a phygrian bonnet, and are flanked by two cypress trees. Marat and Lepelletier are distinguished from the other martyrs in that their portraits are supported by palm branches, symbolizing their martyrdom, and are held by chains of laurels, which symbolize their victory over death. The inclusion of Chalier and Bara indicates that it was produced sometime after

Brumaire Year II, November 1793.

Although most of the hymns of the Etrennes focus on abstract ideas or are devoted to Liberty, there are a number of hymns, patriotic songs, and verses that specifically concern the martyrs of liberty, but only Marat and Lepelletier. The first

73 Etrennes en Memoire de Marat et Lepelletier, Martyrs de la Revolution, Contenant des chansons republicaines suivi du nouveau calendrier." (1793-4) French Revolution Research Collection. 12/879, 1.

71 hymn, "A Marat et Lepelletier, Martyrs de la Revolution," is particularly focused on the idea of immortality and the importance of emulating these two men:

Un homme ne meurt point, qui meurt couvert de gloire, et dont un Peuple libre honore la memoire. Oui, malgre les fureurs du poignard parricide, Des vrais republicans ton nom sera l'egide. Du fond de ton cerceuil, la sainte Liberte Par ton ombre toujours se verra protegee. Tous bons Francais, jaloux de ta celebrite, Voulant, ainsi que toi meriter un trophee, Auront aussi leur part aux regrets eternels Qui font place, Marat, au rang des immortels.74

Other hymns focus on Liberty, which appears as a new abstract divinity, as well as on the

destruction of Catholicism which no longer suits French Republicans:

O Liberte! Liberte sainte! Deesse d'un people eclaire, Regne aujourd'hui dans cette enceinte; Par toi ce Temple est epure. Liberte! devanttoi La raison chasse l'imposture, L'erreurs'enfait, Le fanatisme est abattu, Notre evangile est la nature, Et notre cult est la vertu.

Long-temps nos credules ancetres Laisserent usurper leurs droits, Lies de l'etole des pretres, Courbes sous le sceptres et des rois. Qu'aux accens de ta voix, Tombent les sceptres et les mitres: Du genre humain

74 Etrennes en Memoire de Marat et Lepelletier, Martyrs de la Revolution, Contenant des chansons republicaines suivi du nouveau calendrier." (1793-4) French Revolution Research Collection. 12/879, 3-4.

72 Que les droits par-tout soient graves! Le monde avait perdu ses titres, La France les a retrouves.75

Along with the hymns, the idea of emulating the republican martyrs is emphasized through a number of verses as well as an abridged version of Marat's life. It is noteworthy that while Lepelletier's accomplishments are traced out in detail, Marat's life is presented in general terms with little emphasis on his specific accomplishments, with the exception of surviving in hiding while being pursued by Lafayette. This demonstrates a change from the Cult of Marat. Accounts of Marat's life in the sans-culottes' festivals had emphasized Marat's denunciations of traitors, economic injustices, and social inequalities. Further, detailing Lepelletier's accomplishments was meant to educate the people as to why he was worthy of emulation.

In addition to the martyrs of liberty, the Committee of Public Instruction sought to demonstrate how everyday people could accomplish heroic and patriotic acts through publications such as the Annales du Civisme, which the Convention began to assemble in

September of 1793. The development of the Annales du Civisme correlates with the period in which the Convention was not yet openly endorsing the Cult of Martyrs. This work was inspired by the account of how eight men of Marseille, condemned to death by the local Federalist rebels, had sung the Marseillaise as they went to the guillotine.

Leonard Bourdon, after hearing this, proposed a decree on September 19 to commemorate their courage with a monument in the Tuilleries gardens. This initiated the

Committee of Public Instruction's project to collect and record acts of heroic patriots for

75 Etrennes en Memoire de Marat et Lepelletier, Martyrs de la Revolution, Contenant des chansons republicaines suivi du nouveau calendrier." (1793-4) French Revolution Research Collection. 12/879, 7-8.

73 the purpose of instruction to the republican youth. This work was renamed the Recueil des actions heroiques et civiques des republicans franqais. The speech by Gregoire in the National Convention on September 18, 1793 demonstrates the Jacobin concept that men should be commemorated, but not worshipped: "The Frenchman ... does not want

• 77 anymore idols. To keep their freedom, the people must rarely praise and never admire."

The Annales thus shed light on the relationship between the Committee of Public

Instruction and its work promoting republican heroes.

Through the impositions made to the Cult the Martyrs of Liberty by the revolutionary authorities, and their efforts to promote those impositions, the Cult grew from a grassroots movement and spread to other segments of French society. In the final months of 1793, a number of festivals were held or sponsored by various government departments. However, despite the establishment of a new revolutionary trinity, civic festivals continued to be mainly in honour of Marat and Lepelletier which indicates a general lack of interest in a purely manufactured 'martyr of liberty' by Chaumette in the

Commune. On November 4th, (14 Brumaire) a civic festival was organized by the

Bureau de Comptabilite Nationale for the inauguration of the busts of Lepelletier and

Marat and the consecration of a liberty tree. Although this festival was held in honour of

Marat, Lepelletier, and Chalier, there was no direct mention of the martyrs of liberty in any of the songs or speeches for this event.78 This was followed on the next decadi by a festival for the inauguration of the busts of Lepelletier and Marat by the employees of the

76 Michael J. Sydenham, Leonard Bourdon: The Career of a Revolutionary. 1754-1807. (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1999), 202-203. Gregoire, "Convention Nationale Rapport sur les moyens de rassemble les materiaux necessaires a former les Annales du Civisme ... 18 Septembre 1793, l'an deuxieme de la Republique. French Revolution Research Collection. 12/1005. 78 "Fete Civique, donnee par le Bureau de Comptabilite Nationale, pour 1'Inauguration des Bustes de Lepelletier et de Marat," (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 12/673.

74 Departement de I 'Interieur. Marat and Lepelletier were elevated as "benefactors of the people" who, because of their love for la patrie, were concerned only with the people's safety.79 This is a particularly interesting speech as it points to Marat and Lepelletier as martyrs of liberty of the new religion of the Republic: "Amour sacre de la Patrie! Les cceurs qur tu emflammes connoitroient-ils des sacrifices? Quoil la religion aura eu ses martyrs; une Patrie soi-disant celeste aura triomphe des passions les plus violentesT

Further, they are as immortal as the Republic: "7w n'oublir as jamais ce qu'ils ont fait pour toi. Tes enfants le diront a lews enfants; une generation le repetera a I'autre generation, & tant que la Republique existera, Marat & Lepelletier vivront dans le cceur des Citoyens."81 On 15 Brumaire, (Nov 5), the National Convention "wishing to render justice to Marat, martyr of liberty, and to honour his memory," decreed that a bust should be placed prominently in their assembly hall.82 A week later David offered his painting of the assassinated Marat, and the honours of the Pantheon were bestowed, though no actions were taken to place Marat's remains in the shrine. On 21 Brumaire, a festival was held by the employees of the "Administration des Domaines Nationaux^ in honour of the martyrs of liberty in the ministry's courtyard. On November 14, (24 Brumaire) David presented his painting of Marat assassinated for the Convention. On 30 Brumaire, (Nov

20), a festival was held on the steps of the National Tribunal.84

"Discours prononce a FInauguration des Bustes de Lepelletier et de Marat, celebree par les Employes du Departement de l'Interieur, le 24 Brumaires, l'an 2.e de la Republique Francaise, une et indivisible." (1793) French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77a No. 5, 4. 80 Ibid, 3. 81 Ibid,2 82 Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 150. 83 Jacques-Louis David, "Discours prononce a la Convention Nationale, par David, Depute de Paris, En lui offrant le tableau representat Marat assassine." (1793), French Revolution Research Collection. 12/443. 84 Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 73.

75 Jacobin Clubs also adopted the celebrations of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty.

One such festival was celebrated at Fontainebleau on 20 Frimaire (Dec. 10 1793). The

Jacobin Society of Fontainebleau having already inaugurated a bust to Marat, decided to inaugurate another bust to Lepelletier. It is clear that the Cult of Martyrs had become a component of the Cult of Reason and the dechristianization movement because one of the purposes of the Jacobins' festival was to remedy the mistake of Fontainebleau's

Commune, which had stopped celebrating the festival of Reason. The Jacobins were concerned that although Fontainebleau had consecrated a Temple of Reason, the popular societies had fallen back to error and superstition. Thus, the popular society was invited to the patriotic festival to witness the inauguration of the Lepelletier's bust. The various deputations congregated in "the ancient meeting hall" as "friends of liberty and equality" and they held a cortege.86 Notable was the absence of a delegation from the National

Convention, which until the end of November had usually been present at these ceremonies.

In addition to the patriotic overtones of this procession, it was very militaristic as soldiers and cannoniers contributed to the pomp of the procession. The militaristic tone was again emphasized as a delegation of veterans and the bust of Lepelletier, which was crowned with the civic crown that he "had well earned," followed "Law," which was represented by a child.87 Also playing a prominent role were choirs with hymns and music, which were patriotic and appeared at numerous places in the cortege. In addition, the abstract nature of the cortege can be seen in the representations of the new republican

85 "Precis Historique de la Fete de la Raison, et de l'lnauguration du buste de Michel Lepelletier a Fontainebleau, le 20 frimaire, l'an 2e de la republique francaise, une et indivisible," (1793) French Revolution Research Collection 12/656,2. 86 Ibid, 3. 87 Ibid, 4.

76 divinities, namely a young girl dressed and carried on a float by six men, who represents

"Reason". "Liberty" is also carried on the float "and at the sight of this, all hearts trembled."88 A young child was elevated and carried the book of the law to represent how law brings "the happiness of society."89 The cortege then proceeded in the same order to the place "in the mountain" to render homage to the Friend of the People, and from there went to the Place de la Reunion to deposit the bust of Lepelletier on the monument which had been erected to him, with the donation of stones coming from a member of the Jacobin society, Citizen Pauli Magloire. It ended with the customary, and more common, "Vive la Montague, Vive la Republique"

By Frimaire Year II (December 1794), having succeeded in formalizing the powers of Revolutionary Government first declared in October, the Montagnards' dependence on their alliance with the popular movement was decreasing. The escalation of Terror, however, provoked opposition to the Jacobin government. One manifestation of this was the appearance of the "Indulgents," who grouped around Danton in the

National Convention and argued that it was time to relax the policy of the Terror. On the other hand, the Hebertists, the Jacobins' radical rivals based at the Cordeliers Club, sought to mobilize the popular movement over the on-going issue of food shortages in hopes of increasing their political influence. '

Robespierre believed that the revolutionary cults and the de-Christianization campaign were discrediting the Revolution in the eyes of the Catholics and the

88 "Precis Historique de la Fete de la Raison, et de 1'Inauguration du buste de Michel Lepelletier a Fontainebleau, le 20 frimaire, l'an 2e de la republique francaise, une et indivisible," (1793) French Revolution Research Collection 12/656, 4. 89 Ibid, 4. 90 Ibid, 6. 91 Francois Furet, Revolutionary France 1770-1880. 137.

77 moderates, while serving as a rallying point for the radical political opposition to the

Committee of Public Safety. As a deist he identified the atheism of de-Christianization with the immorality of the aristocracy.92 He feared that the language of martyrdom that had been applied to Marat and Lepelletier retained too many traces of Catholicism, which would lead to general confusion and hinder the regeneration of the citizenry. Therefore

Robespierre aimed to discredit the leaders of the radical movement for their religious policies.93 Catholics accused the cult of idolatry and came to associate republicans as

"maratistes." Robespierre expressed his concern about the counter-revolutionary propaganda references to "maratistes" in the Jacobin Club on 8 Frimaire (November 28).

He denounced leaders of the Cult of Reason as the "agents of aristocracy."94 This was followed shortly after by the reaffirmation of freedom of worship on December 6. In addition to Robespierre's objections to the Cult based on its atheist qualities, Danton objected to the prominence of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty when he reacted to a petitioner reading a poem in honour of Marat in the National Convention on December 2,

1793:

And I too defended Marat against his enemies, and I too appreciated the virtues of that republican; but now that his patriotic apotheosis has taken place it is useless to hear every day his funeral eulogy and pompous speeches on the same subject. We need works and not speeches.

The Convention was not the only authority to react against the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty. The Commune also banned sections from holding any more ceremonies for

Marat and the other martyrs of liberty, although this was not enforced effectively.

Processions continued well into 1794, though more tentatively until Prairial when the

92 Ian Germani, Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. 153. 93 Ibid, 152. 94 Ibid, 154. 95 Quoted in Ibid, 154.

78 Committee of Public Instruction vetoed the section-Marat's attempts to revive their fortunes with another procession in Marat's honour.96 How revolutionary culture should represent its heroes raised a conflict between classical culture and Christian tradition.

The sans-culottes celebrated Marat as a martyr by constructing a religious cult. This was at odds with the Jacobin conception of martyrdom that was based on classical themes.

The Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty itself came to be seen as superstitious and hindering the moral regeneration of the people. Thus Robespierre and others were concerned that the cultural revolution was in fact discrediting the Republic which it sought to establish and maintain. Robespierre sought to temper these radical manifestations and in 1794 he proposed the Cult of the Supreme Being to provide the Revolution with a moral framework. These efforts to supplant the Cult of Martyrs coincided with the political defeat of the popular movement.

96 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 194.

79 Chapter IV: The Decline of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty: L 'Etre Supreme, Youth Heroes and the Jeunesse Doree

The institutionalization of the Revolutionary Government in the law of 14

Frimaire Year II allowed Robespierre to criticize popular dechristianization. Government centralism brought the sans-culottes under the political control of the committees of the

Revolutionary Government who responded to popular attacks on Catholicism with the imposition of the Cult of the Supreme Being. This new cult was neither spontaneous nor popular in its nature as it was a part of this larger centralization process. Yet

Robespierre's deist cult shared similarities with the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty such as festivals, heroes, anti-clericalism, and the sense that the Republic could not be Catholic because that cultural framework had supported the monarchy. This chapter will examine how the Cult of the Supreme Being, with its accompanying veneration of youth heroes, was fundamentally different from the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty: it was imposed from above, rather than being spontaneous and popular, and its ideals were those of the middle-class Jacobins rather than the lower-class sans-culottes. Robespierre attempted to channel the popular energy of the Cult of Marat in new directions until his overthrow on

9 Thermidor, and the subsequent Thermidorian Reaction brought an end to the sans­ culottes' veneration of Marat. Though the Thermidorians encouraged the jeunesse doree to smash the busts of Marat, the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty lingered as a rallying point for excluded Jacobins and sans-culottes until the spring of 1795.

The Revolutionary Government, consisting of the Committee of General Security and the Committee of Public Safety, was officially decreed on December 4, 1793. It centralized political authority and instituted a controlled and efficient political Terror,

80 which brought the popular movement under the Committees' control. While the journee of September 5 saw the Convention adopt key components of the popular program, the

Revolutionary Government gradually tamed the popular movement and stifled the autonomous power of the sans-culottes. During the autumn of 1793 and the earlier phase of anarchic Terror, the popular movement had been unrestrained. After the fall of

Chaumette and the other Hebertists in March 1794, however, the Paris Commune was neutralized under the control of the Committee of Public Safety and the National

Convention. Robespierre defined the nature of Revolutionary Government in his speech of 5 Nivose Year II (December 25 1793):

The function of government is to direct the moral and physical forces of the nation towards the goal of its appointing. The goal of constitutional government is to preserve the Republic; that of revolutionary government is to found it. Revolution is the war of liberty against its enemies: the constitution is the system of liberty victorious and at peace. Revolutionary government needs extraordinary activity, precisely because it is at war. It is subject to less uniform and less rigorous rules, because the circumstances in which it exists are stormy and shifting, and above all because it is continually forced to deploy new resources rapidly, to confront new and pressing dangers... under the revolutionary system, public power itself is obliged to defend itself against all the factions attacking it. Revolutionary government owes good citizens full national protection; to its enemies it owes nothing but death.'

Thus this speech established the Revolutionary Government's right to take extreme actions and policies towards the repression of political factions.

In January of 1794, the temporary alliance between Robespierre and the moderates in the Convention was abandoned and the sections ceased to play any important role in the order of Terror: the men in power would decide whom to exclude

1 Maximilien Robespierre, "On the Principles of Revolutionary Government," (December 25 1793/5 Nivose Year II), in Robespierre: Virtue and Terror, edited by Slavoj Zizek, translated by John Howe, (New York: Verso Books, 2007), 99.

81 from the authority to speak for the general will of the people.2 Robespierre achieved an unprecedented level of personal authority as the most influential member of the

Committee of Public Safety by denouncing power.3 In March 1794, the Committee of

Public Safety effectively eliminated its political enemies. First the extremists following

Hebert, who had been calling openly for insurrection, were arrested on the night of March

13-14 and executed ten days later. Second, Danton, Desmoulins, and other moderates were arrested in the night on March 30-31 and executed on April 6.4 Shortly after these executions, Saint-Just introduced the decree of 27 Germinal (April 16 1794) centralizing revolutionary justice in Paris. It was followed on June 10 by the Law of 22 Prairial, which allowed indictments to be presented to the Revolutionary Tribunal based on accusation only, denied the accused legal counsel and authorized the increased number of judges to avert witness testimony. In coordination with a new broader definition of a suspect as an 'enemy of the people,' it effectively increased the number of suspects in

Parisian prisons.5

As the Jacobin dictatorship became independent from the popular movement, the

Robespierrists sought to impose their political and religious ideals, which were clearly distinct from those of the Cult of Marat. The Cult of the Supreme Being was linked to the centralization of the Revolutionary Government and Terror as it was the means by which popular dechristianization was attacked. On April 7, Couthon announced that new proposals on spirituality would soon be announced. With the first article of

Robespierre's speech of 18 Floreal (May 7 1794), the Convention recognized the

2 Francis Furet, Revolutionary France. 1770-1880. 140-1. 3 Ibid, 146. 4 R. R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled. 292-3. 5 William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution. 275.

82 existence of the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul.6 He proposed the establishment of a new civic cult to mark the beginning of a new moral era: "All has changed in the physical order; all must change in the moral and political order. One half of the world revolution is already achieved, the other half had yet to be accomplished," and suggested that "The sole foundation of civil society is morality!" and "virtue is the essence of the Republic."7 This emphasis on morality distinguished the Cult of the

Supreme Being from dechristianization. He also made it clear in this speech that the

Revolutionary Government had no intention of restoring the Catholic faith in France, despite permitting people to attend services conducted by the Constitutional Clergy in

December.8 If the Cult of the Supreme Being opposed dechristianization, it too was anti­ clerical:

Ambitious priests, do not wait for us to work for the restoration of your dominance; such an enterprise would indeed be beyond our power. It is you who have killed yourselves, and one can no more return to moral life than to physical existence. Besides, what is there in common between the priests and God? Priests are to morality what charlatanism is to medicine. How different is the God of nature from the God of the priests! The God of nature knows nothing which resembles Atheism so much as priest-made religions. By dint of distorting the Supreme Being, they have destroyed Him, as much as in them lay... The priests have created God in their own image; they have made Him jealous, capricious, greedy, cruel and implacable.

In addition to its anti-clericalism, the Cult of the Supreme Being shared many of the same methods of worship as the popular festivals for the Cult of Marat. One of these similarities was public participation in festivals. According to the original plan festivals for the Supreme Being were to be held on each decadi, with the first and most important

6 Maximilien Robespierre, "On the Cult of the Supreme Being, (May 7, 1794) in Robespierre, edited by George Rude, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), 72. 7 Ibid, 69, 70. 8 Patrice Gueniffey, "Robespierre," in A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution, edited by Francois Furet and Mona Ozouf, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989), 308, 309. 9 Maximilien Robespierre, "On the Cult of the Supreme Being, (May 7, 1794), 71.

83 festival being the Festival of the Supreme Being held in Paris and the provinces simultaneously on 20 Prairial (June 8 1794). In Article VI of his proposed decree,

Robespierre specified other large festivals to be celebrated annually on important anniversaries of the Revolution including July 14, August 10, January 21, and May 31.

The following decadis also had special celebrations devoted to the benefactors of humanity, the martyrs of freedom, liberty and equality, heroism, stoicism, filial piety, youth, posterity and happiness to name a few. Robespierre saw the festival as an appropriate means of promoting new social integration by uniting the people.

The imposition of the Cult of the Supreme Being required instruction in the proper method of public worship and thus the Festival of the Supreme Being was minutely planned, organized, and coordinated by Jacques-Louis David. Details of the ceremonies were sent out to instruct the people on how to celebrate the Supreme Being and "cette Fete de la Religion Naturelle des vrais Republicains." Many of the symbols of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty were transferred to the Cult of the Supreme Being and incorporated into a theme of nature. This was clearly displayed in the decorations and symbols that David specified including the use of roses, violets, olive branches, vine leaves, cypress, oak, and myrtle in the processions and decorations, in combination with the tri-colour ribbons of the Republic, as well as the palm of martyrdom for the representatives in the Convention.

New themes featured prominently in the ceremony of the Cult of the Supreme

Being including that of the centrality of the republican family, the deception of Atheism

10 Maximilien Robespierre, "On the Cult of the Supreme Being, (May 7, 1794), 72. '' Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution. 107. 12 Jacques-Louis David, "Details de toutes les Ceremonies qui vont etre celebrees dans toute l'entendue de la Republique Francais, une et indivisible, en l'honneur de l'Etre Supreme..." (Paris 1794) French Revolution Research Collection. 12/680, 1.

84 and of monarchy, and the importance of defending la Patrie. David instructed mothers on how to braid the hair of their daughters, while sons were to receive their weapons from the hands of their fathers, while the grandfathers looked on and smiled. 13 Female virtue was emphasized by instructing that mothers, with their babies at their breasts, and their daughters "qui ne doivent jamais les abandonnet que pour passer dans les bras de lews epoux" would carry bouquets of roses in their arms. David's instructions also emphasized republican masculinity: boys old enough to bear arms would go with their fathers carrying oak branches.14 The Festival also featured hymns and speeches to spouses, which stressed the propagation of children for the defence of the nation and commanded fathers to inspire their children with their own saintly love of the nation and to provide an example of republican virtues, "sans lesquelles il n'y a ni bonnes mceurs, ni

Liberte, ni veritable amour."15 Similarly, new brides and wives were commanded to

"Jurez que vous n 'oublierez jamais que vos epoux appartiennent plus a la Republique qu 'a vous, et que, si les dangers les appellent dans les champs de la gloire, vos pleurs ne rallentiront jamais leur courage."16 David promoted the idea of social harmony and safety in the Republic when he directed the people to attend the streets and public places of the ceremony when the bell sounded, "a / 'instant les habitations sont desertes: elles restent sous la sauvegarde des loix et des vertus republicaines." From their homes, they would depart to the ceremonies, "chacun brule de se render au lieu oil doit commencer cette ceremonie qui va reparer les torts des nouveaux pretres du crime et de

13 Jacques-Louis David, "Details de toutes les Ceremonies qui vont etre celebrees dans toute l'entendue de la Republique Francais, une et indivisible, en l'honneur de l'Etre Supreme..." (Paris 1794) French Revolution Research Collection. 12/680, 1. 14 Ibid, 2. 15 Ibid, 9. 16 Ibid, 9. 17 Ibid, 2.

85 la royaute."1* The role of women within the revolutionary cults was by no means a new occurrence, however the Cult of the Supreme Being clearly defined the role of women as mothers and wives of patriots and this differed from the Cult of Marat where women had been eager participants, but with no specified role.

Atheism as the root of immorality was ruthlessly attacked in David's plan for the

Festival of the Supreme Being. In keeping with Robespierre's personal beliefs, the close relationship between monarchy, immorality and atheism was emphasized. In the

Festival, "Atheism" was personified along with "Egotism," "Discord," and "False

Simplicity." A dramatic display was planned as Robespierre, the president of the

Convention, would descend into the centre of these personifications with a torch and the sword of justice and from the midst of the burned debris would arise "Wisdom."19 The representatives were instructed to carry bouquets of heads of wheat, flowers and fruit, which was to symbolize their mission to bring equality and prosperity to all. A float followed carrying trophies and luxuries upon which the spectators were instructed to gaze and reflect that those who live in luxury and softness live a life that is "w« penible sommeil."20 Those who disdained the vile treasures of the enemy lived as the benefactors of humanity and vanquished the kings and their satellites. These scenes differed from the

Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty because Jean-Paul Marat was not associated in any way with bringing equality and prosperity to the people of France.

Anti-clerical sentiments led to further attacks on priests and kings. In addressing the Supreme Being, the spectators were to declare: "J'ai pu t'offenser si long-temps en

18 Jacques-Louis David, "Details de toutes les Ceremonies qui vont etre celebrees dans toute l'entendue de la Republique Francais, une et indivisible, en l'honneurde l'Etre Supreme..." (Paris 1794) French Revolution Research Collection. 12/680, 2. 19 Ibid, 3. 20 Ibid, 5.

86 courbant la tete sous lejoug honteux des pretres et des wis! J'aipu croire qu'il existait des hommes d'une trempe superieure a la mienne, dont le privilege barbare fit d'assujettir a leurs volontes, la volontes d'autrui!,,2] These anti-clerical sentiments continued: "A I 'aide du mensonge et de I 'hypocrise, Us n 'ont preche la pauvrete et

I'humilite, que pour avoir le droit de mepriser les autres et de s'empaner de leurs richesses.,,n Robespierre's speech on the Cult of the Supreme Being, which he gave at the Festival on June 8, was also thematically similar to the Declaration of Free Men that was outlined by David. While Robespierre emphasized the goodness of the Supreme

Being, his speech was overtly anti-monarchical and anti-clerical in tone and declared that the Supreme Being had for too long seen the world that He had created taken over by tyranny despite having given Man the ability to fight for his freedom and justice.

Robespierre preached that the Supreme Being,

n'a point cree les rois pour devorer l'espece humaine; il n'a point cree les pretres pour nous atteler, comme de vils animaux, au char des rois, & pour donner au monde 1'example de la bassesse, de l'orgueil, de la perfidie, de l'avarice, de la debauche et du mensonge; mais il a cree l'univers pour publier sa puissance; il a cree les hommes pour s'aider, pour s'aimer mutuellement, et pour arriver au bonheur par la route de la vertu.

Robespierre continued to paint the clergy and the monarchy as the enemy of the free people of France: "Armes tout-d-tour des poignards du fanatisme & des poisons de

I 'atheisme, les rois conspirent toujours pour assassiner I 'humanite. S 'Us ne peuvent plus

Jacques-Louis David, "Details de toutes les Ceremonies qui vont etre celebrees dans toute l'entendue de la Republique Francais, une et indivisible, en l'honneur de l'Etre Supreme..." (Paris 1794) French Revolution Research Collection. 12/680, 14. 22 Maximilien Robespierre, "On the Cult of the Supreme Being, (May 7, 1794) in Robespierre. 14. 23 Maximilen Robespierre, "Discours de Maximilien Robespierre, President de la Convention Nationale, au peuple reuni pour la fete de l'Etre-Supreme, Decadi 20 Prairial, an second de la Republique francaise une et indivisible," (Paris 1794) French Revolutionary Research Collection. 12/683,2.

87 defiguere la Divinite par la superstition, pour I 'affrocier a leurs forfeits, Us s 'efforcent de la bannir de la terre pour y regner seuls avec le crime."

Though Marat's relationship with the Cult of the Supreme Being is one of absence, another shared characteristic with the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty was the elevation of certain patriotic figures in hero-worship. Just as the Martyrs of Liberty had supported the Cult of Reason, the Cult of the Supreme Being also required its martyrs, though Robespierre chose decidedly malleable figures from France's recent military episodes in the struggle against counterrevolution. These were the youth heroes, of which Joseph Barra and Agricol Viala were the most commonly exalted of the nearly thirty that appear in the Annales du Civisme.25 As unknown children, Barra and Viala could be made into whatever the Revolutionary Government required. Robespierre promoted these young heroes of the Republic and stressed their innocence, which served the ideological campaign of justifying the extension of Terror. Leith has demonstrated that, as adolescents, the youth heroes had a dual importance for Robespierre's new revolutionary cult. First, the youths had not lived long enough to tarnish their reputations through involvement in revolutionary politics, and secondly, they were valuable in republican education as behavioural models for boys who were the same age as Barra and

Viala.26 Like Marat, Lepelletier and Chalier, Barra and Viala were martyrs but for the

Revolutionary Government and its repression of counterrevolution. Finally, Barra and

Viala were promoted to reaffirm the existence of the immortality of the soul, which was

Maximilen Robespierre, "Discours de Maximilien Robespierre, President de la Convention Nationale, au peuple reuni pour la fete de l'Etre-Supreme, Decadi 20 Prairial, an second de la Republique francaise une et indivisible," (Paris 1794), French Revolutionary Research Collection. 12/683, 4. 25 James A. Leith, "Youth Heroes of the French Revolution," 132. 26 Ibid, 128.

88 essential for the continuation of the war by promising eternal glory to those who fought and died defending the nation.

At thirteen years of age, Joseph Barra had been too young to join the army but nevertheless served with the light cavalry. A Vendean rebel killed Barra while attempting to steal two horses in 1793. On December 28, Robespierre emphasized

Barra's heroism in the Convention, "imagining him being pressed by the rebels to cry,

"Vive le Roi!" and preferring instead to die shouting "Vive la Republique!"27

Robespierre called for Barra to be given the honours of the Pantheon, emphasizing his devotion to his mother, whom he supported financially with his pay, as equal to his love of the patrie.

Later the story of Agricol Viala was manipulated from a newspaper article originally written by his uncle, who was in prison at the time and desperate to prove his patriotism. The boy's uncle, Agricol Mourreau, had raised Viala and claimed to have nurtured him with the Republican principles. Mourreau portrayed Viala as a commander in the youth division of the Avignon National Guard. When counterrevolutionaries from

Marseilles captured a ferry on the Durance, in hopes of crossing and marching on

Avignon, Viala exposed himself to the counterrevolutionaries' fire to cut through the ferry cable. His final words were said to be, "I die for Liberty!"28 Robespierre included

Viala's story in his speech of 18 Floreal (May 7, 1794), but altered the facts of this story to say that Viala had been only eleven, and that he had succeeded in severing the cable, thereby saving the Midi.

James A. Leith, "Youth Heroes of the French Revolution," 128. Ibid, 130.

89 Robespierre's imposition of the celebration of Barra and Viala on the French populace as a part of the Cult of the Supreme Being is demonstrated by the rarity of spontaneous popular celebrations of these two heroes. Like the Festival in honor of the

Supreme Being, David drew up instructions for the ceremony for the pantheonization of the two young heroes, which was to happen on 10 Thermidor Year II, (July 28, 1794).

David intended the tone of this ceremony to be similar to that of the Festival of the

Supreme Being in terms of its focus on filial piety and military defence of the patrie. It was for these reasons that the honours of the Pantheon had been bestowed upon these young heroes. Importantly, the emphasis of this ceremony was to be on the emulation of the virtues of the heroes: the Convention had also tried to impose emulation rather than veneration during the final period of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty.

During the pantheonization of Barra and Viala, David specified that mothers and children would play an important role in the ceremony and that these participants were to be chosen from among children of the sections who were between the ages of eleven and thirteen, so that they were the same age as the heroes, and from mothers whose children had died gloriously to defend the patrie. A cortege would form at the sound of artillery fire and drums, and two columns would form. The children carried Viala's remains, while the urn containing the remains of Barra would be carried by the mothers, the "gage immortel de la tendresse filiate."

Concepts of republican motherhood, which were based on contemporary ideas of women's superior morality and virtuosity, also appeared in these celebrations of republican heroes. Women's biological function was to guarantee the survival of the

Jacques-Louis David, "Detail des ceremonies qui seront observees de la translation au Pantheon Francais, de Barra et Viala, ou la Convention Nationale assistera, le 10 Thermidor..." (Paris 1794) French Revolution Research Collection. 12/665, 2.

90 Republic as the producers of future generations. The basis of republican motherhood was that it was the mother's duty, as a moral and virtuous woman, to instil in her children good Republican values. David planned for the president to speak to the mothers about

"les lecons de vertu qu'elles doivent inspirer de bonheur a leurs enfants" This would inspire the child-soldiers "a venger bientot lew mort [de Barra et Viala], a se montrer

in toujours prets, comme eux, a se devouer glorieusement pour la defense de la Patrie."

The ceremonies had a strong military tone. Following the two columns of mothers and children would be the representatives of the National Convention, who were to be surrounded by soldiers who had been wounded in defending the patrie. David specified that the president of the Convention would give his right hand to one of the soldiers, and his left to the mother of Barra. Even the artistic expressions at this pantheoniztion were militarized dancers, who would mimic military movements. While covering the urns with cypress, symbolic of Barra and Viala's immortality, marchers would accompany the music to celebrate glory and young soldiers would present another show of military maneuvers.31 The military tone of these celebrations fundamentally differed from the Cult of Marat: Marat had been celebrated as a social revolutionary, while Barra and Viala were celebrated as nationalist heroes.

The imposition of Robespierre's Cult of the Supreme Being also involved instructing the people of France in the proper method for their private worship and this included the wide distribution of new Republican prayers written in honour of the

Supreme Being. These prayers tended to begin with the ignorance of man, who had

30 Jacques-Louis David, "Detail des ceremonies qui seront observees de la translation au Pantheon Francais, de Barra et Viala, ou la Convention Nationale assistera, le 10 Thermidor..." (Paris 1794) French Revolution Research Collection. 12/665, 4. 31 Ibid, 4.

91 allowed himself to be enslaved by the tyranny of monarchs and the superstition of priests, and progressed towards the recognition of the Supreme Being as the path to liberty, equality and justice. The Supreme Being was portrayed as the creator of man:

toi qui creas, sur la terre, l'homme et la liberte; toi dont on insulta les travaux, en degradant l'homme, l'un de tes ouvrages: toi, dont la religion et les dogmes sacres, furent profanes dans le deplorable aveuglement des siecles insenses: toi, dont la bonte laissa la superstition, dresser pendant si long-temps, des autels au mensonge, et seduire Phomme par une pompe trompeuse, qui le detourna du vrai culte, qui n'est du qu'a toi.3

In addition to being the creator of man, the Supreme Being was the bringer of order, wisdom, justice and goodness, and the Revolution was characterized as an act of penitence:

Eire Supreme, fais renaitre par-tout, l'ordre et la sagesse, la justice et le bonheur: repend sur la route de la liberte des torrens de lumieres, qui eclairent tous les peuples de la terre; qu'un feu patriotique circulant sans cesse dans le tourbillon de la revolution, nous purifie des restes impurs du vice et de la corruption, et ne laisse que la trace des vertus.33

The revolutionaries also characterized the war as their mission to spread the Cult of the

Supreme Being: "ton nom soit accorde par toutes les nations: que ton regne bienfaisant arrive pour detruire celui des tyrans."34 These prayers mocked Catholicism and reaffirmed the replacement of the old cult of "idoles meprisables." The mocking of

Catholicism had a clear purpose in the Cult of the Supreme Being, to prevent confusion by distinguishing the "Supreme Being" from the Christian God. In reference to the descending of Moses from Mount Sinai, where he had been given the Ten

32 "Priere Republicaine, Adressee a l'Etre Supreme, propre a reciter dans toute I'entendue de la Republique Francaise, les jours que la Convention Nationale fixera pour celebrer les Fetes, en lui demandant les lumieres, et la conservation des biens de la terre." (Paris 1794), French Revolution Research Collection. 12/703. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid.

92 Commandments, this prayer portrayed the Montagnards in this position: "que les tables des droits de Vhomme, descendues de la montagne sainte, soient conserves aux races futures, afin qu 'elles ne perdent pas de vue la dignite de I 'homme et ses devoirs envers toi et la patrie"1,6 This demonstrates the tendency of the Cult of the Supreme Being to continue the practice of blaspheming Catholicism, which had been customary in the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty.

The Cult of the Supreme Being proclaimed the immortality of the soul. The discourse on immortality reflected, first, Robespierre's attempt to discredit the atheist dechristianizers who had claimed that "la mort est un sommeil eternel," and second, the

Revolutionary Government's insistence that glory and virtue came from dying in defence of la patrie. The immortality of the soul was offered as the reward for dying a heroic and patriotic death for the nation. References to the immortality of the soul can be found in a number of documents celebrating both the youth heroes and the Supreme Being. In his planned ceremony for the Pantheonization of the youth heroes, David used the symbolic element of cypress in the decorations to symbolic immortality and victory over death, just as it had been used previously in the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty and before that as an element in early Christian representations of martyrdom. In David's ceremony, following the people's cries of "lis sont morts pour la Patrie! lis sont morts pour la

Patrie! lis sont morts pour la Patrie!," the military dancers "rependent des cypress sur les urnes.,,3& The president would then, with eyes elevated to the sky, proclaim the

36 "Priere Republicaine, Adressee a PEtre Supreme, propre a reciter dans toute l'entendue de la Republique Francaise, les jours que la Convention Nationale fixera pour celebrer les Fetes, en lui demandant les lumieres, et la conservation des biens de la terre." (Paris 1794), French Revolution Research Collection, 12/703. Quoted in Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France, 193. Jacques-Louis David, "Detail des ceremonies qui seront observees de la translation au Pantheon Francais, de Barra et Viala, ..." French Revolution Research Collection. 12/665,3.

93 presence of the Supreme Being and the honours of immortality for Barra and Viala.

David explained, "Tout change; la douleur disparait I 'alegresse publique la remplace; et le Peuple par trois fois fait entendre ce cri: lis sont immorteh! lis sont immortels! lis sont immortels7"39

A good example of this emphasis on immortality is the speech given by Gobet, the mayor of Nesle, at that town's local festival, sometime after the Cult of the Supreme

Being was declared by the Convention.40 After a lengthy discourse on the existence of the Supreme Being, seen by humanity in nature which the Supreme Being created, Gobet proclaimed the immortality of the soul; "II est vrai que le corps de cet homme cesse alors de vivre, mais son ame, emanation de I'eternelle, est immortelle comme lui." He continued,

Le plaisir de l'espirt ne depend point du corps; or, si l'ame a un bonheur independent du corps, elle a done un principle de vie independant du corps; or, si elle est spirituelle, elle peut done survivre au corps.

Nous avons une tres forte raison de penser qu'apres la dissolution du corps, l'ame ne cessera pas d'etre. Une substance capable de penser, etant necessairement indivisible, est aussi naturellement indestructible.

Gobet portrayed immortality as a source of patriotic courage: "lapensee de I'immortalite eleve le courage, soutient la probite, enhardit aux actions utiles et genereuses." He also suggested that it is the great equalizer: "La pensee d'une autre vie dissipe toute illusion; elle met de niveau les grands et les petits, le riche et I 'indigent, elle retablit

I'egalite, eteint le faux eclat des biens du monde, ote aux maux leur amertume, ou donne

Jacques-Louis David, "Detail des ceremonies qui seront observees de la translation au Pantheon Francais, de Barra et Viala, ..." French Revolution Research Collection. 12/665, 4. 40 Gobet, "Discours prononce a la Fete de l'Etre Supreme, sur son existence et I'immortalite de l'ame." (n.d. 1794). French Revolution Research Collection. 1. 41 Ibid, 10-11. 42 Ibid, 11.

94 le courage de les supporter :Al The connection that was made between dying in defence of the patrie and the immortality of the soul endured and was incorporated with the classical theme of Republican Rome that continued throughout the later Thermidorian phase of the Republic. In Year III Barra and Viala, as "benefactors of the humanity," would enjoy immortality in "les sentiers fleuris de I'Elysee," making reference to the

Elysian Fields where the heroes of ancient Greece spent their eternity after a heroic death.44

The law of 22 Prairial multiplied Robespierre's enemies who were alarmed by the general and sweeping nature of its terms. The arrest of the Dantonists without a previous decree from the Convention had already led many representatives to fear that they no longer had immunity from arrest. Robespierre's Festival of the Supreme Being, held only two days prior to the implementation of the controversial decree, had the effect of increasing the anxieties of the representatives that Robespierre was positioning himself in the centre of a new theocratic dictatorship. After a period of absence from the

Convention, in which Robespierre still maintained his positions of influence, a parliamentary conspiracy began to form among deputies of the extreme left on the committees and in the National Convention with the support of moderates on the

Committee of Public Safety. The Plaine had turned against a dictatorship of the

Robespierrists and on 9 Thermidor (July 27 1794), Robespierre and his supporters were arrested. Though the Paris Commune liberated the prisoners, they were rearrested by

Barras and forces loyal to the Convention and the sans-culottes, alienated from the

4 Gobet, "Discours prononce a la Fete de l'Etre Supreme, sur son existence et l'immortalite de 1'ame." (n.d. 1794). French Revolution Research Collection. 12-13. 44 Ranxin, "Eloge Historique de Barra et Viala, prononce le jour de leur Fete, et dedie aux Enfans des ecoles primaries..." (Paris Year Hit. French Revolution Research Collection, 12/712, 16.

95 Revolutionary Government, failed to rally to Robespierre on the night of 9 Thermidor.

On 10 Thermidor, Robespierre was sent to the guillotine and the festival for the

Pantheonization of Barra and Viala was cancelled.

Having over-turned the Jacobin dictatorship, the Thermidorians moved quickly to suppress sans-culotte democracy. Following the fall of Robespierre, the National

Convention released the political suspects from the prisons, put an end to arbitrary arrests and the tyranny of the surveillance committees, and halted the guillotine. This period has been characterized as a Reaction and it saw a return of some forms of opulence and the dismantling of the democratic structures and practices associated with the popular movement.46 Similar to the ways in which the Montagnards had come to political dominance in the Convention through their alliance with the sans-culottes, the

Thermidorians found support in a group known as the jeunesse doree, who were generally young men between the ages of 18 and 25 belonging to the middle class. Many of these men were recently released political suspects or absentee conscripts. By 9

Thermidor, there had been approximately 8500 suspects in Parisian prisons. Over the period of the next three months, over half of these people were released, and from among this segment of the populace, the Thermidorians worked to cultivate new political allegiances.

The jeunesse doree were the political and cultural nemesis of the Parisian sans­ culottes, and they attacked all manifestations the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty. They were easily identifiable on the streets of Paris in their typical uniform that included

45 James A. Leith, "Youth Heroes of the French Revolution," 134. 46 Francois Furet, Revolutionary France. 1770-1880. 156. 47 Francois Gendron, The Gilded Youth of Thermidor. (1983) translated by James Cookson, (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993), 12, 13. 48 Ibid, 6.

96 bottle-green square-cut coats with seventeen pearl buttons, which were in memory of

Louis XVII. Though not open monarchists, these men also distinguished themselves from the sans-culottes by resurrecting the wigs powdered with flour, skin whitened with almond paste, monocles, tight breeches that were fastened at the knee with ribbons, and chine stockings. They also wore black velvet collars, which were meant to evoke images and memories of the death of the king, executed by the Montagnards. 49 They protected the National Convention at the beginning of the Thermidorian Reaction as they could mobilize between 2000 and 3000 young men, who were often gathered in the cafes of the

Palais Royal.50 The jeunesse doree also infiltrated the sections and public arms workshops as well as the government administration.5

Due to Marat's status as a sacred figure for the sans-culottes and the radical

Jacobins, the Thermidorians did not hesitate to use the violent force of the jeunesse doree in order to suppress his cult. The jeunesse doree identified Jean-Paul Marat as the personification of violence and Terror, in contrast to the sans-culottes who still venerated

Marat as a benefactor of humanity and the Friend of the People. The jeunesse doree destroyed the physical symbols of popular revolution and the Cult of the Martyrs of

Liberty, smashing the busts of Marat and cutting down liberty trees. On 18 Nivose there was talk at the Cafe de Chartres, amidst praise for Charlotte Corday for her assassination of Marat, of going to the Place du Carrousel where Marat's mausoleum stood and demolishing it. In the rue Montmartre, children threw effigies of Marat into the sewers shouting, "There's your Pantheon!" The busts of the martyrs quickly disappeared from

49 Francis Gendron, The Gilded Youth of Thermidor. 11. 50 Ibid, 14. 51 Ibid, 46, 49. 52 Ibid, 59.

97 public places. On 26 Nivose, Clauzel informed the Convention that agitators were planning to smash the busts of the martyrs located in the theatres of Paris. The next day, the busts of Marat and Lepelletier were taken from the Cafe de la Convention, and they were found disfigured the next day.53 The bust of Marat was also smashed at the Theatre

Feydeau on 12 Pluviose. Similar scenes were witnessed at the Theatre de la Republique two days later.54 The destruction of the physical symbols of the Cult of Martyrs reached a fever pitch on 16 Pluviose when a mob of approximately 600 jeunesse doree smashed the busts of Marat in various public places before invading the hall of the National

Convention.55 They burned paper on the pedestals where the busts of the martyrs had stood to purify them of the "filth" left by the busts of Marat, talked of making him a civic crown out of the intestines of terrorists, and offered excrement in sacrifice.5 The

Thermidorian Convention's half-hearted efforts to remind the vandals that Marat still deserved respect since he had been assassinated was not out of fondness for Marat, but instead, it represented an effort to regain control of the jeunesse doree who were beginning to intimidate the Convention. It was not until there was a more general and widespread press campaign against the sacred memory of Marat that the Committee of

General Security recognized the futility of trying to control the jeunesse doree's vandalism.

Despite its physical destruction by the jeunesse doree, the Cult of the Martyrs of

Liberty did not disappear completely and continued as a rallying point for former

Jacobins. In the days following Robespierre's denunciation and execution, the Jacobins

53 Francis Gendron, The Gilded Youth of Thermidor. 58. 54 Ibid, 59. 55 Ibid, 60. 56 Ibid, 63.

98 saw themselves steadily losing ground in public opinion and, in a bid to check this slide in August, they attempted to appeal to the sentiments of the sans-culottes by having

Marat's remains carried to the Pantheon. The Jacobins had never enacted the decrees of

24 Brumaire and 5 Frimaire, Year II, which had called for the pantheonization of the

"Friend of the People." A procession was organized to take Marat's remains, which still resided at the Cordeliers Club, to the Pantheon. Since this route was so short, however, the cortege was extended and the route was prepared for a grand spectacle. The goal of this ceremony was to revive the revolutionary mystique of Year II and draw popular support against the growing Conservative reaction. However, the procession was a failure. Fears ofmuscadin attacks caused Marat's body to be guarded by a detachment of thirty citizens prior to the beginning of the ceremony.57 Despite attempts by the

Thermidorians to have the ceremony cancelled, the procession failed because the people of Paris did not participate. The police reported that, "there were fewer people, less gaiety, less enthusiasm than usual.58 After Thermidor radical Jacobins again sought support from the sans-culottes, and the renewed veneration of Marat represented a direct appeal to popular revolution.

The commemorations of Marat held by the former Jacobins reflected the political situation in Paris and that they were no longer regarded as the voice of the general will of

France. The "Panegyrique de Marat," written by Cannibale, a doctor and the "perpetual" vice president of the Jacobin Club, expressed alarm at the destruction of the honours accorded to Marat and the profanation of his glory since he had been "justement

57 "Les Details, I'ordre et la marche de toutes les ceremonies qui doivent etre observees a la translation des cendres de l'Ami du Peuple au Pantheon francais" (Paris, 1794), French Revolution Research Collection. 12/672, 1. 58 Quoted in Francois Gendron, The Gilded Youth of Thermidor. 57.

99 divinise."59 Cannibale characterized the desecration of Marat as the "tristes effets de ces coups tonnere, qui nous ontfrappes sans interruption depuis une epoque fatale, depuis la chiite de Robespierre et de ses plus dignes compagnons au 9 Thermidor, " the day that

"vit passer le sceptre de nos mains dans celles de nos cruels ennemis." This work redefined the political enemies of the Jacobins not as monarchs and aristocrats, but as the

Thermidorian moderates who had overthrown the Montagnard-dictatorship of the

Convention:

Ah! Qu'ils tremblent plutot leur [Thermidorians] chimerique triomphe; qu'ils sachent que le nombre de nos partisans est egal a celui des grains de sable du riavge de la mer; que nous sommes encore les Jacobins; que nos assemblies pour etre nocturnes n'en sont pas moins redoutables, que le retour de ces tems fortunes, on nous faisons trembler la vertu meme, est moins eloigne qu'ils ne pensent... si notre parti s'affaiblit d'un cote, il se renforce de l'autre. L'Aristocracie, le Royalisme meme, se joignent a nous.

Cannibale addressed what he considered to be undoubtedly the single worst offense to the Jacobins that the Thermidorians committed and this was "/ 'opprobre verse a grands hommes, nos heros, nos martyrs ... qui eurent le courage de s'elever au-dessus de tous les prejuges, de toutes les loix, qui n'epargnerent pas lus leur gloire que le sang de nos ennemis, pour nous sauver, pour se sauver eux memes." Marat was characterized in very much the same manner as he was by the sans-culottes - as a prophet and a journalist - who "brava tranquillement pendant long-temps la police et les

Cannibale, "Panegyrique de Marat, prononce, devant une nombreuse Assemblee le 15 Germinal, ..." (Paris, 1795). French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77a 1,1. 60 Ibid, 2. 61 Ibid, 3-4. 62 Ibid, 5.

100 phalanges armees de Lafayette The symbols of Marat's martyrdom and his role within the Revolution remain unchanged as well:

La voila cette baignoire ou il recut la palme du martyre, encore teinte de son sang, et qui sent encore l'odeur Marat; cette plume qui, trempee dans les ondes noires du Styx, faisait regner la discorde, couler des flots de sang, et couper des charretees de tetes; ce gueridon qui, lorsqu'il avais besoin de reprendre haleine, recevait sa composition, laquelle etait comme une nouvelle boite de Pandore, qui versait sur nos ennemis des deluges de tous les fleaux.

Marat's principles were worthy of emmulation, specifically his sense of modesty, his universal goodness, and his love of order, laws and humanity. After the desecration of the monuments of public appreciation to Marat by those who covered themselves "d'un manteau brillant d'oret de pierreries" - a direct reference to the attacks of the jeunesse doree - the only way to avenge Marat's death now was the "outrages de ses ennemis."

Further, the cult's anti-clerical tone continued as former members of the clergy were painted as hypocrites for having "moques en secret de I 'Evangile et des absurdities de leur religion."

For the sans-culottes, the actions of the jeunesse doree were blasphemous insults to the memory of Marat and they attempted to counter the destruction of the cult. On 18

Pluviose, the Droits-de-L 'Homme Section prepared an address to the Convention to ask if it was within the law to violate property by removing the busts of the martyrs, and on 19

Pluviose, the inmates of the Plessis prison celebrated Marat in the courtyard, while in the

Faubourg Saint-Antoine, workers spoke of going to the Convention to restore the busts in

Cannibale, "Panegyrique de Marat, prononce, devant une nombreuse Assemblee le 15 Germinal, ..." (Paris, 1795). French Revolution Research Collection. 6.2 77a 1, 7. 64 Ibid, 7. 65 Ibid, 9. 66 Ibid, 8. 67 Ibid, 11.

101 their rightful places.68 Despite only having granted Marat the honours of the Pantheon four months prior, on 20 Pluviose, the Convention decreed that the honours of the

Pantheon could only be bestowed upon the great men of France ten years after their death and thus, Marat, Lepelletier, Barra and Viala, were all removed from the sacred shrine.

On 19 Pluviose, the Convention ordered that the busts of Marat were to be removed from the theatres, and ordered that the Lazowski Club as well as the Quinze Vingts Popular

Society be closed as hotbeds of Maratist support. A series of arrests were issued, first for

Babeuf and then in the following week, for a number of militant sans-culottes.69

In addition to the violent acts of the jeunesse doree against the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty, the Convention began to move away from a state-controlled economy and return to the laissezfaire policies of earlier years, and this created a new socio-economic crisis for the Parisian sans-culottes. The end of the Terror led to increasing food shortages in Paris. Between the months of October and December 1794, the Convention reinstated freedom of trade and prices were restored. On December 24, the General Maximum was also abolished creating a rise in price inflation, thereby making many commodities out of reach to the majority of buyers.70 Two great revolutionary journees occurred in the spring of 1795. The first, on 12 Germinal (April 1 1795), originated in the Faubourg

Saint-Antoine when an armed mob demanded bread. This mob invaded the Tuileries and the National Convention to read petitions. It was effectively put down when the National

Guard cleared the royal palace without incident. The second, on 1 Prairial (May 20

1795), also originated in the central and eastern districts of Paris, and though better armed was also effectively crushed as only a few deputies supported the uprising and the

68 Francois Gendron, The Gilded Youth of Thermidor. 64. 69 Ibid, 65. 70 Francois Furet, Revolutionary France 1770-1880. 157-8.

102 National Guard again intervened. The following days saw the arrests of the remaining

Jacobins in Paris and the purging of the Sections. Effectively, it was a victory for the

Thermidorian Convention, and the end of the popular movement in Paris. The sans­ culottes' celebration of Marat reemerged during periods of socio-economic flux, however, such as the parading of Marat's bust during the food riots of the week of

Christmas in 1795 in Aries. But after Thermidor these demonstrations of popular

71 veneration of Marat were rare.

71 Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France. 211.

103 Conclusion

Albert Soboul considered the popular veneration of Jean-Paul Marat and the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty to be "one of the most original characteristics of the sans­ culotte mentality." This thesis has sought to qualify Soboul's conclusions on the Cult of

Martyrs by examining it as a cultural expression of the sans-culottes' anti-clericalism as well as of their political and social ideals, in light of recent interpretations of

Revolutionary religiosity. The Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty was an important element of Revolutionary culture, which emerged at the grassroots level in the first year of the

Republic as a popular and spontaneous manifestation of sans-culotte affections for Marat.

In death, Marat became a focus for this group's religious sensibilities, and he was transformed into the object of a religious cult which mocked Catholic orthodoxy and venerated revolutionary radicalism. The sans-culottes venerated Marat by blaspheming

Catholic rites and symbols, and thus a cult began to form which explicitly desecrated

Jesus Christ.

The celebration of martyrdom was an important point of conflict between the revolutionary bourgeoisie and the sans-culottes, and the Cult of Marat demonstrates the difference between these groups and their respective cultural, social and political objectives. The rise of the Cult of Marat coincided with growing pressure on the

National Convention by the popular movement. Although the uprising of September 5

1793 appeared to implement the sans-culottes' agenda, its more important result was the creation of the Revolutionary Government which restricted the popular movement's ability to influence the Revolution's direction. In this context, the National Convention and the Paris Commune sought to control the Cult by incorporating it into the more

104 formal Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty, which conformed to classical republican ideals.

The impositions made by these authorities resulted in the creation of a new republican trinity as the Cult was expanded to include Michel Lepelletier and Joseph Chalier, and the Cult was modified to emphasize classical republican symbolism and the emulation of republican virtues. Unlike Marat, Lepelletier and Chalier were not heroes of social egalitarianism, but were commemorated for their loyalty to the National Convention and were associated with bourgeois conceptions of martyrdom deriving from the idea that immortality came from the emulation of one's republican virtues. Chaumette introduced

Chalier into the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty in an effort to bridge the gap between sans-culottes' veneration of Marat and Jacobins' emulation of virtues, but ultimately this was a failure because the sans-culottes could not associate Chalier with the realization of their social and political objectives.

The Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty lost the purely popular and spontaneous quality of the Cult of Marat when the Commune incorporated it into the Cult of Reason which represented the culmination of dechristianization. In this phase of the revolutionary cults, religious forms had not yet been entirely abandoned or replaced by classical themes and symbols. The popular societies and sections were still permitted to celebrate Marat, however they now used these commemorations to demonstrate their loyalty to the

Convention and the Republic during a period of anarchic Terror. Inherently linked to the dechristianization program, these celebrations expanded the Cult and mocked

Catholicism.

How revolutionary culture should represent its heroes raised a conflict between the classical and the Christian traditions. The only common ground was the growing

105 sense that the Republic could not be Catholic because that cultural framework had supported the monarchy. Opposition to sans-culottes' veneration of a particularly controversial radical figure came from Robespierre who attacked the Cult believing that it, along with dechristianization, was discrediting the Revolution. Efforts to supplant the

Cult of the Martyrs came with the imposition of Robespierre's Cult of the Supreme

Being, which coincided with the political defeat of the popular movement. The institutionalization of the Revolutionary Government allowed Robespierre to criticize popular dechristianization and to manipulate similar forms as the Cult of Martyrs. The

Cult of the Supreme Being was fundamentally different from the popular cult because it was fully imposed from above, it emphasized the importance of the republican family defining gender roles, and it encouraged the emulation of youth heroes who were nationalistic and linked to military defence as opposed to social egalitarianism.

Robespierre attempted to channel the popular religious energy of the sans-culottes in new directions until his overthrow on 9 Thermidor. During the subsequent

Thermidorian Reaction, the jeunesse doree supported the conservative majority in the

Convention. These young men were the political and cultural nemesis of the Parisian sans-culottes. The, jeunesse doree associated Marat with the horrors of the Terror, and so they attacked all the manifestations of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty. This association of Marat with the horrors of the Revolution has been an enduring part of the

French collective memory. Despite the physical destruction of the symbols of the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty, it continued as a rallying point for former Jacobins who attempted to appeal to the sans-culottes by placing Marat in the Pantheon. Yet the imposition of classical themes and the emphasis on emulating republican virtues alienated the sans-

106 culottes. The study of religious sensibilities within the revolutionary cults of Year II of the Republic, with particular emphasis on the Cult of the Martyrs of Liberty, points to the importance of secular commemoration and hero-worship during times of revolution.

Along with other aspects of the French Revolution which shaped the modern revolutionary tradition, the veneration of Marat in 1793 foreshadowed the Cults of Lenin and Mao in the twentieth century.

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Essays

Andries, Lise. "Marat dans les occasionnels et les almanachs." In La Mort de Marat. Jean-Claude Bonnet (Ed). Paris: Flammarion, 1986: 81-100.

Bonnet, Jean-Claude. "C'est un journaliste qu'on assassine." In La Mort de Marat. Jean- Claude Bonnet (Ed). Paris: Flammarion, 1986: 19-38.

. "Les formes de celebration." In La Mort de Marat. Jean-Claude Bonnet (Ed). Paris: Flammarion, 1986: 101-128.

Cobb, Richard. "The Revolutionary Mentality in France." In The French and their Revolution. David Gilmour (Ed). New York: The New Press, 1998: 7-23.

. "Some Aspects of the Revolutionary Mentality (April 1793-Thermidor, Year II) in New Perspectives on the French Revolution: Readings in Historical Sociology. Jeffry Kaplow (Ed). New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1965: 305-337.

Furet, Francois, C. Mazauric and L. Bergeron. "The Sans-culottes and the French Revolution." in New Perspectives on the French Revolution: Readings in Historical Sociology. Jeffry Kaplow (Ed). New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1965: 226-253.

Germani, Ian. "Anti-Jacobin Images of Jean-Paul Marat." The Consortium on Revolutionary Europe Proceedings 1986. Warren F. Spencer and Donald D. Howard, (Eds). Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Department of History, 1986: 138- 148.

. "Robespierre's Heroes: The Politics of Heroization during the Year Two." The Consortium on Revolutionary Europe Proceedings 1988. Warren F. Spencer and David M. Vess, (Eds). Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Department of History, 1988: 133-156.

Gueniffey, Patrice. "Robespierre." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Francois Furet and Mona Ozouf (Eds). Arthur Goldhammer (Trans). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989: 298-312.

113 Guilhaumou, Jacques. "La mort de Marat a Paris (13-17 juillet 1793). In La Mort de Marat. Jean-Claude Bonnet (Ed). Paris: Flammarion, 1986: 39-80.

Hunter, Donna M. "Swordplay" Jacques-Louis David's Painting of Le Peletier de Saint- Fargeau on His Deathbed." Representing the French Revolution: Literature, Historiography, and Art. James A. W. Heffernan (Ed). University Press of New England/Hanover and London (Dartmouth College), 1992: 169-191.

Leith, James A. "Images of the Sans-Culotte." In Iconographie et Image de la Revolution Francais. Claudette Hould and James A. Leith (Eds). Montreal, 1990: 130- 159.

. "On the Religiosity of the French Revolution." In Culture and Revolution: Cultural Ramifications of the French Revolution. George Levintine (Ed). University of Maryland at College Park, 1989: 171 - 185.

. "Youth Heroes of the French Revolution." In The Consortium on Revolutionary Europe Proceedings 1986. Warren F. Spencer and Donald D. Howard, (Eds). Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Department of History, 1986: 127- 137.

. "The Terror: Adding the Cultural Dimension." In Symbols, Myths and Images of the French Revolution: Essays in Honour of James A. Leith. Ian Germani and Robin Swales (Eds). Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre at the University of Regina, 1998: 3-16.

Lucas, Colin. "Revolutionary Violence, the People and the Terror." In The French Revolution and the Creation of Modern Political Culture. Volume 4: The Terror. Keith Michael Baker (Ed). New York: Pergamon, 1994: 57-80.

Ozouf, Mona. "De-Christianization." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Francois Furet and Mona Ozouf (Eds). Arthur Goldhammer (Trans). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989: 20-32.

. "Revolutionary Religion." In A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Francois Furet and Mona Ozouf (Eds). Arthur Goldhammer (Trans). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1989: 560- 570.

. "The Pantheon: The Ecole Normale of the Dead." In Realms of Memory Volume III: Symbols. Pierre Nora and Lawrence D. Kritzman (Eds). Arthur Goldhammer (Trans). New York: Columbia University Press, 1998: 325-348.

Patrick, Allison. "Political Divisions in the French National Convention, 1792-93." The Journal of Modern History. Vol. 41, No. 4. (December 1969): 421-474.

114 Sewell Jr., William H. "The Sans-Culotte Rhetoric of Subsistence." In The French Revolution and the Creation of Modern Political Culture. Volume 4: The Terror. Keith Michael Baker (Ed). New York: Pergamon, 1994: 249-270.

Skoppol, Theda and Meyer Kestenbaum. "Mars Unshackled: The French Revolution in World-Historical Perspective." in The French Revolution and the Birth of Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990: 13-29.

Soboul, Albert. "Religious Sentiment and Popular Cults During the Revolution: Patriot Saints and Martyrs of Liberty." In New Perspectives on the French Revolution: Readings in Historical Sociology. Jeffry Kaplow (Ed). New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1965: 338-350.

Vovelle, Michel. "The Adventures of Reason, or From Reason to the Supreme Being." In Rewriting the French Revolution: The Andrew Browning Lectures 1989. Colin Lucas (Ed). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991: 132-150.

Books

Aulard, F. A. Le Culte de la Raison et le Culte de TEtre Supreme, 1793-1794: Essai Historique. Paris: G. Bailliere, 1892.

Bredin, Jean-Denis. On ne meurt qu'unefois: Charlotte Corday. Paris: Fayard, 2006.

Clarke, Joseph. Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France: Revolution and Remembrance, 1789-1799. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Cobb, Richard. The People's Armies: The armies revolutionnaires: instrument of the Terror in the departments April 1793-Floreal Year II. Marianne Elliot (Trans). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.

. The Police and the People: French Popular Protest, 1789-1820. London: Oxford University Press, 1970.

Cormack, William S. Revolution and Political Conflict in the French Navy, 1789-1794. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Darnton, Robert. The Literary Underground of the Old Regime. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1982

Desan, Suzanne. Reclaiming the Sacred: Lay Religion and Popular Politics in Revolutionary France. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990.

Dowd, David Lloyd. Pageant-Master of the Republic: Jacques-Louis David and the French Revolution. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1948.

115 Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution, Second Edition. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Edmonds, W.D. Jacobinsim and the Revolt of Lyon, 1789-1793. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.

Forrest, Alan. The French Revolution and the Poor. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981.

Furet, Francois. Interpreting the French Revolution. Elborg Forster (Trans). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

. Revolutionary France, 1770-1880. Antonia Nevill (Trans). Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 1995.

Gendron, Francois. The Gilded Youth of Thermidor. James Cookson (Trans). Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993.

Germani, Ian. Jean-Paul Marat: Hero and Anti-Hero of the French Revolution. Lewiston/Queenston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.

Gottschalk, Louis R. Jean-Paul Marat: A Study in Radicalism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1967.

Greer, Donald. The Incidence of the Terror during the French Revolution: A Statistical Interpretation. Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter Smith, 1966.

Hunt, Lynn. The Family Romance of the French Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

. Politics, Culture and Class in the French Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

Kennedy, Emmet. A Cultural History of the French Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.

Leith, James A. Media and Revolution: Moulding a New Citizenry in France during the Terror. Toronto: The Hunter Rose Company for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1968.

Mathiez, Albert. Les Origines des Cultes Revolutionnaires, 1789-1792. Paris: Societe Nouvelle de Librairie et d'Edition, 1904.

McManners, John. The French Revolution and the Church. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

116 Ozouf, Mona. Festivals and the French Revolution. Alan Sheridan (Trans). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1988.

Palmer, R. R. Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.

Rose, R. B. The Making of the Sans-Culottes: Democratic Ideas and the Institutions of Paris, 1789-1792. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983.

Rude, George. The Crowd in the French Revolution. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1959.

Schama, Simon. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.

Slavin, Morris. The French Revolution in Miniature: Section Droits-de-l 'Homme, 1789- 1795. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.

. The Hebertistes to the Guillotine: Anatomy of a "Conspiracy" in Revolutionary France. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994.

. The Making of an Insurrection: Parisian Sections and the Gironde. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1986.

Soboul, Albert. The Sans-Culottes: The Popular Movement and Revolutionary Government. Remy Inglis Hall (Trans). Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Sydenham, Michael J. Leonard Bourdon: The Career of a Revolutionary, 1754-1807. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1999.

Tocquevillle, Alexis de. The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Stuart Gilbert (Trans). Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter Smith, 1978.

Vovelle, Michel. Les Metamorphoses de la fete en Provence de 1750 a 1820. Paris: Flammarion, 1976.

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