The Reign of Terror

Laws Passed by Revolutionaries

The plan of de-christianization waged against Catholicism, and eventually against all forms of Christianity, included: confiscation of Church lands, which were to be the security for the

new Assignat currency removal of statues, plates and other iconography from places of

worship destruction of crosses, bells and other external signs of worship the institution of revolutionary and civic cults, including the Cult of

Reason and subsequently the Cult of the Supreme Being, the enactment of a law on October 21, 1793 making

all nonjuring priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight.

The climax was reached with the celebration of the goddess "Reason" in Notre Dame Cathedral on 10 November 1793.

The de-christianization campaign can be seen as the logical extension of the materialist philosophies of some leaders of the enlightenment, while for others it was an opportunity to unleash resentments against the Church and clergy.

The Beginnings

August 1789-the State cancelled the taxing power of the Church. The issue of church property became central to the policies of the new revolutionary government. Declaring that all church property in France belonged to the nation, confiscations were ordered and church properties were sold at public auction.

July 1790, the National Constituent Assembly stripped clerics of their special rights — the clergy were to be made employees of the state, elected by their parish or bishopric, and the number of bishoprics was to be reduced — and required all priests and bishops to swear an oath of fidelity to the new order or face dismissal, deportation or death.

Church Response

French priests had to receive Papal approval to sign such an oath, and Pius VI spent almost eight months deliberating on the issue.

April 13, 1791, the Pope denounced the Constitution resulting in a split in the French Catholic church. 

Abjuring priests ("jurors") became known as "constitutional clergy", and nonjuring priests as "refractory clergy".

More power lost:

September 1792, the Legislative Assembly legalized divorce, contrary to Catholic

doctrine. took control of the birth, death, and marriage

registers away from the Church. ***An ever-increasing view that the Church was a counter-revolutionary force exacerbated the social and economic grievances and violence erupted in towns and cities across France.

September Massacres

September 2 and 3, 1792- the Legislative Assembly dissolved into chaos, three Church bishops and more than two hundred priests were massacred by angry mobs.

Priests were among those drowned in mass executions for treason 

priests and nuns were among the mass executions at Lyons, for separatism

Hundreds more priests were imprisoned and made to suffer in abominable conditions in the port of Rochefort.

Anti-Church Laws

1793 were motivated by the seizure of church gold and silver to finance the war effort.

 In November 1793, the département council abolished the word dimanche  

The Gregorian calendar was replaced by the French Republican Calendar which abolished the sabbath, saints' days and any references to the Church.

Anti-clerical parades were heldStreet and place names with any sort of

religious connotation were changed, such as the town of St. Tropez, which became Héraclée.

Religious holidays were banned and replaced with holidays to celebrate the harvest and other non-religious symbols. 

The Fall of Robespierre

1794-Robespierre, the leader of the revolution, was overthrown and killed for being to cruel and vindictive to the Church and others.

1795 a return to some form of religion-based faith was beginning to take shape

February 21, 1795 legalized public worship, albeit with strict limitations. The ringing of church bells, religious processions and displays of the Christian cross were still forbidden.

The Beginning of the End

As late as 1799, priests were still being imprisoned or deported to penal colonies and persecution only worsened after the French army captured Rome and imprisoned Pope Pius VI, who would die in captivity in France in August 1799.

When Napoleon took control and signed a n agreement with the new Pope, Pius VII, formally ending the anti-Catholic period and establishing the rules for a relationship between the Roman Church and the French State.

Victims of the Reign of Terror

totaled somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000.

Estimates 8 percent were aristocrats, 6 percent clergy, 14 percent middle class, 70 percent were workers or peasants

 Of these social groupings, the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church suffered proportionately the greatest loss.

Effects on the Priesthood

about twenty thousand constitutional priests were forced to abdicate and hand over their letters of ordination

six thousand to nine thousand of them were coerced to marry. Many abandoned their pastoral duties altogether. Nonetheless, some of

those who had abdicated continued covertly to minister to the people. approximately thirty thousand priests had been forced to leave France, and

others who did not leave were executed.  Most French parishes were left without the services of a priest and

deprived of the sacraments. Any non-juring priest faced the guillotine or deportation to French Guiana. By Easter 1794, few of France's forty thousand churches remained open;

many had been closed, sold, destroyed, or converted to other uses. Victims of revolutionary violence, whether religious or not, were popularly

treated as Christian martyrs, and the places where they were killed became pilgrimage destinations.

Catechizing in the home became more common. The long-term effects on religious practice in France were significant.