The aim of several policies conducted by various governments of France during theFrench Revolution ranged from the appropriation by the government of the great landed estates and the large amounts of money held by theCatholic Church to the termination of Christian religious practice and of the religion itself.[1][2] There has been much scholarly debate over whether the movement was popularly motivated or motivated by a small group of revolutionary radicals.[1] These policies, which ended with theConcordat of 1801, formed the basis of the later and less radicallaïcité policies.
The French Revolution initially began with attacks on Church corruption and the wealth of the higher clergy, an action with which even manyChristians could identify, since the Gallican Church held a dominant role inpre-revolutionary France. During a one-year period known as theReign of Terror, the episodes ofanti-clericalism became some of the most violent of any in modernEuropean history. The revolutionary authorities suppressed the Church, abolished the Catholic monarchy, nationalized Church property, exiled 30,000 priests, and killed hundreds more.[3] In October 1793, the Christian calendar was replaced with one reckoned from the date of the Revolution, and Festivals of Liberty, Reason, and the Supreme Being were scheduled. New forms of moral religion emerged, including thedeisticCult of the Supreme Being and the atheisticCult of Reason,[4] with the revolutionary government briefly mandating observance of the former in April 1794.[5][6][7][8][1]
In18th-century France, the vast majority of the population adhered to theCatholic Church, the only religion officially allowed in the kingdom since therevocation of theEdict of Nantes in 1685. Small minorities of French Protestants (mostlyHuguenots and GermanLutherans inAlsace) and Jews still lived in France. TheEdict of Versailles,[9] commonly known as the Edict of Tolerance, had been signed byLouis XVI on 7 November 1787. It did not give non-Catholics in France the right to openly practice their religions but only the rights to legal and civil status, which included the right to contract marriages without having to convert to the Catholic faith. At the same time,libertine thinkers had popularized atheism andanti-clericalism.
Theancien régime institutionalised the authority of the clergy in its status as theFirst Estate of the realm. As the largest landowner in the country, the Catholic Church controlled vast properties and extracted massive revenues from its tenants;[10] the Church also had an enormous income from the collection of compulsorytithes.[10] Since the Church kept theregistry of births, deaths, and marriages and was the only institution that provided hospitals and education in most parts of the country, it influenced all citizens.
A milestone event of theFrench Revolution was the abolition of the privileges of the First and Second Estate on thenight of 4 August 1789. In particular, it abolished the tithes gathered by the Catholic clergy.[11]
TheDeclaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 proclaimed freedom of religion across France in these terms:
Article IV – Liberty consists of doing anything which does not harm others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights. These borders can be determined only by the law.
Article X – No one may be disturbed for his opinions, even religious ones, provided that their manifestation does not trouble the public order established by the law.
On 10 October 1789, theNational Constituent Assembly seized the properties and land held by the Catholic Church and decided to sell them to fund theassignat revolutionary currency. On 12 July 1790, the assembly passed theCivil Constitution of the Clergy that subordinated the Catholic Church in France to the French government. It was never accepted by thePope and other high-ranking clergy inRome.
The programme of dechristianization waged against Catholicism, and eventually against all forms of Christianity, included:[12][13][2][need quotation to verify]
An especially notable event that took place in the course of France’s dechristianization was theFestival of Reason, which was held inNotre Dame Cathedral on 10 November 1793. The dechristianization campaign can be seen as the logical extension[14] of thematerialist philosophies of some leaders of theEnlightenment such asVoltaire, while for others with more prosaic concerns it provided an opportunity to unleash resentments against the Catholic Church (in the spirit of conventionalanti-clericalism) and its clergy.[15]
The civic religions of the French Revolution were a series of state-sponsoreddeistic andatheistic belief systems introduced during theFrench Revolution and intended to replaceCatholicism as the new moral and social framework of theFrench First Republic. Emerging from the radical policy ofdechristianization, these religions sought to groundrepublicancitizenship in rational, civic, andpatriotic principles.The most prominent of these were the atheisticCult of Reason (Culte de la Raison), which was succeeded by the deisticCult of the Supreme Being (Culte de l'Être suprême) established byMaximilien Robespierre. During theDirectory, these were followed by the semi-officialDecadary Cult (Culte décadaire) and the private initiative ofTheophilanthropy (Théophilanthropie). These movements aimed to inculcatecivic virtue throughsecular morality, public festivals, and symbolic art. None succeeded in displacing established religious practice, and official support was terminated byNapoleon Bonaparte under theConcordat of 1801.[16][17]
The French Revolution's initial religious policy was not to abolish religion but to subordinate theGallican Church to the state through measures like the 1790Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Following the overthrow of the monarchy in 1792, a more radical dechristianization campaign emerged, championed by factions such as theHébertists. This campaign involved closing churches, destroying religious iconography, and persecuting priests. Public life was systematically secularised through the introduction of theFrench Republican Calendar, which replaced theGregorian calendar's system of Sundays and Christian feast days with a ten-day week (décade).[17][18] In this context, revolutionaries created civic religions designed to provide a new, shared moral framework for the Republic.[18]
TheCult of Reason (Culte de la Raison) was an atheistic and anthropocentric civic creed promoted by radical figures likeJacques Hébert,Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, andAntoine-François Momoro. It rejected the existence of a god, venerating instead the abstract concept of Reason as the pinnacle of human achievement. Churches were converted into "Temples of Reason," and its most famous ceremony was the Festival of Reason atNotre-Dame de Paris in November 1793, where an actress personified the Goddess of Reason.[19]The cult was opposed by the deistMaximilien Robespierre, who viewed its atheism as socially destructive and "aristocratic." It was officially suppressed following the execution of its leading proponents in March 1794 and rapidly disappeared from public life.[20][16]
In response to the Cult of Reason, Maximilien Robespierre introduced the deisticCult of the Supreme Being (Culte de l'Être suprême). Formally established by theNational Convention in May 1794, it was based on the belief in a creator god and the immortality of the soul, which Robespierre considered essential for social order and republicanvirtue.[21]The cult's sole major celebration was the massive Festival of the Supreme Being, held in Paris on 8 June 1794 and orchestrated by the artistJacques-Louis David. The event, which prominently featured Robespierre, was seen by his rivals as an attempt to create a personal dictatorship and contributed to his political isolation.[22] The movement was entirely dependent on its founder and was abandoned immediately following his execution in theThermidorian Reaction in July 1794.[23]
Established under theDirectory, theDecadary Cult (Culte décadaire) was a secular civic religion designed to structure republican life around the ten-day week (décade) of theFrench Republican calendar. Citizens were legally required to observe the tenth day, thedécadi, by attending civic festivals that replaced traditional Christian Sunday worship. These events aimed to instill republican virtues through patriotic ceremonies, readings of laws, and speeches on civic duty.[24]Mandated nationally in 1798, the cult was unpopular and widely resisted by the general populace, who remained attached to the traditional seven-day week and Catholic traditions. It was effectively abandoned after theConcordat of 1801 restored Catholicism's status, and the Republican calendar itself was abolished by Napoleon in 1805.[25]
Theophilanthropy (Théophilanthropie, meaning "Friends of God and Man") was a deistic creed that emerged during the Directory as a private initiative. Founded byJean-Baptiste Chemin-Dupontès and supported by the DirectorLouis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux, it sought to provide a rational moral framework based on the belief in God, the immortality of the soul, and civic duties. Its simple ceremonies, consisting of moral readings and hymns, often took place during the officialdécadi observances.[26]As a voluntary, semi-private society, it stood apart from the state-mandated cults. However, it was viewed with suspicion by both Catholics, who saw it as a heretical sect, and radical republicans, who found it bourgeois and sentimental. The movement lost influence after theConcordat of 1801 and was formally prohibited in 1803.[27]
Although the civic religions of the French Revolution were short-lived and failed to displace Catholicism, they represented a key experiment in the creation of secular civic ritual, symbolic politics, and republican pedagogy. Historians such as Mona Ozouf and Michel Vovelle have analyzed them as part of the Revolution's broader attempt to "transfer sacrality" from the traditional monarchy and church to the new republican state.[28][29]
In August 1789, the state cancelled the taxing power of the Church. The issue of Church property became central to the policies of the revolutionary government. Declaring that all Church property in France belonged to the nation, confiscations were ordered, and Church properties were sold at public auction. In July 1790 theNational Constituent Assembly published theCivil Constitution of the Clergy that 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. French priests had to receive papal approval to sign such an oath, andPope Pius VI spent almost eight months deliberating on the issue. On 13 April 1791, Pius denounced the constitution, resulting in a split in theFrench Catholic Church. Over 50% becameabjuring priests ("jurors"), also known as "constitutional clergy", and nonjuring priests as "refractory clergy".
In September 1792, theLegislative Assembly legalized divorce, contrary to Catholic doctrine. At the same time, the state 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.
InParis, over a 48-hour period beginning on 2 September 1792, as theLegislative Assembly (successor to the National Constituent Assembly) dissolved into chaos, three Church bishops and more than 200 priests were massacred by angry mobs; this constituted part of what would become known as theSeptember Massacres. Priests were among those drowned in mass executions (noyades) for treason under the direction ofJean-Baptiste Carrier; priests and nuns were among the mass executions atLyons forseparatism, on the orders ofJoseph Fouché andCollot d'Herbois. Hundreds more priests were imprisoned and made to suffer in abominable conditions in the port ofRochefort.
After theinsurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, there was a decisive turn away from the revolution's original principles of religious freedom, and in the late summer of 1793 dechristianization evolved into what Johnathan Israel describes as a "repressive, vandalistic, inquisitorial movement".[30] A major spasm of dechristianization broke out during the autumn with many of the acts of dechristianization in 1793 being motivated by the seizure of Church gold and silver to finance the war effort.[31] In November thedépartement council ofIndre-et-Loire abolished the worddimanche (English:Sunday).[32] TheGregorian calendar, an instrument decreed byPope Gregory XIII in 1582, was replaced by theFrench Republican calendar which abolished thesabbath,saints' days and any references to the Church. The seven-day week became ten days instead.[33] It soon became clear, however, that nine consecutive days of work were too much, and that international relations could not be carried out without reverting to the Gregorian system, which was still in use everywhere outside of France. Consequently, the Gregorian calendar was reimplemented in 1795.[34]
Anti-clerical parades were held, and theArchbishop of Paris,Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel, was forced to resign his duties and made to replace hismitre with the red "Cap of Liberty". Street and place names with any sort of religious connotation were changed, such as the town ofSaint-Tropez, which became Héraclée. Religious holidays were banned and replaced with holidays to celebrate the harvest and other non-religious symbols. Many churches were converted into "temples of reason", in which deistic services were held.[35][13][2][1] Local people often resisted this dechristianisation and forced members of the clergy who had resigned to conductmass again.Maximilien Robespierre and theCommittee of Public Safety denounced the dechristianizers as foreign enemies of the revolution and established their own religion. ThisCult of the Supreme Being, without the alleged "superstitions" of Catholicism,[36] supplanted both Catholicism and the rivalCult of Reason. Both new religions were short-lived.[37][36] Just six weeks before his arrest, on 8 June 1794, the still-powerful Robespierre personally led a vast procession through Paris to theTuileries garden in a ceremony to inaugurate the new faith. Hisexecution occurred shortly afterward, on 28 July 1794.[32]
By early 1795, a return to some form of religion-based faith was beginning to take shape, and a law passed on 21 February 1795 legalized public worship, albeit with strict limitations. The ringing of church bells, religious processions and displays of the Christian cross were still forbidden. As late as 1799, priests were still being imprisoned or deported to penal colonies. Persecution only worsened after the French army led by GeneralLouis Alexandre Berthier captured Rome in early 1798, declared a newRoman Republic, and also imprisoned Pope Pius VI, who died in captivity. However, afterNapoleon seized control of the government in late 1799, France entered into year-long negotiations withPope Pius VII, resulting in theConcordat of 1801. This formally ended the dechristianization period and established the rules for a relationship between the Catholic Church and the French state.
Victims of theReign of Terror totaled somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000. According to one estimate, among those condemned by therevolutionary tribunals about 8 percent werearistocrats, 6 percent clergy, 14 percent middle class, and 70 percent were workers or peasants accused of hoarding, evading the draft, desertion, rebellion, and other purported crimes.[38] Of these social groupings, the clergy of the Catholic Church suffered proportionately the greatest loss.[38]
Anti-Church laws were passed by theLegislative Assembly and its successor, theNational Convention, as well as bydépartement councils throughout the country. The Concordat of 1801 endured for more than a century until it was abrogated by the government of theThird Republic, which established a policy oflaïcité on 11 December 1905.
Under threat of death, imprisonment, military conscription, and loss of income, about 20,000 constitutional priests were forced to abdicate and hand over their letters of ordination, and 6,000 to 9,000 of them agreed or werecoerced to marry. Many abandoned their pastoral duties altogether.[1] Nonetheless, some of those who had abdicated continued covertly to minister to the people.[1]
By the end of the decade, approximately 30,000 priests had been forced to leave France, and several hundred who did not leave were executed.[39] Most French parishes were left without the services of a priest and deprived of thesacraments. Any non-juring priest faced theguillotine or deportation toFrench Guiana.[1] By Easter 1794, few of France's 40,000 churches remained open; many had been closed, sold, destroyed, or converted to other uses.[1]
Victims of revolutionary violence, whether religious or not, were popularly treated as Christian martyrs, and the places where they were killed became pilgrimage destinations.[1] Catechising in the home,folk religion,syncretic andheterodox practices all became more common.[1] The long-term effects on religious practice in France were significant. Many who were dissuaded from their traditional religious practices never resumed them.[1]
The revolution saw the widespread dissolution and destruction of many Frenchmonasteries, as revolutionary authorities sought to suppress religious institutions and confiscate their wealth.[40] Many monastic buildings were seized, looted, repurposed for secular use, or demolished entirely. Orders such as theBenedictines,Cistercians,Franciscans, andCarmelites were particularly affected.[41]
| Letter | Monastery | Order | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Arrouaise Abbey | Augustinian Canons | Abandoned and destroyed[42] |
| A | Aulne Abbey | Cistercian | Burned and largely ruined[43] |
| B | Beaupré Abbey (Picardy) | Cistercian | Suppressed, later demolished[44] |
| B | Bœuil Abbey | Benedictine | Destroyed[45] |
| B | Bonneval Abbey (Aveyron) | Cistercian | Seized and sold as national property[46] |
| C | La Cambre Abbey | Cistercian | Converted into a military facility[47] |
| C | Chelles Abbey | Benedictine | Suppressed and repurposed as a school[48] |
| C | Convent of Poor Clares, Gravelines | Poor Clares | Dissolved, nuns expelled[49] |
| C | Couvent des Minimes de Grenoble | Minims | Confiscated and demolished[50] |
| G | Glanfeuil Abbey | Benedictine | Converted into a farm[51] |
| H | Hasnon Abbey | Benedictine | Destroyed[52] |
| H | Holy Cross Abbey (Poitiers) | Benedictine | Used as a prison[53] |
| L | Ligugé Abbey | Benedictine | Suppressed, later restored[54] |
| L | Lyre Abbey | Benedictine | Destroyed[55] |
| M | Maison Coignard | Unknown | Confiscated and sold[56] |
| M | Marmoutier Abbey, Tours | Benedictine | Converted into barracks[57] |
| M | Martyrs of Compiègne | Carmelite | Nuns executed, monastery closed[58] |
| M | Maubeuge Abbey | Benedictine | Demolished[59] |
| M | Monastery of Our Lady of Prouille | Dominican | Suppressed, later restored[60] |
| M | Montmajour Abbey | Benedictine | Confiscated and abandoned[61] |
| O | Oignies Abbey | Augustinian | Converted into a residence[62] |
| R | Romainmôtier Priory | Cluniac | Suppressed[63] |
| S | Abbey of Saint-Evre, Toul | Benedictine | Partially destroyed[64] |
| S | Abbey of Saint Genevieve | Augustinian | Converted into a library[65] |
| W | Wurmsbach Abbey | Cistercian | Dissolved[66] |
| Z | San Zaccaria, Venice | Benedictine | Suppressed[67] |
At first the new revolutionary government attacked Church corruption and the wealth of the bishops and abbots who ruled the Church -- causes with which many Christians could identify. Clerical privileges were abolished ...
The cult was a deliberate attempt to counter the unsuccessful efforts at dechristianization, and the atheistic Cult of Reason, which reached its high point in the winter of the previous year.
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