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| Cult of the Supreme Being | |
|---|---|
| Culte de l'Être suprême | |
 "The French people recognize the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul" (1794 print) | |
| Classification | Deism |
| Region | France |
| Language | French |
| Founder | Maximilien Robespierre |
| Origin | 7 May 1794 (1794-05-07) |
| Defunct | 28 July 1794 (1794-07-28) |
| Deism |
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False equivalencies |
Opposition |
TheCult of the Supreme Being (French:Culte de l'Être suprême)[note 1] was a form ofDeism established byMaximilien Robespierre during theFrench Revolution as the intendedstate religion of France and a replacement for its rival, theCult of Reason, and ofRoman Catholicism. It went unsupported after thefall of Robespierre and, along with the Cult of Reason, was officially banned by First ConsulNapoleon Bonaparte in 1802.
The French Revolution had occasioned many radical changes in France, but one of the most fundamental for the hitherto Catholic nation was theofficial rejection of religion. The first new major organized school of thought emerged under the umbrella name of theCult of Reason. Advocated by radicals likeJacques Hébert andAntoine-François Momoro, the Cult of Reason distilled a mixture of largelyatheistic views into ananthropocentric philosophy. No gods at all were worshipped in the Cult of Reason; the guiding principle was devotion to the abstract concept ofReason.[1]
This rejection of allgodhead appalledMaximilien Robespierre. Though he was no admirer of Catholicism, he had a special dislike for atheism.[2] He thought that belief in a supreme being was important for social order, and he liked to quoteVoltaire: "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him".[3] To him, the Cult of Reason's philosophical offenses were compounded by the "scandalous scenes" and "wild masquerades" attributed to its practice.[4] In late 1793, Robespierre delivered a fiery denunciation of the Cult of Reason and of its proponents[5] and proceeded to give his own vision of proper Revolutionary religion. Devised almost entirely by Robespierre, the Cult of the Supreme Being was authorized by theNational Convention on 7 May 1794 as the civic religion of France.[6][7][8]
Robespierre believed that reason is only a means to an end, and the singular end isvirtue. He sought to move beyond simple deism (often described asVoltairean by its adherents) to a new and, in his view, more rational devotion to the godhead. The primary principles of the Cult of the Supreme Being were a belief in the existence of agod and the immortality of the humansoul.[9] These beliefs were put to the service of Robespierre's fuller meaning, which was of a type of civic-minded, public virtue he attributed to the Greeks and Romans.[10] This type of virtue could be attained only through active fidelity toliberty and democracy.[11] Belief in a living god and a higher moral code, he said, were "constant reminders of justice" and thus essential to a republican society.[12]
On 7 May 1794, theNational Convention established the Worship of the Supreme Being; the opening clauses of theDecree Establishing the Worship of the Supreme Being of the 18thFloréal of the Year II declared:[13]
He dedicated festivals to the Supreme Being, to Truth, Justice, Modesty, Friendship, Frugality, Fidelity, Immortality, Misfortune, etc. The Cult of the Supreme Being was based on the creed of theSavoy chaplain that Jean-Jacques Rousseau had outlined in Book IV ofEmile.[citation needed]
Robespierre used the religious issue to publicly denounce the motives of many radicals not in his camp, and it led, directly or indirectly, to the executions of Revolutionary de-Christianisers likeHébert, Momoro, andAnacharsis Cloots.[4] The establishment of the Cult of the Supreme Being represented the beginning of the reversal of the wholesalede-Christianization process that had been looked upon previously with official favour.[14] Simultaneously it marked the apogee of Robespierre's power. Though in theory he was just an equal member of theCommittee of Public Safety, Robespierre at this point possessed an unrivalled national prominence.[15]
To inaugurate the new state religion, Robespierre declared that 20Prairial Year II (8 June 1794, also the Christian holiday ofPentecost) would be the first day of national celebration of the Supreme Being, and future republican holidays were to be held every tenth day—the days of rest (décadi) in the newFrench Republican Calendar.[6] Every locality was mandated to hold a commemorative event, but the event in Paris was designed on a massive scale. The festival was organized by the artistJacques-Louis David andFrançois Joseph Talma and took place around a man-made mountain on theChamp de Mars.[16] Robespierre assumed full leadership of the event, forcefully—and, to many, ostentatiously[17]—declaring the truth and "social utility" of his new religion.[18] While earlier Revolutionary festivals were more spontaneous, the Festival of the Supreme Being was meticulously planned. HistorianMona Ozouf has noted how the "creaking stiffness" of the event has been seen by some to foreshadow "thesclerosis of the Revolution."[19]
Witnesses state that throughout the "Festival of the Supreme Being", Robespierre beamed with joy. He was able to speak of the things about which he was passionate, including virtue, nature, deist beliefs and his disagreements with atheism. The procession ended on theChamp de Mars. The Convention climbed to the summit, where a liberty tree had been planted.[a] Dressed in sky-blue coat andnankeen trousers, Robespierre delivered two speeches in which he emphasised his concept of a Supreme Being: there would be noChrist, noMohammed.[20]
Someone was heard saying, "Look at the blackguard; it's not enough for him to be master, he has to be God". According to him: "Robespierre proclaimed to believe in the Supreme Being, and who only believed in the power of crime." Robespierre was also criticized byVadier,Fouché, Barère and Courtois, members of the Committee of General Security. Fouché had predicted to him his approaching fall.[21] On 15 June, the president of the Committee of General Security, Vadier, on behalf of the two committees presented a report on a new conspiracy byCatherine Théot,Christophe Antoine Gerle and three others. He insinuated that Robespierre fitted her prophecies.[22] His speech caused much laughter in the convention. Many of her followers were also supporters or friends of Robespierre, which made it seem as if he was attempting to create a new religion, with him as its god. Robespierre felt ridiculed and demanded on the 26th that the investigation of Théot be stopped and Fouquier-Tinville replaced.[23] The deist Cult of the Supreme Being that he had founded and zealously promoted generated suspicion in the eyes of both anticlericals and otherpolitical factions, who felt he was developinggrandiose delusions about his place in French society.[24][25]
The Cult of the Supreme Being and its festival may have contributed to theThermidorian Reaction and thedownfall of Robespierre.[18] According toMadame de Staël, it was from that time he was lost.[26][27] With his death at theguillotine on 28 July 1794, the cult lost all official sanction and disappeared from public view.[28] It was officially banned by Napoleon on 8 April 1802 with hisLaw on Cults of 18 Germinal, Year X.[29]
The Oxford History of the French Revolution.
cult of the supreme being.
A Cultural History of the French Revolution.
The Oxford History of the French Revolution.
