Cult of Reason Information
The Cult of Reason (French: Culte de la Raison) was an atheistic belief system, intended as a replacement for Christianity during the French Revolution.[1] The word "cult" in French means "a form of worship", without any of its negative, exclusivist implications in English: devotees indeed intended it to be a universal congregation.
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Origins
Resentment of the Catholic Church was an integral part of the outbreak of the Revolution, and much of it solidified into official government policy after the First Republic was declared in 1792. The Culte de la Raison developed gradually in these early years as part of the general campaign of de-Christianization of French society. The structural concepts of the creed were defined by Jacques Hébert, Antoine-François Momoro, Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette, Joseph Fouché, and other radical leaders.
Philosophy
Antoine-François Momoro (1756–1794).The Cult of Reason was explicitly humanocentric. Its goal was the perfection of mankind through the attainment of truth and liberty, made possible only by the exercise of the human faculty of reason. Though atheism was at the core of the cult, it defined itself as more than a mere rejection of gods: in the manner of conventional religion, it encouraged acts of congregational worship, with frequent and rigorous displays of devotion to Reason as an ideal. A careful distinction was always drawn between the rational respect of Reason and the veneration of an idol: "There is one thing that one must not tire telling people," Momoro explained, "Liberty, reason, truth are only abstract beings. They are not gods, for properly speaking, they are part of ourselves."[2]
Revolutionary impact
Fête de la Raison ("Festival of Reason"), Notre Dame, Paris.Devotion to the Cult of Reason became a defining attribute of the Hébertist faction, and was widely accepted among the general ranks of the sans-culottes. Numerous anti-clerical groups and events only loosely connected to the cult have come to be amalgamated with its name.[3] The earliest atheistic public demonstrations ranged from "wild masquerades" redolent of earlier spring festivals to outright persecutions, including ransackings of churches and synagogues[4] in which religious and royal images were defaced.
Joseph Fouché
Fouché led a particularly brutal campaign of de-Christianization through many parts of France which helped spread the developing creed. Fouché ordered all crosses and statues removed from graveyards in his jurisdiction, and he gave the cult one of its elemental tenets when he decreed that all cemetery gates should bear only one inscription, "Death is an eternal sleep."[5] Fouché went so far as to declare a new civic religion of his own, virually interchangeable with what would become known as the Cult of Reason, at a ceremony he dubbed the "Feast of Brutus" on September 22, 1793.[6]
Festival of Reason
However, it was the official Fête de la Raison, supervised by Hébert and Momoro on 20 Brumaire, Year II (November 10, 1793), which came to epitomize the new republican way of religion. In nationwide ceremonies devised and organised by Chaumette, churches mimicked the experience of Notre Dame in Paris as the medieval cathedral was transformed into a modern Temple of Reason. An altar to liberty was installed over the old one, and the inscription "To Philosophy" was carved into the church facade; the lengthy proceedings concluded with the appearance of a Goddess of Reason who, to avoid idolatry, was portrayed by a living woman.[7]
Contemporary accounts reported the Festival of Reason as a "lurid", "licentious" affair of scandalous "depravities",[8] although some scholars have since said otherwise. [9] These accounts, real or embellished, galvanized anti-Revolutionary forces and even caused many dedicated Jacobins like Maximilien Robespierre to publicly separate themselves from the radical faction.[10]
Legacy
Inscription on church at Ivry-la-Bataille.In the spring of 1794, the Cult of Reason was faced with official repudiation when Robespierre, nearing complete dictatorial power, announced his own establishment of a new, deistic religion for the Republic, the Cult of the Supreme Being.[11] Robespierre denounced the Hébertistes on various philosophical and political grounds, specifically rejecting their atheism. When Hébert, Momoro, Ronsin, Vincent and others were sent to the guillotine on 4 Germinal, Year II (March 24 1794), the cult lost its most influential leadership; when Chaumette and other Hébertistes followed them four days later, the cult effectively ceased to exist. It was officially banned by Napoleon Bonaparte with his Law on Cults of 18 Germinal, Year X.[12]
See also
References
- ^ Fremont-Barnes, Gregory (2007); Encyclopedia of the Age of Political Revolutions and New Ideologies, 1760–1815; Greenwood Press, USA.
- ^ Kennedy, Emmet (1989); A Cultural History of the French Revolution; Yale Univ. Press, See p.343: "'There is one thing that...'".
- ^ Kennedy (1989). See p.343: "The Festival of Reason... has come to symbolize the Parisian de-Christianization movement."
- ^ Goldstein, Morris (2007) Thus Religion Grows – The Story of Judaism; Pierides Press.
- ^ Doyle, William (1989); The Oxford History of the French Revolution; Clarendon Press. See p.259: "Fouché declared in a manifesto... graveyards should exhibit no religious symbols, and at the gate of each would be an inscription proclaiming Death is an eternal sleep."
- ^ Doyle (1989). See p.259: "[Fouché ] inaugurated a civic religion of his own devising with a 'Feast of Brutus' on 22 September at which he denounced 'religious sophistry'."
- ^ Kennedy (1989). See p.343: "A 'beautiful woman' was chosen... rather than a statue, so that she would not become an idol".
- ^ Kennedy (1989). See p.344: "The Festival of Reason in Notre Dame left no impression of rationality on the memories of contemporary observers.... [I]t was evident that the Festival of Reason was a scandal."
- ^ Ozouf, Mona (1988); Festivals and the French Revolution; Harvard Univ. Press. See pp.100ff.
- ^ Kennedy (1989). See p.344: "...tales of its raucousness may have contributed to Robespierre's opposition to de-Christianization in December 1793."
- ^ "War, Terror, and Resistance (Center for History and New Media, George Mason University)". http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap7c.html. Retrieved October 31, 2006.
- ^ Doyle (1989). See p.389.
Categories: Religion and the French Revolution | Religion in France | 1792 events of the French Revolution | 1793 events of the French Revolution | 1794 events of the French Revolution | Anti-Catholicism in France | Atheism
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