ROBESPIERRE AND DECHRISTIANIZATION IN THE YEAR II: IDEOLOGY AND RELIGION DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (FRANCE, TERROR, TOTALITARIANISM, CHRISTIANITY, CATHOLICISM)

The French Revolution's dechristianization movement of the Year II has been variously described as a response to counterrevolution and as an aberration concocted by ultra-revolutionnaires in the autumn of 1793. Maximilien Robespierre, because of his public statements against atheism in November and December 1793, has been granted a historical reputation as a supporter of religious toleration, even as somewhat of a friend to Christianity. The dissertation challenges these interpretations through the use of archival and printed primary sources.;Findings reveal that virtually every characteristic of the dechristianization movement was already evident before the Year II, and that Robespierre had a long history of anti-Christian attitudes and an open enmity to religious toleration. Practically all revolutionary institutions played a part in the autumn dechristianization movement of 1793, a movement which actually gained momentum after the insincere decree of 16-18 frimaire an II (6-8 December 1793) promised freedom of religion. The decrees and correspondence of the Committee of Public Safety in late 1793 and in 1794 identify it as the leading force in a less "atheistic," but in most respects the same, dechristianization movement that had been developing, along with a superseding religion of la patrie, since 1789.;It is concluded that dechristianization was most importantly an ideological phenomenon which followed closely the stages of radicalization within the French Revolution, and which found its clearest representation in Maximilien Robespierre.;The dissertation affords dechristianization a larger time frame by analyzing, within the context of revolutionary ideology, Church/State relations during the years immediately preceding the Terror. It also closely examines the pre-Terror religious and ideological attitudes of Robespierre. There then ensues a study of the Year II's autumn dechristianization movement and Robespierre's response to it, followed by an investigation into the effect which Robespierre's actions had on dechristianization. An exegesis of Robespierre's major discourses--on republican virtue (5 February 1794) and on civic religion (7 May 1794)--prefaces a discussion of the cult of the Supreme Being, which is compared to the cult of Reason associated with the autumn dechristianization movement.