XIV. 1793. printer, an ardent member of the municipality, then said CHAP. "Citizen representatives, you see before you your brothers, who desire to be regenerated, and to become men. You see the bishop of Paris, the grand vicars, and some of the priests, who, led by reason, come to lay aside the character which superstition had given them that great example will be imitated by their colleagues. It is thus that the minions of despotism concur in its destruction: it is thus that soon the French Republic will recognise no other worship but that of liberty, equality, and eternal truth, which, thanks to your immortal labours, will soon become universal." During several weeks, daily abjurations by the constitutional Nov. 7. clergy took place at the bar of the Convention. 10th November, Sièyes appeared, and abjured like the 186. Th rest. “I have lived," said he, “the victim of superstition. Deux Amis, I will not be its slave. I know no other worship but Lac. x. 300, that of liberty; no other religion but the love of humanity iv. 124. and country."1 1 Hist. Parl. xxx. 185, v. 429, 430. xii. 70, 71. 302. Toul. dess of Rea son intro duced into tion. Shortly after, a still more indecent exhibition took 46. place before the Convention. The celebrated prophecy The Godof Father Beauregard was accomplished" Beauty without modesty was seen usurping the place of the Holy the Convenof Holies!" Hébert, Chaumette, and their associates, NO. 9. appeared at the bar, and declared that "God did not exist, and that the worship of Reason was to be substituted in his stead." Chaumette said "Legislative fanaticism has lost its hold; it has given place to reason. Its dark eyes could not bear the light of reason. We have left its temples; they are regenerated. To-day an immense multitude are assembled under its Gothic roofs, which, for the first time, will re-echo with the voice of truth. There the French will celebrate their true worship - that of liberty and reason. There we will form new vows for the prosperity of the armies of the Republic; there we will abandon the worship of inanimate idols for that of Reason, this animated image, the chef-d'œuvre of XIV. CHAP. creation." A veiled female, arrayed in blue drapery, was brought into the Convention; and Chaumette, taking her by the hand" Mortals," said he, "cease to tremble before the powerless thunders of a God whom 1793. your fears have created. Henceforth acknowledge no divinity but Reason. I offer you its noblest and purest image; if you must have idols, sacrifice only to such as this." Then, letting fall the veil, he exclaimed, "Fall before the august Senate of Freedom, Veil of Reason!" At the same time the goddess appeared, personified by a celebrated beauty, Madame Maillard of the opera, known in more than one character to most of the Convention. The goddess, after being embraced by the president, was mounted on a magnificent car, and conducted, amidst an immense crowd, to the cathedral of Notre-Dame, to take the place of the Deity. There she was elevated on the high altar, and received the adoration of all present; while a numerous band of elegant young women, all figurantes of the opera, her attendants, whose alluring 1 Hist. de la looks already sufficiently indicated their profession, retired into the chapels round the choir, where every 308. Toul species of licentiousness and obscenity was indulged in v. 431, 432. without control, with hardly any veil from the public xxx. 197, gaze. To such a length was this carried, that Robe Conv. iii. 192-196. Lac. x. 307, iv. 124. Th. Hist. Parl. 199. Jour nal de val, Souv. hal de Paris, spierre afterwards declared that Chaumette deserved No.315. Du death for the abominations he had permitted on that de la Ter- occasion.1 Thenceforward that ancient edifice was called 159. Lam. the Temple of Reason.* The same scene soon afterwards Gir. vii. 310. took place in the Church of St Sulpice, where the part of reur,iv. 157, Hist. des the Goddess of Reason was performed by Madame Momoro, * It is a most curious circumstance that exactly the same thing had been done at Constantinople, six hundred years before, by the French Crusaders, who stormed the Byzantine capital. "In the cathedral of St Sophia," says Gibbon, "the ample veil of the sanctuary was rent asunder, for the sake of the golden fringe; and the altar, a monument of art and riches, was broken in pieces, and shared among the captors. A prostitute was seated on the throne of the Patriarch, and that daughter of Belial, as she is styled, sang and danced in the church, to ridicule the hymns and processions of the Orientals. After stripping the gems and pearls, they converted the chalices into drinking-cups, and they wife of the printer, and the intimate friend of Hébert. She appeared to the crowd of worshippers in the attire in which Venus displayed herself to Paris; but to her credit it must be added, her shame was such that she fainted on the altar. CHAP. 1793. 47. decrees of Paris. The municipality, elated by the success of their efforts to overturn the Christian religion, and the countenance Atheistical they had received in their designs from the National the munici Convention, lost no time in adopting the most decisive pality of measures for its entire extirpation. All the relics preserved in the churches of Paris were ordered to be deposited in the commune, and the loudest applause shook the hall, when the section of Quinze-Vingts brought the shirt of Saint Louis, long the object of esteem, to be burned on the altar of Reason. On the 11th November the popular society of the Musée entered the hall of the municipality, exclaiming, "Vive la Raison!" and carrying on the top of a pole the half-burnt remains of several books, among others the breviaries, and the Old and New Testament, "which have expiated in a great fire," said their president, "all the fooleries which they have made the human race commit." Taking advantage of the enthusiasm which this announcement excited, Hébert proposed and carried a resolution for the demolition of the whole of the steeples of Paris, on the ground Nov. 11. that they were "repugnant to the principles of equality." On the same day, a decree was passed for the destruction of all the sculpture on Notre Dame, excepting that on the two lateral portals, which were to be saved, Chaumette said, "because Dupiers had there traced his planetary system." Finally, on the 23d November, atheism in trampled under foot the most venerable objects of the Christian worship. Nor were the repositories of the royal dead secure from violation. In the Church of the Apostles, the tombs of the Emperors were rifled; and it is said that, after six centuries, the corpse of Justinian was found without any signs of decay or putrefaction."-GIBBON, vol. xi. 237. Is this the History of 1201 or 1793 -of the sack of Constantinople, or the orgies of the Revolution? National character seems indelible by any length of time. "Cœlum, non animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt." XIV. 1793. Nov. 23. CHAP. France reached its extreme point, by a decree of the municipality ordering the immediate closing of all the churches, and placing the whole priests under surveillance. At the same period they gave decisive proof of the bloody use they were to make of their power, by ordering lists of all the persons who were suspected, and all who had at any time signed anti-revolutionary petitions, Hist. Parl. to be sent to the forty-eight sections of Paris, and in some sections they refused passports to them, when desirous of leaving the city.1 1 Journal No. 318. xxx. 200, 204. 48. Universal ment of re ligion, and closing of the churches. The services of religion were now universally abandoned. The pulpits were deserted throughout all the abandon- revolutionised districts; baptisms ceased; the burial service was no longer heard; the sick received no communion; the dying no consolation. A heavier anathema than that of Papal power pressed upon the peopled realm of France the anathema of Heaven, inflicted by the madness of her own inhabitants. The village bells were silent; Sunday was obliterated. Infancy entered the world without a blessing; age left it without a hope. In lieu of the services of the church, the licentious fêtes of the new system were performed by the most abandoned females; it appeared as if the Christian worship had been succeeded by the orgies of the Babylonian priests, or the grossness of the Hindoo theocracy. On every tenth day a revolutionary leader ascended the pulpit, and preached atheism to the bewildered audience; Marat was universally deified; and even the instrument of death was sanctified by the name of the "Holy Guillotine." It might well be called so how many martyrs did it bring to light! On all the public cemeteries the inscription was placed, "Death is an Eternal Sleep." The comedian Monvel, in the church of St Roch, carried impiety to its utmost length. "God! if you exist," said la Terreur, he, "avenge your injured name. I bid you defiance. 2 Deux Amis, xii. 67, 73, 74. Lac. x. 308, 309, 331. Toul. iv. 124. Mig. ii. 299. Souv. de iv. 149, 150. You remain silent; you dare not launch your thunders; who, after this, will believe in your existence ? "2 It is XIV. 1793. by slower means, and the operation of unfailing laws, that CHAP. the decrees of Providence are accomplished. A more convincing proof of divine government than the destruction of the blasphemer was about to be afforded; the annihilation of the guilty by their own hands, and as the consequence of the passions which they themselves had unchained. "Deus patiens," says St Augustin, "quia æternus.* 49. excessive of manners. The most sacred relations of life were at the same period placed on a new footing, suited to the extravagant General and ideas of the times. Marriage was declared a civil con- dissoluteness tract, binding only during the pleasure of the contracting parties. Divorce immediately became general: the corruption of manners reached a pitch unknown during the worst days of the monarchy; the vices of the marquises and countesses of the time of Louis XV. descended to the shopkeepers and artisans of Paris. So indiscriminate did concubinage become, that, by a decree of the Convention, bastards were declared entitled to an equal share of the succession with legitimate children. Mademoiselle Arnould, a celebrated comedian, expressed the public feeling when she called "Marriage the Sacrament of Adultery." The divorces in Paris, in the first three months of 1793, were 562, while the marriages were only 1785—a proportion probably unexampled among mankind. The consequences soon became apparent. Before the era of the Consulate, one-half of the whole births in Paris were illegitimate; and at this day, notwithstanding the 79. Lac. apparent reformation of manners which has taken place Burke, viii. since the Restoration, every third child to be seen in the Peace. streets of Paris is a bastard.1 1 Dupin, i. x. 332, 333. 176. Reg. Confisca A decree of the Convention soon after suppressed all 50. the public schools and colleges, even those of medicine Conte and surgery. Their whole revenues were confiscated. property of Even the academies which had become so celebrated in and the European history, by the illustrious men by whom they Sept. 7. * "God is patient because Eternal." hospitals poor. |