Worship of the Reason and To be it supreme

The worship of the Reason , the worship To be it Supreme , or the theophilanthropism are, in France, a whole of events and festivals civic and monks which took place of end 1792 with 1794 (especially years II and III of the Revolution), often at the instigation of personalities anti-catholics.

For the exact significance of the " term; culte" , to see detailed article Worship.

Context

These " cultes" were propagated in the climate of insecurity which was that of the threat of external aggression, in particular that of the invasion by the Prussian troops. The Manifeste of Brunswick of July 25th 1792 employed awkward terms indeed.

These " cultes" were elements of the Déchristianisation which accompanied the French revolution. They found their justification in a certain form of civic resistance, the research of the defense of the assets of the French revolution, in particular freedom. These " cultes" had their apogee during the Terreur, with the " culte" to be it supreme.

Philosophical origins

Philosophically, these " cultes" proceed of the Syncrétisme of the Lumières, the Déisme of Voltaire, and especially the ideas of Rousseau which Robespierre took as a starting point.

The worships wanted to be an expression of the ideals of the Lumières: freedom (expression,…), equality. It should be noted that a new declaration of the human rights and the Citizen was installation in 1793, compared to that of 1789, and that the places of worship were closed as from May 1793.

Politically, one can bring them closer to a radical Jacobinisme, especially in the supreme phase of worship Être.

Worship of the Reason

After the Massacres of September (September 2nd 1792), several churches were transformed into temples of the Reason, in particular the church Saint-Paul Saint-Louis in the Marsh.

The " culte" appeared in 1793 and 1794 (year II and III) by processions esques Carnaval, examinations of church S, ceremonies iconoclasts, ceremonies with the Martyr S, etc

The worship of the Reason started to develop in Province, particularly with Lyon and in the Center, where it was organized by representatives on mission often close to the hebertism.

The movement was radicalized while arriving at Paris with the festival of Freedom at the cathedral Notre-Dame on November 10th 1793, organized by Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette. The " culte" was celebrated by a beauty called goddess of the Raison.

Joseph Fouché (in the Nievre and in Coast-with Or) and Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette (in Paris) was among the instigators of these events with the Hébertistes.

The churches were closed on November 24th 1793, and the catholic worship was prohibited.

The most touched areas were Burgundy and departments of the current Center area, the Paris basin, the region of Lion, north, and the north of Languedoc.

Is, the large-west, Aquitaine (except the Lot-et-Garonne) were relatively saved.

The chart comprises certain affinities with the chart of the sworn in priests of 1791 (Timothy Tackett).

Worship To be it Supreme

A decree of the 18 floréal year II (May 7th 1794), adopted by the mountain Convention on a report/ratio of Robespierre (Comité of public hello) instituted a calendar of republican festivals marking the values whose the Republic was claimed and substituent with the catholic festivals. Moreover, it established the worship with the Supreme Being , which was juxtaposed with the worship of the Reason.

Robespierre, had highly tackled the atheistic tendencies and the policy of dechristianization of the ultra-revolutionaries (hebertists), who had instituted the Worship of the Reason at the end of 1793.

He opposed a natural religion - recognition of the supreme existence Être and to them Immortalité - and a rational worship (institution of the festivals devoted to the civic virtues) of which the goal was, according to him, " to develop good citizenship and morals républicaine".

The Supreme worship Être was a worship deist, influenced by the thought of the philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, and consisted of a " religion" which did not interact with the world and did not intervene in the destiny of the men.

The " culte" être supreme resulted in a series of festivals civic, intended periodically to bring together the citizens and with “refonder” the Cité around the divine idea, but especially to promote especially social and abstract values like the Friendship, Fraternity, Mankind, Childhood, Youth or Happiness.

The festival To be it supreme

The supreme festival Être , celebrated the 20 meadow year II (June 8th 1794), is, for a few hours, the demonstration of this mystical, moral and civic unanimity that Maximilien de Robespierre considers for the future like condition of peace and happiness.

The supreme festival Être was a great success through France and was that which one preserved visible traces longest.

The most touched areas were the Paris basin, Normandy, north, the region of Lion, Languedoc and Provence, Aquitaine, Burgundy.

The saved areas were the Haut-Rhin, and the west to a certain extent.

The civic festivals remained concentrated in the Paris basin and in Normandy, region of Lion and in the Rhone-native corridor.

Course of the festival

This day, of the Tileries to the Field-of-March, music of François-Joseph Gossec and Etienne Nicolas Méhul rythment walk. Robespierre precedes the deputies by the Convention of which he is the president. It only advances, and for the circumstance it adorned a tight celestial blue dress of a tri-colored scarf. It holds a bouquet of flower and ears with the hand. The huge crowd, arrival communier also with this large spectacle, is scheduled by Jacques-Louis David. In front of the statue of Wisdom, Robespierre puts fire at the mannequins which symbolize Atheism, the Ambition, Selfishness and Simplicité distorts it.

In the troop of the deputies of Convention, during the ceremony, one makes fun, one chatters, one refuses to walk to the step. In spite of the major impression produced by this festival, the supreme worship Être was far from creating the moral unit between the revolutionists and was to even cause, shortly after its setting-up, a political crisis within the revolutionary government.

Posterity

According to Raquel Capurro, the " culte" of the Large-Being developed by Auguste Count and his religion of the humanity which it developed in the phase known as religious of the Positivisme is a heritage of the worship of the Reason and supreme worship Être.

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