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Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Maximilien Robespierre:
The Cult of the Supreme Being
Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was one of the leaders of
the Committee of Public Safety, the effective governing body of
France during the most radical phase of the revolution.
Although this period - from mid 1793 to mid 1794 is usually
known as the reign of terror, it was also a period of very effective
government. Many of the changes which later enable Napoleon to
dominate Europe for a generation were begun by the Committee.
The leaders of this revolution attempted, perhaps more than
any other revolutionary leaders before or since, to totally transform
human society in every way. For instance the Revolution abolished
the traditional calendar with its Christian associations. Some
were anti-religion, but Robespierre was interested in religion,
and promoted a state cult, first of Supreme Reason and then later
of the Supreme Being. This a case of Deism being made a state
religion.
The failure of the revolution to transform society totally
had provided matter for political thinkers ever since.
The day forever fortunate has arrived, which the French people
have consecrated to the Supreme Being. Never has the world which
He created offered to Him a spectacle so worthy of His notice.
He has seen reigning on the earth tyranny, crime, and imposture.
He sees at this moment a whole nation, grappling with all the
oppressions of the human race, suspend the course of its heroic
labors to elevate its thoughts and vows toward the great Being
who has given it the mission it has undertaken and the strength
to accomplish it.
Is it not He whose immortal hand, engraving on the heart of man
the code of justice and equality, has written there the death
sentence of tyrants? Is it not He who, from the beginning of time,
decreed for all the ages and for all peoples liberty, good faith,
and justice?
He did not create kings to devour the human race. He did not create
priests to harness us, like vile animals, to the chariots of kings
and to give to the world examples of baseness, pride, perfidy,
avarice, debauchery, and falsehood. He created the universe to
proclaim His power. He created men to help each other, to love
each other mutually, and to attain to happiness by the way of
virtue.
It is He who implanted in the breast of the triumphant oppressor
remorse and terror, and in the heart of the oppressed and innocent
calmness and fortitude. It is He who impels the just man to hate
the evil one, and the evil man to respect the just one. It is
He who adorns with modesty the brow of beauty, to make it yet
more beautiful. It is He who makes the mother's heart beat with
tenderness and joy. It is He who bathes with delicious tears the
eyes of the son pressed to the bosom of his mother. It is He who
silences the most imperious and tender passions before the sublime
love of the fatherland. It is He who has covered nature with charms,
riches, and majesty. All that is good is His work, or is Himself.
Evil belongs to the depraved man who oppresses his fellow man
or suffers him to be oppressed.
The Author of Nature has bound all mortals by a boundless chain
of love and happiness. Perish the tyrants who have dared to break
it!
Republican Frenchmen, it is yours to purify the earth which they
have soiled, and to recall to it the justice that they have banished!
Liberty and virtue together came from the breast of Divinity.
Neither can abide with mankind without the other.
O generous People, would you triumph over all your enemies? Practice
justice, and render the Divinity the only worship worthy of Him.
O People, let us deliver ourselves today, under His auspices,
to the just transports of a pure festivity. Tomorrow we shall
return to the combat with vice and tyrants. We shall give to the
world the example of republican virtues. And that will be to honor
Him still.
The monster which the genius of kings had vomited over France
has gone back into nothingness. May all the crimes and all the
misfortunes of the world disappear with it! Armed in turn with
the daggers of fanaticism and the poisons of atheism, kings have
always conspired to assassinate humanity. If they are able no
longer to disfigure Divinity by superstition, to associate it
with their crimes, they try to banish it from the earth, so that
they may reign there alone with crime.
O People, fear no more their sacrilegious plots! They can no more
snatch the world from the breast of its Author than remorse from
their own hearts. Unfortunate ones, uplift your eyes toward heaven!
Heroes of the fatherland, your generous devotion is not a brilliant
madness. If the satellites of tyranny can assassinate you, it
is not in their power entirely to destroy you. Man, whoever thou
mayest be, thou canst still conceive high thoughts for thyself.
Thou canst bind thy fleeting life to God, and to immortality.
Let nature seize again all her splendor, and wisdom all her empire!
The Supreme Being has not been annihilated.
It is wisdom above all that our guilty enemies would drive from
the republic. To wisdom alone it is given to strengthen the prosperity
of empires. It is for her to guarantee to us the rewards of our
courage. Let us associate wisdom, then, with all our enterprises.
Let us be grave and discreet in all our deliberations, as men
who are providing for the interests of the world. Let us be ardent
and obstinate in our anger against conspiring tyrants, imperturbable
in dangers, patient in labors, terrible in striking back, modest
and vigilant in successes. Let us be generous toward the good,
compassionate with the unfortunate, inexorable with the evil,
just toward every one. Let us not count on an unmixed prosperity,
and on triumphs without attacks, nor on all that depends on fortune
or the perversity of others. Sole, but infallible guarantors of
our independence, let us crush the impious league of kings by
the grandeur of our character, even more than by the strength
of our arms.
Frenchmen, you war against kings; you are therefore worthy to
honor Divinity. Being of Beings, Author of Nature, the brutalized
slave, the vile instrument of despotism, the perfidious and cruel
aristocrat, outrages Thee by his very invocation of Thy name.
But the defenders of liberty can give themselves up to Thee, and
rest with confidence upon Thy paternal bosom. Being of Beings,
we need not offer to Thee unjust prayers. Thou knowest Thy creatures,
proceeding from Thy hands. Their needs do not escape Thy notice,
more than their secret thoughts. Hatred of bad faith and tyranny
burns in our hearts, with love of justice and the fatherland.
Our blood flows for the cause of humanity. Behold our prayer.
Behold our sacrifices. Behold the worship we offer Thee.
This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook.
The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted
texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World
history.
Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the
document is copyright. Permission is granted for electronic copying,
distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal
use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source.
No permission is granted for commercial use of the Sourcebook.
(c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997
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© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 15 November 2024 [CV]
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