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 REVOLUTION

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REVOLUTION

that of Fleurus (July, 1794), reassured the patriots of the Convention; those of Cholet, Mans, and Savenay marked the checking of the Vendean in- surrection. Lyons and Toulon were recaptured, Alsace was delivered, and the victory of Fleurus (26 June, 1794) gave Belgium to France. 'Wliile danger from abroad was decreasing, Robespierre made the mistake of putting to vote in June the terrible law of 22 Prairial, which still further shortened the summary procedure of the Revolutionary tribunal and allowed sentence to be passed almost without trial even on the members of the Convention. The Convention took fright and the next day struck out this last clause. INIontagnards like Tallien, Billaud- Varenne, and Collot d'Herbois, threatened by Robes- pierre, joined with such Moderates as Boissy d' Anglas and Durand Maillane to bring about the coup d'etat of 9 Thermidor (27 July, 1794). Robes- pierre and his partisans were executed, and the Thermidorian reaction began. The Commune of Paris was suppressed, the Jacobin Club closed, the Revolutionary tribunal disappeared after having sent to the scaffold the public accuser Fouquicr-Tinville and the Terrorist, Carrier, the author of the noyades (drownings) of Nantes. The death of Robespierre was the signal for a change of policy which proved of advantage to the Church; many imprisoned priests were released and many emigre priests re- turned. Not a single law hostile to Catholicism was repealed, but the application of them was greatly relaxed. The religious policy of the Convention became indecisive and changeable. On 21 December, 1794, a .speech of the constitutional bi.shop, Grcgoire, claiming effective liberty of worship, aroused violent murmurings in the Convention, but was applauded by the people; and when in Feb., 179o, the generals and commissaries of the Convention in their negotia- tions with the Vendeans promised them the restora- tion of their religious liberties, the Convention re- turned to the idea supported by Gregoire, and at the suggestion of the Protestant, Boissy d' Anglas, it passed the Law of 3 Venldse (21 Feb., 1795), which marked the enfranchisement of the Catholic Church. This law enacted that the republic should pay salaries to the ministers of no religion, and that-no churches should be reopened, but it declared that the ex- ercise of religion should not be disturbed, and pre- scribed penalties for disturbers. Immediately the constitutional bishops issued an Encyclical for the re-establishment of Catholic worship, but their credit was shaken. The confidence of the faithful was given instead to the non-juring priests who were returning by degrees. These priests were soon so numerous that in April, 1795, the Convention or- dered them to depart within a month under pain of death. This was a fresh outbreak of anti-Catholi- cism. With the fluctuation which thenceforth charac- terized it the Convention soon made a counter-move- ment. On 20 May, 1795, the assembly hall was in- vaded by the mob and the deputy Feraud assassinated. These violences of the Extremists gave some in- fluence to the Moderates, and on 30 May, at the sug- gestion of the Catholic, Lanjuinais, the Convention decreed that (Law of 11 Prairial) the churches not confiscated should be placed at the disposal of citi- zens for the exercise of their religion, but that every priest who wished to officiate in these churches should previously take an oath of submission to the laws; those who refused might legally hold services in private houses. This oath of submission to the laws was much less serious than the oaths formerly pre- scribed by the Revolutionary authorities, and the Abbe Sicard has shown how Emery, Superior General of St. Sulpice, Baus.set, Bishop of Alais and other ecclesiastics were inclined to a policy of pacification and to think that such an oath might be taken. While it seemed to be favouring a more tolerant

policy the Convention met with diplomatic successes, the reward of the military victories: the treaties of Paris with Tuscany, of the Hague with the Bata- vian Republic, of Basle with Spain, gave to France as boundaries the Alps, the Rhine, and the Meuse. But the policy of religious pacification was not lasting. Certain periods of the history of the Convention justify M. Champion's theory that certain religious measures taken by the Revolution- ists were forced upon them by circumstances. The descent of the emigres on the Breton coasts, to be checked by Hoche at Quiberon, aroused fresh at- tacks on the priests. On 6 Sept., 1795 (Law of 20 Frudidor), the Convention exacted the oath of sub- mission to the laws even of priests who officiated in private houses. The Royalist insurrection of 13 Vendemiaire, put down by Bonaparte, provoked a very severe decree against deported priests who should be found on French territory; they were to be sen- tenced to perpetual banishment. Thus at the time when the Convention was disbanding, churches were separated from the State. In theory worship was free; the Law of 29 Sept., 1795 (7 Vendemiaire), on the religious policy, though still far from satisfactory to the clergy, was nevertheless an improvement on the laws of the Terror, but anarchy and the spirit of persecution still disturbed the whole country. Nevertheless France owes to the Convention a num- ber of lasting creations: the Ledger of the Public Debt, the Ecole Polytechnique, the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts, the Bureau of Longitudes, the Institute of France, and the adoption of the decimal system of weights and measures. The vast projects drawn up with regard to primary, secondary, and higher education had almost no results.

The Directory. — In virtue of the so-called "Con- stitution of the year III", promulgated by the Con- vention 23 Sept., 1795, a Directory of five members (27 Oct., 1795) became the executive, and the Coun- cils of Five Hundred and of the Ancients, the legis- lative power. At this time the pubUc treasuries were empty, which was one reason why the people came by degrees to feel the necessity of a strong restorative power. The Directors Carnot, Barras, Letourneur, Rewbell, La Reveilliere-Lcpeaux were averse to Chris- tianity, and in the separation of Church and State saw only a means of annihilating the Church. They wi.shed that even the Constitutional episcopate, though they could not deny its attachment to the new regime, should become extinct by degrees, and when the constitutional bishops died they sought to prevent the election of successors, and multiplied measures against the non-juring priests. The Decree of 16 April, 1796, which made death the penalty for provoking any attempt to overthrow the Republican government was a threat held perpetually over the heads of the non-juring priests. That the Directors really wished to throw difficulties in the way of all kinds of religion, despite theoretical declarations affirming liberty of worship is proved by the Law of 11 April, 1796, which forbade the use of bells and all sorts of pubhc convocation for the exerci.se of religion, under penalty of a year in prison, and, in case of a second offence, of deportation. The Directory having ascertained that despite police interference some non- juring bishops were officiating publicly in Paris, and that before the end of 1796 more than thirty churches or oratories had been opened to non-juring priests in Paris, laid before the Five Hundred a plan which, after twenty days, allowed the expulsion from French soil, without admission to the oath prescribed by the Law of Vendemiaire, all priests who had not taken the Constitutional Oath prescribed in 1790, or the Oath of Liberty and Equality prescribed in 1792; those who after such time should be found in France would be put to death. But amid the discussions to which this prpject gave rise, the revolutionary Social-