Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution

by R.R. Palmer

The cult of Reason, for Saint-André, was indistinguishable from the cult of country. It was a religion of patriotism, but patriotism did not mean a narrowly national pride; it meant public spirit, good citizenship, social morality, or what Robespierre referred to as virtue; for the idea of country, la patrie, merged imperceptibly with the idea of society itself. The society of the Republic was a moral community, deeply committed to a gospel of its own, concerned for human dignity, competing actively with the Christian clergy for the uplifting of human souls. But it did not compete on equal terms. Convinced that the new gospel of country should be shared by all, that it was in the nature of man to be a “citizen” but that religious faith was a mere acquired and variable characteristic, the leaders of the Republic shut up the older religions behind closed doors, and for processions in the streets, for public ritual, for mass demonstrations, granted a monopoly to the civic cult.