An American, Christian Evangelist says... "The French Revolution began as a radical form of democracy, and rapidly devolved into totalitarianism because they lacked a Higher Moral Frame of Reference."
(Note that “Higher Moral Frame of Reference” is a euphemism for Scripture, and in this case, specifically The Bible. Presumably his point is that the reign of terror associated with the French Revolution can be blamed on atheism?)
The king had unlimited authority, governing by divine right – his right to rule deemed to come from God. Members of the clergy formed the First Estate. Nobles and the aristocracy formed the Second Estate and the Third Estate consisted of everyone else: Peasants (mainly living in poverty); working people in cities; and the prosperous middle class (merchants, lawyers, government officials). It was the Third Estate who paid all the tax - and they were the people who could least afford it. The middle class were also troubled by their lack of social status as being part of the third estate. During the 1700's, ideas about freedom were becoming more widespread, notably from the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau who argued for fairness and basic human rights for all. And this idea resonated with the people, as it always has done.
France in the 18th century was full of new ideas in particular a bitter and resentful feeling towards the church, which was judged by ordinary people to be corrupt, just like the monarchy it supported, uncaring about the poor, avoiding taxes and supporting the nobility. It was rebellion against the corrupt church which sparked the Revolution. To overthrow the corruption meant destroying the power of the church. A new, just society with no kings or priests was the vision, but without a democratic framework, a dictatorship took control, and a dictatorship is always dangerous regardless of any good intentions of the leaders.
In 1788 the government was almost bankrupt and representatives of the three estates met at Versailles.The third estate insisted that all three estates be merged into one National Assembly with a constitution, and each representative having one vote. The king and the first two estates refused these demands so the representatives of the third estate declared themselves the National Assembly of France so Louis XVI publicly supported a National Assembly, while privately gathering troops to break it up. The voting arangements for the Assembly were rigged so that the first two estates (who represented a few hundred thousand people) outnumberd the votes of the third estate, who represented 25 million people.
Meanwhile, the people of France took the law into their own hands. On July 14, 1789, a huge crowd stormed the Bastille in Paris to acquire arms to defend themselves against the king's army. A revolutionary city government was created in Paris and peasants rose up against the ruling noble families, many of whom fled the country over the next few years. These events changed the king's mind about attacking the Assembly.
In August 1789, the Assembly decreed the abolition of feudal taxes on peasants and the tax advantages of the clergy and nobles, guaranteeing the same basic rights to all citizens, including "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression" as well as representative government. The assembly drafted a constitution which made France a limited monarchy with a one-house legislature and divided the country into 83 regions called departments, each with elected councils for local government. This Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was influenced by Thomas Jefferson (and Lafayette) and is arguably the most important document of its type in the entire history of human rights.
However, the right to vote and hold public office was limited to male citizens who paid a certain amount of taxes (less than 12% of the population). So whilst the declaration hinted at democracy, France remained an authoritarian regime for e population remained under the thumb of an authoritarian regime.
The Assembly seized the property of the Roman Catholic Church (10% of all the land in the country) and much of this was sold off to members of the middle class in order to pay some of the nation's huge debt. It also reorganised the Catholic Church and legal system in France, requiring judges, priests and bishops to be elected, with religious tolerance extended to Protestants and Jews. By September 1791, the National Assembly believed that the revolution was over. It disbanded at the end of the month to make way for the newly elected Legislative Assembly.
The new Assembly, made up mainly of representatives of the middle class, opened on Oct. 1, 1791. But Louis XVI remained opposed to the Assembly and plotted with aristocrats to overthrow this new government. In addition, public opinion became bitterly divided and the Assembly's religious policy angered many Catholics. Then in 1792 the new government went to war against the king's allies (Austria and Prussia) but the foreign armies defeated the French forces and invaded. Louis XVI made clear his hope for the victory of the invaders which resulted in an angry reaction by many people demanding that the king be dethroned and the people of Paris imprisoned the royal family.
The Assembly then called for a National Convention to be chosen in an election open to most French males age 21 or older and to develop a new constitution.
A new phase in the revolution began - the Convention advertised its principles as "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." but France was still not a democracy. Louis XVI was placed on trial and found guilty of treason, punishable by the death penalty. He was guillotined on Jan. 21, 1793. The revolution gradually grew more violent, as radical leaders (notably Robespierre, Danton, and Marat) took over the Convention, destroying any ambition of democracy that it may have had. In June 1793, the Convention expelled and arrested opponents to the radicals. Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated in the aftermath and the radicals conscripted a new army to fight opposition in France and a war against other European nations.
This new version of the government was an out and out dictatorship - it suspended civil rights and political freedom and its so-called “Committee of Public Safety” took over the actual rule of France, controlling local governments, the armed forces, and other institutions. The committee was led by Robespierre, Lazare Carnot, and Bertrand Barere and declared a policy of terror against rebels, supporters of the king and anyone else who publicly disagreed with them. Hundreds of thousands of suspects were jailed and 18,000 death sentences by guillotine were carried out during the Reign of Terror. Eventually the radicals fought among themselves - Robespierre had Danton and other former leaders executed. On July 27 the Convention aligned with public opinion and turned against Robespierre - he was executed the next day. A new government was formed called the Directory with a two-house legislature. Voting rights were still limited to men who paid a certain amount of taxes, so France was still not a democracy.
While French armies began an invasion of neighbouring European countries, The Directory faltered due to opposition from supporters of the monarchy and in October 1799, a number of political leaders turned to the heroic general Napoleon Bonaparte, who drafted a new constiturion that secured his own election as First Consul – making him the most powerful person in France, and First Consul for life. The Revolution was over but France was still far from being a democracy. The next period in its hisory was the Naploenoic Wars which founded the French Empire ruling 44 million people across Europe, but by 1815 the Empire had collapsed after Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo.
Louis XVIII then became King, as France turned to monarchy again, until the revolution of 1830 when a more liberal monarchy was founded by Louis-Philippe. In 1848 France found itself in revolution again as the monarchy was overthrown and the French Second Republic was created. On 2 December 1848, Louis Napoleon (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) was elected President, largely on peasant support. In 1851 he suspended the elected assembly and established the Second French Empire, which lasted until 1871 when France's loss in the Franco-Prussian War marked his downfall. It took nearly another 100 years - until in 1944, France allowed all of its citizens, including women, to vote.
Atheism and the French Revolution
The French Revolution enabled people to think freely about God and religion for the first time. Prior to this, it was too dangerous to publicly admit to being an atheist, such thoughts were punishable by imprisonmen or even death. The Revolution destroyed the power of the Church and the clergy, perceived by ordinary people as corrupt. Pierre D'Holbach's book, 'Système de la Nature' which was published in 1770, is a milestone in the philosophy of religion and possibly the first openly atheist work. Essentially it describes the universe in terms of the philosophy of materialism. The mind is identified as a function of the brain, there is no "soul" without a living body, etc. What made the book so infamous was that it explicitly denies the existence of God, explaining that belief in a "higher being" is the product of fear, lack of understanding, and anthropomorphism. The Roman Catholic Church and Voltaire, among others, strongly denounced the work.
It is often claimed by Christian apologists that the leaders of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror were atheists. Fontenelle, Saint-Evremond, Freret, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Meslier, La Mettrie, D'Alembert, Diderot Rousseau and Robespierre are better described as deists. Christian apologists also confuse "anti-theism" with atheism. The revolution sparked a ferocious and bloody anti-theistic trend, but such violence and hatred towards the clergy is not required by atheism. It was the corruption and greed of the church that sparked these actions.
The French Revolution made "unbelief" acceptable and the irreligious ideas of the Enlightenment as a whole spread from France across Europe and to the American colonies where the Founding Fathers were mainly deists.
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