Celebrating the Nightmare of Revolution

What did the French people celebrate yesterday? Most of us still have trouble remembering how bloody, how brutal, how unjust and murderous the French Revolution was. We hear the Marseillaise and we see the men and women in uniform and we feel a shiver. It's hard not to feel proud of those who are ready to die for us and for their country.

Le Salon Beige, a very Catholic website and an endless source of information, quotes abbé Laffargue who reminds us of the reality of those events that took place 222 years ago:

On July 14, 1789 in Paris, a gang searching for rifles and ammunition, having entered through the door left open by the governor de Launay (who would be assassinated despite their promise), found seven (7) prisoners whom they liberated: four counterfeiters, a libertine and two madmen. Thus began a profoundly anti-Christian revolution: on August 11, 1789, the tithe, which had allowed the Church to insure its social mission in schools and hospitals, was abolished. On October 28, the Assembly suspended dictatorially monastic recruiting; on November 2, ecclesiastic goods were seized. On February 13, 1790, monastic vows were forbidden and the contemplative orders abolished. On February 23, the Constituent Assembly decided that decrees were henceforth to be read from the pulpit by the priests; on March 17, the goods of the Church, having been declared national property, were put on sale; on July 12, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was adopted: priests and bishops were to be "elected". If the clergy wished to remain faithful to the Pope and not make a schism, they were condemned to death (as were those who hid them or or who practiced their sacraments). Out of one hundred thirty bishops, only four accepted the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. One hundred thousand priests, out of one hundred and thirty thousand, refused. Four thousand of them would leave the priesthood. On May 27, 1792, a decree from the "Legislative" ordered the deportation of "refractory" priests. On September 2, 1792, one hundred fourteen priests were assassinated, at the Carmelite convent in Paris, on rue de Vaugirard. Today it is Catholic seminary and university, but no sign, no directing arrows point out the spot where they were martyred. The steps in the garden hold a marble plaque: "Hic ceciderunt" (here, they perished.)

It was because King Louis XVI (who was in truth very liberal) opposed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, after Pope Pius VI had condemned it in March 1791, and the deportation of priests, that he was stripped of his power and guillotined on January 21, 1793, dying as a martyr.

To say that the so-called "French" Revolution (95% of the population was Catholic and faithful to the Church) was good and that the "excesses" of the Terror were less so, is an (ideological) imposture.

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As always, it was not the "people" who rose up, but the forces of Evil against the people...

According to Wikipedia, 150 priests were killed at the Carmelite Convent:

The first instance of massacre occurred when 24 non-juring priests were being transported to the prison of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which had become a national prison of the revolutionary government. They were attacked by a mob that quickly killed them all as they were trying to escape into the prison, then mutilated the bodies, "with circumstances of barbarity too shocking to describe" according to the British diplomatic dispatch. Of 284 prisoners, 135 were killed, 27 were transferred, 86 were set free, and 36 had uncertain fates. In the afternoon of 2 September 150 priests in the convent of Carmelites were massacred, mostly by sans-culottes. On 3 and 4 September, groups broke into other Paris prisons, where they murdered the prisoners, who, some feared, were counter-revolutionaries who would aid the invading Prussians. From 2 to 7 September, summary trials took place in all Paris prisons. Almost 1,400 prisoners were condemned and executed, in truth half the detained persons from the previous days. Among the victims were more than 200 priests, almost 100 Swiss guards and many political prisoners and aristocrats.

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Restif de la Bretonne saw the bodies piled high in front of the Châtelet and witnessed atrocities that he recorded in Les Nuits de Paris (1793).

Note: There is much more on the Civil Constitution of the Clergy at Wikipedia. Here is just one short excerpt that struck me:

Anti-Catholic persecution by the State would intensify into de-Christianization and propagation of the Cult of Reason and the Cult of the Supreme Being in 1793–1794. During this time umpteen non-juring priests (note: priests who refused to swear loyalty to the Constitution) were interned in chains on prison-ships in French harbors where most died within a few months from the appalling conditions. This might be seen as an example of an 18th century "concentration camp."

Those interested in the complete text of the civil Constitution of the Clergy, in English, can find it here. It is clear that though they may have had the dream of destroying utterly Christianity, what they really wanted was to control and subjugate it. Cutting the power of the bishops and the priests, forcing them to swear an oath of loyalty or at least limiting their influence, and above all confiscating their wealth were more realistic (and possibly more satisfying) goals.

Note that they thought nothing of deporting recalcitrant priests, and nothing of making caricatures of monks and nuns newly "liberated". from the chains of dogma. They were "high" on a new sense of power, and naive enough to believe that people would be grateful for their efforts. This incredulity when faced with dissent is one of the hallmarks of what we have come to call the "Left". Note too that that the "excesses" of the Revolution were excused then, just as they are today, and just as the "excesses" of Islam are rationalized as not having any real significance.

At the top, a fascinating plate showing a priest taking an oath of fidelity to the Constitution:

"I swear to uphold, with all my power, the Constitution"

Below, a caricature of monks and nuns celebrating their "liberation". In their inability to comprehend the spiritual needs of people, the Revolution assumes that the nuns will now be "free" to be women. The image is in the United States Library of Congress with this explanation:

"Print shows monks and nuns enjoying their new found liberty, some are loading possessions onto horses and wagons, some embrace, one couple kisses while another rides off together on horseback." Translation: "Decree of the National Assembly which dissolved all orders of monks and nuns. Tuesday, February 16, 1790. How happy is this day, my sisters! Yes, the peaceful names of "mother" and "wife" are much preferable to that of "nun", they give you all the Rights of Nature, thus to us." The speaker is a former monk, addressing the former nuns. The humor of the original derives from the deliberate ambiguity about whether the monk is talking about his being given the Rights of Nature, or the nuns themselves.


Note: As in my previous post on the Champs-Elysées, some of this material may have appeared already at GalliaWatch. I feel that these facts about the Revolution warrant repetition, especially on "Bastille Day". We do forget that the Revolution had, as its major goal, the dismemberment of the French Catholic Church, and that this intense hatred of the Church is one profound reason why the French Republic today is so willing to turn the country over to enemies of Christianity - Islam, anti-sovereignty multiculturalists, unethical social ideologues, atheists, and all the others...