REVOLUTION
15
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repealed, but the application of them was greatly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-
