3
The limits of dechristianization:
Religion and Revolution in the district of
Montpellier, 1789-99.
Katie Alloway
4
Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Continued Catholic worship
Initial hysteria: The Civil Constitution of the clergy
Catholicism against deportation and the Cult of the Supreme Being
Retained Catholic practices in town and country: Years V-VII
2. The Revolutionary festival
Lost chances: The Festival of the Federation
Religious inventions: The cult of the Supreme Being
Monotony in diversity: The organised festivals of the Directory
3. Symbols of the Republic
2
3
7
8
10
15
18
19
21
22
28
Time: The Revolutionary Calendar
Space: The Liberty tree and Temple of Reason
Sound: The Church bell
29
33
37
Conclusion
Appendices
Bibliography
39
43
46
5
Introduction.
In December 1791 the parish priest of St Pierre in Montpellier remarked that ‘the laws
only have power when under the empire of religion’.1 The statement was a reflection
on the divisive events that occurred during that year, the most important of which
were the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the civic oath. Both actions marked the
beginning of a drama that intensified with the successive regimes of the French
Revolution, and as the authority of the church was no longer wanted within the
Republic. As a result, by 1795 the state and church were two separate bodies,
continually fighting amongst each other to gain or maintain influence over the
Catholic villagers of France. The revolutionaries named the era before 1789 the
ancien régime, during which the church commanded a powerful social authority that
brought with it great power. This power was to be the subject of the most violent
attempts to nullify the influence of the church, in order to strengthen that of the
Revolution. Therefore, the study of the ‘dechristianization’ of year II is an excellent
place to begin our analysis of the historiography of our proposed period.
The strongest period of debate concerning the level of ‘Dechristianization’ or
‘Christianization’ in revolutionary France appeared in the 1960s and 1970s, when
many historians began to combine the techniques of the ‘histoire des mentalités’ with
religious sociology. It was pioneered by early historians such as Alphonse Aulard and
Albert Mathiez, who questioned the destabilising effects of year II and explained the
partial justifiability of Robespierre’s cult of Reason. The subject re-opened with the
work of Gabriel Lebras in the late 1950s, then continued to Michel Vovelle, who
attempted to place the short-term rupture of Catholicism in 1793-1794 in the context
of the longue durée of the eighteenth century decline in religious practice. Vovelle
attempted to identify the dechristianizers of the Revolution, representatives en mission
and administrators, who still experienced an intensive dechristianization programme
even in Montpellier, despite its distance from Paris.2 However, this group did not
focus on the reactions of the community to revolutionary cults imposed on them
1
ADH L3878 Observations of the decree of 23 December, the cure of St Pierre, Montpellier, 29
December 1791.
2
Michel Vovelle, The Revolution against the Church : From Reason to Supreme Being (Cambridge,
1991)
6
during the blaze of 1793-1794, nor did they discuss the effects of these reactions on
the popularity of the Catholic religion.
The main arguments of our present study enter here, into the arena of religious
removal and reinvention, and its success in revolutionary Montpellier. There have
been many local studies concerning the effects of the Revolution written since the
1970s, such as that of Provence by Michel Vovelle, and there is a small amount
written about Montpellier and the Herault. Work began on clarifying the events of the
Revolution as a whole in the late 1800s by Joseph Duval-Jouve, and the book is still
widely cited by historians of the region.3
The most recent authority is Gérard
Cholvy, who wrote a variety of works throughout the 1970s and 1980s concerning the
political and religious history of Montpellier. However, these studies only address the
narrative of the events, and concede that to understand the attitude of the people is to
be reliant on suspect sources.4 Also, they provide no information about the cantons
surrounding Montpellier, which remain a historical mystery and must be addressed
using primary sources only. A comparable study is that of Suzanne Desan in the
Yonne. Desan addresses some of the fundamental aspects of lay religious resistance,
demonstrating how the Yonne was much like the district of Montpellier. Both refused
to surrender its traditional Catholic beliefs and practices. Similarly, both fought hard
after the fall of Robespierre for the political right to worship, even transforming their
rituals and practicing without a minister.5 Our study attempts to reveal how the layled mass liberated the people, and was accepted and even ignored by local
administrators whose political strength, particularly after the fall of Robespierre, was
profoundly weak.
This weakness showed itself predominantly in the revolutionary festivals of the
Revolution. Beginning with the festival of the Federation on the 14th July 1790, but
exploding into life at the festival of the Supreme Being of 20 Prairial year II, national
and decadi festivals attempted to aid the penetration of republican ideals, using a
system of commemoration and moral celebration, coupled with a new revolutionary
calendar which began on 22nd September 1792, and set of symbols that strengthened
3
Joseph Duval-Jouve, Montpellier pendant la Révolution 2 volumes (Montpellier, 1879)
Gérard Cholvy, Le diocèse de Montpellier (Paris, 1976), p. 182.
5
Suzanne Desan, Reclaiming the sacred: Lay Religion and Popular Politics in Revolutionary France
(Cornell University, 1990)
4
7
the removal and reinvention of the Catholic religion. Mona Ozouf is the principal
authority on this subject, and along with François Furet and Maurice Agulhon, she has
shown the importance of symbols, language and ritual in inventing and transmitting
revolutionary ideals. The festivals represented a new secular religion, echoing the
work of Emile Durkheim in ‘The essential forms of the Religious life’.6 Durkheim
rightly argued that the essential function of religion was to provide social solidarity.
This point was certainly evident in the district of Montpellier, where administrators
failed to reprimand religious social gatherings in fear of disrupting social harmony
and creating further ruptures in the fabric of the community. Furthermore, Ozouf
described how the festivals did not succeed as a religious ritual even in the short term,
most French people retaining their allegiance to Catholicism, and this is also evident
in Montpellier. What Ozouf neglected, along with Guillaume Lacquement in his 1989
thesis on the festival in Montpellier, was the role of the weakened leadership of the
administrator outside the realms of the festival, he who passively prevented the
success of new religious rituals by allowing refractory priests, lay masses and teachers
to hold authority over the community.
The aim of this study therefore is to highlight the failure of various efforts to impose a
mediated or reinvented version of the church on the district of Montpellier. It will
underline the role of the refractory priest, the lay masses and the teacher in retaining
and strengthening the power of Catholicism in the area, and refute the new cults,
festivals and symbols proposed by the Revolution. It will ask whether the strength of
the local administration was ever enough to encourage the severance of the
community from their priest, who acted as a symbol of Catholic worship and acted as
a guide both spiritually and socially. Finally, it will attempt to shed some light on the
lesser known cantons that have been mentioned in passing attached to the histories of
Montpellier, but which also deserve recognition during this period. In order to reveal
the true feelings of these villagers, it is necessary to delve past the official reports
describing festivals and law implementation, and into the discourse of the decadi and
monthly canton reports of year VI to VIII, and into the letters of the municipal
officers themselves as they conveyed their anguish at the situation of their commune,
allowing us into a world of division, deviance and apathy. This was all underpinned
6
Foreword by Lynn Hunt, in Mona Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution (Harvard University,
1988), p. xi.
8
by the continued and unmistakable power of Catholicism, which rose proudly from
dechristianization to retain its authority over the villagers of Montpellier.
9
Chapter one
Continued Catholic worship
Despite efforts to unify the country under the banner of the Republic where the old
feudal orders no longer existed, the resistance of the ancien régime to new systems of
revolutionary religion and practice divided the country into two opposing sides. It is
true that no reinvention of religion was initially attempted, the objective being instead
to place it in a privileged position as the national religion alongside the Revolution.7
However, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy of 12th July 1790 was the first setback
in this effort, acting contrary to Roman tradition and tearing central religious figures
away from their communities. This devastating blow was never to heal, with the
input of constitutional priests in 1791, dechristianization and urban uprisings of
Montpellier, plus the establishment of an official cult of the Supreme Being in year II,
creating a dynamic of crisis that was to remain until after 1799. 8 The image of the
scandalous refractory priest also changed from one identified with the aristocracy and
the old feudal values in the early 1790’s to that of a powerful protector of traditional
Catholic values later in the period.
Furthermore, Citizens understood their own
strengths, and sought to uphold the Catholic faith without a sacred minister, whilst
showing a complete apathy to unfolding political events. Due to this combined
strength, the reinvention of religion backfired, with change only occurring in policy
and practice, but not in the socio-religious practices of the masses.
This chapter offers the chance to study a wide variety of documents, in order to
understand the resistance of the district to change. The most common source is the
municipal report, most often in response to letters sent from the departmental council.
These sources are useful in detailing the situation of a commune, and often inform of
events that may have upset the public order. However, to understand the underlying
and secretive world of hidden priests, ornaments and worship, the police reports from
the civil or criminal tribunal of Montpellier are invaluable in providing interrogative
evidence of the unlawful acts of the people. Reports of meetings generally detailing
7
8
Alphonse Aulard, Le culte de la raison 1793-1794 (Paris, 1892), p. 199.
Vovelle, The Revolution against the Church, p. 157.
10
decrees or laws made, as well as official speeches, are less effective, as we only glean
the intentions of an action rather than its impact. Finally, books and newspapers are
useful in detailing the events in a secondary context, and allow the historian to
comprehend some of the more subjective views of the time. The limitation of these
documents is that they do not always describe every commune of the district, and
there being 119 communes in total, this is not surprising. However, what they do
offer is a broad overview of both countryside communities and central areas,
representing the density of resistance to religious reinvention across the spectrum.
Initial hysteria: The Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
The ‘honeymoon period’ comprising the first two years of the Revolution was sharply
ended by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the civic oath of 12 July 1790, and
27 November 1790 respectively, and both were severely rejected by the district.9 The
Civil Constitution re-organised the Catholic power structure, and essentially made the
clergy the new civil servants of the state. The civic oath, promulgated on the 2nd
January 1791, was a result of this law, whereupon all priests were required to swear
their allegiance to the state or resign from their positions. In France, 52% of the
clergy refused the oath, this figure being higher in the Herault at 58%, and being the
highest in Montpellier, where 79% refused.10 Some priests did attempt to dispel
belief that preaching the oath was a betrayal of the Catholic faith using pamphlets and
papers. These included Antoine Raymond Monsservin, who believed that it was
religion itself that ordained a minister to preach his submission to the legislative
powers, and M. Bary, priest of Saint Jean-de-Vedas, who described the oath as ‘a duty
that the law imposes upon me’.11 These papers represent at least some acceptance of
the amendments made by the Revolution.
However, these were isolated cases. The Bishop de Malides of Montpellier regarded
the Constitution as ‘temporal’, respecting the scathing brief of the Pope of 13 April
9
Vovelle, The Revolution against the Church, pg. 146.
Figures modified from Tackett, 1986. Quoted in Colin Jones, The Longman Companion to the
French Revolution (London, 1990), p. 247; Cholvy, Le diocese de Montpellier, p. 171.
11
AMM 11.983. Discours au sujet du serment civique, par Antoine Raymond Monsservin, prêtre, 29
février 1791; AMM 11.988. Entretiens patriotiques sur la Constitution Civile de Clergé, par J.
Courdin, 1791; AMM 11.989. Discours , M. Bary, prêtre, vicaire de la paroisse de St. Jean de Védas,
1791.
10
11
1791, and producing equally scathing declarations after his dismissal in February. 12
The unpopular constitutional bishop Dominique Pouderous of Saint Pons, replaced
him, voted in by a majority of 274 votes to 210, but only 56% participated in the
vote.13 At this time, Montpellier also lost its function as the Episcopal seat of the
clergy to Beziers, and constitutional presence began to decline. Indeed, the priests of
four central parishes in the town were refractory, with Monsieur Poujol of St Pierre
being the most avid pamphleteer.14 The negativity of the priest encouraged dissension
amongst the people, most often women, such as in Lunel where an angry group
physically stripped the decree from the public crier of the town, before shredding and
burning it.15 Most opposition appeared as a ‘muted stirring,’ in Montpellier, but by
the spring, growing tensions and divisions between ‘refractory’ and ‘constitutional’
clergy members meant that larger resistance was inevitable.16 Thus, the district was
already displaying resistance to reinvention and change, and this was only to worsen
with the introduction of constitutional priests into refractory areas.
The installation of constitutional priests occurred during the spring and summer of
1791, with many refractory priests fanning the flames of fanaticism and ensuring
suspicion of the new preachers, in order to gain the trust of the community. The
severity of resistance is reflected by the sheer volume of troops deployed into the area
to quell revulsion, standing at 1,500 on the day of the installation in Montpellier and
Cellenueve.
17
The day of the installation of Pouderous at Beziers required 1,590
men, with multiple incidents occurring, gatherings of women, and clashes with the
National Guard.18 This unrest was replicated in several other initiation ceremonies,
such as in Grabels and Frontignan on the 20th May, where the council expressed their
dismay: ‘(the people) allow themselves to insult our new parish priest who they had
respected until recently’. The refractory priests were often encouraging this active
resistance, instilling a feeling of betrayal and hate for constitutional preachers who
were destroying ‘the faith of our fathers’. They targeted vulnerable audiences such as
12
Cholvy, Le diocese de Montpellier, p. 174 ; Duval-Jouve, Montpellier pendant la Révolution, p. 170.
Ibid. p. 183; Robert Laurent, Geneviève Gavignaud, La Révolution Française dans le Languedoc
méditerranéen (Toulouse, 1987), p. 97.
14
Gerard Cholvy, Histoire de Montpellier (Toulouse, 2001), p. 234.
15
Laurent, Gavignaud, La Révolution Française dans le Languedoc Méditerranéen, p. 98.
16
Ibid.
17
Duval-Jouve, Montpellier pendant la Révolution, p. 172.
18
Cholvy, Histoire de Montpellier, p. 234.
13
12
women and children in order to command the commune: ‘These two refractory
priests…insist in the sermon to a mass of children to recognise the new pastor only as
a… perverse man, who has betrayed his religion and conscience in submitting to the
law’.19 Thus, the refractory priest worked in sometimes conniving ways to ensure his
prolonged survival in the district, creating a support structure that would resist the
reinvention of religion for him.
Religious unrest was mirrored by political hysteria, as a group of reactionary
Protestants called the Pouvoir exécutif sought to forcefully impose the constitutional
clergy on the district, committing excesses that included violence and maltreatment,
that further embarrassed the constitutional church. The motto emblazoned on their
oval medals was ‘vivre libre ou mourir’ (live free or die), and during May and June
1791 they chose to intervene and kidnap refractory priests, such as on the 26th June
1791, when Poujol was seized and taken to the central hall, despite his 80 years of
age.20 In order to create further alarm, they also chose to pillage their way through the
town. After many were arrested in August, remnants of the club remained and on the
9-12th October, four heavily armed members with cutlasses, and wearing policemen’s
helmets, menaced the churches and forced ornaments to be surrendered and
congregations to leave.21 In reply to this group, the Contre Pouvoir exécutif was
formed, existing in Montpellier to protect the refractory priests and attack
constitutional ones. Both were quelled by the winter of 1791 as the madness of
constitutional and refractory worship calmed. However, the divisive and reactionary
nature of events resulting from the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the oath
served as an unstable base from which dechristianization was never to take hold in the
district.
Catholicism against deportation and the Cult of the Supreme Being.
Until this point, despite the division of Catholic preachers and their submission to the
state, religion in itself had not been attacked. However, this was to change as views
19
ADH L3878. A messieurs les administrations des Directoires du district de Montpellier et du
département de l’Hérault, Montpellier 20 mai 1791.
20
AMM 11.986. J. Derès, Mémoire Historique sur la horde des brigands de Montpellier, qui se fait
sacrilégement appeler le pouvoir exécutif (Montpellier, 1792), p. 3.
21
Duval-Jouve, Montpellier pendant la Révolution, p. 178 ; AMM 11.984. Ce qui s’est passé à
Montpellier 9,10,11,12 octobre 1791. Anon
13
towards fanaticism and its effects on public order began to harden. Initially, the
effects of the ‘terrible era’ of installations were remedied by the opening of all
churches for worship on the 31st October 1791.22
Adherents to the Revolution
frowned upon this, as two sets of preachers were now in operation causing friction
and unrest, particularly in Montpellier in mid November.23 By January, this tension
was too much, and on the 7th January 1792, churches that were run by refractory
priests were closed. The closure happened in two hours in the district, doors were
closed, locked and sealed from the inside, and the keys taken away.24 If anything, this
effort had a converse effect, as continued and open support for refractory priests
remained. The state failed to realise that the church often created stability rather than
instabilty, and troubled cantons such as Lunel followed the example of Sette and
asked for the reopening of churches as the only way of keeping public tranquillity.25
Countryside communes did not receive all laws, or chose not to implement them,
causing the least amount of public unrest, and allowing refractory priests to continue
preaching about the licentiousness of the Constitution and its church, as in PegarollesDe-Bueges in June 1792.26 The Terror, however, was present in Montpellier. the
harsh montagnarde administration conducted a fierce pursuit of all adversaries of the
regime, a poignant example of this being the erection of the guillotine at Place de
Peyrou. The town did not know a blood bath however, with 23 political and religious
killings between the autumn of 1793 and summer of 1794. It was the refractory
priests submitted for deportation and found hiding who paid the price. Twelve went
infront of the judge, and ten mounted the scaffold, amongst them two cannons of
Montpellier.27 However, even this was not enough to deter public unrest, as it was
now impossible to maintain public order either by allowing or forbidding refractory
worship. As a result, unless the Revolution created its own revolutionary religion and
discarded the old Catholic model, the unrest was to continue, and the ‘weak or
uncivil’ country citizens of communes such as Pignan and Cournonsec would
continue to maintain their divisions with the Republic and each other.28 However,
Various, ‘Compte rendu au conseil de département de l’Hérault par le Directoire, le 16 novembre
1791’ Procès-verbaux des séances de l’assemblée administrative du département de l’Hérault pendent
la Révolution, 1790-1793 (Montpellier, 1889), p. 340.
23
ADH L3878. Extrait du PVDH, 5 janvier 1792.
24
ADH L3910. As above.
25
ADH L2676. Les commissaires civils de Lunel, le 27 janvier 1792.
26
ADH L3878. Extrait du PVDH, 9 juin 1792.
27
Cholvy, Histoire de Montpellier, pp. 245-246.
28
ADH L3878. Extrait du PVDH, 18 juin 1792.
22
14
with the state of civil war in the district and indeed the country, the option of creating
a new religion exclusive to the Revolution became a reality.29
The idea of the Supreme Being had been purported by Robespierre, who pronounced
the existence of the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul on the 18th Floréal
year II. The archives offer little evidence of the cult of Reason championed by
Boisset, the representative en mission, Vovelle noting its intertwining nature with the
celebration of martyrs.30 However, the cult of the Supreme Being and its celebratory
festival sought to re-establish the authority and presence of the Revolution in the
fanaticised regions of France, as suggested by Mathiez.31 It acted as a realisation on
the part of the revolutionaries that religion was an imperative aspect of the state and
acted as a powerful bond that needed to be harnessed. The Civil Constitution of the
Clergy and the subsequent dechristianization exercise of year II had marred the
relationship of the Catholic church and state, leading inevitably to their formal
separation. Thus, rather than establish atheism in the state, it was necessary to
embrace a new religion, that of the Supreme Being, a divine soul encompassing the
revolutionary principles of liberty, virtue and nature. However, the Supreme Being
disappeared with the fall of Robespierre, and the political landscape swayed into more
conciliatory measures in the interim before the coup of year V. Thus, this brief
reinvention, which will be discussed further in chapter two, was doomed to fail, partly
due to Robespierre’s downfall, but also due to the affected state of the district during
year II.
The failure of the Supreme Being and other revolutionary religions can be explained
by the continued resistance of the priest to deportation, aided by their family and
friends, many forming a powerful barrier against the efforts of dechristianization and
religious reinvention in the area. Two active examples in Montpellier during the
dechristianizing era were the Sabatiers and the Massillons.
Jean Baptiste and
Antoinette Sabatier were avid and active members of the refractory circle in
Montpellier, Antoinette soliciting religious ornaments left by deported priests in 1793,
and Jean-Baptiste actively undertaking marriages at both Notre Dame church and his
AMM 31.102. CR au conseil de département de l’Hérault par le Directoire, le 16 novembre 1791.
Vovelle, The Revolution against the church, p. 98.
31
Quoted in Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, p. 107.
29
30
15
home.32
Citizen Tardieu, a servant who acted as a witness at these weddings,
informed the department on the 3rd Floréal year II not only of the acts of Sabatier but
also disclosed the location of another active refractory priest, Pascal Massillon.
Along with his sister Catherine and father Etienne, Massillon continued to preach and
pray along with fellow priests Labatier and Bonnier, whilst his family hid him from
the authorities in a closet designed especially for the purpose.33 He produced a book,
‘instructions to the faithful’, in which he described at length how to continue the
catholic faith with or without the aid of a priest during the times of oppression.34
However, after Catherine was imprisoned with her father for hiding priests and
religious ornaments, Massillon undertook an insupportable stay of five days at the
house while armed guards waited for his appearance, and he was finally arrested on
the 8 Floréal year II.35
Despite their capture, they represent the continuing
occurrences of Catholic worship in the district, despite the dangers, and show that
reinventing religion was impossible in a district trying desperately to preserve it.
One of the clearest indicators that the cult of Reason and the Supreme Being would
never work was the sheer volume of congregations celebrating Catholicism without
the aid of a minister. Particularly by year IV, when many priests had been deported or
ceased to officially practice due to the laws of 20 Fructidor year III, a number of
constitutional shortages led to unfilled gaps across the countryside. In Lunel, a
married person was invited by the congregation to read the sermon and conduct
prayers.36 Several communes such as Perols and Villeneuve-les-maguelone in year V
asked for the permission to legitimately practice in the old church without the help of
a priest, in conjunction with the law of 11 Prairial year III allowing the use of church
buildings. Despite hardening laws by the Directory, the administration of Gigean
could do little to prevent people gathering to pray together without the danger of a
priest in Nivôse year VI. Also, services often occurred in a peaceful way that was in
no way derogatory to the commune, as in Marsillargues and St Martin de Londres in
32
ADH L6939. Extrait du registre des délibérations du comite de surveillance Révolutionnaire,
Montpellier 3 Floréal year II; ADH L6941. Letter, anon to Notre Dame parish, 10 February 1794.
33
ADH L6939. Membres du comite de surveillance Révolutionnaire de Montpellier, à l’accusateur
public, 2 Floréal an II.
34
ADH L6939. Pascal Massillon, Instructions aux fidèles - dimanches et fêtes. Unprinted, unknown
date.
35
Auguste Seguin, Actes des martyrs de Montpellier 1793-94 (Montpellier, 1822), p. 28.
36
ADH L2674. Le président du canton de Lunel au président de l’administration centrale de l’Hérault,
10 Germinal an IV.
16
year VII, demonstrating the importance again of Catholic worship to public order.
Therefore, the practice of worship without priests, or ‘white masses’ represents a
majority striving to retain their beliefs within a revolutionary context.37
The
Revolution inadvertently encouraged Catholic practice and initiative, and the lay
congregations became empowered and willing to fight against the reinventions and
abolitions of the Revolution freely and knowledgably.
The role of the teacher was important in two ways. The first, and most important, was
their role as educators of the future republicans of France. To facilitate this role, the
department announced on the 20th January 1792 that all teachers were required to
swear the oath of allegiance to the republic.38 As a further measure, religion was
banished from education and replaced with moral and civic training on the 27th
Brumaire year III. In Montpellier, the brothers and ecclesiastical teachers refused to
preach the oath. At the beginning of 1792, 53 teachers found themselves forbidden
from teaching, and elementary education was severely affected, even though six new
schools were proposed in February 1792, and two in the outer canton of
Montpellier.39 However, the system became heavily divided, and this was uncovered
in Thermidor year VI when many communes admitted that almost all teachers were
religious, as in Sette.40 Indeed, of the nine teachers present in the canton of Castries,
three were republican, five were fanatics and one was unknown.41 This division
reflected the religious divide of the communes as a whole, and many schools were
closed down leaving just one teacher, or sometimes none at all. Trouble also derived
from parents, such as in Restinclieres where fathers refused to pay their child’s school
fees if their teacher did not hold the same religious beliefs as the family.42
Furthermore, many parents chose not to bring their children to school on Sundays,
thus allowing the teacher to close.43 These issues led to the impossibility of a teacher
fulfilling their second role, that of distributors of republican knowledge and examples
of revolutionary virtue and morals. Many communes noted that the schools made
37
Desan, Reclaiming the sacred, p. 77.
ADH L2469 Arrêté de l’administration centrale de l’Hérault, 22 janvier 1792.
39
Cholvy, Histoire de Montpellier, p. 236.
40
ADH L2468 Tableau d’écoles privés de la commune de Sette, 12 Thermidor an VI.
41
ADH L2468 Le commissaire de l’administration municipale du canton de Castries, au commissaire
de l’administration centrale de l’Hérault, 26 Messidor an VI.
42
ADH L2468 Le commissaire de l’administration municipale du canton de Restinclieres, au
commissaire de l’administration centrale de l’Hérault, 30 Messidor an VI.
43
ADH L2468 Séances de l’administration municipal de la commune de Sette, 16 Fructidor an VI.
38
17
little impact on the public spirit, as in Castries and St. George d’Orques. Furthermore,
the abstention of teachers from the decadi and national festivals, a subject that will be
discussed subsequently, represented the underlying apathy of the community. Some
teachers also produced derogatory hymns parodying those written by teachers for
various national festivals, Antoine Cumisal, being reprimanded in July 1792 for
creating and distributing songs to trouble public order.44 Thus, the teacher was an
ineffective and deviant role model for young republicans, and as such, hindered the
dechristianization process further.
Retained Catholic practices in town and country: Years V – VII.
The failure of the cults of Reason and Supreme Being, coupled with the success of
refractory priests, the maintenance of Catholic worship without priests, and the
deviance of teachers meant that by year V, many outlying communes were
sufficiently fanaticised that hope of reinventing religion was lost.
To the east,
problems spread from canton to canton as the president of Mauguio attempted to
address the problems of nearby Lansargues, fraught with exterior celebrations of the
mass in churches, women and children gathering, and the teacher Descamps, whose
school was later closed, leading catholic groups. The weakness of the municipality in
quelling these issues was troubling Mauguio, where commissioners had been insulted
and even attacked for their republican views.45 The west experienced similar crises,
as many refractory priests had settled near the coastal ports of Sette and Frontignan to
escape the threat of deportation.
Sette experienced an astonishing adherence to
Catholicism stemming from the idolisation of refractory priests. Even Christmas was
celebrated in Nivôse year VI, as well as open Catholic burial marches, complete with
the singing of the psalms, in year V.46 Retired priests continued to attract unwanted
attention, as in Poussan where large numbers of people on Sundays, notably young
men and women, visited to attend their first communion.47 Therefore, it is clear that
44
ADH L8839. Déclaration des jurés de Montpellier, 19 août 1792.
ADH L2671. Président Cantillon, du canton de Mauguio, au citoyen Caigorgues, commissaire du
directoire exécutif du département de l’Hérault, 10 Frimaire an V.
46
ADH L2675. Le président de l’administration municipale de Sette, à l’administration centrale de
l’Hérault, 2 Nivôse an V.
47
ADH L2672. Le commissaire de Poussan, au commissaire du departement de l’Hérault, 29 Fructidor
an V.
45
18
both priest and citizen were working in harmony, the disturbances of the first years of
the Revolution a now distant memory.
Finally, by years VII and VIII, the public spirit of the people of the district was
reverting to the Catholic ways. It is possible to understand these feelings using the
municipal reports of this period, where communes were required to ritualistically
comment on the state of their town, often leading to repetition and monotony as
officers became lazy and disinterested. It may be possible to suggest that the outlying
regions of the district were more divided, often due to the existence of both refractory
and constitutional priests, reflecting the weakness of poorly equipped country
administrations against resistance. It is also possible to argue that whilst many chief
communes of the canton enjoyed ‘tranquillity’, as in St Andre, their surrounding
communes were uncontrollable and thus spiralled into fanaticism, further proving the
last remark.48 Furthermore, it is clear that in communes where no priest existed, such
as Lunel and Mauguio, public spirit was often classed as fanatical, due to the fact that
citizens continued to congregate for Catholic masses without a priest.49 Finally, the
situation in year VII suggests that whilst some strongholds of administrative power
remained, such as Poussan and Marsillargues, most other cantons began to fail as a
sense of indifference came into force.50 It is true that these comments were derived
from the opinions of the administrators, who viewed anything un-republican as
deviant, but they give us a strong understanding of the status of the area at the end of
our period, as divided in the eyes of the Republic, but stable in the minds of the
people.
In conclusion, the various efforts of France to firstly impose a mediated and
submissive version of the Church, followed by the creation of a completely new faith,
and finished with an attempt to conciliate matters to encourage flailing adherence,
created a thoroughly stronger Catholic church in 1799 than it had been in 1789. The
Civil Constitution of the Clergy was immediately abhorred by the most influential
bishops of Montpellier, and caused initial dissension amongst the people that was to
continue despite armed resistance during the installation of constitutional priests. The
ADH L466, Le commissaire de St Andre, au commissaire du departement de l’Hérault, 14
Vendemaire year VI.
49
ADH L468 Situation de la commune de Lunel, Messidor year VI.
50
ADH L473; L484; L489 Situations des cantons de Poussan, Marsillargues et Montpellier, year VII.
48
19
power of the refractory priest throughout the period of dechristianization is striking
and reflected the emotiveness of Catholicism and its imperative role in habitual life.
The power of the lay masses is even more striking, ignoring the cults of Reason,
Supreme Being and all efforts to eradicate worship, and using great initiative to adapt
Catholic practice and education to the revolutionary background. The result was a
district embedded in the Catholic faith, the appearance of no clear epicentre
suggesting that reinvention effected no real penetration of the district. In this sense,
one can easily commit the district of Montpellier to join the centres of opposition such
as the centre of France and the Massif Central, and offer it as a true reflection of the
already known resistance in the midi and the Languedoc to the efforts of religious
reinvention. However, we must remember that the district remained faithful to
Catholicism despite the implementation of the most important revolutionary device,
the festival.
20
Chapter two
The Revolutionary Festival
The revolutionary festival was primarily a political tool used to spread the values of
liberty, equality and unity to the masses. The term encompassed a countless array of
festivals celebrating everything from the fall of the Bastille to the joys of marriage,
which were celebrated everywhere throughout France to mirror the grand spectacles
of Paris. Unfortunately, the aims and desires of the festivities were never to be
fulfilled, and in the aftermath of the festival, as in so many other departments of
France, the district of Montpellier experienced division and disinterest, rather than
unity and solidarity. It is important to establish who was to blame for the festival’s
failure. In the first instance, the festival of the Federation was widely accepted and
celebrated, due to its ability to compromise with Catholicism. However, as a result of
the insupportable actions of 1791, the revolutionaries brought about their own failure
as the religious elements binding state and citizen were removed. Consequently, the
festival’s failure now rested on the administrators, teachers, and most importantly, the
refractory priests, who saw this weakening in political power as a chance to take
command of the community. Thus, the festival of the Supreme Being, and the variety
of organised festivals of the Directory were unsuccessful, as in many other districts,
their failure resting on the shoulders of those supposedly in charge of implementing
them. Therefore, the festival was never likely to penetrate into the lives of the people,
and with a strong Catholic base already in place, this is hardly surprising.
The documents available for this chapter are vast. The sheer volume of reports from
each commune is remarkable, and are by far the most useful in documenting the event
of the day. What these documents do not do is clarify the involvement of the citizen,
and in this way it is easy to assume that they had little involvement. In order to justify
this conclusion, one must look beyond the reports to documents such as the letters
from presidents of the communes, and the decadi reports which have already come in
use, to explore the opinions and actions of the people behind the cloak of
21
repetitiveness.
These documents combined offer an interesting glimpse into the
curious world of the festival, and aid us in understanding their faults and problems.
Lost chances: The Festival of the Federation.
The Festival of the Federation, celebrated on 14 July 1790, was, as Mona Ozouf
described, the ‘finest of the Revolutionary days’ of France before their decline.51 The
festival of Montpellier successfully mimicked the pomp of the Paris affair, reflecting
the desires of the revolutionaries to revert back past the ancien régime to the great
triumphs of primitive history and nature. The event is undisputedly the high point of
public adherence to revolutionary events, as not only did it celebrate the newfound
freedom of the people, it allowed them to celebrate surrounded by Catholicism. Thus,
the chaplain of the commune sang the Te Deum side by side with the administrative
body pronouncing the oath and freedom of the entire people. Elated, the celebrating
congregation combined the civic words ‘We swear to stay forever faithful to the
nation, the law and the King’ with the raising of hands to the sky in acknowledgement
of God, a ‘communion of the entire people’.52
Thus, the festival was naturally
accepted, demonstrating the success and harmony that could have remained
throughout the entire Revolution. However, this template for later revolutionary
festivals was abandoned, and as the Terror of 1793 grew closer, the festival was
stripped of religion and consequently its support by the people of the district.53
The dilapidating effects of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the civic oath and the
installation of constitutional priests in 1791 were reflected in the initial decline of the
Revolutionary festival at its most critical stage of invention and penetration into the
district.
Only a few months after the installation of priests, the festival of the
Federation of 1791 palled in comparison to its forebear, and confusion, frustration and
division superseded the initial harmony of Revolution and religion. The people of St.
Drezery celebrated the Federation on the nearest Sunday to coincidence with the
weekly day of rest, attempting to protect the festival from shedding its religious
51
Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, p. 34.
Michelet, quoted in Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution p. 31; AMM 11.971. Extrait du reg.
des délibs du conseil Général de la commune de Montpellier, 14 juillet 1790, ‘Nous jurons de rester à
jamais fideles à la nation, à la loi et au Roi.’
53
Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, p. 26 ; Sierge Bianchi, La Révolution de l’an II: élites
et peuple 1789-1799 (Paris, 1982), p. 77.
52
22
connections. The community came to hear the mass, with the oath celebrated ‘in the
presence of God’, drawing parallels with the original festival.54 However, the oath had
become muddied by the refusals of priests, and affected by this factor, many of the
congregation only mouthed it in front of the administration.
At Lunel, the priest
chose to begin with the mass and gospel at midday, again reflecting the wishes of the
‘large number of citizens of all ages and sexes’ in attendance. There was also
evidence of non-attendance in some communes, such as Saussines, were only 67
documented people arrived, most of them being from the National Guard.55
Paralleling the festival were the traditional events of the Gregorian calendar, such as
the festival de la Toussaint and Saint Martin in Montpellier in 1791, and Christmas in
Sette. These events solidified the fact that the church was indeed the bond of the
community, and as a result of its rejection by the Revolution, revolutionary festivals
became of little interest, which was only to grow in 1792.56
The festival of the Federation of 1792 was a shadow of its former self. Far from
acting as a compromise, it now actively rejected those who had not preached the oath,
and embraced only the humiliated constitutional priest, five of which were invited to
the festival in Montpellier. The first signs of repetition and monotony, which were to
be the death of the Directory festival, began to appear as Mirabeau argued the case
against mixing public rejoicing and the solemnity of religion, instead instilling the
revolutionary virtues of liberty and equality. What had embellished this ‘festival of
the people’ was the joy and celebration of the religious people, but now military and
official bodies dominated, leaving the people to celebrate their traditional beliefs
outside the civic arena. Rallied by refractory priests, the people felt betrayed yet
again by the Revolution, just as they had been by constitutional priests.
This
encouraged people to continue their agricultural lives, as at St. Hillaire de Beauvois,
where the harvest was of more importance.57
More importantly, it encouraged
resistance, deviance and the active continuation of traditional Catholic festivals and
rituals, and the ignoring of revolutionary offerings.
54
ADH L3222. PV des cérémonies, la fête de la Fédération, St. Drezery, 14 juillet 1791.
ADH L3222. Saussines, 14 juillet 1791.
56
Duval-Jouve, Montpellier pendant la Révolution, p. 194.
57
ADH L3222. Letter, municipal officers of St Hillaire de Beauvois, 30th March 1791.
55
23
Therefore, the case of the festival of the Federation represented a chance missed by
the revolutionaries to consolidate the country with the new government. The attempts
to constrain the Catholic Church resulted in a decline in popular interest coupled with
a strengthening of the religious zeal that fought to keep the traditional values intact.
The Federation had sought to break the barriers previously separating the masses, and
re-ignited the use of the festival as a celebratory tool, but the citizen lost his sense of
role when religion was removed.58 The Federation represented the ideals of the
administration and National Guard, and with the introduction of a new phase of the
political assault on traditional values, that of the Supreme Being, a new faith emerged
unable to compete with the old.
Religious inventions: The festival of the Supreme Being.
The cult of Reason and Supreme Being of year II sought to eradicate the problems
created by the constitutional church and create a table rase for religion. Until that
point, the citizens had celebrated ‘the Martyrs of Liberty, the heroes of the Fatherland
and the kindness of Humanity’. Figures such as Marat, Simmoneau, and Joubert, as
well the young Barras and Viala, had all received successful funeral festivals in
Montpellier, full of games, processions and inscriptions of support for the departed.
Simmoneau also received a triangular monument, raised on the place d’Etampes and
inscribed ‘he died for the law’.59 However, on the day of the festival of the Supreme
Being of 20 Prairial year II, mayor Gas the younger pronounced that a ‘more majestic
pomp gathers us together, that of the Supreme Being’.60 The festival acted as the
culmination of attempts to encourage the support of the citizens for the republic, a
final offering of compromise. Gerard Cholvy has it as the turning point of popular
enthusiasm for the revolutionary festival.61 Unfortunately, little archive evidence
exists of its success in the district, but it is possible to consider its immediate context.
It is likely that the festival was the culmination of public unrest within the district.
The festival was the perfect example of the revolutionary ideal, moulding the
religious essences of the God and the altar into a revolutionary guise. The warlike
A. Poitrineau, ‘La fête traditionnelle’, Annales de la Révolution française, 222 (July-Sept. 1975), p.
354.
59
ADH L1036 Discours prononcé à la salle décadaire, 30 Ventôse year III, par le citoyen Goulard,
Notable.
60
AMM 11.947 Gas Jeune, Mayor, the festival of the Supreme Being 20 Prairial year II.
61
Cholvy (ed.), Histoire de Montpellier, p. 247.
58
24
music of the band parading through the streets of the town made the festivities
inescapable and invading, with the artillery from the Place de la Canourgue, the Place
de la Revolution, the Park and Place de la Liberté ensuring that every citizen felt the
breath of the Supreme Being and the pressure to attend it’s festival. The citizen
became a puppet in a show of actors according to their category, taking their
designated place at the marked out circle of infinity around the square altar of the
fatherland, dressed austerely with the words ‘to the Supreme Being’.62 The Supreme
Being was depicted in itself as a faceless God, ‘the principal of all’ and ‘the end of
all’.63 As Mayor Gas proclaimed to the congregation, ‘your treacherous priests are no
more’.64 However, behind the artificial implementation of the festival, deviance
reigned in the district and refractory priests freely conducted their congregations in
resistance to the new religion. The festival stood for everything that was disliked
about the revolutionary festival, aspects of which were retained by the organised
festivals of year VI. It is difficult to speculate as to whether the cult of the Supreme
Being would have been successful had Robespierre not fallen from power, but what it
certain is that the festival was the only signal of its existence in the district, and no
more.
Monotony in diversity: The organised festivals of the Directory.
The organised festivals of the Directory, commencing on 3 Brumaire year IV and
ending at the coup of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, attempted to produce a coherent
system of festivals stemming from the demand of the provinces to fill the gaps left by
the old festivals. However, they highlighted a definitive split of revolutionary opinion
in the district, and crippled any hope that the provinces of France could accept the
Revolution.
The festivals adopted a two-fold system of commemoration and moral
celebration, gaining pace in year VI with the introduction of further commemorative
festivals such as the Foundation of the Republic. However, despite the relevance of
festivals appreciating agriculture and the sanctity of marriage, the decadi reports of
the district represent an event devoid of endearment and interest, due to their inherent
62
Guillaume Lacquement, Les Fêtes Révolutionnaire à Montpellier, Thesis, (Montpellier 1989), p. 107.
AMM 11.946. Plan consacré à l’Etre Suprême, 8 Prairial an II.
64
Ibid.
63
25
desire for system.65 It was this system that caused the level of indifference to soar as
people continued to open their stalls and work on a decadi, choosing instead to rest
during the Sunday and saint’s days as designated by the old calendar, such as in
Mauguio and Lunel. Adherence did indeed vary, but in general even the central
commune of Montpellier experienced apathy during this period.
Firstly, and most importantly, organised festivals highlighted the struggle of the
municipal administrators. Even in year IV, revolutionary festivals were allowed to be
transported to the Sunday to coincide with the celebrated day of rest rather than the
decadi, much to the disgust of Paris.66 Disinterest and official disputes often impeded
festivities, such as the festival of youth, year V in Ganges and Sette. 67 In St Andre,
the second day of festivities celebrating the 9th and 10th Thermidor year VI was
practically deserted, with one teacher and one municipal agent in attendance. 68 In
year VII, cantons were reprimanded for occupying themselves with their wine
harvests rather than celebrating national festivals, as in Lunel and Poussan where the
festival of the Foundation of the Republic was not celebrated at all. 69 However, some
of the worst examples of indifference lay a matter of kilometres from the influence of
Montpellier.
The officer of the commune of Castries admitted that magistrates
abstained easily from festivals.70 Maugio is the best example of a commune in tatters
as most officials, unable to feel the pressure of Montpellier and Paris, disregarded
their duties and continued their traditional roles. The commune often did not celebrate
festivals due to ‘activists’, such as the festival of Liberty in Year V.
71
Willing
administrators were few and far between, and a lack of funds, and even a lack of
tambourine to announce the festival in the commune, meant that revolutionary
sympathy was not encouraged.72 Without the leadership of the municipality, the
community turned to refractory priests for guidance, ignoring the idea of the
organised festival and its efforts to create a system of celebration in the Republic.
65
Quoted in Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, p. 120.
ADH L995. Le Président de l’administration de département de l’Hérault, 25 Fructidor an IV.
67
ADH L999. Fête de la jeunesse, Ganges and Sette, an V.
68
ADH L1015. Fête de la liberté, St Andre, an VI.
69
ADH L1019. Fêtes nationales de l’an VII. Anniversaire de la fondation de la république.
70
ADH L1031. 18 Fructidor, Castries, an VII.
71
ADH L1007. Fête de la liberté, Mauguio, an V.
72
ADH L446. Decadi reports, Mauguio, Vendemaire Year VI.
66
26
Furthermore, the revolutionary festival created divisions of moral importance amongst
the citizens of the district of Montpellier. Rather than encouraging the freedom of
movement that prevailed during the Federations and traditional festivities, the
festivals became strictly controlled and divided as Mirabeau erased all chance of
destructive spontaneity. The young and the elderly were used as symbols of loyalty,
freedom and purity, having their own festivals in Fructidor and Germinal respectively,
and generally enjoying their own place during the procession, or at the foot of the
altar of the Fatherland. They both played an integral role at the Festival of the
Sovereignty of the People, year VI, with 30 elderly people being chosen by the
commune of Marsillargues, leading 120 young children during the procession. 73 The
weak introduction of afternoon festivities, which included dancing, military displays,
and a competitive race, were aimed at young citizens under eighteen, who won some
revolutionary symbol or image as a result. However, the representation of the number
of children is contorted somewhat, as many of them were the sons and relatives of the
officials.74 Indeed, the importance of the youth in the festival was hindered by the
refusal of many teachers to escort their pupils.
The role of the teacher was
paramount, being required at almost every festival in order to instil a republican zeal
into the young that could be gathered from their participation, being encouraged to
compose songs, or make a moral speech that was appropriate to the festival.
However, it is clear from examining the reports made about the state of education
during Year VI that the district struggled to regulate the religious teachings of the
pupils in and around Montpellier. The exclusion of other groups in society led the
community to question their place in society, an aspect not apparent in Catholic
practices.75 The mass therefore felt little need to attend, influencing one another into
apathy and indifference.
The majority of people, expressed as the lowest stratum of importance in the
organised festival, accordingly expressed an indifference to the organised festival that
demonstrated most effectively its failure. Understandably, many festivals that were
being celebrated for the first time were widely attended, particularly the Festival of 18
Fructidor, Year VI, in which all reports described a ‘multitude’, ‘mass’, ‘an immense
73
ADH L1008. PV de la fête de la souveraineté du peuple, an VI, Marsillargues.
Ibid. St Jean de Vedas.
75
ADH L1016. Fête du 10 aout, 23 Thermidor an VI, Montpellier.
74
27
quantity’ or ‘the vast majority’ of citizens in attendance.76 However, in general a
sense of negativity had spread as a result of the Terror, dechristianization and the
civic oath, highlighted by the commissioner of the department on the 18 th Ventôse,
year IV: ‘…public misery seems to tarnish the whole idea of the festival…’.77 It is
extremely difficult to ascertain actual numbers of citizens in attendance, due to the
variety of descriptions used in the festival reports. They ranged from ‘a small number’
to ‘a mass’ the most commonly used description, to ‘a countless multitude’, and even
‘all’.78 The only numeric indication appears in a report of the commune of St Andre,
where around 50 citizens took part in the shooting contest of 10 Thermidor year VI,
but as one of rural guards won, it is likely that many of this number were local
officials.79 Despite efforts to encourage larger numbers to attend the festivals, such as
in year IV when the festival of agriculture in Montpellier was moved out to the more
central and accessible location of Castelnau in order to encourage the agricultural
community, the festival was not celebrated at all as a result of the incapacity of local
administrators, a lack of publicity and indefinite indifference.80 Thus, the attendance
of the masses is an extremely ambiguous subject, but one that still highlighted the
disparity of adherence and the uncertainty of revolutionary festivals.
In years VII and VIII, the reports of the festivals become so monotonous and
repetitive that it is difficult to gather any sense of enthusiasm or interest in the
organised revolutionary festival. Indeed in Thermidor Year VII, the municipality of
Montpellier reported ‘a general indifference for all, a disgust, weariness, an invincible
apathy, such is the current character of public spirit in the commune of Montpellier’.81
In some cantons, the community began to actively turn against the municipality, as in
Castries where people refused to obey the municipal agent.82 The number of followers
to the festival is barely described as anything else other than a ‘mass’ in these closing
76
ADH L1018. Fête du 18 Fructidor, Matellas Ibid. Pézenas Ibid., Sette Ibid., Frontignan.
ADH L991. PVF de la jeunesse, Montpellier, 10 Germinal an IV.
78
ADH L1008. PVF de la souveraineté du peuple an VI, Cournonsec ; ADH L1007. PVF de la
fondation de la République, Montpellier 1 Vendémiaire an VI; ADH L1008. PVF de la fondation de la
République, Matelles, 1 Vendémiaire an VI.
79
ADH L1015. PVF du 10 Thermidor an VI.
80
ADH L994. PVF de l’agriculture, Montpellier, 10 Messidor an IV.
81
ADH L478.CR sur la situation du département, District de Montpellier Nivose-Ventose an VII. ‘Une
indifférence générale pour tout, un dégoût, la lassitude, une apathie invincible, tel est le caractère actuel
de l’esprit public dans la commune de Montpellier.’
82
ADH L466.CR au ministre de l’intérieur sur la situation politique du département, CR par les
administrations cantonales, Vendemaire-Frimaire an VI.
77
28
years. In Murviel, people continued to open their boutiques and businesses during the
festivals, only stopping for the Sunday and traditional religious festivals. 83 Indeed, it
was noted here that there was ‘no difference between the old regime and the new. We
only rest on the days that were in use before the Revolution’.84 Thus, at the end of our
period the district had reverted back to the old ways of very regime that the
Revolution wished to destroy, showing its complete failure and unimportance.
The failure of the organised festival reflected the all powerful nature of Catholicism in
the district. As the agent of Maugio described in Year VI, there were two types of
festival, ‘Ones that only the administration can celebrate, with closed doors, the roads
and squares deserted. The others that depend on the games of the married and the
youth are not celebrated’.85 Thus, as religious elements were eliminated, so the
populace began to lose interest in the new ceremonies. The festival of the Federation
of 1790 should have acted as the model of compromise from which all other festivals
stemmed. However, the actions taken by the Convention in 1791 were the biggest
mistakes of the Revolution, and coupled with the removal of Catholicism as it was
traditionally accepted in the festival, they resulted in the decline and death of the
festival for the entire revolutionary period. The festival of the Supreme Being fairly
attempted to reconcile the Catholic people to the Revolution by diguising the essential
terms of Catholicism in revolutionary and philosophical armour. However, it was
elitist, a fantastical theory occuring at the culmination of a wave of religious
enthusiasm, contrasted with the de-christianizing strategies of year II. After this
effort, a barrage of artificial and lifeless festivals appeared that simply highlighted and
encouraged religious conservation. It is true that the level of division varied around
the district, with obedience being lower the further from Montpellier a commune
resided. However, problems were widespread and even the communes of Maugio,
Georges d’Orques and Pignan could not escape the influnces of neighbouring
fanatical communes. With the addition of the decadi festivals and the reinvention of
ADH L466. CR au ministre de l’intérieur sur la situation politique du département, VendemaireFrimaire an VI.
84
ADH L1032. Renseignements fournis par les communes sur l’observation des fêtes décadaires an
VII.
85
ADH L1007. Mauguio : ‘les unes que l’administration seule peut célébrer soit qu’on ferme les
portes, ou non et que les rues et les places soient desertés. Les autres qui dépendent du concours des
époux, de la jeunesse...ne peuvent être célébrées.’
83
29
the symbolic landscape, the Revolution stirred every spiritual emotion of the Catholic
people, and as a result, mired any chance of reinventing religion in France.
30
Chapter three
Symbols of the Republic
The assault of the Revolution on the sights, sounds and sense of time that Catholicism
had previously instilled was no more successful than the attempt at reinventing
religion or imposing a new history acted out by national festivals.
Firstly, the
Revolutionary Calendar, introduced on the 5th October 1793, compounded the desire
of the revolutionaries to reinvent the traditional rhythm of time, denoted by the
festivals of religious history. Commencing from the 22nd September 1791 as the first
day of year I, the year was split into 12 months of 30 days, each divided into three
decades with the last day, the decadi, acting as the new day of rest. The measure
represents one of the most extreme attempts at erasing the elements of the ancien
régime, but as Mona Ozouf correctly suggests, the calendar became a complication
rather than a simplification, failing to be accepted by anyone other than the
authorities.86 The Revolution similarly attempted to intrude into the space of the
citizen, littering the squares with trees supposedly symbolising liberty, and
simultaneously attempting to destroy one of the most important churches of the town
in order to build the ultimate monument, the Temple of Reason.
Finally, the
traditional sounds of Catholicism were affected by abolishing the church bell and
replacing it with the stark sound of the cannon. Yet again however, the ambitions and
reinventions of the revolutionaries were unrealistic, as economic, political, and most
importantly, religious issues resisted these attempts and revealed a renewed
attachment of the people to Catholicism and the traditional rhythm of time and space.
There are a greater variety of documents on offer to us during this chapter due to the
relative disparity of its parts, all expressing some limitations. Again the most useful
source regarding the dispositions of the communes is the decadi report, either
reporting on the festival itself, or describing the commune using a given set of
subtitles, as in years VII and VIII. Similarly, the letters from president to president, in
response to the queries of the central administration, can be enlightening and
86
Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, p. 258.
31
surprisingly frank.
The limitations faced here are similar to those expressed
throughout, that the archives often lack detail from the smaller communes, and so a
complete picture is not available. We are again restricted to the later years of 1798
and 1799, particularly with regards to decadi festivals where no early records appear
to exist. This is also true for liberty trees, with the earliest records appearing in
Floréal year IV when the volume of attacks began to rise. However, there can be no
doubt that the documents reflect the feelings of an entire district that was continually
affected by those around them, creating a united front against the revolutionary
calendar, liberty trees, and the removal of bells.
Time: The Revolutionary calendar.
The implementation of the new calendar allowed the administration the pleasure of
intruding into the religious division of time and slandering the Sunday, denounced by
the heated speeches of the decadi reunions of year II. They reduced its importance to
that of a day of rest for Egyptian slaves, which licentious priests had turned to their
gain, and so resting on the seventh day was actually committing a mortal sin.87 The
Directory embraced the possibilities of the under-utilised service during their
reinvention of national festivals, oddly envisaging the day as a way of rejuvenating
the worship of republican virtues, and stabilising the fragility of the regime.88 The
festivals were barely embraced in France, the only example in the district coming
from Montpellier in the early decadi reports of year VII. 89
The administration
attended in costume, offering an interesting parallel between the Catholic priests
stripped of their ecclesiastical robes and the new secular leaders. The congregation
would assemble in the temple, regularly met by a ‘large number’ of citizens. A
sizeable number of civic marriages also took place, being popular in the town at a
total of 30 in the first two months of year VII.90 The ceremony terminated with some
patriotic hymns, and the possibility of some games and activities.91 In Ventôse year
VII the administration noted with pleasure the ‘remarkable enthusiasm’ that was
shown for the ceremony, perhaps remarkable in light of the divided feeling towards
87
AMM 11.957. Discours par Raisin Pages, 10 et 30 Ventôse an II.
Robert Beck, Histoire du Dimanche de 1700 à nos jours (Paris, 1997), p. 145.
89
ADH L997. Letter from Letourneaux, minister of the interior to the department, 19 Brumaire year 6.
90
ADH L1033. Extrait du reg en exécution de la lettre du ministre de l’intérieur du 20 Fructidor
dernier, doivent être dressés pour constater les réunions décadaires, Vendemaire-Brumaire an VII.
91
Ibid.
88
32
the Republic.92
This feigned success was marred however by the spreading of
rumours and announcements of the banishment of the decadi as the day of rest in year
III, by people gathering outside the cathedral of Notre Dame to celebrate the Sunday
and festivals in Year VI, and by Thermidor year VII, the number of punishments
continually administered regarding the celebration of the Sunday showed how even
the main town was not immune to resistance against the decadi.93
The influence of Montpellier was not far-reaching, and many communes lying on the
outskirts experienced great difficulties reinventing the Sunday. This was partly due to
logistical oversights, as in the rural canton of Montpellier, where until year VII, all
festivals and decadi celebrations had been held outside the canton in a rented hall in
Montpellier, for the convenience of the officers who lived there.94
Religious
resistance also caused problems, as in year VI in Pignan, where people assembled for
dancing ‘or otherwise’ on Sundays and saint’s days. Furthermore, impressionable
minds were penetrated with licentious rumours from refractory priests denouncing the
authority of the municipality, and the nearby deviance of other cantons. This affected
areas like Mauguio, where the youth were convinced that the celebration of the
Sunday as seen in outlying Lunel was correct.95 People continued their work in the
fields, and teachers abstained from attending. There was often no suitable place to
hold the festival either, and thus several distinct issues discouraged the municipalities
from encouraging adherence. Festivals that did occur were deserted, except for during
the observance of marriage, a recognisable traditional service amidst the decadi
bulletins and patriotic hymns. The commune of Georges d’Orques highlighted this
point, as the curiosity of marriage attracted larger numbers of citizens than usual, with
meetings often deserted the rest of the time.96 Thus, even the communes at the centre
of the district were not immune to lack of instruction, fanaticism and prejudice
towards the decadi and new calendar.
ADH L1043. Commissaire près l’administration municipale de Montpellier, au commissaire du
directoire exécutif, 19 Ventôse an VII.
93
ADH L5760. Bancal, agent national, au comité révolutionnaire du district de Montpellier, 28
Pluviôse, an III ; ADH L468. Situation de la commune de Montpellier, Messidor an VI ; ADH L489.
Situation de la commune de Montpellier, Thermidor an VII.
94
ADH L5453. Extrait du reg des séances publiques de l’administration municipale du canton rurale de
Montpellier, 21 Thermidor an VII.
95
ADH L1042. Présidant de l’administration municipale du canton de Lunel, au citoyen président de
l’administration centrale, 11 Pluviôse an VII.
96
ADHL1043. Le commissaire du directoire exécutif, St. Georges d’Orques, 26 Ventôse an VII.
92
33
The situation worsened in the country.
Problems were magnified as communes
expressed their poverty and fragility. Financial circumstances affected the commune
of Lunel, who did not have the means to afford a decadi temple. Religious tensions
affected the commune of Cazouls, who expressed their lack of direction and
equipment. The church they celebrated in still retained its religious symbols that ‘a
naive people honour and would believe to have been desecrated if they were seen side
by side with the republican symbols’.97 Despite following the decrees of Paris, only
the administrators of the village attended, with one teacher of Cazouls in attendance
escorting a handful of students.98 Old calendars were in circulation due to lack of
instruction, or a lack of printing and library facilities such as in Murviel. In year 8
this decline was compounded by incertitude about the government’s intentions for the
festival, and indifference arose from the many identical decadi reports sent by cantons
such as Meze, where three months worth of reporting was written identically. 99 Thus
it is easy to see that in cantons of farmers and small, poor communes with little
provisions, where Catholicism remained and the Gregorian calendar was upheld, that
the penetration of the decadi into the country was practically impossible.
The canton of Castries offers an excellent case study of the inability of municipal
officers of the district in reinventing the Sunday and Gregorian calendar. The decadi
reports of Messidor year VI describe the division of their administration: ‘several
preserving the old calendar, the others lacking in knowledge and energy’.100 The
report of Fructidor is particularly damning, with agents guilty of negligence and lack
of concern. Furthermore, it seems that agents were unable to impede those who broke
the law through lack of ability, which meant that the decadi were never observed. The
new laws of Fructidor and Thermidor were never to thrive in this atmosphere, and in
year VII the situation had deteriorated, with the practice ‘entirely unknown’ in the
canton.101
The effects of the administration on the conduct of the people was
recognised by many cantons, and it was common for only municipal agents to attend
97
ADH L1033. Commissaire du directoire exécutif, Cazouls, au commissaire du directoire exécutif de
l’administration central, 1 Nivôse an VII.
98
Ibid.
99
ADH L1034. Extrait du pv de l’administration municipale du canton de Meze, Nivôse, Pluviôse,
Frimaire an VIII.
100
ADH L468. Situation de la commune de Castries, Messidor an VI.
101
ADH L478. Castries, Nivôse an VII.
34
the ceremony, coupled with the national guard or armed force if this was available.
These aided the festival in larger cantons where punishment could be easily
administered, but in the small communes, a distinct lack of self-motivation and
interest resulted in few civil servants appearing in the marches of Thermidor year VII,
as in Sette, and even the open celebration of Catholic ceremonies in Poussan in
Floréal year VII.102 From this lack of leadership, it is relatively easy to understand
why the calendar and the Sunday could not be seen as reinvented in the district.
As at national festivals, many teachers also refused to attend the decadi festivals. The
requirement of their attendance was established in the law of 13 Fructidor year VI.
They had a clear role, seen as a key front line aiding the integration of republican
ideals. However, many teachers conjured excuses that impeded their attendance.
These involved issues of distance, as in Frimaire year VII when as a result of their
refusal to attend due to the inconvenient distance to neighbouring communes, schools
of Descamps of Castries and Bouscaren of Geniés, were closed.103 It is of course true
that Descamps was a staunch Catholic, leading a group in Lansargues as has been
discussed in chapter 1, this no doubt contributing to his unwillingness to attend. Six
other teachers followed their bad examples from the east, also abstaining from taking
their pupils.104
The mention of teachers giving calls is evident from reports of
Montpellier, but what is more apparent is the amount of school closures, 29 in the first
two months of year VII alone, suggesting clear underlying problems. 105 District-wide
closures hindered the spread of the revolution further and only strengthened the bonds
between the people, their Catholic faith, and the old rhythms of the traditional
calendar.
Therefore, the unsuccessful reinvention of the Sunday and the old calendar derived
certainly from religious sentiment, but also highlighted economic, political and social
problems. As many did not consider the decadi the day of rest, people continued to
work or open their schools. As a result of the efforts of refractory priests to retain the
102
ADH L468. Situation de la commune de Sette, Thermidor an VII ; ADH L1033 Situation de la
commune de Poussan, Brumaire an VII.
103
ADH L1034. Extrait du pv des séances publiques, administration centrale de l’Hérault, 23 Frimaire
an VII.
104
Many other teachers followed their example, such as those in Clapiers, Jacou, Valergues,
Combillaux, Teyran, and Vendargues itself.
105
ADH L1033. Extrait du reg, Montpellier, Vendemaire-Brumaire an VII.
35
beliefs of their community, rumours were spread of the so-called abandonment of the
decadi, coaxing the confused back to the old calendar. In addition, as a result of
apathy to revolutionary policies, municipal officers refused to impede either the
people or the priests. Finally, one must criticise the disjointed manner in which the
decadi was implemented, from its invention in year II and year III, to become largely
neglected until year VI when a short but unsuccessful revival occurred. Out of
everything the decadi festival had to offer, only marriages aided its popularity, and in
districts where only one marriage occurred, or even none, there is a distinct
correlation in the amount of citizens seemingly in attendance. Thus, the formula and
implementation of the reinvention of time was possibly ‘one of the biggest failures of
the Revolution’.106
Space: The Liberty tree and Temple of Reason.
The general intrusion of the Revolution into the space of the people was typified by
another symbol of the Revolution implemented with little more success, the ‘arbre de
la liberté’ or liberty tree, being officially established on 29 Brumaire year VI when it
became the only recognised external symbol.107 It symbolised freedom and equality,
envisioned as a living symbol of the Republic to replace the traditional maypole, and
dominating many squares around Montpellier and the principal square of other
communes. It featured widely in festival reports, being used as a gathering point
during liberty celebrations such as the festival of the sovereignty of the people, and
the festival of the 14th July.
It even had its own plantation festivals, a device to
engender respect for the plant, being embraced in Montpellier, St Andre and Agde.108
However, their obvious vulnerability and reference to the departed cross lead them to
be abused and destroyed by insurgents protesting against their meaning, being
attacked or left to die.
The attacking or mocking of the liberty tree was the most common occurrence of
violence towards the symbol, and reflected the feelings of the communes towards the
reinvention of their traditional exterior symbols. The attacks were often just another
106
Beck, Histoire du Dimanche, p. 141.
ADH L2672. Séances publiques de l’administration centrale du département de l’Hérault, 29
Brumaire an VI.
108
ADH L1041. Responses to the letter of the central administration of 6 Pluviôse, year VI.
107
36
incident in a list of problems underlining the division of feelings for the most troubled
cantons, a good example being at Murviel, where trees were severed, doors of
churches used for constitutional worship were burned, and refractory priests
fanaticised the people.
109
Other outlying communes faced similarly brutal attacks,
such as at Ganges, where two trees were completely uprooted and removed in quick
succession from both the chief commune and Bauzille-de-Putois, and at Brissac,
where the tree was chopped down and thrown into the river.110 Attempts were made
to embellish the re-plantation of the tree, with a large festival of 50 members of the
administration, National Guard and garrison in celebration.
Other communes
attempted to excuse the attack by blaming young soldiers present in the town, such as
in Castries in Fructidor, year VII when their liberty tree was smashed.111 However,
night attacks continued to liberate all vandals from prosecution, and replanted trees
were continually uprooted after the replanting orders of both Brumaire year V and
Nivôse year VI.
Some took greater pleasure in publicly ridiculing the tree, an
excellent example stemming from Gigean in Thermidor year VII, when an incendiary
placard was found stuck to the liberty tree with fresh dough, and wearing a galley
bonnet.112 The attacks underlined the problems of unrest that had been present in the
communes since the beginning of the revolution. With growing religious tolerance
and reversion in the later years of the revolutionary decade, congregations in cantons
such as Lunel began to celebrate the replanting of crosses on their old plinths where
they had once proudly stood, followed by a joyous but muted celebration with
libations of beer.113 The ridicule of the liberty trees reflected the diminishing power
of the Revolution in the district and served as a reminder than reinvention was not
welcome.
If the tree had not been attacked by Counter-Revolutionaries, it had been left to wither
and die by the community, acting as a more poignant example of indifference towards
the reinvention of symbols in the district. The reports replying to the decree of 6
Pluviôse, year VI reported that, out of 19 cantons, most trees had died naturally.114
This often stemmed from neglect, as in Pezenas, where the tree simply fell over in
ADH L465. Tableau général de la situation du département de l’Hérault, an V. Murviel.
ADH L1040. Le commissaire du directoire exécutif, Ganges, 22 Nivôse V an 7 Thermidor an VII.
111
ADH L1041. Le commissaire du directoire exécutif, Castries, 30 Fructidor an VII.
112
ADH L1041. PV, Gigean, 3 Thermidor an VII.
113
ADH L2675. Le commissaire du directoire exécutif, Lunel, 24 Prairial an V.
114
ADH L1041. Various.
109
110
37
Brumaire year VII. Instructed to be looked after by their communes or quarters, they
often were left to die, or were so badly placed that they were battered by wind and
rain, as in the Saint Guilhem suburb of Montpellier.115 Indifference still hid divisions
in the commune, even Frontignan deteriorating by year VII, with a division of
administrators.116 Therefore, the state of the liberty tree reflected the progressive
indifference and divisiveness of the Revolution, and represented another failure in the
efforts of dechristianization and religious reinvention.
The commune of Montpellier was plagued with problems regarding its liberty trees.
It was decreed in Vendémaire year V that many trees were in need of replacement, but
by Germinal and Floréal, trees were being cut, removed and left to rot throughout the
town. In particular, three trees in neighbouring squares, Place de la Canorgue, Place
de la Chapelle Neuve, and Place du Petit Scel, where simultaneously chopped down
on the night of 29 Germinal, cut with a single blow to the trunk.117 Attacks under the
cover of darkness were the most common, and as such it was almost impossible for
the culprits to be found, with few witnesses. Seven men were arrested for the attacks
on the trees, most coming from artisan families living on rue de la Chapelle Neuve.
However, due to a lack of evidence, none were convicted.118 The town, like other
cantons, attempted to enthuse the citizens using decadi festivals surrounding the replantation of the tree, as on 8 Pluvoise year VI and again on 28 Nivôse year VII, at
Place de la Canorgue, where the tree had again been destroyed ‘by whatever cause’
and at Place de la Chapelle Neuve where the tree had perished. 119 However, by
Floréal year VI the minister of police described the situation in the town as a civil
war, highlighting the emerging problems of the town that have been made apparent in
other studies. Thus, the reinvention of the exterior symbols of the town was not to be
popular.
The decision to destroy the church of Notre Dames de Tables and use its ‘precious’
materials to create a specially built Temple of Reason on the Place de Peyrou
115
ADHL1040. Le commissaire du directoire exécutif, Montpellier, 22 Floréal an V.
ADHL489. Situation du canton de Frontignan, Messidor an VII : ‘…Fanatisme qui prend son soyes
elus les ennemies de la révolution, forme une subdivision même dans le parti républicain…conservant
sous le voile de patriotisme cette prépondérance qui leur dormant sous l’ancien ordre de rang.’
117
ADH L1040. Le directeur de jury de Montpellier, 18 Floréal an V.
118
Ibid.
119
ADH L1020. Le président de l’administration municipale, Montpellier, 28 Nivôse an VII.
116
38
confronted the reinvention of Catholicism with revolutionary religion directly, and as
a result became an impossible project that unsurprisingly was never completed.
120
After the successful beginning of a column of Liberty and Harmony in 1791 (which
was completed by the Directory and torn down in April 1814 with the return of the
monarchy) on the esplanade of the town east of Place de la Comedie using public
donations, a plan was devised for the first newly built Temple of Reason in the
country, designed to honour Philosophy and Truth. Boisset, the representative en
mission, sited many economic and political advantages to the project, including
creating a new market on the central site where the old church had stood, regenerating
the degraded but important Place de Peyrou, and gaining merit for building the first
new temple for the Revolution. However, the biggest advantage was being able to
destroy the most central Catholic church of the town, standing as an unbearable
reminder of the power of religion at the heart of the district. Demolition was ordered
on 25 Nivôse year II, and work began on deconstructing the clock tower, bell tower
and vaults. However, by the 26 Pluviôse year II the demolition had cost 71,282
assignats, and donations were simply not forthcoming.121 The influential Society of
Agriculture and Arts, who had provided a large amount of the 100,000 livres saved by
Floréal year II, called for a halt to proceedings on the 28th, citing unrealistic funds in
a time of economy.122 Piles of rubble remained in the surrounding streets until year
IV, when Moulinier criticised it as one of the worst acts of vandalism of the time due
to the number of stones of the church disappearing into the night.123 Place de Peyrou
had become further degraded throughout the interim and now required more money.
As a result, the project was abandoned, the existing cathedral was used as the Temple
of Reason, and by 1797 the new priest, M. Louis Théron, was attracting large
numbers of the faithful back to the church. Thus, the event acts as an example of the
failure of religious symbolism in the town and the reluctance of the people to actively
fund and support a wholly republican idea. Even in 1859, when priest Jean-Francois
Vinas wrote his history of the church, he described the temple as the ‘abominable
construction’ on the ‘magnificent’ place de Peyrou.124
120
ADH L1354. Les membres composant le bureau municipal de Montpellier, au citoyen Boisset, 24
Nivôse an II.
121
Jean-Francois Vinas, Notre Dame des Tables (Montpellier, 1859), p. 410.
122
Ibid.
123
ADH L1354. Moulinier au président du département de l’Hérault.
124
Jean-François Vinas, Notre Dame des Tables, p. 408.
39
Sound: The church bell.
Finally, the Revolution wished to remove the emotive sound of the church bell. Bells
acted as a resounding symbol of ancien régime fanaticism, and were seen as nothing
more than an instrument to call people to mass. The law of 3 Ventôse year III
required them to disappear in France, with one allowed for emergencies, or to signal
the time of day. However, throughout France, the villagers and commissioners were
incredibly attached to them.125 Many of them were taken down and melted for other
materials, but others continued to signal the traditional festivals such as Christmas,
notably in Genies in year V, where only partial interest from the administration had
impeded a general call to action.126 It was impossible to eradicate the sound of the
bell calling the faithful to mass, symbolising further the importance of congregation
despite the laws, as in Gigean and Meze. Nivôse year VI saw the decree to take down
all bells, apart from those used for emergencies, which were kept under the law of
23/24 July 1793. The sound was unsuccessfully replaced at the republican festival by
the intimidating sound of the cannon, gunfire, or by military music encroaching on the
people to attend. The effect was overly negative and unsuccessful, affecting the
experience of the spectator further in addition to the spatial and rhythmic intrusions he
had already incurred. Thus, the attempt at the abolishment and semi-reinvention of the
sound of the church bell was only successful to an extent, as examples exist in the
district of its continued traditional use.
In conclusion, the assault of time, space and sound allows us to question the role of
leadership during the French Revolution, and its effects on the policies implemented
by Paris. The decade festival was only ever accepted during the imposition of an
essentially religious element, the marriage, with the continual punishment of absent
teachers, workers and ministers acting as a constant reminder that the festival was not
accepted. Indeed, the municipality was a considerable hindrance, consciously unable
to encourage the people through inability or choice. The administration attended the
decade festivals, feigning adherence to the Revolution, but it was their unregulated
weakness outside of the decade temple that caused the acceptance of
dechristianization to fail.
125
126
As a result, other possible leaders of the community
Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, p. 227.
ADH L2675. Le commissaire près la commune de Génies, 25 Messidor an V.
40
superseded the official one, the teachers and counter-revolutionaries disturbing public
order whilst the refractory priest surmounted the hierarchy and impressed the power
of traditional Catholicism on all those below him.
With this structure, it is
unsurprising that new revolutionary symbols such as the Liberty tree, the Temple of
Reason and the military sound of the cannon were not accepted, actively attracting
ridicule and defamation that broke down the authority and feasibility of the
Revolution in the district. Thus, the study of symbolism and its importance in the
district reveals once more the image of a district resisting with the departments around
Paris and central France in order to retain their traditional identity.
41
Conclusion
At the dawn of the Revolution, Montpellier was a prosperous administrative and
industrial capital. Its seventeen religious houses and function as the Episcopal seat of
the bishop of the diocese provided it with strong religious bonds. It had also been an
abiding town, open to ideas from Paris and willing to adopt new institutions in 1789.
What little church lands there were in the area were sold with little problem in late
1789, and there were even musings that the Civil Constitution of the Clergy might
have been accepted, had it eradicated the vices of the church. However, in the space
of two years, the town and its surrounding cantons became a battleground, an area of
civil war between the administrative bourgeoisie and the authority of the church. By
1795, the church and state were completely separate entities, and efforts to passify the
church had turned into violent attempts to dechristianise the district and replace the
religion of the people. These attempts were to reveal a power structure that physically
impeded the progress of dechristianization and innovation, centred around the power
of the refractory priest, the lay mass, the teacher, and the resulting failure of the
municipal officer.
The various efforts of France to remove and reinvent the Catholic Church in the
district of Montpellier simply served to strengthen the influence of the refractory
priest over the community. The civic oath acted as the unsuspecting catalyst of
failure, seeking to create a submissive version of the Catholic clergy, but
inadvertently severing it into two opposing sides that destabilised the harmonising
effect that the clergy had created between the Revolution and the citizen during 1789
and 1790. Indeed, the festival of the Federation of 1790 represented the benefits of a
beautifully orchestrated relationship between church and state. However, the oath
challenged the central role of the Catholic Church as a powerful independent body in
France and caused initial unrest amongst the people that continued throughout the
armed installation of constitutional priests. The refractory priest spurred this conflict
through rumour, denunciations of the constitutional clergy, and acting as the protector
of the traditional Catholic religion. The subsequent deportation of the clergy and the
hardening of religious policy under the directory, coupled with the removal of
religious symbols, sounds, and the old Gregorian calendar served only to increase
42
their influence, as the refractory priest became the only surviving attachment of
Catholicism in the country.
However, what is more striking is the strength of the lay cults against
dechristianization throughout this period. The regular occurrence of Catholic masses
without a minister clarified the imperative role of Catholicism in habitual life, not
only for religious purposes, but also for social reasons. The refractory priest may
have assumed authority, but his influence rested firmly with his congregation, who
allowed him to escape deportation or death by hiding him in homes and encouraging
him to undertake Catholic services in private. Thus, without this protection, the
refractory priest would have struggled alone. Furthermore, the enthusiasm and
initiative of a vast number of congregations who met in private or fought for the right
to celebrate in their old churches, taking turns to preach the mass and read the sermon,
demonstrated how all that a community needed was the teachings of Catholicism in
order to uphold their beliefs even in the most adverse conditions. There was a clear
element of passive resistance as communities continued their services, but ignored the
cult of Reason, and the national and decadi festivals heavily imposed by the
Directory. The group who showed the largest passive resistance was certainly the
teaching community, who through choosing to uphold their Catholic beliefs,
weakened the strength of republican education and its success within the
impressionable youth of the region.
However, there were those who felt driven to active resistence, and it within these
actions that we must question if there was truly a counter-revolution in Montpellier.
Firstly, the role of women has only been mentioned in passing during this study, but
their constant actions against the policies of the Revolution, their devotion to hiding
and protecting priests and religious ornaments, and their frequent attendance at lay
Catholic masses affords them a major role in resisting the dechristianization efforts of
the republic. Along with their children, they acted as a mouldable and mobile force,
and could be considered as a prime target for desperate refractory priests. However, it
was Catholicism that empowered them to protest and protect the beliefs of their
fathers. Without their support, the counter-revolution may never have succeeded.
Coupled with this were the actions of reactionary groups in Montpellier, who
repetitiously chopped down liberty trees, covered them with incendiary placards, or
43
removed them completely. These were the people who wished to publicly denounce
the removal of religious symbols and replace them with a vulnerable plant. Thus, the
majority of people exercised a passive form of deviance that allowed them to remain
apathetic to dechristianization whilst upholding their traditional practices, but other
sometimes surprising groups were moved to a certain level of counter-revolutionary
action that signified that abhorrence of the Revolution.
Finally, the influence of the refractory priest would not have been maintained without
the weakness of the municipal officer.
The Revolutionaries trusted that the
administrators would diligently execute the laws that would hinder the influence of
the refractory priest. However, the administrator became torn between the stabilising
effect of the church and the rules of Paris. Firstly, in an effort to create the public
order that the Revolutionary state strove for, many officers allowed refractory religion
to continue, or chose not to implement laws such as the closing of churches, because
that was the only way of maintaining order. The administrator therefore appeared
weak when actually he was going about his duty. Many lived double lives, appearing
as upholders and representatives of the Revolution in their commune, but also
allowing themselves to be fanaticised by Catholicism, and many were guilty of
negligence, lack of commitment and lack of courage. This was clearly detrimental to
their authority as implementers of the republican doctrine, and as a result, their
influence abated them. The implementation of revolutionary festivals represented a
social and logistical challenge, as many poor communes had little money and
equipment simply to hold then, plus some were moved to the Sunday to avoid
confrontation. They showed willingness to accept Catholicism as a factor in their
communes, but consequently lost all respect and importance.
Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the failure of various efforts to impose a
mediated or reinvented version of the church on the district of Montpellier, and the
conclusion now appears surprisingly simple.
The attempt to implement
dechristianization in the district of Montpellier was actively and passively impeded by
the very force it wished to remove, Catholicism. The failure of the cult of Reason, of
revolutionary festivals, of the new calendar and of a constitutional priests were all due
to the success of those battling to uphold the values that these institutions loathed. As
a result of the success of the refractory priests, of lay worship, and most importantly
44
the failure of the administrator to remove themselves from Catholicism,
dechristianization was never likely to succeed in the district of Montpellier. Only the
collaboration and compromise enjoyed during 1789 and 1790 would have yielded
revolutionary success, but the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the civil oath
separated the trust of the people from the republican state permanently.
45
Bibliography.
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454-546, 466, 468, 473, 478, 484, 489 - Compte rendu sur la situation du
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493 - Comptes décadaires rendus par le comité de surveillance de Montpellier,
Vendémaire-Ventôse year III.
655 - Hymnes républicains.
849 - Instructions sur les fonctions des assemblées administratives.
988-1031, 1035, 1037, 3201-3226, 4176, 5453, 5633-5675, 5760 - Fêtes
révolutionnaires 1790-an VIII.
1032-1034 - Fêtes décadaires, an VII.
1036 - Réception de la bannière donnée par la municipalité de Paris au departement.
1038 - Hymne à la mémoire du général Goguet, monument à la gloire de Poussin;
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1041-1041, 3200, 5522 - Arbres de la liberté.
1042-1043, 3227 - Calendrier républicain.
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8839 - Police des cultes, tribunaux.
3494, 5521 - Souscription organisée par la Société Populaire pour l’achèvement de la
colonne de la liberté érigée sur l’esplanade.
3878-3879, 3891 - Maisons religieuses, prêtres, installation des nouveaux curés.
3910, 4181 - Demandes d’ouvertures d’églises pour l’exercice des cultes.
5871 - Chants et papiers contre-révolutionnaire, 1793-an III.
Series C : Religion.
5900 - Cultes, biens du clergé, prohibé des vœux monastiques, saisies et ventes des
meubles, 1789-1790.
Printed primary sources.
46
Archives municipales de Montpellier (AMM ) :
11.375. Proclamation de la municipalité de Montpellier relative à la fête qui doit se
célébrer au jardin des plantes en l’honneur de Jean Jacques Rousseau. 19
Floréal an II.
11.376. Rapport faite à la societe populaire de Montpellier, au nom du comite
d’instruction publique, par le citoyen Remezy, sur la fete celebrée en
memoire de J.J.Rousseau.
11.377. Adresse du comité central des sociétés patriotiques du département de
l’Hérault au peuple français.
11.378. Procès-verbal de la fête funèbre consacré à la mémoire de Marat, l’ami du
peuple, par le peuple de Montpellier, 1793
11.379. Adresse de la société populaire, aux jeunes citoyens.
11.382. Discours prononcé par le narrateur de la société populaire de Montpellier,
dans la tribune de Temple, décadi 30 Frimaire an II.
11.383. Boisset, discours de morale, 30 Frimaire an II.
11.390. Discours sur la mort de Beauvais, 8 Germinal an II.
11.391. Guillaume, J. M, Rapport de la cérémonie funèbre en l’honneur de Fabre,
représentent du peuple, société populaire, 6 Prairial an II.
11.408. Extrait du procès-verbal des séances publiques de l’administration
municipale, 5 Thermidor an IV.
11.913. Faren, Nicholas-Andre, Discours sur les devoirs de tout citoyen, Montpellier,
30 Frimaire an III.
11.917. Goulard, notable, Discours, 30 Ventôse an III.
11.922Discours Prononcé par le citoyen Francois Castilhon, pres de l’administration
centrale de l’Herault, 23 Thermidor an IV.
11.939. Programme présenté à l’administration municipale de la commune de
Montpellier, pour la fête du 30 Ventôse, par les commissaires chargés de son
organisation.
11.941. 11.941. Pages, Raisin, sur le plan de la fête consacré à l’être Suprême, 8
Prairial an II.
11.942. Fédération à Montpellier, 1792.
11.947. Gas Jeune, Maire, Discours, fête de l’être Suprême, 20 Prairial an II.
11.951. Rapport fait au nom du comité des Arts et d’instruction publique de la société
populaire de Montpellier par Lejoy, sur la fête des jeunes Barras et Viala, 39
Messidor
11.953. Discours sur la fête du 10 août, 23 Thermidor an II.
11.954. Discours prononcé à la mémoire de J.J. Rousseau par André Platon,
président de la société populaire.
11.957. Discours par Raisin Pages, 10 et 30 Ventôse an II.
11.965. Motion faite par M. Petit à la société des amis de la constitution, et de
l’égalité de Montpellier, 14 juillet 1790
11.971. Extrait du registre des délibérations du conseil général de la commune de
Montpellier, Fédération des François, 14 juillet 1790.
11.983. Monsservin, Antoine Raymond, prêtre, Discours au sujet du serment
civique, 29 février 1791.
11.984. Anon, Ce qui s’est passé à Montpellier 9,10,11,12 octobre (Montpellier,
1791)
47
11.985. Derès, J, Mémoire Historique sur la horde des brigands de Montpellier, qui
se fait sacrilégement appeler le pouvoir exécutif (Montpellier, 1792)
11.988. Courdin, J, Entretiens patriotiques sur la Constitution Civile de Clergé
(Montpellier, 1791)
11.989. Discours prononcé par M. Bary, prêtre, vicaire de la paroisse du lieu de St.
Jean de Védas, 1791.
11.992. Maire de Montpellier, discours sur la mort du maire d’etampes, 17 juin an
IV.
11.993. Procès-verbal des séances de la société populaire, 12,13,14 mars, 1792
12.103. Extrait des registres des délibérations de l’administration municipale, 5
Prairial an IV.
12.104. Ordonnance du corps municipal, 21 juillet 1790.
12.110. La municipalité aux citoyens, 11 juin 1791.
12.414. Précis de la fête du 21 janvier, 2 Pluviôse an VI.
31.102. ‘Compte rendu au conseil de département de l’Hérault par le Directoire, le
16 novembre 1791’ in various, Procès-verbaux des séances de l’assemblée
administrative du département de l’Hérault pendent la Révolution, 17901793 (Montpellier, 1889)
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Beck, Robert, Histoire du Dimanche de 1700 à nos jours (Paris, 1997)
Bénichou, Helene, Fêtes et calendriers : Les rythmes du temps (Paris, 1992)
Bercé, Yves-Marie, Fête et révolte : Des mentalités populaires du XVIe au XVIIIe
siècle (Paris, 1994)
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Boehim, Charles, Procès-verbaux des séances de l’assemblée administrative du
département de l’Hérault pendant la Révolution 1790-1793 (Montpellier, 1889)
Biard, Michel, Duprey, Pascal, La Révolution française: Dynamiques, influences,
débats 1787-1804 (Paris, 2004)
Cholvy, Gérard, Le diocèse de Montpellier (Paris, 1976)
____. Histoire de Montpellier (Toulouse, 2001)
____. L’église de France et la Révolution, Histoire régionale. 2. le Midi (Paris, 1984)
____. L’Hérault, de la préhistoire à nos jours (Saint-Jean-d’Angély, 1993)
Corbiere, Philippe, Histoire de l’église reformée de Montpellier, depuis son origine
jusqu’à nos jours (Montpellier, 1861)
Desan, Suzanne, Reclaiming the sacred: Lay Religion and Popular Politics in
Revolutionary France (Cornell University, 1990)
48
Doyle, William, The Oxford History of the French Revolution (Oxford, 1989)
Duval-Jouve, Joseph, Montpellier pendant la Révolution, 2 volumes (Montpellier,
1879)
Fauchois, Yann, Religion et France révolutionnaire (Paris, 1989)
Furet, Françoise, Ozouf, Mona, Dictionnaire critique de la Révolution francaise
(Paris, 1988)
Jones, Colin, The Longman Companion to the French Revolution (London, 1990)
Lacquement, Guillaume, Les Fêtes Révolutionnaire à Montpellier, Thesis,
(Montpellier 1989)
Laurent, Robert, Gavignaud, Geneviève, La Révolution française dans le Languedoc
méditerranéen (Toulouse, 1987)
McManners, John, Church and Society in eighteenth-century France, vol. 2 : The
Religion of the People and the Politics of Religion (Oxford University, 1999)
Peronnet, Michel(ed), Les Jacobins du Midi (Montpellier, 1990)
Peronnet, Michel, Sagnes, Jean, La Révolution dans l’Hérault, 1789-1799 (SaintEtienne, 1989)
Ozouf, Mona, Festivals and the French Revolution (Harvard University, 1988)
Redon, Jeannine, Histoire de Montpellier, de la fondation jusqu’à 1914 (Montpellier,
2000)
Saurel, F, Histoire religieuse du département de l’Hérault pendant la Révolution, le
consulat et les premières années de l’Empire (Montpellier, 1898)
____. Un sanglant épisode sous la Terreur à Montpellier : l’affaire dite des Galettes
(Montpellier, 1895)
Seguin, Auguste, Actes des martyrs de Montpellier 1793-94 (Montpellier, 1822)
Schama, Simon, Citizens : A chronicle of the French Revolution (New York, 1990)
Vovelle, Michel, Religion et Révolution. La déchristianisation de l’an II (Paris, 1976)
____. La Révolution francaise 1789-1799 (Paris, 1998)
____. The Revolution against the Church: From Reason to Supreme Being
(Cambridge, 1991)
Vinas, Jean-Francois, Notre Dame des Tables (Montpellier, 1859)
Secondary sources: Articles.
49
Poitrineau, A, ‘La fête traditionnelle’, Annales Historique de la Révolution française,
222 (July-Sept. 1975), pp. 339-355.