To add to my posts on the Carmelites of Compiègne, the following translates / summarise a paper by Jean-Clément Martin on the Revolution and the concept of martyrdom, first published in 2012 (and now available on Academia). In J.-C. M.'s view, the language of sacrifice and commemoration was central to the common experience, and to subsequent memory, on both sides of the Revolutionary struggle.
Martyrs et Révolution française, autour du sacré
The find an appropriate vocabulary also remains problematic, for example whether to distinguish "victims" from "martyrs", or to talk about "religion" in general... Rival traditions have their different emblematic figures: Marat, Robespierre, Bara on the one hand, the Royal family and the "martyrs of the faith" on the other... What follows offers only a sort of "Japanese path", laying down a few stepping stones to suggest a possible route.
I want to understand why this era was obsessed with sacrifice, why different movements and groups vied with each other to claim the glory of martyrdom; and above all why this glory has been "awarded" in national memory only to representatives of the Catholic religion.
The Revolutionary community and martyrdom
The idea of martyrdom, and its exploitation, was present in the Revolution from the beginning.
- The false news that soldiers of the Prince de Lambesc had killed a man in the Tuileries gardens on 12th July 1789 was a major precipitant of the initial violence.
- The storming of the Bastille was followed by a quasi-religious glorification not only of those who had died in the action, but also of the "heroes" who had put their lives at risk. The abbé Fauchet, an important figure in the opposition to the Court, placed himself at the head of the current. He displayed his bullet-riddle soutane and inaugurated masses in honour of the "victors of the Bastille"; he thereby confirmed the dominant interpretation of the Revolution as "regeneration", an understanding inspired by a laicised reading of the Gospels.
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| Philippe Maillard, Funeral oration pronounced on 5th August 1789 by the abbé Fauchet, in memory of the citizens killed at the seige of the Bastille, at the church of St-Jacques de l' hôpital .(Musée Carnavalet). |
Even Mirabeau was honoured in a manner that was more religious than political. The majority of clergy rallied to occasions such as the ceremonial blessing of the National Guard flags and the Fête de la Fédération, despite the misgiving of some concerning the consequences of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. [See: Clarke, 2007]
The rupture between Catholicism and Revolution occurred from 1791, as opponents of the Revolution came increasingly to define themselves by their position on the religious question.
Conflict crystallised around the oath to the Civil Constitution which, in regions of rivalry between Protestants and Catholics, was seen as a return to the wars of religion. In the eyes of their supporters the refractory clergy defended the religion of their fathers, whilst their adversaries were more and more clearly exposed as anticlerical.
- From 1790 the whole South-East was affected by killings and acts of vengeance on behalf of militant refractory priests who were considered to have sacrificed themselves.
- In the West, in what was to become the Vendée, the conflict was read as opportunity to earn the palm of martyrdom. Peasants around Machecoul died in the name of God, and the popular preacher, the abbé Marchais, mobilised his hearers by invoking the example of the Christian martyrs. The people of the Vendée became the new Maccabees, dying for the Roman Church.
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| Charles Coëssin de La Fosse, An open-air Mass, late 19th century Historial de Vendée |
The acceptance of sacrifice was part of mental outlook of many Catholics, particularly priests and nuns.
- In the Vendée women were executed by the military commission in Angers simply because they refused to wear a tricolour cockade, or because they attended clandestine masses.
- The majority of nuns "liberated" by the annulment of their vows, risked persecution by remaining in their communities and continuing to teach or nurse the sick. Relatively few were actually executed, but those who were showed great courage. The sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne were the victims of machinations between rival Revolution factions. Their exemplary death, dressed in their white religious robes, had an impact on public opinion which saw the execution of Robespierre a few days later as a punishment sent by God.
From 1794 onwards the beatification of all those who had died through "hatred of the faith" became a major preoccupation.
This was true of clerics, but also for members of their flock who had witnessed the massacres or, sometimes, experienced miracles at the tombs.
- In the Vendée, from 1795, the communal graves at Le Marillais and Avrillé, and in the Mauges, became places of pilgrimage where the remains of those shot were venerated - a process of popular beatification more or less controlled by the refractory clergy. "Tombes de mémoire" were identified throughout the region, and the initial dramatisation of communal memory became the basis of religious ceremonies.
- In Maine or Brittany, commemoration was practised by "Blues" as well as "Whites", Revolutionaries as well as Counter-Revolutionaries. (This was not possible in the Vendée where only Counter-Revolutionaries were venerated). Violent or spectacular deaths became the focus for devotions. In the case of the two "patriot saints" Perrine Dugué and Marie Martin, studied by Annie Duprat, the identity of the killers and the motives behind the murders remain uncertain. Beyond questions of convictions and beliefs, in this troubled period of protracted war, to be the victim of a violent death sufficed to attract collective attention.
The Choice of Martyrs
Popular devotion did not always attract the assent of the Catholic hierarchy or guarantee the establishment of a permanent cult.
- The most striking example was the royal couple. Semi-clandestine pilgrimages to the Madeleine Cemetery had been organised by its owner for many years, with the tolerance of the Imperial authorities. After 1815 the duchesse d’Angoulême tried personally to obtain the beatification of Louis XVI, but was unsuccessful In this case as in many others, the spontaneous move was not officially supported. The Court of Rome encouraged the publication of martyrologies - beginning with those composed by the abbés Guillon and Carron in the 1820s - but stopped short of formal sanctification.
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| William Hamilton, Apotheosis of Louis XVII, 1799 Private collection [Wikimedia] |
In France the Church faced the problem of identifying martyrs, prompting discussions on the status of victims and the intention behind their deaths.
To be formally recognised, a Catholic martyr had to have been killed through "hatred of the faith", but this had to be proved. Members of the Constitutional clergy were distrusted a priori for having abandoned the Church, but they might still be considered martyrs if they had been condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris. Such debates have remained live for two centuries, to the extent that even today it remains difficult to establish definitive lists of martyrs for the Revolutionary period on a purely critical basis. [Ref, Baciocchi & Boutry, 2008]
In the West, the Church retained only some of the "victims" as official martyrs.
For doctrinal reasons, the lay leaders of the insurrection, all of whom had carried arms, were excluded from formal beatification. However, they were accepted as martyrs by the population of the region and were depicted as such in stained glass windows like those at Le Pin en Mauges. Such modes of commemoration existed alongside official Church structures.
The village of La Gaubretière was chosen, amidst much competition, by royalist partisans in the 1840s as "the Pantheon of the Vendée". Thus traditions took root, which sometimes had to be adapted for the recognition of new martyrs.
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| Stained glass, Église saint-Pavin, Le-Pin-en-Mauges (detail) |
In the 19th and 20th centuries:
At first, the Catholic martyrs of the 18th-century conflicts faced competition from the heroes and martyrs of Bonapartism, starting with the Emperor himself, "the demi-god of Saint Helena".
The romantic fashion for tears encouraged the development of great outpourings of devotion for heroes, both royalist and liberal, who had died for their political beliefs.
The conflict between Revolution and Counter-Revolution was viewed through the prism of contemporary dynastic rivalries and popular uprisings, relegating the collisions of the years 1789-99 to secondary importance. However, the failure of any one camp to establish clear lines of division prevented the new commemorations from taking permanent root.
It was only in the later 19th century that interest in the martyrs of the Revolution was renewed.
This revival was encouraged by the Italian politics of Napoleon III, reinforced by contemporary news of missionaries killed during the French colonisation of the Far East. Whilst volunteers enrolled in the papal armies, or in the counter-revolutionary forces of the Bourbons in Naples, new enquiries were launched throughout France into those martyred through "hatred of the faith". After 1870 the Revolutionary period was once again given a central position in the struggle of Good against Evil, lending a global dimension to the quarrels of the Third Republic.
- In the Vendée the Third Republic, which also gave weight to the experience of ordinary people, saw the establishment of Les Lucs-sur-Bologne, a village ravaged by the Infernal Columns, as the major centre of memory. This would have been unthinkable thirty years previously.
- At national level the movement culminated in 1906 with the beatification of the nuns of Compiègne.
- The end of the 19th century was marked by numerous artistic and literary works glorifying the Catholic martyrology.
- After this it was not until 1926 that 191 martyrs of the French Revolution, priests massacred in September 1792, were beatified, whilst 99 others, executed in Angers, had to wait until 1984.
Revolutionary "Martyrs" ?
The Revolution saw a "battle between competing martyrdoms"
The obsession with Catholic martyrs reflects the dominant interpretation of the French Revolution which became established after 1810. However, the situation at the end of the 18th century is better understood as a conflict between two sets of martyrs. It is necessary to go back and attempt to explain how the "martyrs" of the Revolution disappeared. If the political drama has generally been read from a religious perspective, it is important to appreciate how closely politics and religion were intertwined in the unfolding of events.
At the time of the Revolution, the concept of sacrifice was at the heart of political convictions, prompting multiple acts of self-abnegation for the good of the collective.
- From the first conflicts between partisans and opponents of reform in August 1788, young officers exposed themselves to mortal danger in order to save the nation. The most notable example is that of André Desilles, killed in Nancy in 1790 when attempting to mediate between the rebel Suisses and the troops of Bouillé. His name was immediately given to streets throughout France in order to extol his memory and his example.
The Revolution is explained by a state of mind impregnated with religiosity and sentimentality as much as by political ideas. Rousseau's Nouvelle Héloïse was as influential as The Social Contract, and touched the Revolution's enemies as much as its partisans.
In this cultural moment, when the "sublime" was so sought after, acceptance of death was common to all camps.
- The most evident example is the pairing of Marat/Corday, each one prepared to sacrifice his life in the name of an ideal. (Guillaume Mazeau insists on the sacrificial dimension of Charlotte Corday's action).
- From 1792 onwards, the first "martyrs" of the Revolutionary wars were paraded before the Legislative Assembly. The appeal to collective sensibility counted far more than political exploitation, though from 1793 the Revolutionaries profited considerably from the cult dedicated to the "Martyrs of Liberty" (Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, Marat, Chalier). The ceremonies organised by groups of sans-culottes in Paris to honour these martyrs allied deep morbidity with delicate expressions of sentiment, and demonstrated a odd syncretism between Christian ceremony and an outlook which was self-consciously lay and civic.
- A disposition towards self-sacrifice can be found in the careers of numerous individual Revolutionaries, from Saint-Just to Romme. The memoirs of Mme Roland, heavily influenced by Classical sources, offer a good example. In 1796 the "martyrs of Prairial" committed suicide after they were condemned to death, in order to affirm their inviolable liberty.
This brief history reminds us that martyrs were integrated into the interplay of politics and compels us to question the value of such "martyrs".
The example of Marat is particularly instructive
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| Funeral of Marat, Musée Carnavalet |
The cult of Marat was predominantly an initiative of Revolutionary women - prominent men were engaged in a power struggle to appropriate his fame. In this manoeuvre, Robespierre won out against his Hebertist rivals by securing the support of the "widow" Marat; he and Saint-Just then put in place a process of "demaratisation". To redress the balance, the fall of Robespierre was followed by the temporary entry of Marat into the Pantheon, with the Thermidoreans depicting him as a martyred journalist. A few months later the jeunesse dorée revived his image as a terrorist and spread the legend that his remains, removed from the Pantheon in 1795, had been thrown into a sewer.
It is to be noted that a whole current among deputies and departmental administrators consistently combatted calls for a posthumous cult of Marat, since they feared that they would be unable to contain the truly religious emotion that his name inspired: thus "Federalist" Breton administrators permitted only an anti-Marat pageant in Rennes in the aftermath of his death. [Ref Clark, 2007, p.178-84;194-5]
It would be possible to cite other examples from the civil wars of the years 1792-94. However, in general terms, with regard to martyrdom and sacrifice, the link between politics and religion is clear.
Mona Ozouf's view that there was a progressive decline in religious sentiment as the Revolution progressed holds true for the political élite, which moved towards Voltairean scepticism. A radical anticlerical current, conceived by an activist minority, broadened out into a wider movement in the succeeding decades. However, the diffusion of "a sort of mysticism and messianism" affected a number of regions of France. The emotions which Marat aroused, were not confined to him. Despite the stance of Fouché or Chaumette, death and commemoration remained essential to the sans-culotte mentality.
The last war of religion?
The lens of religion had the effect of polarising interpretations of the Revolutionary conflict.
More than it was social or economic, the Revolution was moral and eschatological
From the very first months it inspired voluntary engagement against the enemy. Willingness to suffer death implied its reverse, willingness to deliver death so that the community could survive. This is not a cynical argument but corresponds to the genuine aspirations of certain Revolutionaries, at the time of the September Massacres or in the Counter-Revolutionary repression of 1793. This mentality is not so very different from the popular religious sensibilities associated with the Jansenist convulsionaries or the cult of the Sacred Heart. Official endorsement was given by Léonard Bourdon in his Recueil des actes héroïques et civiques which was diffused to the schools. This project, inspired by the scientific spirituality of Condorcet, is completely at odds with the Third Republic's dominant secular view of collective expectations.
The Revolutionary era unquestionably coincided with the millenarian currents which (according to Robert Darnton) permeated the "End of the Enlightenment".
- The Prophetess Catherine Théot, operating in the heart of the sans-culotte faubourg Saint-Marcel, attracted no lesser figure than Don Gerle with her providentialist reading of the Revolution.
- The medium Susanne Labrousse enjoyed a considerable secular following.
- In the provinces, a similar syncretism of politics and religion led the brothers Bonjour du Forez to found a parallel church.
- The Catholic Church itself was confronted by similar radical tendencies, illustrated by the spiritual teaching if Picot de Clorivière and, above all, by the figure of Jeanne-Anthide Thouret of the Sisters of Charity who, in 1795, launched a crusade which took her community as far as Austria.
- A similar phenomena is illustrated by the popular Italian movements against French occupation, which were characterised by miracles and martyrdom.
- Intellectually, the current is illustrated by Maistre, then by Ballanche, who reread events as an opportunity sent by God for the country to be purified through its martyrs.
References
Jean-Clément Martin, "Martyrs et Révolution française, autour du sacré", in D. Borne et J.-P. Rioux ed, Violences et religions, Strasbourg, 2012, p. 55-66. [Available on Academia]
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