Robespierre declared against the policy of
unchristianizing France, and when he had the power (April, 1795), he
established as a State religion the worship of the Supreme Being. "The
French people recognizes the existence of the Supreme Being and the
immortality of the Soul"; the liberty of other cults was maintained.
Thus, for a few months, Rousseau's idea was more or less realized. It
meant intolerance. Atheism was regarded as a vice, and "all were
atheists who did not think like Robespierre."
[114]
The democratic was succeeded by the middle-class Republic (1795-9), and
the policy of its government was to hinder the preponderance of any one
religious group; to hold the balance among all the creeds, but with a
certain partiality against the strongest, the Catholic, which
threatened, as was thought, to destroy the others or even the Republic.
The plan was to favour the growth of new rationalistic cults, and to
undermine revealed religion by a secular system of education.
Accordingly the Church was separated from the State by the Constitution
of 1795, which affirmed the liberty of all worship and withdrew from the
Catholic clergy the salaries which the State had hitherto paid. The
elementary schools were laicized. The Declaration of Rights, the
articles of the Constitution, and republican morality were taught
instead of religion. An enthusiast declared that "the religion of
Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, and Cicero would soon be the religion of the
world.
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