Theophilanthropy : A ( Masonic ) Plan for Deist Worship
and all ideas ... All religion that has as its foundation what we call dogmas , which is to say mysteries , and which rest on blind faith , all religions of this type are of necessity based on the same arguments which , applied in a different context , hold up the nobility and the monarchy . 2
Catholicism is inextricably linked to the Monarchy , and if the Republic wishes to build a durable foundation , it must rely on a religious revolution . This was the subject of a great speech made by Director La Révellière- Lépeaux at the Institute – the temple of republican thought – on 12 Floréal of Year V ( 1 May 1797 ). Heirs to the Girondins , the men of the Directory were “ moderate republicans , though their republicanism was not moderate " 3 . Despite the aversion they might have felt for Robespierre and the failure of the cult of the Supreme Being , the establishment of the Republic did not seem possible to them unless accompanied by the advent of a new religion that would plant in the hearts of citizens the ideas and morals of the Republic . The picture of the religion that La Révellière deemed necessary in order to establish the moral unity of the French people coincided broadly with the new faith professed by the small group of Theophilanthropists . Thus the group was thrust into the spotlight . Montesquieu had shown that the Republic was based on virtue , and the new religion would teach that virtue to the people .
The cult of the Theophilanthropists arose in an era when a faction hostile to the Republic was threatening France with violent disturbance . Also […] a religious institution based on philosophical principles tended by its nature to strengthen the Republican government . 4
As a result of the fame that La Révellière-Lépeaux ’ s great speech had assured them , the Theophilanthropists would soon draw a whole crowd of new devotees , many of them sincere and others aware of the almost official protection granted by the government . The coup d ’ état of 18 Fructidor Year V ( September 4 , 1797 ) made La Révellière-Lépeaux – whose name has now fallen into obscurity – the leading figure of the regime . The political success of its protector promoted the development of the new religion in the country . In Paris , almost 18 places of Theophilanthropic worship were established in several churches , renamed appropriately : Temple of the Reunion ( Saint-Merri ), Temple of the Social Contract ( Saint-Eustache ), Temple of Fidelity ( Saint-Gervais ), Temple of Concord ( Saint-Sulpice ), etc . The chronicle of the allocation of different churches to the Theophilanthropists and the controversies that this provoked is a whole separate , and often comical , side of their history . Theophilanthropist groups were established in many provincial towns . Protected and favored by the government , the church experienced sustained growth for almost two years . For the most part , however , the fall of its defender La Révellière-Lépeaux in the coup d ’ état of 30 Prairial Year VII ( June 18 , 1799 ) marked the end of the adventure . To everyone ’ s surprise , however , Theophilanthropy survived this heavy blow and , despite the suspicion it aroused due to its
2
Des circonstances actuelles qui peuvent terminer la Révolution et des principes qui doivent fonder la République en France ( 1798 ), Editions Fischbacher , Paris , 1906 , p . 220 . Quoted by Mathiez , op . cit ., p . 267-268 .
3
This phrase apparently comes from Waldeck-Rousseau . Historians apply it to the liberal republicans of the Third Republican , which in some ways the men of the Directorate preceded . .
4
Qu ’ est-ce que la Théophilanthropie ? p . 16 .
4