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The Great Controversy
When the goddess was brought into the Convention, the orator
took her by the hand, and turning to the assembly said: “Mortals, cease
to tremble before the powerless thunders of a God whom your fears
have created. Henceforth acknowledge no divinity but Reason. I offer
you its noblest and purest image; if you must have idols, sacrifice only
to such as this.... Fall before the august Senate of Freedom, oh! Veil
of Reason!”
“The goddess, after being embraced by the president, was mounted
on a magnificent car, and conducted, amid an immense crowd, to
the cathedral of Notre Dame, to take the place of the Deity. There
she was elevated on the high altar, and received the adoration of all
present.”—Alison, vol. 1, ch. 10.
This was followed, not long afterward, by the public burning of
the Bible. On one occasion “the Popular Society of the Museum”
entered the hall of the municipality, exclaiming, “Vive la Raison!” and
carrying on the top of a pole the half-burned remains of several books,
among others breviaries, missals, and the Old and New Testaments,
which “expiated in a great fire,” said the president, “all the fooleries
which they have made the human race commit.”—Journal of Paris,
1793, No. 318. Quoted in Buchez-Roux, Collection of Parliamentary
History, vol. 30, pp. 200, 201.
It was popery that had begun the work which atheism was com-
pleting. The policy of Rome had wrought out those conditions, social,
political, and religious, that were hurrying France on to ruin. Writers,
in referring to the horrors of the Revolution, say that these excesses are
to be charged upon the throne and the church. (See Appendix.) In strict
justice they are to be charged upon the church. Popery had poisoned
the minds of kings against the Reformation, as an enemy to the crown,
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an element of discord that would be fatal to the peace and harmony of
the nation. It was the genius of Rome that by this means inspired the
direst cruelty and the most galling oppression which proceeded from
the throne.
The spirit of liberty went with the Bible. Wherever the gospel was
received, the minds of the people were awakened. They began to cast
off the shackles that had held them bondslaves of ignorance, vice, and
superstition. They began to think and act as men. Monarchs saw it and
trembled for their despotism.