Decadary Cult
The Decadary Cult (
The Decadary Cult was a system of worship based on festivals, so-called fêtes décadaires, which were celebrated every décadi, the day of rest in the 10-day week of the Republican calendar. In addition, there was a cycle of annual festivals, celebrating various themes such as youth, old age, the foundation of the French Republic and the execution of
History
The French revolutionary period saw a number of attempts to establish a quasi-official civil religion, despite the formal separation of state and religion enshrined in the 1795 Constitution of the Year III. These included Robespierre's Cult of the Supreme Being, the Cult of Reason and, during the later post-Terror period, the Decadary Cult and Theophilanthropy.[2][3]
The fêtes décadaires rose to popularity after the adoption of the
The Decadary Cult was officially established by the laws of 17 Thermidor (4 August 1798), 3 Fructidor (20 August) and 23 Fructidor (9 September), and by decree of
References
- ^ a b R.R. Palmer, The Improvement of Humanity: Education and the French Revolution, Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 192-195
- ^ a b Eric Voegelin, From Enlightenment to Revolution, Duke University Press, 1982, p. 172
- ^ a b c Andrew J. S. Jainchill, Reimagining Politics After the Terror: The Republican Origins of French Liberalism. Cornell University Press, 2008, pp. 84-88.
- ^ Zina Weygand, The Blind in French Society from the Middle Ages to the Century of Louis Braille. Stanford University Press, 2009, p.156
- ^ Jean-Pierre Chantin, "Les adeptes de la théophilanthropie" Archived 2013-12-04 at the Wayback Machine, Rives méditerranéennes, 14, 2003 [in French]
- ^ General Michel Franceschi, Ben Weider, Wars Against Napoleon: Debunking the Myth of the Napoleonic Wars. Savas Beatie, 2008.
- ^ Albert Mathiez, La Théophilanthropie et le Culte Décadaire, 1796–1801: Essai sur l'Histoire Religieuse de la Révolution. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1904 [in French]