Misplaced Pages

Pierre Gaspard Chaumette: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 08:02, 10 September 2016 editMccapra (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Page movers, New page reviewers169,400 edits →Presidency of the Commune← Previous edit Latest revision as of 17:09, 2 January 2025 edit undoCsillagkohó (talk | contribs)209 edits Removed the part on Nietzsche because these are just the personal reflections of whoever wrote it. Also added some more info 
(78 intermediate revisions by 41 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|18th-century French politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist {{Infobox scientist
|name = Pierre Gaspard Chaumette |name = Pierre Gaspard Anaxagore Chaumette
|image =Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette.jpg |image = Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette.jpg
|image_size =150px |image_size = 150px
|caption = Pierre Gaspard Chaumette |caption = Pierre Gaspard Anaxagore Chaumette
|birth_date =24 May 1763 |birth_date = 24 May 1763
|birth_place = ] |birth_place = ]
|death_date = 13 April 1794 |death_date = {{d-da|13 April 1794|24 May 1763}}
|death_place = ] |death_place = ]
|residence = |residence =
Line 19: Line 20:
|doctoral_students = |doctoral_students =
|known_for = |known_for =
|author_abbrev_bot =|author_abbrev_zoo = |author_abbrev_bot =
|author_abbrev_zoo =
|influences = |influences =
|influenced = |influenced =
|prizes = |prizes =
|religion = |footnotes = |signature = |religion = |footnotes = |signature =
}}
}}'''Pierre Gaspard Chaumette''' (24 May 1763 – 13 April 1794) was a French politician of the [[French Revolution|Revolutionary
'''Pierre Gaspard Anaxagore Chaumette''' ({{IPA|fr|pjɛʁ ɡaspaʁ anaksaɡɔʁ ʃomɛt}}; 24 May 1763 – 13 April 1794) was a French politician of the ] who served as the president of the ] and played a leading role in the establishment of the ]. He was a leader of the radical ] of the revolution, an ardent critic of Christianity who was one of the leaders of the ]. His radical positions resulted in his alienation from ], and he was arrested and executed.
period]].


==Biography== ==Biography==


===Early activities=== ===Early life and career===
Chaumette was born in ] France, 24 May 1763, into a family of shoemakers who wanted him to enter the Church. However he did not have a vocation and instead sought his fortune as a cabin boy. After only reaching the rank of helmsman, he returned to Nevers to study his main interests, ] and science.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman, 1989 p.31</ref> He also studied surgery and made a long voyage in the company of an English doctor, serving as as his secretary. He then became surgeon to the Brothers of Charity at Moulins.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman, 1989 p.31</ref> Chaumette studied ] at the University of Paris in 1790, but gave up his career in medicine at the start of the Revolution. Chaumette began his political career as member of the ] editing the progressive ''Revolutions de Paris'' journal from 1790.<ref>Jervis, p.230,</ref> His oratory skills proved him a valuable spokesperson of the ], and more importantly, the ] movement in the ]. In August 1792 Chaumette became the Chief Procurator of the ]; on 31 October 1792 he was elected President of the Commune and was re-elected in the Municipal on 2 December of that same year. As member of the Paris Commune during ] 1792, he was delegated to visit the prisons, with full power to arrest suspects. He was accused later of having taken part in the ], but proved that at that time he had been sent by the provisional executive council to ] to oversee a requisition of 60,000 men. {{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} Returning from this mission, he spoke eloquently in favour of the ]. Chaumette was born in ], France, on 24 May 1763 into a family of shoemakers who wanted him to enter the Church. However, he did not have a ] and instead sought his fortune as a ]. After only reaching the rank of ], he returned to Nevers to study his main interests, ] and science.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman, 1989 p. 31</ref> He also studied surgery and made a long voyage in the company of an English doctor, serving as his secretary. He then became surgeon at the ] in ].<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman, 1989 p. 31</ref> Chaumette studied ] at the ] in 1790, but gave up his career in medicine at the start of the Revolution. Chaumette began his political career as member of the ] editing the progressive ''Revolutions de Paris'' journal from 1790.<ref>Jervis, p. 230,</ref> His oratory skills proved him a valuable spokesperson of the ], and more importantly, the ] movement in the ].


===Presidency of the Commune=== ===Presidency of the Commune===
In August 1792, Chaumette became the Chief Procurator of the ]. As member of the Commune during the ], he was delegated to visit the prisons, with full power to arrest suspects. On 31 October 1792, he was elected President of the Commune and was re-elected in the Municipal on 2 December of that same year.
⚫ His conduct, oratorical talent, and the fact that his private life was considered beyond reproach, all made him influential, and he was elected president of the Commune, defending the municipality at the bar of the ] on 31 October 1792. Re-elected in the municipal elections of 2 December 1792, he was soon given the functions of '']'' of the Commune, and contributed with success to the enrollments of volunteers in the army by his appeals to the population of ]. Chaumette held strong anti-monarchy views. He led a deputation from the Commune and argued before the National Convention that failing to punish Louis XVI for his crimes was causing high prixes and the fall of the ].<ref>Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p.652</ref> Further, Chaumette held a strong opinion about the fate of ] after his fall. He was greatly outspoken in his demand for the king's blood. Chaumette’s thesis was that as long as Louis XVI went unpunished prices would remain high, and shortages and the profiteering that created them, which he assumed to be the work of the royalists, would go unchecked. Chaumette ultimately was one of the men to vote in favor of the former king's execution.<ref>Jordan, p.69</ref>


⚫ His conduct, oratorical talent, and the fact that his private life was considered beyond reproach, all made him influential, and he was elected president of the Commune, defending the municipality at the bar of the ] on 31 October 1792. Re-elected in the municipal elections of 2 December 1792, he was soon given the functions of '']'' of the Commune, and contributed with success to the enrollments of volunteers in the army by his appeals to the population of ]. Chaumette held strong anti-monarchy views. He led a deputation from the Commune and argued before the National Convention that failing to punish Louis XVI for his crimes was causing high prices and the fall of the ].<ref>Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p. 652</ref> Further, Chaumette held a strong opinion about the fate of ] after his fall. He was greatly outspoken in his demand for the king's blood. Chaumette's thesis was that as long as Louis XVI went unpunished prices would remain high, and shortages and the profiteering that created them, which he assumed to be the work of the royalists, would go unchecked.<ref>Jordan, p. 69</ref>
Chaumette was also a leading and vocal opponent of the ]. Chaumette was one of the instigators of the attacks of 31 May and of 2 June 1793 on the ]s, carrying out a virulent and intransigent attack.{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}}


Chaumette was also a leading and vocal opponent of the ]. He was one of the instigators of ] in mid-1793. Chaumette and ] acted as prosecutors on behalf of the Tribunal which tried the Girondists in October 1793.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 379</ref>
===Anti-Christian Views===
⚫ Chaumette is considered one of the ultra-radical '']'' of the French Revolution. He demanded the formation of a ] which was to "force avarice and greed to yield up the riches of the earth” in order to redistribute wealth, and feed troops and the urban populations.<ref>Lytle, p.19</ref> He is associated much more with his views on the ], however. Chaumette was an ardent critic of Christianity, which he believed to consist of "ridiculous ideas"<ref>Chaumette, p.6</ref> that "have been very helpful to despotism."<ref>Chaumette, p.101</ref> In his ultra-radical views, he was heavily influenced by ] and ] writers ], ] and ]. Chaumette believed religion to be a relic of superstitious eras that did not reflect the intellectual achievements of his ]. Indeed, for Chaumette "church and counterrevolution were one and the same."<ref>Jordan, p.70</ref> Thus, he proceeded to pressure several priests and bishops into abjuring their positions. Chaumette organized a Festival of Reason on 10 November 1793, which boasted a ], in the guise of an actress, on an elevated platform in the Notre Dame Cathedral.<ref>Jervis, pp.238-9</ref> Chaumette was so passionately involved in the de-Christianization process that he even publicly changed his name from Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette to ] Chaumette. He stated his reason for changing his name that, "I was formerly called Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette because my ] believed in the saints. Since the revolution I have taken the name of a saint who was hanged for his republican principles."<ref>Jones, p.471</ref> It has been suggested that his criticism was also influenced by the Church's stance on homosexual relations, as in the words of the historian ] he "loved boys".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Guérin|first1=Daniel|title=Homosexualité et révolution|date=1983|publisher=Le vent du ch'min|location=Paris|language=French}}</ref>


Chaumette made a leading contribution to establishing the ]. In early September 1793 there was fear and unrest in Paris over prices, food shortages, war and fears of a royalist betrayal. On 4 September Hebert appealed to the sections to join the Commune in petitioning the National Convention with radical demands.<ref>Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p. 758</ref> The next day, led by Chaumette and the mayor of Paris, ], crowds of citizens filled the Convention.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 365</ref> Chaumette stood up on a table to declare that "we now have open war between the rich and the poor" and urged the immediate mobilisation of the revolutionary army to go into the countryside, seize food supplies from hoarders and exact punishments on them.<ref>Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p. 758</ref> Robespierre was presiding over the Convention's sessions that day, and Chaumette's demands, together with the shock of the recent betrayal of Toulon to the British, prompted the Convention to decree that 'Terror will be the order of the day'.<ref>Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p. 758</ref>
The ], of which Chaumette was an avid follower alongside ], emphasized so called natural facts. Chaumette's adherence to this ideology becomes lucid in his views toward the suffragist movement at the time. He has been recorded to answer "Since when is it permitted to give up one's sex? Is it to men that nature confided domestic cares? Has she given us breasts to feed our children?" to a group of women demanding equal treatment in October 1793.<ref>Scott, p.3</ref> He evidently believed nature to have clearly defined the political scene as man's domain, and the domestic realm as woman's. He reminded a different group of suffragists of ]' fate whose "forgetfulness of the virtues of her sex led her to the scaffold."<ref>Scott, pp.16–17</ref>

Despite his social radicalism in other regards, Chaumette was a virulent opponent of women's participation in the Revolution. He believed women had to remain excluded from all involvement in public life, instead devoting themselves to the ]. During a November 1793 meeting of the Commune, he harshly chastized a group of female attendees: "Since when is it permitted to renounce one's sex? (...) Is it for women to make motions? Is it for women to put themselves at the head of our armies?" He further cautioned the women by reminding them of the recently executed ] and ], describing such politically active women as "haughty", "denatured" and "shameless".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://revolution.chnm.org/d/489 |title=Chaumette, Speech at City Hall Denouncing Women’s Political Activism |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=17 November 1793 |website=Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution |access-date=2 January 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Patou-Mathis |first=Marylène |author-link=Marylène Patou-Mathis |date=2022 |title=De onzichtbaarheid van de vrouw van de prehistorie tot nu |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep |page=164 |isbn=}}</ref>

===Role in the dechristianization of France===
⚫ Chaumette is considered one of the ultra-radical '']'' of the French Revolution. He demanded the formation of a ] which was to "force avarice and greed to yield up the riches of the earth" in order to redistribute wealth, and feed troops and the urban populations.<ref>Lytle, p. 19</ref> However, he is much more known today for his role in the ]. Chaumette was an ardent critic of Christianity, which he considered "ridiculous ideas"<ref>Chaumette, p. 6</ref> that "have been very helpful to despotism."<ref>Chaumette, p. 101</ref> His views were heavily influenced by ] and ] writers ], ] and ]. Chaumette saw religion as a relic of superstitious eras that did not reflect the intellectual achievements of the ]. Indeed, for Chaumette, "church and counterrevolution were one and the same."<ref>Jordan, p. 70</ref> Thus, he proceeded to pressure several priests and bishops into abjuring their positions.

Chaumette organized a Festival of Reason on 10 November 1793, which boasted a ], portrayed by an actress, on an elevated platform in the ].<ref>Jervis, pp. 238–39</ref> He was such a passionate opponent of Christianity that in December 1792, he even publicly changed his name from Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette to ] Chaumette,<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 311</ref> explaining: "I was formerly called Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette because my ] believed in the saints. Since the revolution I have taken the name of a saint who was hanged for his republican principles."<ref>Jones, p. 471</ref> It has been suggested by ] that his criticism was also influenced by the Church's stance on homosexual relations.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Guérin|first1=Daniel|title=Homosexualité et révolution|date=1983|publisher=Le vent du ch'min|location=Paris|language=French}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=January 2025}}


===Downfall=== ===Downfall===
Chaumette's ultra-radical ideas on the economy, society and religion set him at odds with ], the powerful circle around him and other "moderate" ]. Soon, official opinion began to turn against Chaumette and the like-minded ]. In September 1793, Robespierre, who was a ], made a speech denouncing dechristianisation as aristocratic and immoral.<ref>The Terror, David Andress, Little, Brown 2005 p. 253</ref> ], himself under suspicion, produced a report for the ], alleging Chaumette's involvement in an anti-government plot, revealed by ], although Chabot had never named Chaumette himself.<ref>The Terror, David Andress, Little, Brown 2005 p. 254</ref>
His ultra-radical ideas were soon regarded as affront to the National Conventions' policies, and as the public and official opinion began to turn against the likewise minded ] in the early spring of 1794, Chaumette increasingly became target of
counterrevolutionary allegations. ] - as promoter of the ] that was in direct
opposition to Chaumette's Cult of Reason - had him accused with the Hébertists as being part of a conspiracy to starve Paris and subsequently overthrow the Convention.<ref>Andress, p.269</ref> He was sentenced to death on the morning of 13 April and guillotined that same afternoon.


In the early spring of 1794, Chaumette increasingly became target of allegations that he was a counterrevolutionary. Hébert and his associates planned an armed uprising to overthrow Robespierre, but Chaumette, along with fellow sans-culotte leader ], refused to take part.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 409</ref> When the ] were arrested on 4 March, Chaumette was originally spared, but on 13 March he too was arrested.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 410</ref> The other Hébertists were executed with their leader Jacques Hébert on 24 March 1794, but Chaumette was held in prison until found guilty of taking part in the prison plot at ]. He was sentenced to death on the morning of 13 April and guillotined that same afternoon. Also executed was his unlikely group of co-conspirators including ], wife of the recently executed ], ], wife of the recently executed Hébert, ], former Bishop of Paris, ] and an assortment of other prisoners of various types.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989, pp. 416–17</ref>
==Radical Philosophy==
⚫ Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette's legacy mainly consists of his ultra-radical philosophies that were regarded as excessive even by his contemporary
colleagues.<ref>Jordan, p.70</ref> Especially his convictions on the uselessness of religion were frowned upon by deist ]
and most other "moderate" Montagnards and they ultimately led to his execution. In a time in which Catholicism was still deeply embedded
in France, Chaumette's views can safely be regarded as shared by a very small minority only. Yet, they are emblematic of the ideological
progression to evermore radical ideas that was prevalent in Revolutionary France. Furthermore, his emphasis on reason and natural facts
are the high point of the French Enlightenment thinking as they are the logical heir of ], ], and the philosophers mentioned above.


⚫ Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette's legacy mainly consists of his ultra-radical philosophies that were regarded as excessive even by his colleagues.<ref>Jordan, p. 70</ref>
===Reviewing Saint-Martin===
⚫ In 1790 Chaumette reviewed the work of ], a French Catholic philosopher wishing for a theocratic society in which the most devout people would commission and guide the rest of the population. The review provides a substantiated outline of Chaumette's philosophies. He criticizes Saint-Martin's ideal due to its similarity to France's ] before the Revolution in which the rule of the monarch was legitimized by the ]. The review soon develops into a much broader affront towards religion, though. Chaumette calls all Christians "enemies of reason",<ref>Chaumette, p.17</ref> and calls their ideas "ridiculous."<ref>Chaumette, p.6</ref> He wonders "over whom to get more embarrassed; him who believes he can deceive humans in the eighteenth century with such farces or him who has the weakness to let himself be deceived."<ref>Chaumette, p.12</ref> He moves on to criticize the very notion of free will as construct that authorizes Christianity to proscribe certain "unmoral" actions.


==Religious philosophy==
⚫ His criticism is reminiscent of ] who would denounce Christianity on many of the same grounds eighty years later. Just like Nietzsche, Chaumette emphasizes a greater reliance on our instincts and a greater embracing of the apparent world, instead of Christianity's concern with the afterlife. In his philosophy, he is rather critical of human beings stating that "everyone knows that humans are nothing more than what education makes of them; if one wants them just, one must furnish them with notions of fairness, not ideas from seventh heaven because the sources of all of human’s grief are ignorance and superstition.".<ref>Chaumette, p.85</ref> Chaumette valued education as key for producing virtuous republican Frenchman who would no longer "fall for" Christianity's unreasonable teachings.
⚫ In 1790 Chaumette reviewed the work of ], a French Catholic philosopher wishing for a ] society in which the most devout people would guide the rest of the population. The review provides a substantiated outline of Chaumette's philosophies. He criticizes Saint-Martin's ideal due to its similarity to France's ] before the Revolution in which the rule of the monarch was legitimized by the ]. The review soon develops into a much broader attack on religion. Chaumette calls all Christians "enemies of reason",<ref>Chaumette, p. 17</ref> and their ideas "ridiculous."<ref>Chaumette, p. 6</ref> He wonders "over whom to get more embarrassed; him who believes he can deceive humans in the eighteenth century with such farces or him who has the weakness to let himself be deceived."<ref>Chaumette, p. 12</ref>


⚫ The review also criticizes the very notion of free will as a construct that authorizes Christianity to proscribe "unmoral" actions. Chaumette emphasizes a greater reliance on our instincts and a greater embracing of the apparent world, instead of Christianity's concern with the afterlife. In his philosophy, he is rather critical of human beings stating that "everyone knows that humans are nothing more than what education makes of them; if one wants them just, one must furnish them with notions of fairness, not ideas from seventh heaven because the sources of all of human's grief are ignorance and superstition."<ref>Chaumette, p. 85</ref>
Besides this review, Chaumette left some printed speeches and fragments, and memoirs published in the ''Amateur d'autographes''. His
memoirs on the events of 10 August were published by ], preceded by a biographical study.


==References== ==References==
{{Reflist|3}} {{Reflist}}


===Bibliography=== ===Bibliography===
Line 75: Line 74:
* Jones, Colin. The Great Nation. Chicago: Columbian University Press 2002 * Jones, Colin. The Great Nation. Chicago: Columbian University Press 2002
* Jordan, David P. The King’s Trial: The French Revolution vs. Louis XVI. California: University of California Press, 2004. * Jordan, David P. The King’s Trial: The French Revolution vs. Louis XVI. California: University of California Press, 2004.
* Lytle, Scott H.. "The Second Sex." The Journal of Modern History Vol. 27, no. 1 (1955): 14-26. * Lytle, Scott H.. "The Second Sex." The Journal of Modern History Vol. 27, no. 1 (1955): 14–26.
* Scott, Joan Wallach. "French Feminists and the Rights of 'Man': Olympe de Gouges's Declarations." History Workshop No. 28 (Autumn 1989): 1-21. * Scott, Joan Wallach. "French Feminists and the Rights of 'Man': Olympe de Gouges's Declarations." History Workshop No. 28 (Autumn 1989): 1–21.
{{Authority control}} {{Authority control}}


Line 86: Line 85:
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
⚫ ]
] ]
] ]
] ]
]
⚫ ]
]
]

Latest revision as of 17:09, 2 January 2025

18th-century French politician

Pierre Gaspard Anaxagore Chaumette
Pierre Gaspard Anaxagore Chaumette
Born24 May 1763
Nevers
Died13 April 1794 (1794-04-14) (aged 30)
Paris
NationalityFrench
Alma materUniversity of Paris
Scientific career
FieldsBotany
Politics

Pierre Gaspard Anaxagore Chaumette (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ ɡaspaʁ anaksaɡɔʁ ʃomɛt]; 24 May 1763 – 13 April 1794) was a French politician of the Revolutionary period who served as the president of the Paris Commune and played a leading role in the establishment of the Reign of Terror. He was a leader of the radical Hébertistes of the revolution, an ardent critic of Christianity who was one of the leaders of the dechristianization of France. His radical positions resulted in his alienation from Maximilien Robespierre, and he was arrested and executed.

Biography

Early life and career

Chaumette was born in Nevers, France, on 24 May 1763 into a family of shoemakers who wanted him to enter the Church. However, he did not have a vocation and instead sought his fortune as a cabin boy. After only reaching the rank of helmsman, he returned to Nevers to study his main interests, botany and science. He also studied surgery and made a long voyage in the company of an English doctor, serving as his secretary. He then became surgeon at the Frères de la charité in Moulins. Chaumette studied medicine at the University of Paris in 1790, but gave up his career in medicine at the start of the Revolution. Chaumette began his political career as member of the Jacobin Club editing the progressive Revolutions de Paris journal from 1790. His oratory skills proved him a valuable spokesperson of the Cordelier Club, and more importantly, the sans-culotte movement in the Paris sections.

Presidency of the Commune

In August 1792, Chaumette became the Chief Procurator of the Commune of Paris. As member of the Commune during the insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was delegated to visit the prisons, with full power to arrest suspects. On 31 October 1792, he was elected President of the Commune and was re-elected in the Municipal on 2 December of that same year.

His conduct, oratorical talent, and the fact that his private life was considered beyond reproach, all made him influential, and he was elected president of the Commune, defending the municipality at the bar of the National Convention on 31 October 1792. Re-elected in the municipal elections of 2 December 1792, he was soon given the functions of procureur of the Commune, and contributed with success to the enrollments of volunteers in the army by his appeals to the population of Paris. Chaumette held strong anti-monarchy views. He led a deputation from the Commune and argued before the National Convention that failing to punish Louis XVI for his crimes was causing high prices and the fall of the assignat. Further, Chaumette held a strong opinion about the fate of Louis XVI after his fall. He was greatly outspoken in his demand for the king's blood. Chaumette's thesis was that as long as Louis XVI went unpunished prices would remain high, and shortages and the profiteering that created them, which he assumed to be the work of the royalists, would go unchecked.

Chaumette was also a leading and vocal opponent of the Girondins. He was one of the instigators of their downfall in mid-1793. Chaumette and Jacques Hébert acted as prosecutors on behalf of the Tribunal which tried the Girondists in October 1793.

Chaumette made a leading contribution to establishing the Reign of Terror. In early September 1793 there was fear and unrest in Paris over prices, food shortages, war and fears of a royalist betrayal. On 4 September Hebert appealed to the sections to join the Commune in petitioning the National Convention with radical demands. The next day, led by Chaumette and the mayor of Paris, Pache, crowds of citizens filled the Convention. Chaumette stood up on a table to declare that "we now have open war between the rich and the poor" and urged the immediate mobilisation of the revolutionary army to go into the countryside, seize food supplies from hoarders and exact punishments on them. Robespierre was presiding over the Convention's sessions that day, and Chaumette's demands, together with the shock of the recent betrayal of Toulon to the British, prompted the Convention to decree that 'Terror will be the order of the day'.

Despite his social radicalism in other regards, Chaumette was a virulent opponent of women's participation in the Revolution. He believed women had to remain excluded from all involvement in public life, instead devoting themselves to the household. During a November 1793 meeting of the Commune, he harshly chastized a group of female attendees: "Since when is it permitted to renounce one's sex? (...) Is it for women to make motions? Is it for women to put themselves at the head of our armies?" He further cautioned the women by reminding them of the recently executed Madame Roland and Olympe de Gouges, describing such politically active women as "haughty", "denatured" and "shameless".

Role in the dechristianization of France

Chaumette is considered one of the ultra-radical enragés of the French Revolution. He demanded the formation of a Revolutionary Army which was to "force avarice and greed to yield up the riches of the earth" in order to redistribute wealth, and feed troops and the urban populations. However, he is much more known today for his role in the dechristianization movement. Chaumette was an ardent critic of Christianity, which he considered "ridiculous ideas" that "have been very helpful to despotism." His views were heavily influenced by atheist and materialist writers Paul d'Holbach, Denis Diderot and Jean Meslier. Chaumette saw religion as a relic of superstitious eras that did not reflect the intellectual achievements of the Age of Enlightenment. Indeed, for Chaumette, "church and counterrevolution were one and the same." Thus, he proceeded to pressure several priests and bishops into abjuring their positions.

Chaumette organized a Festival of Reason on 10 November 1793, which boasted a Goddess of Reason, portrayed by an actress, on an elevated platform in the Notre Dame Cathedral. He was such a passionate opponent of Christianity that in December 1792, he even publicly changed his name from Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette to Anaxagoras Chaumette, explaining: "I was formerly called Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette because my god-father believed in the saints. Since the revolution I have taken the name of a saint who was hanged for his republican principles." It has been suggested by Daniel Guérin that his criticism was also influenced by the Church's stance on homosexual relations.

Downfall

Chaumette's ultra-radical ideas on the economy, society and religion set him at odds with Maximilien Robespierre, the powerful circle around him and other "moderate" Montagnards. Soon, official opinion began to turn against Chaumette and the like-minded Hébertists. In September 1793, Robespierre, who was a Deist, made a speech denouncing dechristianisation as aristocratic and immoral. Fabre d'Églantine, himself under suspicion, produced a report for the Committee of Public Safety, alleging Chaumette's involvement in an anti-government plot, revealed by Chabot, although Chabot had never named Chaumette himself.

In the early spring of 1794, Chaumette increasingly became target of allegations that he was a counterrevolutionary. Hébert and his associates planned an armed uprising to overthrow Robespierre, but Chaumette, along with fellow sans-culotte leader François Hanriot, refused to take part. When the Hébertists were arrested on 4 March, Chaumette was originally spared, but on 13 March he too was arrested. The other Hébertists were executed with their leader Jacques Hébert on 24 March 1794, but Chaumette was held in prison until found guilty of taking part in the prison plot at Luxembourg Palace. He was sentenced to death on the morning of 13 April and guillotined that same afternoon. Also executed was his unlikely group of co-conspirators including Lucile Desmoulins, wife of the recently executed Camille Desmoulins, Françoise Hebert, wife of the recently executed Hébert, Gobel, former Bishop of Paris, Arthur Dillon and an assortment of other prisoners of various types.

Pierre-Gaspard Chaumette's legacy mainly consists of his ultra-radical philosophies that were regarded as excessive even by his colleagues.

Religious philosophy

In 1790 Chaumette reviewed the work of Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, a French Catholic philosopher wishing for a theocratic society in which the most devout people would guide the rest of the population. The review provides a substantiated outline of Chaumette's philosophies. He criticizes Saint-Martin's ideal due to its similarity to France's feudal order before the Revolution in which the rule of the monarch was legitimized by the divine right of kings. The review soon develops into a much broader attack on religion. Chaumette calls all Christians "enemies of reason", and their ideas "ridiculous." He wonders "over whom to get more embarrassed; him who believes he can deceive humans in the eighteenth century with such farces or him who has the weakness to let himself be deceived."

The review also criticizes the very notion of free will as a construct that authorizes Christianity to proscribe "unmoral" actions. Chaumette emphasizes a greater reliance on our instincts and a greater embracing of the apparent world, instead of Christianity's concern with the afterlife. In his philosophy, he is rather critical of human beings stating that "everyone knows that humans are nothing more than what education makes of them; if one wants them just, one must furnish them with notions of fairness, not ideas from seventh heaven because the sources of all of human's grief are ignorance and superstition."

References

  1. Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman, 1989 p. 31
  2. Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman, 1989 p. 31
  3. Jervis, p. 230,
  4. Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p. 652
  5. Jordan, p. 69
  6. Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 379
  7. Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p. 758
  8. Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 365
  9. Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p. 758
  10. Citizens, Simon Schama, Penguin 1989 p. 758
  11. "Chaumette, Speech at City Hall Denouncing Women's Political Activism". Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution. 17 November 1793. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  12. Patou-Mathis, Marylène (2022). De onzichtbaarheid van de vrouw van de prehistorie tot nu. Amsterdam: Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep. p. 164.
  13. Lytle, p. 19
  14. Chaumette, p. 6
  15. Chaumette, p. 101
  16. Jordan, p. 70
  17. Jervis, pp. 238–39
  18. Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 311
  19. Jones, p. 471
  20. Guérin, Daniel (1983). Homosexualité et révolution (in French). Paris: Le vent du ch'min.
  21. The Terror, David Andress, Little, Brown 2005 p. 253
  22. The Terror, David Andress, Little, Brown 2005 p. 254
  23. Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 409
  24. Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989 p. 410
  25. Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman 1989, pp. 416–17
  26. Jordan, p. 70
  27. Chaumette, p. 17
  28. Chaumette, p. 6
  29. Chaumette, p. 12
  30. Chaumette, p. 85

Bibliography

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chaumette, Pierre Gaspard". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 17.
  • Andress, David. The Terror. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
  • Chaumette, Pierre-Gaspard. Schlüssel des Buchs: Irthümer und Wahrheit. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms Verlag, 2004.
  • Guérin, Daniel. Homosexualité et Révolution, Le vent du ch'min, 1983.
  • Jaher, Frederic Cople. The Jews and the Nation: Revolution Emancipation, State Formation, and the Liberal Paradigm in America and France. New York: Princeton University Press, 2002.
  • Jervis, William Henley. The Gallican Church and the Revolution. France: K. Paul, Trench, & Co, 1882.
  • Jones, Colin. The Great Nation. Chicago: Columbian University Press 2002
  • Jordan, David P. The King’s Trial: The French Revolution vs. Louis XVI. California: University of California Press, 2004.
  • Lytle, Scott H.. "The Second Sex." The Journal of Modern History Vol. 27, no. 1 (1955): 14–26.
  • Scott, Joan Wallach. "French Feminists and the Rights of 'Man': Olympe de Gouges's Declarations." History Workshop No. 28 (Autumn 1989): 1–21.
French Revolution
Significant civil and political events by year
1788
1789
1790
1791
1792
1793
1794
1795–6
1797
1798
1799
Revolutionary campaigns
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
Military leaders
French First Republic France
French Army
French Navy
Opposition
Austrian Empire Austria
Kingdom of Great Britain Britain
Dutch Republic Netherlands
Kingdom of Prussia Prussia
Russian Empire Russia
Spain Spain
Other significant figures and factions
Patriotic Society of 1789
Feuillants
and monarchiens
Girondins
The Plain
Montagnards
Hébertists
and Enragés
Others
Figures
Factions
Influential thinkers
Cultural impact
Categories: