The French Revolution was perhaps the greatest tragedy in history.
It ushered in an era of:
-violence
-class warfare
-authoritarianism
But France’s faith suffered the most—thousands of priests were executed or exiled as a new atheistic religion was thrust onto the people…🧵
Before the revolution, France and Catholicism were inseparable.
France was called the “eldest daughter of the Church” since Frankish king Clovis I accepted the Catholic faith in the early 6th century.
In the 18th century, the vast majority of the population were Catholic, and it was the only religion officially allowed in the kingdom.
The church influenced all aspects of French life—hospitals, education, and birth/death records were controlled by the Church.
But the Church became a central target of the French Revolution in 1789.
The monarchy owed its legitimacy to the Church, so by destabilizing the Church, revolutionaries were able to pull out the rug from under the monarchy—the two went hand in hand.
Initially, as outlined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789, revolutionaries sought a libertarian approach to religion:
“No one may be disturbed for his opinions, even religious ones, provided that their manifestation does not trouble the public order...”
Anti-Catholic sentiment intensified though, and the National Constituent Assembly, France’s acting government, ordered the seizure of properties and land held by the Catholic Church, selling them to fund the new revolutionary currency.
And later the assembly passed the "Civil Constitution of the Clergy," a law that subordinated the Catholic Church in France to the secular government.
Though it was rejected by the pope, it divided the clergy into jurors, who accepted the law, and non-jurors, who rejected it.
Non-juring priests were viewed as counter-revolutionaries, and were sentenced to death on sight.
Hundreds of Catholic priests were executed while thousands more were banished from the country. Faithful Catholics that remained were left without leadership or the sacraments.
Eventually anti-Catholic sentiment gave way to a frenzied anti-Christian sensationalism.
Crosses, church bells, statues, and iconography were destroyed in an attempt to secularize society.
Under the leadership of figures like Joseph Fouché, revolutionaries removed crosses from graveyards and declared that all cemeteries must bear only one inscription:
“Death is an eternal sleep.”
Instead of Christianity, revolutionary leaders thrusted a new, atheistic religion on the French people: the Cult of Reason.
Though hard to pin down, it centered around the core principles of Reason, Liberty, Nature, and the revolutionary spirit.
Promoted by Antoine-François Momoro, it was an assortment of various ideas based on materialist philosophy.
In practice, it was little more than an avenue for the state to promote anticlericalism and wealth confiscation.
The Cult of Reason even had its own places of worship—the churches of France were converted into modern “Temples of Reason,” where Christian altars were dismantled and transformed into altars to Liberty.
And ceremonies were held to celebrate the new religion…
The largest ceremony was held at Notre Dame in Paris. The inscription "To Philosophy" was carved over the cathedral's doors, and girls dressed in white danced around a costumed “Goddess of Reason,” who was played by Momoro’s wife.
She was said to have dressed “provocatively.”
The Cult of Reason was later supplanted by another state-imposed religion, the Cult of the Supreme being, but these were both ultimately banned by Napoleon.
Napoleon allowed the Church back into France in 1801, but the damage the revolution caused to the Faith was incalculable
The removal of the Catholic Church completely transformed French society, from the dissolution of the monarchy to the restructuring of basic institutions like education and administrative government.
Though not as stark as during the French Revolution, the same materialist principles dominate mainstream thought in Western countries today just as faith is being discarded.
Will the West undergo the same restructuring that France went through when it abandoned its faith?
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The great men of history read intensively — it's how they gained an edge over their rivals.
We can do the same, today.
So here are the classics that influenced the greats, from ancient warriors to modern emperors🧵
Alexander
According to Plutarch, Alexander was given an annotated copy of the Iliad which he carried with him everywhere.
He considered it a “perfect portable treasure of all military virtue and knowledge” and was especially fascinated by the character Achilles.
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius was extremely well-read. His tutor Fronto described how the emperor read works of Cato the Elder, Cicero, Lucretius, and Seneca in addition to numerous Greek tragedies.
The East India Company was the most powerful corporation of all time.
It had an army larger than Great Britain's, and its influence shaped the borders of nations.
So how did a company become stronger than most countries?🧵
The East India Company's origins started with famed explorer Francis Drake.
His voyage in 1577 opened the world to the East Indies, and when he returned to England in 1580, he brought exotic spices from the Spice Islands that investors believed could be a lucrative venture.
Soon after, the Queen granted a charter to a group of wealthy merchants and explorers for the region. The new corporation was called “Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies” or more commonly the “East India Company.”
Rome is usually remembered for its monuments, emperors, and epic battles.
But it was a haven for learning and literature as well. Some of the greatest written works were penned during Rome’s rule.
Here are 12 of the best🧵
12. The Annals and Histories, Tacitus
Tacitus’ works explore Rome in the first century. As a Roman senator he likely had privileged access to the Senate’s records from which to base much of his work.
Ronald Mellor calls Annals the “pinnacle of Roman historical writing.”
11. The Satires, Juvenal
A collection of satirical poems, it captures the energy of everyday Roman life.
Poems on prostitutes, fortune-tellers, politicians, and sycophants create a powerful denunciation of the degeneracy of Roman society.
The world of the late bronze age was the first “globalized” society.
But this highly connected network of cultures crumbled into a dark age after a series of disasters.
There are some striking parallels to today…🧵
In the 12th century BC, something strange happened in the Mediterranean.
The previously flourishing civilizations of the Egyptians, Mycenaeans, Hittites, and Babylonians all experienced a rapid, seemingly unexplainable decline.
Dozens of major cities were abandoned or completely demolished within a short period of time. Previously connected kingdoms became isolated, and cultural development stagnated.
“Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder,” according to 20th-century historian Arnold Toynbee.
He claimed every great culture collapses internally due to a divergence in values between the ruling class and the common people…🧵
Toynbee was an English historian and expert on international affairs who published the 12 volume work “A Study of History,” which traced the life cycle of about two dozen world civilizations.
Through his work he developed a model of how cultures develop and finally die…
Toynbee argued that civilizations emerge from primitive societies as a response to unique challenges — pressures from other cultures, difficult terrain or “hard country,” or warfare.