Robespierre and the Festival of the Supreme Being

Jonathan Smyth is Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London

• Introduction1 Towards a new republican morality2 The national response to Robespierre's proclamation3 The celebrations in the capital4 The celebrations outside Paris5 Financing a national festival6 Contemporary comments on the Festival7 After the FestivalConclusionIndex

'What all this amounts to is an important, deeply researched and thought-provoking book, which shows that the Festival of the Supreme Being needs to be taken seriously.'Mike Rapport, French History, Volume 31, Issue 3‘It takes courage to re-open the debate on the Supreme Being and show that, despite all its detractors, its Festival was not a mummery, but a joyous demonstration of unity throughout the whole of France. Jonathan Smyth was brave enough to do this, and we are grateful to him for it.’Sophie Wahnich, Historian of the French Revolution. Director of Research, CNRS, Institut Interdisciplinaire du Contemporain.psl, Paris‘This book transforms our understanding of one of the most important cultural events of the French Revolution. Smyth shows us that the Festival was a major cultural event, one in which many people actively participated, both in Paris and the provinces, and which signified the hopes of many for the future of the Revolution.’Marisa Linton, Associate Professor in History at Kingston University'Smyth’s findings in the departmental and municipal archives make for a book rich in detail; the documentation is used for a very thorough monographic description and analysis of the festival. On the role of Robespierre and his ideas about a Supreme Being, Smyth integrates findings from the most recent biographical studies and grapples with an issue which historians have not been able to resolve: why did the idea of the festival not lead to its continued practice beyond 1794? The conclusion of the book points to the rise of Napoleon, the inauguration of the First Empire and the Concordat with the pope.'Elizabeth C. Macknight, Journal Of Ecclesiastical History'...minor shortcomings are outweighed by the undeniable contribution the work makes to our knowledge of the revolutionary festivals and, more generally, to the religious history of the period. The harvest the author has brought back from the archives, both national and local, indicates that the subject is still far from exhausted.'Paul Chopelin, Chrétiens et Sociétés