HIS109Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Girondins, Maximilien Robespierre, Ultramontanism
Document Summary
Assignats was paper money issued during the revolution after the confiscation of church properties, as the government was bankrupt. Provisions drove frenchmen of many political persuasions into opposition. National assembly demanded that all clerics take an oath promising to abide by the new laws. French society was declared to be secular by the national assembly, by law and culture. Division in society manifested itself between the jurors (those who promised to abide by the laws) and the non-jurors (those who decided to refuse to swear to the civil constitution) Half of france saw the new laws as turning the church into an extension of the state, and the other half saw it as a now secular body. Division was between radical elements who wanted to build a secular state, and those who wanted a simple reformation with a continuum from before the revolution.
