Fire in the Minds of Men (Book I)
This text, "Fire in the Minds of Men" by James H. Billington, delves into the origins and development of the revolutionary faith in Europe, focusing on the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
This text, "Fire in the Minds of Men" by James H. Billington, delves into the origins and development of the revolutionary faith in Europe, focusing on the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It argues that this faith is a uniquely modern belief in a perfect secular order achieved through forcible overthrow of traditional authority, driven not by the masses but by passionate intellectuals. The book traces this tradition from the French Revolution, highlighting the core, often conflicting, ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and exploring the influence of occult and mystical ideas and organizations like the Illuminists and Freemasons on early revolutionaries like Babeuf and Buonarroti. Ultimately, Billington suggests the revolutionary tradition arose in societies lacking ideological and political dissent, becoming a form of opposition rooted in a secularized, often intensely individualistic or fraternal, quest for a new world order.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central argument of "Fire in the Minds of Men" regarding the origins of the revolutionary tradition?
The central argument is that the modern revolutionary tradition, particularly as it emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, has its origins not solely in rational Enlightenment thought, but significantly in various forms of occultism, mysticism, and romanticism. The book traces the influence of ideas and organizational structures derived from groups like the Bavarian Illuminists, Freemasonry, and even Pythagorean thought on revolutionary movements, particularly in France and Russia. This "revolutionary faith" is depicted as a quest for a "holy other" or a regenerated state, often pursuing this ideal through secret societies, symbolic language, and a focus on feeling and passion over pure reason. The title itself, "Fire in the Minds of Men," alludes to the idea that the impetus for revolution is an internal, almost spiritual, force, rather than just a material or political one.
How did Parisian cafe culture and literary figures contribute to the early revolutionary movement?
Parisian cafe culture, particularly around the Palais-Royal, served as a crucial incubator for a new kind of political discourse and revolutionary imagination. It fostered a playful irreverence and utopian speculation, prioritizing desire over practical politics. Figures like Restif de la Bretonne, a prolific and eccentric writer, contributed significantly to this environment. Restif is credited with introducing the word "communist" into print and his writings, full of sexual and social fantasies, represent the erotic and imaginative undercurrents that fueled early revolutionary ideas. This suggests that the origins of revolutionary terminology and concepts were not always from high-minded philosophers but could also spring from more unconventional and imaginative sources.
What role did symbols and language play in shaping the revolutionary faith?
Symbols and language were vital in shaping and propagating the revolutionary faith. Revolutionary groups adopted and adapted symbols from various sources, including classical antiquity, occultism, and Masonry. The triangle, for instance, became a key Pythagorean symbol representing harmonic relationships and a secure form of organization. The circle symbolized egalitarian perfection. Language was also used as a tool of political shock tactics, with figures like Hebert employing vulgarity to signal a "total revolutionary situation." Intellectuals like Bonneville sought to create a new language for the nation, drawing on German influences and capitalizing key words like "Nation," "People," and "Constitution" to give them added symbolic weight. This demonstrates a conscious effort to create a new, almost sacred, lexicon for the revolutionary cause, aiming to evoke feeling and allegiance rather than just convey information.
How did German ideas and culture influence the development of French nationalism during the revolutionary era?
German ideas and culture had a significant, albeit sometimes paradoxical, influence on the development of French nationalism. While France was at war with Germanic powers, German concepts and cultural elements were internalized. Strasbourg, a bilingual border city with strong German ties, became a key locus for this cultural exchange. Figures like Nicolas Bonneville, who studied in Strasbourg and translated German works, drew heavily on Germanisms and published bilingual tracts. German romanticism, with its focus on organic unity and rustic virtue, resonated with French thinkers seeking to define their own national identity. The concept of the "people" as a sovereign entity, often capitalized in the Germanic style, became central to French revolutionary discourse. Even the origin of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is tied to Strasbourg and the musical traditions influenced by Germany. This highlights the complex and interconnected nature of revolutionary thought and national identity formation across Europe.
What was the significance of the "Circle" in revolutionary organization, and where did this idea originate?
The "Circle" was a significant organizational model for revolutionary groups, suggesting a hierarchical structure with an illuminated inner core. This concept originated, in part, from Pythagorean thought with its focus on spherical perfection and transmigration in cycles. However, it was significantly influenced and popularized by the Bavarian Illuminists, who structured their secret society in concentric circles, moving inward from local cells to a supreme inner group. James H. Billington argues that the Illuminists were perhaps the first to apply the term "circle" to a political organization with both moral and ideological aims. This model, emphasizing secrecy and hierarchical control, migrated eastward through German, Polish, and ultimately Russian radical traditions, influencing groups like the Decembrists and later revolutionary organizations.
What was the role of the Illuminati in the revolutionary tradition, and how did fears of the Right contribute to their influence?
The Bavarian Order of Illuminists, founded by Adam Weishaupt, provided a basic structural model for revolutionary organization, characterized by secrecy, hierarchy, and a mission of leading humanity to moral perfection free from established authority. Their organizational plan, with its three levels of membership ("church," "synod," and "areopagite"), was adopted by figures like Buonarroti. Paradoxically, the Illuminati's influence was amplified by the fears and denunciations of the Right. As conservative forces exaggerated the reach and nefariousness of the Illuminati, the fascination with these secret societies grew among revolutionaries, leading them to adopt elements of their structure and mythology. This "police legend" about the Illuminati, disseminated by the Right, inadvertently provided a blueprint and added mystique for revolutionary groups seeking to operate in secrecy and hierarchy.
How did the concept of "revolution" evolve from its earlier meanings in the period studied?
The concept of "revolution" evolved significantly during this period. Originally, the word often referred to a cyclical process, a "revolving back" to an earlier state, as seen in the writings of figures like Frederick the Great. However, Frederick also began to apply the word to spiritual as well as political change, foreshadowing the later, more ideologically charged understanding. Later German thinkers like Hegel and Marx further developed this idea, seeing revolution as a process of liberating reform leading to a new, ideologically based order. The French Revolution, with its overthrow of the monarchy and subsequent upheavals, solidified the modern sense of revolution as a radical and often violent break with the past, aiming to create a fundamentally new society based on specific ideological principles. The term became a "sublime word" representing a desired future state, distinct from existing political realities.
What was the significance of the tension between national and social revolution in the development of the revolutionary tradition?
The tension between national and social revolution was a fundamental conflict that shaped the revolutionary tradition. As revolutionary ideas spread, they manifested in different forms. Some revolutionaries focused on national liberation and the creation of independent nation-states, as seen in the rise of nationalism in the wake of Napoleon's conquests. Others prioritized social and economic transformation, aiming to dismantle the capitalist system or the centralized state, as exemplified by the conflict between Marx and Proudhon. This schism between national and social revolutionaries, and the subsequent divisions within social revolutionary movements (like the Marx-Proudhon split), had a profound impact on the trajectory of revolutionary movements throughout the 19th century and beyond, influencing the development of diverse revolutionary ideologies and strategies.
Book I Briefing Summary: Foundations of the Revolutionary Faith
Book I of "Fire in the Minds of Men" explores the origins of the revolutionary faith during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The book focuses on the innovative creators of a new tradition of revolutionaries, primarily intellectuals, in Europe of the industrial era. The core belief is that a perfect secular order will emerge from the forcible overthrow of traditional authority. This faith is seen as a secular surrogate for religious belief.
The heart of this revolutionary faith is metaphorically described as fire: ordinary material transformed into extraordinary form, destroying but also supporting life and above all, fascinating. Dostoevsky's phrase, "The fire is in the minds of men, not in the roofs of buildings," captures this elusive flame, which migrated from Christian altars to Masonic lodges and occult circles. The flame of faith was carried by small groups and individuals, creating an incendiary legacy of ideas across national borders.
Revolutionaries sought radical simplicity and looked back to pre-Christian antiquity for primal, natural truths. This included adopting pagan names and idealizing figures like Pythagoras. The ideal was the "occult simplicity" of symbols like the all-seeing eye atop a pyramid, not the complex political structures of earlier revolutions or the American federation. This quest for simplicity manifested in the melding of estates into one state, the adoption of uniform titles like "citizen," "brother," and "tu," the shift from elaborate rococo art to severe neo-classicism, the replacement of complex Catholic traditions with Dame Nature or a Supreme Being, and the preference for incantational slogans over reasoned argument.
The book highlights the origins of revolutionary language, noting that revolutionaries used old words like "democracy" and "revolution" in new ways and invented terms like "socialist" and "communist". The word "communist" itself originated in the erotic imagination of the eccentric writer Restif de la Bretonne in prerevolutionary Paris. Revolutionary rhetoric later became a formal legitimation of political authority.
The revolutionary faith was shaped less by the rationalism of the French Enlightenment than by the occultism and proto-romanticism of Germany. This concept, emphasizing a secular upheaval more universal and transforming than purely political change, was transported from Germany to France by figures like Count Mirabeau.
The foundation of this faith involves both the idea of secular revolution and the fact of a totally new kind of upheaval in Paris. The term "revolution," originally meaning a return to a place of origin or a temporarily violated norm, began to acquire a new meaning of a totally new, man-made order, particularly after the French Revolution.
The French Revolution (1789-1794) provided the hard fact that made secular revolution historically possible. Key events included the Third Estate declaring itself the National Assembly, the Tennis-Court Oath, the storming of the Bastille, the abolition of aristocratic privilege, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The revolution progressed through phases of monarchy, a republic, and the Reign of Terror, with power consolidating into a strong central executive.
A central theme is the search for a new locus of legitimacy. This search involved finding a "perfect point" or unifying norm for society. Initially, the political process itself, simplifying power from an assembly to a single man, seemed to provide this. Violence became the ultimate form of radical simplification.
Key locations became imbued with revolutionary meaning:
The Palais-Royal in Paris served as a privileged sanctuary for intellectuals, a point through which new ideas broke into the power elite, and a link with the Paris underworld. Its cafes incubated intellectual opposition and became a forum for the French Revolution. Camille Desmoulins' call to arms from the Cafe Foy on July 12, 1789, is considered by some as the start of the revolution. The Palais-Royal fostered a mix of high politics, low pleasure, and radical rhetoric, acting as a "capital of agitation".
Paris itself became the battlefield, with the King at the Tuileries, popular authority in the Palais-Royal, and the National Assembly nearby. The city's geography was invested with moral meaning.
The Fields of Festival, particularly the Champs de Mars, became sacred spaces for large-scale public rituals and dramas of revolutionary redemption. Symbols like the razed Bastille, the statue of Dame Nature, and the Tree of Liberty provided rallying points. The guillotine also became a central, hypnotic symbol of revolutionary drama and justice.
Journalism emerged as a critical force, with editorial offices serving as breeding grounds for the new faith. The "Fourth Estate" began to replace the Church as a propagator of values and symbols. Figures like Marat, who institutionalized denunciation, and Hebert, who used coarse, popular language, shaped the revolutionary press. Nicholas Bonneville is presented as a pivotal figure in revolutionary journalism, founding influential journals like Le Tribun du Peuple and La Bouche de Fer. He envisioned a "republic of letters" led by intellectuals ("intelligences superieures") and founded the Social Circle (Cercle Social), a prototype for future revolutionary organizations. Bonneville's ideas, influenced by Illuminism, involved concepts like a "circle of light," "universal surveillance," and a universal confederation.
Book I identifies three core ideals that acquired mystical significance during the revolution:
Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality.
Liberty, represented by the republican ideal, focused on securing freedom through constitutional government and the rule of law. Influenced by the American Revolution, the concept evolved in France through debates over constitutions.
Fraternity embodied the emotional ideal of brotherhood within a new nation. This ideal, often discovered in the shared struggle of battle, was expressed in symbols like "enfants de la patrie" and mass conscription. The concept of the "nation" became central in France, unlike in the United States, gaining tangible definition and higher legitimacy for the revolution. Militant nationalism spread through Napoleon. Strasbourg played a key role in the rise of this nationalism, particularly through the creation of La Marseillaise. Saint-Just, the "saint from Picardy," is presented as an embodiment of this militant, male fraternity, embodying the ideal of harnessing passion to a national cause.
Equality represented the intellectual ideal of a nonhierarchical socio-economic community based on the collective sharing of goods. This ideal found roots in Rousseau's concept of the social contract and emerged more fully during the Thermidorean reaction after the Reign of Terror. Figures like Babeuf and Marechal championed "real economic equality" and "common happiness". Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals is seen as the progenitor of modern Communism and revolutionary socialism. This conspiracy introduced a new type of secret, hierarchical revolutionary organization and promoted the myth of an unfinished revolution—a purely political upheaval as a precursor to a second, social revolution. The idea of communism was also notably developed by Restif de la Bretonne in his writings.
The book delves into the occult origins of organization, suggesting that modern revolutionary organization grew out of occult Freemasonry and Pythagorean mysticism rather than solely practical experience. Intellectuals, influenced by German romantic thought and Bavarian Illuminism, were key innovators.
Filippo Buonarroti, a key figure in the Babeuf conspiracy, is presented as the first apostle of a new revolutionary religion and the figure who links earlier revolutionary ideas to subsequent international organizations. In exile, he formulated blueprints for secret, hierarchical organizations like the Sublime Perfect Masters and Monde, drawing heavily on Masonic and Illuminist models.
Freemasonry provided a milieu with rituals, symbols (like the architect building a new structure, the "brotherhood among equals"), and organizational structures that influenced early revolutionaries.
Illuminism, particularly the Bavarian Order founded by Adam Weishaupt, provided the basic structural model for secret, hierarchical organization with graded levels of membership dedicated to moral perfection and universal mission. Figures like Bonneville served as key channels for the transmission of Illuminist ideas into French revolutionary circles.
Pythagorean mysticism influenced the ideal identity of revolutionary intellectuals and provided key geometric symbols for organization. The circle symbolized perfection and universal brotherhood, while the triangle represented the means to achieve it, leading to the concept of three-man "triangles" or five-man "pentagons" as basic units of organization. Charles Nodier, founder of the Philadelphians, exemplified the use of the pentagon as a symbol for a potential revolutionary brotherhood within the military. The term Philadelphia itself became an evocative name for a universal community or ideal society.
Finally, the book notes the interaction of extremes (Right and Left) throughout this period, suggesting an affinity and unconscious borrowing between them, particularly in opposition to moderate positions. This symbiosis influenced organizational forms and the development of ideas. The figure of Joseph de Maistre is presented as an example of a counter-revolutionary who was previously involved in radical occult Masonry, highlighting the unexpected crossovers. The era culminated in a political polarization where extremes understood each other better than any position in between.
Book I: Additional Questions
What are the three objects of belief?
The Objects of Belief in the Revolutionary Faith
Book I of "Fire in the Minds of Men" identifies three fundamental ideals that became the core objects of belief for the early revolutionaries, acquiring a "new mystical aura" during this period. While these ideals had ancient origins, the revolutionary era infused them with new significance, ultimately leading to recurring conflicts among them. These three ideals are Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality.
Initially, these three ideals "blended into a trinitarian unity" at the beginning of the French Revolution. However, the source material indicates there were "deep, inherent differences" between the concepts that would later fuel division within the revolutionary movement. The history of the revolutionary tradition post-1789 illustrates a "gradual, near-universal spread" of the first ideal, Liberty, followed by increasing conflict between the other two, Fraternity and Equality.
Liberty: The Republican Ideal
The first of these objects of belief is Liberty, associated with the republican ideal. This ideal centers on securing freedom through constitutional government and the rule of law. It found roots in the Enlightenment and was profoundly shaped by the American Revolution. The American Declaration of Independence, with its assertion that "all men are created equal," played a decisive role in transforming "republican" and "republicanism" from terms of "opprobrium to labels of pride".
In the French context, the concept of a republic represented the Enlightenment ideal of a rational political order. It aimed to replace the "old privileged distinctions" with the uniform category of "citizen" and the "rule of kings with the rule of law". This vision extended to freeing property from traditional bondage, making the republican ideal attractive to entrepreneurs.
The process of establishing a republican government in France and debating its constitution generated significant excitement. Thomas Paine, in his Common Sense, emphasized the secular, millenarian belief that "we have it in our power to begin the world over again" by creating a new constitutional union. Paine later moved to Paris, embraced French citizenship, and became a key figure in promoting the republican ideal, even founding a short-lived journal called The Republican. The debate over the first revolutionary constitution in France, particularly the adoption of a single legislative chamber over a bicameral system, demonstrated the French trajectory towards direct popular rule. The more radical republican Constitution of 1793, although never enacted, was treated as a "holy object" and remained a "venerated model for many political revolutionaries well into the nineteenth century".
The source notes that the reestablishment of constitutional, republican governments was a demonstrable result of later upheavals in France, such as the Revolutions of 1848 and the Paris Commune of 1871, which led to the Second and Third Republics. The creation of satellite republics across Europe under French influence further demonstrated the spread of this ideal. The European-wide revolutionary tradition itself began with "republican, constitutional conspiracies" against Napoleon and the subsequent monarchical restoration.
However, by 1793, revolutionary France began to move beyond the purely republican ideal, ready to reject cosmopolitans like Paine who spoke of a "great human republic". Frenchmen were, by this time, "inventing modern nationalism".
Fraternity: The Rise of Nationalism
The second ideal to gain prominence was Fraternity, representing the emotional vision of experiencing brotherhood in a new kind of nation. This ideal involved sweeping aside "lesser loyalties as well as petty enmities" in the shared exultation of being "born again as enfants de la patrie: children of a common fatherland". It was often "discovered on the jour de gloire of battle" and expressed through mass conscription in the levee en masse of 1793.
Unlike the American Revolution, where a sense of nationhood developed after the revolution, the concept of "nation" was central to the French Revolution from the outset. The word "nation" soon eclipsed the older term "patrie". This concept provided "tangible definition as well as higher legitimacy" to the revolution. The revolutionary nation was declared "indivisible" and its borders expandable. The term "nationalism" was first used by a counter-revolutionary, the Abbe Barruel, to criticize this new form of "parochial, secular selfishness" replacing Christian love.
Militant nationalism was significantly spread throughout Europe by Napoleon, who was seen as the "first ruler to base a political regime exclusively upon the nation" and became the "most powerful purely national symbol that any nation has had". His example inspired nationalist movements both positively (in Poland and Italy) and negatively (in Spain and Prussia), ultimately leading to his defeat in the "Battle of the Nations" in 1813. Nationalism remained the dominant revolutionary ideal until the late 19th century.
The birth of this militant nationalism is explored through the example of Strasbourg, a border city that became a "major link with Europe" and a melting pot of French, German, and diverse religious influences. Faced with the threat of war in 1792, Strasbourg intensified national consciousness. It was here that Rouget de Lisle, commissioned by Mayor Dietrich, wrote the Chant de guerre de l'armee du Rhin, which became La Marseillaise. The source highlights Strasbourg's rich musical culture and its role in blending German music with French revolutionary fervor, creating a powerful "musique à coups de canon" that spread throughout the nation. The city's belief in the unifying power of music led to innovative musical pageants and even a new system for printing national music.
German romantic thought also played a significant role in shaping French nationalism. Figures like Nicholas Bonneville and Charles Nodier, influenced by German literature and occultism, saw the ancient German tribes as a "mythic prototype" for the sovereign "people" within a revolutionary "nation". They imported German words and concepts, seeking a "lost language of truth" rooted in nature and primitive communalism.
Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just is presented as an embodiment of this militant, male fraternity. As a young, ascetic figure on the Committee of Public Safety, he represented the revolutionary ideal becoming a "living legitimacy". Saint-Just's leadership was characterized not by traditional political skills but by "an idea energized by passion," a discipline of passion for a national cause. He was suspicious of mass movements and traditional rights, seeking instead a new social order "founded solidly only on nature". His concept of the nation as a single body, requiring radical simplification and even terror to remove internal enemies, was central to his thought.
Saint-Just's emphasis on militant, male comradeship embodied the ideal of fraternité in an almost physiological way. This focus on masculine brotherhood was intertwined with a repression of feminine participation in revolutionary activity. The crackdown on women's revolutionary societies and the brutal portrayals and executions of prominent women were linked to the unprecedented mobilization of men for military service in the levee en masse.
The Feast of the Supreme Being on June 8, 1794, organized by Robespierre, represented a culmination of this nationalistic ideal, a "spectacular Feast of the Supreme Being" intended to suggest an "unending summer" of fraternity, where Nature was the "true priest" and the universe its temple.
Equality: The Vision of Community
The third ideal, Equality, embodied the intellectual vision of a nonhierarchical socio-economic community based on the collective sharing of goods. This ideal found roots in Rousseau's concept of a social contract aimed at repudiating inequality and unifying the community through the "general will". While Rousseau was often interpreted politically, a socio-economic interpretation emerged from the rhetoric of the American Revolution, specifically the assertion that "all men are created equal," and the realities of the French countryside. The radical Constitution of 1793, though not implemented, affirmed "common happiness" (le bonheur commun) as the goal of society and "oppression against the body of society" as a justification for insurrection.
The idea of "common happiness" potentially overriding private property rights appeared early in cosmopolitan Parisian circles. Figures like James Rutledge and the Abbe Fauchet advocated for an "agrarian law" (lex agraria), suggesting a redistribution of land or a society with "no ownership of property". "Red curates" found a "religious exaltation" in articulating a social ideal reaching beyond politics towards "secular salvation".
Francois-Noel Babeuf is presented as a central figure in the origins of the social revolutionary tradition. Influenced by rural background and early tax revolts, Babeuf connected with ideas of agrarian law through figures like Rutledge and organizations like Bonneville's Universal Confederation. He sought "real economic equality" and a "general happiness unknown throughout the ages". Babeuf transitioned from military units to revolutionary journalism, notably his Tribune of the People, which became the first journal serving an "extralegal revolutionary conspiracy". His journal advocated for the aim of society being the "happiness of the community" and rejected private property rights in favor of a "state of community" providing "perfect equality".
Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals represented a new type of revolutionary organization, distinct from the Jacobin clubs, aiming for a "true popular society" based on collective ownership of commerce, agriculture, and industry. His ideas included the concept of a secure base area, like a "Sacred Mountain," and the use of "phalanxes" for militant organization and discipline.
Central to Babeuf's conspiracy was the myth of the unfinished revolution. He argued that the French political upheaval was merely a "precursor of another revolution, far greater, far more solemn, which will be the last" – a social revolution to achieve "equality in fact". This idea echoed Robespierre's earlier sentiment that "Half of the world revolution is already done, the other half must be completed". Babeuf also sought an antidote to Christian ideas, finding it in atheism, particularly championed by Sylvain Marechal, who called himself l'homme sans dieu (l'HSD). Marechal's Manifesto of Equals became a key text for this vision. The ideal was often symbolized by the Spartans, representing a militant, ascetic, land-rooted community hostile to bourgeois life.
The source also highlights Restif de la Bretonne as the figure who introduced the word "communism" (communisme) to a general audience. Restif, described as a "Rousseau of the gutter," was a prolific writer whose work blended social commentary with cosmic and sexual fantasies. His invention of the term "communism" stemmed from his literary explorations of egalitarian societies and his belief that peasants, "perverted" by cities, held the key to building communism. Restif envisioned a "general Community of the Human Race" with communal ownership, communal eating, and a new "monnaie communismale". His ideas were expressed through his writings and attempts to organize printers.
The source explores potential links between Restif's verbal communism and Babeuf's conspiracy. While direct connections are debated, there are indications the authorities suspected a link. A more likely connection lies through Sylvain Marechal and Nicholas Bonneville's Social Circle. Bonneville secretly printed Restif's key communist works. Babeuf admired Bonneville's journal and adopted its title for his own. The Social Circle, with figures like Marechal and Varlet, was active in promoting militant egalitarian ideals and the concept of a "second revolution". The source suggests Babeuf borrowed organizational ideas and themes from Bonneville, linking journalism, social goals, and the concept of an uprising beyond politics. These connections, rooted in "romantic occultism," point to surprising philosophical and organizational origins shared by both the social and moral revolutionary ideals.
Roman Catholicism
Drawing on the information presented in the sources, the role of Roman Catholicism was primarily that of a traditional authority and social structure that the new secular revolutionary faith sought to challenge, replace, and, in some notable instances, unintentionally imitate or react against.
The revolutionary faith is described as a belief system held by modern revolutionaries, who are characterized as believers no less committed and intense than were the Christians or Muslims of an earlier era. What distinguishes this new faith is the belief that a perfect secular order can emerge from the forcible overthrow of traditional authority. According to the sources, this revolutionary faith developed in nineteenth-century Europe specifically within those societies that had not previously legitimized ideological dissent by breaking with medieval forms of religious authority. It is stated that this faith arose first against authoritarian Catholicism in France, Italy, and Poland.
Revolutionaries, in their drive toward radical simplicity, actively discarded complex Catholic traditions. This rejection extended to replacing religious holidays and symbols with secular ones. For instance, the revolutionary calendar eliminated the week, which was based on the religious idea of seven days of creation, and replaced Sundays and saints' days with feasts consecrating natural, largely agricultural objects, which were deemed "far more precious... than beatified skeletons dragged from the catacombs of Rome". Crosses in public places were replaced by trees of liberty, which became objects of veneration. Notre Dame Cathedral, a central symbol of Catholic France, became a site for revolutionary rituals, including a musical "hierodrame" of the revolution instead of a Christian mass. Later, its high altar was replaced by a "mountain" of earth from which an actress, described like a Druid priestess, sang a "Hymn to Liberty". This replaced the traditional religious authority with a "secular counter-trinity" of Mother (nature), Daughter (liberty), and Holy Spirit (popular sovereignty).
The secular ideals of the revolution were often contrasted with, or presented as replacements for, Christian beliefs and institutions. The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, which helped prepare the grounds for the revolution, began to regard Greco-Roman antiquity as a secular alternative to Christianity. Figures like Mirabeau applied the evocative language of traditional religion to new political institutions, referring to the National Assembly as the "inviolable priesthood of national policy," the Declaration of the Rights of Man as a "political gospel," and the Constitution of 1791 as a new religion. The political division of the National Assembly into "right" and "left" defied Christian tradition by equating the "left" with virtue, whereas Christian tradition represented those on the right hand of God as saved and those on the left as damned. The Fourth Estate (journalism) rapidly arrogated to itself the Church's former role as the propagator of values, models, and symbols for society at large.
Revolutionaries saw violence as a mysterious element of their faith, which reactionary opponents viewed as revolutionaries preempting the promise of ancient religions to provide "salut par le sang" (salvation by blood). Public festivals were held in open spaces like the Champs de Mars, deliberately moving away from enclosed religious spaces like cathedrals, because the sovereign people could not be shut into a circumscribed place. The venerated dead were even moved from open Christian graveyards into closed pagan pantheons, while living revolutionaries moved from Christian cathedrals into pagan parks, seemingly driven by a "cosmic claustrophobia".
Despite this opposition, the revolutionary faith was, perhaps subconsciously, shaped by the Christian faith it attempted to replace. Revolutionaries often viewed history prophetically, much like a Judaeo-Christian morality play, portraying the present as hell, the revolution as a collective purgatory, and the future as an earthly paradise. The French Revolution was seen as an "Incarnation" of hope, with internal betrayals likened to Judases and opposition from power structures likened to Pilates. The future revolution was imagined as a "Second Coming". Figures like Fidel Castro used similar Christian imagery, referring to his revolutionary assault as an Incarnation, the martyrdom of followers as the Passion and Crucifixion, and the promised outcome as a corporate Resurrection and Pentecostal power.
Some revolutionaries had backgrounds in religious institutions or were former clergy. Early French revolutionaries were often "docile pupils of Jesuits and Oratorians". Revolutionary leaders were sometimes trained in rhetoric by Jesuits or as preaching curates. Figures like the Abbe Sieyes and the Abbe Fauchet, a curate who participated in storming the Bastille and preached revolutionary sermons in Notre Dame, exemplify clergy who became revolutionaries. Provincial clergy, referred to as "red curates," articulated social ideals suggesting secular salvation, identifying with rural parishes and the masses. Babeuf and some of his conspirators were influenced by these "red curates" and believed Christ himself was a "sans-culotte" at heart.
The search for origins of revolutionary ideas also led to interactions with, and reactions against, religious concepts. Sylvain Marechal, a key figure in the Babeuf conspiracy, became an extreme atheist ("l'homme sans dieu") and developed a totally secular version of the messianic idea of a Second Coming, seeing atheism as the necessary antidote to Christian ideas. Anacharsis Cloots, another revolutionary figure, explicitly juxtaposed the certainty of Nature with the ambiguities and contradictions of the Gospels. The radical Illuminist movement, which significantly influenced revolutionary organizational ideas, was explicitly modeled on the hierarchical structure and global mission of the Jesuit order, with leaders like Weishaupt and Knigge seeing themselves as using Jesuit methods to combat Jesuit objectives or uncovering a secret Jesuit conspiracy within Masonry. Even figures like Buonarroti, seeking to recover a "religion of nature," included the Jesuit order in a lineage of "Illuminated" sects. The conservative anti-Illuminist campaigns by figures like the Elector of Bavaria or the Abbe Le Gros also inadvertently popularized the ideas they sought to suppress, demonstrating a dialectical interaction between right-wing religious/conservative forces and left-wing revolutionary movements. Some reactionaries, such as Joseph de Maistre, were themselves former occult Masons or had religious conversions (like de Maistre's by the Jesuits) that influenced their extreme counter-revolutionary stances.
In Italy, the entry of French troops into villages was met with Catholic masses rather than local uprisings, frustrating Babeuvist activists who felt it would be better to burn feudal castles than illuminate churches, highlighting the popular adherence to Catholicism as a counterpoint to revolutionary aims. In Russia, the revolutionary tradition also emerged in a society with a religiously based autocracy (Orthodox Russia), and figures influenced by occultism (which sometimes had links to Christian mysticism) contributed to early radical circles. The utopian vision of one Decembrist circle imagined Tsarism and Orthodoxy overthrown by secular, Pythagorean forms.
Ultimately, the revolutionary tradition, particularly in its more radical and atheistic forms, positioned itself in direct opposition to Roman Catholicism and traditional Christian authority, seeking to replace them with a new, man-made, secular order, while nevertheless often drawing, consciously or subconsciously, on the structures, language, and prophetic vision of the faith it aimed to supplant.
Summary of Book I & Key Points
Drawing on the information presented in the sources, BOOK I is primarily focused on tracing the foundations and origins of the revolutionary faith in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This faith is defined as the belief that a perfect secular order will emerge from the forcible overthrow of traditional authority. The book focuses on the innovative creators of this new tradition – the passionate intellectuals who conceived and developed these ideas – rather than focusing on revolutions themselves or broader socio-economic pressures from below. It specifically examines the period from the waning of the French Revolution in the late eighteenth century to the beginnings of the Russian Revolution in the early twentieth century, with Europe as the main theater and journalistic offices in great cities as the main stage. The book posits that this revolutionary faith arose first against authoritarian Catholicism in France, Italy, and Poland, and later against other religiously based autocracies. It views the revolutionary tradition as a "new, secular religion-in-the-making".
Here are the key points elaborated from the first book:
Chapter 1: Incarnation - The Idea and Fact of Revolution
The concept of "revolution" historically meant a return to an original, violated norm, particularly referencing celestial bodies. Even early extremists sought to restore pre-existing rights and traditions.
Fanatical religious ideologies dominated earlier conflicts, with groups like the Parisian Catholic League showing authentic anticipation of modern revolutionaries by introducing terms like "Committee of Public Safety" and using barricades for "truly revolutionary" programs, though serving reactionary ends.
The Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, born from exhaustion with religious conflict and enthusiasm for science, began viewing Greco-Roman antiquity as a secular alternative to Christianity, preparing the ground for a new approach.
German thinkers, like Frederick the Great, began to apply the term "revolution" to spiritual as well as political change. Radical Bavarian Illuminists promoted the idea of an "imminent revolution of the human mind".
Count Mirabeau, influenced by German ideas, transported this broad concept of deep transformation to France, popularizing the Illuminist term "revolution of the mind" and inventing words like "revolutionary" and "counter-revolutionary". He pioneered applying religious language to political institutions, calling the National Assembly an "inviolable priesthood," the Declaration of the Rights of Man a "political gospel," and the Constitution of 1791 a new religion.
The term "revolution" acquired a new, quasi-religious usage in the German language at this time, distinct from the traditional word for political upheaval.
The actual overthrow of absolute monarchy and aristocratic authority in France between May and October 1789 provided the "hard fact" that made the idea of secular revolution historically possible. Key events included the Third Estate declaring itself the National Assembly, the storming of the Bastille, and the abolition of feudal privileges.
Figures like Lafayette, who had fought in the American Revolution, lent legitimacy to the upheaval. Mirabeau was also central to the early events.
The revolution shifted towards a republic, marked by violence, massacres, and the execution of the king, leading to the political polarization into "right" and "left" in the National Assembly, defying Christian tradition.
A drive towards a strong, central executive emerged, progressing from the Committee of Public Safety to Napoleon's empire.
A split developed between the stated ideals of the republic and their implementation, seen by Marxists as a clash between "proletarian" and "bourgeois" aims, but rooted at the time in shared hatreds and a distinction between articulate leaders and the masses' needs.
The professional revolutionary, dedicated to keeping the dream alive, emerged during the Thermidorean reaction after Robespierre's fall, starting with intellectual activists in Babeuf's conspiracy.
The revolution of 1789 is seen as having originated in the Parisian pleasure dome of the Palais-Royal, where political ideas were incubated and Philip of Orleans, the owner, supported the cause.
Chapter 2: A Locus of Legitimacy
Original French revolutionaries sought "radical simplicity" (Russian: oprostit'sia), discarding complex Catholic traditions, titles, art, and replacing religious holidays and symbols with secular ones, seeking a simple, unifying norm. This extended to replacing crosses with trees of liberty and transforming cathedrals into sites for secular rituals.
Violence was viewed as a mysterious element of the revolutionary faith, a form of radical simplification and blood ritual, which opponents saw as preempting the religious promise of "salut par le sang" (salvation by blood).
The Palais-Royal is identified as the place where utopian ideas found "earthly roots," becoming a center of intellectual opposition and public opinion. It was a sanctuary from arrest, linked the Duke of Orleans to the revolution, and connected with the Parisian underworld and masses.
The cafes within the Palais-Royal, often underground, fostered a unique political ambiance, mixing pleasure, utopian speculation, and secular ideals, providing a sense of social equality and direct communication previously unknown.
The Palais-Royal was intensely verbal, radiating revolutionary rhetoric and creating a new, often scatological, language that challenged aristocratic conventions. Small, dedicated groups within the cafes formed "circles," becoming a basic unit for revolutionary activity.
Journalism became the "Fourth Estate," rapidly taking over the Church's role in propagating values. Intellectual journalists created revolutionary legitimacy and forms of expression. Figures like Marat and Hebert used the press for denunciation and agitation, appealing to the masses with coarse language that also served as a cultural revolution, challenging linguistic tyranny.
Nicholas Bonneville, a key pioneer, saw journalism (the "republic of letters") as a superior power, a "fourth power" or "public oracle" like his journal La Bouche de Fer, claiming "universal surveillance" on behalf of the people. He sought to supplant authoritarian politicians with the authority of revolutionary intellectuals.
Bonneville founded the Social Circle, a prototype revolutionary organization: a secret inner group guiding a broader confederation through an oracular journal, seeking legitimacy over power. Its center was the press.
The search for legitimacy moved from enclosed spaces like the Palais-Royal to open fields for public festivals, replacing religious with secular rituals. The razed Bastille site became a symbolic tabula rasa for planting symbols of nature. Nature was deified (Dame Nature, a "secular counter-trinity").
Trees of liberty replaced crosses, becoming venerated living totems of regeneration. The guillotine became a central, hypnotic ritual object, a "sainte guillotine," turning revolution into a public drama of blood sacrifice and potential collective redemption.
The Champs de Mars became the main site for festivals, symbolizing that the sovereign people could not be confined.
The revolutionary calendar replaced religious divisions (like the week) with secular, agricultural feasts based on the rationality and simplicity of nature.
Revolutionaries like Marechal saw nature as a maternal goddess, influenced by "red curates," Rousseau, and German romantics. There was a psycho-sexual element in the revolutionary understanding of nature, linked to figures like Laclos, Sade, Restif, and Barlow.
Chapter 3: The Objects of Belief
The revolution simplified beliefs into three basic ideals: liberty, fraternity, and equality, expressed in the key slogan. These ideals, despite ancient origins, gained a new mystical aura and eventually led to conflict.
Liberty represented the republican ideal of freedom through constitutional structures and law, freeing property and people from traditional bondage. Inspired by the American Revolution, "republican" and "constitution" became terms of pride and even sacred words.
Fraternity was the emotional ideal of brotherhood within a new nation, discovered in struggle and expressed in mass mobilization. Unlike the US, France made the "nation" concept central, unifying territory and language. It became an almost absolute authority, proclaimed "indivisible" and expandable. "Nationalism" emerged to describe this secular self-worship.
The birth of nationalism was linked to Strasbourg, a cultural crossroads, where La Marseillaise was written by Rouget de Lisle as a unifying battle song, blending French and German musical traditions and revolutionary puritanism. Music was seen as a powerful unifying force. German theater, literature, and language influenced French revolutionary nationalism through figures like Bonneville, Schneider, and Cloots, idealizing ancient German tribes as a prototype for the sovereign "people".
Saint-Just, from Picardy, embodied the militant, male fraternity, focusing legitimacy on a revolutionary apostolate and his own ascetic example. He sought a "social order" based on nature, detached himself from individuals to serve "the people," believed in "original virtue," and legitimized terror as a means to fan popular energy. He linked the nation to brotherhood, idealizing masculine comradeship. Anti-feminine sentiment and repression of women's revolutionary activity were linked to the male military mobilization for the nation. The Feast of the Supreme Being was a peak moment of fraternal festival. Saint-Just, the ascetic prototype, exemplified cold passion and the need for a "tyranny of virtue".
Equality was the intellectual ideal of a nonhierarchical socio-economic community. Rooted in Rousseau, it gained socio-economic interpretation influenced by the American idea of "all men created equal" and the French Constitution of 1793's aim of "common happiness". Proto-communist ideas of "agrarian laws" and equal land distribution emerged in cosmopolitan circles and among provincial clergy ("red curates").
Babeuf, influenced by these ideas, sought "real economic equality" and "general happiness," using journalism as a strategic weapon. His Tribune of the People (borrowing title/function from Bonneville) rejected property rights for a "state of community". His "Conspiracy of the Equals" sought a "true popular society," using a secret, hierarchical organization and aiming for a "total upheaval" to create a regenerated world.
The conspiracy promoted the myth of the unfinished revolution, seeing the French political upheaval as a precursor to a greater, social revolution. Babeuf used messianic imagery, viewing Christ as a "sans-culotte". Atheism was promoted by Sylvain Marechal ("l'homme sans dieu") as an antidote to Christian ideas, offering a secular vision of a Second Coming. Marechal's Manifesto of Equals explicitly prophesied this final revolution.
The word "communism" itself was introduced by Restif de la Bretonne, a journalistic chronicler of Paris, drawing on his utopian and erotic fantasies. He described a "philosophical community" and "community of goods," identifying communism with the peasantry. He wrote about "the Communists" as an active group, and there are suggested links between his ideas and Babeuf's conspiracy, potentially through Marechal and Bonneville's Social Circle.
Chapter 4: The Occult Origins of Organization
After the fall of Robespierre and Babeuf's trial, the revolutionary hopes retreated into secret societies, fueled by the myth of the unfinished revolution and anticipating a "Second Coming". These societies, becoming dominant under Napoleon and the Restoration, internationalized the tradition and pioneered youth organizations combatting authority.
The modern revolutionary tradition is shown to grow out of occult Freemasonry, with organizational ideas stemming more from Pythagorean mysticism than practical politics. Literary intellectuals influenced by German romanticism and Bavarian Illuminism were key innovators.
Filippo Buonarroti is presented as the first apostle of modern international revolutionary organization, a full-time revolutionary dedicated to creating a new secular order by force. A descendant of Michelangelo, he was an intellectual, journalist, and political activist. Exiled to Corsica, he developed the myths of the uncompleted revolution and perfect nature, drafting a Code of Nature for a utopian island. He saw the Paris Revolution as a magical transformation and warned against betrayal, calling for a "great purge". He led revolutionary rule in Italy, stressing egalitarianism and pedagogic terror. Imprisoned after the Babeuf conspiracy, he moved to Geneva and used Switzerland as a base for activity. He conceived secret organizations (Sublime Perfect Masters, Monde) and influenced anti-Napoleonic plots and Restoration conspiracies. He developed his organizational blueprints within Geneva Masonic lodges.
Freemasonry provided the metaphor of the architect building a new society, ritualized fraternity and upward mobility outside the traditional hierarchy, and was used as a model and recruiting ground by early revolutionaries.
Bavarian Illuminists provided the basic structural model for revolutionary organization: secret, hierarchical, modeled on the Jesuits, aiming for moral perfection and freedom from authority. Founded by Adam Weishaupt, they sought "force to put into practice" ideas, focused on psychological transformation of recruits, and engaged in a dualistic struggle against "sons of darkness". They attempted to coopt Masonry, developing classes culminating in the secret Areopagites. Though dissolved, their ideas spread, popularized by Mirabeau and influencing Bonneville, who became a decisive channel for Illuminist influence in France. Bonneville saw popular liberation as an Illuminist initiation, used "circle of light," and argued against Jesuit infiltration of Masonry. Occult/Illuminist influence is detectable in Babeuf's conspiracy, potentially through Marechal and secrecy surrounding the inner group. Buonarroti was fascinated by Illuminism and linked to groups promoting Illuminist-type ideas. Illuminist influence was spread paradoxically by right-wing opponents who publicized the "Illuminist legend".
The Pythagorean Passion provided models (intellectual-turned-revolutionary), concepts (numbers, geometry), and an ideal identity (modern Pythagoras, Philadelphia) for revolutionary intellectuals, contrasting with Roman images of power. The search for simple geometric harmonies (circle, triangle) became a core element, spilling from occult lodges into public symbolism (pyramid, sphere).
The Circle symbolized the objective: egalitarian perfection, reflecting cosmic circles and Illuminist hierarchy. It represented liberation and a spatial dimension for romantic longing. Weishaupt used "circle" for political organization. Bonneville linked Illuminism to Pythagoras and used circle imagery for universal brotherhood. Marechal's Voyages of Pythagoras promoted Pythagoras as a hero and the ideal of common ownership. This dream animated early Russian radical groups, using circle structures and Pythagorean ideas.
The Triangle symbolized the way to get there, a key Masonic and Pythagorean symbol. It was used in revolutionary iconography (trilogy, tricolor). It became the model for three-man "triangles," a secure, interlocking cell structure for nuclear organizations, potentially conceived by Illuminists and adopted by revolutionaries like Buonarroti and later groups. Nodier proposed the Pentagon (five-sided) as another geometric model, linking to the number five and five-man cells adopted by some groups.
The Philadelphian Fantasy centered on the ideal of a universal community of brotherly love (Philadelphia), which gave its name to the first important revolutionary organization after Babeuf's conspiracy. The name linked antiquity, Revelation, and the American Revolution. German occult influences led to Masonic lodges using the name. Court de Gebelin and his Nine Sisters lodge (including Franklin) promoted radical occultism and constitutionalism. Moreau de Saint-Mery founded the Circle of Philadelphians in Haiti, promoting science, equality, and a vision of a future society. Cloots saw Philadelphia as a universal republic centered in Paris. Charles Nodier was the key figure behind the Philadelphians, a literary, Germanophile occultist who developed the pentagon/five-man cell blueprint. The organization involved military leaders like Malet and Oudet in anti-Napoleonic plots. Nodier envisioned a fusion of Jacobin and royalist opposition.
Buonarroti's second blueprint, Monde ("world"), aimed at a global revolutionary organization, adopting the name potentially from Marechal and incorporating Italian Adelphians and Philadelphians. It reflected a politics of the miraculous, driven by aspiration and symbolized by music.
There was a constant interaction of extremes (Right and Left), marked by affinity and unconscious borrowings. Dialectically, radical Illuminists borrowed organizational structure and mission from the conservative Jesuits. Symbiotically, revolutionary groups borrowed from reactionary Masonic orders, and monarchists and republicans collaborated against Napoleon, finding common opposition to moderation. This interborrowing was notable in peripheral regions and influenced figures like Joseph de Maistre (counter-revolutionary borrowing from radical ideas) and Sylvain Marechal (revolutionary writing blueprints for suppressing revolution). The era was characterized by political polarization and a tendency towards extreme positions.
Three Primary Revolutionary Ideals
Drawing on the information provided in the sources, the text identifies three basic ideals that emerged and shaped the revolutionary faith during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These ideals, rooted in ancient origins, acquired a new mystical aura during this period and became central to the revolutionary slogan: liberty, fraternity, and equality. While initially blending into a trinitarian unity, inherent differences between these concepts led to recurring and widening conflict throughout the subsequent history of the revolutionary tradition.
Here are the three revolutionary ideals discussed in the sources:
Liberty: The Republican Ideal This was presented as the original revolutionary cause, focused on securing freedom through a constitutional republic. The ideal of liberty was defined in terms of constitutional rights and popular legislatures. It also involved freeing property, no less than people, from traditional bondage to nonproductive authority, making it attractive to entrepreneurs. The source connects this ideal to the Enlightenment reformism of the eighteenth century. The American Revolution played a role in transforming "republican" and "republicanism" from terms of opprobrium into labels of pride, particularly during the intense debate leading up to the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. Thomas Paine's Common Sense, published in January 1776, significantly contributed to this by insisting, in a secular and millenarian way, that "we have it in our power to begin the world over again" by establishing a new constitutional union. However, the term "republican" was not a major rallying cry in America during the debates for the 1787 Constitution, and the American experience with republican rule was not initially very appealing to Europeans in the 1780s. The movement towards republican government and the discussion of its proper constitution in France generated genuine excitement. When the First Republic was formally established, Thomas Paine moved to Paris, became a French citizen, founded the first "republican" society in Paris, and edited a journal titled The Republican. He used the word "republican" in a quasi-devotional way. Many foreigners, like Paine, found a new identity as citizens of the revolutionary republic, and many Frenchmen, like Babeuf, referred to "republican" as "this sublime word". The concept of a constitution also gained an aura of importance. Bonneville insisted in 1792 that the "health-giving word, this sacred word CONSTITUTION!" must profoundly influence the destiny of the human race. The radical republican Constitution of 1793, though never enacted, was treated as a holy object, carried from the Bastille to the Champs de Mars during a great feast in August 1793, and remained a venerated model for many political revolutionaries into the nineteenth century. The source notes that one of the few demonstrable results of major upheavals in nineteenth-century France, such as the Revolution of 1848 and the Paris Commune of 1871, was the reestablishment of constitutional, republican governments (the Second and Third Republics). The European-wide revolutionary tradition began as republican, constitutional conspiracies against Napoleon and the subsequent monarchical restoration. However, by 1793, revolutionary France was ready to reject many republicans, including foreigners like Paine, as it began inventing modern nationalism.
Fraternity: The Rise of Nationalism Fraternity is described as the emotional ideal of experiencing brotherhood in a new kind of nation. This ideal arose amidst struggles against others, leading to the discovery that immediate neighbors were brothers—linguistically, culturally, geographically—fellow sons of a common fatherland. This romantic vision of fraternity became a militant ideal, often discovered during the "jour de gloire" of battle and best expressed in the levee en masse of 1793, the prototype of modern mass conscription on a "national" scale. Unlike the American Revolution, where a sense of nationhood was a child of the revolution, in the French Revolution, the concept of "nation" was central from the beginning. The word nation soon predominated over the older, more paternalistic term patrie. Flags, feasts, and songs were designated as "national," and citizens of the old regime were compelled to communicate in the French language, which had not previously been the basic tongue for many under the French crown. The term "nation" was initially not widely understood, but it came to signify a new type of popular sovereignty, territorially and linguistically unified, often more absolute than monarchical authority. The revolutionary nation was declared "indivisible," and its borders expandable. The term "nationalism" was first used by the arch-enemy of the French Revolution, the Abbe Barruel, to denigrate this new form of parochial, secular selfishness he felt was replacing universal Christian love. Militant nationalism primarily reached the European masses through Napoleon, who is described as the first ruler to base a political regime exclusively on the nation and the most powerful purely national symbol any nation has had. His example inspired national movements (Poles, Italians) or stimulated movements against him (Spaniards, Prussians). Nationalism remained the major revolutionary ideal until the late nineteenth century. The source details the birth of this ideal in Strasbourg, where German musical culture flowed into France. La Marseillaise, originally the Chant de guerre de l'armee du Rhin, was written by Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg in April 1792 to arouse the army against an anticipated Hapsburg attack. The song, named after the volunteers from Marseilles who sang it with special zest, exemplified the unifying power of music in fostering national consciousness. Strasbourg also introduced German theater and literature, influencing figures like Charles Nodier. German ideas and metaphors flowed into French revolutionary nationalism through figures like Anacharsis Cloots and the bilingual publications from Strasbourg. Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just is presented as giving living legitimacy to the revolutionary ideal of the nation. As the youngest member of the Committee of Public Safety, he became an embodiment of the revolution. Saint-Just identified the nation with brotherhood in an almost physiological way, seeing it as "the community of affections". His vision of an ideal society promoted masculine comradeship-in-arms into quasi-erotic attachment, with strict rituals of friendship. This militant fraternity in service of the nation allowed no room for sorority or fraternization with women. The sudden repression of female participation in revolutionary activity during the nationalist mobilization of late 1793 is linked to this. Saint-Just became a prototype for the ascetic revolutionary of the future, embodying a cold passion disciplined by an idea, seeking the "spirit of the revolution". The national ideal of fraternity reached its peak with the execution of Saint-Just and his companion Le Bas.
Equality: The Vision of Community This ideal represents the intellectual goal of creating a nonhierarchical socio-economic community. It involves the collective sharing of goods within a community free of all social and economic distinctions. The source connects this to the rationalistic concept of equality and the authoritarian communism of the twentieth century. Although the least articulated and politically important ideal at the time, it had important roots in the revolutionary era. The egalitarian communalism was rooted in Rousseau's call for a social contract to repudiate inequality and unify the community based on the "general will". While this was generally interpreted politically, a socio-economic interpretation emerged from the American Revolution's rhetoric ("all men are created equal") and the reality of the French countryside. The radical Constitution of 1793, influenced by American ideas, affirmed "common happiness" (le bonheur commun) as the aim of society and justified insurrection against "oppression against the body of society" (corps social). The idea of "common happiness" at the expense of private property appeared in cosmopolitan Parisian circles. An Anglo-Irishman, James Rutledge, advocated a social order "with no ownership of property". The Abbe Fauchet, a collaborator of Bonneville, systematically propagated the idea of a lex agraria (land redistribution). Other clergy, like Abbe Cournand, argued for equal, non-hereditary land plots. Franois-Noël Babeuf, from Picardy, gave ideological weight to primitive ideas about collective farming and land redistribution after connecting with Rutledge and the Universal Confederation. He adopted the name "Gracchus" and sought "real economic equality" (egalite de fait) and "general happiness unknown throughout the ages". The social revolutionary tradition is linked to the military mobilization of 1793. Babeuf had affinities for international military units, serving as secretary for French-Haitian and Dutch legions. Despairing of a political role, he turned to journalism, seeing typography as a way to compose revolutionary ideas. His journal, Tribune of the People, founded in 1794, became the first legal arm of an extralegal revolutionary conspiracy. It functioned as an organ of strategy, seeking a social goal and a moral mission, with the phrase "The aim of society is the happiness of the community" at the head of each issue. Babeuf rejected property rights for the "state of community," aiming for "perfect equality". He also developed a new type of revolutionary organization, calling for a militant society to end subservience to the "aristocracy of riches" and begin "the reign of republican virtues". Imprisonment in Arras allowed him to refine his ideas for a true "popular society" dedicated to collective commerce, agriculture, and industry, and to outline a program for completing the revolution, anticipating the idea of a secure base area. He used the term phalange for the formations needed to realize social and military discipline. The Babeuf conspiracy, known as the "Conspiracy of the Equals," emerged after the police shut down the Club of the Pantheon in 1796. They operated as the Secret Directory of Public Safety, reaching collective, anonymous decisions. They used a network of trusted instructors to mobilize an insurrectionary force, focusing increasingly on the army. A central myth of the conspiracy was the idea of the unfinished revolution, seeing the political upheaval as a precursor to a second, more portentous social revolution. Babeuf's Tribune called for revolution "in things" rather than just "in minds" and argued that a general upheaval in property ownership was inevitable, a revolt of the poor against the rich. The conspiracy drew on Christian ideas, seeing Christ as a sans-culotte, and pagan ideals, particularly the Spartans, for their militant, ascetic, anti-commercial model. Sylvain Marechal, an atheist (l'homme sans dieu), contributed a totally secular version of the messianic Second Coming. He declared that the revolution would not be complete until men shared the earth's fruits like the sun's rays and insisted the revolution was still only in words and theory, not yet in fact. His Manifesto of Equals, written for Babeuf's group, prophesied another revolution, "far greater, far more solemn, which will be the last". The source notes echoes of the Babeuf conspiracy in Italy and Poland. The concept of communaute may have been influenced by the low culture of popular journalism. Restif de la Bretonne, a friend of Mercier, is credited with introducing the word "communism" to a general audience. He used the term to describe a fundamental change in ownership that would eliminate the need for further redistribution. His detailed exposition of communism called for a communaute universelle, arguing that communism would end seduction by money and attendant corruption. Possible links between Restif's verbal communism and Babeuf's conspiracy are suggested through mutual connections with Sylvain Marechal and Nicholas Bonneville's Social Circle. Marechal's concept of a needed second, social revolution appears to have been derived from his association with Bonneville's press. The Social Circle itself advocated militant egalitarian ideals, attracting new interest after the fall of the Jacobins. This ideal represented a vision of a regenerated, egalitarian community, often inspired by visions of utopian islands.
Book I: Glossary of Key Terms
Anarchists: Adherents of a political philosophy advocating stateless societies, often associated with the heirs of Proudhon.
Areopagite: The highest, most secret grade in the Bavarian Order of Illuminists' hierarchical structure, adapted by Buonarroti.
Auteur Communiste: The term used by Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuvea, cited by Restif de la Bretonne, marking the first known appearance in print of the word "communist."
Bolshevism: The revolutionary tradition developed by Lenin, drawing on Russian violence and German organization, that brought the revolutionary tradition into power.
La Bouche de Fer: A journal published by Nicholas Bonneville, envisioned as a "fourth power" or public oracle, whose letter box was shaped like an iron mouth.
Boulversement Total: French phrase meaning "total upheaval," used by Babeuf to describe the desired outcome of a true revolution.
Cercles: French term for "circles," used by Bonneville and others to denote revolutionary organizations, anticipating the concept's eastward migration to Russia.
Communism: A revolutionary label, first appearing in the writings of Restif de la Bretonne, referring to the idea of common happiness realized potentially at the expense of private property ownership.
Confederation des Dames: A radical feminist organization that Babeuf planned to publicize.
Confederation des Ecrivains Generaux: Bonneville's idea of a confederation of general writers as the source of authority, superior to the assembly of the estates general.
Contrat Social: French term for "social contract," a concept Saint-Just went beyond in calling for an "etat social."
Etat Social: French term for "social order," a concept advocated by Saint-Just and others like James Rutledge and the Abbe Fauchet, often linked to the idea of no private property ownership.
Fire in the minds of men: A phrase from Dostoevsky, signifying that revolutionary passion and ideas are the true driving force behind societal change.
Francs-Cosmopolites: A new breed combining the natural order of early Franks with the universal fraternity of the Enlightenment, addressed by Bonneville.
Fraternite: French term for "fraternity" or "brotherhood," a key ideal of the revolutionary trilogy (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity), particularly emphasized by Saint-Just in the context of masculine comradeship-in-arms.
Gemiitlichkeit: A German term describing a feeling of warmth, friendliness, and good cheer, used to characterize the cafe culture in Strasbourg.
Idees Forces: French term meaning "forceful ideas," used by intellectuals to dominate conversation and influence the masses.
Illuminists: A radical and secular occultist movement founded by Adam Weishaupt, known for its secret hierarchy and structural model that influenced revolutionary organization.
Intelligences Superieures: French term for "superior intelligences," used by Bonneville to describe the self-proclaimed intellectual elite who should lead the revolution.
Intelligentsia: A word that migrated from Poland to Russia, referring to an intellectual elite, often associated with revolutionary causes.
Kruzhok: Russian term for "circle," referring to secret gatherings or intellectual groups, representing the eastward migration of the organizational idea.
La Marseillaise: Originally the "Chant de guerre de l'armee du Rhin," a song commissioned in Strasbourg that became the anthem of the French Revolution and a powerful symbol of nationalism.
Le Peuple-Dieu: French phrase meaning "the people-God," a concept where the "people" are elevated to a divine status, drawing on German influences in language and thought.
Lex Agraria: Latin term for "agrarian law," referring to modified land distribution, a concept propagated by figures like James Rutledge and the Abbe Fauchet.
Locus of legitimacy: The place or source from which authority and validity are derived, shifting throughout the revolutionary tradition from physical places to symbols, songs, and ultimately to living examples or intellectual elites.
Monde: French term meaning "world," used by Buonarroti for his inner organization, also discussed in the context of a "little world" representing a harmonious community.
Music a coups de canon: French phrase meaning "music of cannon shots," used by Andre Gretry to describe the powerful and impactful music of La Marseillaise.
Nationalism: A revolutionary ideal centered on the concept of the "nation," reaching European masses through figures like Napoleon and influenced by German ideas.
Nation: A term whose meaning was transformed during the French Revolution, moving from regional or aristocratic groupings to encompass a broader, sovereign "people."
Occultism: Belief in hidden knowledge and mystical practices, influencing revolutionary organization and symbolism through groups like the Illuminists and Pythagoreans.
Palais-Royal: A location in Paris known for its cafes and political activity, contributing to a unique form of revolutionary politics and associated with figures like Restif de la Bretonne and Saint-Just.
Paris Commune of 1871: A revolutionary government that arose in Paris, marking a new model for social revolution and seen as ending the era of romantic illusions.
Peuple: French term for "people," acquiring capitalized significance in revolutionary phrases like Peuple-Dieu, influenced by German language conventions.
Philosophes: Enlightenment thinkers who engaged in rational discourse, contrasted with the new revolutionary intellectuals who employed more emotive and symbolic language.
Philadelphians: A revolutionary group centered on Paris, founded by Charles Nodier, emphasizing friendship and a universal republic, known for their use of the pentagon and five-man cell structure.
Point de societe dominatrice: French phrase meaning "no dominating society," a slogan used by Bonneville to warn against Jacobin ambitions.
Politiquer: French verb meaning "to politic," possibly originating in the Palais-Royal cafe language, and later invoked with contempt by revolutionaries like Babeuf.
Populists: Social revolutionaries, often among Latin and Slavic groups, who inherited the conflict with Marxism, aligning with the heirs of Proudhon.
Prise de parole: French phrase meaning "seizure of speech," referring to the revolutionary act of using language to impose a new reality and identity.
Pythagoreans: Adherents of a classical school of thought that believed in a spherical universe, the transmigration of souls, and the harmonic relationships of numbers and music, influencing revolutionary symbolism and organization.
Regeneration: A key concept in revolutionary thought, referring to the desired transformation of humanity and society into a renewed, perfected state.
Republic of letters: A concept envisioned by Bonneville's Friends of Truth, representing the universal rule of intellectual elite.
Restif de la Bretonne: An eccentric writer known for his erotic imagination, who first introduced the word "communist" into print.
Rousseau du ruisseau: French phrase meaning "Rousseau of the gutter," a description of Restif de la Bretonne, highlighting the unexpected origins of the term "communism."
Saint-Just: A prominent figure in the French Revolution, described as an "ascetic revolutionary," known for his intense focus on "the people" and his belief in militant fraternity.
Sang-froid: French term meaning "coolness" or "composure," attributed to Saint-Just, symbolizing the ascetic revolutionary's detachment and self-control.
Sans-culottes: Literally "without knee-britches," referring to the revolutionary Third Estate who adopted this attire to signify their liberation from aristocratic fashion.
Secular salvation: The idea that a perfect society or a state of grace can be achieved on earth through human effort and revolution, replacing traditional religious concepts of salvation.
Social Circle: An organization founded by Nicholas Bonneville, combining Masonic and Rousseauian ideals, advocating for social equality and universalism.
Social revolutionaries: A category of revolutionaries focused on transforming the economic and social system, distinct from national revolutionaries.
Strasbourg: A significant border city integrating French and German cultures, crucial in the development of French nationalism and the origin of La Marseillaise.
Sturm und Drang: German literary movement characterized by rebellious poets, echoing Frederick the Great's impatience with tradition and influencing early German romanticism.
Sublime Perfect Masters: Buonarroti's blueprint for a new society of revolutionary republicans, modeled on Masonic and Illuminist structures.
Syndicalists: Social revolutionaries, often among Latin groups, who inherited the conflict with Marxism, aligning with the heirs of Proudhon.
Terrorism: A tactic developed by Russian student radicals in the 1860s, characterized by a new ascetic type of violence.
The Fire is in the Minds of Men: The source of the book's title, a phrase symbolizing the intellectual and ideological nature of revolutionary origins.
Third Estate: The commoners in prerevolutionary France, who transformed the meaning of the word "nation" by claiming the name assemblee nationale.
Tribune: A term revived during the French Revolution to refer to a leader of the people, often associated with the revolutionary press like La Bouche de Fer.
Triangular organization: A relatively secure form of revolutionary organization, inspired by Pythagorean symbolism, often involving a leader ("thumb") connecting to four other members ("fingers").
Universal Confederation: An organization associated with Bonneville and Fauchet, giving an ideological cast to the concept of agrarian law and attracting figures like Babeuf.
Utopia: The concept of an ideal place or society, explored in the imagination and sometimes sought geographically by revolutionaries.
Book I: Timeline of Main Events
1763: Court de Gebelin arrives in Paris from Berne.
1769: Restif de la Bretonne publishes "Le Pied de Fanchette," his first significant novel, featuring a foot fetish.
1773: Joseph de Maistre becomes a Mason.
May 1, 1776: The Order of Illuminists is founded by Adam Weishaupt in Bavaria.
July 5, 1776: Court de Gebelin founds the Lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris.
1778: Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuvea announces his plan to set up an ideal community near Marseilles.
1779: Restif de la Bretonne publishes "Le Pornographe," a defense of prostitutes, and Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuvea publishes "The Project for a Philosophical Community," considered the first blueprint for a secular communist society.
1782: The word "auteur communiste" (communist author) is first known to appear in print, used by Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuvea in a letter cited by Restif de la Bretonne.
Early 1780s: Radical Bavarian Illuminists urge carrying Frederick the Great's secularizing reforms further through an "imminent revolution of the human mind."
1785-1787: The Order of Illuminists is subjected to persecution and formal dissolution in the German-speaking world.
1786: Opponents of the radical Bavarian Illuminists see the threat of an "imminent universal revolution."
1787: The Bavarian police publish documents related to the Illuminists, creating fascination in France.
1788: An essay on the Illuminists, detailing a sensational initiation ritual, is published in France. Nicholas Bonneville publishes "The Jesuits Driven from Free Masonry," developing the idea that Masonry was infiltrated by Jesuits and needed a new order to drive them out.
1789: Frederick Dietrich becomes Kapelmeister in the Strasbourg Cathedral. Nicholas Bonneville appeals to Camille Desmoulins to institutionalize a "national" theater genre. Nicholas Bonneville praises Frankish tribalism in his "Manifesto of the Friends of Truth."
October/November 1789: Nicholas Bonneville first conceives of the Social Circle.
Summer 1790: Nicholas Bonneville forms the Social Circle out of the editorial meetings of his "Tribune of the People." François-Noël Babeuf, a prisoner in Paris, discovers the concept of the agrarian law and establishes links with James Rutledge and the Universal Confederation (likely the Social Circle). Babeuf plans to publicize a radical feminist Confederation des Dames.
1790: James Rutledge petitions for the establishment of a social order with "no ownership of property." Abbe Fauchet systematically propagates the idea of an agrarian law in connection with Bonneville's Social Circle.
October 1790: Nicholas Bonneville publishes the first issue of "La Bouche de Fer."
September 25, 1791: The Pleyel-Rouget de Lisle Hymn of Liberty is first performed in Strasbourg, using the entire audience as a chorus.
July 28, 1791: Nicholas Bonneville's journal "La Bouche de Fer" ceases publication.
1792: News of the declaration of war by Germanic monarchs reaches Strasbourg before Paris. Francois-Noel Babeuf begins referring to "republican" as a "sublime word."
April 24, 1792: On the night of, Frederic Dietrich commissions Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle to write a song for the army in Strasbourg. Rouget de Lisle writes the "Chant de guerre de l'armee du Rhin" (later known as La Marseillaise).
Early Fall 1793: Strasbourg is dispirited by terror and the threat of German occupation.
Late 1793: The nation (France) applies more exclusive and Spartan standards of loyalty.
1793: Sylvain Marechal introduces the idea of triangular harmonies into his "CHARTER OF THE HUMAN RACE."
May 1794: Ignatius Martinovics writes catechisms for his proposed organizations in Budapest, the Association of Reformers and the Association of Liberty and Equality.
June 25, 1794: Saint-Just demands unconditional surrender from the vanquished Austrians before Charleroi.
April 1794: Saint-Just and Le Bas destroy Schneider in Strasbourg and Schneider's wife, Sarah Stamm, is executed.
Late April 1794: Saint-Just journeys to the front with Le Bas one final time.
May 1795: Ignatius Martinovics is beheaded in Budapest.
March 1795: Francois-Noel Babeuf is arrested in Paris.
July 28, 1795: In a letter, Babeuf outlines a program for completing the revolution and anticipates the idea of a secure base area.
1795: Representatives of the Batavian Republic have contacts with the French conspirators. A major uprising occurs in Amsterdam on the same day Babeuf is arrested in Paris.
1796: Filippo Buonarroti moves away from a sentimental understanding of nature to a revolutionary concept of law and obligation.
1798: Franz von Baader publishes "On the Pythagorean Square in Nature."
1802: Sylvain Marechal publishes his "History of Russia."
1804: Sylvain Marechal's "Voyages" begins to appear in Russian translation in official government journals.
1806: Shortly after his arrival in Geneva, Filippo Buonarroti and his friends take the lead in implementing a triangular form of organization.
No later than 1807: The Adelphians, an Italian version of the Philadelphians, are formed among exiles in Paris under Luigi Angeloni.
1808-1809: Filippo Buonarroti's program for the Sublime Perfect Masters, saturated with triangular symbols, is developed.
1809: The central point of mobilization for Spanish army-based revolutionary societies is established in the former headquarters of the Inquisition.
1810-1811: Filippo Buonarroti formulates his first full blueprint for a new society of revolutionary republicans, the Sublime Perfect Masters, borrowing from the Bavarian Order of Illuminists.
1811: Filippo Buonarroti formulates his blueprint for the Sublime Perfect Masters in Geneva.
1813: Napoleon's grande armee is decisively defeated in the "Battle of the Nations."
1814: Francisco Espoz y Mina formally executes a copy of the Constitution of 1812 by firing squad.
May 1818: Three young Russians form a "society of Pythagoras" in the Western Ukraine.
1819: A student organization, the Friends of Truth, forms a directoral committee and a web of five-man brigades, making the five-man unit the dominant revolutionary unit in France.
Early 1820s: Eugenio Aviraneta seeks international support for establishing a republic in Zaragoza.
1820s: The Order of Russian Knights, founded by Count Dmitriev-Mamonov, is a pioneering Russian revolutionary group that read Bonneville.
Early 1826: The five leaders of the Russian Decembrists are executed, adding martyrological meaning to the number five.
1830s: Thomas (Ismail) Urbain, a Black Muslim from the West Indies, adopts Islam and Algerian nationalism. Flora Tristan, the Franco-Peruvian founder of the first international proletarian organization, visits London.
Late 1830s: Flora Tristan invades the all-male House of Lords in London.
1840: The Travailleurs-Egalitaires of Paris become the first group to call themselves "Communist."
1840s: Conflict begins between Karl Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, representing differing focuses among social revolutionaries.
1850s: Revolutionary high-jacking of Mediterranean ships by Carlo Pisacane occurs.
Early 1860s: The Land and Liberty organization revives the concept of a nationwide network of five-man cells controlled by a central "five."
Spring 1861: Fires break out in imperial St. Petersburg.
1860s: Russian student radicals develop a new ascetic type of terrorism, transferring the word intelligentsia and the thirst for ideology from Poland to Russia.
Ten Years After 1861 (around 1871): Fires break out in imperial Paris, where the flaming defeat of the Paris Commune ends the era of romantic illusions.
1871: The Paris Commune forges a new model for social revolution.
Final Quarter of the Nineteenth Century: Nationalism remains the major revolutionary ideal until this period.
A Decade After the Early 1860s (around 1870s): The idea of the five-man cell is dramatized in Dostoevsky's "The Possessed."
1914: The assassination of the Hapsburg Archduke by the South Slav revolutionary "Black Hand" (using the "fingers and thumb" organizational model) brings on World War I.
Post-Stalinist Era (presumably after 1953): A massive new Soviet history, "The International Workers' Movement," is published.
Late 1960s: Four-letter outbursts by youthful demonstrators echo the political shock tactics of Hebert.
Book I: Cast of Characters
James H. Billington: The author of the book "Fire in the Minds of Men."
Karl Marx: A key figure in the conflict among social revolutionaries in the 1840s, focusing on destroying the capitalist economic system. His heirs are noted in Germany and Russia.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: A key figure in the conflict among social revolutionaries in the 1840s, focusing on war on the centralized, bureaucratic state. His heirs are noted among Latin and Slavic anarchists, populists, and syndicalists.
Lenin: Drew on Russian traditions of violence and German concepts of organization to create Bolshevism, which brought the revolutionary tradition into power.
Fyodor Dostoevsky: A writer who depicted a provincial town inspired by new ideas and a mysterious fire, under the impact of the St. Petersburg (1861) and Paris Commune (1871) fires. He dramatized the idea of the five-man cell in "The Possessed."
Restif de la Bretonne: A writer in prerevolutionary Paris who is credited with inventing the word "communism." His work is characterized by erotic imagination and an encyclopedia of sexual fantasy. He wrote "Le Pied de Fanchette" and "Le Pornographe." He cited Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuvea as an "auteur communiste" in 1785.
Rousseau (presumably Jean-Jacques Rousseau): Contrasted with Restif de la Bretonne; not the inventor of the label "communism." His concept of nature is seen as a "paradise lost" and a possibility for beginning anew. Saint-Just goes beyond his social contract. Bonneville's Social Circle combines his ideal of a social contract.
Rousseau du ruisseau: A term used to describe Restif de la Bretonne, meaning "Rousseau of the gutter."
Cloots: Mentioned in the context of exploring and charting the "world-map of revolution." He is also noted as a contributor to importing Germanisms into the French language and capitalizing symbolic substantives like "Nation." He made a pledge of allegiance to la nation, believing in the infallibility of the people.
Thomas (Ismail) Urbain: A Black Muslim of the 1830s who adopted Islam and Algerian nationalism.
Flora Tristan: The Franco-Peruvian founder of the first international proletarian organization and an early radical feminist who dramatized her cause by invading the House of Lords in disguise.
Carlo Pisacane: A revolutionary who engaged in the high-jacking of Mediterranean ships in the 1850s.
Leszek Kolakowski: A brilliant, exiled Polish revisionist and critic who wrote a philosophically rich history of Marxism.
Frederick the Great: A German thinker and ruler who used the word "revolution" in the old sense but also began applying it to spiritual as well as political change, seeing the Lutheran Reformation as a revolution. He created a sense of new possibilities in Prussia.
Hegel: A later German thinker who used "philosophical eyes" to see antecedents of the modern revolutionary tradition in the reforms of Luther and Frederick the Great.
Hebert: Known for his political shock tactics using vulgar language in his journal "Pere Duchene."
Bonneville (Nicholas Bonneville): Saw his journal as a "circle of light" and advocated for writers to be "legislators of the universe." He promoted the idea of a "tribune of the people" as the supreme authority. He published the "Bulletin de la Bouche de Fer" and "La Bouche de Fer." He insisted that the authority of revolutionary intellectuals should supplant politicians. He was one of the first to revile Necker and denounce Lafayette. He was involved in the Social Circle, which combined Masonic and Rousseauian ideals. He anticipated the eastward migration of the idea of an inner intellectual "circle" to Russia. He was read by Count Dmitriev-Mamonov. He stressed social equality and universalism, making his organization suspect to the Jacobins. He published tracts bilingually and drew heavily on Germanisms. He was seen by contemporaries as making the title of Citizen a grade of Illuminism. He wrote "The Jesuits Driven from Free Masonry." He was interested in Saint-Just and Desmoulins. He traced the Illuminist ideal to Pythagoras. He wrote verses on "the numbers of Pythagoras" after the demise of his organizations.
Necker: Reviled by Bonneville before the revolution.
Lafayette: Denounced as a potential "Caesar" by Bonneville. Attacked by Babeuf in the summer of 1790.
Condorcet: An aristocratic philosophe urged by Bonneville to speak more simply.
Philip of Orleans: Bonneville may have belonged to a prerevolutionary Club of the Social Contract or Social Club under him. Jean-Geoffrey Saiffert was his Saxon physician.
Count Dmitriev-Mamonov: Founder of the Order of Russian Knights, a pioneering Russian revolutionary group, who had read Bonneville and used "La bouche de fer de Bonneville" for the basic design of a plan.
Fran<;ois Bonneville: Nicholas Bonneville's artistic brother who designed engravings and medallions for the Social Circle, including depictions of a black man and woman advocating equality.
James Rutledge: An Anglo-Irishman who called himself a "citizen of the universe" and petitioned for a social order with "no ownership of property." He had links with Babeuf in Paris.
Abbe Fauchet: Bonneville's principal collaborator in the Social Circle who systematically propagated the idea of the agrarian law.
Abbe Cournand: A "red curate" who argued for equal, non-hereditary, and non-transferable land plots for all landowners.
Pierre Dolivier: A "red curate" who petitioned for acceptance into the Bonneville-Fauchet Universal Confederation, identifying with the masses and articulating a social ideal of secular salvation.
Fran<;ois-Noël Babeuf:
A young prisoner from Picardy who led a local tax revolt and discovered the concept of the agrarian law in Paris. He established links with Rutledge and the Universal Confederation. He attacked Lafayette and drew up plans to publicize a radical feminist Confederation des Dames. He was arrested in March 1795 and used his imprisonment to refine his ideas of a "popular society." He provided an early outline for completing the revolution and the idea of a secure base area. He used the verb "to politic" with contempt and called for "total upheaval." He had contacts with representatives of the Batavian Republic and once served in the Batavian Legion. Occult influence is detectable in his early communist objectives and his secret, hierarchical organization resembled the Illuminists and Bonneville. He likely viewed Sylvain Marechal as the "flame" at the center of his "circle."
Sylvain Marechal: The man who formulated the ultimate objectives of Babeuf and the other conspirators. He is seen as potentially the "flame" at the center of the Illuminist-type inner group. He referred to Paris as "Atheopolis" and himself as l'HSD (l'homme sans dieu). He introduced the idea of triangular harmonies into his "CHARTER OF THE HUMAN RACE" and placed his sobriquet HSD inside a triangle. He may have been the source of the term "monde" used by Buonarroti for his inner organization. His work was widely distributed in the German-speaking world and appreciated in Russia under Tsar Alexander I. He wrote "History of Russia" and "The Good and Last Advice of Catherine II to Paul I."
Adam Weishaupt: Founder of the Order of Illuminists in Bavaria. He developed a secret and hierarchical organization modeled on the Jesuits. He had a Rousseauian vision and sought to remake individuals into totally loyal servants of a universal mission. He developed a system of three successive "classes" that incorporated existing Masonic grades. He was banished to Gotha and kept under surveillance. His correspondence was published by the Bavarian police in 1787. He appears to have been the first to use the term "circle" for a new type of political organization.
Four associates: Helped Adam Weishaupt found the Order of Illuminists.
Baron Adolf von Knigge: A key figure in the Illuminist movement who helped Weishaupt develop the system of three successive classes that incorporated Masonic grades.
Abbe Barruel: A French exile in Germany who is credited with first using the term "nationalism."
Herder: The original romantic lover of organic variety who previously used the words Nationalismus and Nationalism in a cultural sense. His image of German nationality was admired by radical French thinkers.
Madame de Stael: Author of "Germany" (1810), mentioned in contrast to Charles Nodier's earlier praise of Germany.
Charles Nodier: A pupil of Schneider who spoke rapturously of Germany. He is described as the last of the literary, Germanophile occultists to play a pioneering role in revolutionary organization and the founder of the Philadelphians.
Saint-Just: A young man from Picardy who was a center of ascetic coolness within the revolutionary leadership. He was not "charismatic" or particularly "violent." He is described as "an idea energized by passion" and passion disciplined by an idea. He wrote a pornographic poem and a play with themes of desire and confusion. He was suspicious of mass movements and considered the storming of the Bastille "the drunkenness of slaves." He went beyond Rousseau's social contract. He became the first ascetic of the revolution, detaching himself from people to serve "the people." He turned to the emotive power of music and wrote a lost opera about brothers slaying a tyrant. He identified the nation with brotherhood. He wrote to Robespierre that there were "too many laws - too few examples." He observed "strictest austerity of habit" and avoided contact with women in his last months. He led the struggle against indifference and factionalism. He journeyed to the front with Le Bas. He demanded unconditional surrender at Charleroi. He is seen as a prototype for the ascetic revolutionary of the future. He may have felt impelled to justify absolute power, viewing Augustus Caesar as his hero and being likened to Charles IX by Robespierre. He was interested in Bonneville.
Camille Desmoulins: A friend of Saint-Just who wrote about Saint-Just's perceived view of his head as the keystone of the republic. Bonneville appealed to him to institutionalize a "national" theater genre. He was interested in Bonneville.
Robespierre: Saint-Just showed fraternal loyalty to him. Saint-Just wrote to him from Alsace. He likened Saint-Just to Charles IX at the end. He proclaimed that "nature" was the "true priest" of the Supreme Being at the Feast of the Supreme Being.
Marat: Contrasted with Saint-Just; known for bloodthirsty rhetoric.
Oswald: Contrasted with Saint-Just; had a theory of violence.
Le Bas: Saint-Just's worshipful companion on the mission to Strasbourg. He felt the same kind of fraternal loyalty as Saint-Just did to Robespierre. Saint-Just's engagement to his sister seems to have been a token of friendship. He journeyed to the front with Saint-Just. He destroyed Schneider in Strasbourg with Saint-Just.
Schneider: Mentioned as being purged by Saint-Just in Strasbourg. Destroyed by Saint-Just and Le Bas in Strasbourg for indulging in sex, violence, and taking a German wife. Interested in Bonneville.
Sarah Stamm: The German wife of Schneider, executed along with him.
Etta Palm d'Aelders: A radical feminist within Bonneville's Confederation who was denounced for foreign links.
Augustus Caesar: Saint-Just's greatest hero of antiquity, according to Saint-Just's revelation.
Oliver Cromwell: Mentioned in Saint-Just's mysterious references.
Charles IX: Likened to Saint-Just by Robespierre.
Tiberius and Caius Gracchus: Mentioned in the context of the Roman Republic's agrarian laws, which the idea of a lex agraria sought to emulate.
Buonarroti (Filippo Buonarroti): An Italian nobleman, descendant of Michelangelo, who became a prototypical radical intellectual. He joined the campaign of revolutionary France against Sardinia in 1792 and became a propagandist-legislator on the Island of San Pietro, drafting "The Code of Nature." He defended his use of terror in Oneglia. He insisted he never belonged to any party. He kept a certificate of admission to La Societa Popolare. By 1796, he moved to a revolutionary concept of law and obligation. He influenced young soldiers and students awakened by the Napoleonic wars and brought a Napoleonic quality to his revolutionary plans. He formulated his first blueprint for a new society, the Sublime Perfect Masters, saturated with Masonic and triangular symbolism, borrowing from the Bavarian Order of Illuminists. He sought to work through existing Masonic lodges. He was the founder of the Adelphians, an Italian revolutionary group. He had internalized Illuminist ideas and pretensions, seeing himself as "reintegrating" the religion of nature and reason. He borrowed from Illuminism and saw the Republic as the sole proprietor. His inner organization used the term "Monde." He was Buonarroti's friend Luigi Angeloni.
Napoleon Bonaparte: The first ruler to base a political regime exclusively upon the nation and the most powerful purely national symbol. His example inspired some (Poles, Italians) and stimulated others to form national movements against him (Spaniards, Prussians). His grande armee supplanted the revolutionary grande nation and was two-thirds foreign by 1813. Buonarroti brought a Napoleonic quality to his plans and began his political career as an agent of French revolutionary expansion into Italy. Napoleon paid grudging tribute to Buonarroti on St. Helena. Napoleon's oppression was survived by a "handful of men." National resistance movements to him involved Right-Left collaboration. Marechal's "History of Russia" seemed to be attacking him at times.
Paoli: Napoleon's fellow-Corsican who had accepted a compromise peace brokered by England, a model Buonarroti and Marechal feared.
Ignatius Martinovics: A Catholic priest and physics professor in Budapest hired by Hapsburg police to report on the Illuminist danger, who became absorbed and drew up plans for Illuminist-type organizations (Association of Reformers and Association of Liberty and Equality). He was arrested and beheaded.
Duke of Wellington: A conservative English commander with whom republican Philadelphians collaborated in Portugal during the resistance to Napoleon.
Francisco Espoz y Mina: The most important guerrilla leader in Navarre during the Spanish resistance against Napoleon, who later led the revolutionary army against the Carlists but went through an extreme monarchist phase in 1814.
Jeronimo Merino: Another key guerrilla leader from Burgos who moved in the opposite direction to become a leader of the Carlists.
Eugenio Aviraneta: Merino's lieutenant from Irun who ended up as the leading apostle of continuing revolutionary conspiracy in the Hispanic world. He founded a five-man central revolutionary cell in Northern Spain and remained active in republican conspiracies, traveling to Mexico and the Philippines.
Joseph de Maistre: The leading counter-revolutionary of the era, who became a Mason and initially called for an American Revolution. He later turned to Russia as a potential savior of Europe.
King of Sardinia: The recipient of a politically charged eulogy from Joseph de Maistre in 1775. De Maistre became his ambassador to St. Petersburg.
Tsar Alexander I: The Russian emperor under whose atmosphere of vague religiosity and unfocused reformism Marechal's work was most appreciated in Russia.
Nicholas Novikov: An imprisoned occultist and promoter of Marechal's work in Russia, whose pseudonym was "lover of truth" and whose secret gatherings began the "kruzhkovshchina" of the modern Russian radical tradition.
Franz von Baader: The author of "On the Pythagorean Square in Nature" (1798), which suggested that nature's three elements were energized by an "all-animating principle" represented as a dot in a triangle.
Court de Gebelin: A Swiss Protestant pastor who founded the proto-romantic lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris. He glorified the German language and sought secrets in primitive speech, publishing "Monde primitif." He advocated for a single political order and an eternal and immutable religion.
Luigi Angeloni: Buonarroti's friend who led the Adelphians in Paris. He published a dissertation on medieval musical notation.
Francesco Salfi: An Italian playwright and Masonic fantasist whose romantic revolt against the "languid imagination" of his countrymen shaped the revolutionary imagination of Italians in France.
Oudet: A martyred figure whose initial "O" was suggested to be represented by the inner circles of the Adelphians.
Antoine Fabre d'Olivet: An occultist who composed fantastic works, climaxing in his "Golden Verses of Pythagoras," and proclaimed music as "the science of harmonic relationships of the universe."