Revolution and Religion: Disestablishment versus Dechristianization

Religion divided the French Revolution far more than the American. In France the Catholic Church was a great landowner and part of the old order. The Assembly nationalized Church lands in 1789 and in 1790 passed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, making priests state employees who had to swear an oath; roughly half refused, splitting parishes and driving many Catholics toward counter-revolution. In 1793–94 some radicals pursued 'dechristianization', closing churches, and Robespierre staged a Festival of the Supreme Being.

Napoleon's Concordat with the Pope in 1801 restored a working relationship. In America, the pattern was gradual disestablishment, as states such as Virginia ended official churches and the First Amendment barred a national church, with Massachusetts the last state to disestablish, in 1833. Comparing the cases shows how a revolution's relationship with religion helped determine how much opposition it faced.