TEOPHILANTHROPISM
### I. History
A certain Chemin, professor of Latin in Paris, published in 1796 a *Manuel des théophilanthrophiles*, which came into the hands of the celebrated Haüy (d. 1822), the inventor of raised characters for the blind, who became enthusiastic about Chemin’s theory. On 5 Nivôse, Year V (25 Dec. 1796), Chemin, Haüy, Moreau, Janes and Mandar met in the hospice for the blind, directed by Haüy, and founded a religious society under the name of the Society of Theophilanthropists, with a group of adherents.
In April 1797 they requested permission to hold their worship services in churches, which they claimed to share with Catholics; they thus occupied twenty churches, including Notre-Dame. They founded schools, printed newspapers, and spread rapidly in the vicinity of Paris—Montreuil, Choisy-le-Roi, Andrez, Versailles, Fontainebleau—and even further afield, to Chantilly, Soissons, Château-Thierry, Nancy, Rodez, Le Havre, Châlons-sur-Marne, Bourges. At Sens a rite different from that of Paris developed, in which an ostentatious appeal was made to the Gospel. Outside France, a certain Siauve, a Parisian by origin, attempted to spread the new religion in Switzerland in August 1798; in Italy, a certain Gregory had a translation of Chemin’s *Manuel* printed in Turin in 1799; other translations of the same book were made in English and German; yet the new cult does not seem to have prospered abroad. In France, on the contrary, its diffusion was extremely rapid among institutes, professors, scientists and men of letters. Among the adherents are remembered ex-priests, ex-Protestant pastors, ex-members of the Convention. The best-known names in the Theophilantropic group are: Dupont de Nemours, distinguished economist; Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, the celebrated author of *Paul et Virginie*; Laréveillère-Lépeaux, who was a member of the Directory and gave the sect great support through that office (though erroneously he has often been regarded as the inventor of the movement). Numerous schisms occurred within the sect from the very beginning; by the end of 1799 it was in full decline. A decree of the consuls on 12 Vendémiaire, Year X (4 Oct. 1801) refused the Theophilanthropists permission to continue using national buildings (Catholic churches), and on 11 Ventôse (2 Mar. 1802) a decree of the police prefect prohibited “the cult of natural religion, called t.”
### II. Doctrine
The Theophilantropic doctrine is nothing more than deism with a certain evangelical hue, inasmuch as it reduces morality to the love of God and neighbour. This doctrine derived from Rousseau’s *Vicaire Savoyard*. For the Theophilanthropists the entire dogma was summed up in two rational certainties: the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. Belief in God rests on the spectacle of the universe, while belief in future life is founded on the feeling derived from our faculty of thought, which is a principle foreign to matter and survives the dissolution of the body. “Worship God, love your neighbour, render yourselves useful to the fatherland”: this was the obligatory theme of all the orators in their worship services, while they often repeated the thesis that all religions are good provided one serves God fittingly.
### III. Worship
The Theophilantropic temples had a very simple altar, on which flowers or fruit were placed according to the season. Above the altar was inscribed: “We believe in the existence of God and in the immortality of the soul.” On the walls other inscriptions recalled the principal duties. Opposite the altar stood a pulpit or tribune for the religious sermon. The service began with a hymn; children presented flowers or fruit. The president of the ceremony, a head of a family dressed in a sky-blue tunic with a pink sash and a kind of white mantle, directed invocations, hymns and readings; the hymns were taken from the works of Racine or J. B. Rousseau (not to be confused with Jean-Jacques).
At first the service was held on the last day of the decade, then on Sunday. Selected music was performed. They celebrated the festivals of the Republic and those of famous men: Hoche, Joubert, Socrates, J.-J. Rousseau, Washington, and even St Vincent de Paul. The reader, ascending the pulpit, read brief extracts from ancient and modern moralists, from the Vedas to J.-J. Rousseau, passing through the Old and New Testaments, Zoroaster, Confucius, Socrates, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, the Koran, La Bruyère, William Penn, Voltaire, Franklin. The passages were collected in a prepared manual, from which one could read as from a missal. After the reading came a commentary followed by the singing of a hymn, then a hymn to the fatherland, and finally a kind of blessing.