The French Revolution and The Conspiracy Theory
The storm of the French Revolution had in the meantime forced Barruel to seek refuge in England, where he became almoner to the refugee Prince of Conti. Here he wrote in 1793 the Histoire du Clergé pendant la Revolution Française. He dedicated the work to the English nation in recognition of the hospitality that it had showed toward the unfortunate French ecclesiastics. It has been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and English. The English version went through several editions and did much to strengthen the British nation in its opposition to French revolutionary principles. While in London, Barruel published an English work, A Dissertation on Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Catholic Church. But none of his works attracted so much attention as his Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism.
His basic idea was that of a conspiracy with the aim of overthrowing Christianity--or more to the point, any and all forms of political and social organization based on conformity to the moral teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
It inspired John Robison, who had been working independently on his own conspiracy theory to extend his book Proofs of a Conspiracy Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe and include several quotations from Barruel.
Read more about this topic: Augustin Barruel
Famous quotes containing the words french, revolution, conspiracy and/or theory:
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“If we are on the outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme. Silent nameless men with unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It’s the inside game, cold, sure, undistracted, forever closed off to us. We are the flawed ones, the innocents, trying to make some rough sense of the daily jostle. Conspirators have a logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act.”
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