Church had a huge number of real estates for itself in the urban settings. Three fourth of each urban area belonged to the church itself (McPhee, 2002, p
By declaring war on virtually all of Europe, Paris was soon at war with itself. The Jacobins, a political club and "strict equalitarians" had risen to power in 1791, calling for a new convention to "dismantle the constitution" (Hooker)
Yet, its radical elements (embodied by Robespierre and Danton) would find inspiration in Rousseau, who made claims such as, "Nature, not man, is [our] schoolmaster" (432). Nature, would be defined, however, by people like de Sade, who judged man's nature to be brutal, bloodthirsty, and animalistic (Jones 50)
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed the legitimacy of rebellion against a government contemptuous of the natural rights of man. The Constitution of the United States seemed the triumph of rationalism in politics" (Gershoy 79-80)
"The Revolution, after all, had been staged by the middle class and wealthier members of the Third Estate; most of the reforms, especially the economic reforms, benefited only these two groups. In many ways, life had become harder for the lower classes" (Hooker)
At the same time, the national government was experimenting with a hodgepodge of administrative and political reforms designed to avert impending national bankruptcy. Taken together, the economic crisis and political tinkering bred an atmosphere of urgency" (Hunt 39)
And the insurrection, which rises above a revolution like a peak in the mountain's chain of events, can be no more evoked at will than the revolution as a whole. The masses advance and retreat several times before they make up their minds to the final assault" (Kreis 1)
And moreover, the poverty-stricken classes were becoming allies of the bourgeoisie, and the great bulk of ordinary citizens were hungry for freedom from brutal authority, for individualism over mindless tradition, for ideology over dogma. The Enlightenment was an ongoing struggle for self-determination and for the fulfillment of basic inherent freedoms in a society where, according to Professor Paul Brians (Brians 2003, 6), "the twin fortresses of monarchy and Church opposed almost everything [that philosophes Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and their allies] stood for
" Given the enormous impact of this declaration on The Enlightenment's power to influence the revolution, this paper will summarize the document's seventeen articles: 1) "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights"; 2) the rights of man are "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression"; 3) all power resides in the nation; 4) liberty is defined as the freedom to do "everything which injures no one else" 5) the only actions laws can prohibit are those "hurtful to society"; 6) all citizens have an equal opportunity to contend for occupations and public positions; 7) there will be no false arrests and imprisonments; 8) laws will proscribe only punishments which are "strictly and obviously necessary"; 9) citizens are innocent until proven guilty; 10) religious views cannot be punished; 11) the "free communication" of opinions is "one of the most precious of the rights of man"; 12) military forces are for the good of all, not for the personal advantage of any leader; 13) taxes should be fair; 14) citizens have the right to know how their taxes are used; 15) public officials are accountable; 16) laws and power must be carefully defined; 17) no one can be denied the right to own property; property is an "inviolable and sacred right." Meanwhile, it did matter that Rousseau and Voltaire, two giants of 18th Century enlightened thinking, disagreed and often contradicted one another, they were, as a team of great French philosophers, nonetheless elected to the Pantheon (on October 12, 1793), when the likes of Descartes and other philosophers were rejected by the revolutionary assemblies (Chartier 1991, 88)
While Voltaire was a charming personality and insisted on the "supremacy of the intellect," according to Brians, Rousseau was said to be quite the "ponderous" person and emphasized the emotional aspects of the human condition. Rousseau was also a man who "reacted against the artificiality and corruption of the social customs and institutions of the times" (Fieser 2001, 2)
And even though the likes of Rousseau, Voltaire, and others were not among the ranks of the warriors of the revolution - with weapons at the ready to spill blood - the language of "reform and opposition," employed by the fighters and revolutionaries prior to battle, had been learned from Rousseau, Voltaire, et al., according to Lynn Avery Hunt's book (Hunt 1984, 34), Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution
And by 1672, Sir Isaac Newton was another intellectual who emerged as part of the early evolution of The Enlightenment. Newton insisted that human reason could uncover the immutable laws of nature - and by implication, his efforts showed that if humans could discover the laws of nature, they could also discover the laws which are best for human society (O'Connor 2003)
And moreover, the poverty-stricken classes were becoming allies of the bourgeoisie, and the great bulk of ordinary citizens were hungry for freedom from brutal authority, for individualism over mindless tradition, for ideology over dogma. The Enlightenment was an ongoing struggle for self-determination and for the fulfillment of basic inherent freedoms in a society where, according to Professor Paul Brians (Brians 2003, 6), "the twin fortresses of monarchy and Church opposed almost everything [that philosophes Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and their allies] stood for