Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution itself. There has been much scholarly debate over whether the movement was popularly motivated. The French Revolution initially began with attacks on church corruption and the wealth of the higher clergy, an action with which even many Christians could identify, since the Roman Catholic church held a dominant role in pre-revolutionary France. During a two-year period known as the Reign of Terror, the episodes of anti-clericalism grew more violent than any in modern European history. The new revolutionary authorities suppressed the church; abolished the Catholic monarchy; nationalized church property; exiled 30,000 priests and killed hundreds more. In October 1793 the
Militant feminism in the French Revolution "not one of holding opinions from the wrong side of the political spectrum, but rather of articulating political opinions at all." De Gouges' execution in 1793, one of only three women to be executed in the Reign of Terror, solidified her appraisal of men within the Revolution as "pretend[ing] to enjoy the Revolution and reclaim his rights to equality only to say nothing more about it." The most radical militant feminist activism was practiced by the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women which was founded by Léon and her colleague Claire Lacombe on May 10, 1793. The goal of the club