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
Battle of Saorgio (1793) The government ordered Anselme suspended on 16 December 1792 and his temporary replacement was Gaspard Jean-Baptiste Brunet. Anselme was arrested on 12 April 1793 but managed to survive the Reign of Terror. Meanwhile, Brunet led the expedition to Sardinia which began on 8 January and ended in complete failure within two months. Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duke of Biron assumed command of the "Army of Italy" on 10 February and pushed eastward with his right flank on the Mediterranean Sea. Dismayed by the incapacity shown by his general officers in 1792, King Victor Amadeus III begged Habsburg Austria to send