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
Reign of Terror after the enactment of the Law of 22 Prairial). In March rebellion broke out in the Vendée in response to mass conscription, which developed into a civil war that lasted until after the Terror. On 6 April the Committee of Public Safety was created, which gradually became the de facto war-time government. The Committee oversaw the Reign of Terror. "Some 17,000 people were killed in the Reign of Terror, and as many as 10,000 more died in prison or without trial. What caused the French Revolutionary government to turn against its own people? During the Reign of Terror, at least