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
Political terror scale Political terror scale Political Terror Scale is a yearly measure of state inflicted political terror. It was developed in the early 1980s by researchers at Purdue University and is currently managed by Mark Gibney of the University of North Carolina at Asheville. The Political Terror Scale is a yearly measure of terror inflicted upon a population. "Terror" is defined as state terror, or violations of physical and personal integrity rights carried out by the state or its agents. Examples of political terror include extrajudicial killings, torture, disappearances, and political imprisonment. Originally, only 59 countries were coded for within the database