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 successful at oppressing their citizens or who have committed acts of violence in the past to deter resistance generally do not have to commit many acts of violence in order to maintain control. For example, the former USSR would score low on the Political Terror Scale and that score would not reflect the overall level of oppression present in that society. 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