Painting of one of the many Churches, Convents, Monasteries and Palaces that were destroyed during the French Revolution. Demolition of Saint Bartholomew Church in Paris 1791, painted by Pierre-Antoine Demachy.
The essence of the Revolutionary spirit is to be found in a famous document produced by the Committee of the Republic, under the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. There, the authorities of the interior of France declared that all were invited to bring down every tower of every church and of every castle throughout France. As everything was to be equal, not even buildings could be larger, one to the other. Bring down all the richer men; bring down all those who were more intelligent; suppress any aspect of material things that might give the idea of inequality.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, quoted in Tradition, Family Property Association, ed., Egalitarianism: The Metaphysical Value and Religion of Our Days – Social Leveling…Total Leveling (Glasgow: Tradition, Family, Property Association, 2011), xxiii.
