1794

On 27 July 1794, the National Convention that Maximilien Robespierre had dominated for a year finally turned on him and had him arrested within the hour. He was dead less than two days later, undone partly by a state religion he had invented two months before, with himself as its prophet.

On 7 May 1794, Robespierre introduced a new state religion to replace Christianity. He had 82 days left to live. The Cult of the Supreme Being is one of the stranger episodes in a Revolution that was already stuffed with strange episodes.