On this day 218 years ago, Maximilien Robespierre announced to the French National Convention the Cult of the Supreme Being as the proper revolutionary religion. Robespierre had become the sole remaining strong man of the French Revolution, and the Reign of Terror was in progress. The revolution had rejected religion because of the perceived links between the Roman Catholic church and corrupt power, giving rise to the Cult of Reason.
However, Robespierre believed that reason is only a means to the end of civic-minded public virtue of a type which he ascribed to the Romans and Greeks. He thought that belief in the existence of a god, immortality of the human soul, and a higher moral code, were essential elements of a republican society because they were constant reminders of justice. Thus he devised his own version of a religion.
The Cult of the Supreme Being did not seem to win the divine protection of any supreme being. Less than 3 months later, on 27 July 1794, Robespierre was overthrown and the Reign of Terror came to an end. He was executed at the guillotine on the next day, and the Cult of the Supreme Being lost its official status. Some years later, it was officially banned by Napoleon.