September Massacres
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The September Massacres were a series of bloody incidents which took place in Paris, France in late summer 1792, during the French Revolution.
In early September of 1792, news reached Paris that the Prussian army had invaded France, and was advancing quickly toward the capital. Moreover, rumours circulated that there were many in Paris, such as non-juring priests who secretly opposed the Revolution and supported the foreign powers allied against it.
During this time the Legislative Assembly was in near-collapse and its successor, the Convention, had not yet come into being. This left the municipal government of Paris, at this time under the control of some of the most radical revolutionary elements, including the sans-culottes, who became almost a de facto government of France.
This was a time during the Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution when resentment was rising sharply against the past and present actions of the Roman Catholic Church. Over a forty-eight hour period beginning on September 2, 1792, as the French Legislative Assembly (successor to the National Constituent Assembly) dissolved into chaos, three Church bishops and more than two hundred priests were massacred by angry mobs. On September 3 and September 4, crowds broke into the prisons where they murdered the prisoners, who some feared were counter-revolutionaries who would aid the invading Prussians. The most famous victim was the Princesse de Lamballe, friend of Marie Antoinette and sister-in-law to the Duc d'Orleans. These crowds were inflamed by radical propaganda, ongoing food shortages, and fear of the invasion.
The September Massacres marked a period of violence against the Roman Catholic Church that spread throughout France and lasted for nearly a decade.