Did Napoleon Preserve Or Pervert The Gains Of The Revolution

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deeds merited it.
The French Revolution placed the state above the Church, an extremely revolutionary concept. The Revolution even went as far to ban organized religion. Napoleon was willing to heal the rift between the Catholic Church and the government, but only if the Church did not meddle in state affairs. The Church lost its right to run schools, and to have special taxes and privileges, however Napoleon did re-open the churches and was tolerant of all religions. He even invited the Pope Pius VII to his coronation to crown him the new Emperor of France. Napoleon's true feelings on his relationship with the Church were demonstrated by his actions at the coronation. When the Pope went to place the crown on Napoleon's head, Napoleon took the crown out of the Pope's hands and crowned himself. Thus showing that he believed that since he embodied the State, the Pope had no legitimate right to crown him for in the new France the state was not subordinate to the Church.
Prior to the ...

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is declaring that the new regime was both a break from the immediate past and part of a continuity with that past.
What was Napoleon�s relationship to the Revolution? To what extent was he its heir or its betrayer? Did he save the Revolution or liquidate it?
To begin it is necessary to determine what one means by �the Revolution�. There was not one Revolution, but really a series of them which occurred as the French struggled to create a new political and social system. By the �Revolution� do we mean that of Barnave, or of Mirabeau, or Lafayette, or Brissot, or Danton, or Robespierre, or Hebert, or Tallien, of Babeuf, or Barras? All of these were men of the Revolution, yet they all held ...

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