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Declaration Of The Rights Of Man Essay

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Based on the Enlightenment concepts of equality and individual liberty, the newly formed National Assembly began to write The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which was built on Enlightenment ideas, as a precursor to drafting a constitution. Furthermore, this declaration refrained from mentioning the King which concurred with de Montesquieu’s theory of separation of powers, which was a recent perspective on how to run a government. Correspondingly, many Enlightenment ideas were presented in the declaration including no taxation without representation, freedom of the press, and several defenses against unsupported government regulations. The leaders of the French Revolution, who now controlled the National Assembly’s …show more content…

In the Ancient Regime, The Catholic Church was the only allowed religion. So, in The Rights of Man, the revolutionaries made sure to include that people could be free to worship as they pleased. The declaration states, “No one should be disturbed for his opinions, even religion, provided that their manifestation does not trouble public order as established by law.” This edict now allowed for religious freedom and no one had to worship in secret any longer. The young visionaries of the French Revolution were in particular aware of the French Protestants, who had been forced to hide their beliefs and sometimes lost their homes and land. The consciousness of intolerance towards non-Catholics had caused Enlightenment thinkers to address religious persecution. In fact, after the Edict of Nantes, Voltaire had waged war against religious intoleration. For this reason, the young leaders were filled with Voltaire’s vision for religious tolerance and believed in a universe based on logic, and respect for nature and that superstition is

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