Clootz, Anacharsis
Clootz or Cloots, Anacharsis
(änäkärsēs` klōts), 1755–94, French revolutionary, self-styled Orator of the Human Race. Born near Cleves and a member of the lesser German nobility, his given name was originally Jean Baptiste. Fanatically devoted to humanitarian ideals and to the liberal ideas of the EncyclopédieEncyclopédie, the work of the French Encyclopedists, or philosophes. The full title was Encyclopédie; ou, Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts, et des métiers.
..... Click the link for more information. , he came to Paris in 1776 and spent his large fortune for the advancement of those ideas. After the outbreak of the French Revolution, he headed (1790) a delegation of foreigners as "ambassadors of the human race" to the National Assembly; he adopted the name Anacharsis and was elected to the Convention, the revolutionary assembly, where he was an ardent supporter of the liberation of Europe in the name of the ideals of the Revolution. Aligned with the Hébertists (see Hébert, Jacques RenéHébert, Jacques René
, 1757–94, French journalist and revolutionary. An ardent supporter of the French Revolution, he gained the support of the working classes through his virulent paper Le Père Duchesne and was prominent in the Cordeliers.
..... Click the link for more information. ), he was executed when that faction fell in Mar., 1794, during the Reign of TerrorReign of Terror,
1793–94, period of the French Revolution characterized by a wave of executions of presumed enemies of the state. Directed by the Committee of Public Safety, the Revolutionary government's Terror was essentially a war dictatorship, instituted to rule the
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