Le Pont Royal et le Pavillon de Flore, 1814 - BnF

Joachim Vilate (9 October 1767 in

Ahun Ahun (; oc, Aiun) is a Communes of France, commune in the Creuse Departments of France, department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in central France. Geography A farming area comprising the village and several hamlets situated in the valley o ...

, Creuse – 7 May 1795), also known as Sempronius-Gracchus Vilate was a French revolutionary figure. The

Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety (french: link=no, Comité de salut public) was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. S ...

appointed him as member of the jury (juror) of the

Revolutionary Tribunal The Revolutionary Tribunal (french: Tribunal révolutionnaire; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. It eventually became one of the ...

Biography

An issue of a bourgeoise family of Haute-Marche, he was the son of François Vilate, a surgeon juror of

, and Marie Decourteix (or de Courteix). He studied at

Eymoutiers Eymoutiers () is a Communes of France, commune in the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regions of France, region in western France. Inhabitants are known as ''Pelauds'' in French. History The foundation of ...

and later at

University of Bourges The University of Bourges (french: Université de Bourges) was a university located in Bourges, France. It was founded by Louis XI in 1463 and closed during the French Revolution. Until the mid-17th century, lack of suitable legal training at hom ...

, where he studied philosophy. After his father's death he attended a seminary at

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

, and was named by the administrators of the second professor's department along with the city's royal college, in 1791, he was a rhetoric at Saint-Gaultier in Indre. In March 1792 he arrived in Paris to study medicine. He lived in

Rue du Bac Rue du Bac is a street in Paris situated in the 7th arrondissement. The street, which is 1150 m long, begins at the junction of the quais Voltaire and Anatole-France and ends at the rue de Sèvres. Rue du Bac is also the name of a station on ...

. In September 1793 he was appointed as one of jurors. On 12 October 1793 when Hébert accused Marie-Antoinette during her trial of incest with her son, Vilate had dinner with Barère, Saint-Just and Robespierre. Discussing the matter, Robespierre broke his plate with his fork and called Hébert an "imbécile". According to Vilate Robespierre then had already two or three bodyguards. In the morning of 8 June, before the Festival of the Supreme Being Vilate invited Robespierre for lunch. Vilate was arrested on 20 July 1794 (3 Thermidor, year II) on orders of

Billaud-Varenne Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (; 23 April 1756 – 3 June 1819), also known as Jean Nicolas or by his nickname, the Righteous Patriot, was a French personality of the Revolutionary period. Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne was an instrumental fi ...

for the crime of having invited Johann David Hermann, the

piano-forte The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

teacher of the royal family, to the sessions of the tribunal. He was released from

La Force Prison La Force Prison was a French prison located in the Rue du Roi de Sicile, in what is now the 4th arrondissement of Paris. Originally known as the Hôtel de la Force, the buildings formed the private residence of Henri-Jacques Nompar de Caumont, duc ...

9 Thermidor The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre refers to the series of events beginning with Maximilien Robespierre's address to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II (26 July 1794), his arrest the next day, and ...

. Vilate was the author of ''The Secret Causes of the Revolution of 9th and 10th Thermidor'' and its two sequels, published during the

Thermidorian reaction The Thermidorian Reaction (french: Réaction thermidorienne or ''Convention thermidorienne'', "Thermidorian Convention") is the common term, in the historiography of the French Revolution, for the period between the ousting of Maximilien Robespie ...

, while he was in prison. He accused Barère, Billaud-Varenne and Robespierre of trying to decimate the convention. Exaggerating the numbers, raged against Robespierre keeping 300,000 people in prison and trying to guillotine two or three hundred people every day. Sentenced to death, he was guillotined, with fourteen other defendants on 18 Floreal, Year III (May 7, 1795), in the

Place de Grève Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road name ** Often ...

, Paris at about eleven o'clock in the morning.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vilate, Joachim 1767 births 1795 deaths 18th-century French Roman Catholic priests French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution People from Creuse Jacobins People of the Reign of Terror

Biography

See also

References