These 191 martyrs of the French Revolution died in four locations in Paris Sept. 2 and 3, 1792. Most were members of the clergy. A 1790 document of the Constituent Assembly declared French clerics to be public servants and required them to swear an oath of allegiance. Those who took the oath were called “assermentes”; those who would not were “refractaires” or “insermentes.” Pressure steadily increased for people to take the oath; it finally erupted in the carnage of September 1792, when 1,400 in all were killed by gangs and thugs.
