Joachim Vilate (9 October 1767 in

Ahun Ahun (; ) is a commune in the Creuse department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in central France. Geography A farming area comprising the village and several hamlets situated in the valley of the Creuse, some southeast of Guéret, at the ...

, 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 () 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. Supplementing the Committee of General D ...

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

Revolutionary Tribunal The Revolutionary Tribunal (; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. In October 1793, it became one of the most powerful engines of ...

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. History The foundation of Eymoutiers can be traced back to a church and a ...

and later at

University of Bourges The University of 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 home meant many Scots seeking to ...

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

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , 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. Situated o ...

, 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 The Rue du Bac () is a street in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The street, which is 1,150 m long, begins at the junction of the quais Quai Voltaire, Voltaire and Quai Anatole-France, Anatole-France and ends at the Rue de Sèvres. Rue du Bac ...

. 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 nicknames, the Righteous Patriot or the Tiger, was a French lawyer and a major figure in the French Revolution. A close associate of Georges ...

for the crime of having invited Johann David Hermann, the

piano-forte A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an action mechanism where hammers strike strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal temperam ...

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, d ...

9 Thermidor Maximilien Robespierre addressed the National Convention on 26 July 1794, was arrested the next day, and executed on 28 July. In his speech on 26 July, Robespierre spoke of the existence of internal enemies, conspirators, and calumniators, with ...

. 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 In the historiography of the French Revolution, the Thermidorian Reaction ( or ''Convention thermidorienne'', "Thermidorian Convention") is the common term for the period between the ousting of Maximilien Robespierre on 9 Thermidor II, or 27 J ...

, 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 ** Of ...

, 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