Editing French Directory (section)

===Political developments (July 1794 – March 1795)===
[[File:Paul Barras directeur.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Paul Barras]], who defended the government against attacks from the left and right]]
Meanwhile, the leaders of the still ruling [[National Convention]] tried to meet challenges from both neo-Jacobins on the left and royalists on the right. On 21 September 1794, the remains of [[Jean-Paul Marat]], whose furious articles had promoted the Reign of Terror, were placed with great ceremony in the [[Panthéon]], while on the same day, the moderate Convention member [[Antoine Christophe Merlin|Merlin de Thionville]] described the Jacobins as "A hangout of outlaws" and the "knights of the guillotine". Young men known as [[Muscadins]], largely from middle-class families, attacked the Jacobin and radical clubs. The new freedom of the press saw the appearance of a host of new newspapers and pamphlets from the left and the right, such as the royalist ''L'Orateur du peuple'' edited by [[Louis-Marie Stanislas Fréron|Stanislas Fréron]], an extreme Jacobin who had moved to the extreme right, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, the ''Tribun du peuple'', edited by [[François-Noël Babeuf|Gracchus Babeuf]], a former priest who advocated an early version of [[socialism]]. On 5 February 1795, the semi-official newspaper ''[[Le Moniteur Universel]]'' (''Le Moniteur'') attacked Marat for encouraging the bloody extremes of the [[Reign of Terror]]. Marat's remains were removed from the Panthéon two days later.{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|p=375}} The surviving [[Girondin]] deputies, whose leaders had been executed during the Reign of Terror, were brought back into the Convention on 8 March 1795.

The Convention tried to bring a peaceful end to the Catholic and royalist [[War in the Vendée|uprising in the Vendée]]. The Convention signed an amnesty agreement, promising to recognize the freedom of religion and allowing territorial guards to keep their weapons if the ''Vendéens'' would end their revolt. On a proposal from Boissy d'Anglas, on 21 February 1795 the Convention formally proclaimed the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.{{sfn|Tulard|Fayard|Fierro|1998|p=375}}