ABSTRACT
The American constitution of 1791 guaranteed freedom of religion, conscience and expression. The central government was to keep its hands off religion. The revolution established principles for how a Church ordinance would be structured in a democratic liberal state. If a church became a so-called state church, it would become a part of the state, subordinate to its rule, its organizational ideals and ultimately its ideology. The revolution represented a new beginning for mankind on its course through history. This apocalyptic-utopian understanding was made tangibly evident when France abandoned the Gregorian calendar and introduced a new one, a calendar of the revolution. The American Revolution was based on human rights, but in an entirely different way, Condorcet maintained. The ideological foundation and vision of the revolution had been formulated in 1789 with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
