Cloots

or Clootz (Johann Baptist, afterwards An achars is) Baron du Val de Grâce, Pru ian enthusiast, b. near Cleves, 24 June, 1755, was a nephew of Cornel i us de Pauw. In 1780 he published the The Certainty of the Proofs of Mohammedanism , under the pseudonym of Ali-gier-ber, an anagram of Bergier, whose Certainty of the Proofs of Christianity he parodies. He travelled widely, but became a resident of Paris and a warm partisan of the Revolution, to which he devoted his large fortune. He wrote a reply to Burke, and continually wrote and spoke in favor of a Universal Republic. On 19 June, 1790, he, at the head of men of all countries, asked a place at the feast of Federation, and henceforward was styled “orator of the human race.” He was, with Paine, Priest ley, Washington and Klopstock, made a French citizen, and in 1792 was elected to the Convention by two departments. He debaptised himself, taking the name An achars is, was a prime mover in the Anti-Catholic party, and induced Bishop Gobel to resign. He declared there was no other God but Nature. Incurring the enmity of Robes pierre, he and Paine were arrested as foreigners. After two and a half months’ imprisonment at St. Lazare, he was brought to the scaffold with the Hébertistes, 24 March, 1794. He died calmly, uttering materialist sentiments to the last.