[4] From 1790 until his death in 1794, Hébert became a voice for the working class of Paris through his highly successful and influential journal, Le Père Duchesne.

[7] In part, Hébert's use of Père Duchesne as a revolutionary symbol can be seen by the character's appearance as a bristly old man who was portrayed as smoking a pipe and wearing a Phrygian cap.

[8] In Le Père Duchesne number 65, where he writes of his reawakening in 1790, he defines aristocrats as "enemies of the constitution" who "conspire against the nation", showing his animus against them.

[9] Much of Hébert's celebrity came from his denunciations of King Louis XVI in his newspaper, as opposed to any office he may have held or his roles in any of the Parisian clubs with which he was involved.

The French linguist and historian Ferdinand Brunot called Hébert, "The Homer of filth", because of his ability to use common language to appeal to a general audience.

[11] In addition, Père Duchesne's appearance played into the tensions of the revolution through the sharp contrast between his laborer's clothing and the elegant attire of the aristocracy.

[12] Hébert was not the only writer during the French Revolution to use the image of Père Duchesne nor was he the only author in the period to adopt foul language as a way of appealing to the working class.

Another writer at the time, Lemaire (fr), also wrote a newspaper entitled Père Duchêne (although he spelt it differently than Hébert) from September 1790 until May 1792 in which he assumed the voice of a "moderate patriot" who wanted to conserve the relationship between the King and the nation.

For example, starting in 1792, the Paris Commune and the ministers of war Jean-Nicolas Pache and, later, Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte bought several thousand copies of Le Père Duchesne which were distributed free to the public and troops.

Initially, from 1790 and into 1792, Le Père Duchesne supported a constitutional monarchy and was even favorable towards King Louis XVI and the opinions of the Marquis de La Fayette.

His violent attacks of the period were aimed at Jean-Sifrein Maury, a great defender of papal authority and the main opponent of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

This gave Marie-Antoinette a pivotal role in Hébert's political rhetoric; as the Revolution unfolded, she appears in fourteen percent of his newspaper articles between January 1791 and March 1794.

His journalistic voice expressed separation from and violent opposition to cultured elites in favor of a popular political allegiance to radical patriotic solutions to controlling the economy and winning the war.

Where he got the financial resources to support his lifestyle is unclear; however, there are Jean-Nicolas Pache's commissions to print thousands of issues of Le Père Duchesne and his relationship to Delaunay d'Angers, mistress and wife of Andres Maria de Guzman.[who?]

The trend toward secularization had already begun to take hold throughout France during the eighteenth century, but between September 1793 and August 1794, mostly during the Reign of Terror, French politicians began discussing and embracing notions of "radical dechristianization".

Like Voltaire, Hébert believed that the toleration of different religious beliefs was necessary for humanity to pass from an age of superstitions, and that traditional religion was an obstacle to this goal.

[24] The program of dechristianization waged against Catholicism, and eventually against all forms of Christianity, included the deportation of clergy and the condemnation of many of them to death, the closing of churches, the institution of revolutionary and civic cults, the large scale destruction of religious monuments, the outlawing of public and private worship and religious education, forced marriages of the clergy, and forced abjurement of their priesthood.

[23] On 7 June, Robespierre, who had previously condemned the Cult of Reason, advocated a new state religion and recommended that the Convention acknowledge the existence of a singular God.

When Hébert accused Marie Antoinette during her trial of incest with her son, Robespierre called him a fool (imbécile) for his outrageous and unsubstantiated innuendos and lies.

[26] The government was exasperated and, with support from the Jacobins, finally decided to strike against the Hébertists on the night of 13 March 1794, despite the reluctance of Barère de Vieuzac, Collot d'Herbois, and Billaud-Varenne.

In the Revolutionary Tribunal, Hébert was treated very differently from Danton, more like a thief than a conspirator; his earlier frauds were brought to light and criticized.

Hébert's executioners reportedly amused the crowd by adjusting the guillotine so that its blade stopped inches above his neck,[28] and it was only after the fourth time the lever (déclic) was pulled that he was actually beheaded.

[30] That being said, his wide readership and voice throughout the Revolution means that he was a significant public figure, and Le Père Duchesne's ability to influence the general population of France was indeed notable.