Jean-Baptiste Chemin wrote the Manuel des théopanthropophiles or, in English the Manual of the Theoantropophiles [Theophilantropes], and Valentin Haüy offered his institute for the blind as a provisional place of meeting.
"[1] When, later, the Convention turned over to them the little church of Sainte Catherine, in Paris, the nascent sect won a few followers and protectors; still its progress was slow till Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux, an influential member of the Directory, took up its cause.
The movement, in spite of a strong opposition on the part of Catholics, was gradually taking hold among the masses[citation needed] when the Directory brought it to an abrupt end.
It is in light of that axiom and not of the Christian standard - in spite of the phraseology - that we should view the commandments concerning the adoration of God, the love of our neighbor, domestic virtues and patriotism.
Theophilanthropist worship was at first very simple and meant chiefly for the home: it consisted in a short invocation of God in the morning and a kind of examination of conscience at the end of the day.
It is a far cry from the early meetings where the minister or père de famille, presided at prayer or mimicked Christian baptism, First Communion, marriages or funerals, to the gorgeous display of the so-called national festivals.
The same strange combination is found in the feasts where Socrates, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and St Vincent de Paul are equally honored and in the sermon where political harangues interlard moral exhortations.