During the French Revolution, there was the Reign of Terror by Maximillian Robespierre. Many people were guillotined in a witchhunt. He too would get the guillotine.
If you look closely, the French Revolution was a war on Christianity as much as anything. France has essentially been an anti-religious country for 200 years. As such, they have consistently lacked the moral clarity to make a stand against evil in the world, this is especially clear in their attitude toward Hitler and now toward Islamo-fascism.
http://chemistry.mtu.edu/~pcharles/SCIHISTORY/Lavoisier.html
Heck, they even guillotined the founder of modern chemistry.
How offensive can a geeky chemist be?
Just about as hideous as the persecution and death of the plant geneticist Vavilov
under the Soviets.
(But the Soviets paid...with millions of them starved or under-nourished due to
listening to the "politically correct" Lysenko)