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The Religious Crisis

In France

BY COUNT ALBERT DE MUN

Member of the French Academy

Member of the Chamber of Deputies.

San Francisco: Catholic Truth Society.

Brooklyn : International Catholic Truth Society.



INTBODTJCTION.

The nature and extent of the religious persecu-

tion in France are little known to English-speaking

people. Whatever news is published in the vllaily

press comes through English channels, and is col-

ored by English prejudices. The leader of the

Catholic laity of France and one of the moist gifted

of French public men contributed the following

remarkable article on the French 1 crisis to th;e

National Review of London. It is the best, the fair-

est and most comprehensive account of the situa-

tion in France that has yet appeared. It was writ-

ten for English readers, and is republished by the

Catholic Truth Society just a,s it appeared: in the’

National Review. A study of it will disabuse any
fair-minded and intelligent reader of any false sym-

pathy towards the motley crowd of atheists, social-

ists, radicals and Continental Freemasons whlo, in

the name of liberty and progress, would rob the

French nation of the most fundamental rights—the
right to worship God according to the dictates of

conscience, the right to associate, the right to teach.

The National Review is to be congratulated for giv-

ing the public a fair presentation of this great con-

spiracy against religion and liberty.



The Religious Crisis in France

By Count Albert de Mun.

When, last year, the National Review did me the

honor to invite me to write an article on the subject

of the religious crisis which agitates France, I was,

to my great regret, unable to give an immediate

assent to its kind request. I now, after an interval

of several months, propose' to discharge the debt

which I then contracted
;
and though, perhaps, I

owe an apology to the Review and to its readers for

my long delay, I have, nevertheless, certain reasons
for congratulating myself on my procrastination.
The political situation in France is now, so far as

the religious struggle is concerned, far more sharply

defined than it then was. The march of events,

which could have been foreseen a year ago by any

one who was in a position to follow closely the

natural development of affairs enables me to-day to
substitute arguments based on actual facts for the

conjectures which I should then have had to make

in order to make myself intelligible to the English

public. After stating what those events are, I shall

attempt to demonstrate their logical connection, to

examine their cause from the point of view of his-

.torv and philosophy, and to discover what their

probable consequences will be. I shall hope thereby

to establish the fact that the struggle which is main-

tained in this country by the Catholics, with the

support of the truly liberal section of the intellectual



4 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

community, far transcends the bounds of a purely

political coniliot and deserves the sympathetic at-

tention of all foreigners who take an interest in the

future of Christianity.

I do not deceive myself as to the difficulties at-

tendant on the task which I have undertaken, for

I know how different are the mental attitude, the

manners and customs, and the intellectual habits of

England and France, which, though they have be-

come so familiar with each other owing to their

geographical position and the relations produced

by continual contact, are yet so widely sundered by

their character, their historical developments and

their social conceptions. I hope I shall not offend

the readers of the National Review by saying that

ignorance, more especially of the conditions in

which the religious life of the two nations develops

itself, is as great on one side of the Channel as on the

other
;
and that many Englishmen, even among

those who are animated bv the most sincere Chris-

tian spirit, and perhaps even Catholic Englishmen,

have failed to understand the character of the strug-

gles to which, in the last few years, that develop-

ment has given rise. That inability to accurately

appreciate the position is, in mv opinion, the out-
come not only of the erroneous view of certain facts

which is entertained by the Press, but springs from

a remoter and deeper source, namely, from insuffi-

cient study (which need not surprise us in the case

of Englishmen,, inasmuch as very many Frenchmen

are in the same boat) of that event, so great and

complex both as regards its causes and its effects

which, from the point of view of philosophy and

social science, dominates the whole of our history

:

I mean the Revolution of 1789. Ini the course of

this article I shall more than once have occasion to

insist on the fact of that domination, for in my view



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 5

it lies at the very root of the question under con-

sideration and alone can make clear the meaning of

what is happening and threatens to happen in the

religious world of France. For the sake of clear-

ness, I must begin with a statement of the facts

which have given rise to such a commotion in our

midst.

I.

It is in this connection that the delay of which I

have unintentionally been guilty has been actually

advantageous; the facts can- now be more clearly

stated. Last year, at the time when this Review

asked for my assistance:, two particularly striking
events had attracted its attention and that of the

English public in general. One was the recent

passing of an Act dealing with associations which

had been introduced and championed in both

Chambers by M. Waldeck-Rousseau, the President

of the Council, whereby the religious Congregations

were removed from the operation of the general law,

and were subjected to special treatment; the other

was the outburst of an excessively lively spirit of

resistance, provoked by an abusive interpretation

of that Act, and which, more especially in the Bre-

ton Departments, where religious faith is still an

extremely active force, went so far as to give rise

to violent conflicts with the authorities and with the

armed forces which were summoned to assist them.

I will examine each of these events in turn,, and

then will proceed to show how far more serious for
the Catholics the situation has now become.

The mere fact that a law dealing with asso-

ciations was a necessity in France suffices to prove

the existence of a state of affairs which is peculiar

to my country, and is calculated to surprise many
' of those who, like the English, are accustomed to



6 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

the various features of corporate life. At the very

outset the influence of the French Revolution shows

itself. Its chief social characteristic manifested

itself in the establishment of the principle of indi-

vidualism^ and by the violent destruction of all

organized bodies of spontaneous growth ; and the

religious associations, which are nowadays desig-

nated by the name of “Congregations,” had less

chance than any of escaping the results of that

sweeping measure, for the reason that in the minds

of the first members of the Constituent Assembly

the feelings awakened by the philosophical doc-

trines of the eighteenth century allied themselves

to the general mad passion for universal leveling.

All associations were abolished by the Revolu-

tion, and a few years later, when the reorganization

of the new France was effected, the penal code gave

the final sanction to the individualistic regime by a

clause which prohibited all meetings of moire than

twenty persons. Corporate life, which for centuries

had been as powerful and1 as productive in France

as in the neighboring countries, was thus destroyed
;

and therewith disappeared the Province with its

distinctive characteristics, the Commune with its

franchises, and the trade guild with its special

organization. Thoise institutions were forms of

corporate existence in its political aspect, just as the

monastic association was its religious manifestation.

I say that it was destroyed, but I ought to say that

it was left in a state of suspended animation, for it is

not in the power of man to abolish for ever the

effects of a natural right and of one of the inherent

needs of humanity. Events soon proved the truth

of this statement. The religious associations, for

the reason that they answer to the requirements of

certain characteristics of the Christian soul, in

which faith lights the mystic flame of a spirit of self-



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 7

sacrifice and devotion, were the first to reappear,

even before the revolutionary storm had completely

lulled
;
and soon, by degrees, as the work of recon-

stituting the social edifice proceeded, the necessity

of providing for the .requirements of the homeless

poor and for popular education, which had become

almost entirely disorganized, induced the newly

constituted authorities to seek their aid. To do so

was one of the earliest acts of the First Consul. It

is true that the laws which dissolved the associa-

tions were not formally abrogated
;
they merely be-

came a dead letter, purely by reason of the moral

and political circumstances of the age
;
and nowhere

is it better understood than in England, where so

many ancient statutes exist and nominally have the

force of law, but in reality have ceased to exert the

slightest influence, that desuetude may be tanta-

mount to abrogation.

But how did it come to pass that in, the new

society, the product of the Revolution, these moral

forces came SO' promptly to the assistance of the

religious associations? Under the old regime, in

which the Catholic Church and the Monarchy were

so closely allied, politics and religion were inti-

mately connected with each other. The King gave

effect to the laws of the Church in his character of

lay bishop, as the saying was, and monastic life, as

everything else, was under his control. The ecclesi-

astic, bound by his vows as regards both spiritual

and temporal matters, suffered from a form of dis-

franchisement which was almost equivalent to civil

death
;
consequently, he was not a citizen in the

sense in which others were citizens. The mighty

blast of liberty, which swept away those institutions

of a past age which had been undermined by long

existing abuses and by the influence of the new

doctrines, was bound to destroy the old concep-



8 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

lion of the religious life. The civil constitution of

the monastic orders collapsed at the same time as

all the other institutions of the old regime. In the

eyes of the new society the members of religious

bodies were simply citizens, subject, like others, to

the general law, and, consequently, endowed with

the rights and the liberties which belonged to all

other members of the community. It is perfectly

dear that one of those rights is the right to live with

others, and to pray with others, to accept certain

rules which merely bind the conscience without in-

volving any civil consequences. This implies the

right to worship and the right to teach, both of

which are directly derived from liberty of con-

science.

Such is the position of the religious orders in the

French society which sprang from the Revolution

in 1789 ; and I do not think that any Englishman

will find therein anything contrary to the interests

of the community. I will return to this point later

on when I come to1 examine the arguments with

which the enemies of the Religious Congregations

attempt to justify the proscriptive measures of

which those bodies have been made the victim.

But before I proceed further I must conclude the

brief historical retrospect which is absolutely essen-

tial to a clear comprehension of the subject. As I

.
have already remarked, the religious Congregations

were not the only victims of the individualistic dloc-

trines proclaimed bv the Constituent Assembly of

1789. At the same time, and under the influence

of the same ideas, the ancient structure of the pro-

vincial and communal organization, which had been

gradually undermined by the centralizing mo-

narchical government, began to make room for a

new administrative system, under which the State

exercised control over all the elements of national



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 9

activity. At the same time also the corporations of

artisans, the nature of which bad been only too

completely altered by the interfering action of the

royal power, lost their ancient influence by reason

of the introduction of a system of control conceived

solely in the interest of the Crown and were utterly

suppressed
;

the working classes being deprived

even of the liberty of meeting and taking steps to

protect their common interests, the legitimacy of

which thle State refused to recognize. This was so

entirely contrary to the ordinary natural rights of

humanity that, just as in the case oif the laws which

violated the liberty of conscience, it was inevitable

that the necessities of social life should ultimately

have their revenge. But whereas the spontaneous

energy of religious faith and the pressing demands

of charitable and educational needs soon sufficed

to resuscitate the religious associations, in the

economic world the revival came but slowly, for the

reason that it was hampered by the existence of an

unending state of war, by the resistance of succes-

sive governments in whom it produced an uneasy
feeling, and hy the opposition of the industrial

magnates whose interests it threatened. The re-

vival came, nevertheless, and proceeded to develop

am ever-increasing vigor as the struggles to which

the organization of labor gave rise rendered such

development necessary. I shall not dwell upon the

history of these social movements!, with which Eng-

land has been made familiar by the rise of trade

unions
;
to do so would be to go beyond the bounds

of my present subject. All that it is necessary to
establish is the fact that, by virtue of the inherent

strength of the natural rights of mankind, the, free-

dom of economic association again became a

recognized institution and vindicated its rights be -

fore the legislature. It was for the first time tenta-



IO THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

lively recognized by a law passed in 1864, and

received its definite legal sanction in 1884. All other

civil associations were for a long time forbidden;

and it was only in 1901 that the general freedom of

.association was partially established and recognized

by law. I say partially, for we touch the kernel of

the question, and the law, which might have been a

charter of liberties for all citizens without distinc-

tion, was in reality a proscriptive enactment directed

against a whole section of the community
;
so' much

so that it can far more fairly be described as a law

directed against the Congregations than as a law

dealing with the right of association. What was

the reason, and how did it come about, that the

recognized right of all citizens was refused to the

religious orders? It will be my task to try to supply
the answer to this question.

II.

For the sake of clearness, I must begin by ex-

plaining to my readers the legal position occupied
by the Congregation three years ago when the new

law was introduced. The Legislative Assemblies at

the time of the Revolution, carried away by their

hatred of Catholicism, which was made manifest at

the very outset of their labors and consequently led

to the commission of so many excesses, did not

limit themselves to thle abolition, as a natural result

of the new principles, of the civil consequences of

the vows pronounced by the religious orders. They

first suppressed the monastic orders and then abol-

ished all Congregations, not even excepting those

the members of which were not bound by any per-

petual vow and did not belong to the ecclesiastical

profession. It is unnecessary for me to recall the

sanguinary persecutions which accompanied these

proscriptive edicts; the recollection of them is fresh



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. II

in tihe memory of all, and England, w'ho gave gen-

erous hospitality to so many poor fugitive priests,
will certainly not have forgotten them. But in spite

of it all, the imperious call of the Faith, and the

irresistible attraction possessed by the most sacred

rights, soon brought about the resuscitation of

some of the proscribed Congregations, and that,

too, in the very center of persecution. I have

pointed out how, as soon as the social reorganiza-

tion of the country took place under the guidance of

Bonaparte, the sovereign authority hastened to have

recourse to their assistance in order to provide for

the care of the sick and for the education of thle

children of the poor. Both these influences gained

in intensity under the various forms of government

which followed during the course of the nineteenth

century, with the result that, as the needs of modern

society made unceasing demands for fresh forms of

self-sacrificing devotion, the Congregations, both

male and female, continued to multiply. In some

cases they attached themselves to institutions which

existed under the old regime; in others they formed

entirely new bodies
;
but in every case they conse-

crated themselves to devotional exercises, to alms-

giving, to charity, to education, and to the work of

healing; a large number devoting their zealous

activities to distant mission-fields in the French

colonies and in those of other countries where their

services were readily and gratefully accepted.

Nothing is more creditable to humanity, nothing

proves more clearly the vital energy of religious

faith, than that fruitful harvest of admirable work

which was reaped on a soil which so recently had

been devastated by such a frightful storm. It has

often been pretended in the French Chambers and

in the Press that these manifestations of energy

were enabled to take place only in consequence of a



12 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

mistaken spirit of toleration, inasmuch as the Con-

cordat, which was signed in 1801 by Pope Pius VII

and the First Consul, forbade the reconstitution of

the Congregations which had been dissolved by the

Revolution, by the very fact that it did not ex-

pressly contemplate such reconstruction. But that

is a gross error and a deliberate misreading of the

documents. As a matter of fact, the first article of

the Concordat of 1801 specifically states that “the

Catholic religion shall be freely exercised in

France.” Now the liberty of the Catholic Church
is complete and whole only if it can, free and un-

trammeled, fulfill its mission in its entirety, and if

it is, as a necessary consequence, supplied with all

the organs which are required in order to be able to

do its work. Any other conception of liberty would

amount to a complete negation of its existence
;
for

the fundamental condition, of liberty is freedom to

make use of that liberty. If it is the fact that the

existence of the religious orders is not an essential

feature of Christianity, it is, at all events as far as

the Catholic Church is concerned, a natural product

of its teachings and a necessary factor in its organ-

ization : and tnis was so ever since the earliest cen-

turies of the Christian era. I hope I shall have no

great difficulty in making even my Protestant read-
ers understand the object and the legitimate nature

of those orders when I try to reply to the accusa-

tions leveled against them by their enemies in

France. Looking at the question solely from the

point of view of liberty, I say that the Catholic

Church is obviously a better judge than its adver-

saries as to what factors constitute the sum total of

its essential properties. The celebrated Portalis

expressed this fact very neatly in the speech which

he made in the Legislative Assembly when he pre-

sented the new Concordat in the name of the First



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 13

Consul. “When a new religion is sanctioned or an

old one is maintained, the control which is exercised

over it must be in accordance with the principles of

that religion. The wish that is manifested and the

power which it is desired to claim to arbitrarily im-

prove religious ideas and institutions constitute a

pretension which is contrary to the very nature of

things.”

Those words have an honest ring which proves

that they were spoken in good faith. At the very

moment when the discussion of the question of the

Congregations was begun in Frainice, Pope Leo

XIII affirmed in an important document not only

his affection for those institutions, but also the

reasons, founded on principles and on facts, which

both justify their existence and make it an essential

condition oif the free exercise of the Catholic re-

ligion. After that I think the question ought to be

regarded as settled. Let me add that England

—

and it redounds greatly to the honor of that home

of liberty—never dreamed of curtailing the privi-

leges of the Catholic Church by means of restrictive

laws affecting religious associations, since the day

when religious quarrels were finally dropped and

the Catholic Church was emancipated from the

heavy fetters with which the old laws had bound

her. This is the first and most important observa-

tion evoked by pretensions based on the silence of

the Concordat of 1801 which is used as a weapon

against the religious orders.

There is another argument in favor of those or-

ders, deducible from the terms of the documents

containing the negotiations which preceded the

signing of the Concordat. Those documents have

formed the subject matter of a most instructive pub-

lication by Count Boulay de la Meurthe. Now it
is no doubt true and only natural that the Holy See



14 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN' FRANCE.

wished that express mention of the re-establishment

of the religious orders should be made in the Con-

cordat, and it is equally true that the First Consul

refused his consent
;
but the terms in which that

refusal was couched indicate its true meaning. At

the last conference of the plenipotentiaries it was

expressly declared that the re-eistablishment of the

religious orders should do no more than form the

subject matter of an encyclical, should the Sovereign

Pontiff deem it advisable to issue one. It follows,

therefore, that the desire of the head of the French

Government was to establish the principle that

henceforward the Congregations were to be looked

upon as purely religious institutions, deriving their

existence from the authorization of the Holy See,

and receiving no civil sanction at the hands of the

general law. As a matter of fact, if one wished to

insist on thie letter as well as o!n the spirit of our

Concordat, one could logically deduce therefrom

the complete liberty of the Congregations, rather

than the necessity of an administrative authoriza-

tion which iis fair less in conformity with the princi-

ples of modern society than with the spirit of the

royal ordinances of the old regime.

Further, if the Concordat bears the meaning

which some assign to it, how was it that the Gov-

ernment of the First Consul, as well as all succeed-

ing Governments, immediately recognized the

existence of such a large number of Congregations?

Yet that was what happened
;
several male orders

and a very large number of female institutions re-

ceived prompt recognition. This fact leads me on
to define and explain the position occupied by the

Congregations in the last century in the eye of the

law. Such an explanation is very necessary, as one

of the chief complaints made against the majority

of those institutions was that they were in a state of



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 1

5

rebellion against the law. I have re'ason to fear

that this calumny, which has been frequently re-

peated in the French Press, and which has led and

still continues to lead so many of my countrymen
astray, has been propagated in neighboring coun-

tries also, and has deceived
1 men of good faith as to

the true position of affairs. After 1789, though the

old regime was abolished in principle and in fact,

succeeding Governments, as was natural in the

case of a country where traditioms of extreme

antiquity possessed a powerful influence, continued

to be imbued to a very great extent with the spirit,

the methods and the mental attitude, if I may use

the term, of the ancient monarchy, more especially

with respect to all that concerned the exercise of

the royal prerogative. It is a remarkable thing—or
appears to be so at first sight, if one forgets the ex-

tent to which people are unconsciously influenced

by the form of the intellectual inheritance be-

queathed by their predecessors—that the French
Republic, though it was founded more than thirty

years ago and was the product of a reaction against

former monarchical forms of government in general

and the Napoleonic tradition in particular, should,

nevertheless, have continued to be thoroughly im-

bued with those very forms. Throughout the pres-

ent religious crisis it has been clear, as I shall prove

hereafter, that the fundamental idea which animates

our adversaries, as well as their ultimate aim, was,

so to speak, inherited from the legislators of the

revolutionary period, just as the doctrines which

they invoke, and the conceptions of government to

which they give their allegiance, closely resemble

those entertained by Napoleon, and are, in conse-

quence, in spite of appearances, practically identical

with the principles of absolute monarchy. The

Jacobins of the First Republic are responsible for



16 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

this confusion of ideas in that, under the influence of

the teachings of J.J. Rousseau, they transferred to a

collective body, toi the people, the attributes, moral

and intellectual as well as political, of supreme

sovereignty. The mental attitude of the parliamen-

tary majorities of the Third Republic is the same

as that of the Jacobins. Napoleon wished to be the

embodiment of both the old and the new order, and

all the institutions with which he endowed France

bear the mark of that besetting aspiration. The

monarchical Government which succeeded him

wrought no change in the social organization which

his powerful hand hiad fashioned. When Louis
XVIII was called to the throne. Napoleon re-

marked, “My bed is a good one; he has only got to
change the sheets and lie down"’

;
and this observa-

tion was equally applicable to the Restoration, to

the subsequent Government of July, and to all suc-

ceeding Governments down to and including the

present one. From the administrative point of view

we are still in Napoleon's bed. Mr. J. E. C. Bodley

has made the same remark in his excellent book on

France, which has had many readers in England,

viz., that no matter what the form of government

may be, republican or monarchical, autocratic or

parliamentary, the civic life of the nation is always

regulated by the lasting and forceful mechanism of

the Napoleonic machine.

In spite, however of this fidelity to tradition, the

great social transformation accomplished in 1789

has lost none of its effects. Though the wielders of

supreme power still maintain the pretensions and

the theories pertaining to the monarchical Govern-

ment of the old regime, the manners and customs

and the conceptions which are the product of the

Revolution: tend more and moire to develop the

feeling for liberty and the need for it. This twofold



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 17

influence, which manifests itself in every depart-

ment of public national life, produced from the very

inception of the new society an exceptional state of

affairs as regards the position of the religious Con-

gregations. They preserved the character, imposed

upon them by the Revolution, of associations of

ordinary citizens whose private obligations are

ignored by the civil Government
;
but in the eye of

the law they could have no collective existence save

by virtue of the authorization of the supreme power.

Such associations as were recognized by the Gov-

ernment became legally existent entities; in their

collective capacity they were enabled to acquire, to

possess, and to alienate property, and to receive

donations and legacies. Those that were not in-

vested with that authorization remained mere

associations of citizens, whoise collective members

constituted, as far as the rights of ownership were

concerned, limited companies, for the regulation of

which the law provides. Many merely rented the

houses, whether schools or hospitals, which pro-

vided the field for their activity, from societies

composed exclusively of lay members. These “un-

authorized” Congregations were, as a matter of fact,

just as lawful as those from which they were thus

nominally distinguished. The sole difference was

that the latter had a personal civil existence in the

eye of the law with all its consequent advantages

and liabilities, while the former neither enjoyed

those advantages nor were subject to- those liabili-

ties. This state of affairs was sanctioned by all

forms of government at all periods, and in the

absence of any law defining and regulating the

liberty of association, its existence w!as looked upon

as the actual justification for the reappearance of

the Congregations and their development in the

light of day during the whole course of the century.



18 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

Short of actual abrogation, no clearer proof of the

fact that the revolutionary laws had fallen into

desuetude could be found. Consequently, in spite

of any misapprehension to which a deceptive mis-

description may give rise, no possible justification

can exist for considering the soi-called unauthorized

Congregations as being in a, state of revolt against

the laws of the country
;
and the truth of this state-

ment is proved by the, fact that under every form

of government the various State departments made

formal arrangements with them:—at one time with
reference to* the colonies, at another in connection

with charitable undertakings and prison adminis-

tration. Thus the first accusation leveled against

the Congregations falls to the ground.

There is another accusation which has been

spread broadcast by the Press, and which I will at

once clear out of the way. An attempt has been
made to persuade the people that the associations

do not pay taxes like the rest of the community.

This allegation cannot be maintained, and any

one who is ini the least degree acquainted with

French legislation is aware that it is mere calumny.

The authorized Congregations, in the same way as

other civil communities, pay the so-called “mort-

main tax,” to which the property of all analogous

associations is subject, and which has the effect of

preventing the accumulation of property in the

hands of persons wholse corporate existence never

ceases and whose possessions consequently never

become liable to the payment of succession duty.

The unauthorized Congregations paid all the direct

taxes payable by private citizens and, in addition

thereto, a special tax to which they were subjected

about twenty years ago' in their character of relig-

ious- associations. It is unnecessary to go further

into the details of this fiscal question
;
these few



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 19

words have sufficed to prove thiat the members of

the Congregation were neither privileged persons

from the point of view of taxation, nor rebels against

the general law.

But I should not have exhausted this aspect of

the question if I omitted to say a word on the sub-

ject of the wealth of the Congregations
;
for that

was one of the chief instruments employed in the

attempt to arouse popular paissionis which are al-

ways easily awakened in a democratic society by

argument's based on the antagonism of poverty and

riches. M. Waldeck-Rousseau, President of the

Council of Ministers, gave vent in a public speech,

the echo of which, reached far and wide, to the asser-

tion that the value of the. real property belonging

to the Congregations amounted to a milliard of

francs, and drew the conclusion!, which afterwards

served as the theme of the miost violent attacks on

the religious) orders, that the immensity of that

property, which he styled “the Congregational

mortmain,” constituted a serious economic danger

to the nation!. No aiccusatioln could be fraught with

greater danger .to its object or to the cause of the

Catholic Church which is confounded with that of

the Congregations
;
and none, by reason of its

falgity and its perfidiousnieisis, could be more un-

worthy of the head' of a Government.

There is a great deal of so-called “mortmain” real

property in France, i. e. property belonging to a

body with a continuous existence ; the departments,

the communes, and the hbspitals, for example, hold

a very considerable amount, far more considerable,

in fact, than that possessed by the Congregations.

This is proved by the simple fact, which is estab-

lished by official statistics, that the real property

belonging to the Communes alouie represents an

area of 4,510*000 hectares ; whereas that of all types



20 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

of Congregations taken together hardly extends to

48,000! As for the figures of a milliard1
,
the Gov-

ernment tried to prove the correctness of the esti-

mate by means of a Government inquiry, which was

conducted, I may mention, in such a way that it was

absolutely impossible to verify its conclusions. In

any case, judging from such figures as the Com-

mission produced, it is impossible, with good faith,

to arrive at a total of more than 435,000,000 francs

as representing the value of the real property owned

by the Congregations
;
and, as a matter of fact, that

is the figure adopted by those responsible for the

Budget. So much for the only too notorious “mil-

liard of the Congregations.” But apart from the

question of figures, how is it possible at the present

day, and in the present state of the world in gen-

eral, to maintain that collective ownership consti-

tutes a public danger? The great feature of the

economic development of the nineteenth century

was the creation of collective enterprises. Every

kind of industrial and commercial undertaking

tends to take that form
;
every kind of social chari-

table, and philanthropic activity tends more and

more to have recourse to the establishment of

permanent societies. How is it possible for the
principle of association, which has been encouraged

everywhere to such an extent by the public authori-

ties in particular and by the manners and customs

of modern humanity in general, to constitute a

public danger, mbre especially in the case of chari-

table institutions or religious schools, for the estab-

lishment of which the greater part of the real

property owned by the Congregations was intended

to be utilized? M. Leon Say, whose name has been

rendered famous in England as well as elsewhere

by his numerous works on economic and financial

subjects, and who occupied one of the most im-



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN TRANCE. 21

portant ministerial offices in the Republic, wrote

ten years ago, “Possibly the clerical ‘mortmain’ will

hereafter become ai trifling matter in comparison

with that of lay soicietiels,” All careful minds ap-

preciate the truth of this remark. The reaction

against the individualistic doctrines of the eight-

eenth century is universal
;
the principles of associa-

tion, of organized co-operation and collective

enterprise invades, in every country, the fields in

which the most varied types of national activity are

exercised. Workmen’s associations, more particu-

larly, daily increase in number, in strength, and in

influence
;
and by degrees, as and when their right

to acquire property is more freely recognized, as

must inevitably be the case, the “mortmain” of the

working classes will attain more considerable pro-

portions and will exercise an influence of incalcu-

lable magnitude on the economic delstiny of nations.

How, then, can it be pretended in good faith that

the existence of real property to the value of a few

hundred million frames in the hand of a few thou-

sand' monks or humble nuns is becoiming a public

danger?

It would be difficult to abuse the public credulity

in a more cruel manner, and the bait was rendered

all the more alluring and deceptive by the fact that

the people were induced to hope that the proposed

confiscation and sale of the possessions which were

denounced and thus made thie object of popular

cupidity would be utilized to the common profit

—

for that was M. Waldeck-Roulsseiau’s view—for the
establishment of a pension fund for the benefit of

the working classes. The very fact that nearly all

the real property belonging to the Congregations

was not a revenue-producing character, but com-

prised establishments arranged with a view to

special objects, such as the education of children or



22 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN* FRANCE.

the care of the sick, and consisted of colleges, hos-

pitals and orphan asylums, made it perfectly obvious

that it was of comparatively little value for selling

purposes, and that it would be extremely difficult

to find a purchaser. Such, however, were the

sophistries and such were the calumnies oini which

the entire campaign against the Congregations was

based.

III.

In order to maintain the campaign in Parliament

and to convince the thinking public of its justice,

other and more seirious considerations had to be

discovered. I will make a brief reference to them
;

but before doing so I must say a word as to the

circumstances which gave rise to the attacks di-

rected against the religious orders, and which

seemed to explain thle passing of the proscriptive

laws of which they were the object. I believe that

those particular circumstances produced, thanks to

the intense activity of the Press, an exceptionally

strong impression on the minds of foreigners in

general and of Englishmen in particular. I speak

of the unfortunate Dreyfus affair, which so pro-

foundly stirred the passions oif mankind 1 and was,

in France, the cause of such lamentable estrange-

ments.

When at the close of 1899 M. Waldeck-Rousseau
introduced the Bill which nominally dealt with

associations in general but which was in reality

particularly directed against the Congregations, he

justified it not only by presenting the clerical “mort-

main,” of which I have spoken, in the light of an

economic danger, but also by pointing to the

national peril involved by the education of a section

of the youth of the nation in colleges directed by

members of the Congregations. It was of this argu-



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 23

merit that the Press, the orators and the writers

belonging to the Ministerial party made the most

persistent use. It was directed more especially

against the Jesuits, whose colleges and preparatory

schools were in a flourishing condition prior to the

passing of the new laws. A relatively large number
of officers came from those establishments and,

naturally, all of them were animated by Christian

sentiments, the fruit of their home education rather

than of the special character impressed upon them

by school influences.. The campaign initiated at the

end of 1897 in favor of Dreyfus attained in 1898 and

1899 its maximum of intensity, and wia's deliberately

—this was both obvious and instructive—mixed up
with and made part of the campaign against the

Congregationalist Colleges. It was affirmed and

reaffirmed, it was printed in all the newspapers of

Europe, that the Jesuits (a generic name under

under which all the Congregations were lumped

together) had their hand1 upon the French army,

and that the Dreyfus affair was the outwatd and

visible sign of their teaching.

This twofold accusation is familiar to my readers,
for it filled the columns of the English Press during

all those years of heated polemics. I have no inten-

tion of reviving old discussions or of touching on

the essential features of an affair the mention of

which is, in spite of the efforts of a few individuals,

intolerable to all Frenchmen, whether they be parti-

sans of the condemned man or convinced of his
guilt. I will keep my reply to that accusation
strictly within the limits imposed by the subject of

this article, and will use only facts for arguments

;

more especially as I have, since 1899, treated the

same question at greater length in two documents

with which a good many Englishmen are acquaint -

ed, viz., in a communication addressed to the editor



24 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN ERANCE.

of the Times
,
and in a letter written in answer to

one received from Lord Russell of Killowen, in

which he had taken the trouble to interrogate me

on this very subject. If the Dreyfus affair was in

fact, as some had pretended, the result of the prac-

tical application of the teachings of the Jesuits, their

pupils must have been responsible for all that was

done in 1894 and since that date, in connection with

the arraignment, the trial, and the conviction of the

accused man. If that is not proved, the whole ar-

gument falls to the ground. And how can it be

true? Not one of the generals or superior officers

who were mixed1 up in the case, neither the Generals

Mercier, Billot and Gonse, nor the Colonels du Paty

de Clam and Henry, nor yet Major Esterhazy, came

from Jesuit schools. General de Boisdeffre, who

spent two years of his childhood in one of those in-

stitutions, and completed his education in one of

the State Colleges, was the sole exception. Not one

single pupil of the Jesuits was on his staff, and

among the, roughly speaking, sixteen hundred

members of the General’s staff there were but nine

or ten such pupils. Among the members of the

court martial of 1894 there was nlot one, of tholse

who sat in 1899 there was only one wFo had been

educated by the Jesuits, and he Avals generally sup-

posed to have voted in favor of an acquittal. Of

the sixty witnesses six were ex-pupils of the Jesuits,

and three of them gave evidence in favor of the

accused. These are the facts.

Among all the ecclesiastics who have been the

object of calumny one has been more atrociously

maligned than the others, namely, the Rev. Father

P. du Lac, who-, after being more than twenty

years ago rector of the great preparatory school

of the Jesuits, w7as for ten years, during which# he

w^as the Director of the French School at Canter-



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 25

bury, known, esteemed and respected by many

Englishmen by no means the least important of

their nation, and for the last ten years had dedi-

cated himself exclusively to the work of preaching

and to labors among the working classes. I have

had the honor of his friendship for thirty years,

and entertain for him a feeling of the most respect-

ful affection, and all his numerous acquaint-

ances revere him highly as I do. But, in order

to crystallize and give a concrete form to their gen-

eralities, the enemies of the Jesuits required the

name of a definite individual as a peg on whicJrto

hang their accusations. The fact that his name was

well known, that he maintained relations with offi-

cers who had been his pupils, that he was in touch

with politician's engaged, like myself, in party war-

fare, and, above all, his friendship for General de

Boisdeffre, whom he had known in the dark
days of the war of 1870, marked him out for

martyrdom of a peculiarly cruel type. He

Was overwhelmed with insults, he was accused,

and the entire press repeated the tale of hav-

ing violated the secrecy of the confessional, by

denouncing to General de Pellieux one of his peni-

tents as being the “veiled lady” whose chimerical

personality created such a stir during the trial. I

was the comrade at the Ecole Militaire of General

de Pellieux, who died of grief occasioned by the

terrible trial to which he was subjected m the
course of that sad affair. I asked him if there was

any possible apparent justification for the accusa-

tion, and he told me, on his word of honor, that he

had never seen the Rev. Father P. du Lac or re-

ceived1 any communication from him, either directly

or indirectly. I published his cfeclaration, but it

was of no avail. I seized1 the present opportunity

of repeating it, in order to avenge that saintly



26 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

priest, who, being attacked in his ecclesiastical

capacity, and hi's honor as a father confessor being

impugned, had no weapon but silence wherewith

to confront his calumniator's. That is the whole

truth as to the share which the Jesuits took in the

Dreyfus affair. I leave it without comment to the

good faith and the impartiality of my readers.
It is easy to understand what a baleful effect such

a grievous calumny had on public opinion, and the

state of excitement into wdiich. five years ago, ali

minds were thrown by that painful discussion. 1

have lingered over it on account of the echo) which

those passionate slanders found, to my knowledge,
on the other side of the channel. As a matter of

fact, they were only one of the weapons which were

employed to render the inattentive masses more

susceptible to the influence of an accusation which

served to mask the general attack directed against

the Congregations- That accusation may be sum-

med up in a single phrase : “The religious orders

ferment the spirit of political hostility to the Gov-

ernment.”
1

In order to appreciate the full import of that ac-

cusation and the danger of it, one must knowr the

effect that such a phrase is capable of exercising in

a country like ours, in which the principle of cen-

tralization is carried to excess, which is accustomed

to bear the yoke imposed by governmental author-

ity, and is ignorant of the most elemental condi-

tions of true liberty. All the traditions bequeathed

by the Revolution revealed themselves the inlstant

the phrase is pronounced
1

. It sufficed a hundred

years ago to put men beyoind the pale of the

law, and to drive the most innocent of victims to

the scaffold. Though, nowadays, its effects are less

sanguinary, its baleful influence has in no sense

diminished. In the present case it had no justifies-



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 27

tion whatever. The religions orders take nO' active

organized part in politics If, *n fact, some of their

members are not devoted and convinced partisans

of the republic, the majority respect it as being the

established government, and all agree in asking

nothing from it except the right to exercise their

religion in peace.

If 1 were not afraid of abusing the patience of

my readers, it would be easy to prove the truth of
this assertion by adducing numerous facts in its

support. One solitary contemporary fact alone

may seem to contradict it. A religious congrega-
tion, that of the Assumptionists, bad founded a

popular journal, La Croix, which was very well

conducted which immediately obtained a great

success, and, as might be expected, vigorously

combated the anti-religious policy. It may be that

its activity was ill-timed; but it is hard to see how

the right of all citizens alike to make use of the

freedom of the press can be denied to a section of

them, merely because it happens to consist of eccle-

siastics. However, after the Dreyfus affair, the

political attitude of the Croix supplied one of the

favorite arguments used by the directors of the at-

tacks on the religious orders in justification of their

campaign. Thie insincerity of that argument has

now been proved by the fact that to-day it is not

merely the Jesuits and the Assumptionists who are

proscribed, but an indiscriminate attack is made on

all religious orders, whether male or female, even

on the humblest teaching friars, on the most vener-

able Sisters of Charity, and they, at all events, in

no way interfere in politics.

IV.

The doom of the religious orders was pronounced

for other reasons which lie far deeper and are more



28 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

important. What they are I will proceed to indi-
cate, now' that I have brushed aside the vain and

slanderous pretext by which it was attempted to

justify that condemnation.

The chief argument invoked against all religious

orders indiscriminately by M. Waldeck-Rousseau

and other enemies who* took their cue from him is,

I fancy, of a nature calculated to surprise many

Englishmen who are used to* seeing such absolute

respect paid to personal liberty. “By contracting

certain engagements which bind your conscience,

and by pronouncing the three vows of obedience,

of poverty and of chastity, you violate the civil law,

which forbids alienation of things which are not al-

lowed to be dealt with, and you transgress the prin-

ciples of modern society, even the general rules of

humanity. By the vowT of obedience you make your-

selves slaves; by the vow of chastity you cease to

be useful members of society; by the former you

surrender your personality, and by the latter you

break the moral law.”

It is hard to imagine a more outrageous sophism.

What? If men or women influenced by the attrac-

tive force possessed by the conception of self-sacri-

fice and self-devotion, by the need of fulfilling the

fundamental law of Christianity by an act of self-

abnegation, and moved by a generous religious feel-

ing, determine to renounce the pleasures, the

ambitions and the riches of this world, in order to

employ all the ardor of their soul in prayer or in

charity, but in either case in the service of God, and

God alone, and choose to carry their renunciation

so far as to include even the joys of family life, in

order to devote themselves entirely to the life which

they have embraced
;
and if, in order to* complete the

sacrifice, they voluntarily resign their will into the

hands of superiors, to whom they give themselves



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 29

up as to the representative of the Divine Master,

is it to be said that those men and women have

been guilty of an immoral act, and are thencefor-

ward to be looked upon as unworthy members of

society and as dieserving of expulsion therefrom

:

Can those be called slaves who, by the very act of

sacrificing their liberty, have made the most deci-

sive use of that liberty? -

I believe that all Protestant souls, however wide

the gulf which sunders them from the doctrines, the

feelings and the practices of the Catholic Church,

will be revolted by such an audacious proposition.

During my visits to England I had the opportunity
of coming too closely in contact with some such

souls not to know with what fervor and what sin-

cerity some of them aspire to. a perfect imitation of

Tesus Christ, and what an attractive influence the

counsels and rules of conduct which are found in

the New Testament have for them. Was it not that
very aspiration which, now sixty years ago, moved

the heart and the intelligence of Pusey when he ex-

pressed the wish that the Anglican Church also had

its Sisters of Charity, and when he stood by the

death-bed of his daughter Lucy and charged her to

“Pray, so soon as she should stand before the face

of the Redeemer, for thlo'se institutions of which she

herself had hoped to become a member?” Is it not

from the little seed planted at that period that the

numerous convents have sprung which have en-

riched the Established Church bv their existence?

In any case, without insisting any further on

what is necessarily a delicate subject when a Cath-

olic is discussing with persons of a different faith,

1 am convinced that respect for the liberty of con-
science and for personal liberty in their most sacred

aspects suffices to bring about the condemnation

of the theory which our lawyer-politicians have in-



30 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

vemted as a means of concealing behind the mask

of civil law an attempt to subject men’s souls to an

oppressive and tyrannical system. We have, in fact,
to deal with a vast conspiracy against liberty; and

the further I go the clearer the proof which, the

statement of the various phases of the situation, and

of the facts, affords. The truth will appear still

clearer when we examine the last of the accusations

directed against the Congregations by the authors

of the new law.

The Conregations have been accused of being in

a state of rebellion, but I have proved that, on the

contrary, their attitude could not possibly have

been more legitimate. They have been accused of

claiming to occupy a privileged place in the State

;

but I have proved that the position which they oc-

cupied in the modern social system was purely that

of associations of ordinary citizens, who fulfilled the

duties which are incumbent on all their fellows, and

at the same time claimed the rights to< which they

are strictly entitled. They have beeim accused of

violating the fundamental principles of society by

contracting vows which are contrary toi nature
;
but

I have shown that such an accusation is neither

more nor less than a downright outrage on the con-

science of religious humanity.

Reference must be made to another matter which

provided the real battle-ground on which the ene-

mies and defenders of the Catholic religion in

France come in conflict with each other, and where

the attack directed against liberty is more open and

defined than elsewhere. I mean the education ques

tion.

I have already touched on this point when en-

gaged in refuting the calumnies directed against the

Jesuits. The growing animosity of which the

Christian Colleges were the object, and the uneasy



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 3

1

feeling engendered in the minds of their adversa-

ries by their ever-increasing success, undoubtedly

played a considerable part in the campaign under-

taken against them at the time of the -Dreyfus

affair. It was the decisive reason which gave rise

to the new legislation inaugurated in 1901, applied

with tyrannical brutality ever since, and now finally

completed by the passing of laws which destroy the

last vestiges of Christian education.

What, as a matter of fact, was the nature of the

position occupied by that education in the eyes of

the law? Like everything else, it was the result of

the great transformation of 1789. In France, dur-

ing many centuries, education was under control of

the Church. This fact was due neither to an abuse

of power, nor to an encroachment on the rights of

the State, but was merely the natural result of the

natural Constitution. The monarchy had preserved

an almost ecclesiastical character : a relic of its orig-

inal features. The monarch, being himself occu-

pied in fighting in order to bring about the unity of

the kingdom, left the care of governing the souls

and cultivating the intelligence of his subjects to the

Church
;
and this was the history of public educa-

tion in France down to the fourteenth century. As

soon as the University, which was begotten of the

Church and organized by a combination of forces,

arose, it had recourse to the King in order to ob-

tain a guarantee for its privileges against the en-

croachment of rival schools. This was the second

phase of public education. The law-makers then

began to crystallize, so far as it affected the Church,

the idea of the sovereign State. The King, as su-

preme ruler, was the incarnation of that idea, but,

as the elect of God, continued to be the defender of

the Church, and consequently the protector of its

educational system. The struggles between the



32 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

University and the religious orders took place in

the bosom of the Church. When the reform came
and destroyed the unity of the Church and State,

the royal power attempted to maintain that unity

;

and it was no doctrine of State authority that it

tried to impose, for no such conception as yet ex-

isted, and it was always the educational rights of

of the Church that it insisted upon. But the doc-

trines of free thought swept away the ancient edi-

fice
;
the Revolution broke out

;
uniformity of belief

was destroyed
;
the Christian religion ceased to be a

national constituent principle, and the State, theo-

retically separated from the Church, no longer rec-

ognized her exclusive right to educational control.

The minds of men, as well as their consciences, were

freed from, the fetters which had bound them, and

from that day forth, educational freedom, accepted

in theory, became an absolute necessity.

It was in vain, as soon as the revolutionary period

of violence and chaotic upheaval came to an end,

that Napoleon, believing that he could establish

his empire over the souls of men by the force of

doctrines, founded the new University of France,

which still controls our public education, and was

destined, in has view, to instruct the entire youth

of France by virtue of the exclusive prerogative

conferred upon it. No sooner had Napoleon dis-
appeared than the special privilege was assailed

from all sides. Believers and unbelievers alike de-

manded liberty, which successive new forms of gov-

ernment, imbued, as I have shown, by the Napo-

leonic spirit, persisted in refusing
;
and the resultant

strife, with which the name of Count de Montalam-

bert, so illustrious and So well known in England,

is closely connected, occupied thirty years of our

history. Eventually, however, the principle of lib-

erty, foreshadowed by the Charter of 1830, intro-



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 33

duced into public education by M. Guizot in 1833,

and included in the terms of the constitution of

1848, became a recognized institution by virtue of

the law of 1850.

That law was the result of a compromise, credit-

able to all parties, which was arrived at between the

defenders of State education, on the one hand, and

the partisans of absolute freedom, on the other.

That law, which was eloquently upheld by M.

Thiers before the National Assembly, gave the final

sanction to the principle of liberty for all citizens

alike (subject, of course, to the control which the

State continued to exercise over educational pro-

grammes and examinations)
;
and the members of

religions orders, as citizens, were not excluded

from its operation, higher education, which is the

concern of the various faculties, and not of the col-

leges, alone continued to be the exclusive appanage

of the University. It was not emancipated until

1875, and then only to a very relative extent. Such,

in a very small compass, is the history of education

in Prance.
1

So soon as the Third Republic was established,

it began its reaction against the seemingly defini-

tive measure of progress that had been attained.

Its action was the result of a twofold influence
;
of

the anti-religious passions which animated it from

the very moment of its establishment, and of the

Napoleonic tradition, the persistent influence of

which I have already indicated. Twenty-five years

have now passed since that first attack was made

on the liberty of Christian education. Then, as now,

political circumstances provided the necessary op-

portunity and justification for the campaign. Im-

mediately after the election which resulted in the

defeat of the monarchial and religious parties, Mar-

shal MaeMahon, who had been their leader in the



34 the religious crisis m frakce.

fray, was compelled to resign the Presidency of the

Republic.

Intoxicated by success, the leaders of the Repub-

lican party, henceforth masters of the country,

wished to retaliate on their adversaries
;
and M.

Gambetta, in one celebrated phrase, provided the

new policy with a party cry which was destined to

resound far and wide : ‘‘Clericalism,, that is the

enemy!” His motion was to present his policy to

the country, mot as a policy of hostility to religion,

but merely as one of repression directed against the

electoral activity of the clergy. It certainly was an

ingenious cry, inasmuch as it apparently spared

the religious feelings of a large section of the popu-

lation, but the perfidiousness of it was bound to be

exposed before long. As a matter of fact, as events

have proved in the past, and now proved more

clearly than ever, in spite of the cloak of pretense

with which it is attempted to hide the truth, it is

really Catholicism which is attacked under the

name of Clericalism. During the whole course of

the campaign which was then initiated against the

religious congregations it was the principle of the

right to teach which came in for all the hard knocks.

M. Jules Ferry proposed to deprive all the so-called

“unauthorized congregations” of that right
;
and,

though his proposal—which was not only repudi-
ated by the Catholics but, owing to the influence

of M. Dufaure and M. Jules Simon, produced a

veritable upheaval of liberal feeling—was rejected
by the Senate, its painful effects were felt, and the

Government, as a substitute for actual legislation,

issued proscriptive edicts against the members of

the Congregations. These repressive measures

were initiated in 1880, and marked the beginning

of the religious crisis which was revived four years

ago, after a long period of calm.



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 35

In any case, M. Jules Ferry had great statesman-

like qualities, and when, on the death of Gambetta,

in 1883, he became leader of the Republican party,

he understood that no government of a country in

which religious belief still possesses such a powerful

influence could make shift with a policy of violent

repression. He undertook the task of making pos-
sible to some extent the co-existence of the right

to teach and of a powerfully organized system of

State education which was to be completely secular-

ized both as regards subjects and teachers, and

devoted all his energies to a realization of that

system. The party in power followed his lead, and

faithfully seconded his efforts. The execution of

the task which he had undertaken was the great

achievement of the Republic of that period.

While some of the new laws increased the

strength* the prestige and 1 the authority of the Uni-

versity in every possible manner, others decreed

and organized the absolute secularization of public

popular education
;
that is to say, of the educational

system to the maintenance of which the whole body

of taxpayers contributes. The primary schools be-

longing to the State, to which the ministers of re-

ligion had hitherto been given access, which in

many cases were confided to the care of instructors

who were members of the Congregations, and in

which religious instruction formed part of the cur-

riculum, were declared to be thdnceforth, in theory

at all events, entirely neutral
;
that is to say that,

though they were denuded of all sectarian charac-

teristics, though even the idea of their duties to-

wards God was no longer imparted to the pupils,

though the moral instruction given wais not allowed

to be based on any form of definite belief, at all

events assurances were given that no word should

ever be uttered in those schools which might shock



36 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

or alarm the faith of a child or his family.

To put the matter in a sentence, the education

proposed to the people by the State was denuded

of not only all sectarian admixture, but even of the

most elementary conception
;
assuredly an audacious

proposition, and one which was well calculated to

disturb and terrify all Christian consciences. We
must note, however, for it is essential to a clear

comprehension of what is taking place to-day, that

the laws which, form 1882 to 1886, gave effect to

that proposition, proclaimed the liberty of private

instruction, subject, however, to University control.

This was the system which, eighteen years ago,

was forced, after a series of memorable struggles,

upon the Catholics, whor after loyally fighting

against this imposition, courageously accepted the

accomplished fact. Christian schools, founded by

them at the price of considerable pecuniary sacri-

fices (rendered all the more meritorious by the fact

that the Catholics had at the same time to pay their

share of the tax which provided for the support of

the rival form of education), covered the country.

Never has a finer example of devotion been seen;

never was a more noble or generous use made of

liberty, which, though1 curtailed and supervised, yet

preserved its most essential features.

At the same time the tacit consent of successive

Ministers permitted the reconstitution of the pro-

scribed1 Congregations and the colleges which they

had founded continued, in the hands of lay propri-

etors, their educational work, with the assistance

of some of the members of those bodies. The few

Catholic universities, though limited to a curricu-

lum devoid of all possibility of expansion, owing to

the fact that the conduct of examinations and the

conferment of degrees was a State monopoly, suc-

ceeded in maintaining their various chairs. The



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 37

ever-increasing confidence which they inspired in

the middle classes, as well as in the aristocracy, in

Republican circles no less than in those which still

preserved the monarchical tradition, alnid the nu-

merical increase of the pupils of the primary

schools, bear striking witness to the existence of

that moral and intellectual meed to which, in the

eyes of a large section of the population, educational

liberty responds. The existence of that need was

all the m'ore self-evident, owing to the fact that the

futility of the effort which had been made, under

cover of the neutralization of the Government

schools, to reassure the Catholic conscience, be-

came every day more flagrantly conspicuous. In

spite of all philosophical efforts, of all pedagogic

formulas, of all pamphlets, manuals and lectures,

the impossibility of establishing for masters and

pupils alike a: clear and
1

practical basis of morality,

independent of all belief and all religious sanction,

became clear to- all. In the lecture room of the

various faculties the diversity of doctrine was un-

ceasingly on the increase
;
from the dregs of spirit-

ualism to the various hypotheses of evolution and

transmutation, everything had its turn; the so-called

State method of instruction was in course of utter

pulverization. In the colleges education was thrown

on its beam end by this confusion of ideas and bv

the futility of official methods. A gigantic parlia-
mentary inquiry, directed

1

with authoritative ability

and wide-minded impartiality by M. Ribot, the

most eloquent parliamentary orator of the Moderate

party, who was several times Minister, made clear

to all eyes, at the very moment of the inception of

the present crisis, the bankruptcy, so to speak, of

the State educational system.

In the primary schools the disease was of a still

more aggravated form, more deep-set, more bru-



38 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

tally defined. Only too often the teachers in the

public schools, being subject to political influences

of the most advanced type, violated every rule of

neutrality to an ever-increasing extent. Outrages

on the Catholic Faith, even on the very foundations

of religious belief, were innumerable
;
not moral in-

struction only, but lectures on history, on botany,

on zoology, provided at every turn the opportunity

for an attack. Under every possible circumstance

a declared hostility against every form of positive

religion manifested itself in the1 ranks of the official

teaching body. M. Ferdinand Buisson, one of the

most conspicuous contemporary politicians, who,

by virtue of his official position at the Ministry of

Public Instruction, was for many years the real or-

ganizer of the so-called “lav” educational system,

and who is to-day the ringleader of the enemies of

Congregational instruction, wrote, a few years ago,

in an important book entitled, “Religion, Morality

and Science; Their Conflict in the Field of Contem-

porary Education,” the following significant words :

“In all this story about God and the world which

Catholic dogma presents to us, there is not one sin-

gle word which does not provoke, I will not say

indignation, for in order to be indignant one would

have to believe, but a mute and melancholy denial.

. . . With its ideas about the necessity of re-

demption and of expiatory sacrifice the Christian

moral system presents nothing more or less than

a coarse ideal, against which our consciences revolt,

and which would throw us back two thousand years.

. . . The only possible result of all rational edu-

cation must be the evolution of the religion of the

past into the irreligion of the future.”

Is there a Christian worthy of the name, let alone

a Catholic, who is prepared to accept such a theory

as the basis of education, or who would conscien-



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 39

tiously accept the consequences which it must have

for his children,?

It is certainly not in England that an affirmative

answer could be given to such a question with any

prospect of receiving the support of public opinion.

This is clearly proved by the recent Education Bill,

which strongly maintains the principle of sectarian

education, but at the same time, while favoring the

Protestant churches, leaves the Roman Catholics
in complete enjoyment of their liberty, and has, in

consequence, merited and received their approba-

tion. If the French Catholics, in view of the direc-

tion which was given to public education, failed to

prevent the application of the new system to the

country at large, were they not bound to demand

complete liberty to give, in any case to their own

children, that type of education which is in conform-

ity with the tenets of their faith, and to provide

them with instructors of a nature to guarantee the

fulfillment of their desires ini this respect? Every

person of good faith, or who is in the least degree

animated by a spirit of equity, will unhesitatingly

recognize the fact that it was their right and their

duty so to act, and, ais I have shown, the legislators

of 1882 and 1886 proved that they understood, to

some extent at all events, the existence of that duty

by leaving the Catholics a small modicum of lib-

erty, which they proceeded to utilize with a natural

and legitimate alacrity.

After fifteen years of unquestioned exercise by

the Catholics of their comparative freedom, the

Radical and Socialistic section of the Republican

party, taking advantage of the circumstances which

had been brought about by the Dreyfus affair, and

reviving in a more violent form the movement

which had been initiated by Gambetta and Jules

Ferry, but which good sense and mature reflection



40 ME RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN . FRANCE.

had almost immediately toned down, suddenly im-

posed on the country a despotic and openly un-

Christian policy, the direction of which was as-

sumed, to his misfortune, by M. Waldeck-Rous-

seau. The law of 1901 was the expression of that

policy, the only apparent object of which Was to

oblige all religious associations to apply to the

Legislature for authorization, on pain of dissolu-

tion and of seeing their property seized and sold;

but in reality the spirit of the law went infinitely

further. One of the principal orators in the Social-

ist Party, M. Rene Yiviani, gave this to be: under-

stood in the most frankly audacious manner, when

he proved the impossibility of taking steps against

the Congregations without at the same time attack-

ing the Church, for the reason that they are to one

another “as the blood is to the flesh”
;
and he pro-

ceeded to repudiate the empty distinction drawn

between Clericalism and Catholicism, and to

give back to Gambetta’s formula its true and

original meaning by pointing to the Catholic

Church and saying, “That is the enemy.” His

speech was the dominating feature of the entire

'debate, and the fight entered on a new phase. It

passed above and beyond the Congregations, and

involved not only the Catholic Church, but the

Christian Faith itself, and therewith the very foun-

dations of spiritual liberty. When the debate ended
in the defeat of the Catholics and the Liberals, it

was evident that it marked the inception of a war

to the knife against Christianity and liberty. On

the last day of the discussion I addressed M. Wial-

deck-Rousseau from the tribune of the Chamber of

Deputies, and gave vent to my gloomy forebodings
in these words : “I wait to see what will happen

so soon as the law is put into execution. In order

to preserve your majority and to keep yourself in



TSE RELIGIOUS. CRISIS IN FRANCE. 4

1

power you will be compelled, now that you have

opened the floodgates, to let yourself be borne along

by the tide, no matter how far it may carry you

V.

We shall see how violent and impetuous was the
rush of that tide. The law of 1901 was passed in the

month of July. It allowed the Congregations three

months’ grace in which to make their submission

:

that is to say, t'o 1 ask for the necessary authorization.

The Jesuits and the Assumptionists, who had been

specially aimed at by the Government and the par-

liamentary majority, knowing that it was the delib-

erate intention to refuse that authorization, thought

it wiser and more dignified to dissolve of their own

motion, and condemned themselves either to volun-

tary exile or to a painful and cruel process oif dis-

persion. It was the same with the Benedictines,

to whom the idea of peacefully carrying on their
admirable and learned labors in a foreign land

seemed preferable to the continued maintenance of

a hopeless struggle-. Like them, too, numerous

female Congregations sacrificed themselves in si-

lence, and transferred their charitable activity to

distant fields. But the majority of the religious or-

ders, relying on the text of the law and on the sol-

emn promise that had been made them, petitioned

Parliament to authorize their continuance. This

was the case with 54 male and 80 female Congrega-

tions. Nothing could have been more correct than

their action, or have proved more clearly the spirit

of loyal obedience to the laws by which they were

animated. We shall see in a moment what sort of
reception it met with.

The normal dissolution of the Chamber of Depu-

ties took place in 1902, and the elections were held

in May. The struggle was a fierce one, and the



42 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

Government of M. Waldeck-Rousseau threw its

whole weight into the scale. French politics cannot

be properly understood if the preponderating influ-

ence which the authority of the Administration ex-

ercises on the course of the elections is not appre-

ciated. It is the natural result of excessive central-

ization, of the imperfect organization of the system

of universal suffrage, and of the immensity of the

number of officials who are of necessity subject to

Ministerial influence. The election of 1902 proves

to be more characteristic in this respect than any

of its predecessors, and in the whole electorate the

Government obtained a majority of, roughly speak-

ing, no more than 200,000 votes, which is practi-

cally the figure represented by the body of Govern-

ment officials. It is none the less a victory, the

credit and the spoils of which the Socialists claimed

for themselves, with the assurance which always en-

ables the violent members of society to force the

acceptance of their views on more moderate indi-

viduals. It must, however, be observed that the

design which the Socialists alone openly avowed of

destroying Christian education root and branch,

and of openly making war on the Catholic Church,

v'as carefully concealed front the electors by the majority

of candidates, who subsequently, as Deputies, were

compelled to give their docile adherence to the

plan, though possibly it was repugnant to their feel-

ings to do so.

M. Waldeck-Rousseau, having received the ap-

proval of the electors in 1892, and having paved the

way for the inevitable development of his policy,

voluntarily surrendered his place of power, and M.

Combes, the present President of the Council, suc-

ceeded him at the head of a Ministry which repre-

sents the socialistic and, more especially, the anti-

religious tendencies of the new Chamber; hence



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 43

the programme of the new Cabinet is directed solely

to the satisfaction of these latter. The application,

if that is the right term, of the new law was prompt-

ly proceeded with. It was precisely the: incidents

to which that application gave rise during the sum-

mer of 1902, especially in Brittany which attracted

the attention of the National Review and induced it

to inquire into* the matter. I will not recite those

incidents in detail, but, avoiding all passion, and

repressing all personal feelings, will limit myself to

the indication of their characteristics and their con-

sequences.

I must remind my readers of the fact that the law
of 1901 was in no' sense aimed at the so-called

“authorized” Congregations—om the contrary, its
object was to bring all other associations into line

with those bodies—and that it in no wise interfered,
as was expressly stated from the tribune of the

Chamber, with existing legislation which estab-

lished the principle of educational liberty as regards

private instruction. Nevertheless, the authorized

female Congregations and the free schools, which

were supposed to be protected by law were its first

victims. By the issue of arbitrary and unexpected

decrees four thousand such schools established in

houses which, for the most part, belonged to lay

proprietors either in their individual capacity or as

members of associations, were closed, in spite of the

protestations, the appeals of the law courts, and the

resistance of a population roused to fury by such a

brutal outrage on its liberty. In order to overcome

that resistance it was necessary to have recourse to

armed force to break open the doors of the con-

demned schools and to forcibly expel the humble

nuns who*, in many cases, had taught there for half

a century. Such, and such alone, was the origin of

the scenes which were witnessed In Brittany.



44 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

The English, who are said to cherish the princi-

ple that though the wind and the storm may enter

the house of a citizen uninvited, the King himself

cannot do so, will no doubt be surprised by such a

strange violation of domiciliary, educational and

proprietary rights in the absence of all statutory

justification or legal decision to support it. In order

to avoid scandal and to spare the nuns the pain

consequent on violent expulsion, many Congrega-

tions preferred to yield to the inevitable and volun-

tarily to quit their schools. It was thus that a very

large number of these evictions, of which there were

more than eight thousand in all, were apparently

enabled to be effected under relatively peaceful con-

ditions.

The emotion produced by these events was at its

height when the moment arrived to bring before

Parliament the applications for authorization which

had been formulated by the Congregations. Instead

of those applications being submitted to the whole

body of Parliament, as the law and the Constitution

required, they were brought by a trick of adminis-

trative procedure, before the Chamber of Deputies

only. It was proposed, instead of making a sepa-

rate examination of each petition, to reject them all

en bloc, and as a matter of fact, in spite of the

energetic resistance offered by the Catholic and

Liberal minority, the fifty-four male and eighty

female Congregations were, after a few days’ sum-

mary discussion, condemned and dissolved ! Their

members were obliged to leave the educational

establishments, colleges or_ popular schools, two

thousand in number, in which, untouched by the

law, they had taught for so many years; and the

very houses in which those schools had been car-

ried on were marked out for attack and made the

subject of a huge system of compulsory judicial



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 45

liquidation directed against the lay associations

whose property they are.

Then began the lamentable exodus of those

thousands of monks and nuns who were compelled

to leave their homes and to give up not only their

collective spiritual life, but also. the profession which

provided them with the means of subsistence 1
;
who,

in order to be able—though their functions were
curtailed and their action was hindered in every

possible way—to continue their activity were
obliged either to strip themselves oif their character

as members of a religious order and even of their

distinctive dress, or to seek in exile a refuge for

their lacerated feelings and hearts torn in two by

an ardent love foir theiir native soil and by an in-

vincible attachment to the vows with which their

conscience had bound them.

One single male Congregation, whose occupation

was the instruction of poor children, escaped the

effects of that terrible storm. It is a famous society,

and one which is known all over the world. It has

existed ever since the seventeenth century. It was

the founder of all the .systems of popular instruction

which are used at this day in the public schools and

created establishments in which the youthful mem-

bers of the lower orders can educate themselves for

a commercial or an industrial career. Its two thou-

sand schools, which are attended by more than

350,000 pupils, are scattered over the whole of

France and her colonies. The decree by which

Napoleon created the University recognized the

existence of those schools and admitted them as

educational factors to participation in the great

complex life of the Commonwelalth. Its founder

was a great man, at once humble and illustrious,

Jean Baptiste de la Salle, whom the Catholic Church
includes in the number of her siaints. I refer to the



46 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

institute of the “Freres d'es Eicoles Chretiennes”

(Brothers of the Christian Schools).

Besides this male Congregation, four hundred

female Congregations, duly authorized according to

law, had also been preserved. Among the number
were those admirable “Sisters of St. Vincent de

Paul,” of whom one may say that the whole world
has learned to revere them, and to look with admira-

tion on the distinctive dress and white hood which

is so often seen by the bedside of the sick and the

wounded, the poor and the young. They in their

turn have been brought before the tribunal of Par-

liament : the consideration oif their case is being

begun at the very moment when I write these pages,

and before they have been published a ooimdemnia-

tory verdict, arrived at in advance, will have been

pronounced. The two thousand schools which they

direct will be affected thereby, and the Sisters will

have to leave them. Those Congregations which

exist only for the educational purposes will be dis-

solved, and those which at the same time maintain

hospitals or alms houses will be tolerated only until

the time, which cannot be far distant, when the

State succeeds in obtaining the needed recruits with

more or less of the necessary professional qualifica-

tions and the Sisters can be turned away. It is an

event of incalculably far-reaching importance.

Christian education, reduced to dependence upon

lay instructors, hitherto numerically insufficient and

lacking the needful qualifications, has received a

terrible blow, destined to be rendered fatal by a last

act of violence which has already been announced,

viz., by the final abolition of the last vestige of a

form of liberty which has already practically ceased

to exist.

Such then is the present position of affairs. Tlu

results of a whole century of effort of self-sacrificice

/



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 47

and of devotion are crumbling away in the midst off

a kind of universal stupor. The effects are appar-

ent to every one in his native town or village, where

the house in which he himself and his father before

him were educated, and hiis children, were being

brought up, and which belonged to him, is sud-

denly shut up, cloised in the face of those who so

long inhabited it and threatened with unjustifiable

confiscation. Every one, either in his own house or

in that of his neighbors, sees humble women, rela-

tions or revered friends, bowed by the outrage of

which they have been the victims, conning to beg in

sorrow for a refuge which they can no longer find

in the convent from they have have been expelled.

Sixteen hundred thousand children, who had been

voluntarily confided to the care of Christian instruct-

ors in fifteen thousand schools, have now either to

be satisfied with such hastily improvised instruction

as chance may give them, or are condemned to

endure the torture of submitting to a form of educa-

tion which is deliberately hostile to the religious

belief oif their families. A thick and heavy veil of
mourning is cast over the whole of Christian

France. I prefer not to lift it any further.

VI.

Before I conclude, now that I have finished my

statement of the facts, I must throw a last glance

on the ideas which engendered them, and which in

all probability—for so fatal and so sweeping is their
influence'—will entail still graver consequences in a
country such as mine, where the logic of concep-

tions is so terribly powerful. Onie can already fore-

see that the reasoning process which provided the

pretended justification for denying the right to

teach to members of Congregations, on the ground

that had pronounced vows of obedience and of



48 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN' FRANCE.

chastity, will be applied in all its sophistical force to

all members of the Catholic clergy who submit to
their superiors and are vowed to celibacy; and as

a matter of fact a proposal to forbid them to teach

has already been laid before Parliament.

The Jacobinic notion goes much further still. It

propounds the theory that the mere fact of obedi-

ence to the Pope in all matters which concern

religious doctrine and discipline, subjects all ecclesi-

astics to a sort of diminutio capitis
,
which renders

them incompetent, in a country which is officially

withdrawn from the operation of any form of relig-

ious authority—where the human law declares itself
to be independent of the divine1—to exercise any
social function whatsoever, such, for example, as

the bringing up of the young. It obviously follows

that the same incapacity is attributable to all citi-

zens without distinction who profess the Catholic

faith, which involves, no less than in the case of the

priests and members of the religious orders, submis-

sion to the head of their Church in all matters which

concern the faith. Assuredly such a conception

seems monstrous, at the beginning of the twentieth

century, to all countries in which the modern princi-

ples of liberty of conscience and of worship are

recognized as constituting the very foundation of

the Commonwealth, and more especialy in a State

in which the vast majority of the citizens belong to

the Catholic faith. Nevertheless, it is in conformity

with the political traditions of the French Revolu-

tion, and it reappears to-day as the natural result

of a process of evolution backwards, in the minds

of those who strive to resuscitate those traditions.

One of the leaders of the Parliamentary majority,

a Senator who has long held, and still holds, a posi-

tion of considerable influence in the French Legis-

lature—M. Clemenceau—expounded, also in the



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 49

pages of the National Review, the theory which he

has often maintained.1 of the incompatibility of the

principles and the doctrines of the Romish Church

with the life and the development of contemporary

civil society. He tried to establish his theory on the
basis of historical considerationis arising from the

part played by the Papacy throughout the ages, and

of the effects which, in his eyes, the dogmatic defi-

nitions of the Roman pontiffs and of the Councils

are liable to have in the political world. The dis-

cussion of a thesis of such magnitude would extend

this article beyond all proper proportions, and I will

only remark that if it were well founded it would

be so in other countries just ais much as in France;

but from an examination ot the political situation in

the principal States of Europe that does not appear

to be the case.

Belgium, for example, offers the spectacle of a

nation which for more than twenty years has been

governed by Catholic Ministers supported by ma-

jorities animated by the same sentiments as their

leaders, and not only is it impossible to affirm that

liberty has suffered thereby, but, on the contrary,

it is an indisputable fact that the liberty of the

Press, of opinions, and of discussion, parliamentary

and otherwise, and (to speak more especially on the

subject in hand) the right to teach, are more unre-

stricted in that country than in many others; and in

no State are social legislation and active demo-

cratic organization more developed.

The German Empire, under the impulsion of

Prince Bismarck, engaged during the first years of

its existence in a memorable struggle with the

Catholic Church, not unlike that which was under-

taken in France by the Ministers of the Third

Republic. Not only did that struggle come to an

end when Prince Bismarck had to appeal to the



50 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

Catholics for their assistance against the Socialists,

but the aspect of the situation has entirely changed

since the accession of William II. A considerable
degree of liberty has been restored to the Catholic

Church, the Sovereign seeks for every possible

opportunity to manifest towards it his sentiments

of respect and of sympathy, and far from consider-

ing it as a force which is fraught with danger to the

Empire, treats its representatives and its adherents

as valuable allies.

May I not add that England also gives a striking
example to the civilized nations of what the spirit

of liberty can do for the satisfaction and the peace

of men’s consciences? I believe that since the time

when religious quarrels were extinguishd by Catho-

lic emancipation and the old cry of “No Popery’
1

ceased to resound, the country has had no reason

to complain of the part which has been played in

English society by the bishops and the clergy of the

Roman Catholic Church, and that neither their
loyalty nor that of their pupils has ever been doubt-

ed for a moment. Were it necessary to consider the

question from the point of view of their solicitude

for the interests of the people and of their capacity

to understand its needs, the great services rendered

by Cardinal Manning would at once force them-

selves upon our memory.

Facts, therefore, in a most eloquent and decisive

manner refute a theory which is based upon his-

torical reminiscences interpreted with passionate

impartiality, wholly inapplicable to the conditions

of contemporary society, and serving only to re-

suscitate the disputes of the past
;
or which is found-

ed upon doctrinal dissertations the meaning of

which has been insufficiently studied and wdrereiu

the most essential distinctions, to which the Church

itself has continually drawn attention, are entirely



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 5 1

neglected.

But, as I have proved by an historical statement

which appears to me to be far stronger than all the
theoretical discussions of my opponents, it is not
merely against the Catholic Church and its doc-

trines that the “lay" movement, as it is called in our

country, is directed, but against Christianity itself.

In vain do certain minds, by reason of the direction

imparted to them, in early years by their French

Protestant education, from the influence of which

they have, by the way, emancipated themselves,

attempt in this connection the maintenance of im-

possible distinctions, and strive thereby tot justify

their conceptions in the eyes of neighboring nations

in general and of England in particular. More than

a hundred years have passed since Burke, in his

“'Reflections on the French Revolution," in the

course of his demonstration of the fact that relig-

ious principles are far more necessary in the case

of a democratic than in that of a monarchical gov-

ernment, answered those very pretensions with

these words: “Violently condemning neither the

Greek nor the Armenian, no'r, since passions have

subsided, the Roman system of religion, we prefer

the Protestant; not because we think it has less of

the Christian, religion in it, but, because, in our

judgment, it has more. We are Protestants, not
from indifference, but from zeal." This reply might

be addressed to-day to those who seek the approba-

tion) of interested parties for their anti-Christian

campaign.

In reality the term “anti-Christian" is not strong

enough
;
for the attack is, in fact, directed against

the very idea of religion. An important member of
the present ministerial majority, who- intervened

with decisive effect in the Senate in connection with

the abrogation of the last guarantees of the scholas-



52 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

tic liberty, said two years ago : “The triumph of the

Galilean has lasted twenty centuries
;

it is now His

turn to die. The mysterious voice which once in

the mountains oif Epirus announced the death of

Pan, to-day announces the end of that false God

Who promised an era of justice and peace to those
who should believe in Him. The deception has

lasted long enough
;
the lying God, in His turn, dis-

appears/' The politician who spoke ini these terms,

M. Delpech, adds to the authority which his parlia-

mentary position gives him that conferred by the

lofty functions which he exercises in the realms of

Freemasonry. I doubt if the true meaning of this

fact is quite understood by my readers, who are
accustomed as far as I can judge, to look upon

Freemasonry as a charitable and harmless institu-

tion. France was the victim of that illusion at the

end of the eighteenth century, and has hlad only too

good reasons for curing herself of it. To-dJay all

aniti-Christian legislation, all hostile measures di-

rected against the Catholics are prepared and forced

on the country by a Masonic body, which has all

the force of a political caucus. It is at Masonic

assemblies more than elsewhere that all laws direct-

ed against educational liberty were, and still are,

elaborated, preparatory to their being dictated to

the Ministers and- submitted to Parliament.

Well informed writers have often noted traces of

the same inspiration in the history of the Revolu-

tion. Thus, from every point of view, the present

crisis brings before our eyes the tradition of that

decisive epoch, and at the same time makes manifest

the strange contradiction existing between the

principles of liberty in the realms of politics pro-

claimed in 1789 and the intellectual despotism in

the realm of philosophy inaugurated by the hatred

of Christianity, which dates from the same period.



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE. 53

The existence of that contradiction is freshly

THIRTEEN—Religious Crisis in France—Aprl 24
affirmed in our own day by the pretension which

the modern Jacobins tried to force down our

throats; by the attempt made, as in times past,

under cover of the catch words supplied by the

principle of the essential unity of the State, to estab-

lish a certain doctrine which is incompatible with

the very idea of liberty of conscience. M. Clemen-

ceau has tried, no doubt, to> save the principle of

liberty from the inevitable consequences of his anti-

Catholic theory, and to maintain that the former

could remain intact, and even be developed to the

highest degree, even after the latter had received its

definite consecration by the destruction of all Chris-

tian education. But none of his opponents and few

of his friends considered that he had succeeded, and

the latter clearly pointed, as the former had fore-

seen had been the case, to the supremacy of State

teaching and State education as the normal out-

come of the new legislation.

This essay should naturally terminate with an

attempt to forecast the ultimate issue of the relig-

ious crisis from which France is now suffering^ but

that would necessarily entail an examination of the

whole problem of the relation of Church and State,

of which the question of the Congregations and of

education is but one of the aspects
;
and my readers,

whose patience I have tried only too severely, will

doubtless understand that I cannot, at this stage,

begin the treatment of a new and so extensive de-

velopment of my subject. It will suffice if I state
my conviction that the idea of the separation of
Church and State—which is extolled by her adver-
saries as the necessary end of the struggle and is

constituting a new governmental formula—is, in
the present condition of our political institutions



54 THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE.

and of our religious habits, a dangerous chimera.

Here again the lessons of history provide an ample

proof. The outcome of the experiment which was
made, from 1795 to 1799, m the direction of such
separation, under the influence of the same ideas

and of the same violent passions, was a ferocious

persecution of the Catholic clergy and religion. The

result would be the same to-day. T01 the attempt

originated by the Revolution an end was put by

the signing of the Concordat, the determining cause

of which was, in- the mind of Bonaparte, the sponta-

neous revival of the Catholic faith after the bloody

period of the Terror. If the situation has altered in

our days, it has changed in the sense that the relig-

ious movement has, in spite of certain political phe-

nomena, become more intense and more deliberate

than it formerly was, no less in intellectual circles

than among the people.

While the governing classes, victims of an incom-

prehensible blindness, strive to< tear up the imper-

ishable tree of Christianity, it is putting forth

fresh roots, which are penetrating ever deeper

and deeper into the souls of men. Banished

from its place in the laws and institutions of our

country and in the ranks of officialdom, the Church

is daily winning an unexpected place in the life of

the nation as the result of the very fact that it has

been persecuted and of the natural spiritual needs

of mankind. Now more than ever it appears in the
light of a moral force, immense and indispensable,

whose influence no prudent government can possi-

bly misapprehend. An attempt may be made to

combat it, but to ignore it is impossible 1
;
sooner or

later they will have to come to terms with it.

Whatever the extent, the deration and the effects

of the present crisis may be, that must be the inevi-

table conclusion, for that alone can guarantee that



THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS 1ST ERAiSTCE. $5

measure of religious liberty which is compatible

with the conditions of the age in, which we live.

High above the disputes, the passions and the

excesses of all political parties, one fact dominates

the history of these last years : though obscured

by the thick cloud in which religious discord has

involved us,, it has yet been clear to all who can

penetrate into the heart of the nation. I mean the

existence of an immense, a universal aspiration to-

wards reconciliation and appeasement
;

of an im-

perious desire, which must triumph in the end, to

see the hearts of all drawn closer to each other;

and to see all those who are already united by the

strong and indissoluble bonds of patriotism fuse

and combine in a single-minded devotion to the

service of the welfare of our country.