DESSERVANTS
756
DETERMINISM
Desservants, the name of a class of French parish
priests. Under the old regime, a priest who per-
formed the parochial duties in a vacant parish, or
where the parish priest was under censure of some
kind (H^ricourt, Les lois eccl&iastiques de France,
II, XV, Paris, 1771) was known as a desservant; he
was the vicar, or econome-cure, whom the Council of
Trent (Sess. XXIV, c. xviii, De ref.) desired to be ap-
pointed in each vacant parish. After the Concordat
of 1801, however, the name desservants was applied to
a second class of parish priests who were named by
the bishop without the sanction of the Government,
but could also be removed at any time by the bishop.
This institution owed its origin to custom rather than
any law, though later on it was fully legalized. Arti-
cle 9 of the new concordat decreed that " the bishops
are to make a new circumscription of the parishes in
their dioceses, which will only go into effect after the
consent of the Government is obtained". Article 10
adds: "Bishops shall make the appointments to par-
ishes ; they shall choose only persons approved by the
Government." Finally, art. 14 provides "a suitable
salary for bishops and parish priests". These clauses
applied to only one kind of parish and parish priests ;
but the Organic Articles, added by the Government to
the concordat, established parishes of a second order,
succursal parishes (mission churches), whose titulars
were not canonically parish priests {cures) and re-
ceived no remuneration from the State. Organic
Articles 31, 60, 61, 63 provide that "there shall be at
least one parish for every justice of the peace", that
"the bishop in conjunction with the prefect shall regu-
late the number and extent of succursal parishes";
that " the officiating priests in succursal parishes shall
be appointed by the bishop"; that they shall also be
removable by him ; preference nevertheless should be
given to ecclesiastics pensioned by the Assemble
Constituante (art. 68). By degrees the succursal par-
ishes increased and equalled in number the municipali-
ties of France; gradually, also, the Government al-
lowed these desservants a small salary. From an
ecclesiastical point of view, they were parLsh priests
except for the removability clause.
This condition of affairs, which the concordat had not anticipated, was advantageous to the Church, be- cause it left the bishops free to appoint to most par- ishes without consulting the State ; it was also of ad- vantage to the episcopal administration, which would have been much hampered had all the parish priests been irremovable. It was not formally approved by Rome, however, until May, 1845, under Gregory XVI (reply of the Congregation of the Council to the Bishop of Li^ge). The pope authorized the continuance of the existing situation until the Holy See decided other- wise. From various quarters, however, arose pro- tests in favour of canonical irremovability of the des- servants. In 1839 the Allignol brothers published " De I'^tat actuel du clerg6 de France, et en particulier des cur^s ruraux, appeltJs desservants" (The present condition of the clergy of France, particularly of the rural parish priests, known as desservants). It was the cause of several meetings of the French bishops at Rome and finally of the aforesaid rescript of Gregory XVI. Later on (5 Oct., 1864) the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars reproved a similar work by the Abb6 Dagomer, " Rehabilitation du desservant". Oc- casionally, some of the desservants refused to give up their places at the bishop's order, maintaining a com- mon-law right of irremovability; but in this they were always unsuccessful. In this respect the eccle- siastical discipline of France had become fixed and accepted ; nor was it modified by the Separation Law of 1905; except that some bishops have ceased to u.se the terms succursale and desservant, replacing them by parish and parish priest, both, however, long since in ordinary ecclesiastical use.
Bouix, Dc parocho (Paris, 1867), Pt. I, sects, iii and iv;
BouDiNHON, InamovibUite et translation des desservants (Paris,
1895): DuBALLET, Traite des paroisses et des cures (Paris, 1900).
A. BOUWNHON.
Desunnont, Achille, ascetical writer, b. at Tour- comg, France, 23 Dec, 1828; d. 23 July, 1898. He attended first the college of the Jesuits at Brugelette, Belgium, and afterwards ( 1848) the theological college of Cambrai. Drawn to the religious state, he was re- ceived into the Congregation of the Most Holy Re- deemer in 1850, made his profession the following year, and was ordained priest 24 Sept., 1853. His talent was at once recognized and he was appointed prefect of students and professor of theology, which offices he retained till 1865, when he became superior of the French pro\dnce. He was a man of surpassing energy and an excellent organizer, his kindness winning him the affection and confidence of his subjects, whom he directed with prudence and fatherly firmness. Under his care subjects and foundations multiplied; the congregation spread into Spain for a second time, and he made foundations in Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Co- lombia in South America. Forced to transfer his numerous religious from France to Holland, he so communicated to others his ovm spirit of faith and confidence that in all their troubles not one of his sub- jects failed him. On his return to France he soon or- ganized missions and retreats as before. In 1887, he was given the important work of Apostolic visitor to the Little Sisters of the Poor. ^\s a preacher few sur- passed him in the retreats he gave to priests and re- ligious all over France. At the age of seventy he was again nominated provincial. Although in poor health, he set to work with his wonted activity, but the result was a complete break-down. He wrote much and well. He was the founder (1875) of the ascetical re- view, "La Sainte Famille", and a constant contribu- tor to it. His works are etUted in three series: 1. Vie Chr^tienne. — "L' Art d' assurer son Salut"; "Le Credo et la Pro\'idence " ; "Le Monde et 1' Evangile"; "La Vie vraiment chr^tienne"; "Devotions de I'ame chr^tiemie"; "Le Ven. Passarat et les Redemptor- istes". 2. Vie Religieuse. — "Exercises Spirituels" (Retraites). — " Renouvellements spirituels" (Re- traites) ; " Conversion quotidienne et retour continuel a Dieu" (Retraites); "LTne Vertu pour ch.aque mois del'ann^e"; "LaVievraimentreligieu.se"; "Manuel de meditations quotidieimes". 3. Vie Sacerdotale.— "Dieu et la parole de Dieu"; "Discours et plans de retraites eccl&iastiques"; "L'esprit Apostolique"; "L'art desauver les ames"; "La charity sacerdotale" (Paris, Librairie de la "Sainte Famille", 1907-8).
La Sainte Famille (1898), 450; Archives Congr. SS. R. J. Magnier.
Detenninism is a name employed by recent writers, especially since J. Stuart Mill, to denote the philosoph- ical theory which holds, in opposition to the doctrine of free will, that all man's volitions are invariably deter- mined by pre-existing circimistances. It may take diverse forms, some cruder, some more refined. Bio- logical and materialistic Determinism maintains that each of our voluntary acts finds its sufficient and com- plete cause in the physiological conditions of the or- ganism. Psychological Determinism ascribes effi- ciency to the psychical antecedents. In this view each volition or act of choice is determined by the character of the agent plus the motives acting on him at the time. Advocates of this theory, since Mill, usually object to the names, Necessarianism and Fatalism, on the ground that these words seem to imply some form of external compulsion, whilst they aftirm only the fact of invariable sequence or uniform causal connect eilness between motives and volition. Opposed to tliis view i.s the doctrine of Indeterminism, j or wliat perliaiis may more accurately be called Anti- deti'rmiiiisni. which denies that man is thus invariably determined in all his acts of choice. This doctrine has
