FRANCE
181
FRANCE
to be distributed among them, and it was held suffi- should be placed in any of the newly erected school
cient that, by an administrative ruling of 16 August, buildings. This temporizing policy was continued by
1901, provision was made for allowances to former the ministeriiil order of '.) April, 1903, but in 1906 and
congrcgaiiistef! who had no means of subsistence or who
should establish the fact of having by their labour con-
tributed to the acquisition of the pi-operty under
liquidation.
The j udicial liquidation of the congregational es- tates had some serious consequences. The Chamber
1907 the adininistratiou at last called for the definitive
disappearance of the crucifix from all public schools.
The Law of 1SS2 is silent as to the teaching, in the public schools, of the pupils' duty towards God. The Senate, after a speech by Jules Ferry, refused to enter- tain the proposal of Jules Simon, that these duties
soon perceived that too often the liquidators in ten- should be mentioned in the law; but the Board of Edu-
tionally complicated the business with which they ca,tion{ConseilSup(rienrd(;iInf:tructionPublique), act-
were charged (it being to their interest to multiply
lawsuits the expenses of which could not in any case
fall upon them) and that the personal profits derived
by the liquitlators from these operations were exorbi-
tant. In confiding so delicate a business to irresponsi-
ing on a recommendation of Paul Janet, the Spiritualist
philosopher, inserted in the executive instructions, with
which it supplemented the text of the law, a recom-
mendation that the teacher should admonish pupils
not to use the name of God lightly, to respect the
ble functionaries, the framer of the Law of 1901 had itlea of God, and to obey the laws of God as revealed
committed a grave error
of judgment. On 31 De-
cember, 1907, the Senate
resolved to nominate a
commission of inquiry to
examine the accounts of
the liquidators, and the
report of this commission,
published early in Sep-
tember, 1908, revealed
enormous irregularities.
It was to satisfy these
belated misgivings, that
the Government, in Feb-
ruary, 190S, introduced a
bill substituting for the
irresponsible judicial liq-
uidation an administra-
tive liquidation under the
control of the prefects.
But this provision is to
apply only to the congre-
gations which shall be
dissolved hereafter; what
has happened in the past
seven years is irrepara-
ble, and when Catholic
publicists speak of " the
evaporation of the famous
milhard of the congrega-
tions" the champions of
the Law of 1901 are pain-
fully embarrassed.
The Laicization of Pri- mary Instruction. — (a) As to the Matter of Instruc- tion.— The Law of 28
Nutke-Da.mk,
XVII Century
by conscience and reason.
However, in the public
schools dependent on the
municipality of Paris, the
antispiritualist tendency
became so violent that,
after 1882, the new edi-
tions of certain .school
books expunged, even
where they occurred in
selected specimens of lit^
erature, the words God,
Providence, Creator. These
early manifestations led
Catholics to declare that
the laic and neutral school
was in reality a Godless
school. In the contro-
versy which arose, some
quotations from the pub-
lic school textbooks be-
came famous. For in-
stance. La Fontaine's lines
Petit poisson deviendra grand,
Pourvu que Dieu lui prete vie were made to read, "que I'nn lui prete vie". And while politicians were deprecating the assertion tliat the schools were God- less, the Masonic conven- ticles and the professional articles written by certain state pedagogues were ex- plaining that the notion of God must eventually disappear in the school. In
March, 1882, which made primary instruction obliga-
tory, gratuitous, and secular (lalqiie), intentionally practice, the chapter of duties towards God was one
omitted religious instruction from the curriculum of which very few teachers touched upon. In 1894, M.
the public school, and provided one free day every Devinat, afterwards director of the normal school of
week, besides Sunday, to allow the children, if their the department of the Seine, wrote: "To teach God,
parents saw fit, to receive religious instruction; but it is necessary to believe in God. Now, how are we to
this instruction was to be given outside of the school find in these days teachers whose souls are sincerely
buildings. Thus the priest no longer had any right to and profoundly religious? It may be affirmed with-
enter the school, even outside of class hours, to hold out any exaggeration that, since 1S82, the lay public
catechism. The school regulations of IS January, 1887, school has been very nearly the Godless school."
laid it down that the children could be sent to church This frank and unimpeachable testimony, justify-
f or catechism or religious exercises only outside of class ing, as it does, all the sad predictions of the Catholics,
hours, and that teachers were not bound either to take has been corroborated by the experience of the last
them to church or to watch over their behaviour while fifteen years. With the cry, La'iciser la la'ique, a cer-
there. It was added that during the week preceding tain number of teachers have carried on an active
the First Communion teachers were to allow pupils to campaign for the formal elimination of the idea of
leave the school when their religious duties called them God, as a remnant of "Clericalism", from the school
to the church. The spirit of the Law of 1882 implied programme. The powerful organization known as the
that religious emblems should be excluded from the "Ligue de I'Enseignement", whose Masonic affinities
schools,but,outof regardforthereligiousfeelingsof the are indisputable, has supported this movement. For
people in those neighbourhoods, the prefects allowed the exponents of the tendency, to be la'ique one must
the crucifixes to remain in a certain number of schools; be the enemy of all rational metaphysics — to be la'ique
they took care, however, that no religious emblem one must be an atheist.
