France -- Civilization; France -- Politics and government; France -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
But in this coalition of the two powers it is the Church which has the
best of it, takes the upper hand and points out the way. For, not only
does she profit by the liberty decreed, and profit by it almost alone,
founding in twenty years afterwards nearly one hundred ecclesiastical
colleges and putting the Ignorantin brethren everywhere in the primary
schools; but, again, by virtue of the law,[6332] she places four bishops
or archbishops in the superior council of the University; by virtue of
the law, she puts into each departmental academic council the bishop of
the diocese and a priest selected by him; moreover, through her credit
with the central government she enjoys all the administrative favors.
In short, from above and close at hand, she leads, keeps in check,
and governs the lay University and, from 1849 to 1859, the priestly
domination and interference, the bickering, the repressions, the
dismissals,[6333] the cases of disgrace, are a revival of the system
which, from 1821 to 1828, had already been severe. As under the
Restoration, the Church had joined hands with the State to administrate
the school-machine in concert with it; but, under the Restoration, she
reserves to herself the upper hand, and it is she who works the machine
rather than the State. In sum, under the name, the show, and the
theoretical proclamation of liberty for all, the University monopoly
is reorganized, if not by law, at least in fact, and in favor of the
Church.
Towards 1859, and after the war in Italy, regarding the Pope and
the temporal power, the hands which were joined now let go and then
separate; there is a dissolution of partnership; their interests cease
to agree. Two words are coined, both predestined to great fortune, on
the one side the "secular" interest and on the other side the "clerical"
interest; henceforth, the government no longer subordinates the former
to the latter and, under the ministry of M. Duruy, the direction of the
University becomes frankly secular. Consequently, the entire educational
system, in gross and in its principal features, is to resemble, until
1876, that of the of July.[6334] For sixteen years, the two great
teaching powers, the spiritual and the temporal, unable to do better,
are to support each other but act apart, each on its own ground and each
in its own way; only the Church no longer acts through the toleration
and gracious permission of the University, but through the legal
abolition of the monopoly and by virtue of a written law. The whole
composes a passable régime, less oppressive than those that preceded it;
in any event, the two millions of devout Catholics who consider unbelief
as a terrible evil, the fathers and mothers who subordinate instruction
to education,[6335] and desire above all things to preserve the faith
of their children up to adult age, now find in the ecclesiastical
establishments well-run hothouses and protected against draughts of
modernity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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