These declarations coming from so many and such authoritative sources had their effect upon the common sense of the French people. The spirit of hostility to Catholicity and its institutions began to show a marked diminution. This was evidenced most of all in the very abiding place of former anti-Christianism, the French Chamber of Deputies. On March 3, 1894, M. Spuller, a disciple of Gambetta, and the man who had introduced the famous Article VII. in 1879, made the following significant declarations in the Chamber of that day: When the Republic had to struggle against the coalition of the old parties, when the Church served as a bond for all these old parties, I followed at that time the policy exacted by the circumstances, and which the supreme interest of the Republic commanded.... But does that mean that I ought to close my eyes to what is taking place today? Does it mean that those religious struggles which I once deplored and which I deplore still, which I proclaim a danger that ought to be avoided, a peril that it is to the interest of all of us to dissipate, does it mean that I did not deplore them even at the time I took so ardent a part in them? No, gentlemen, and if it were necessary for me today to summon what I consider the most precious of testimonies, because it is that of a conscience which has never weakened, I would address myself to my honorable and dear friend, M. Brisson; I would ask him to recall what he said to me himself in an intimate conversation, namely, that the struggle against clericalism, rendered necessary by the political action of the Church, is that which has done the most harm to the Republic, and has put back her triumph for ten or rather fifteen years. Very well, gentlemen, I believe with the profoundest conviction, that after twenty-five years of existence, after the proofs which the Republic has given of her resistance and vitality, this struggle ought, if not to cease altogether, at least to take on a different character.... I declare that now the Church, instead of serving as the support of the monarchical parties, has cast herself into the arms of the democracy. I declare that by this movement the Church will draw you perhaps, you republicans, further than you would wish to go, for if you do not take care she will regain over the masses the influence which you have lost. That is why I consider that we ought not to abandon any of our old traditions in our incessant struggles for the benefit of secular and civil society; but at the same time I believe that a new spirit ought to animate our democracy and those who represent it. Here the speaker began to be interrupted, thus: _Voices from the Left:_ "What new spirit?"