Page 93 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

launched their oflenfiive against the Church. On February 4, Wadding-
ion lormcd a new Cabinet in whicb Jules Ferry became Minieter of
Educalion. Endowed with mediocre intelligence but with a strong wjll
and great energy for work, Ferry set out to fuliïll an educational pro-
grm in accordance with hia own postulale thai the "State wants,
dmands and wiii re-take al1 domination" in ed~cation.(~' Reing given
the portiolio of Educaiion, Ferry was so engrossed in the relorm of
education that he kept ~he same Ministry in five diflerent Cabinets, in
order that he could carry out the plan and the policy. In the long
preparation for the task beiore him, Jules Ferry was iuspired by
Condorcet, guided b y Quinet, and taught b y Cornte.f4'
Tbe determination oi Ferry, aiter wbom the laws were named, to
reform the existing aystem oi educaiion caused the governmsnt to expel
the teaching religious orders in 1880, and demonstrated ihe use made
of ducation as a pretext to enforce an antagonifitic political policy.
On March 15, 1879 Ferry introduced iwo bills: the first, on a Higb
Council of Educaiion and Acadcmic Councile; the second, on Frdom
of Higher Education. This was the beginning of Ferry's educational
ref~rrns.'~)
The bill on Freedom ol Higher Education, in essence, was deeigned
IO revoke the Law of 1875. Of the ten of its brie£ clauses, particularly
controversial was Article Seven. Its wording, and its inclusion in a
bill aimed osteneibly at reform of higher educalion, made in the muse
cékbre of ihe struggle and an object of passionale polemia.
Article Seven of this bill read as follon-~: "No person balongang
to an unauthorired religious communiiy is alioiced to govern a public
or private eduçurionai esbbhhehl O/ iuhi~oever order or Co give
insiruciion ~krein.''
Historian Hanotaux called lhis artide". . . irritating iii character
and anti-Catholic in particular, [and] striking with no prelirninary
~ernin~''.'~) Bu ji, the government had made a declaration of ita
poaition regarding the majority 01 religious orders. To checkmate the
Jesuits and their numeroui and remarkably weI1- adrniniaiered ducalional
institutions was the obvious aim of the article. Accordhg LO Debidour.
jt wa, ". . . a most teiiing blow which the Republic could have hrought

(a) Ciied b~ Leceauet, 11, 18.
(4) Ci. C. Go au, L'Ecole d'aujourd'hui, t Paris, 1910) p. 72; and Weill, fliptoire
de l'idée Ligue. p. 120, n. 3.
18) Tbe first of these rwri bib was to resciiid the provisions ai the hw of 1873
for an eularged buis of &e Councils. On July 19, 1879, aIier only iwn daye
of dcbate, hia bill was paseed in tbe Cbnrnber or Deputjea. huct, 11. 31.
Among other provisions, this new lav waa io exclude Triirn eiihrr Council
aU clericu of al1 denominationa. Ibid., 11, 19.
(0) Op. ci!., IV, W. This Article was to ". . .rend asunder ihp Republican pnny
and the coautry .. ." and ir wea a ".. . trumpet rail for waifare on religious
beli~ls". J. Bninville, Thc French Repubbics, (laadon, 1936) p. Ti'. For ht
Iuli En&h text nt this Bill, aee E. Aboni, "Clcrical Education in France",
Piinrtcrrr;h Crntury, Y1 (Sept. 1879).
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