The Revolution of February, 1848, notwithstanding the general disorganization of which it was the cause, did not prejudicially affect the work of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The moderate spirit of a large majority of the constituency was in their favor, and the triumph of what was styled the “right of association” was of benefit to the religious orders. And, besides this, men high in office acknowledged the small consideration given to the religious element in the primary instruction organized by the law to have occasioned the moral devastation of which they had been the sorrowful witnesses.
This state of opinion, by producing an increased respect for the Brothers and appreciation of their work, was very favorable to the institute of De la Salle. In 1849 the superior-general was requested to take part in an extra-parliamentary commission on the subject of public instruction and liberty of teaching. His extensive and practical knowledge made a great impression on his fellow-commissioners. Naturally modest and retiring, he was never one of the most forward to speak, but the most listened to of any; his observations being so conclusive and to the point as invariably to decide the ultimate resolution of a question; and answers which others were painfully seeking he found at once in the store-house of his long experience. That portion of the law of March 15, 1850, relating to primary instruction, bears the impress of these discussions.
The epoch of the Second Empire was a time of difficulty for the Brothers. The new government, which had begun by wishing to decorate Brother Philip—who was always rebellious against seductions of this nature—raised against his institute the question of scholar remuneration, alleging that it owed its success merely to its rule of teaching gratuitously, to the prejudice of the schools of the state, and requiring the municipality of every place where the Brothers were established to insist on their adoption of the remunerative system. These difficulties, which had begun under the ministry of M. Fortoul, became more serious under that of M. Rouland.
Now, it was one of the fundamental rules of the institute that the Brothers should receive no remuneration whatever in return for their instructions. Brother Philip, therefore, in the name of the statutes of his order, resolutely resisted their infringement. To punish him for so doing the annual sum of eight thousand four hundred francs, which had been granted to the institute under the ministry of M. Guizot for the general expenses of administration, was suppressed, many of the houses were closed, and forty more threatened with the same fate.
At last, after an anxious struggle of seven years’ duration, it was decided by the General Chapter, assembled in 1861, that, to avoid worse evils and save the institute from destruction, a partial concession should be made. Payments were allowed where the government insisted, but it was expressly stipulated that these payments would be the property of the municipal council, the Brothers themselves having nothing whatever to do with them.
This concession, which had only been forced from him by a hard necessity, was a great vexation to Brother Philip, who, however, consoled himself with the thought that this moral oppression would only be of temporary duration. Nor was he mistaken. For twenty years past not only has the gratuitous system not been attacked, but the very men who opposed it in the case of the Brothers have themselves insisted on its general adoption, in their endeavors to force upon the whole of France a primary instruction without religion.
The ministry of M. Rouland, being particularly jealous of Brother Philip as head of a religious congregation, had other trials in store for him, taking out of his hands the right of appointing masters, in order that it might, through the prefects, place lay teachers of its own selection in places where the people themselves had requested that their children should be taught by the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The measures taken to attain this end were, however, only partially successful.
In 1862 a curious complaint was made against those who had for so long been called Ignorantins, accusing them of teaching too many things and overstepping the limits allowed by Article 23 of the law of 1850.[107]
When at Dijon, in 1862, Brother Pol-de-Léon made his request to be instituted as director of the pensionnat, the administration refused to grant it, on the ground that the title of “elementary school” taken by the said pensionnat was in manifest contradiction to the advanced instruction given there, and which included algebra, geometry, trigonometry, French literature, cosmography, physics, chemistry, mechanics, English, and German. The Brothers, thus accused of distributing too much learning, replied that, if the law of 1850 did not mention these subjects of instruction, neither did it prohibit them; they consented, however, to withdraw a portion from this programme. The president of the provincial council, M. Leffemberg, was merciful, and allowed some of the additions, among which were English and German, to remain.
Subsequent arrangements have been made, by which a regular course of secondary or higher instruction has been organized by the Brothers. This is admirably carried on in their immense establishment at Passy (amongst other places), and its normal school is at Cluny; and no one now disputes with the institute the honor of having been the originator of the special course of secondary instruction which has been found to answer so remarkably in France.