Pierre-Sébastien Laurentie's Views on Popular Education and the Role of the Clergy (1837)
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Popular education, adult education, Catholic Church, Pierre-Sébastien Laurentie, Falloux law, Guizot law, Rousseau Emile or On Education, Enlightenment philosophers, freedom of teaching, confessional education, public education, State education, religious education, morality, clergy, Institute of France, philanthropy, Count of Falloux, socio-history of education, 19th century France education, anti-liberal thinker, legitimist, Catholic education, education policy, education legislation, education history, education philosophy.
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Abstract
Pierre-Sébastien Laurentie's Letters to a Priest on the Education of the People, written in 1837, is a seminal document that sheds light on the socio-history of popular education in 19th-century France. At the heart of the debate was the role of the Catholic Church in education, with Laurentie advocating for the freedom of confessional teaching. This polemical text challenges the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers, particularly Rousseau's Emile or On Education, and argues that the priest is best suited to educate the people. Laurentie's doctrine, centered on "God in Education," emphasizes the importance of morality and the authority of the Church in shaping the education system. As a key figure in the commission that led to the Falloux law of 1850, Laurentie's work provides valuable insights into the historical context of the struggle for influence between the State and the Catholic Church in education. By examining Laurentie's Letters, we gain a deeper understanding of the complex and contentious issues surrounding popular education during this period.
Extract
[...] The text opens with a first chapter whose title is Mission of a priest, with regard to the education of the people don't the first five pages are submitted to our analysis. The theme addressed in this excerpt is explicit. For the author of these Letters, the priest has the mission of educating the people. He takes up the political program of the Count of Falloux, whose doctrine is as follows: "God in Education. The Pope at the head of the Church. [...]
[...] Laurentie criticizes it for proposing a good organization of gendarmerie as the only remedy for the moralization of the people. For Laurentie, although admitting that no society can completely do without repression, education must aim to eradicate all forms of violence and domination. This ambition is also that of the philosophers of the Enlightenment or later of a Victor Hugo. However, to achieve this, the proposed solutions are radically different. Laurentie criticizes "philanthropy" for its distrust of the clergy, its lay morality, an ethics without religion. [...]
[...] The Church at the head of civilization." By adhering to this doctrine, Laurentie joins a current that agitates the society of the time: should the education of the people be entrusted to the State or to the religious? It will be noted that this letter is addressed to a friend in a pseudo-dialogical approach not devoid of ambiguities since it transmits value judgments and constrains its virtual interlocutor to adhere to its argument. The use of the letter as a means of disseminating assumed opinions gives more vivacity to his remarks than an Essay could. [...]
[...] For the author, the morality and education of the people are inseparable, provided that the latter is under the authority of directors of conscience, the men of the Church. Morality, on the other hand, "descends from heaven to earth", it is constant and does not depend on what is agreed to be done or thought in society. Laurentie, a member of the commission that will lead to the Falloux law, argues in this polemical text in favor of the freedom of teaching, leaving a very important place to confessional teaching and more particularly to Catholicism. [...]
[...] All their efforts, in the first part of the 19th century, focused on bending the foundations and methods of education until the promulgation of the Falloux law in 1850. Before this law was promulgated, a commission was created to prepare the changes to be made to the Guizot law of 1833, which set out two principles: the freedom of primary education and the organization of a public school system. This "educational duality" was attacked by Catholics hostile to the existence of public education and by anti-clericals who fought against the freedom of confessional education. [...]
