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The Jesuits and French Education: A Comparative Study of Two Schools 1852–1913

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

John W. Langdon
John W. Langdon*
Affiliation:
Le Moyne College
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Extract

The past decade has witnessed a marked revival of interest in the role of the Catholic Church in nineteenth-century French education. Several scholarly works have examined this subject from a variety of directions. This essay presents a detailed comparison of career-preferences of graduates of the two most prestigious Jesuit schools of the period. Studying the progress of alumni of the Collège de l'Immaculée-Conception (popularly referred to as “Vaugirard”), and of the Ecole Sainte-Geneviève de la rue des Postes, permits an examination of similarities and differences between the two schools. It also provides a statistical basis for conclusions regarding the impact of these institutions on French society.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , Spring 1977 , pp. 49 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 by New York University 

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References

Notes

The preparation of this article was aided by a grant from the Le Moyne College Research Fund.Google Scholar

1. Huckaby, John K., “Roman Catholic Reaction to the Falloux Law,” French Historical Studies, 4 (Fall 1965): 203–213; Padberg, John W., Colleges in Controversy (Cambridge, Mass., 1969); Moody, Joseph N., “The French Catholic Press in the Education Conflict of the 1840s,” French Historical Studies, 7 (Spring 1972): 394–415; May, Anita Rasi, “The Falloux Law, the Catholic Press, and the Bishops: Crisis of Authority in the French Church,” French Historical Studies, 8 (Spring 1973): 77–94; Harrigan, Patrick J., “French Catholics and Classical Education After the Falloux Law,” French Historical Studies, 8 (Fall 1973): 255–278; Bush, John W., “Education and Social Status: The Jesuit Collège in the Early Third Republic,” French Historical Studies, 9 (Spring 1975): 125–140; Harrigan, Patrick J., “The Social Appeals of Catholic Secondary Education in France in the 1870s,” Journal of Social History, 9 (Spring 1975): 122–141; Langdon, John W., “New Light on the Influence of the Jesuit Schools: The Graduates of the Ecole Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, 1854–1913,” Third Republic/Troisième République, I (Spring 1976): 132–151.Google Scholar

2. Padberg, , Colleges in Controversy, p. 277.Google Scholar

3. Gohier, Urbain, Les Prétoriens et la Congrégation (Paris, 1900), p. 20; Sorlin, Pierre, Waldeck-Rousseau (Paris, 1966), p. 439.Google Scholar

4. Harrigan, , “Social Appeals,” p. 124. These figures are exclusive of enrollments in minor seminaries.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 125. The regular clergy is that part of the clergy professing vows to a particular religious order (e.g. Jesuits, Dominicans, Benedictines); the secular clergy carries on parish work.Google Scholar

6. Bush, , p. 125; Ponteil, Felix, Histoire de l'enseignement en France (Paris, 1966), p. 283.Google Scholar

7. Langdon, , “New Light,” pp. 150–151.Google Scholar

8. The Jesuit preparatory school of Caousou also specialized in the preparation of students for the grandes écoles; but its location in Toulouse, far from the limelight of the capital, resulted in the attraction of a less distinguished clientele and far less publicity than its sister institution.Google Scholar

9. No history of Vaugirard has ever been published, but more detailed information may be found in Rolin, Albert, “La Collège de l'Immaculée-Conception de Vaugirard (1852–1908),” in Delattre, Pierre, ed., Les établissements des Jésuites en France depuis quatre siècles (Enghien, 1955), III, pp. 1374–1391, and Langdon, John W., “Social Implications of Jesuit Education in France: The Schools of Vaugirard and Sainte-Geneviève,” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Syracuse University, 1973). The Decrees, Ferry are analyzed in Acomb, Evelyn, The French Laic Laws, 1879–1889 (New York, 1941). The Law on Associations and the Law on Separation of Church and State are discussed in Sorlin, Pierre, Waldeck-Rousseau, and Partin, Malcolm, Waldeck-Rousseau, Combes, and the Church (Durham, N.C., 1969).Google Scholar

10. There is no scholarly history of Sainte-Geneviève. Further information may be obtained from Langdon, , “Social Implications,” and from du Passage, Henri, “L'Ecole Sainte-Geneviève (1854–1901),” in Delattre, III, pp. 1352–1373.Google Scholar

11. The statistics furnished in these table were accumulated from a great variety of primary materials, including letters, class lists, obituary notices, and internal records of the two schools. Published sources included bulletins issued by alumni associations and comprehensive listings of alumni published at sporadic intervals. A detailed discussion of these sources is found in Langdon, , “Social Implications,” pp. 123–127. The total numbers of graduates surveyed are 1,300 for Vaugirard and 5,323 for Sainte-Geneviève. Table 1 is adapted from Langdon, , “Social Implications,” pp. 147–149.Google Scholar

12. The preferences of Vaugirard graduates for other forms of higher education will be discussed below.Google Scholar

13. These percentages are computed from material provided in Bush, , “Education and Social Status,” p. 128, and Langdon, , “Social Implications,” p. 148.Google Scholar

14. Langdon, , “Social Implications,” p. 150. The seven other schools, in order of popularity, were the Navale, Ecole, the des Mines, Ecole Supérieure (Paris), the Ecole Forestière, the Institut National Agronomique, the Ecole Militaire de Saumur (a cavalry school), the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., p. 151.Google Scholar

16. University training for law and teaching was essential to graduates of Jesuit schools, since they were de facto excluded from the Ecole Normale Supérieure, which trained many of the best minds in France. This was the only grande école which alumni of Sainte-Geneviève were unable to storm; Bush, , “Education and Social Status,” p. 136, states that only one postard was admitted to Normale prior to the Great War. My forthcoming study of Sainte-Geneviève after 1913 will show that six more attended Normale between 1921 and 1947.Google Scholar

17. Langdon, , “Social Implications,” pp. 128–131. The categories and their titles are adapted from those utilized in Direction de l'Office du Travail, Résultats statistiques du recensement des industries et professions. Denombrement général de la population du 29 mars 1896 (Paris, 1899), IV. A complete listing of categories and subgroupings is found in Langdon, , “Social Implications,” pp. 198–202.Google Scholar

18. Typical of this group are names like Bertier de Sauvigny, la Rochefoucauld, la Tour du Pin, and Mougins-Roquefort.Google Scholar

19. A detailed breakdown is available in Langdon, , “Social Implications,” pp. 205–206.Google Scholar

20. This percentage is computed from material in Ibid., p. 204.Google Scholar

21. Tampe, Wilfrid, in “Nos Anciens Elèves,” Etudes, 85 (1900): 593–594, holds that by 1900 most Jesuit-educated propriétaries made use of their education to the extent that they became involved in community service and local politics rather than merely supervising their estates. But the involvement of “local notables” in politics has been common in France for centuries, and the data I have gathered do not indicate that a Jesuit education enhanced this tendency.Google Scholar

22. Computed from data available in Langdon, , “Social Implications,” p. 211.Google Scholar

23. Ibid.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., pp. 133–137.Google Scholar

25. The low status associated with careers in private industry in the French mind helps to explain these small percentages. See Landes, David S., “French Entrepreneurship and Industrial Growth in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Economic History, 9 (May 1949): 54–57.Google Scholar

26. Examples are the Ecole Supérieure de l'Electricité, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Industrielles, and the Ecole Supérieure des Mines (Saint-Etienne).Google Scholar

27. This tendency continued through the twentieth century, to the extent that in the 1970s the military image of the school has been almost completely supplanted by a technocratic image. See Association Amicale des Anciens Elèves de l'Ecole Sainte-Geneviève, Servir (Alençon, 1971).Google Scholar

28. Harrigan, Patrick J., “Secondary Education and the Professions in France during the Second Empire,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17 (July 1975): 355, 359–361. This valuable article sheds considerable light on the often ephemeral links between profession and social status.Google Scholar

29. Harrigan, , “French Catholics,” p. 256.Google Scholar

30. Bush, , “Education and Social Status” pp. 132–133. Despite its intrinsic similarity to Vaugirard, Saint-Ignace could not be included in this study due to lack of data. Extensive archival research at Chantilly, France in 1971 revealed extremely skimpy information pertaining to career-preferences of graduates of Saint-Ignace.Google Scholar

31. Harrigan, , “Secondary Education,” p. 335.Google Scholar

32. Supra, , p. 9.Google Scholar

33. Langdon, , “Social Implications,” pp. 163–165.Google Scholar

34. Padberg, , Colleges in Controversy, p. 274.Google Scholar

35. Ibid., p. 275.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., pp. 278–279.Google Scholar

37. Evidence of these attitudes may be found in Chauveau, Emile, Souvenirs de l'Ecole Sainte-Geneviève, 3 volumes (Paris, 1880); du Lac, Stanislas, Jésuites (Paris, 1901); Joly, Abbé Léon, Quinze Ans à la Rue des Postes, 1880–1895 (Paris, 1909); and in unpublished materials such as Burnichon, Joseph, La Compagnie de Jésus en France: Histoire d'un Siècle, 1814–1914, V, in manuscript form at the Archives of the Paris Province of the Society of Jesus, Chantilly, France.Google Scholar