[1] Lord Langdale resigned three weeks before his death.
[2] The proposal to print and publish the _Calendars_ had been approved
by authority of the new Record Commissioners as early as January 1840.
_See_ preface to Mr. Lemons' 'Calendar' (Domestic, 1547-1580), p. viii.
[3] In Luard's sixth volume there are two facsimiles of certain coloured
drawings of the more precious gems at St. Alban's, with careful
descriptions of them, these and the illustrations being most probably
_executed by Mathew Paris himself_.
Art. II. 1.--_The Christian Brothers, their Origin and Work, with a
sketch of the Life of their Founder, The Venerable Jean Baptiste de la
Salle._ By Mrs. R. F. Wilson, London, 1883.
2. _La Premiere Annee d'Instruction Morale et Civique: notions de droit
et d'economie politique (Textes et Recits) pour repondre a la loi du 28
Mars 1882 sur l'enseignement primaire obligatoire: ouvrage accompagne de
Resume, de Questionnaires, de Devoirs, et d'un Lexique des mots
difficiles._ Par Pierre Laloi. Quatorzieme Edition. Paris, 1885.
3. _Report of the Committee of Council on Education_ (England and
Wales). 1884-85.
4. _Seventy-fourth Annual Report of the Incorporated National Society._
1885.
Most travellers in France will have met occasionally in Paris and in the
provincial towns a school of boys walking two and two, and followed by a
serious-looking superintendent of very solemn deportment. The boys are
in no marked respect different from other boys, but they are orderly and
well conducted. They are probably on their way to a church; and if you
watch them, you will see them march in with much propriety. The
superintendent is evidently not an ordinary schoolmaster; you would
suppose that he is an ecclesiastic of some kind. He wears a loose black
cloak, a hat with a low crown and a portentous brim, and bands such as
were much worn by English clergymen till late years, and which, when
strongly developed, were supposed to indicate a sympathy with
Calvanistic theology. Nevertheless, the solemn-featured young man is not
an ecclesiastic, neither is he a Protestant minister. He is one of the
Freres Chretiens, or Christian Brothers; and the boys whom he has under
his charge are pupils in one of the Ecoles Chretiennes, or Christian
Schools.
We will venture to assume, that some of our readers are not well
acquainted with the story and the principles of the remarkable
institution known as the Schools of the Christian Brothers, or with the
life of their remarkable founder. We propose in this article to supply
some information upon the subject, not only because we think that such
information will be interesting in itself, but also because we believe
that from the story of the work and principles of the French schools of
the Christian Brothers, we may proceed without difficulty, and almost by
necessary consequence, to some useful considerations with respect to
English schools as now established and conducted amongst ourselves.
Jean Baptiste de la Salle was born in Rheims, April 30, 1651. The house
in which he was born is still standing, and is regarded with reverence.
He came of a noble family, which was originally of Bearn. His
grandfather settled at Rheims, of which he became an honoured citizen,
but was apparently in no way himself remarkable. His second son, Louis,
was the father of a child, who received the name of Jean Baptiste on the
same day as that upon which he was born.
This child, whose career we purpose briefly to follow as that of the
founder of the Christian Brothers, exhibited early signs of a devotional
spirit; he learned to recite the Breviary from his grandfather, and
continued to do so even before being bound to the practice by his
ordination vows; and he soon made it clear to himself and to others that
his vocation was that of the priestly office. His conduct as a student
in the University of Rheims, which he entered at eight years old, was
marked by diligence in study and gentle docility.
Before he had reached the age of sixteen he was made a canon of the
cathedral; such were the strange ecclesiastical possibilities of those
times. An aged relative resigned in his favour, and died the following
year. The preferment, however, did not spoil him; he looked upon it as a
call to duty. He was diligent in attendance upon the offices of the
Church, diligent in private prayer, diligent in study--in every way a
remarkable boy-canon!
In October 1670 he entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, where,
amongst other fellow-students, was Fenelon, subsequently the great
Archbishop of Cambrai. Little is recorded of his seminary life, except
that it was gentle, modest, blameless. In 1672 he lost his father, and
in the same year returned to Rheims to take charge of his younger
brothers and sisters. The responsible position in which he was thus
placed seems to have shaken for a time his persuasion that he had a true
vocation for the priesthood; but after consultation with a friend who
knew him well, his doubts vanished, and on the eve of Trinity Sunday in
this same year he was admitted to the subdiaconate.
Then follow six years of quiet home work and retirement. During this
time he attended the theological course of the University, provided for
the education of his brothers and sisters, and gave himself very
earnestly to prayer and good works. In the year 1678, on Easter Eve, he
was ordained Priest.
During all this time De la Salle's attention does not seem to have been
turned to that which ultimately became the great work of his life. As
not unfrequently happens, the real bent was given to his energies by
what might be described as accidental circumstances. The friend whom he
consulted when in doubt concerning holy orders was one Canon Roland.
This good man had interested himself much about an orphanage for girls
at Rheims, which had fallen under bad management, and urgently needed
reform. Canon Roland was taken ill just before De la Salle's ordination,
and, dying not long after, left the young priest his executor,
commending to his special care the orphanage just mentioned. De la Salle
could not refuse the charge; it was not much to his taste, but it was
the bequest of his friend; it was the leading of God; and he girded
himself to the task. He applied through the Archbishop to the King for
letters patent recognizing the institution, and thus put it upon a
lasting foundation; he bore the expense of the whole transaction; then
he supplemented the funds out of his own means; and having thus
satisfied his obligations to his deceased friend, he returned to his
quiet devotional life. The thought that this orphanage for girls would
constitute a valuable training school for schoolmistresses seems already
to have crossed his mind.
Now comes the turning-point of De la Salle's life, and it comes in a
curious way. There was a certain rich, fashionable, and extravagant
married lady living in Rouen, who, like the rich man in the parable, was
clothed in fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, while Lazarus lay
at the gate. One day a poor beggar, who had been harshly repulsed from
the door, touched the heart of a servant by his manifest misery, and was
received into the stables, where he died the same night. The dead man
must needs be buried; so the servant went to the mistress, confessed his
fault, received some violent language and notice of dismissal, but at
the same time procured a sheet to serve as a shroud for the corpse. At
dinner-time the lady perceived the very sheet, which she had given for
the burial, folded up and lying in her own chair; some mysterious hand
had brought back the ungracious present, as though the deceased beggar
would not receive a favour in death from one who had been so cruel to
him in life.
This strange and apparently not very important occurrence changed the
whole course of the lady's life. She gave up all her old habits of
magnificence and extravagance, lived the life of a devotee, and soon
succeeded in separating from herself all her old companions and friends,
who, in fact, deemed her mad. After her husband's death she became still
more strict in her habits, and devoted to the service of the poor a
large part of her fortune.
Amongst other charities which she assisted was the female orphanage, of
which we have already spoken as having been cared for by Canon Roland,
and after his death by M. de la Salle. She conceived the idea of
establishing something of the same kind for boys in her native town of
Rheims, and she consulted Canon Roland on the subject. Ultimately she
engaged a devout layman, named Adrien Nyel, who had experience of poor
schools in Rouen, promised him maintenance for himself and a young
assistant, gave him a letter of introduction to her relative M. de la
Salle, and sent him to Rheims to open a school there for poor boys.
This school, which was commenced in 1679, was the germ of the great
system of _Ecoles Chretiennes_. Its success led a pious lady in Rheims
to wish to establish another of the same kind in a different part of the
town. She consulted M. de la Salle, who had become patron of the first
school, on the subject; and thus he became, without any special wish or
intention of his own, drawn into the work of the education of poor boys.
His own account of the matter is worth quoting:--
'It was,' he wrote, 'by the chance meeting with M. Nyel, and
by hearing of the proposal made by that lady [to whom
reference has been made], that I was led to begin to
interest myself about boys' schools. I had no thought of it
before. It was not that the subject had not been suggested
to me. Many of M. Roland's friends had tried to interest me
about it, but it took no hold of my mind, and I had not the
least intention of occupying myself with it. If I had ever
thought that the care which out of pure charity I was taking
of schoolmasters would have brought me to feel it a duty to
live with them, I should have given it up at once; for as I
naturally felt myself very much above those whom I was
obliged to employ as schoolmasters, especially at first, the
bare idea of being obliged to live with such persons would
have been insupportable to me. In fact, it was a great
trouble to me when first I took them into my house, and the
dislike of it lasted for two years. It was apparently for
this reason that God, who orders all things with wisdom and
gentleness, and who does not force the inclinations of men,
when He willed to employ me entirely in the care of schools,
wrought imperceptibly and during a long space of time, so
that one engagement led to another in an unforeseen way.'
This passage somewhat anticipates events; but it is convenient for the
condensed character of this narrative that it should be so. We will
therefore briefly fill up the gap left by M. de la Salle's own statement
by saying, that he found the work of directing schools for the poor
increase upon his hands in a wonderful manner. The success of those
which he visited and superintended led to the establishment of others.
Soon the masters themselves formed a small body which required
superintendence and guidance. He took a house in which he placed them;
the home of course needed rules for its orderly and efficient working;
these M. de la Salle supplied. But still all was not quite as it should
be. Cathedral duties took up much of the Canon's time; these duties were
of primary obligation, and left comparatively little of the day to be
given to the superintendence of schoolmasters. But more than this, the
difference of station and comfort and habits between a well-endowed
Canon of a Cathedral, enjoying in addition a private fortune of his own,
and poor schoolmasters taken from the humblest ranks, and living in the
most humble manner, was quite immeasurable. It was comparatively easy to
have the whole company to dine with him, and so to meet them half way
down the social hill; but this was not enough. M. de la Salle began
gradually to realize the fact, that his great undertaking of supplying
schools and schoolmasters for the gratuitous education of the poor,
could only be crowned with complete success on the condition of his own
adoption of poverty in all its thoroughness. Accordingly he determined
to resign his canonry and spend his fortune upon the poor. Not
altogether so easy a thing as might at first sight appear. Great
opposition was made by his friends: the Archbishop was unwilling to
accept his resignation: nothing but persevering determination on the
part of De la Salle could have carried the business through; but he was
full of perseverance and full of determination, and in 1683 he at last
succeeded in divesting himself of his Cathedral preferment. The sale of
his property, and spending the money upon the poor, was an easier
matter, especially as the year 1684 was one of dearth; in the course of
that year and the following he managed to get rid of all.
This parting with his money, instead of spending it upon his great work,
may well seem to be a conduct of doubtful wisdom; especially as at a
later period much difficulty was encountered for want of funds. But it
is hard, and perhaps not justifiable, to find fault with a man, who
adopts the course of selling all that he has and giving to the poor,
after using devoutly such a prayer as the following:--
'My God, I do not know whether to endow or not. It is not
for me to found communities, or to know how they should be
founded. It, is for Thee, Oh my God. Thou knowest how, and
canst do it in the way which is pleasing to Thee. If Thou
foundest them, they will be well founded. If Thou foundest
them not, they will be without foundation. I beseech Thee,
my God, make me know Thy will.'
Soon after the last livre was spent, De la Salle had occasion to make a
journey in connection with his work. He went on foot, as needs he must,
and begged his way. An old woman gave him a piece of black bread; he ate
it with joy, feeling that now he was indeed a poor man. He had at this
time reached the age of thirty-three years.
Behold the Society of the Christian Brothers, and the Christian Schools,
taking form at last with De la Salle at the head! Let us examine that
work and see how matters stand.
In the first place, so far as the founder was himself concerned, his
life was one of asceticism, but still more of prayer:--
'He prayed by day and by night--his life was one incessant
communion with God. He would fain have avoided even the
interruption caused by sleep, and he grudged every moment
given to it, because it shortened his time of prayer. He
slept on the ground, or sometimes in his chair, and was the
first to rise at the sound of the morning bell. While at
Rheims he regularly spent Friday night in the Church of
Saint Remi; he made the sacristan lock him in, and there
poured out his soul in prayer for help, and guidance, and
success in his work.'
The Superior and the Brothers of course lived a common life. The great
principle of bringing himself exactly to the level of those who worked
under him, which had led to his resignation of his stall and the sale of
his property, made it quite certain that he would not call upon the
Brothers to do or to bear anything which he was not willing to do and to
bear himself. But the burden was heavier to him than to them. They were
poor men originally, accustomed to hard work and rough fare; while he
had been brought up in ease and plenty, and had never known what want
and poverty were. Consequently it cost De la Salle much effort and
self-denial to enter upon his new life; but he was satisfied with no
half measures; the sacrifice was to be absolute and complete; he fought
the battle and gained it,--yet not he, but the grace of God that was in
him. At the first starting of the Society there was no distinct rule,
but the following arrangements were made:--
The food was to be substantial but frugal, fit for labourers engaged in
hard toil; nothing costly, nothing but what was necessary; on the other
hand no special rigour of abstinence, beyond that demanded of other
Christians.
For dress was adopted a capote, such as was common in the country, made
of coarse material, and black; together with a black cassock, thick
shoes, and a broad-brimmed hat.
For a name they chose that of 'Freres des Ecoles Chretiennes,' or, as
commonly abbreviated, 'Freres Chretiens.'
With regard to vows, De la Salle decided that they should take the
three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but for three years
only. They might make them perpetual the following year.
As to the Superior himself, he had little difficulty with regard to the
first two points, for his only possessions were a New Testament, a copy
of the 'Initiation,' a Crucifix and a Rosary; and to celibacy he was
already committed. With regard to obedience, the fulfilment of the vow
was not easy to a man in his position; but he endeavoured to find a way
to make this vow also a practical one, by the method of resigning his
post and putting one of the Brothers in his place; this he ultimately
succeeded in doing, though only for a short time.
We must leave to the reader's imagination the manner in which the work
grew under such remarkable auspices, the growth of M. de la Salle's
reputation as a saint, and the constantly increasing load of
responsibilities of all kinds which rested upon his shoulders.
In the year 1688 the work extended to Paris. When De la Salle arrived
there he left behind him in Rheims a principal house containing sixteen
Brothers, and a training college for country schoolmasters, containing
thirty men, besides fifteen lads in their noviciate. For the purpose of
his work in Paris he hired a house in the village of Vaugirard; this he
occupied for seven years, collecting the Brothers about him in their
vacations, and making it a home for the sick and weary, and a place
where postulants might make proof of their profession. We shall not
follow his footsteps during this time, except to say that the work
flourished wonderfully well under his hand, as it always did,
notwithstanding all kinds of difficulties. We may produce, however, a
striking document of self-dedication which belongs to this period. The
Brothers seem to have been strongly moved by the desire of making their
vows perpetual, instead of only for three years; the Superior opposed
the innovation, but finding them resolute, he at length gave way, and
commenced the new system by a formal dedication of himself, expressed in
the following remarkable words:--
'Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, prostrate in
deepest reverence before Thine infinite and adorable
Majesty, I consecrate myself wholly to Thee, to seek Thy
glory in all ways possible to me, or to which Thou shalt
call me. And to this end I, Jean Baptiste de la Salle,
Priest, promise and vow to unite myself to, and abide in
society with, the Brothers [here follow twelve names], and
in union and association with them to hold free schools in
any place whatsoever (even though, in order to do so, I
should have to beg for alms, and live on dry bread), or to
do in the said Society any work which may be appointed for
me, whether by the Community or by the Superior who shall
have the direction of it. For which reason I promise and vow
obedience as well to the Society itself as to the Superior
of it. And these vows of association with, and steadfastness
in, the said Community, and of obedience, I promise to keep
inviolable during my whole life; in witness whereof I have
signed. Done at Vaugirard, this sixth day of June, being the
Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, in the year 1694.
'(Signed) DE LA SALLE.'
Having taken this step, De la Salle made a great effort to divest
himself of his post as Superior, but in vain. He argued, but the
Brothers were not convinced. He insisted upon an election, and every
single vote was given for him. He begged for a second voting, but the
result was the same. The Brothers said it would be time enough for them
to elect his successor, when death had deprived them of him. So in his
post of Superior he remained; and doubtless the Brothers were right, and
he was wrong, as to the point in dispute between them.
Let us now look for a moment at the rule of the Christian Brothers in
the complete form which it ultimately assumed.