So much for the Rule of the Christian Brothers. It is sufficiently
strict; but, as before remarked, not intensified by any special
austerities. The general order prescribed is, however, strengthened by
injunctions against unnecessary communications with persons outside the
Brotherhood, unnecessary possessions, unnecessary exercise of the will:
the devotion to the rule is absolute, the poverty complete, the
submission of the will unbounded. Very wonderful all this, but quite
true.
In connection with the rule, it may be well to say a few words
concerning the manuals which De la Salle composed for the guidance of
the Brothers. The principal was a book entitled, 'Conduite a l'usage des
Ecoles Chretiennes;' this was circulated in manuscript, and a copy given
to each Brother in charge of a school, but was not printed during the
author's lifetime. He revised it in 1717, when he had retired from his
post as Superior, and it was printed in 1720, a year after his death. It
has been the guide of the Brothers ever since, and is read through twice
a year in every one of their houses. The book shows great insight and
good sense. Here is an instruction for a lesson in arithemetic:--
'After the children have done their sums on the paper,
instead of correcting them himself the master will make the
children find out their mistakes for themselves, by rational
explanation of the processes. He will ask them, for
instance, why in addition of money they begin with the
lowest coin, and other questions of the same sort, so as to
make sure that they have an intelligent understanding of
what they do.'
When the subject is religious teaching, the tone of the book rises to
the occasion:--
'The masters will take such great care in the instruction of
all their scholars, that not one shall be left in ignorance,
at least of the things which a Christian ought to believe
and do. And to the end they may not neglect a thing of such
great importance, they will often meditate earnestly on the
account which they will have to give to God, and that they
will be guilty in his sight of the ignorance of the children
who shall have been under their care, and also of the sins
into which their ignorance may have caused them to fall.'
The faults which De la Salle regards as worthy of being treated with
most severity are these: untruthfulness, quarrelling, theft, impurity,
misbehaviour in church. It is notable that idleness and inattention to
lessons, sauciness, and other boyish faults, which have brought much
trouble upon many thousands of urchins, are not here enumerated at all;
probably the wise Superior of the Christian Brothers thought that these
and the like infirmities could be more successfully treated by other
means than by severe punishment. We incline to believe that he was
right. Certainly we shall have no difficulty in assenting to the wisdom
of the rules laid down as to the conditions of punishment being useful:
it must be (1) disinterested, that is, free from all feeling of revenge;
(2) charitable, that is, inflicted from a real love to the child; (3)
just; (4) proportioned to the fault; (5) moderate; (6) free from anger;
(7) prudent; (8) voluntary on the part of the scholar, that is,
understood and accepted by him; (9) received with respectful submission;
(10) in silence on both sides.
These samples must suffice to indicate M. de la Salle's practical and
simple wisdom.
The thought of all that we wish to say before concluding this article
compels us once more to appeal to the reader's imagination with regard
to the success of De la Salle's work. His fame went through France and
beyond it; he became the recognized apostle of elementary education;
when he made an expedition to Calais and the north in the latter part of
his career, it was almost a triumphal progress; nothing, however, could
spoil the sweet simplicity of his character, or interfere with his utter
devotion to his work, and his humble desire to shift the burden upon
what he believed to be stronger shoulders than his own. This desire was
at length accomplished, and on the 8th of May, 1717, after much earnest
consideration and religious observance, a second Superior of their
Society was unanimously elected by the Christian Brothers.
And now this remarkable man had nothing more to do in this world but to
await his call and to depart in peace. At the earnest entreaty of the
Brethren he took up his abode with them in their house at Rouen; and
there, in the midst of increasing infirmities, and in the exercise (so
far as was possible) of his priestly office, he tarried the Lord's
leisure. We give the closing scene in the words of the interesting
volume, the title of which heads this article, and from which we have
been drawing the materials of our sketch.
'The Festival of St. Joseph, March 19, was approaching. He
had always had a special veneration for that great Saint,
whom he had chosen for patron of his Society, and he had a
great wish to celebrate once more on that Festival. He could
hardly have hoped to do so, for he had now for some time
been quite unable to leave his bed; but in the evening of
the 18th, about ten o'clock, his pain was unexpectedly
relieved, and he was conscious of some return of strength.
The night was quiet, and on the morning of the Festival he
was able to crawl to the Altar, and to celebrate the Holy
Mysteries in the presence of all the Brothers, who could
scarcely believe their eyes. All that day he continued
better, was able to converse with the Brothers, listened for
the last time to their confidential talk, and gave them some
last counsels. But the pain came on again, and he was
obliged to go to bed.
'The Cure of the parish, hearing that he was worse, hastened
to visit him, and thinking from the bright cheerfulness of
his face that the dying man was not aware of his own
condition, said to him, "Do you know that you are dying, and
must soon appear before the presence of God?" "I know it,"
was the answer, "and I wait His commands; my lot is in His
hands, His will be done." In truth, his soul dwelt
continually in unbroken communion with God, and he only
waited with longing for the moment when the last ties that
bound him to earth should be severed. Several days passed
thus. Feeling that he was getting worse, he asked for the
Viaticum, and it was arranged that he should receive it on
the following day, which was Wednesday in Holy Week. He
spent the whole night in preparation, and his little cell
was decorated as well as the poverty of the house allowed.
When the time came, he insisted on being taken out of bed,
and dressed, and placed in a chair, vested in a surplice and
stole. At the sound of the bell announcing the approach of
the Priest, he threw himself on his knees, and received his
last Communion with the same wonderful devotion which had
often formerly struck those who assisted at his Mass, only
with even more of the fire of love in his face. It was the
last gleam of a dying light, which was being extinguished on
earth, to shine with undiminished brightness "as the stars
for ever and ever."
'The next day he received Extreme Unction. His mind was
still quite clear, and the Superior asked him to give his
blessing to the Brothers who were kneeling round him, as
well as to all the rest of the Community. He raised his eyes
to heaven, stretched out his hands, and said, "The Lord
bless you all."
'Later in the day he became unconscious, and the prayers for
the dying were said; but again he revived. About midnight
the death agony came on: it was the night of the Agony in
Gethsemane. It lasted till after two: then there was another
interval of comparative ease, and he was able to speak. The
Superior asked him whether he accepted willingly all his
sufferings. "Yes," he replied, "I adore in all things the
dealings of God with me." These were his last words; at
three o'clock the agony returned, but only for a short hour.
At four o'clock in the morning of Good Friday, the 7th of
April, 1719, he fell asleep.
'As soon as the news of his death was spread abroad, the
house was beset by crowds desiring to see him. All revered
him as a Saint, and wanted to look once more on the
venerable face, and to carry away something in remembrance
of him. He had nothing belonging to him but a Crucifix, a
New Testament, and a copy of the Imitation; but his poor
garments were cut up, and distributed in little bits to
satisfy the people.'
The Christian Brothers since the death of their great founder have
steadily continued their charitable self-denying work. They have
received much encouragement from high authorities in Church and State,
much also from the good opinion which their work has gained for them
wherever it has been known. Their history, however, records reverses:
the chief of them connected with the catastrophe of the great
Revolution. With regard to this, it might have been expected on general
grounds, that in a social upheaval, which was essentially a rising of
the poor and oppressed against the rich and the privileged, a society
which had poverty as its foundation principle, and the free education of
the children of the poor as its only reason of existence, must have been
spared by general consent in the midst of the social ruin by which so
much was overwhelmed. At first it seemed that this might have been so;
when the Religious Orders were suppressed by decree of the National
Assembly in 1790, exception was made in favour of those engaged in
public instruction and the care of the sick; but in 1792 all
corporations, specially including the Christian Brothers, were
abolished, on the ground that their existence was incompatible with the
conditions of a really free State. During the Reign of Terror the
Institute was broken up, the Brothers scattered, and many suffered.
There was a revival under Napoleon, which lasted till the Revolution of
1830. At this time the Institute was shaken, as was almost everything
else in France; but the recognized merits of the Christian Brothers
carried them safely through the storm, and one of the most telling and
triumphant facts in their history is the confidence reposed in them by
M. Guizot, when Minister of Public instruction under Louis Philippe.
More than once M. Guizot endeavoured, but in vain, to persuade the
Superior to accept the Cross of the Legion of Honour.
The work of the Christian Brothers in France at the present time is of
special value; but also carried on under much chilling discouragement. A
systematic attempt is being made to secularize education, and to drive
every indication of religious faith from the primary schools. It remains
to be seen what will be the result of the fanatical opposition to all
that is dear to the minds of many French men and almost all French
women, which is carried on so persistently by the Legislature and the
Government. Already there are signs of reaction; the result of the late
elections, which has substantially changed the proportion of parties in
the representative Chamber, is probably not a little connected with the
enforcement of an utterly godless education.[4] Meanwhile it would seem,
as a matter of fact, that the number of children under the teaching of
the Christian Brothers has increased instead of diminishing: there are
still some French people left who have not bowed the knee to Secularism,
and Materialism, and Atheism: even those who tremble at Priestcraft can
accept the ministration of the Christian Brothers, who cannot (as we
have seen) be Priests, according to their fundamental rule: and so,
although the secularist flood is just now frightfully high, there is a
gleam of hope to be found in the work of the Christian Schools, and the
light which shines in them and from them may serve as a witness for God
till the tyranny be overpast, and then may perhaps serve as a light at
which the torch of religious teaching will be lighted again once more.
We have placed at the head of this article the title of one of the
manuals in use in the primary schools of France. It is worth studying in
connection with the work of the Christian Brothers, and on other grounds
as well. The entire absence of all reference to God or to any kind of
religious knowledge or religious principle in connection with duty is
startling, and gives the book a complexion somewhat strange to an
English mind; and there are portions which can scarcely fail to strike
an Englishman as droll; but is full of French ingenuity. It contains a
vast amount of compressed information, and the dry instruction of the
text is enforced, or rather sweetened and made palatable, by a series of
stories in the form of a running commentary or collection of foot-notes,
in which the heroes of the stories illustrate the lessons which the
scholars have to learn.
We take two or three specimens from the manual, which we will present in
a free translation:--