[72] Albert Duruy, 178. (Report drawn up in the bureaux of the ministry of the interior, year VIII.) "A detestable selection of those called instructors; almost everywhere, they are men without morals or education, who owe their nomination solely to a pretended civism, consisting of nothing but an insensibility to morality and propriety.
. . . They affect an insolent contempt for the (old) religious opinions." - Ibid., p.497. (Procès-verbaux des conseils-généraux.) On primary school-teachers, Hérault: "Most are blockheads and vagabonds."- Pas-de-Calais:" Most are blockheads or ignoramuses."[73] Rocquam, '94. (Report by Fourcroy on the 14th military division, Manche, Orne, Calvados.) "Besides bad conduct, drunkenness, and the immorality of many of these teachers, it seems certain that the lack of instruction in religion is the principal motive which prevents parents from sending their children to these schools." - Archives nationales, ibid. (Report by Lacuée on the 1st military division.)"The teachers, male and female, who desired to conform to the law of Brumaire 3 and to the different rules prescribed by the central administration, on placing the constitution and the rights of man in the hands of their pupils, found their schools abandoned one after the other. The schools the best attended are those where the Testament, the catechism, and the life of Christ are used. . . . The instructors, obliged to pursue the line marked out by the government, could not do otherwise than carry out the principles which opposed the prejudices and habits of the parents; hence their loss of credit, and the almost total desertion of the pupils."[74] "The Revolution," vol. III., p. 81, note 2. (Laff. II. pp.68-69, note 4.)[75] "Statistiques des préfets," Moselle. (Analysis by Ferrière.) At Metz, in 1789, there were five free schools for young children, of which one was for boys and four for girls, kept by monks or nuns; in the year XII there were none: "An entire generation was given up to ignorance." Ibid., Ain, by Bossi, 1808: "In 1800, there were scarcely any primary schools in the department, as in the rest of France." In 1808, there are scarcely thirty. - Albert Duruy, p.480, 496. (Procès-verbaux des conseils-généraux, year IX.) Vosges: "Scarcely any primary instruction." - Sarthe: "Primary instruction, none." - Meuse-Inférieure: "It is feared that in fifteen years or so there will not be one man in a hundred able to write," etc.
[76] These are the minimum figures, and they are arrived at through the following calculation. Before 1789, 47 men out of 100, and 26women out of 100, that is to say 36 or 37 persons in 100, received primary instruction. Now, according to the census from 1876 to 1881(official statistics of primary instruction, III., XVI.), children from six to thirteen number about twelve % of the entire population.
Accordingly, in 1789, out of a population of 26 millions, the children from 6 to 13 numbered 3,120,000, of whom 1,138,000 learned to read and write. It must be noted that, in 1800, the adult population had greatly diminished, and that the infantine population had largely increased. France, moreover, is enlarged by 12 departments (Belgium, Savoy, Comtat, Nice), where the old schools had equally perished. - If all the old schools had been kept up, it is probable that the children who would have had primary instruction would have numbered nearly 1,400,000.
[77] Saint Thomas, "Summa theologica," pars III., questio 60 usque ad 85: "Sacramenta efficiunt quod figurant. . . . Sant necessaria ad salutem hominum. . . . Ab ipso verbo incarnata efficaciam habent. Ex sua institutione habent quod conferant gratiam. . . . Sacramentum est causa grati?, causa agens, principalis et instrumentalis."[78] Except priests ordained by a bishop of the Greek church.
[79] "The Revolution," I. 161. - Archives nationales. (Reports of the Directory commissioners from the cantons and departments. - There are hundreds of these reports, of which the following are specimens.) -F7, 7108. (Canton of Passavent, Doubs, Vent?se 7, year IV.) "The sway of religious opinions is much more extensive here than before the revolution, because the mass of the people did not concern themselves about them, while nowadays they form among the generality the subject of conversation and complaint." - F7, 7127. (Canton of Goux, Doubs, Pluvi?se 13, year IV.) "The hunting down of unsworn priests, coupled with the dilapidation and destruction of the temples, displeased the people, who want a religion and a cult; the government became hateful to them." - Ibid. (Dordogne, canton of Livrac, Vent?se 13, year IV.)"The demolition of altars, the closing of the churches, had rendered the people furious under the Tyranny." - F7, 7129. (Seine-Infèrieure, canton of Canteleu, Pluvi?se 12, year IV.) "I knew enlightened men who, in the ancient regime, never went near a church, and yet who harbored refractory priests." - Archives nationales, cartons 3144-3145, No. 1004. (Missions of the councillors of state in the year IX.)At this date, worship was everywhere established and spontaneously.