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Tag Archives: separation of Church and State

The Church of France & the French Revolution, cont’d

06 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in The French Revolution

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Cardinal Loménie de Brienne, Dialogues des Carmélites, juring and nonjuring priests, mental assent, separation of Church and State, Talleyrand, the Concordat of 1801, the Republican Calendar

 
"Disaffectation" of a church, Jacques François Joseph Swebach-Desfontaines, 1794.

“Disaffectation” of a church by Jacques François Joseph Swebach-Desfontaines, 1794 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Portrait de Talleyrand (1758–1823)  Pierre-Paul Prud'hon , 1817

Portrait de Talleyrand 
Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, 1817 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

As I pointed out in my post dated 2 May 2014, the downfall of the Church of France during the French Revolution did not always stem from evil intentions. I am not about to suggest that Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, (1754–1838)[i], a priest, a bishop—l’Évêque d’Autun—and a delegate of the Church to the Estates-General, acted naively when, on 10 October 1789, he proposed that France confiscate the wealth of its very wealthy Church. France was facing bankruptcy, but that could be avoided by tapping into the vaults of its affluent First Estate: the clergy.

Talleyrand’s suggestion to confiscate the wealth of the Church may have been a stop-gap measure, but it was the “idée lumineuse,” the bright idea, that constitutes the first step in a process that would lead to the dechristianisation of the budding French Republic, founded on 22 September 1792.

But Talleyrand also proposed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (12 July 1790) empowering the State. It was the instrument used to destroy the Church of France. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy subjugated the Church to the State and is part of the very long debate concerning the respective power of Church and State in the government of a nation. It could be that Talleyrand did not plan the destruction of the Church of France, but he nevertheless set it in motion. He was excommunicated by Pope Pius VI in 1791 and, ten years later, Pope Pius VII, Pius VI’s successor would laicise Talleyrand.

The fact remains, however, that in the early years of the French Revolution, it would have been very difficult to predict that France would execute its king and his wife as well as thousands of its citizens, many of whom were priests and cloistered nuns. I can’t help thinking of Francis Poulenc‘s opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1956), based on a draft by Georges Bernanos. These nuns did not want to abjure their vows and were guillotined. No one could have imagined the Reign of Terror. But we do know that Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Talleyrand, was an opportunist who craved the comforts wealth brought. He was given 5,000 pounds for his involvement in the confiscation of the wealth of the Church.[ii] Talleyrand loved the luxuries money can buy, but he remains otherwise the extremely enigmatic figure, a “Man with Six Heads,” depicted below in a caricature, a coloured etching

Suffice it to say that he served:

  • Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793),
  • the 1st Republic (1989-1804),
  • the 1st Empire—Bonaparte (1804-1814), and
  • the Restoration of the monarchy or Bourbon restoration (Louis XVIII [Bourbon] and Charles X [Bourbon-Orléans]: 1814-1830).
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, caricature, "Floating with the Tide"

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, caricature, “Floating with the Tide” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Popular colored etching, verging on caricature, published by Décrouant, early 19th century: La famille royale et les alliées s'occupant du bonheur de l'Europe (The Royal Family and the Allies concerned with the Happiness of Europe)

Popular colored etching, verging on caricature, published by Décrouant, early 19th century: La famille royale et les alliées s’occupant du bonheur de l’Europe (The Royal Family and the Allies concerned with the Happiness of Europe) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The “Programme”

We are already familiar with the “programme,” with the possible exception of the final demand: requesting that the Clergy pledge an oath of allegiance to the constitution (no. 5, below).

The programme was as follows:

  1. confiscation of Church lands, which were to be the security for the new Assignat currency
  2. removal of statues, plates and other iconography from places of worship
  3. destruction of crosses, bells and other external signs of worship
  4. the institution of revolutionary and civic cults, including the Cult of Reason and subsequently the Cult of the Supreme Being,
  5. the enactment of a law on October 21, 1793 making all nonjuring priests and all persons who harboured them liable to death on sight.

Once again I am quoting Wikipedia, but we will focus of number 5, the oath of allegiance demanded of the Clergy. The Church of France was divided between jurors and non-jurors, or clergy willing to pledge loyalty to the Constitution and clergy opposing this request. No, it had nothing to do with the separation of State and Church, achieved in 1905. (See Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution, Wikipedia.)

In this caricature, after the decree of 16 February 1790, monks and nuns enjoy their new freedom

In this caricature, after the decree of 16 February 1790, monks and nuns enjoy their new freedom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Clergy: Jurors and Non-jurors

Mental Assent
Schism in the Church of France
Previous vilification of the Church
 

The thorniest part of the programme was the oath to the Constitution imposed on the clergy. European monarchies were willing to fight the French Revolutionary Army (1792-1802) as the French Revolution was a threat to all monarchies. Consequently, they were acting in their own best interest. As we know, many émigrés, Chateaubriand among them, joined counter-revolutionary forces. However, if monarchies were alarmed, the Church was and was not. In the eyes of Pope Pius VI, accepting that the French swore loyalty to the State was unacceptable. Theoretically, he was right. Swearing allegiance to the State made the Church subservient to the State. Yet, it may have lessened the revolutionaries’ anti-clerical zeal and avoided unnecessary bloodshed. We cannot know.

“Under threat of death, imprisonment, military conscription, and loss of income, about twenty thousand constitutional priests were forced to abdicate and hand over their letters of ordination, and six thousand to nine thousand of them were coerced to marry. Many abandoned their pastoral duties altogether. Nonetheless, some of those who had abdicated continued covertly to minister to the people.” (See Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution, Wikipedia.)

Among prelates in the Church of France, some favoured mental assent, which consists in saying one thing, but thinking another. Mental assent is of course extremely hypocritical, not to say an ignominy, but for a Church facing annihilation, it may have appeared the only salvation. Most French prelates opposed the pledge to the State and paid the price. But would mental assent have saved the Church of France? The very idea created a schism within the Church of France.  

At any rate, when Cardinal Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne (9 October 1727 – 16 February 1794)[iii] and Louis XVI himself wrote to Pope Pius VI, asking for guidance and some leeway, Pope Pius VI would not bend, so King Louis XVI, who had waited as long as he could, ended up signing the oath into law. As for Cardinal Loménie de Brienne, he became a “juror.” 

“Pope Pius VI (reigned 1775–99) denounced the Civil Constitution in 1791, and Catholic France was divided between adherents of the papal system and proponents of the new order.”[iv] 

It is unlikely that Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand knew, or wanted to know, the consequences of his suggestions; he was a survivor and he was making money. Philippe Égalité, on the other hand, Louis XVI’s cousin, but a member of the Jacobin Club and a Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Orient de France from 1771–1793, was guillotined on 6 November 1793. Philippe Égalité never anticipated the Reign of Terror.

At any rate, no one attempted to rescue the Church, with the exception of the Vendéans. In fact, the Church of France had been vilified for hundreds of years. Nivardus of Ghent‘s Ysengrimus(1149), the birthplace of Reinardus, the fox, or Reynard the Fox, long fabliaux that ridicules the clergy as was the case in shorter Frenchfabliaux.  There was considerable anti-clericalism in France and this state of affairs worsened during the Enlightenment. In the case of the French Revolution, State crushed Church.

“The Catholic Church may have been the church of the majority of the French people, but its wealth and perceived abuses meant that it did not always have their trust.”[iv] 

Thermidor

Thermidor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Dechristianization of the Church of France

The Church was victimized to an extreme degree ranging from several drownings in the Vendée, cruel and deadly detention, forced marriages, death by guillotine, public spankings to humiliate nuns working at l’Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, demeaning caricatures. When their vows were nullified, monks and nuns did not rejoice as is suggested in a caricature displayed above. (See Civil Constitution of the Clergy, Wikipedia)

Why would revolutionaries execute Carmelites (nuns) who had refused to renounce their vows? (See The Martyrs of Compiègne, Wikipedia.)  In fact, Wikipedia tells the whole story. The programme of dechristianisation included the deportation and execution of the clergy, priests, monks and nuns being forced to abjure their vows, the closing down of church (désaffectation), the removal of the word “saint” from street names, the War in the Vendée.

“Three Church bishops and two hundred priests were massacred by angry mobs.” (See September Massacres, Wikipedia)

“Priests were among those drowned (noyades) in mass executions for treason under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Carrier; priests and nuns were among the mass executions at Lyons, for separatism, on the orders of Joseph Fouché and Collot d’Herbois. Hundreds more priests were imprisoned and made to suffer in abominable conditions in the port of Rochefort.” (See Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution, Wikipedia.)

As for “jurors:”

“By the end of the decade, approximately thirty thousand priests had been forced to leave France, and others who did not leave were executed. Most French parishes were left without the services of a priest and deprived of the sacraments. Any non-juring priest faced the guillotine or deportation to French Guiana. By Easter 1794, few of France’s forty thousand churches remained open; many had been closed, sold, destroyed, or converted to other uses.” (See Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution, Wikipedia.)

Napoleon’s victory and the Pope’s Captivity

Ironically, Bonaparte attacked the future Italian lands and defeated the territory he attacked. Consequently Pope Pius VI died in captivity.

“The ultimate humiliation of the church took place in 1798 when Pius VI was driven out of Rome by French armies; in the following year he was taken captive and dragged back to France, where he died. As papal prestige sank to depths it had not reached since the crises of the 14th century, some critics called for abolishing the office altogether.”[v] (Britannica)

Allégorie du Concordat

Allégorie du Concordat de 1801, Pierre Joseph Célestin François (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Concordat of 1801

The Thermidorian Reaction (1794): repeal of the Civil Constitution of the Church (1791)
The Concordat
 

As mentioned in an earlier post, the “Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, Pius VI’s immediate successor, signed on 15 July 1801. It solidified the Roman Catholic Church as the majority church of France and brought back most of its civil status.” Despite widespread anti-clericalism, France had been a Catholic nation. (See Concordat of 1801 [sometimes dated 1802], Wikipedia.) (Britannica)[vi]

The Concordat was also:

  • A declaration that “Catholicism was the religion of the great majority of the French” but not the official state religion, thus maintaining religious freedom, in particular with respect to Protestants and Jews. However, Metz resisted. Jews were scorned. See The Concordat of 1801, Wikipedia.

Finally, the Concordat stipulated that:

  • The Papacy had the right to depose bishops, but this made little difference, because the French government still nominated them.
  • The state would pay clerical salaries and the clergy swore an oath of allegiance to the state.
  • The Catholic Church gave up all its claims to Church lands that were confiscated after 1790.
  • The Sabbath was reestablished as a “festival[,]” effective Easter Sunday, 18 April 1802.
  • The rest of the French Republican Calendar, which had been abolished, was not replaced by the traditional Gregorian Calendar until 1 January 1806.
French Republican Calendar of 1794, drawn by Philibert-Louis Debucourt

French Republican Calendar of 1794, drawn by Philibert-Louis Debucourt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conclusion

The programme of dechristianisation included the deportation and execution of the clergy, priests, monks and nuns being forced to abjure their vows, the closing down of church, the removal of the word “saint” from street names, the War in the Vendée. It was petty. It was cruel. And it made no sense. “The climax was reached with the celebration of the goddess Reason in Notre-Dame Cathedral on 10 November [1793].” Obvious worship was forbidden in the name of laïcité.

Celebrating the goddess Reason was not laïcité; it was public worship of a goddess and, consequently, the opposite of laïcité. Which is where I will close this post.

I will list related articles in another post.

—ooo—

Sources and Resources

  • Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution, Wikipedia http://www.history.com/topics/french-revolution
  • Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs (Georgetown University): France: Religion and Politic until the French Revolution
  • theblackcordelias.wordpress.com
  • hopefaithprayer.wordpress.com

____________________

[i] “Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, prince de Bénévent.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 05 May. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581601/Charles-Maurice-de-Talleyrand-prince-de-Benevent>.

[ii] André Castelot, Talleyrand ou le cynisme (Paris: Librairie académique Perrin, 1980), p. 65.

[iii] Loménie de Brienne was arrested in 1794 and died that very night of natural causes or poisoned. However his brother, Louis-Marie-Athanase de Loménie, comte de Brienne (1730-1794), was guillotined on 10 May 1794, on the same day Madame Élisabeth, Louis XVI’s sister, was guillotined.

[iv] “Gemma Betros examines the problems the Revolution posed for religion, and that religion posed for the Revolution.” History Today. Published in History Review (2010). 

[v] “Roman Catholicism.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 05 May. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/507284/Roman-Catholicism>. 

[vi] “Concordat of 1801.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 04 May. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/181059/Concordat-of-1801>.

Francis Poulenc (7 January 1899 – 30 January 1963)
“Mélancolie”
Francis Poulenc, pianist
 
Temple of Reason, Strasbourg, 1793-1794

Temple of Reason, Strasbourg, 1793-1794 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
5 May 2014
WordPress

michelinewalker.com

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The Church of France during the French Revolution

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in History, The French Revolution

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Aimé du Boisguy, assignats, Civil Constitution of the Clergy, Confiscation, de-Christianisation of France, Dr Gemma Betros, separation of Church and State, Talleyrand, unsuspected consequences, War in the Vendée

Portrait présumé d'Aimé du Boisguy, peinture de Jean-Baptiste Isabey, 1800.

Portrait présumé d’Aimé du Boisguy, peinture de Jean-Baptiste Isabey, 1800.

The Church of France during the French Revolution

  • Chouannerie
  • War in the Vendée (1793-1796)
 

The above portrait is presumed to be that of Aimé Casimir Marie Picquet, chevalier du Boisguy, or Bois-Guy. Aimé Picquet du Boisguy (15 March 1776, Fougères, Ille-et-Vilaine – 25 October 1839, Paris) was a Chouan (literally an “owl,” also called hibou in French), a monarchist from the Fougères area of Britanny (see Chouannerie, Wikipedia). Boisguy seems much too young to have fought against the French Revolutionary Army (active from 1792 until 1802).

When Boisguy was 15, he started fighting. At the age of 17, he was aide-de-camp (chief-of-staff) to Charles Armand Tuffin de la Rouërie[i] who played a role in the American Revolutionary War. By the age of 17, Boisguy was in fact a leader of the Chouans in what is now the Fougères commune of Britanny, then called le pays de Fougères (the country of Fougères). By the age of 19, he was a general. Boisguy was fearless, but not reckless. He therefore survived chouannerie uprisings.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy

  • The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
  • The levée en masse
 

However, this post is not about the chouannerie,[ii] except indirectly. It is about the demise of the Church of France. Chouannerie uprisings were royalists uprisings that lasted beyond 1800 and, as such, they were also Catholic uprisings. Absolutism demanded that France be ruled by one king, that Catholicism be its only Church and French, its only language. There was considerable anti-clericalism in France. It had become widespread during the Enlightenment and the growth of Freemasonry also dictated laïcité in government. Yet, even among Chouans, many opposed the repression of the Church. Moreover, the War in the Vendée (1793-1796), was caused, first, by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790) and, second, by the levée en masse (23 August 1793) (mass conscription). In fact, as we will see in a later post, it was also caused by the persecution of the clergy. (See War in the Vendée, Wikipedia.)

“The first signs of real discontent appeared with the government’s enactment of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790) instituting strict controls over the Roman Catholic church.”[iii]

“However, the massive uprising of an important part of the West and the transition to counter-revolution was mostly caused by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and the levée en masse decided by the National Convention.”[iv]

The War in the Vendée was a royalist uprising that was suppressed by the republican forces in 1796

The War in the Vendée (1793-1796) was a royalist uprising that was suppressed by the republican forces in 1796 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Henri de La Rochejaquelein fighting at Cholet, 17 Octobre 1793, by Paul-Émile Boutigny

Henri de La Rochejaquelein fighting at Cholet, 17 October 1793, by Paul-Émile Boutigny (See Battle of Cholet, Wikipedia.)

The Main Events

What follows is a quotation, but I have underlined certain phrases: see Civil Constitution of the Clergy, Wikipedia.

  • On 11 August 1789 tithes were abolished.
  • On 2 November 1789, Catholic Church property that was held for purposes of church revenue was nationalized, and was used as the backing for the assignats.
  • On 13 February 1790 (some sources give the date as 11 February for example), monastic vows were forbidden and all ecclesiastical orders and congregations were dissolved, excepting those devoted to teaching children and nursing the sick.
  • On 19 April 1790, administration of all remaining church property was transferred to the State.

FRA-A7~1

Assignats worth pennies (sols)

Assignats worth 400 pounds and 15 pennies (sols=sous) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Civil Constitution of the Clergy: Motivation

What follows is a quotation, but I have underlined certain words: see Civil Constitution of the Clergy, Wikipedia.

  1. The French government in 1790 was nearly bankrupt; this fiscal crisis had been the original reason for the king’s calling the Estates-General in 1789.
  2. Church lands represented 20–25% of the land in France. In addition the Church collected tithes.
  3. Owing, in part, to abuses of this system (especially for patronage), there was enormous resentment of the Church, taking the various forms of atheism, anticlericalism, and anti-Catholicism.
  4. Many of the revolutionaries viewed the Catholic Church as a retrograde force.
  5. At the same time, there was enough support for a basically Catholic form of Christianity that some means had to be found to fund the Church in France.
  6. Presumably, another factor, at least indirectly, was Jansenist rejection of the cult of kingship [the Divine right of kings, Wikipedia] and absolutism.

The Assignats: the main motivation

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
 

The assignat was legal tender between 1789 and 1796 and it would appear that bankruptcy, and little else, led to the confiscation of the wealth of the Church (biens de l’Église). The ultimate law, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, was passed on 6 February 1790, but the idea of confiscating the goods of the Church, les biens de l’Église, dated back to 10 October 1789. On that day, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord,[v] or Talleyrand, a priest, a bishop (l’évêque d’Autun) and a representative of the Church during the meeting of the Estates-General of 1789, suggested that the government fill its empty vaults by confiscating the wealth of the Church, which it did on 2 November 1789. The biens de l’Église became biens nationaux (national property) as would, later, the biens des émigrés, the property of émigrés.

The Revolution: a Life of its Own

Tennis Court Oath

Ironically, neither the de-Christianisation of France during the French Revolution nor the downfall of the monarchy had been the objectives of the 577 representatives of the Third Estate who, on 20 June 1789, assembled in an indoors jeu de paume, a tennis court, when they discovered they had been locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General. The 576 signatories of the Tennis Court Oath favoured a constitutional monarchy.

Had the monarchy been a constitutional monarchy, the Third Estate would have played a role in the government of France. In other words, France would have been a democracy, as was England. But the Estates-General had not convened since 1614, which is what representatives of the Third Estate opposed. Moreover, the Church was vulnerable because members of the clergy were exempt of taxation, as were members of the nobility. The Church also collected tithes (la dîme). So, to a certain extent, the very radical French Revolution was a variation on a familiar theme, “no taxation without representation.” (See Civil Constitution of the Clergy, Wikipedia.)

On 20 June 1789, the 577 delegates of the Third Estate, who had taken refuge in a jeu de paume, wanted no more than representation. The 576 signatories of the Tennis Court Oath did not attack the Church, except indirectly. However, the Third Estate supported both the Church, the First Estate, and the nobility, the Second Estate, through burdensome taxes. So both the Church and the nobility were parasites. Nevertheless, it remains unlikely that the signatories of the Tennis Court Oath suspected the destruction of the Church. (See Civil Constitution of the Clergy, Wikipedia). I am inclined to agree with the following statement by Dr Gemma Betros:

“The wholesale destruction of Catholicism had been far from the minds of the nation’s representatives in 1789, but financial concerns, when combined with external and internal threats, eventually made a full-scale attack on the Church and all connected with it a necessity for a Revolution that demanded absolute loyalty.”[vi]

Conclusion

It is difficult to explain the Concordat of 1801, between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, and Chateaubriand‘s Génie du Christianisme  without the information provided in this post and a forthcoming post. I should also note that the Civil Constitution of the Clergy should be inserted in a much wider debate: the separation of Church and State in France. (See 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, Wikipedia.)

To be continued…

____________________

[i] A cavalry officer who served under the American flag during the American War of Independence, as did La Fayette.

[ii] Uprisings in twelve departments of Western France, but mainly Brittany. Chouannerie uprisings are named after Jean Cottereau, or Jean Chouan, a nom de guerre, one of two royalist brothers.

[iii] “Wars of the Vendée.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 02 May. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/625053/Wars-of-the-Vendee>.

[iv] “Chouannerie,” Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chouannerie

[v] André Castelot, Talleyrand ou le cynisme (Paris : Librairie académique Perrin, 1980), pp. 64-65.

[vi] “Gemma Betros examines the problems the Revolution posed for religion, and that religion posed for the Revolution.” History Today. Published in History Review (2010). 

Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March 1685 – 28 July 1750)
Toccata & Fugue D Minor, BWV 565
AIM_PI~1
 
© Micheline Walker
2 May 2014
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Claude-Henri Grignon: Notre culture sera paysanne, ou ne sera pas

17 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canada, French-Canadian Literature, Regionalism

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

André Laurendeau, artist René Richard, Catholic school, Claude-Henri Grignon, Great Depression, June 1941, L'Action nationale, land as real estate, mystique of the land, separation of Church and State

North of Forestville (Au nord de Forestville), René Richard R.C.A. (1895-1982)
(with permission from La Galerie Klinckhoff, Montréal)
 

René Richard ‘s House in Baie-Saint-Paul (Charlevoix) 

In the article I posted on 16 June 2012, I stated that Claude-Henri Grignon’s Un Homme et son péché  was not altogether a roman de la terre, or novel of the land.  In this regard, I must be more specific.

To make my text a little clearer, I have added a sentence underscoring the presence in Grignon’s novel of real-life characters such as François-Xavier-Antoine Labelle (24 November  1833 – 4 January 1891) le curé Labelle and Arthur Buies. Le curé Labelle and Arthur Buies were advocates of colonisation, making land (faire de la terre), the patriotic choice.  Claude-Henri Grignon would not have inserted these characters in his novel for decorative purposes.

The Shrinking Thirty Acres: une Peau de chagrin [ii] 

You are already familiar with this story.  Québécois had run out of land to cultivate.  By the middle of the 19th century, the thirty acres of land allotted them in the seventeenth century, when the SEIGNEURIAL system was put into place (1627), could no longer be divided and French-speaking inhabitants of Quebec were not ready to move to cities as they had not been raised to be merchants and industrialists.

Therefore, although it is a satire of rural life, Les Belles Histoires des pays d’en haut, or Séraphin, un homme et son péché (1933), belongs, at least indirectly, to the roman de la terre, or roman du terroir.  If Canadiens wanted to remain in the Province of Quebec, their only option was “making land,” Antoine Labelle‘s and Arthur Buies‘s nationalistic option. But was it a realistic option?

The Lack of Professions

We know that the land was shrinking, but compounding the problem was the lack of professions.  In Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau‘s Charles Guérin, upon completion of their études classiques taught in a Petit Séminaire, a private institution, and the one course of studies allowing admission to a university , Charles and his brother Pierre realized that the only professions French-Canadians could enter were the priesthood, law and medicine.  French-speaking Quebecers could also be teachers, which was the preserve of religious orders.

Containing the « exode »

Consequently, not only were Québécois cultivateurs increasingly landless, but lawyers were also facing unemployment.  Therefore, preventing French-speaking Canadians from moving to the New England states was well-nigh impossible.  There were factories in the Eastern Townships, an area settled by United Empire Loyalists, but by and large Quebec had very few factories.

As for going north to “make land” (colonisation), it made sense.  However, just how much land could one make?  Furthermore, just how many French Canadians wanted to be like Samuel Chapdelaine?

Grignon’s letter to André Laurendeau

Claude-Henri Grignon had the highest regard for the land: le sol.  In a public letter[ii] to Joseph-Edmond-André Laurendeau (21 March 1912 in Montreal – 1st June 1968 in Ottawa), published in L’Action nationale (June 1941), Grignon wrote that if he accepted the word culture in the “broad and particular” meaning Laurendeau gave it, he believed that there was a French-Canadian culture and that it was a culture of the land, i.e. agrarian: « Notre culture sera paysanne ou ne sera pas. » (We will be farmers or we will not be [we will cease to exist]: that is our culture).  My translation is not a literal translation, but it is accurate.

It should be pointed out, however, that in his letter or article, Grignon expressed reservations.  He had this warning for the very prominent André Laurendeau: “But be careful, we will end up losing it in the same manner we have suffered other losses, because of our indifference, our timidity and, [let’s call a spade a spade], because of our “avachissement” (total spinelessness: we’re cows).” This is again my own accurate, but not literal translation.

Let’s continue reading:

“As I have often written, and will repeat,” writes Grignon, “our survival remains inextricably linked to the land, i.e. le sol.  The word « sol » (three letters) contains the entire past, all of our traditions, our customs and values (mœurs), our faith and our language. If you take away sol from our social life, our economy, our political life, there is no French-Canadian culture.”

« Je l’ai écrit souvent et je le répète: notre survivance reste intimement liée au sol.  Le mot ‹ sol › (trois lettres) contient tout le passé, toutes nos traditions, nos moeurs, notre foi et notre langue.  Retranchez le sol de notre vie sociale, économique, politique et il n’est point de culture canadienne-française. »  (p. 315)

 

A “Mystique” of the Land

Grignon goes on to write, that what French Canadians lack, and lack sorely, is a mystique [ideology] of the land.  “Nothing is more durable, sturdier and healthier.  There are nations of industrialists, nations of merchants, and agrarian nations.”  In other words, Grignon was banking on the land: where there is land there is bread (« là où est la terre, là est le pain »).  And he wrote that if anyone spoke to the contrary, he would ask that person the following question: “Why is it that our English gentlemen are rushing to purchase the land?” (for the original French, see the very end of the following quotation)

« Ce qui nous manque, ce qui fait douloureusement défaut dans les racines les plus profondes de notre peuple, c’est le sens d’une mystique véritable, d’une mystique paysanne, d’une mystique de la terre dans ce qu’elle suppose de plus durable, de plus fort, de plus sain.  Il y a des peuples industriels, des peuples commerçants, des peuples agricoles.  Pourquoi ne pas continuer les traditions de la vieille France par un attachement plus intime à la terre qui demeure selon les économistes les plus avertis, la seule richesse qui ne peut périr, même aux heures les plus difficiles, les plus angoissantes.  Inutile de nous le cacher : là où est la terre, là est le pain. » (pp. 315-316)

« Comment se fait-il  qu’au moment où j’écris ces lignes, messieurs les Anglais, gens pratiques, par excellence, se ruent vers nos terres et s’agitent de toutes façons pour s’en procurer ? » (p. 316)

 

The Great Depression

We must take into account that Grignon wrote the above article, in 1941, as North America was recovering from the Great Depression.  During the Great Depression, the only asset that remained valuable was land.  There is something artificial about money, but land is real estate, including the small city lot on which your house is located, if you have a house.  According to Grignon, the English knew this, but the French-speaking Québécois did not.

Comments

Grignon was both right and wrong.  Of course, one holds on to the land, but Quebec also needed its merchants, its industrialists, its engineers, its architects, its economists.

Moreover, Grignon stringed together land, language and religion.  For him, the three were inseparable.  In this regard, I believe Grignon faced an obstacle, at least where French Canadians living outside Quebec were concerned.  Outside Quebec, there was a separation of Church and State.  A Catholic school was a private school and that was not about to change.

—ooo—

I will close by repeating that although Un Homme et son péché is not a mainstream roman du terroir, or novel of the land. It features three real-life characters who were advocates of colonisation.  But we have now seen that Claude-Henri Grignon himself was a proponent of an economic system based on agriculture.  He realized that land was “real” estate.

However, those who went to the United States did so because they had to put bread on the table that very day.  Where food is concerned, one does not have the luxury to wait.  They were not traitors.  They were victims.

Didn’t anyone have the foresight to prevent the worst tragedy ever to befall French-speaking Canadians?  It seems to me that no one was minding the store.

_________________________

[i] For a list of novels that would be romans du terroir, it may be good to look at Marianopolis College, L’Histoire de la littérature canadienne-française 
[ii] From a novel, its very title, by Honoré de Balzac.
[iii] Claude-Henri Grignon, « Notre culture sera paysanne, ou ne sera pas»,
L’Action nationale (Montréal, vol. XVII, nº 6, juin 1941), pp. 538-543,  in Gilles Marcotte, dir. Anthologie de la littérature québécoise, vol 3 (Montréal: L’Hexagone, 1994), pp. 315-316.
 
 
 
© Micheline Walker
18 June 2012
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Bord de la mer, Cap-aux-oies, René Richard
 
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