Chapter III: Au Revoir.--The Pilgrim’s Progress (4)

In spite of the decree which had smitten their institute, the Brothers were still sought after as teachers in purely civil conditions. Nothing had replaced the orders and establishments which had been destroyed; no instruction was provided for the young; and as the churches were still closed and the pulpits silent, a night of ignorance was beginning to spread itself over the rising generation. On the 25th of August, 1792, a boy demanded of the National Assembly, for himself and his comrades, that they should be “instructed in the principles of equality and the rights of man, instead of being preached to in the name of a so-called God.”

Such men as Daunou, Desmolières, and Chaptal were deploring the state of public instruction in France, which during ten years had been a mere mixture of absurdities and frivolities, when Portalis dared to declare openly that “religion must be made the basis of education.”

This was in 1802, about the time that the relations of France with the Sovereign Pontiff were renewed by the Concordat, and the three consuls had gone together in state to the metropolitan church of Notre Dame. By the consular law of the 1st of May, 1802, on public instruction, the Brothers were authorized to resume their functions. The institute no longer possessed any houses in France, but a few remained to it in Italy, and over these Pope Pius VI. had appointed, as vicar-general, Brother Frumentius, director of the house of San Salvatore at Rome.

Lyons was the first city in France where the members of the scattered congregation began to reassemble; Paris was the next; then St. Germain en Laye, Toulouse, Valence, Soissons, and Rheims. The Brothers at Lyons--namely, Brother Frumentius and three companions--received, in 1805, a memorable visit. Pope Pius VII., in quitting France, after having crowned at Notre Dame the emperor by whom, three years later, he himself was to be discrowned, repaired, accompanied by three cardinals, to the Brothers of the Christian Schools. He blessed the restored chapel and the reviving institute, his fatherly words of encouragement being a pledge and promise of its beneficent prosperity.

As it was of importance that the dispersed members should be made aware of the reorganization of their society, an earnest and affectionate circular-letter was addressed to them by Cardinal Fesch, archbishop of Lyons, inviting them to repair to Brother Frumentius to be employed according to the rule of their congregation, towards which he at the same time assured them of the emperor’s good-will.

The decree for the organization of the University, issued on the 17th of March, 1808, restored to the institute a legal existence, together with all the civil rights attached to establishments of public utility. In these statutes it is stated that the Brothers form a society for gratuitously affording to children a Christian education; that this society is ruled by a superior-general, aided by a certain number of assistants; that the superior is elected for life by the General Chapter or by a special commission; and that the superior nominates the directors, and also the visitors, whose duty it is to watch over the regularity of the masters and the efficient management of the schools.

The Brothers had a powerful friend in M. Emery, the Superior of S. Sulpice, a man of high character and sound judgment, and who was held in great esteem by the emperor, as well as by every one with whom he had anything to do. Napoleon, particularly, appreciating the excellent organization of the society, recommended “the Brothers of De la Salle in preference to any other teachers.”

We now come to the special subject of our memoir.

Among the dispersed members of the institute who first responded to the invitation of Cardinal Fesch were two brothers of the name of Galet, whose memory is especially connected with Brother Philip. On the suppression of the house at Marseilles they sought shelter from the violence of the Revolution in the retired hamlet of Châteaurange (Haute Loire), where they kept a school. On receiving the cardinal’s circular the elder brother announced to the pupils that he had been a Brother of the Christian Schools, until compelled to return to secular life by the suppression of his institute; but learning that this was re-established, he was about to depart at once to Lyons, there to resume his place in it, adding that, if any of them should desire to enter there, he would do all in his power to obtain their admission and to help them to become accustomed to the change of life.

Amongst those who availed themselves of this invitation, and who, three years later (in 1811), presented himself to be received into the novitiate, was Mathieu Bransiet, born on the 1st of November, 1792, at the hamlet of Gachat, in the Commune of Apinac (Loire). Pierre Bransiet, his father, was a mason; the house in which he lived, with a portion of land around it, which he cultivated, constituting all his worldly possessions. Like his wife (whose maiden name was Marie-Anne Varagnat), he was a faithful Christian, and during the revolutionary persecution habitually afforded refuge to the proscribed priests. It was the custom of the little family to assemble at a very early hour of the morning in a corner of the barn, where, on a poor table behind a wall or barricade of hay and straw, the Holy Sacrifice was offered up, as in the past ages of paganism, and as under Protestant rule, whether in the British Isles not so many generations ago, or in Switzerland at the very time at which we write; some trusty person meanwhile keeping watch without, in readiness to give timely warning in case of need. Nor did Pierre Bransiet confine himself to the exercise of this perilous but blessed hospitality; many a time did he accompany the priests by night in their visits to the sick and dying, and bearing with them the sacred Viaticum after the hidden manner of the proscribed.

Amid scenes and impressions such as these the young Bransiet passed his childhood, learning the mysteries of the faith from an “abolished” catechism; kneeling before the crucifix, which was hated and trampled under foot in those godless days; and worshipping when those who prayed must hide themselves to pray. Thus a deeply serious tone became, as it were, the keynote of his soul, which harmonized with all that was earnest and austere. Even as an old man he never spoke without deep feeling of his early years, when he only knew religion as a poor exile and outcast on the earth. The simple and hardy habits of his cottage-home, his own early training in labor, self-denial, and respectful obedience, the Christian teaching of his mother and elder sister (now a religious at Puy), all helped to form his character and mould his future life. He was the most diligent of the young scholars of Châteaurange, which is half a league distant from Gachat, and made his first communion in the church of Apinac, when the Church of France had issued from her catacombs, and the Catholic worship was again allowed. As a child Mathieu was remarkable for his never-failing kindness and affectionateness towards his brothers and sisters, for the tenderness of his conscience, and for his jealousy for the honor of God, which would cause him to burst into tears if he saw any one do what he knew would offend him.

Mathieu was seventeen years of age when, with the full consent of his parents, he entered the novitiate at Lyons. He had six brothers, one of whom followed his example, and is at the present time worthily fulfilling the office of visitor to the Christian Schools of Clermont-Ferrand. Boniface was the name by which the young novice was at first called; but as this was soon afterwards exchanged for that of Philip, we shall always so designate him.

His exemplary assiduity and piety, as well as his rare qualifications as a teacher, quickly drew attention to him, and on account of his skill in mathematics he was appointed professor in a school of coast navigation at Auray in the Morbihan, where he was very successful. While here he wrote a treatise on the subject of his instructions, which was his first attempt in the special kind of writing in which he afterwards so greatly excelled. M. Deshayes, the curé of Auray, and a man of great discernment, was so much struck by his practical wisdom and good sense that he said to the Brother director, “See if Brother Boniface is not one day the superior of your congregation!”

It was at Auray, in 1812, that he made his first vows, and there he remained until 1816. Of the boys who during this time were under his care, no less than forty afterwards entered the sacerdotal or the monastic life. From Auray he was sent to Rethel as director, and from thence, in 1818, to fill the same office at Rheims, the nursery of his order, and afterwards at Metz. In 1823 the superior-general, Brother William of Jesus--who was seventy-five years old, and had been in the congregation from the time he was fifteen--appointed him to the responsible post of director of S. Nicolas des Champs at Paris, as well as visitor of several other houses in the provinces and in the capital. In 1826 he published a book entitled _Practical Geometry applied to Linear Design_,[106] which is regarded by competent judges as the best work of the kind in France. He continued director at Paris during the eight remaining years of Brother William’s life, which ended a little before the Revolution of July, 1830. On the succession of Brother Anaclete as superior-general Brother Philip was elected one of the four assistants of the General Chapter, and thus found himself associated with the general government of the congregation; but the higher he was raised in the responsible offices of his order, the more apparent became his good sense and sound understanding--qualifications of especial value amid the troubles of that stormy time.

The opening of evening classes for working-men is due to Brother Philip, who first commenced them in Paris, at S. Nicolas des Champs, and at Gros Caillou, extending them, with marked encouragement from the Minister of Public Instruction, M. Guizot, to other quarters of the city. The law of 1833, by establishing normal schools for primary instruction, furnished a test as well as a rivalry to the schools of the Brothers; but the latter showed themselves equal to the emergency, supplementing their course of instruction by additional subjects, and taking all necessary measures for carrying on their work in the most efficient manner.

Their novitiates were the models of the normal primary schools; but in comparing the vast difference of expense between the one and the other it is easy to perceive on which side self-denial and prudent administration are to be found. A normal school like the one at Versailles costs more than 60,000 francs, or 12,000 dollars, yearly; and that of Paris more than 100,000 francs, or 20,000 dollars; while the Brothers, for the training of their masters, receive nothing from the state; and these young masters, formed with the aid of small resources, become none the less admirable teachers, having moreover in their favor the double grace of devotedness and a special vocation.

Under the name of Louis Constantin, Brother Anaclete began the publication of works of instruction which was afterwards so efficiently continued by Brother Philip. The latter gave particular attention to the formation of a preparatory novitiate called _le petit noviciat_, which is not a novitiate, properly so called, but a preliminary trial of vocations, similar to that of the _Petit Séminaire_. Should the young members persevere, their education prepares them for teaching; and if their vocation is found to be elsewhere, this time of study will, all the same, be of great advantage to them, whatever may be their future.

The little novices were particular favorites of Brother Philip, who took delight not only in instructing them himself in both sacred and secular knowledge, but watched over them with a sort of maternal affection, and was often seen carrying into their cells warm socks or any other article of apparel of which he had discovered the need.

On the death of Brother Anaclete, in 1838, Brother Philip was unanimously elected superior by the General Chapter, on the 21st of November. After the election the chapter, contrary to its wont, abstained from passing any decree, “leaving to the enlightened zeal of the much-honored superior the care of maintaining in the Brothers the spirit of fervor.”

The Abbé de la Salle had recommended the practice of mortification, silence, recollection, contempt for earthly things and for the praise of man, humility, and prayer; and the venerable founder has continued to speak in the persons of the successive superiors of his institute. We have not space here to give quotations from the circulars issued by Brother Philip during the thirty-five years of his government, but they must be read before a just appreciation can be had of all that a “Christian Brother” is required to be, and also of the heart and mind of the writer, who never spoke of himself, but whose daily life and example were his best eloquence. He always presided over the annual retreats, commencing by that of the community in Paris. One of the Brothers, in speaking of these, said: “In listening to him I always felt that we had a saint for our father.”

A rule had been made by the chapter of 1787 that the Brother assistants should cause the portrait of the superior-general to be taken with the year of his election. It was with the greatest reluctance, and only from a spirit of obedience, as well as on account of the insistence of the Brother assistants, that Brother Philip suffered this rule to be observed in his case. Horace Vernet had the highest esteem for the superior-general, and told the Brothers who went to request him to take the portrait that he would willingly give them the benefit of his art in return for the benefit of their prayers. Brother Philip sat to him for an hour, and the painting so much admired in the Exhibition of 1845 was the result. Later on the visits of Brother Philip were a much-valued source of help and consolation to the great painter during his last illness.

Our sketch would be incomplete were we to leave unnoticed the daily life of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, which exhibits their profession put into practice.

The Brothers rise at half-past four; read the _Imitation_ until a quarter to five, followed by prayer and meditation until Mass, at six, after which they attend to official work until breakfast, at a quarter-past seven; at half-past seven the rosary is said, and the classes commence at eight; catechism at eleven, examination at half-past; at a quarter to twelve dinner, after which is a short recreation. At one o’clock prayers and rosary; classes recommence at half-past one. Official work at five; at half-past five preparation of the catechism; spiritual reading at six; at half-past six meditation; at seven supper and recreation; at half-past eight evening prayers; at nine the Brothers retire to bed; and at a quarter-past nine the lights are extinguished, and there is perfect silence.

After having been for twenty-five years established in the Rue du Faubourg St. Martin the Brothers had to make way for the building of the Station of the Eastern Railway (Gare de l’Est), and after long search found a suitable house in the Rue Plumet, now Rue Oudinot, which they purchased, and of which they took possession, as the mother-house of the institute, in the early part of 1847.

On entering this house it is at once evident that rule and order preside there. All the employments, even to the post of _concièrge_, or door-keeper, are carried on by the Brothers, each one of whom is engaged in his appointed duty. The first court, called the _Procure_, presents a certain amount of movement and activity from its relations with the world outside. The second court, which is the place for recreations, and which leads into the interior, is much more spacious and planted with trees. It was in these alleys that Brother Philip was accustomed to walk during his few moments of repose, conversing with one of the Brothers or readily listening to any of the youngest little novices who might address him.

The _Salle du Régime_, or Chamber of Government, is a marvel in the perfection of its arrangements. The superior-general is there at his post, the assistants also; the place of each occupying but a small space and on the same line. Each has his straw-seated chair, his bureau, and papers; the chair of the superior differing in no way from the rest. On each bureau is a small case, marked with its ticket, indicating the countries placed under the particular direction of the Brother assistant to whom it belongs. There are to be found all the countries to which the schools of the institute have been extended, from the cities of France and of Europe to the most distant regions of the habitable globe. Little cards in little drawers represent the immensity of the work. Everything is ruled, marked, classified, in such a manner as to take up the smallest amount of space possible; as if in all things these servants of God endeavored to occupy no more room in this world than was absolutely necessary. “We have seen,” writes M. Poujoulat, “in the _Salle du Régime_, the place which had been occupied by Brother Philip; his straw-seated chair and simple bureau, upon which stood a small image of the Blessed Virgin, for which he had a particular affection, and one of S. Peter, given to him at Rome. From this unpretending throne he governed all the houses of his order in France, Belgium, Italy, Asia, and the New World, and hither letters daily reached him from all countries. He wrote much; and his letters had the brevity and precision of one accustomed to command. The secretariate occupies ten Brothers, and, notwithstanding its variety and extent, nothing is complicated or irregular in this well-ordered administration.

“We visited, as we should visit a sanctuary, the cell of Brother Philip, and there saw his hard bed and deal bedstead, over which hung his crucifix.… A few small prints on the walls were the only luxury he allowed himself.… Some class-books ranged on shelves, a chair, a bureau, and a cupboard (the latter still containing the few articles of apparel which he had worn), … compose the whole of the furniture. How often the hours which he so needed (physically) to have passed in sleep had Brother Philip spent at this desk or kneeling before his crucifix, laying his cares and responsibilities before God, to whom, in this same little chamber, when the long day’s toil was ended, he offered up his soul!”

In another room, that of the venerable Brother Calixtus, may be seen the documents relating to the beatification of the Abbé de la Salle, bearing a seal impressed with the device of the congregation--_Signum Fidei_. Besides thirty-five autograph letters of the founder and the form of profession of the members, there are here the bulls of approbation accorded by Pope Benedict XIII. in 1725, and the letters-patent granted the previous year by Louis XV. In a room called the Chamber of Relics are preserved various sacred vestments and other objects which had belonged to the venerable De la Salle. The chapel is at present a temporary construction.

The mother-house comprises the two novitiates and a normal school appropriated solely to the perfecting of the younger masters. It is from the little novices that the Brothers select the children of the choir. To see these twenty-five or thirty little fellows on great festivals, in alb and red cassock, swinging censers or scattering flowers before the Blessed Sacrament, amid the rich harmonies of the organ and the church’s sacred chant, was Brother Philip’s especial delight; he seemed to see in them, as it were, a little battalion of angels offering their innocent homage to the hidden God.

If order forms one part of the permanent spirit of the institute, so also does the practice of poverty; but it is _holy_ poverty, tranquil and cheerful. Self-denial is the foundation of all that is seen there, but so also are propriety and suitability. The life of the Brothers is austere, but by no means gloomy; on the contrary, one of their prevailing characteristics is a cheerful equanimity, which seems never to forsake them. Nothing useless is permitted in any of the houses. “We must not,” wrote Brother Agathon in 1787, “allow anything which may habitually or without good reason turn aside the Brothers from the exercises of the community or trouble their tranquillity; such things, for instance, as fancy dogs, birds, the culture of flowers, shrubs, or curious plants.” And these regulations have been faithfully observed.

This the mother-house, in the Rue Oudinot, is the centre of government to the numerous establishments of the institute spread over the earth; it is, in fact, their little capital, from whence the superior-general and his assistants, like the monarch and parliament of a constitutional kingdom, exercise a wise and beneficent dominion.

The Revolution of February, 1848, notwithstanding the general disorganization of which it was the cause, did not prejudicially affect the work of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The moderate spirit of a large majority of the constituency was in their favor, and the triumph of what was styled the “right of association” was of benefit to the religious orders. And, besides this, men high in office acknowledged the small consideration given to the religious element in the primary instruction organized by the law to have occasioned the moral devastation of which they had been the sorrowful witnesses.

This state of opinion, by producing an increased respect for the Brothers and appreciation of their work, was very favorable to the institute of De la Salle. In 1849 the superior-general was requested to take part in an extra-parliamentary commission on the subject of public instruction and liberty of teaching. His extensive and practical knowledge made a great impression on his fellow-commissioners. Naturally modest and retiring, he was never one of the most forward to speak, but the most listened to of any; his observations being so conclusive and to the point as invariably to decide the ultimate resolution of a question; and answers which others were painfully seeking he found at once in the store-house of his long experience. That portion of the law of March 15, 1850, relating to primary instruction, bears the impress of these discussions.

The epoch of the Second Empire was a time of difficulty for the Brothers. The new government, which had begun by wishing to decorate Brother Philip--who was always rebellious against seductions of this nature--raised against his institute the question of scholar remuneration, alleging that it owed its success merely to its rule of teaching gratuitously, to the prejudice of the schools of the state, and requiring the municipality of every place where the Brothers were established to insist on their adoption of the remunerative system. These difficulties, which had begun under the ministry of M. Fortoul, became more serious under that of M. Rouland.

Now, it was one of the fundamental rules of the institute that the Brothers should receive no remuneration whatever in return for their instructions. Brother Philip, therefore, in the name of the statutes of his order, resolutely resisted their infringement. To punish him for so doing the annual sum of eight thousand four hundred francs, which had been granted to the institute under the ministry of M. Guizot for the general expenses of administration, was suppressed, many of the houses were closed, and forty more threatened with the same fate.

At last, after an anxious struggle of seven years’ duration, it was decided by the General Chapter, assembled in 1861, that, to avoid worse evils and save the institute from destruction, a partial concession should be made. Payments were allowed where the government insisted, but it was expressly stipulated that these payments would be the property of the municipal council, the Brothers themselves having nothing whatever to do with them.

This concession, which had only been forced from him by a hard necessity, was a great vexation to Brother Philip, who, however, consoled himself with the thought that this moral oppression would only be of temporary duration. Nor was he mistaken. For twenty years past not only has the gratuitous system not been attacked, but the very men who opposed it in the case of the Brothers have themselves insisted on its general adoption, in their endeavors to force upon the whole of France a primary instruction without religion.

The ministry of M. Rouland, being particularly jealous of Brother Philip as head of a religious congregation, had other trials in store for him, taking out of his hands the right of appointing masters, in order that it might, through the prefects, place lay teachers of its own selection in places where the people themselves had requested that their children should be taught by the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The measures taken to attain this end were, however, only partially successful.

In 1862 a curious complaint was made against those who had for so long been called _Ignorantins_, accusing them of teaching too many things and overstepping the limits allowed by Article 23 of the law of 1850.[107]

When at Dijon, in 1862, Brother Pol-de-Léon made his request to be instituted as director of the _pensionnat_, the administration refused to grant it, on the ground that the title of “elementary school” taken by the said _pensionnat_ was in manifest contradiction to the advanced instruction given there, and which included algebra, geometry, trigonometry, French literature, cosmography, physics, chemistry, mechanics, English, and German. The Brothers, thus accused of distributing too much learning, replied that, if the law of 1850 did not mention these subjects of instruction, neither did it prohibit them; they consented, however, to withdraw a portion from this programme. The president of the provincial council, M. Leffemberg, was merciful, and allowed some of the additions, among which were English and German, to remain.

Subsequent arrangements have been made, by which a regular course of secondary or higher instruction has been organized by the Brothers. This is admirably carried on in their immense establishment at Passy (amongst other places), and its normal school is at Cluny; and no one now disputes with the institute the honor of having been the originator of the special course of secondary instruction which has been found to answer so remarkably in France.

One of the most serious anxieties of Brother Philip under the Second Empire arose in 1866 on the subject of dispensation from military service. Since their reorganization the Brothers of the Christian Schools had been exempted from serving in the army, on account of their being already engaged in another form of service for the public benefit, and on condition of their binding themselves for a period of not less than ten years to the public instruction. A circular of M. Duruy, by changing the terms of the law, deprived the Brothers of their exemption, whilst in that very same month of February M. le Maréchal Randon, in addressing general instructions to the marshals of military divisions in the provinces, gave distinct orders that the Brothers of the Christian Schools should not be required to serve, on account of the occupation in which they were already engaged; thus, in two contradictory circulars on the same question, the interpretation of the Minister of Public Instruction was unfavorable to the education of the people; the contrary being the case with that of the Minister of War.

We have not space to give the particulars of the long struggle that was carried on upon this question, and in which Cardinals Matthieu and Bonnechose energetically took part with the Brothers; the Archbishop of Rennes and the Bishop of Ajaccio also petitioning the senate on their behalf. But in vain. To the great anguish of Brother Philip, the senate voted according to the good pleasure of M. Duruy. The superior-general left no means untried to avert the threatened conscription of the young Brothers; he petitioned, he wrote, he pleaded, with an energy and perseverance that nothing could daunt, until the law, passed on the 1st of February, 1868, relieved him from this pressing anxiety. He had unconsciously won for himself so high an opinion in the country that his authority fought, as it were, for his widespread family.

Ever since the Revolution of 1848 a great clamor has been raised in France about the moral elevation of the laboring classes; but while the innovators who believe only in themselves have been talking, the Christian Brothers have been working. We have already mentioned the classes for adults established by the predecessor of Brother Philip. These, and especially the evening classes, were made by the latter the objects of his especial attention. He arranged that linear drawing should in these occupy a considerable place; thus there is scarcely a place of any importance in France in which courses of lessons in drawing do not form a part of the popular instruction, and, with the exception of a few large towns which already possessed a school of design, nearly all the working population of the country has, up to the present time, gained its knowledge of the art in the classes directed by the Brothers. Proof of this fact is yearly afforded in the “Exhibition of the Fine Arts applied to Practical Industries,” which, since 1860, has been annually opened at Paris, and in which the productions of their schools are remarkable among the rest for their excellence, as well as their number. The gold medal as well as the high praise awarded them by the jury of the International Exhibition in 1867 testified to the thoroughness of the manner in which the pupils of the Christian Brothers are taught.

One of the gods worshipped by the XIXth century is “utility,” and to such an extent by some of its votaries that one of them, some years ago, proposed to the Pacha of Egypt to demolish the pyramids, on the ground that they were “useless.” This reproach cannot certainly be applied to the Brothers of the Christian Schools. All their arrangements, their instructions, their daily life, have the stamp of utility, and that of the highest social order.

Although our space does not permit us to speak of the works of the Brothers in detail, their variety answering, as it does, to all the needs of the people, yet a few words must be given to that of S. Nicolas, for the education of young boys of the working-classes.

Towards the close of the Restoration, in 1827, M. de Bervanger, a priest, collected seven poor orphan children, whom he placed under the care of an honest workman in the Rue des Anglaises (Faubourg St. Marceau), who employed them in his workshop, his wife assisting him in taking charge of them. This was the commencement of the work of S. Nicolas. In a few months the little lodging was too small for its increasing number of inmates, and, assistance having been sent, a house was taken in the Rue de Vaugirard, where the boys were taught various trades and manufactures, but still under a certain amount of difficulty, a sum of seven or eight thousand francs being pressingly required. It was at this time that M. de Bervanger became acquainted with Count Victor de Noailles, who at once supplied the sum, and from that time took a great and increasing interest in the establishment, of which he afterwards became the head. On the breaking out of the revolution of 1830 he saved it by establishing himself there under the title of director; M. de Bervanger, for the sake of prudence, having only that of almoner. The two friends, being together at Rome in the winter of 1834-5, were warmly encouraged in their undertaking by Pope Benedict XIII., who desired Count Victor to remain at its head. Soon afterwards a purchase of the house was effected, and in this house of S. Nicolas the count died in the following year. From that time M. de Bervanger took the sole direction, and the work prospered in spite of every opposition. To meet its increased requirements he bought the Château of Issy, and Mgr. Affre, Archbishop of Paris, announced himself the protector of what he declared to be “the most excellent work in his diocese.” The republic of 1848 was rather profitable to it than otherwise. Former pupils of the house, enrolled in the Garde Mobile, did their duty so bravely in quelling the terrible insurrection of June that to fifteen of their number the Cross of Honor was awarded, proving that in those days of violence the _gamin de Paris_, the foundation or material of the work of S. Nicolas, could be a hero.

This work, owing to the unbounded energy and devotion of its reverend director, had immensely increased in efficiency and extent. More than eleven hundred children were here receiving the elementary instruction, religious and professional, of which no other model existed. But although his courage never failed, his strength declined, and, to save the work, he gave it up, in 1858, into the hands of the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Morlot. A document exists which proves it to have been necessary to resist the will of the holy priest, in order that, after having given up the value of about a million and a half of francs, without asking either board or lodging, he should not be left utterly without resources. The archbishop, after treating with the members of the council of administration and obtaining the consent of Brother Philip, who threw himself heartily into the work, placed S. Nicolas in the hands of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, who for the last fifteen years have admirably fulfilled this additional responsibility then confided to them. At the time of their installation the Brothers appointed to S. Nicolas were seventy in number; they have now increased to a hundred and thirty, for the direction of the three houses, one of which is at Paris, another at Issy, and the third at Igny. The house in the Rue Vaugirard alone contains about a thousand boys, who are there taught various trades; there are carpenters, cabinet-makers, carvers, opticians, watchmakers, designers of patterns for different manufactures, etc., etc. At the end of their apprenticeship these lads can earn six, seven, or even eight francs a day. The most skilful enter the schools of _Arts et Métiers_--arts and trades--the most brilliant efforts being rewarded by the rank of civil engineer.

The large and fertile garden of Issy is a school of horticulture, and at Igny the boys are taught field-labor and farming, as well as gardening; the fruits and vegetables of Igny forming a valuable resource for the house in the Rue Vaugirard, at Paris. The Sisters of the Christian Schools have charge of the laundry and needle-work of the three establishments. Once every month two members of the council inspect these schools to the minutest details--the classes, the workshops, the gardens, the house arrangements, the neatness of the books, etc.--and interrogate the children.

Instrumental as well as vocal music is taught at S. Nicolas as a professional art. A few years ago might be seen on the road from Issy to Paris two battalions of youths who passed each other on the way, the one that of the “little ones,” clad in blouses of black woollen; the other the pupils and apprentices of the Rue Vaugirard, in dark gray, each with its band of music. The passers-by called them “the regiments of S. Nicolas.” In the French expedition into China the band of the flag-ship was chiefly composed of former pupils of these establishments, who, faithful to their old traditions, had with them the banner of their patron saint, which was duly displayed on grand occasions, to the great satisfaction of the admiral commanding the expedition.

The idea of the celebrated Dr. Branchet, of placing blind and also deaf and dumb children in the primary schools of the Brothers, has been attended with the happiest results. These children enter at the same age as those who can speak and see, and, like them, remain until they have made their first Communion, and leave just at the period when they can be received into special institutions, where they are kept for eight years longer. The rapid improvement in these poor children, who are under the care of the Brothers, and of the Sisters of S. Vincent de Paul and of S. Marie, is truly wonderful. Mistrust, timidity, and reserve speedily give place to cheerfulness, confidence, and affection; the habitual contact with children who can see and hear being a great assistance to the development of their intelligence and capabilities.

In 1841 the Minister of the Interior, acting by desire of the local authorities, requested that the Brothers should be sent to certain of the great central prisons of France. The first essay was made at Nîmes, where three Brothers were placed over that portion of the prison appropriated to the younger offenders, in whom so great a change for the better soon became apparent that a general desire arose that all the prisoners, twelve hundred in number, should be put under their charge. Brother Philip, after taking the matter into careful consideration, gave his consent, to the great joy of the prefect of Nîmes; and in the same year, 1841, the rough keepers were replaced by a detachment of thirty-seven Brothers of the Christian Schools. In the course of two months the new organization had effected a complete change in the prison, not only as regarded the docility and general improvement of the prisoners, but their health also, from the alterations made by the new managers in the sanitary arrangements of the building. Brother Facile, a man of great intelligence, firmness, and good sense, was the director of the Brothers, who had various trials to undergo in the exercise of their present functions. In spite of various difficulties, most of which were occasioned by the conduct of lay officials, the Brothers remained at Nîmes until 1848, when the revolution cut short their work, not only there, but also at Fontevrault (where they had the charge of fourteen hundred prisoners), at Aniane, and at Mélun.

The institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, being of French origin, naturally developed itself first in France. At the beginning of 1874 it numbered nine hundred and forty-five establishments in that country, more than eight thousand Brothers, and above three hundred and twelve thousand pupils. From the commencement of the congregation it has had a house at Rome; and at Turin their schools are attended by more than three thousand five hundred children. They easily took root in Catholic Belgium, where their pupils are above fifteen thousand in number. They are in England, Austria, Prussia, and Switzerland. Passing out of Europe, we find them honored and encouraged in the little republic of Ecuador, where they were first planted in 1863, under Brother Albanus, a man of great prudence as well as of activity and zeal. Two years later four Brothers embarked for Cochin-China, the Admiral of La Grandière having requested Brother Philip to send them to teach the children of the new French colony. Their first house there was at Saïgon, to which others were added in different parts of the country, as more Brothers arrived. They have establishments in Madagascar, the Seychelles, the East Indies, and the Isle of Mauritius, and have been in the Ile de la Réunion ever since 1816. They are at Tunis, where they teach the children in Italian (that language being the one most usually spoken there); and in Algiers, where for years the bishop, Mgr. Dupuch, had been begging that they might be sent. Brother Philip was both ready and willing, but the delays and difficulties raised by the French Minister of War, would not allow him to accede to the request until 1852, after the death of M. Dupuch, who had begun the negotiation ten years before. When, in 1870, contrary to the entreaties of the bishop, Mgr. de Lavigerie, and the protest of the inhabitants of the place, the Brothers were forced out of their schools--their only offence being that they were Christian--they opened free schools, independent of any government arrangement, and had them filled at once by three thousand of their former pupils; the same thing being done at other towns with the same result. A change for the better took place in the ideas of the home government in 1871, and at the present time, thanks to the rule of Marshal MacMahon, the Christian Schools of Algiers have been restored to their rights.

In concert with the Lazarists the Brothers opened schools at Smyrna in 1841, and soon afterwards at Constantinople, with the authorization of the government. They are settled also at Alexandria under the protection of the bishop, and under that of the vicar-apostolic at Cairo, where they have received marked proofs of interest from the Viceroy of Egypt.

But it is not of the children of the Old World only that the Brothers have so largely taken possession; the spirit of Christianity is a spirit of conquest, and the missionary, the Sister of Charity, and the Christian Brother are of the conquering race.

The infant foundations of the latter have a particular interest in the vast American continent, where either all is comparatively of yesterday, or else the vast solitudes of ages still await the footstep of civilization, or even of man. Religious orders prosper in this land; and the children of La Salle first settled in Canada in 1837, at the earnest invitation of M. Quiblier, Superior of the Seminary of S. Sulpice at Montreal, and of Mgr. Lartique, the bishop of that city. Four Brothers of the Christian Schools were sent by the packet-boat _Louis Philippe_, which sailed on the 10th of October in that year, reaching New York on the 13th of November. The _curés_ of S. Sulpice at Paris were the earliest supporters of the venerable De la Salle; and it is interesting to notice, at a distance of two centuries and on the other side of the Atlantic, the sons of the same house faithful to the same traditions. The work spread rapidly in Montreal, where in a short time twenty-five Brothers were occupied in teaching eighteen hundred children. Four of their pupils of this city, who had become postulants, took the habit on All Saints’ Day, 1840. The same year brought them a visit from the Governor-General of Canada, Lord Sydenham, who, after entering with interest into the details of their work, gave them the greatest encouragement. In the course of the following year they held their classes in presence of the bishops of Montreal, Quebec, Kingston, and Boston, numerously accompanied by their clergy, and received the congratulations and benediction of the prelates. They opened a school at Quebec in 1843, and later, on the invitation of the Archbishop of Baltimore, Brother Aidant went to found one also in that city. It was he who was authorized by Brother Philip, in 1847, to go to Paris in order to give an account of the work which had been carried on in America during the previous ten years, and who returned thither, accompanied by five more Brothers.

When, in 1848, the members of the institute were withdrawn from the central prisons of France, their superior felt that the energetic Brother Facile would be an invaluable superintendent of the Christian Schools in the New World. Brother Aidant had done great things during the eleven years that he had occupied the post of director and visitor of the province of Canada and of the United States. Five principal houses, employing fifty Brothers, had been established there--namely, those of Montreal, Quebec, Three Rivers, Baltimore, and New York; but the work received a new and extensive development during the twelve years of the directorship of Brother Facile, who, when summoned to France by Brother Philip in 1861, left behind him 78 schools, 24,532 pupils, 368 Brothers, and 74 novices; and this wonderful increase has subsequently continued.

In 1863 Brother Philip considered it advisable to divide North America into two provinces, namely, those of Canada and the United States; Brother Ambrose, director of the schools of St. Louis, Missouri, being named visitor of the province of the United States, in residence at New York; and Brother Liguori, of Moulins, in residence at Montreal, visitor of the province of Canada.

The Brothers of the Christian Schools in America are recruited not only from France, but from all the nationalities of the country. Among them are Franco-Canadians, Anglo-Americans, Irish, Belgians, and Germans. The visit of Lord Young, the Governor-General of Canada, in 1869, to their principal school in Montreal, was a sort of official recognition of their teaching on the part of Great Britain. He praised their work as being the “type and model of a good education.” Amongst those who were presented to him, the governor-general saw with particular interest Brother Adelbertus, the only surviving one of the four who were sent to Canada in 1837. They now have schools in all the six provinces of Canada, and since 1869 have been established also at Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward’s Island. A Protestant writer who visited their schools at Halifax, in giving an account of what he had seen, stated that he was greatly struck by “the perfect discipline of the pupils, their silence, their prompt obedience and great assiduity, their neatness, and the good expression of their countenances, whether Catholic or Protestant.” He did not take offence at the short prayer said at the striking of every hour. “Each child,” he observes, “can repeat to himself the prayer learnt at his mother’s knee.” But what most of all excited his wonder were the difficult exercises in geometry, trigonometry, land-surveying, algebra (and other sciences, of which he gives a list), which he saw accomplished by the class of advanced pupils under the direction of Brother Christian. According to his account, the so-called _Ignorantins_ are almost alarmingly scientific.

When we bear in mind that Canada, although its present population does not amount to four millions, is one-third larger than France, and that its natural resources are equivalent to those of France and Germany combined, we can understand the importance of its future when once those resources shall be made available; and also we perceive the wisdom of the Christian Brothers in doing their utmost to prepare the way for this result to be attained by a well and religiously instructed generation.

But to return to Europe. The work of the Christian Schools began in Ireland, in 1802, when Mr. Edmund Rice, of Waterford, founded one in his native town, with great success. Another was established in 1807, by Mr. Thomas O’Brien, at Carrick-on-Suir, and a third at Dungarvan; but it was not until 1822 that the Irish Brothers adopted the rule of the venerable De la Salle. The institute in Ireland is the same in spirit as it is the same in rule, with some slight modifications; but it does not depend upon the French institute, although connected with it in friendly and fraternal relations, its separate existence being especially adapted to the wants of the people of Ireland.

In tracing some of the widespread ramifications of his work we seem to have lost sight of the toiling Brother to whom so much of its success was due. The fact of having the responsibility of so extensive an administration did not prevent his personally working at the classes like any other Brother of the institute. He possessed in a remarkable degree the gift of imparting knowledge, whether in things human or divine. From the time of his entrance into the institute his manner of teaching the catechism had been remarked; and it was always with the liveliest enjoyment that he fulfilled this important portion of his duties. Nothing of all this teaching has been written down; but there remains a book written by Brother Philip, of which the title is _Explanations in a catechetical form of the Epistles and Gospels for all the Sundays and principal festivals of the year_, in which the varied depths of religious thought of the pious writer are presented with a precision and yet readiness of expression in themselves constituting a simple and earnest eloquence. This book is considered a model, both with regard to the substance and the art of teaching; the writer does not fit the truth to his words, but his words to the truth.

Thus far we have sketched the origin and progress of the institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in times of comparative peace, with brief exceptions; in the second and concluding part of our notice the members of this institute will appear under a new aspect--on the battle-fields where these men of prayer and peace showed themselves to be, in that which constitutes true heroism, the bravest of the brave.

TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT MONTH.

THE LADY ANNE OF CLEVES.

Anne of Cleves, the fourth queen and third wife of Henry VIII. of England, is one of the least known personages in history. Fortunately for herself, she never gained the sad celebrity of his victims, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and Catherine Howard. As virtuous and sedate as the former, she was less high-spirited and dangerously fearless. At the same time, her gentleness was much the same as that of her only royal predecessor, and, like her, she won the respect and love of the people. If she submitted somewhat too passively to the sentence of divorce, or rather of nullification of her marriage, as pronounced by Cranmer, it must be remembered that, unlike Catherine of Aragon, she had reason to dread the consequences of opposition to the king’s despotic will. Her husband’s brutal treatment of her during the short time they lived together, his coarse expressions of disrespect and loathing, his utter want of consideration towards her as a princess, and lack of gentlemanlike behavior towards her as a woman and a stranger in his realm, were enough to dispose her to consent to any conditions which left her alive and safe, even had she not had before her eyes the sad experience of several judicial murders committed just before and after her ill-omened wedding. Among the strange circumstances of her--in a sense--obscure life is this: that, having been brought up a Lutheran, and proposed as a wife to Henry VIII. as a means of conciliating the league of powerful Protestant princes in Germany, she died a Catholic in her adopted country. Her sister, Sibylla, had married John Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, who uniformly befriended Luther. Whether Anne’s convictions were very strong or not it is not easy to say; a terror of her future husband was enough to explain her making no demur at being married according to the Catholic form, which was done with great pomp and solemnity; but she did her best while queen to save Dr. Barnes, the Reformer, probably on account of her sympathy with his opinions. In this she was unsuccessful; indeed, she never had any influence with the king. This is perhaps the only decided evidence of her being attached to the doctrines in which she had been educated, and probably the religious impressions she received in England were all in favor of Catholicity. At this time neither court nor people had changed in doctrine, though there _was_ a real Protestant party, quite distinct from the king’s time-serving prelates and obsequious courtiers. Still, Henry was unswervingly attached to the forms of the church of his fathers, and in many points to its doctrines, and, indeed, would have been by no means flattered by becoming the head of a “church” without outward symbolism and stately ceremony, such as the hidden body of Puritans already desired.

The portrait of Anne of Cleves--_i.e._, of her disposition and character--is very winning. Her mother, who, says Nicolas Wotton, was a “very wise lady, and one that very straightly looketh to her children,” had evidently brought her up, as most Flemish and German girls, in a womanly, modest, and useful fashion. She is described as “of very lowly and gentle conditions, by which she hath so much won her mother’s favor that she is very loath to suffer her to depart from her. She occupieth her time much with her needle. She can read and write her own, but French, or Latin, or other language she knoweth not; nor yet can sing or play on any instrument, for they take it here in Germany for a rebuke and an occasion of lightness that great ladies should be learned or have any knowledge of musick.”