As soon as they were assured of victory over the Conservatives, about 1879, they entered upon an active campaign against the Church and, having thus provoked her legitimate pro test, pretended to see in this protest an attempt at revolt, and justified themselves in taking other steps more and more drastic against her, ending in laws of expulsion and confiscation which it is no exaggeration to regard as perse cution.
At first they excluded the clergy from the Boards of Public Instruction where they had seats; they sought to degrade the higher edu cation of the Church by taking away from the Catholic faculties the name of "Universities' Then Jules Ferry, Minister of Public Instruc tion, proposed a law, article 7 of which pro hibited all teaching by members of unauthorized congregations. This article, which passed the Chamber of Deputies, was rejected by, the Senate, thanks especially to the energetic op position of that liberal philosopher, Jules Simon. The Cabinet however did not regard itself beaten, and lacking a new law such as they sought, they pretended to find support for what they proposed in some laws of the old monarchy. By the decrees of 29 March 1880, it was decided (1) that the Jesuits must vacate their dwelling houses within three months, and their school houses within five months; (2) that all unau thorized congregations must procure.an authori zation within three months. The Jesuits re mained passive and were violently expelled by armed forces on 30 June 1880; the remaining unauthorized congregations decided to take their stand with the Jesuits and did not ask for au thorization. Notwithstanding that, the govern ment did not dare to strike them all and it dispersed at that time only 216 religious com munities. In spite of some eloquent protests and manifestations, the people were indifferent, and at the legislative elections of the following year (1881) the Left gained 50 additional seats.
Encouraged by that success, the Anti-cleri cals enacted in 1882 what they called the law neutralizing primary instruction, concealing un der that apparently innocent formula sundry designs which since then have manifested them selves more and more clearly. Every religious idea has been excluded from the schools with the same care as contagious diseases. The
authorities do not admit either as books for study or as prizes any works in which the name of God is found. They even exclude all poems which contain it. They blot it out in sentences from classic authors which they are obliged to retain in the curriculum. Still, we should be fortunate if all the teachers confined themselves to this system of silence, bad enough though it be; but many of them have spoken openly against God and railed at the doctrines of Chris tianity before their pupils. There are no reli gious schools in some places, and even where there are, all parents who have any connection direct or indirect with the government (and that means pretty nearly half the people) are obliged to send their children to these atheistic schools. In 1886 it was enacted that all public school teachers should be laymen, and later Catholics were forbidden to employ any mem bers of the religious orders even in the schools entirely supported by themselves.
These measures for driving religious ideas out of the common schools are usually referred to as laicisation; but under the same name, many similar steps were taken in all the spheres of national life. For instance in 1880, military chaplains were dispensed with in time of peace,. and in 1882 the chaplains at the normal schools met the same fate; in that year also the name of God was removed from the judicial oath; in 1883 administration of diocesan property, during the vacancy of a see, was confided to civil commissioners; in 1886 was suppressed, in the Budget of the Church, everything that had been added to it, even the most necessary things, since the Concordat; and it was decided that theological students and priests should perform military service. Add to this that almost all functionaries who were practical Catholics have been driven out of public office and that the remaining representatives of public power studiously affect to totally ignore religion, so that not once in 40 years has the name of God been found in any public document, in any dis course or any letter of either the President or the ministers or any other official.