Falloux Laws
Encyclopedia
The Falloux Laws were voted during the French Second Republic
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité...

 and promulgated on 15 March 1850 and in 1851, following the presidential election of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...

 in December 1848 and the May 1849 legislative elections
French legislative election, 1849
French legislative elections were held on 13 May 1849. Voters elected the first National Assembly of the Second Republic.The conservative Parti de l'Ordre won an overall majority of 450 seats.The Parti de l'Ordre was a bourgeois, traditionalist, and conservative party opposed to the Presidency of...

 that gave a majority to the conservative Parti de l'Ordre
Parti de l'Ordre
The Parti de l'Ordre was a French Orleanist and Legitimist conservative political party that existed during the Second Republic....

. Named for the Minister of Education Alfred de Falloux, they mainly aimed at promoting catholic teaching. The Falloux Law of 15 March 1850 also extended the requirements of the Guizot Law of 1833, which had mandated a boys' school
Single-sex education
Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education, is the practice of conducting education where male and female students attend separate classes or in separate buildings or schools. The practice was predominant before the mid-twentieth century, particularly in secondary education and...

 in each commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 of more than 500 inhabitants, to require a girls' school in those communes.

The 1851 law created a mixed system, in which some primary education
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...

 establishments were public and controlled by the state and others were under the supervision of Catholic congregations
Congregation (catholic)
The term "congregation" has three usages specific to the Roman Catholic Church. One concerns the Roman Curia, the other two concern religious institutes.- Roman Curia :...

.

Main dispositions

The main objectives of the Falloux Laws was to replace the revolutionary and imperial system, which had placed the whole of the education system
Education in France
The French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into three different stages:* the primary education ;* secondary education ;...

 under the supervision of the University
University of France
The University of France was a highly centralized educational state organization founded by Napoleon I in 1808 and given authority not only over the individual, previously independent, universities, but also over primary and secondary education. The former individual universities were henceforth...

 and of state-formed teachers, accused of spreading Republicans
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...

 and anti-clerical
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...

 ideas, by a system giving back to the clergy the responsibility of education. This aim was largely achieved, the Falloux Law creating a mixed system, public (and mostly secular) on one hand, and private and Catholic
Roman Catholicism in France
The Roman Catholic Church of France, sometimes called the "eldest daughter of the Church" owing to its early and unbroken communion with the bishop of Rome, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church...

 on the other hand.

This law provided that the clergy and members of ecclesiastical orders, male and female, might exercise the profession of teaching without producing any further qualification. This exemption was extended even to priests who taught in secondary schools, where a university degree was demanded from lay teachers. The primary schools were put under the management of the curés.

The Falloux Law created one academy by department, decentralizing University and thus strengthening the notables' local influence. It reorganized the Superior Council of Education and academical councils, specifically by giving a large place to representants of various religions, above all of Roman Catholicism. Eight University members sieged at the Superior Council of Public Instruction, alongside seven religious representants (including four Catholics), three state counsellors, three members of the Institute, and three members representing "free" (i.e. private) teaching establishments. Similarly, bishops were included in the academical councils.

Primary and secondary education were divided between state establishments, and private establishments, headed by non-profit organizations or religious congregations. Supervision of schools was placed between the double authority of the mayor and the priest.

Historical and political background

The Falloux Law was promulgated in a context in which French Catholics were worried about the increasing role of the state in education since the Revolution of 1789
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 and the reorganization of the imperial University
University of France
The University of France was a highly centralized educational state organization founded by Napoleon I in 1808 and given authority not only over the individual, previously independent, universities, but also over primary and secondary education. The former individual universities were henceforth...

. They thought that the imperial education system, inherited from the First Empire's reforms, diffused too much the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

's ideas, as well as republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...

 and socialist ideas . Thus, they wanted the education system to return to the Ancien Régime's bases.

The Bourbon Restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon  – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...

 had in part satisfied these wants, by tolerating teaching by religious congregations, although it still theoretically remained prohibited, and had also granted more weight to bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

s in the education system, enabling schooling programs to give more attention to Catholicism.

However, the July Monarchy
July Monarchy
The July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of France , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...

 was much less friendly to this reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...

 trend. Although the Guizot Law of 1833 partially satisfied Catholics by authorizing private teaching in primary education, it kept secondary and superior education under the University's supervision. Guizot also generalized the écoles normales primaires, charged of forming teachers. First created by the National Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...

 in 1794, these schools, twin sisters of the écoles normales supérieures, were organized on the basis of the 1808 decree organizing the University, and were accused by conservatives of promoting Republicanism, Socialism and anti-clericalism.

First debates during 1848-1849

After the 1848 Revolution, Lazare Hippolyte Carnot was named Minister of Public Instruction and prepared a draft reform. He named the Republican Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire
Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire
Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire was a French philosopher, journalist, statesman, and possible illegitimate son of Napoleon I of France.- Biography :...

 president of the parliamentary commission who would write the draft . The latter would have made education mandatory for children of both sexes, as well as a three-years' formation of teachers, subsided by the state. Although it favoured public school, it still allowed private teaching establishments . Carnot's draft was however set aside after his resignation on July 5, 1848 .

Thus, parliamentary debates were resumed. Newly elected President Louis Napoléon Bonaparte replaced Carnot by Alfred de Falloux as Minister of Public Instruction in December 1848, the latter remaining in Odilon Barrot
Odilon Barrot
Camille Hyacinthe Odilon Barrot was a French politician.-Early life:Barrot was born at Villefort Lozère. He belonged to a legal family, his father, an advocate of Toulouse, having been a member of the Convention who had voted against the death of Louis XVI. Odilon Barrot's earliest recollections...

's government until May 1849. The decree
Decree
A decree is a rule of law issued by a head of state , according to certain procedures . It has the force of law...

 of 11 December 1848 made the upcoming law on education an organic law
Organic law
An organic or fundamental law is a law or system of laws which forms the foundation of a government, corporation or other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law for a sovereign state....

, which should thus be reserved to the Constituent Assembly's initiative .

A Legitimist
Legitimists
Legitimists are royalists in France who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession of the descendants of the elder branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of the July Monarchy of 1830–1848, whose kings were members of the junior...

 (conservative Royalists), Falloux officially withdrew Carnot's draft project on January 4, 1849 and dissolved the Scientific and Literary Study Commission named by Carnot. Falloux clearly aimed at restoring Roman Catholicism at the head of French school and society, thus resuming his program in his Memoirs: "God in education. Pope at the head of the Church. The Church at the head of civilization."

Having dissolved Carnot's commission, Falloux created two new ministerial commissions, dedicated to preparing the draft laws for primary and secondary education, which quickly merged together. Both were composed by a majority of conservative Catholics. Presided by the Minister Falloux himself, it had as vice-president Adolphe Thiers
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...

 , and included Catholics such as the archbishop of Paris
Archbishop of Paris
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Paris is one of twenty-three archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in France. The original diocese is traditionally thought to have been created in the 3rd century by St. Denis and corresponded with the Civitas Parisiorum; it was elevated to an archdiocese on...

 Mgr Sibour
Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour
Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour was a French Catholic Archbishop of Paris....

, the abbot Dupanloup
Félix Dupanloup
Félix Antoine Philibert Dupanloup was a French ecclesiastic.-Biography:He was born at Saint-Félix, in Haute-Savoie. In his earliest years he was confided to the care of his brother, a priest in the diocese of Chambéry. In 1810 he was sent to a pensionnat ecclésiastique at Paris...

 (who later became bishop of Orléans), etc. Surprisingly, Thiers was one of those who most supported Catholics' influence in the education system, being ready to hand over to the clergy the whole of the primary education establishments, whilst bishop Dupanloup and others strong Catholics calmed his excessive claims .

Upset by this measure, in part because the December 1848 decree had given the initiative of the legislative process, concerning organic laws, to the Assembly, the latter nominated a new parliamentary Commission to re-establish its prerogatives following a proposition by the moderate Republican Pascal Duprat . This parallel Commission was presided by the Minister of Public Instruction de Vaulabelle and had as secretary the Republican Jules Simon
Jules Simon
Jules François Simon was a French statesman and philosopher, and one of the leader of the Opportunist Republicans faction.-Biography:Simon was born at Lorient. His father was a linen-draper from Lorraine, who renounced Protestantism before his second marriage with a Catholic Breton. Jules Simon...

 .

Parliamentary debates focalized on the article 9 of the new Constitution concerning education. Catholic deputy Charles de Montalembert then described the University's monopoly in the education system as "intellectual communism" and claimed the system was "inferior to the Ancien Régime's one" . Article 9 finally proclaimed "teaching is free" while adding that this "freedom of teaching" was determined by legislation and exercised "under state surveillance." While authorizing private establishments, this article thus insured that education in general was placed under state supervision. The extent of the latter would be determined by incoming laws.

On February 5, 1849, Jules Simon presented to the Assembly the draft law, composed of 23 articles . However, Odilon Barrot's government claimed that the Constituent Assembly's mandate was coming to an end, and that further law projects would have to be examined by the succeeding National Assembly. Pressed by time, the Constituent Assembly thus decided to examine the most pressing laws. Deputy Boubée
Nérée Boubée
Nérée Boubée was a naturalist , entomologist, geologist, author and a professor at the University of Paris. He was a Member of the Société entomologique de France....

, a scientific and teacher at University, proposed to include the education draft law into these ones, but his motion was rejected by 458 voices against 307 .

New debates following the May 1849 elections

Discussion of the new law would thus have to wait the May 1849 legislative election
French legislative election, 1849
French legislative elections were held on 13 May 1849. Voters elected the first National Assembly of the Second Republic.The conservative Parti de l'Ordre won an overall majority of 450 seats.The Parti de l'Ordre was a bourgeois, traditionalist, and conservative party opposed to the Presidency of...

. But these ones gave an absolute majority to the conservative Parti de l'Ordre
Parti de l'Ordre
The Parti de l'Ordre was a French Orleanist and Legitimist conservative political party that existed during the Second Republic....

, mainly composed of Catholic monarchists, whether Orleanists or Legitimists, such as Falloux who was elected deputy .

Despite having been dissolved, the Commission presided by Barthélémy Saint-Hilaire and named by Carnot deposed its draft and report to the Assembly on April 10, 1849 . This work was ignored during further discussions . On June 18, 1849, Falloux deposed to the Assembly the draft project elaborated by the ministerial commission which he had himself named. Falloux thus resumed his project: "Instruction has remained too much isolated from education; education has remained too much isolated from religion."

The Assembly hereby named another parliamentary commission, where Catholics had again the upper-hand. It included Salomon (from the Meuse
Meuse
Meuse is a department in northeast France, named after the River Meuse.-History:Meuse is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

), the Protestant theologian Coquerel, Baze, the theologian Armand de Melun (who had been a collaborator of late Denys Affre, former archbishop of Paris), de l'Espinay, Sauvaire-Barthélemy (a grandnephew of the marquis de Barthélémy
François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy
François, marquis de Barthélemy was a French politician and diplomat, active at the time of the French Revolution.-Diplomat and member of the Directory:...

), Dufougeray, Barthélémy Saint-Hilaire, de Montalembert, Rouher
Eugène Rouher
Eugène Rouher was a French statesman of the Second Empire.He was born at Riom , where he practised law after taking his degree in Paris in 1835. In 1846 he sought election to the Chamber of Deputies as an official candidate of the Guizot ministry...

, Thiers
Adolphe Thiers
Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...

, Beugnot, Fresneau, Janvier, Parisis
Pierre Louis Parisis
Pierre Louis Parisis was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Bishopric of Langres from 1835 to 1851.In 1847 he formed the Archconfraternity of Reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Sunday to promote Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ. He is also noted for his efforts within the Assembly of 1848...

 (bishop of Langres
Langres
Langres is a commune in north-eastern France. It is a subprefecture of the Haute-Marne département in the Champagne-Ardenne region.-History:As the capital of the Romanized Gallic tribe the Lingones, it was called Andematunnum, then Lingones, and now Langres.The town is built on a limestone...

) . The Commission chose Thiers as president and Beugnot as "rapporteur" (in charge of presenting the draft project to the Assembly). Falloux also managed to bypass the Conseil d'Etat's examination of the law, the latter being composed of several Republicans .

In September 1849, Falloux fell sick, and was replaced in October as Minister of Public Instruction by Félix Esquirou de Parieu
Félix Esquirou de Parieu
Félix Marie Louis Pierre Esquirou de Parieu was a French statesman.Born in Aurillac, Cantal, he was notably Minister of Education and Public Worship from 1849 to 1851, and headed the French Council of State in 1870....

 . On January 11, 1850, a minor law (named Parieu Law) was voted, simplifying procedures of suspension and revocation of teachers. The draft was discussed again starting on January 14, 1850. During these debates, Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

, although member of the Parti de l'Ordre, criticized the renewed influence of the clergy. The law was finally adopted on March 15, 1850, by 399 votes against 237 .

Reforms of the Third Republic and latter posterity

The Third Republic abrogated or reformed most dispositions of the Falloux Laws. The 27 February 1880 law reduced the clergy's representation in educational councils. The Ferry Laws established mandatory, free and laic education. The Goblet Law abrogated the first and second section of the Falloux Law. In 1904, among increasing voices to repeal entirely the Falloux Law, the Minister Emile Combes
Émile Combes
Émile Combes was a French statesman who led the Bloc des gauches's cabinet from June 1902 – January 1905.-Biography:Émile Combes was born in Roquecourbe, Tarn. He studied for the priesthood, but abandoned the idea before ordination. His anti-clericalism would later lead him into becoming a...

 prohibited religious congregations from teaching, including in private schools.

However, Catholics responded by creating "lay private schools", where religious education was maintained, although teaching was done by lay people, and not clergy.

The Vichy Regime allowed again religious congregations to teach and strongly subsided private Catholic schools. Although these subsides were interrupted following the Liberation, the Provisional Government of the French Republic
Provisional Government of the French Republic
The Provisional Government of the French Republic was an interim government which governed France from 1944 to 1946, following the fall of Vichy France and prior to the Fourth French Republic....

 (GPRF) did not repeal the teaching authorization given to congregations. The Debré Law of 1959 went further, by having private schools' teachers paid by the state.

Although the Falloux Laws have formally been repealed since the promulgation of the Education Code in 2000, several of its dispositions have been retained in the Code, and form the main legislative frame for private schools.

Additional sources

Pierre Albertini, L'École en France. XIXe-XXe siècles. De la maternelle à l'université., Carré Histoire, Hachette Supérieur, Paris, 1992. Carlos Mario Molina Betancur, La Loi Falloux : abrogation ou réforme ?, LGDJ, coll. « Bibliothèque constitutionnelle et de science politique », numéro 104, Paris, 2001, 543 p.
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