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The
France of De La Salle
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France
at the turn from the 17th century to the 18th was a society divided
and stratified in ways that ours is not, but with some characteristics
that may be familiar. There was heavy taxation, the poor stayed poor,
the rich got richer, and as the Middle Ages truly ended and the age
of commerce and science began, the bourgeoisie were beginning to exercise
more influence, partly because social influence was beginning to become
based more and more on money rather than sheer status. Birth was still
important, but it was no longer the only measure of worth. Merchants,
tradesmen, city council members, professionals of all sorts jostled
for influence and standing, working their way ever higher into the
upper classes of the bourgeoisie. France had much wealth, yet there
was frequent economic crisis, partly from incessant, expensive wars,
and there was periodic famine and consequent epidemics of disease,
for the economy was based on agriculture and the country's well-being
was thus susceptible to drought or blight. Two-thirds of the population
of 19 to 20 million lived in the countryside, many of them poor and
unprovided with education. The Church was wealthy and intricately
intertwined with the state. The parish was a civil administrative
division as well as an ecclesiastical one, where registers of births,
deaths, and marriages were kept. The parish was used as a territorial
framework for the registering of population and the levying of taxes;
and parishes were responsible for providing education of the poor.
But the results were highly inconsistent. There was wealth, power,
and influence available in city, state, and church for those who were
positioned to grasp for it. But the poor and destitute, of whom there
were many, were in a position of insecurity, dependence and inferiority
perhaps difficult for us to imagine. |
Editor's
Letter | Brother
Visitor's Letter | John
Baptist de La Salle: His Life and Times
John
Baptist de La Salle: The Educator and Visionary |
John Baptist de La Salle: A
Saint For Teachers
General Chapter
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