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History Of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools by M. Georges Rigault Volume One The Religious and Educational Achievement of Saint John Baptist de La Salle Original translation by Brother S. Edmund Dolan FSC of St Mary’s College, Moraga. [This edition makes certain corrections and restores the original French for proper names & places] 1 Table of Contents Preface pp. i- vi Part One : The Tradition: Popular Education Prior to the Founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools pp.13 - 95 Chapter One pp.14 - 23 The Tradition of Popular Education Preamble: The Grain of Mustard Seed.---The Founder's Act of Faith.---The Human Context and the Finger of God.---The Church and Education.---Popular Education in the Middle Ages.---The ``Schoolmaster" in the Elementary School.---The Work of the Brothers of the Common Life.---The Voice of Pierre Gerson.---The Renaissance and Christian Humanism.---Protestantism and Popular Education. Chapter Two pp. 24 - 30 Seventeenth Century Christianity: Its Educational Ideas and Initiatives Seventeenth Century Ideas on the Subject of Popular Education. Initiatives of the Society of the Blessed Sacrament, Adrien Bourdoise, Colas Portmorant and the Orleans Group.---Activity and Inheritance of César de Bus, St. Joseph Calasanctius and St. Pierre Fourier. ... Chapter Three pp. 31 - 39 Conditions in the Primary Schools of Seventeenth Century France - The Recruiting of Teaching Personnel –Teachers’ Associations: the Parisian Schoolmasters Under the Authority of the Chief Cantor. The Writing masters. - Charity Schools. - Inching Towards Compulsory School Attendance. Chapter Four . pp. 40 - 49 The Parish School The Qualities of a Good Teacher - The Schoolroom and the Scholars. -Religious Education. - The ``Introduction to Knowledge Chapter Five pp. 50 - 63 Charles Demia - Charles Demia, Nicolas Barré and Nicolas Roland. - Charles Demia, His Life and Word. -`Remonstances". - The School System in Lyons.---Demia's Pedagogy. Chapter Six pp. 64 - 79 Père Barré - Père Barré and St. John Baptist de La Salle.---Bibliography of the Subject.---Père Barré's Life and Works.---The Sisters and Brothers of the Holy Child Jesus.---Père Barré's Spiritual Direction. His Educational Work. 2 Chapter Seven pp. 80 - 95 Nicolas Roland - Nicholas Roland and St. John Baptist de La Salle. - Bibliography of the Subject. - Life and Work of Nicholas Roland. - The Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus of Rheims. - Nicholas Roland's Spiritual Direction Part Two The Beginnings: The History of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools from its Origins to 1719 pp. 96 - 286 Chapter One pp. 96 - 112 St. John Baptist de La Salle, Adrien Nyel And Their First Schools - Adrian Nyel. - Canon J.B. de La Salle. - The St. Maurice School - St. James and St. Symphorian Schools.---Schools in Rethel, Guise and Laon.---Nyel's Departure. Chapter Two pp.113 - 129 The Organization of the Brothers' Community and The ``Seminary" for Country Schoolteachers The Memoir on the Habit.---The Brothers' Community.---The ``Seminary" for Country Schoolteachers.---The ``Junior Novitiate".---The Election of a ``Brother" Superior. Chapter Three . pp. 130 - 145 St. John Baptist de La Salle and the Brothers at St. Sulpice and Vaugirard - De La Salle's Departure for Paris. - The First Years of the Brothers' School at St. Sulpice. - The Enclosure at Vaugirard.---The ``Vow" of 1691. - Sunday School - The Vows of 1694. - De La Salle's Election by the Brothers Chapter Four pp. 146 - 157 Père Trotti de La Chétardye - J. T. La Chétardye. - Inauguration of La Grande Maison . St. Sulpice Schools in 1698--1699. - The Irish. - Sunday School. - The Crisis of 1702--1703. - Departure from La Grande Maison Chapter Five pp. 158 - 173 De La Salle's Lawsuits and a Setback for The Country Schoolteachers The Relation Between the Founder's Trials and the Extension of his Work. - The ``Seminary" for Teachers at St. Hippolytus and Nicholas Vuyart's Defection. - The Major Assault on De La Salle's Work by the Writing masters and the Elementary Schoolteachers. - The ``Seminary" for Teachers at St. Denis and the Clément Trial. Chapter Six pp. 174 -189 Foundations in the Provinces: Schools in Chartres, Calais and Troyes - Overview of the Foundations. - Schools in Chartres. - Schools in Calais. - The First School in Troyes. Chapter Seven pp. 190 - 209 The Schools in Provence, and the Schools in Rouen, Dijon, Mâcon, Versailles, Boulogne and Moulins - Schools for the People in Darnétal and Rouen. - The 3 Schools in Dijon, Mâcon, Versailles and Boulogne. - Father Aubery's Work in Moulins. Chapter Eight pp. 210 - 229 Brother Gabriel Drolin in Rome St. John Baptist de la Salle and Rome. - His Letters to Brother Gabriel. - Brother Gabriel's Date of Arrival in Rome. - Brother Gabriel and M. La Bussière. - The Opening of a Small School (1705). - Letters (1706--1707). - Brother Gabriel, Teacher is a ``Papal School". - Letters from Marseille (1711--1712) - De La Salle's Last Letters to Gabriel Drolin. Chapter Nine pp. 230 - 257 The Foundations in the South of France The First Schools in Avignon. - St.Laurence School in Marseille. Schools in Valréas and Mende. - The School in Alès. - The Foundation in Grenoble. - The School in Vans. - The Founder's Lengthy Stay in the South of France. Chapter Ten pp. 258 - 286 The Final Organization of the Institute: Brother Barthélemy, the Founding of St. Yon - Brother Barthélemy and the Institute up to De La Salle's Return to Paris. - The Institution and the Work at St. Yon. - Preliminaries, Procedures and Results of the Election of 1717. - The Purchase of the St. Yon Property (1718).---The Canadian Project. - Brother Irénée, Director of Novices. - De La Salle's Last Will and Testament: his death. Part Three The Writings : The Spiritual and Educational Writings of St. John Baptist de La Salle pp.288 - 394 Chapter One pp. 289 - 308 The Letters of St. John Baptist de La Salle De La Salle's Writings. - The File of his Letters. - The Letters in ``Series A". - Three Letters to Brothers Director. - Letters to Brothers Clement, Robert and Denis. - Letters to Brother Matthias. Conclusion. Chapter Two pp. 309 - 333 The Spiritual Writings of St. John Baptist de La Salle The Sources of ``Lasallian" Spirituality". - The Collection of Various Short Treatises. - The Method of Mental Prayer and the Explanation of the Method of Mental Prayer. - Meditations for the Time of Retreat, and Meditations for Sundays and Feasts 4 Chapter Three pp. 334 - 355 The Rule of the Brothers of the Christian Schools The Four Documents. - The Manuscript of 1705. - The Manuscript entitled ``The Practice of the Daily Regulation". - The Rule of 1717-1718. - ``The Rule of the Brother Director". Chapter Four pp. 356 - 369 The Educational Writings of St. John Baptist de La Salle A glance at “Lasallian” pedagogy – The list of De La Salle’s writings – Their authenticity – School Prayers and Hymns – Duties of a Christian – Rules of Decorum and Christian Civility Chapter Five pp.370 – 393 The Conduct of Christian Schools General sketch – Manuscripts – First editions – Analysis of the book – Silence in Lasallian Schools – The “Simultaneous Method” – The substitution of French for Latin – Religious and Moral Education – “Inspector’s duties” and the “training of New teachers” 5 PREFACE [This is the original preface of the author, M. Georges Rigault, Fellow of the French Historical Academy, to the ten-volume history commissioned by the Brother Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Editor] This volume, God willing, will be the first in a series which will trace the history of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools from its origins up to our own time. Its author, in evaluating the extent of his task and his responsibility as an historian, will endeavor (with the sterling materials at his disposal) to lay here the groundwork for the monument that the Most Honored Brother Superior General, in realization of a decision formulated by one of the Chapters of his Congregation, has entrusted him to erect. He has considered that what is expected of him is not a simple compilation, nor monographs nor a series of biographies, but a history properly so called, involving rather broad perspectives, overall views, and the positioning of the work of St. John Baptist de La Salle and the Brothers within a setting of the city of man and of the City of God. The beginnings of the Institute are bound up very closely with the annals of the French nation and the Church of France. But suddenly in the 19th century and, more decisively, in the 20th, there was a flowering of all the possibilities that the Founder had enfolded in the seed. Today, the disciples of De La Salle belong to all nations and races. Together with other religious families in the Catholic Church, and under the direction of the Roman Pontiffs, they work to establish, in East and West, and ``from pole to pole" the pacifying and liberating reign of Our Savior Jesus Christ. Their pedagogy and their apostolate have a universal significance. This accounts for the interest associated with the beginnings of their activity, the vicissitudes of their existence and the manifestation and consequences of their individual and collective virtue. And it immediately justifies the order we propose for the present volume and those which are to follow. A human institution exists from the beginning and pretty nearly totally in the thought and life of the man who conceived it, who nourished it with his own substance and who brought it into the world's complexities. The work and the worker are one. De La Salle (and we do not think we should have too much trouble proving this) was a marvelous instrument of Providence, and, consequently, in the domain of the `spirit' as in the domain of `charity' (to use Pascal's language) he was what we call a `genius'.

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