¹ (London, 1955), especially Chapter IV. Cole is here more concerned with the concept of the middle class, but has observations on “the workers” as well.

² A good summary of these variants can be found in Ligier, Simon, L'Adulte des milieux ouvriersGoogle Scholar. Tome I, Essai de psychologie social (Paris, 1951).Google Scholar

³ “Conclusions des travaux de la Commission urbaine,” in Sociologie religieuse, sciences societies, Actes du IVe Congrès Internationale (Paris, 1955), p. 247.Google Scholar

⁴ Essai sur l'indifférence en matière de religion, (4th edition, Paris, 1818–1820).Google Scholar

⁵ Gabriel Le Bras lists some of his precursors in Études de sociologie religieuse, Tome II (Paris, 1956), 689–690.Google Scholar

⁶ Paris, 1913, especially pp. 181–194.

⁷ They are generally suspicious of the Gallup Poll technique, which they consider superficial; cf. Lebret, L. J., Guide pratique de l'enquete sociale, Tome III (Paris, 1955).Google Scholar

⁸ For Catholics: the detached are non-baptized or formal apostates; the conformists are baptized who observe the religious rites on major occasions, such as first communion, marriage, and death, but rarely attend church otherwise; the observants are regular at Sunday mass and the Easter Communion; the devout are active in the support of the Church by personal sacramental participation and financial aid, and are interested in the religious education of youth.

⁹ Le Bras' historical studies are particularly excellent, cf. op cit., Tome I, 25–194, Tome II, 418–462. Droulers, Pere, Action pastorale et problèmes sociaux sous la monarchie de Juillet (Toulouse, 1954)Google Scholar, is equally good. Cf. L'Homme, J., Le Problème des classes, doctrines et faits (Paris, 1937), especially pp. 150Google Scholar sq. for 1848 and the formation of the proletariat.

¹⁰ Because of different conceptions of religious practice, the difficulties here are considerable. The problem is discussed in Leonard, E. G., La Semaine sociologique de 1951 (Paris, 1952)Google Scholar. The same author's Le Protestant Francois (Paris, 1953)Google Scholar, is the best study to date. Stuart R. Shram published an abstract of his Columbia University doctoral thesis as “Traditions religieuses et realites, politiques dans le Gard,” in Christianisme social, LXI (04, 1953), 194–254Google Scholar. It attempts a socio-political study of Protestants and Catholics in one department. It has been rigorously, and I believe correctly, criticized by Jean Labbens, in Sociologie religieuse, sciences sociales, pp. 51–57.Google Scholar

¹¹ Le Bras lists the details, op. cit., Tome II, 694–5. The École des Hautes Études has established a Section des sciences religieuses which gives courses in this field. Courses are also given in the Faculty of Letters at the Sorbonne and at Bordeaux, in the Institut d'Études politiques, and at the Centre d'Études sociologiques. The Fondation national des sciences politiques has published several cahiers of this research. Theses for the doctorate have been accepted in many French universities.

¹² The Centre belge de Sociologie religieuse in Brussels, the Katholiek Sociaal-Kerkelijk Instituut in The Hague, and centers connected with the reviews Lebendige Seelsorge (Cologne) and la Scuola Cattolica (Veregono).

¹³ Bras, Le, op. cit., Tome I, 223.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Lebret, L. J. in Sociologie religieuse, sciences societies, pp. 214–229Google Scholar. Some of the bypaths of this research are worth noting:

1. There is a close inter-relationship between the coherence and structure of the family and religious practice. Practice seems difficult, and nearly impossible, when the family is disintegrated, while devotion, and even mere practice, appear to act as a brake on family dissolution.

2. There are some indications that families of devout practice incline to a higher birth rate, cf. Ories, Philippe, Histoire des populations françaises (Paris, 1948)Google Scholar; Dassonville, J., Religion et natalité (Paris, 1927)Google Scholar. While there is a striking coincidence in France of areas of high birth rate and strong religious practice, precise conclusions cannot be drawn.

3. There is some evidence that religious practice is a factor in voting preferences, but economic and historical factors must always be weighed in. Cf. Goguel, François, Geographie des élections françaises de 1870 à 1951, (Paris, 1951), pp. 134–136Google Scholar, where the coincidences and divergencies are made precise. Rightist influence is wider in the East and West than the zones of religious practice, while in the South Center, the regions of strong Catholicism are more extensive than the areas of Rightist influence. What is most clear is the persistence of voting habits, e.g., the Yonne, an area of weak practice, has a traditional conservatism. Devout practice, with few exceptions, excludes voting for the Communist Party. Generally speaking, the latter does not snatch obedient followers from the Church, but simply gathers up those who have been dechristianized and who have already held positions close to those of the Party.

¹⁵ Febvre, Lucien, Le Problème de l'incroyance au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1942)Google Scholar; Nef, John U., La Naissance de la civilisation industrielle (Paris, 1954).Google Scholar

¹⁶ In addition to the increase, the student of this problem would have to take into account variations in the rate of growth. In France, the annual gain from 1801–1821 was 155,643, from 1821–1846, 329,828; in the crisis years, 1846–1851, it was 76,536. Cf. Pouthas, Charles H., La Population française pendant la première moitié du XIXe siècle (Paris, 1956)Google Scholar; Dunham, Arthur Louis, La Révolution industrielle en France (1815–1848) (Paris, 1953).Google Scholar

¹⁷ As a general rule, the Western European rural population remained stationary, e.g., there was no change in the population of Belgian communes of less than 5,000 from the census of 1880 to that of 1947 (3,100,000); mean-while those above 5,000 went from 2,400,000 to 5,300,000, and the four largest (Brussels, Antwerp, Liège, and Ghent) doubled to become one-fourth of the population of the nation. Cf. Houtart, F., L'Église et la pastorale des grandes villes (Brussels, 1955), p. 9.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Labbens, Jean, in Sociologie religieuse, sciences sociales, p. 42Google Scholar. Most European cities fall within this range (Cologne 27%) with few exceptions: Antwerp 38% (cf. “La Première carte de la pratique religieuse en Belgique,” in L'Actualité religieuse, 07 15, 1953, pp. 23–24)Google Scholar and Bilbao 50% (“La Pratique religieuse dans le diocese de Bilbao,” in ibid., Aug. 1, 1953).

¹⁹ This study, La Ville et l'homme: Rouen—Étude sociologique d'un secteur proletarien (Paris, 1952)Google Scholar, is recognized as a model. It contains full information on geography, density and origin of population, fixity and mobility, demography, food, delinquency, business enterprises, educational institutions, cultural life, working conditions, leisure, communications, and transport. In the area studied, 84.7% were baptized, 55% were married religiously, 79% were buried from the church.

²⁰ In Saint-Honoré parish in the fashionable XVIe arrondissement, 30–35% practice regularly, and civil marriages and burials are rare; in working class Belleville and Ménilmont, only 4–5% practice, and one-third are married and buried civilly (l'Actualité religieuse, 07 15, 1954Google Scholar). 30% practice in bourgeois Saint Pierre de Chaillot, and 25% in Notre Dame d'Auteuil (Enquête sur le 16e arrondissement de Paris (Paris, 1955)Google Scholar. In the parish of Saint Laurent, near the Gare de l'Est in the Xe arrondissement, 13.7% of the population are workers, but only 3% of those attending mass belong to this class, while 24% of the practicing are white collar workers. (“Structure sociale et vie religieuse d'une paroisse parisienne,” in Archives de sociologie des religions (01–06, 1956, pp. 71–128)Google Scholar. In the predominantly working class parish of Saint-Hippolyte, 2.5% of the workers, 4.5% of the white collar workers, 4.5% of the shop-keepers and artisans, 9% of those not gainfully employed, 10% of the civil servants, 10% of the members of the liberal professions, and 12.9% of the technicians and managers, attend mass regularly. (Isambert, F., Cahiers internationaux de sociologie, XIV, 1953).Google Scholar

For the latest methods in obtaining this material, cf. Labbens, J., Les 99 autres …, Tome I, (Paris-Lyons, 1954)Google Scholar; P. Chombart de Lauwe, P. Vielle, et L. Couvreur, La Pratique religieuse dominicale, Étude méthodologique (Paris (n.d.)); Trois ans de sociologie religieuse, in Informations catholiques internationales (09 1956), pp. 15–23.Google Scholar

As has been indicated, research into Protestant practice in France is both more difficult and less developed. Besides, organized Protestants of the traditional sort are almost exclusively bourgeois except for the rural reserves of French Protestantism in Alsace and the Midi. Even here, they tend to have a higher proportion of landowners. It is also interesting to note that Protestantism is poorly represented in the areas of greatest dechristianization. Yet Protestants in France seem to be even less practising than the Catholics. This is the conclusion of Emile G. Leonard, in Le Protestant français, who finds that only 2,000 out of 22,000 practice in Nimes. The same findings are reported by Lestringant, P. in l'Heure decisive pour nos églises; enquête sur les pertes et les gains du protestantisme français (Paris, 1929)Google Scholar, and in his Protestantisme français (Paris, 1955)Google Scholar. Some gains have been made among émigré youth, and considerable converts among the working class have been won by the Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and Pentecostals.

As for the Jews, Michel Roblin reports that there are 6,000 members of the consistory among the 100,000 Jews of Paris, but as practically none of these are workers, the figures are not pertinent to this study.

²¹ At Lens, workers are the largest element in the population (48.06%), but provide the smallest percentage of the practicing (l'Actualité religieuse, 05 15, 1955Google Scholar). In Marseilles, there are seven times more workers than technicians, yet they attend church in the same numbers. In Nancy, 43% of upper management, 35% of the white collar workers, 22% of the lower levels of management, 9% of the skilled workers, and 6% of the manual workers practice. In Saint-Étienne, the proportions run: 60% of the engineers, 40% of those in the liberal professions, 50% of those in management, 30% of the white collar workers, 26% of the retail shopkeepers, 20% of the artisans, 10% of the manual workers, 5% of the miners. In the bourgeois parish of Saint Louis in Grenoble, 21.5% practice; in the working class parishes of Fontane Saveuil in the same city only 4% (Grenoble; Essai de la sociologie religieuse, (Grenoble, 1954)Google Scholar. This is a very complete study.) At Rheims, workers form 50% of the population, 6% of the church-goers (Bolard, Fernand, Premiers itineraires en sociologie religieuse (Paris, 1954), p. 71Google Scholar. In Nice nearly 70% of the urban population practiced in 1836, only 19% in 1954. The proportion among the social classes follows the pattern. (La Pratique dominicale, carte religieuse du diocèse, Nice, 1955Google Scholar). The Enquête sur les sentiments et la pratique religieuse des families ouvrières, in Économie et humanisme (05, 1945), pp. 211–216Google Scholar, finds further correlations, in the parish of Saint-Antoine, Angers, between religious practice and housing, the nature of the father's work, the family income, and the neighborhood. Factors which favor good family conditions also aid religious practice. Cf also, Msgr. Gros, Lucien, La Pratique religieuse dans le diocèse de Marseille (Paris, 1954)Google Scholar; Aguesse, Pierre, La Pratique religieuse dominicale dans les paroisses catholiques de Tunis en 1952 (Tunis, 1953)Google Scholar; “l'Enquête de sociologie religieuse à Casablanca,” in Faits et Idées, 03 1, 1955.Google Scholar

²² Aumont, Michele, Monde ouvrier méconnu (Paris, 1956), pp. 373–414Google Scholar. The same author has also written Les Dialogues de la vie ouvriére, (Paris, 1953)Google Scholar, and Femmes en usine. Les Ouvrières de la metallurgie parisienne, (Paris, 1953)Google Scholar. All are useful.

²³ Aumont, , Monde ouvrier méconnu, p. 383.Google Scholar

²⁴ She gives many instances of real solidarity among the workers, and many examples of fraternity that led to generous mutual aid. Sometimes this help is viewed as an episode in the class war: we will show our adversaries how we do it!

²⁵ More frequently the conversion is from religion. She tells of Paul, a militant Christian, whom she initiated as an activist in the CGT as her helper. She changed jobs and came back to the factory a few years later to find him chief of the CP cell.

²⁶ The region around the Department of the Creuse, the most dechristianized in France, is an obvious example.

²⁷ To many nineteenth century observers it appeared that Protestantism was adjusting more readily than Catholicism. Madame de Stael and Benjamin Constant believed that Catholicism was doomed, but that Protestantism would flourish.

²⁸ Contemporary observers are generally appalled by Baroque additions to Romanesque and Gothic churches. But these were attempts of post-Reformation Catholics to speak to their age in its own idiom, which is what proponents of modern art desire today.

²⁹ For examples, cf. Lory, M. J., Leon Bloy et son époque, 1870–1914 (Paris, 1944)Google Scholar; Vidler, Alec R., Prophecy and Papacy. A Study of Lamennais, the Church, and the Revolution (New York, 1954), pp. 275–284Google Scholar. The prophet's views are often accepted ultimately, but delay is inevitable:

1. The response must be made to events; it cannot be foreseen. No one could foretell the religious consequences of technical change. In rapidly moving situations, the harm is often done before the condition is known.

2. Even after perception, an institution faces further delay before reforms can be effected and produce results. Often the remedies themselves are outstripped by the pace of change.

3. The religious prophet grasps the need for change, but rarely does he succeed in convincing his co-religionists, for the very gifts that make his insights possible, makes him a difficult person for the ordinary believer to understand and trust.

³⁰ Well treated in Gilbert le Mouël, Vie urbaine et comportment religieux, in Masses ouvrieres, No. 109, 06, 1955.Google Scholar

³¹ Duroselle, J. B., Les Debuts du catholicisme sociale, 1822–1870 (Paris, 1951), esp. pp. 8–10Google Scholar. A masterful synthesis.

³² A typical early example would be Villeneuve-Bargemont (1784–1850).

³³ Professors Duroselle, Aubert, and Jemolo have sketched the exceptions in the Catholic world in Le Liberalisme religieux au XIXième siècle, Relazione, Tenth International Congress of Historians, Vol. V, Storia contemporanea (Firenze, 1956).Google Scholar

³⁴ The concept of economic man in laissez-faire doctrine is a good example.

³⁵ Rollet, Henri in Sur le chantier social (Lyon, 1955)Google Scholar, an extension of his l'Action sociale des catholiques de France, 1871–1901 (Paris, 1947)Google Scholar makes a rather good case for the rather extensive social activities, largely in the field of welfare and education, which expanded during the whole period. But these did not outweigh, in the working class mind, the unfavorable impression created by the majority of articulate Catholics.

Note that the view which ascribed the dechristianization of France to the Laic Laws of 1882 is untenable. Cf. Croisier, Paul, Pour faire l'avenir, 3rd ed., (Paris, 1930), pp. 26Google Scholar ff. Some areas of the diocese of Toulouse had only 25% practicing in 1831, Actualité religieuse, 05 15, 1955, p. 25Google Scholar. Albert de Mun in his Ma vocation sociale had already described the defections of the masses in 1871; cf. Dansette, Adrien, Histoire religieuse de la France contemporaine, Tome I (Paris, 1948).Google Scholar

³⁶ “Reflections on Socialism and the Catholic Church,” in the Socialist International Bulletin, 07, 1956, p. 164.Google Scholar

³⁷ An interesting correlation has been observed between the existence of Jansenism and the rise of anti-clericalism, cf. Labbens, Jean, “La Sociologie religieuse en France,” in Sociologie religieuse, sciences sociales, op cit., p. 40.Google Scholar

³⁸ The humanism of 1789 with its preoccupation with man as citizen, and the social aims of the nineteenth century could have been accomodated to Christianity, but were not in the existing circumstances, cf. de Goras, A., Laicisme et catholicisme dans le France de 1946, Travaux de l'Action populaire, Fascicule No. 4, (Vanves, 1947).Google Scholar

³⁹ Well described in Simon, P-H., L'Esprit et l'histoire (Paris, 1955).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Aumont, Michèle, Monde ouvrier méconnu, p. 406.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Brugerette, J., Le Prêtre et la société contemporaine (Paris, 1935), Tome I, 29–51.Google Scholar

⁴² A French editor, with whom I discussed this point, held that it went beyond the priest-people relationship. In his opinion a Frenchman in authority sees his position as derived from some source above, and not as being dependent upon, or creating responsibility to, those below. This attitude he found in bureaucrats, factory managers, clergy, and even editors!

⁴³ Well exemplified in the increasing bitterness in Proudhon's writings.

⁴⁴ Jean-Marie Domenach, the editor of Esprit, has stressed this point in his essay, “Religion and Politics,” reprinted in Cross Currents, Vol. VI, 254–261Google Scholar. For more extensive treatment, cf. Dansette, Adrien, op. cit., Tome IIGoogle Scholar; Aubert, R., Le Pontificat de Pie IXGoogle Scholar, Tome XXI in Histoire de l'Eglise, Fliche et Martin (Paris, 1952)Google Scholar; le Bras, Gabriel, Introduction à l'histoire de la pratique religieuse en France, 2 vols., (Paris, 1942 and 1945)Google Scholar. The situation was always more serious when the political domain was confused with the religious and when religious authority was invoked in questions legitimately open to discussion.

⁴⁵ Vitron, P., S.J., Enquêtes de sociologie paroissiale (Paris, 1953), pp. 23–59Google Scholar. The result was that in Paris in 1900 the average number of inhabitants per parish was 36,000. Cf. Houtart, , op. cit., p. 13.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ A notable example was Montalembert's denunciations of the workers' claims as “Socialism” in 1848.

⁴⁷ It was a fact that the Social Catholics in the Third Republic were far in advance of the majority of the Republicans in their defense of the workers' position and in their advocacy of remedial legislation. But they were handicapped by their paternalistic attitudes and their anti-Republican politics, and by the unfortunate fact that by that time the identification of religion with anti-proletarian positions had already been made.

⁴⁸ For example, Guillemin, H., Histoire des catholiques français au XIXe siècle (Paris, 1947), p. 180.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ “Urbanism as a Way of Life,” in Hate, and Hess, , Reader in Urban SociologyGoogle Scholar; cf. also, Chenu, R. P., “La Ville,” in Masses ouvrières, 01 1953.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ The growth of large exploitations in rural areas, with sharpening class divisions between owners and agricultural workers, also has an adverse effect on religious practice, cf. Lebret, L. J., Sociologie religieuse et économie humaine, p. 234.Google Scholar

⁵¹ The urban collectivity is indifferent to religious practice which it regards as a personal matter; Hellpach, W., Mensch und Volk der Grossstadt (Munich, 1938), esp. p. 24Google Scholar; Le Bras, Gabriel, Le Pratique religieuse dans les villes et les campagnes (Paris, 1953)Google Scholar; Le Déchristianisation des masses prolétariennes, (Tournai-Paris, 1948)Google Scholar; Lanbarède, S., “Presence sacerdotale en quartier populaire,” in Revue de l'action populaire, 05, 1956, 534–548.Google Scholar

⁵² For a study of the Breton emigration and its religious effects, cf. Gautier, Elie, La Dure existence des pay sans et paysannes (Paris, 1950)Google Scholar; L'Émigration bretonne, Bulletin de l'entraide bretonne de la region parisienne, Paris, (n. d.); La Vie morale et religieuse des bretons émigrés (Paris, 09 1954)Google Scholar. For the whole problem, cf. Kothen, Robert, L'Église et les mouvements de population (Bruxelles, 1945)Google Scholar. Moslems from North Africa coming, into France follow the same pattern. There are some exceptions: peasants from Lozère, who generally obtain menial work in cafes and hotels owned by their fellow regionalists, and who retain a close association with each other in Paris before returning, as many do, to their native department, usually retain their religious practice even in the city.

⁵³ Kerkhofs, J., Pratique religieuse et milieu sociale (Bruxelles, 1953), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Action catholique ouvrière, Élements de sociologie religieuse du monde ouvrier, Masses ouvrières, No. 78, 08–09 1952, 37.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ The confréries were destroyed in France by the Law of August 18, 1792, cf. Le Bras, Gabriel, “Les Confréries chretiennes,” in Études de sociologie religieuse, Tome II, 423–462Google Scholar. The compagnonnages survived the bourgeois attack during the Revolution, and fought a long and losing battle for survival in the nineteenth century, cf. Briquet, Jean, Agricol Perdiguier, Compagnon du Tour de France et Representant du peuple, 1805–1875 (Paris, 1955)Google Scholar. This vigorous personality, who spent his life-time in a futile effort to keep the compagnonnages in existence, was basically religious, though not consistent in practice. Cf. also, Dantry, Raoul, Compagnonnage par les compagnons du Tour de France (Paris, 1954).Google Scholar

⁵⁶ For details, cf. Dolleans, Edouard, Histoire du mouvement ouvrier, III Tomes, (Paris, 1936–1953)Google Scholar; Duveau, Georges, La Vie ouvrière en France sous le Second Empire, (Paris, 1946)Google Scholar; for a current fictionalized account, cf. Lespes, Henri, L'Usine sans âme (Paris, 1954).Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Aumont, Michèle, Les Dialogues de la vie ouvrière, pp. 23–31.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Aumont, Michèle, Monde ouvrier méconnu, pp. 259–262Google Scholar. For a parallel discussion, cf. Vedel, Georges, “Le Rôle des croyances économiques, dans la vie politique,” in Revue française de science politique, (1951), nos. 1 and 2.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Isambert, F. A., Classes sociales et pratique religieuse, Cahiers internationaux de sociologie, Vol. XIV (Paris, 1953)Google Scholar. Many of the authors cited discover in the European proletariat “a psychology of adolesence” which affects their attitude toward religion. They see in the workers a disdain for the abstract and a tendency toward instinctive action. The workers' thinking is conditioned by the concrete and material which is their daily concern. They are at once cynical and ready to believe, self-reliant and yet filled with a sense of inferiority, etc. Cf. Ligier, Simon, L'Adulte des milieux ouvriers, Tome I, Essai de psychologie sociale (Paris, 1951)Google Scholar, which attempts a massive psychological study accenting the effects of depersonalization and the incomplete human development of industrial workers. Despite the qualifications the author is careful to make, this type of study does not impress the writer of this paper.

⁶⁰ The melancholy reality is seen clearly in this single instance: in a thoroughly studied working class parish in central France, 3,200 are in some way touched by the Church, including 1,000 who attend only on great popular feasts; 15,800 are totally outside Church influence. Cf. “Trois ans de sociologie religieuse en France,” in Informations catholiques Internationales, 09 1956, pp. 15–23Google Scholar. This report on the Fifth International Congress of Religious Sociology, held at Louvain in 1956, is the latest reliable survey of the subject.

⁶¹ Fogarty, Michael P., Christian Democracy in Western Europe 1820–1953 (Notre Dame, 1957)Google Scholar, now makes available a full length study of these movements. It is invaluable as background material for this paper. Among its contributions is a clear distinction between Catholic Action and Christian Democratic movements.

⁶² “20,000 Militants chrétiens,” a report on 1957 Congress of A.C.O., in Informations catholiques internationales, 05 1, 1957, pp. 5–6Google Scholar. This report could profitably be read as an indication of the strong class consciousness in the active Catholic apostles to the workers.

⁶³ (Paris, 1943).

⁶⁴ At the time of the recall of the priest workers, the Mission de France was reorganized and regularized. All other experiments were permitted to continue.

⁶⁵ “Vers la Mission ouvriere” in Informations catholiques internationales, 05 15, 1957, 13–23Google Scholar, gives a good summary of these efforts.

⁶⁶ Ibid., 20.