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(Continued from, page 29.)
We pass naturally from
these remarks as to the French Protestant clergy, to glance at the
theological institutions at which they are educated. There are three of
these. Montauban, Strasburg, and Geneva. Montauban and Geneva are for the
students of the National Reformed Church. Strasburg is mainly for the
students belonging to the Lutheran branch of French Protestantism. In
Montauban there are seven professors, five of whom are pronounced by M.
Grandpierre to be decidedly orthodox. The average number of students is
about sixty. The faculty at Strasburg reckons eight, and about eighty
students; thirty of whom, however, are only in the preparatory stage of
their training. There are some distinguished names in the professoriate,
such as Matter and Charles Waddington, the successor of Christian
Bartholmess. In the faculty of Geneva there are five professors, and, in
1856, there were sixty-three students. The tone of the teaching here—the
home of the old orthodoxy—is by no means so favourably spoken of by M.
Grandpierre. It is by special authority that the theological faculty of
Geneva is entitled to prepare students for the ministry in the Protestant
Church of France. The origin of this arrangement dates from the time of
the extreme persecution of French Protestantism, when it was impossible to
obtain education for the clergy in France.
In addition to these
regular theological institutions, there are two preparatory schools of
theology, one at Nismes, and the other at Paris; the first founded by the
clergy of Nismes, and the other maintained by the Central Protestant
Society of Evangelisation. There may be thirty pupils at the first, and
about fifteen or so at the second; that of Nismes is more latitudinarian;
that of Paris more orthodox.
The students preparing for
the ministry in the Dissenting or Independent Churches are chiefly
educated at Geneva, at the separate school of theology founded and
maintained there by the evangelical society of that city, and which is
adorned by the names of Merle d'Aubigné and Gaussen. The number of
students is about twenty-five, and the tone of the teaching, as may be
inferred from the names mentioned, is highly evangelical.
After these higher
scholastic institutions, the normal schools claim next our consideration.
While the former train the clergy, the latter train the schoolmasters of
French Protestantism. There are five Protestant normal schools in France
for training male teachers, and three for training female. Among the
former may be mentioned that of Courbevoie, founded and maintained by the
Society for the Encouragement of Primary Instruction among the Protestants
of France, which is, perhaps, the first normal school of France, both for
the perfection of its educational machinery, and the living Christian
spirit which animates it; and also the normal school of the Evangelical
Society of France at Paris. M. Pastor Gaubley is at the head of the one,
and M. Pastor Valliet at the head of the other. Each of these contain
about thirty pupils.
Besides these schools there
are numerous educational boarding-houses (pensionnats) for boys and girls,
no fewer than twenty of the one kind and thirty of the other, in or about
Paris. These boarding-houses, presided over by active Protestant
superintendents, male and female, are deemed of great service in
preserving the Protestant youth from the proselytising exertions of the
Romish clergy.
Passing now to the
literature of French Protestantism, it must be confessed that it is not
very rich in great works. The Church has scarcely had repose as yet, for
the cultivation of an original and influential theology. Its militant
position, and the practical necessities of vigilance and defence, have
claimed too much the employment of its talents and energies. The spirit of
independent theological inquiry, however, has revived vigorously of late;
and Matter's extended work on Gnosticism, Reuss' [Matter and Reuss are
both professors in Strasburg, Cellerier in Geneva; De Pressense is the
ablest of the dissenting clergy in Paris.] "History of Christian Theology
in the Apostolic Age," Cellerier's "Critical Works on the Old and New
Testaments," and De Pressense's "History of the Apostolic Age," with its
comprehensive and valuable introduction, are among the most notable facts
of thi3 reviving spirit. The historical labours of Bonnet, (his life of
Olympia Morata, and his editions of the letters of Calvin,) and the works
of Bartholmess and Waddington, in the department of Christian philosophy,
[Bartholmess' "Historie Critique des Religieuse Opinion de la Philosophie
Modern,"and Waddington's monograph on Peter Waldus.] are also eminently
deserving of notice. Bungener, Felice, Bonnechose, Weiss, and Merle
D'Aubigné, are names still better known in this country, all more or less
distinguished in the department of popular history; to which may be added
the less known, but no less eminent name of Paaux, who has just published
the first volume of an extended history of the French reformation.
There are no fewer than
seventeen religious journals, eleven of which appear in Paris, which
represent the current interests of French Protestant literature; many of
these, indeed, are merely of a practical and edifying character, and one
or two are addressed to the young, hut others are of an elaborate and
intellectual character ; of these the oldest is Les Archives du
Christianisme, which dates from 1818 ; founded originally by the president
of the consistory of the Reformed Church of Paris, it has become, in the
hands of its present editor, (Frederick Monod,) the popular organ of
dissenting Protestantism in France. A popular journal, under the name of
L' Espérance, serves the same purpose for the endowed Protestant Churches.
The Revue de Theologie et
de Philosophic Chré-tienne, emanating from Strasburg, under the editorship
of MM. Scherer and Colary, and the Revue Chré-tienne, under the editorship
of De Pressense, are the largest of these publications, and answer in some
degree to the Quarterly Review among ourselves. The former is
latitudinarian and even rationalistic; the latter is liberal, but
thoroughly Christian. Some of the main articles of Christian doctrine have
been the subject of a vigorous polemic between these reviews.
We may further mention,
before closing this list, the Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire du
Protest-antisme Francais, and the Journal des Missions,— the one, as its
title indicates, devoted to the collection and examination of all
documents relating to the history of French Protestantism, and the other
to the publication of missionary intelligence and literature, under the
auspices of the Paris Society of Evangelical Missions.
We come now, finally, to a
brief record of the societies and charitable agencies, which form one of
the most notable and encouraging features of French Protestantism. Before
1818 there were no such societies in existence. In this year was
established the Protestant Bible Society, which devotes itself to the
distribution of Bibles among Protestants only; while the French and
Foreign Bible Society, founded in 1833, distributes Bibles to all without
distinction. These two societies, with those of Malhouse and of Strasburg,
sell or otherwise dispose of annually 65,000 copies of the Scriptures, at
an expense of 120,000 francs.
Besides these, there are
eight evangelical societies, whose special function is the diffusion of
gospel truth. The Evangelical Society of France, founded in 1833, which
aims to spread the gospel among Catholics, and which maintains 13 pastors,
43 evangelists, and 36 teachers, male and female, is under the management
of the dissenting churches; the Evangelical Society of Geneva, which,
although its seat and management are in Geneva, confines its labours
almost exclusively to France; then the Great Central Protestant Society of
Evangelisation, directly associated with the National Protestantism, and
which, since its foundation in 1847, has made rapid progress. Following
these three chief societies, there are five others with the same object,
bra more local in the sphere of their operations. The revenue of the eight
together amount to about 425,000 francs. There are various other societies
for the diffusion of religious books and tracts; missionary, educational,
and Sunday-school societies; all testifying to the life and activity of
French Protestantism.
There is, further, a
special and beautiful feature of French Protestantism—the institutions of
deaconesses—of which there are two, one at Strasburg, and the other at
Paris. These deaconesses correspond to the Romish sisters of charity, and,
by their careful and self-denying labours in leading and educating
neglected and orphan children, and visiting the hospitals, work an
incalculable amount of unseen but widely-extending good.
The picture of French
Protestantism presented in these brief notes is certainly an encouraging
one, so far as the Christian future of that great country is concerned.
All the healthiest and manliest features of the national life of France
are to be found in the bosom of its Protestantism; and every one who
desires the peace of the world, and the wellbeing of his race, may
ardently pray for its increase and extension. The progress of the last
thirty years gives every guarantee of an accelerated progress in the
course of another generation; and we may allow ourselves hopefully to
anticipate a still brighter era of prosperity for the truth in France,
(notwithstanding the recent threatenings of Romish intrigue,) when we see
so much practical earnestness and living faith uniting itself, as it is
now rapidly doing, to a high intellectual and theological culture. |
