Page:Jean Jaurès socialist and humanitarian 1917.djvu/100

 without a special statute in each case, which it was quite plain would not be easily granted,

M. Waldeck-Rousseau took a very moderate line, but he accepted a Socialist amendment which prevented any member of any unauthorized order from teaching in a school.

It was no violent and tyrannical temper that caused men like Jaurès to join in the assault upon the Church. Jaurès was the most tolerant of men, but he knew that here, as France had many times learnt to her cost, tolerance meant playing into the hands of the everlasting foe of liberty. The Church was never content merely to dominate and enslave the minds of its pupils. It was always determined to be a political power as well, and in France it had shown itself the avowed enemy of the Republic. Recent events had made this more than ever clear.

It is certain that the current was setting more and more strongly in France at this time towards democratic, socialistic, and humanitarian ideas. Gustave Hervé was tried in 1901 at Auxerre for writing anti-military literature, but many of his fellow teachers came forward to state their agreement with him and he was acquitted. The trend of public feeling was also shown by the want of enthusiasm in the reception of the Tzar on his visit to France in September, 1901—it contrasted very unfavourably with the welcome he had received in 1896.