ABSTRACT

The quarrel about the subsidizing of denominational schools by the State is the contemporary expression of the religious conflict, and there seemed little hope of settling it in the French Assembly when the Billères bill was debated. ‘The school problem would be very easy to solve,’ writes J. Fauvet, 1 ‘in terms of freedoms to be respected or even more simply of needs to be satisfied. Left in the framework to which it belongs, that of a village or a region, it can be settled concretely. Raised to the level of a national law it becomes philosophical, that is to say, insoluble. The most sincere Deputies resuscitate the quarrel over the separation of Church and State; they tend to arrive very soon at a discussion about the existence of God. And no doubt the school problem can be stated in these terms, but not solved in a country divided in its beliefs.’