User:Dr Gangrene/1881

The Education Law of 1881, also nicknamed the "Kirpach Law" (Loi Kirpach) after the minister Henri Kirpach, was a Luxembourgish law that heavily reduced the influence of the Catholic Church over public schools.

International context
At that time, Luxembourg felt the repercussions of the German "Kulturkampf" and the pressures from French educational leagues, alongside French Freemasonry.

France
In France, the Falloux Laws of the 1850s had made substantial concessions to the Church, increasing the representation of priests in public school structures, while Catholic education experienced a spectacular development. The teaching orders of nuns also controlled a significant portion of public schools. Before 1870, Jean Macé founded the Ligue de l'enseignement in favour of free and compulsory education, which was later joined by Republicans at the beginning of the Third Republic. This league evolved towards secular views aiming to free education from any clerical influence. Jules Ferry led this fight from 1879 through a comprehensive legislative apparatus with a positivist spirit directed against the Church and, from 1880 onwards, against the religious congregations deeply rooted in primary and secondary education, both public and private.

The secularisation of public schools took shape, initially in a moderate manner and later radically, banning religious education from public schools in 1882, subsequently replaced by moral and civic instruction. Another law completed the secularisation of teaching staff in 1886, while, in reaction, Catholic private schools proliferated from the 1880s.

Belgium
In Belgium, the various governments, while distinct from the growing secular and anticlerical aspirations of radical liberals advocating complete separation of Church and State, pursued a moderate educational policy. They gradually limited the influence of the clergy in "official" schools while developing the public network of primary and secondary schools. The Rogier Law of 1850 expressly did so for secondary education, ensuring that the clergy was only invited to give or supervise religious courses in the athénées. Under pressure from Freemasonry, Free Thought societies, and the Ligue de l'enseignement founded in 1864, liberal policies ultimately led to the Van Humbeeck Law in 1879, aiming to secularise primary education and subject it to exclusive state control: the abolition of religious education and its replacement with an ndependent moral education, as well as the abandonment of diocesan inspection of schools, were its corollaries. This resulted in a fierce educational war between Catholics and liberals (1878-1884), significantly expanding the network of free (Catholic) schools, becoming an essential element of the Catholic "pillar" in the late 19th century.

Prussia
In Prussia, in its territory adjacent to the Grand Duchy, the government pursued a "reactionary" educational policy after 1848, leaving school control to priests. A law attempting to introduce non-denominational schools in 1869 failed, in part due to the diversified action of Catholics in the Diocese of Trier. However, with the "Kulturkampf" that Prussia waged against the Catholic Church from 1871, a new law in 1872 removed the Church's co-responsibility in school control, notably local school inspections by priests, and its influence on biblical teaching at school, which was henceforth conducted by lay teachers. Under the "May laws" of 1873/74, a significant number of priests lost the right to teach religion in schools. Similarly, the Diocese of Metz – annexed to the German Empire after 1870 when Alsace-Lorraine was annexed – suffered the consequences of the "Kulturkampf," including the expulsion of congregations managing schools or present in public schools (Jesuits, Redemptorists, Christian Brothers, etc.). It was only from 1879 that the "Kulturkampf" eased, and more moderate times began.

Domestic context
The legislation on primary education that Bishop Johann Theodor Laurent had secured from the ruling political class in 1843 provided for school inspections as well as control of curricula and teachers by priests, who were to issue certificates of good conduct to the latter. It also compelled teachers to provide religious instruction in collaboration with the clergy. The law on primary education thus guaranteed the Church significant influence in public schools. However, over time, it became more and more contentious, giving rise to calls for its reform, particularly in the 1870s.

The question of revising the law on primary education explicitly arose from 1876-77. Key aspects of this law were targeted for restriction, including the right of school inspection by the clergy and the obligation of schoolmasters to provide, in collaboration with priests, religious education. The subordination of the schoolteacher to the clergy was perceived as burdensome by those involved, and by the late 1860s, some called for the professionalisation of their task to free themselves from clerical control.

Within the Diocese of Luxembourg, the beginning of the 1880s was marked by several significant events: the question of the abdication of Bishop Adames, at his own instigation, and the appointment of a successor; the development of a new school law reducing the degree of "confessionality" in public schools, which culminated in 1881, with an attempt at reform to "re-Catholicise" the latter, an unsuccessful attempt nonetheless in 1883. The two topics intersected, as evident from the sources.

Despite a new protest from Bishop Adames to the prime minister Blochausen on 7 April 1880, a new bill was introduced on 22 May 1880, by the Director General of Instruction Kirpach and passed on 24 February 1881. On 20 April 1881, King William III sanctioned the law, despite Adames' plea to abandon it. The law decreed compulsory education, removing from the local priest the right to general inspection of the school and the authority to oversee the religious and moral conduct of the schoolmasters. Religious instruction was now reserved for ministers of worship alone, with limited exceptions (the schoolteacher could be entrusted with teaching sacred history, and in case of the priest's temporary impediment, catechism lessons, refraining "from any explanation"). Thus, teachers were partially liberated from the oversight of the clergy, and the mandatory certificates of religious morality for their appointment were not abolished. As compensation, the law expressly mentioned "Christian and social virtues" to be instilled in children, and the Church had the right to be represented by a clergyman in the new education commissions. Nicolas Adames had scarcely been consulted by the government before the drafting of the law. Aged and ill, he protested unsuccessfully but ultimately did not refuse his collaboration or that of the clergy in implementing the law (letter to the priests on 21 September and pastoral letter of 24 October 1881: the attitude to adopt would be neither friendly nor hostile but cooperative for Christian education).

The school question in the Grand Duchy evolved under the influence of multiple factors: on the one hand, inherent dynamics (experiences gained and issues emerging from the application of respective laws over the years), and on the other hand, an internationally progressing secularisation of the school context, with its repercussions on mentalities and events in Luxembourg. The substantial number of references to developments abroad in internal discussions abundantly proves this. The deconfessionalisation of the (public) school was a general phenomenon in the greater region around Luxembourg as the century advanced. The exact interaction among the four countries and especially their political actors, press, secular groups, and ecclesiastical authorities included, remains to be analysed both broadly and in detail.

After the school debate opened in the Chamber of Deputies in 1876, Bishop Adames issued two pastoral letters to emphasise the Church's standpoint, sparking controversy in newspapers and a widespread petition campaign among the population. Even though petitions in favor of the status quo of 1843 formed an impressive majority, a new bill (the Kirpach Law) was introduced in 1880 and passed a year later. Consequently, the clergy lost the right to inspect the school and supervise the religious and moral conduct of teachers. Religious instruction was henceforth reserved, with specific exceptions, for priests alone. On the other hand, the Church had the right to be represented by a priest in each of the newly created local education commissions. Bishop Adames, sick and elderly, protested unsuccessfully, but he ultimately did not refuse his collaboration in the implementation of the law; he urged diocesan priests to do the same. Thus, the country was spared from a "school war", but this would no longer be the case in 1912.

Under the pontificate of Bishop Adames, Rome became significantly more proactive in the issue of education in Luxembourg than during the time of Bishop Laurent, not only engaging with the ecclesiastical authority of the country but also with political leaders. During Bishop Laurent's time, he had been the driving force in the interaction between the Roman centre and the ecclesiastical periphery; under Bishop Adames, the Holy See, through its diplomatic representative in the Netherlands, took the initiative and the lead.