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Clericals, Anticlericals and the Women's Movement in France under the Third Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

James F. McMillan
James F. McMillan
Affiliation:
University of York
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Extract

Most historians of modern France would agree that the quarrel between clericals and anticlericals was one of the most significant political issues in French politics between 1870 and 1914, especially in the period before the passing of the law which separated Church and State in 1905. The charges brought against the Catholic Church by the anticlericals were many, but until recently few students of nineteenth-century France have commented on the fact that one of their most serious allegations was that the Church oppressed women. Perhaps the most celebrated formulation of this theory came from the pen of the historian Michelet who, in a virulent polemic entitled Priests, women and the family, bitterly attacked the powers which priests were reputed to exercise over the female mind through the institution of the confessional, to the great detriment of marital life and family unity.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , June 1981 , pp. 361 - 376
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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