Editing Volume 1/Book 1/Chapter 3

Les Misérables, Volume 1: Fantine, Book 1: A Just Man, Chapter 3: A Hard Bishopric for a Good Bishop
(Tome 1: Fantine, Livre premier: Un Juste, Chapitre 3: &Agrave; bon &eacute;v&ecirc;que dur &eacute;v&ecirc;ch&eacute;)

==General notes on this chapter==

==French text==

M. l'&eacute;v&ecirc;que, pour avoir converti son carrosse en aum&ocirc;nes, n'en faisait
pas moins ses tourn&eacute;es. C'est un dioc&egrave;se fatigant que celui de Digne. Il
a fort peu de plaines, beaucoup de montagnes, presque pas de routes, on
l'a vu tout &agrave; l'heure; trente-deux cures, quarante et un vicariats et
deux cent quatre-vingt-cinq succursales. Visiter tout cela, c'est une
affaire. M. l'&eacute;v&ecirc;que en venait &agrave; bout. Il allait &agrave; pied quand c'&eacute;tait
dans le voisinage, en carriole dans la plaine, en cacolet dans la
montagne. Les deux vieilles femmes l'accompagnaient. Quand le trajet
&eacute;tait trop p&eacute;nible pour elles, il allait seul.

Un jour, il arriva &agrave; Senez, qui est une ancienne ville &eacute;piscopale, mont&eacute;
sur un &acirc;ne. Sa bourse, fort &agrave; sec dans ce moment, ne lui avait pas
permis d'autre &eacute;quipage. Le maire de la ville vint le recevoir &agrave; la
porte de l'&eacute;v&ecirc;ch&eacute; et le regardait descendre de son &acirc;ne avec des yeux
scandalis&eacute;s. Quelques bourgeois riaient autour de lui.

&mdash;Monsieur le maire, dit l'&eacute;v&ecirc;que, et messieurs les bourgeois, je vois
ce qui vous scandalise; vous trouvez que c'est bien de l'orgueil &agrave; un
pauvre pr&ecirc;tre de monter une monture qui a &eacute;t&eacute; celle de J&eacute;sus-Christ. Je
l'ai fait par n&eacute;cessit&eacute;, je vous assure, non par vanit&eacute;.

Dans ses tourn&eacute;es, il &eacute;tait indulgent et doux, et pr&ecirc;chait moins qu'il
ne causait. Il ne mettait aucune vertu sur un plateau inaccessible. Il
n'allait jamais chercher bien loin ses raisonnements et ses mod&egrave;les.
Aux habitants d'un pays il citait l'exemple du pays voisin. Dans les
cantons o&ugrave; l'on &eacute;tait dur pour les n&eacute;cessiteux, il disait:

&mdash;Voyez les gens de Brian&ccedil;on. Ils ont donn&eacute; aux indigents, aux veuves et
aux orphelins le droit de faire faucher leurs prairies trois jours avant
tous les autres. Ils leur reb&acirc;tissent gratuitement leurs maisons quand
elles sont en ruines. Aussi est-ce un pays b&eacute;ni de Dieu. Durant tout un
si&egrave;cle de cent ans, il n'y a pas eu un meurtrier.

Dans les villages &acirc;pres au gain et &agrave; la moisson, il disait:

&mdash;Voyez ceux d'Embrun. Si un p&egrave;re de famille, au temps de la r&eacute;colte, a
ses fils au service &agrave; l'arm&eacute;e et ses filles en service &agrave; la ville, et
qu'il soit malade et emp&ecirc;ch&eacute;, le cur&eacute; le recommande au pr&ocirc;ne; et le
dimanche, apr&egrave;s la messe, tous les gens du village, hommes, femmes,
enfants, vont dans le champ du pauvre homme lui faire sa moisson, et lui
rapportent paille et grain dans son grenier.

Aux familles divis&eacute;es par des questions d'argent et d'h&eacute;ritage, il
disait:

&mdash;Voyez les montagnards de Devoluy, pays si sauvage qu'on n'y entend pas
le rossignol une fois en cinquante ans. Eh bien, quand le p&egrave;re meurt
dans une famille, les gar&ccedil;ons s'en vont chercher fortune, et laissent le
bien aux filles, afin qu'elles puissent trouver des maris.

Aux cantons qui ont le go&ucirc;t des proc&egrave;s et o&ugrave; les fermiers se ruinent en
papier timbr&eacute;, il disait:

&mdash;Voyez ces bons paysans de la vall&eacute;e de Queyras. Ils sont l&agrave; trois
mille &acirc;mes. Mon Dieu! c'est comme une petite r&eacute;publique. On n'y conna&icirc;t
ni le juge, ni l'huissier. Le maire fait tout. Il r&eacute;partit l'imp&ocirc;t, taxe
chacun en conscience, juge les querelles gratis, partage les patrimoines
sans honoraires, rend des sentences sans frais; et on lui ob&eacute;it, parce
que c'est un homme juste parmi des hommes simples.

Aux villages o&ugrave; il ne trouvait pas de ma&icirc;tre d'&eacute;cole, il citait encore
ceux de Queyras:

&mdash;Savez-vous comment ils font? disait-il. Comme un petit pays de douze
ou quinze feux ne peut pas toujours nourrir un magister, ils ont des
ma&icirc;tres d'&eacute;cole pay&eacute;s par toute la vall&eacute;e qui parcourent les villages,
passant huit jours dans celui-ci, dix dans celui-l&agrave;, et enseignant. Ces
magisters vont aux foires, o&ugrave; je les ai vus. On les reconna&icirc;t &agrave; des
plumes &agrave; &eacute;crire qu'ils portent dans la ganse de leur chapeau. Ceux qui
n'enseignent qu'&agrave; lire ont une plume, ceux qui enseignent la lecture et
le calcul ont deux plumes; ceux qui enseignent la lecture, le calcul et
le latin ont trois plumes. Ceux-l&agrave; sont de grands savants. Mais quelle
honte d'&ecirc;tre ignorants! Faites comme les gens de Queyras.

Il parlait ainsi, gravement et paternellement, &agrave; d&eacute;faut d'exemples
inventant des paraboles, allant droit au but, avec peu de phrases et
beaucoup d'images, ce qui &eacute;tait l'&eacute;loquence m&ecirc;me de J&eacute;sus-Christ,
convaincu et persuadant.

==English text==

The Bishop did not omit his pastoral visits because he had converted his carriage into alms.  The diocese of Digne is a fatiguing one.  There are very few plains and a great many mountains; hardly any roads, as we have just seen; thirty-two curacies, forty-one vicarships, and two hundred and eighty-five auxiliary chapels.  To visit all these is quite a task.

The Bishop managed to do it.  He went on foot when it was in the neighborhood, in a tilted spring-cart when it was on the plain, and on a donkey in the mountains.  The two old women accompanied him.  When the trip was too hard for them, he went alone.

One day he arrived at [[wikipedia:Senez|Senez]], which is an ancient episcopal city.  He was mounted on an ass.  His purse, which was very dry at that moment, did not permit him any other equipage.  The mayor of the town came to receive him at the gate of the town, and watched him dismount from his ass, with scandalized eyes.  Some of the citizens were laughing around him.  "Monsieur the Mayor," said the Bishop, "and Messieurs Citizens, I perceive that I shock you.  You think it very arrogant in a poor priest to ride an animal which was used by Jesus Christ.  I have done so from necessity, I assure you, and not from vanity."

In the course of these trips he was kind and indulgent, and talked rather than preached.  He never went far in search of his arguments and his examples.  He quoted to the inhabitants of one district the example of a neighboring district.  In the cantons where they were harsh to the poor, he said:  "Look at the people of [[wikipedia:Briançon|Briancon]]!  They have conferred on the poor, on widows and orphans, the right to have their meadows mown three days in advance of every one else.  They rebuild their houses for them gratuitously when they are ruined.  Therefore it is a country which is blessed by God.  For a whole century, there has not been a single murderer among them."

In villages which were greedy for profit and harvest, he said:  "Look at the people of [[wikipedia:Embrun, Hautes-Alpes|Embrun]]!  If, at the harvest season, the father of a family has his son away on service in the army, and his daughters at service in the town, and if he is ill and incapacitated, the cure recommends him to the prayers of the congregation; and on Sunday, after the mass, all the inhabitants of the village--men, women, and children--go to the poor man's field and do his harvesting for him, and carry his straw and his grain to his granary."  To families divided by questions of money and inheritance he said:  "Look at the mountaineers of Devoluy, a country so wild that the nightingale is not heard there once in fifty years.  Well, when the father of a family dies, the boys go off to seek their fortunes, leaving the property to the girls, so that they may find husbands."  To the cantons which had a taste for lawsuits, and where the farmers ruined themselves in stamped paper, he said:  "Look at those good peasants in the valley of [[wikipedia:Queyras|Queyras]]!  There are three thousand souls of them.  Mon Dieu! it is like a little republic.  Neither judge nor bailiff is known there.  The mayor does everything.  He allots the imposts, taxes each person conscientiously, judges quarrels for nothing, divides inheritances without charge, pronounces sentences gratuitously; and he is obeyed, because he is a just man among simple men."  To villages where he found no schoolmaster, he quoted once more the people of Queyras:  "Do you know how they manage?" he said.  "Since a little country of a dozen or fifteen hearths cannot always support a teacher, they have school-masters who are paid by the whole valley, who make the round of the villages, spending a week in this one, ten days in that, and instruct them.  These teachers go to the fairs.  I have seen them there.  They are to be recognized by the quill pens which they wear in the cord of their hat.  Those who teach reading only have one pen; those who teach reading and reckoning have two pens; those who teach reading, reckoning, and Latin have three pens.  But what a disgrace to be ignorant!  Do like the people of Queyras!"

Thus he discoursed gravely and paternally; in default of examples, he invented parables, going directly to the point, with few phrases and many images, which characteristic formed the real eloquence of Jesus Christ.  And being convinced himself, he was persuasive.

==Translation notes==

==Textual notes==
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Les Misérables, Volume 1: Fantine, Book First: A Just Man, Chapter 3: A Hard Bishopric for a Good Bishop<br />
+Les Misérables, Volume 1: Fantine, Book 1: A Just Man, Chapter 3: A Hard Bishopric for a Good Bishop
 (Tome 1: Fantine, Livre premier: Un Juste, Chapitre 3: &Agrave; bon &eacute;v&ecirc;que dur &eacute;v&ecirc;ch&eacute;)
@@ Line 102: / Line 102: @@
 ==Textual notes==
-==Citations==
-<references />