‘Christian Patriotism’ and Physical Education in Pre-Revolutionary France: The Royal Military School in Sorèze in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The Ecole Royale Militaire of Soreze (Royal Military School) was located in the French province of Languedoc. On the eve of the 1789 Revolution it was still a religious institution run by the Benedictine monks, known for having broken with certain traditional models. The establishment offered special forms of instruction, stressing certain scientific and literary disciplines, and also physical education (fencing, dancing, horse riding, and equestrianism). Pupils’ best results were also recorded in swimming. At the end of every school year, all the results were confirmed by public examinations, labelled Exercices publics, and recorded in the Cahiers d’exercices. These materials enable the reconstruction the evolution of the school’s programmes over a period of more than a century. The incalculable richness of Sorèze’s programmes, by distinguishing the elements already present in the military training of the period from the pedagogical innovations that were introduced, demonstrate the special place that was reserved for physical exercise. This Catholic institution was thus able to develop a total coherence of the scholarly programme, considered as a source of ‘Christian Patriotism’, in pre-Revolutionary France.