unauthorized schools; firstly, those which had actually been opened
without permission since the promulgation of the law, then the many
schools which were older than the law. In so doing he was called a
persecutor, because the directors of the schools declared that they had
allowed the time limit of application for authorization to go by, only
through the understanding with the previous Administration that they
were not to be interfered with. Now they could not help themselves.

Emboldened by success Combes next took up the applications of the
congregations which had duly followed the law and were seeking
authorization. By decree, as was his right, he first promptly closed
unlicensed schools of recognized orders. Then came the applications of
orders seeking authorization. Legal procedure demanded laws to reject as
well as laws to accept applications. A recommendation _favored_ by the
Government but _rejected_ by the Chamber of Deputies would not go before
the Senate. On the other hand, an _unfavorable_ opinion of the
Government _ratified_ by the House would still have to go before the
Senate. A way would thus be open for prolonged chicanery.

Combes cut matters short. He lumped fifty-four individual applications
into three batches, teaching orders, preaching orders, and the
commercial order of the Chartreux, manufacturers of the liqueur called
"chartreuse." Then, presenting these batches of applications
collectively instead of individually to the Chamber, he caused their
rejection and proceeded to dissolve the orders and close their fifteen
hundred establishments. Through the spring of 1903 there were turbulent
scenes in consequence in various parts of France, the monks trying
sometimes passive resistance, sometimes actual violence. In the
reactionary districts the population attempted to stir up riots.
Occasionally, even, a military officer whose duty it was to evict the
monks refused to obey orders. But, nothing daunted, Combes went on, with
the support of the Chambers, to reject a large mass of applications from
teaching orders of women. Even Waldeck-Rousseau was led in time publicly
to declare that he had never contemplated the transformation of his
Associations law of 1901 from a measure of regulation to one of
exclusion, nor the assumption by the State of expensive educational
charges hitherto carried on by religious orders. At last the law of
July, 1904, put a complete end to all kinds of instruction by religious