Sexual Crime, Religion and Masculinity in fin-de-siècle France: The Flamidien Affair

128 Pages·2018·2.22 MB·English

by  Timothy Verhoeven

GENDERS AND SEXUALITIES
IN HISTORY
Series Editors: John Arnold, Sean Brady
and Joanna Bourke
SEXUAL CRIME,
RELIGION AND
MASCULINITY IN
FIN-DE-SIÈCLE
FRANCE
The Flamidien Affair
Timothy Verhoeven
Genders and Sexualities in History
Series Editors
John Arnold
King’s College
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, UK
Sean Brady
Birkbeck College
University of London
London, UK
Joanna Bourke
Birkbeck College
University of London
London, UK
Palgrave Macmillan’s series, Genders and Sexualities in History, accom-
modates and fosters new approaches to historical research in the fields
of genders and sexualities. The series promotes world-class scholarship,
which concentrates upon the interconnected themes of genders, sexuali-
ties, religions/religiosity, civil society, politics and war.
Historical studies of gender and sexuality have, until recently, been
more or less disconnected fields. In recent years, historical analyses of
genders and sexualities have synthesised, creating new departures in
historiography. The additional connectedness of genders and sexualities
with questions of religion, religiosity, development of civil societies,
politics and the contexts of war and conflict is reflective of the movements
in scholarship away from narrow history of science and scientific thought,
and history of legal processes approaches, that have dominated these
paradigms until recently. The series brings together scholarship from
Contemporary, Modern, Early Modern, Medieval, Classical and Non-
Western History. The series provides a diachronic forum for scholarship
that incorporates new approaches to genders and sexualities in history.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15000
Timothy Verhoeven
Sexual Crime,
Religion and
Masculinity in
fin-de-siècle
France
The Flamidien Affair
Timothy Verhoeven
Monash University
Clayton, VIC, Australia
Genders and Sexualities in History
ISBN 978-3-319-74478-0 ISBN 978-3-319-74479-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74479-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017964128
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: Pattern adapted from an Indian cotton print produced in the 19th century
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
S e ’ P
erieS ditorS reface
Timothy Verhoeven’s The Flamidien Affair: Republicans, Catholics and
Sexual Crime in fin-de-siècle France explores the political culture of fin-
de-siècle France through the lens of a sensational sex crime. In February
1999, a young boy named Gaston Foveaux was found murdered. He had
been sexually assaulted. After a Catholic priest called Frère Flamidien was
charged, a furious debate was incited. The ‘Flamidien Affair’ reveals ten-
sions surrounding sexual perversion, violence, and religion during the
Third Republic. Fuelled by the popular press, Republicans and Catholics
clashed over competing styles of masculinity. Verhoeven’s book is based
on previously ignored archival records. It provides a unique insight into
the culture and politics of France at a particularly turbulent moment in
its modern history.
John Arnold
Joanna Bourke
Sean Brady
v
a
cknowledgementS
Without its rich archival base, this story would not have come to life.
More than ever, then, I owe a great debt to archivists past and present.
The staff at the National Archives in Paris helped me locate a crucial file
among the thicket of judicial records. In Lille, I was greatly assisted by
various staff at the departmental archives as well as the municipal library.
But the greatest and most surprising discoveries lay in the archives of
the Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes at Lyon, where Brother Alain Houry
offered me a wonderful welcome. Another of the joys of working on this
project was that it took me to Rome, where Brother Hilaire Raharilalao
put a wealth of useful records at my disposal.
Most of the funding that allowed me to carry out this research was
provided by the School of Philosophical, Historical and International
Studies as well as the Faculty of Arts at Monash University. I have also
been privileged to be the recipient of an Australian Research Council
early career fellowship. This has been vital for a number of reasons, not
least in allowing me to pursue the threads of this story in so many distant
archives.
My colleagues in the history program at Monash University read sev-
eral draft chapters, and encouraged me to keep going. Finally, heartfelt
thanks as ever to Jana for your astute criticisms, your help in getting the
book into shape, and most of all for your patience and support.
vii
c
ontentS
1 Introduction 1
2 Gaston Foveaux: Lille and the War of Two Frances 13
3 Charles Delalé: Republicans, Celibacy and the Performance
of Masculinity 31
4 Dr. Castiaux: Legal Medicine, Pederasty and Effeminacy
at the Fin de Siècle 47
5 Cyr: Catholic Masculinity and the Defence of Frère
Flamidien 63
6 Les Flamidiens/Les Dreyfus: The School Question
and Collective Guilt 79
7 Émile Zola: “Vérité” and the Aftermath of the Affair 95
Short Bibliography 111
Index 119
ix
l f
iSt of igureS
Fig. 1.1 Frère Flamidien 3
Fig. 2.1 Gaston Foveaux 14
Fig. 2.2 The Notre-Dame de la Treille School (formerly the Hôtel
de la Monnaie) 23
Fig. 3.1 The community of the school at Notre-Dame de la
Treille in 1899. Flamidien is number 2 34
Fig. 3.2 The confrontation 41
Fig. 4.1 A monstrous crime! An anticlerical depiction of a frenzied
Flamidien 55
Fig. 4.2 The entrance to Notre-Dame de la Treille School 58
xi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
Abstract In February 1899, the murder of a young boy in the northern
French city of Lille set off a fierce contest between republicans and
Catholics. The Flamidien Affair is an important though neglected episode
in the clash that historians have labelled the War of Two Frances. What
it reveals in particular is the role of masculinity in shaping the contest
between republicans and Catholics at the end of the nineteenth century.
Keywords Republicans · Catholics · Religion · Crime · Masculinity
On Sunday 5 February 1899, a 12-year-old boy named Gaston Foveaux
went missing in the northern French city of Lille. That afternoon he had
set out for his school, Notre-Dame de la Treille, one of twelve in the city
run by a Catholic teaching congregation, the Lasallian Frères des Écoles
Chrétiennes. As on many previous Sundays, Gaston was heading for a
youth club held on the school grounds. Upon arriving, he hung his cap
and coat in their usual place, before joining the others in a religious ser-
vice. Then, as everyone began moving towards the rooms where games
and activities took place, he veered away from the main group and began
climbing a staircase that led to a different part of the school. From that
moment, Gaston vanished.
When he failed to return home for dinner, his alarmed parents went
to Gaston’s school and, with the help of one of his teachers, Frère
© The Author(s) 2018 1
T. Verhoeven, Sexual Crime, Religion and Masculinity
in fin-de-siècle France, Genders and Sexualities in History,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74479-7_1