PARIS
491
PARIS
Dumoulin, Mestrezat, Durand, and Montigny. At
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) Pastor
Claude was compelled to leave Paris; Pastors Malzac,
Giraud, and Gi\'ry, who endeavoured despite the in-
vocation to maintain a Protestant church at Paris,
were imprisoned in 1692. During the eighteenth
century the chaplains attached to the embassies of
Protestant princes gave spiritual assistance to the
Protestants of the city. Marron, chaplain at the
Dutch embassy, became pastor in Paris when Louis
XVI promulgated the edict of toleration (1787). A
decree of 1802 gave over to the Protestant sect the old
church of the Visitandrnes in the Kue St-Antoine
(built by Mansart); one of 1811 gave them the church
of the Oratorians in the Rue St-Honore, while the July
Monarchy gave them the old Church of Notre-Dame-
de-Pentemont, which untler the old regime had be-
longed to the Augustinian Sisters of the Incarnate
Word of the Blessed Sacrament. At present the Re-
formed Church possesses nineteen places of worship in
Paris and seventeen in the suburbs; the Lutherans,
eleven places of worship in Paris and eight in the sub-
urbs; the Protestant Free Churches, four places of
worship; the Baptists, four churches in Paris and one
in the suburbs. The American Episcopal, Anglican,
Scotch, Congregationalist, and Wesleyan Churches
conduct services in English. There are in Paris about
50,000 Jews.
Public Assistance and Public Charity. — Under the old regime, what is now called "Public Assistance" included several distinct departments: (1) that of the Hotel-Dieu, one of the oldest hospitals in Europe, doubtless founded by the Bishop St. Landry after the epidemic of 651. It was at first directed by the can- ons of Notre-Dame, and after 1505 by a commission of citizens with whom Louis XIV associated, together with the Archbishop of Paris, several representatives of the Government and of the chief judiciary bodies. Thi.s ileiiartnient undertook the administration of the Hospital for Incurables, the Hospital of St. Louis, and that of St. .Vnnc; (2) department of the General Hos- pital, creati'd by Louis XIV in 1656 for the sick, the aged, children, and beggars, and with which were con- nected the infirmaries of Pitie, Bicetre, the Salpfetriere, Vaugirard, the foundling hosjiital, and that of the Holy Ghost; (3) several indi'|)cndent hospitals, e. g. Cochin Hospital, founded in KisO hy the Abb<5 Cochin, pastor of St-Jacques, and the Necker Hospital, es- tablished in 1779 at the initiative of Mme Necker; (4) the Bureau of Charity, dependent on the parishes; (5) the central Bureau of the Poor (grand bureau ites pauvres), established under Francis I for the relief of the indigent. It was presided over and directed by the procureur general of the Parlement and levied a yearly "alms tax" on all the inhabitants of Paris. It administered the infirmary of Petites Maisons.
The Revolution effected a radical change in this system. The central Bureau des Pauvres was at first replaced by forty-eight beneficent committees (comilcs de hienfaisance) ; these were replaced in 1816 by twelve bureaux of charity, which in 1830 took the name of bureaux de hienfaisance and number twenty since 1860. While in the communes of France all the hospital de- partments are under an administration distinct from that of the bureau of beneficence, at Paris, in virtue of the law of 10 Jan., 1849, the General Administra- tion of Public Assistance directs both the hospitals and the departments for relief at home. At present the Department of Public Assistance directs 31 ho.spi- tals, 14 being general hospitals, 7 special, 9 children's hospitals, and 1 insane asylum. At the laicization of the hospitals, the hospital of St. Joseph, conducted by the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, was opened in 1884 under the patronage of the Archbishop of Paris; that of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, in care of the Augustines, was founded by Abbe Carton, pastor of St-Pierre-de-iVIontrouge and bequeathed by him in
1887 to the Archbishop of Paris. The hospital of
Notre-Dame-de-Perpetuel-Secours at Lavallois is con- ducted by the Dominican Sisters. The St-Jacqucs, Hahnemann, St-Frangois, and St-Michel hospitals arc also in the hands of congregations. The Villepinte Institution, in charge of the Sisters of Marie Auxilia- tricc, cares for chililn-n and young women suffering from tuberculosis. The Marie-Therese infirmary was founded for aged or infirm priests by the wife of Ch&teaubriand. The Little Sisters of the Poor have nine houses in the diocese. The Brothers of St. John of God maintain a private hospital and an asy- lum for incurable young men. The Institution of the Ladies of Calvary, founded at Lyons in 1842 by Mme Garnier and established at Paris in 1874, is conducted by widows for the care of the cancerous, and receives into its infirmaries patients whom no other hospital
will admit; it also has houses at Lyons, Marseilles, St-
Etienne, and Rouen. The Little Sisters of the As-
sumption, nurses of the poor, who have nine houses in
the diocese, stay night and day without pay in the
houses of the sick poor. The same is done by the Sis-
ters of Notre-Dame of the Rue Cassini in the homes
of poor women in their confinement. Other orders
for the care of the sick in their homes are the Francis-
can nursing sisters (7 houses) and the Sisters Servants
of the Poor (4 houses).
Among the institutions now dependent on the State, the foundation of which was formerly the glory of the Church, must be mentioned that of Quinze Vingls for the blind. As early as the eleventh century there was a confraternity for the blind; St. Louis built for it a house and a church, gave it a perpetual revenue, and decreed that the number of the Quinze Vingls (300 blind) should be maintained complete. When the king was canonized in 1297 the blind took him as their patron (sec Education of the Blind). The Catholic institutions of Paris for the relief of the poor and the ujilifting of the labouring classes are very numerous. For the Society of St. Vincent de Paul see Mission, Congregation of Priests of the. The Philan- thropic Society, founded in 1780 under the protection of Louis XVI, established dispensaries, economical
