Abstract EN:

The Concordat gives to French bishops an opportunity to set up in their diocese specialised institutions for young men aspiring to become priest. Great seminaries are organised by law. The creation and administration of these public ecclesiastical establishments are directly subject to the authority of the state. By their particular nautre, they are intimately tied to church life, and strictly depend on its hierarchy: bishops, archbishops, and the Holy See. More than a quarter of seminaries during the era of the Concordat are entrusted to a congregation which specialises in the instruction of priests:"la compagnie des prêtres de Saint-Sulpice". This includes the seminary in Toulouse, which allows a person, through studying, to develop a general idea of the way in which priest were instructed in the last century. It also presents a description of the institutions in which this instruction was carried out. In this frame of mind, a variety of questions have been taken into consideration. They of course examine the legal and administrative aspects of the great seminary in Toulouse, but also all the aspects tied to the teaching which took place inside its walls, as well as the people who lived there. These different approaches allow one to discover an institution from nineteenth century France which is almost unknown, and to seize the vitality that existed there.