« On demande des prêtres »

Bloy here reused part of the proofs of his article “M. Charles Buet et son dernier livre Scènes de la vie cléricale,” published on 5 March 1882 in Le Foyer illustré, which he corrected and repurposed under the new title “On demande des prêtres.” Skillfully cut up (at leaves 5 and 6, Bloy retained two earlier corrections), these galleys were remounted on new sheets whose margins contain autograph corrections, cuts and additions.

From the deleted and replaced passages, as from the whole set of corrections, it is clear that Bloy intended to produce a new text, using this original article as its basis.

Although no passage can be linked to it word for word, the argument can be connected to the Epilogue of his book Belluaires et porchers — itself titled “On demande des prêtres” — which would appear twenty years later.

Apparently unpublished, this work was undertaken ten years after the Foyer illustré article, as Bloy notes in his final autograph addition: “J’écrivais cela, il y a dix ans environ, presque au début de ma vie littéraire commencée si tard, & j’avais évidemment la main plus douce qu’aujourd’hui.” That is putting it mildly.

Where in 1882 he had called for pastors “éperdus de charité,” he would, in the ferocious Belluaires et Porchers (1905), accuse those same pastors of betraying their mission: “On vous demande, messieurs les successeurs des Apôtres, de ne pas dégoûter le Pauvre qui cherche Jésus, de ne pas détester les Artistes et les Poètes, de ne pas envoyer au camp ennemi — à force d’injustice, de déraison et d’ignominies, — celui qui ne chercherait pas mieux que de combattre à côté de vous et pour vous, si vous étiez assez humbles pour le commander.”

The letter mounted at the front (October 1951), addressed by Bloy’s biographer and editor Joseph Bollery to the document’s first owner, André Vasseur, sheds light on its context: the unpublished character of these reworked proofs may be explained by the falling-out between Bloy and Buet.