First Textbook War

The first Textbook War was an education-related conflict in France between 1882 and 1883, after the secularization of primary education materials by the Ferry law on March 28, 1882.

The conflict focused on four civics textbooks designated for use in the recently established secular school system. These books were accused of promoting moral relativism, disregarding the principle of school neutrality, and presenting an unfavorable image of the Catholic Church. During this controversy, the Church aimed to launch a defense campaign against the Ferry Law. This law eliminated the catechism from schools and substituted it with "moral and civic instruction" classes detailed in article 1 of elementary school curricula.

The so-called "textbook war" led to a national-level conflict between the government, prefects, and the French episcopate, and a local-level^[1] dispute between specific priests, teachers, and mayors. On the part of the Catholic clergy, it resulted in the confiscation of secular morality books^[2] and refusal of sacraments to urge the faithful to pull their children out of "unfavorable schools". The Ministry of Religious Affairs utilized the Concordat of 1801 to halt the salaries of the most obstinate clerics.

However, the tensions were not universal throughout France and decreased with Jules Ferry's return to the presidency of the Conseil, together with the appeasement of Pope Leo XIII and the more moderate bishops. Thus, the "first textbook war" differed from the much more severe "second textbook war" that occurred twenty-five years later during the 1907-1914 school war.