CHAPTER III THE CLERGY.
I.The regular clergy.
The regular clergy .-- Difference in the condition of the two clergies .-- The three vows .-- Rules .-- Life in common .-- Object of the system .-- Violent suppression of the institution and its abuses in 1790 .-- Spontaneous revival of the institution free of its abuses after 1800 .-- Democratic and republican character of monastic constitutions .-- Vegetation of the old stock and multiplication of new plants,--Number of monks and nuns .-- Proportion of these numbers to the total population in 1789 and 1878 .-- Predominance of the organizations for labor and charity .-- How formed and extended .-- Social instinct and contact with the mystic world.
However correct the life of a secular priest may be, he stills belongs to his century.

Like a layman, he has his own domicile and fireside, his parsonage in the country with a garden, or an apartment in town--in any event, his own home and household, a servant or housekeeper, who is often either his mother or a sister; in short, a suitable enclosure set apart, where he can enjoy his domestic and private life free of the encroachments on his public and ecclesiastical life, analogous to that of a lay functionary or a bachelor of steady habits.

In effect, his expenses and income, his comforts and discomforts are about the same.
His condition, his salary,[5301] his table, clothes and furniture, his out-of-door ways and habits, give him rank in the village alongside of the schoolteacher and postmaster; in the large borough or small town, alongside of the justice of the peace and college professor; in the large towns, side by side with the head of a bureau or a chief of division; at Paris, in certain parishes, alongside of the prefect of police and the prefect of the Seine.[5302] Even in the humblest curacy, he regulates his budget monthly, spending his money without consulting anybody.

When not on duty, his time is his own.

He can dine out, order for himself at home a special dish, allow himself delicacies.