The first historical point I made was indeed economical: nobody likes to see able-bodied men go and get shot hundreds of kilometers away when they could be plowing the fields. It's a huge economic loss for families, villages, a whole region.
I agree with you view on priests: with some exceptions (theology of liberation in South America etc) the role of priests around the world is to have poor people not bitch too much about the current state of affairs and follow their current leaders. I personally don't make a difference between supreme being, catholicism etc, but the religions question has been very salient in Bretagne for centuries. It is now a very christian region compared to the rest of France, but christianity had a tough times getting implanted over there, as locals had very strong pagan beliefs. When the church saw that people just weren't buying that whole monotheism thing, that had a very extensive strategy of converting celtic gods into saints and bishops, carving crosses in standing stones etc. Old women in today's Bretagne still have a very pagan way of worshiping, praying to Saint X for back aches, Saint Y for rain, Saint Z for warts etc. Conversely, catholic monuments often feature pagan symbols like l'Ankou, the Breton figure of death.
And I'm not saying all changes came from Paris (our anthem is called La Marseillaise, not La Parisienne ;), but that is was perceived as such by Bretons. I don't think they were very aware of/gave a rat's ass about what was happening in the Midi.
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The first historical point I made was indeed economical: nobody likes to see able-bodied men go and get shot hundreds of kilometers away when they could be plowing the fields. It's a huge economic loss for families, villages, a whole region.
I agree with you view on priests: with some exceptions (theology of liberation in South America etc) the role of priests around the world is to have poor people not bitch too much about the current state of affairs and follow their current leaders. I personally don't make a difference between supreme being, catholicism etc, but the religions question has been very salient in Bretagne for centuries. It is now a very christian region compared to the rest of France, but christianity had a tough times getting implanted over there, as locals had very strong pagan beliefs. When the church saw that people just weren't buying that whole monotheism thing, that had a very extensive strategy of converting celtic gods into saints and bishops, carving crosses in standing stones etc. Old women in today's Bretagne still have a very pagan way of worshiping, praying to Saint X for back aches, Saint Y for rain, Saint Z for warts etc. Conversely, catholic monuments often feature pagan symbols like l'Ankou, the Breton figure of death.
And I'm not saying all changes came from Paris (our anthem is called La Marseillaise, not La Parisienne ;), but that is was perceived as such by Bretons. I don't think they were very aware of/gave a rat's ass about what was happening in the Midi.