[MANUSCRIT - ALGERIA - ARMÉE D'AFRIQUE] - BERROUYL (or Berro - Lot 40

[MANUSCRIT - ALGERIA - ARMÉE D'AFRIQUE] - BERROUYL (or Berrouil)(H.). Refusal of Burial: Letter from a soldier to a priest in Oran. Vibrant testimony to military anticlericalism and the condition of soldiers in Oran during the Second Empire. Accompanied by over 50 pages of songs and poems. Oran, January 13, 1863. Volume in-8 (190 x 150mm). Vintage oriental-style flap binding, full red morocco, framing lace and central iron of foliage and flowers pushed in gold. Dull spine. 7pp,.n.ch. 2pp.n.ch, 16ff ( blanks), 1-36pp and 41-53pp., 7pp.n.ch. Leather faded, small tear at foot cap. About 30 leaves have been cut out. Traces of handling. Manuscript in black ink on notebook, in very legible handwriting, signed by H. Berrouyl, non-commissioned officer with the 3rd Escadron du Train des Équipages militaires garrisoned in Oran. This powerful, indignant letter of admonition is addressed to an Oran priest who refused to bury a soldier who died in hospital before he could confess. In it, Berrouyl delivers a veritable plea against the inhumanity of priestly zeal and the misuse of charity: "[...] as if, with you, it were a conscious decision to destroy all our illusions one by one, to brutally tear away all our beliefs, [...]. You take us by the hand, we laymen who, with our eyes wide open, were only asking to believe [...]. You show us in the half-light of the picture, as an obligatory accompaniment, the spirit that animates you, the spirit of anarchy, absolutism and selfish intolerance. How, a soldier falls ill, is taken to hospital deprived of all knowledge, dies and you refuse to bury him because, you say, he didn't confess?" At the end of the volume, in another hand, is a rich compilation of versified texts and popular songs of the time: "Les Bœufs", "Le Chemin des amoureux", "Le Trappiste", "Les Hirondelles", "Le Surnuméraire" , "La gourde à la patrouille" etc.