where religion still mattered, in private and public life,

宗教在个人和集体生活中仍占有重要地位
to the degree it always had been,

仍像旧时一样
you still have people that want to have church schools.

仍然有人倾向于成立教会学校
And in the north of france--when you're reading Germinal

在法国北部你读《萌芽》的时候
you have to also imagine you've got these Belgian nuns

你会想象旧时的比利时修女
with these wild hats that they used to have,

戴着那种巨大的帽子
still teaching in the schools.

仍在学校教书
You have convent people coming down that know a little literacy,

修女们有一点文化
not very much, and they're teaching and they're doing the best they can.

虽然水平不高但她们竭力教好书
The quality of the clergy in france

18世纪的法国神职人员
was never higher than in the eighteenth century;

素质是最高的
it was pretty low in the nineteenth century.

19世纪的神职人员素质较低