Dealing with the well-known school activity in the French province of Champagne during the Ancien Régime, this paper enlightens the intertwined relations between prescribers of schoolmasters’ tasks (bishop, parish priests, village representatives, intendant), those who benefited of his functions (priests, lay adults and children) and schoolmasters themselves, with particular emphasis on their liturgical duties in the service of the parish community. Starting with the official defining of the schoolmaster’s role shaped by religious authorities, the study continues with an archival reconstitution of his concrete activity within the church, then by evoking the negotiations caused by his local implementation. In doing so, the late-18^thcentury schoolmaster appears through his “two bodies” (the children teacher’s one, the adults initiator’s one) matching with common ideals, but regulated by contradictory conventions or levels of governance.