The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Makers of Canada: Bishop Laval
by A. Leblond de Brumath

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Title: The Makers of Canada: Bishop Laval

Author: A. Leblond de Brumath

Release Date: November 28, 2005 [EBook #17174]

Language: English

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[Illustration]




_THE MAKERS OF CANADA_


BISHOP LAVAL

BY

A. LEBLOND DE BRUMATH




TORONTO

MORANG & CO., LIMITED

1912




_Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year 1906
by Morang & Co., Limited, in the Department of Agriculture._




CONTENTS

                                             Page
_CHAPTER I_
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN
CANADA                                          1

_CHAPTER II_
THE EARLY YEARS OF FRANÇOIS DE LAVAL           15

_CHAPTER III_
THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL                          31

_CHAPTER IV_
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SEMINARY                  47

_CHAPTER V_
MGR. DE LAVAL AND THE SAVAGES                  61

_CHAPTER VI_
SETTLEMENT OF THE COLONY                       77

_CHAPTER VII_
THE SMALLER SEMINARY                           97

_CHAPTER VIII_
THE PROGRESS OF THE COLONY                    113

_CHAPTER IX_
BECOMES BISHOP OF QUEBEC                      129

_CHAPTER X_
FRONTENAC IS APPOINTED GOVERNOR               143

_CHAPTER XI_
A TROUBLED ADMINISTRATION                     157

_CHAPTER XII_
THIRD VOYAGE TO FRANCE                        169

_CHAPTER XIII_
LAVAL RETURNS TO CANADA                       181

_CHAPTER XIV_
RESIGNATION OF MGR. DE LAVAL                  195

_CHAPTER XV_
MGR. DE LAVAL COMES FOR THE LAST TIME TO
CANADA                                        211

_CHAPTER XVI_
MASSACRE OF LACHINE                           223

_CHAPTER XVII_
THE LABOURS OF OLD AGE                        235

_CHAPTER XVIII_
LAST DAYS OF MGR. DE LAVAL                    249

_CHAPTER XIX_
DEATH OF MGR. DE LAVAL                        261

INDEX                                         271




CHAPTER I

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
IN CANADA


If, standing upon the threshold of the twentieth century, we cast a look
behind us to note the road traversed, the victories gained by the great
army of Christ, we discover everywhere marvels of abnegation and
sacrifice; everywhere we see rising before us the dazzling figures of
apostles, of doctors of the Church and of martyrs who arouse our
admiration and command our respect. There is no epoch, no generation,
even, which has not given to the Church its phalanx of heroes, its quota
of deeds of devotion, whether they have become illustrious or have
remained unknown.

Born barely three centuries ago, the Christianity of New France has
enriched history with pages no less glorious than those in which are
enshrined the lofty deeds of her elders. To the list, already long, of
workers for the gospel she has added the names of the Récollets and of
the Jesuits, of the Sulpicians and of the Oblate Fathers, who crossed
the seas to plant the faith among the hordes of barbarians who inhabited
the immense regions to-day known as the Dominion of Canada.

And what daring was necessary, in the early days of the colony, to
plunge into the vast forests of North America! Incessant toil,
sacrifice, pain and death in its most terrible forms were the price that
was gladly paid in the service of God by men who turned their backs upon
the comforts of civilized France to carry the faith into the unknown
wilderness.

Think of what Canada was at the beginning of the seventeenth century!
Instead of these fertile provinces, covered to-day by luxuriant
harvests, man's gaze met everywhere only impenetrable forests in which
the woodsman's axe had not yet permitted the plough to cleave and
fertilize the soil; instead of our rich and populous cities, of our
innumerable villages daintily perched on the brinks of streams, or
rising here and there in the midst of verdant plains, the eye perceived
only puny wigwams isolated and lost upon the banks of the great river,
or perhaps a few agglomerations of smoky huts, such as Hochelaga or
Stadaconé; instead of our iron rails, penetrating in all directions,
instead of our peaceful fields over which trains hasten at marvellous
speed from ocean to ocean, there were but narrow trails winding through
a jungle of primeval trees, behind which hid in turn the Iroquois, the
Huron or the Algonquin, awaiting the propitious moment to let fly the
fatal arrow; instead of the numerous vessels bearing over the waves of
the St. Lawrence, at a distance of more than six hundred leagues from
the sea, the products of the five continents; instead of yonder
floating palaces, thronged with travellers from the four corners of the
earth, then only an occasional bark canoe came gliding slyly along by
the reeds of the shore, scarcely stopping except to permit its crew to
kindle a fire, to make prisoners or to scalp some enemy.

A heroic courage was necessary to undertake to carry the faith to these
savage tribes. It was condemning one's self to lead a life like theirs,
of ineffable hardships, dangers and privations, now in a bark canoe and
paddle in hand, now on foot and bearing upon one's shoulders the things
necessary for the holy sacrament; in the least case it was braving
hunger and thirst, exposing one's self to the rigours of an excessive
cold, with which European nations were not yet familiar; it often meant
hastening to meet the most horrible tortures. In spite of all this,
however, Father Le Caron did not hesitate to penetrate as far as the
country of the Hurons, while Fathers Sagard and Viel were sowing the
first seeds of Christianity in the St. Lawrence valley. The devotion of
the Récollets, to the family of whom belonged these first missionaries
of Canada, was but ill-rewarded, for, after the treaty of St.
Germain-en-Laye, which restored Canada to France, the king refused them
permission to return to a region which they had watered with the sweat
of their brows and fertilized with their blood.

The humble children of St. Francis had already evangelized the Huron
tribes as far as the Georgian Bay, when the Company of the Cent-Associés
was founded by Richelieu. The obligation which the great cardinal
imposed upon them of providing for the maintenance of the propagators of
the gospel was to assure the future existence of the missions. The
merit, however, which lay in the creation of a society which did so much
for the furtherance of Roman Catholicism in North America is not due
exclusively to the great cardinal, for Samuel de Champlain can claim a
large share of it. "The welfare of a soul," said this pious founder of
Quebec, "is more than the conquest of an empire, and kings should think
of extending their rule in infidel countries only to assure therein the
reign of Jesus Christ."

Think of the suffering endured, in order to save a soul, by men who for
this sublime purpose renounced all that constitutes the charm of life!
Not only did the Jesuits, in the early days of the colony, brave
horrible dangers with invincible steadfastness, but they even consented
to imitate the savages, to live their life, to learn their difficult
idioms. Let us listen to this magnificent testimony of the Protestant
historian Bancroft:--

"The horrors of a Canadian life in the wilderness were resisted by an
invincible, passive courage, and a deep, internal tranquillity. Away
from the amenities of life, away from the opportunities of vain-glory,
they became dead to the world, and possessed their souls in unalterable
peace. The few who lived to grow old, though bowed by the toils of a
long mission, still kindled with the fervour of apostolic zeal. The
history of their labours is connected with the origin of every
celebrated town in the annals of French Canada; not a cape was turned
nor a river entered but a Jesuit led the way."

Must we now recall the edifying deaths of the sons of Loyola, who
brought the glad tidings of the gospel to the Hurons?--Father Jogues,
who returned from the banks of the Niagara with a broken shoulder and
mutilated hands, and went back, with sublime persistence, to his
barbarous persecutors, to pluck from their midst the palm of martyrdom;
Father Daniel, wounded by a spear while he was absolving the dying in
the village of St. Joseph; Father Brébeuf, refusing to escape with the
women and children of the hamlet of St. Louis, and expiring, together
with Father Gabriel Lalemant, in the most frightful tortures that Satan
could suggest to the imagination of a savage; Father Charles Garnier
pierced with three bullets, and giving up the ghost while blessing his
converts; Father de Noue dying on his knees in the snow!

These missions had succumbed in 1648 and 1649 under the attacks of the
Iroquois. The venerable founder of St. Sulpice, M. Olier, had foreseen
this misfortune; he had always doubted the success of missions so
extended and so widely scattered without a centre of support
sufficiently strong to resist a systematic and concerted attack of all
their enemies at once. Without disapproving the despatch of these flying
columns of missionaries which visited tribe after tribe (perhaps the
only possible method in a country governed by pagan chiefs), he believed
that another system of preaching the gospel would produce, perhaps with
less danger, a more durable effect in the regions protected by the flag
of France. Taking up again the thought of the Benedictine monks, who
have succeeded so well in other countries, M. Olier and the other
founders of Montreal wished to establish a centre of fervent piety which
should accomplish still more by example than by preaching. The
development and progress of religious work must increase with the
material importance of this centre of proselytism. In consequence,
success would be slow, less brilliant, but surer than that ordinarily
obtained by separate missions. This was, at least, the hope of our
fathers, and we of Quebec would seem unjust towards Providence and
towards them if, beholding the present condition of the two seminaries
of this city, of our Catholic colleges, of our institutions of every
kind, and of our religious orders, we did not recognize that their
thought was wise, and their enterprise one of prudence and blessed by
God.

Up to 1658 New France belonged to the jurisdiction of the Bishops of St.
Malo and of Rouen. At the time of the second voyage of Cartier, in
1535, his whole crew, with their officers at their head, confessed and
received communion from the hands of the Bishop of St. Malo. This
jurisdiction lasted until the appointment of the first Bishop of New
France. The creation of a diocese came in due time; the need of an
ecclesiastical superior, of a character capable of imposing his
authority made itself felt more and more. Disorders of all kinds crept
into the colony, and our fathers felt the necessity of a firm and
vigorous arm to remedy this alarming state of affairs. The love of
lucre, of gain easily acquired by the sale of spirituous liquors to the
savages, brought with it evils against which the missionaries
endeavoured to react.

François de Laval-Montmorency, who was called in his youth the Abbé de
Montigny, was, on the recommendation of the Jesuits, appointed apostolic
vicar by Pope Alexander VII, who conferred upon him the title of Bishop
of Petræa _in partibus_. The Church in Canada was then directly
connected with the Holy See, and the sovereign pontiff abandoned to the
king of France the right of appointment and presentation of bishops
having the authority of apostolic vicars.

The difficulties which arose between Mgr. de Laval and the Abbé de
Queylus, Grand Vicar of Rouen for Canada, were regrettable, but, thanks
to the truly apostolic zeal and the purity of intention of these two men
of God, these difficulties were not long in giving place to a noble
rivalry for good, fostered by a perfect harmony. The Abbé de Queylus had
come to take possession of the Island of Montreal for the company of St.
Sulpice, and to establish there a seminary on the model of that in
Paris. This creation, with that of the hospital established by Mlle.
Mance, gave a great impetus to the young city of Montreal. Moreover,
religion was so truly the motive of the foundation of the colony by M.
Olier and his associates, that the latter had placed the Island of
Montreal under the protection of the Holy Virgin. The priests of St.
Sulpice, who had become the lords of the island, had already given an
earnest of their labours; they too aspired to venerate martyrs chosen
from their ranks, and in the same year MM. Lemaître and Vignal perished
at the hands of the wild Iroquois.

Meanwhile, under the paternal direction of Mgr. de Laval, and the
thoroughly Christian administration of governors like Champlain, de
Montmagny, d'Ailleboust, or of leaders like Maisonneuve and Major
Closse, Heaven was pleased to spread its blessings upon the rising
colony; a number of savages asked and received baptism, and the fervour
of the colonists endured. The men were not the only ones to spread the
good word; holy maidens worked on their part for the glory of God,
whether in the hospitals of Quebec and Montreal, or in the institution
of the Ursulines in the heart of the city of Champlain, or, finally, in
the modest school founded at Ville-Marie by Sister Marguerite
Bourgeoys. It is true that the blood of the Indians and of their
missionaries had been shed in floods, that the Huron missions had been
exterminated, and that, moreover, two camps of Algonquins had been
destroyed and swept away; but nations as well as individuals may promise
themselves the greater progress in the spiritual life according as they
commence it with a more abundant and a richer record; and the greatest
treasure of a nation is the blood of the martyrs who have founded it.
Moreover, the fugitive Hurons went to convert their enemies, and even
from the funeral pyres of the priests was to spring the spark of faith
for all these peoples. Two hamlets were founded for the converted
Iroquois, those of the Sault St. Louis (Caughnawaga) and of La Montagne
at Montreal, and fervent neophytes gathered there.

Certain historians have regretted that the first savages encountered by
the French in North America should have been Hurons; an alliance made
with the Iroquois, they say, would have been a hundred times more
profitable for civilization and for France. What do we know about it?
Man imagines and arranges his plans, but above these arrangements hovers
Providence--fools say, chance--whose foreseeing hand sets all in order
for the accomplishment of His impenetrable design. Yet, however firmly
convinced the historian may be that the eye of Providence never sleeps,
that the Divine Hand is never still, he must be sober in his
observations; he must yield neither to his fancy nor to his imagination;
but neither must he banish God from history, for then everything in it
would become incomprehensible and inexplicable, absurd and barren. It
was this same God who guides events at His will that inspired and
sustained the devoted missionaries in their efforts against the
revenue-farmers in the matter of the sale of intoxicating liquors to the
savages. The struggle which they maintained, supported by the venerable
Bishop of Petræa, is wholly to their honour; it was a question of saving
even against their will the unfortunate children of the woods who were
addicted to the fatal passion of intoxication. Unhappily, the Governors
d'Avaugour and de Mézy, in supporting the greed of the traders, were
perhaps right from the political point of view, but certainly wrong from
a philanthropic and Christian standpoint.

The colony continuing to prosper, and the growing need of a national
clergy becoming more and more felt, Mgr. de Laval founded in 1663 a
seminary at Quebec. The king decided that the tithes raised from the
colonists should be collected by the seminary, which was to provide for
the maintenance of the priests and for divine service in the established
parishes. The Sovereign Council fixed the tithe at a twenty-sixth.

The missionaries continued, none the less, to spread the light of the
gospel and Christian civilization. It seems that the field of their
labour had never been too vast for their desire. Ever onward! was their
motto. While Fathers Garreau and Mesnard found death among the
Algonquins on the coasts of Lake Superior, the Sulpicians Dollier and
Gallinée were planting the cross on the shores of Lake Erie; Father
Claude Allouez was preaching the gospel beyond Lake Superior; Fathers
Dablon, Marquette, and Druillètes were establishing the mission of Sault
Ste. Marie; Father Albanel was proceeding to explore Hudson Bay; Father
Marquette, acting with Joliet, was following the course of the
Mississippi as far as Arkansas; finally, later on, Father Arnaud
accompanied La Vérendrye as far as the Rocky Mountains.

The establishment of the Catholic religion in Canada had now witnessed
its darkest days; its history becomes intimately interwoven with that of
the country. Up to the English conquest, the clergy and the different
religious congregations, as faithful to France as to the Holy See,
encouraged the Canadians in their struggles against the invaders.
Accordingly, at the time of the invasion of the colony by Phipps, the
Americans of Boston declared that they would spare neither monks nor
missionaries if they succeeded in seizing Quebec; they bore a particular
grudge against the priests of the seminary, to whom they ascribed the
ravages committed shortly before in New England by the Abenaquis. They
were punished for their boasting; forty seminarists assembled at St.
Joachim, the country house of the seminary, joined the volunteers who
fought at Beauport, and contributed so much to the victory that
Frontenac, to recompense their bravery, presented them with a cannon
captured by themselves.

The Church of Rome had been able to continue in peace its mission in
Canada from the departure of Mgr. de Laval, in 1684, to the conquest of
the country by the English. The worthy Bishop of Petræa, created Bishop
of Quebec in 1674, was succeeded by Mgr. de St. Vallier, then by Mgr. de
Mornay, who did not come to Canada, by Mgr. de Dosquet, Mgr. Pourroy de
l'Aube-Rivière, and Mgr. de Pontbriant, who died the very year in which
General de Lévis made of his flags on St. Helen's Island a sacred pyre.

In 1760 the Protestant religion was about to penetrate into Canada in
the train of the victorious armies of Great Britain, having been
proscribed in the colony from the time of Champlain. With conquerors of
a different religion, the rôle of the Catholic clergy became much more
arduous and delicate; this will be readily admitted when we recall that
Mgr. Briand was informally apprised at the time of his appointment that
the government of England would appear to be ignorant of his
consecration and induction by the Bishop of Rome. But the clergy managed
to keep itself on a level with its task. A systematic opposition on its
part to the new masters of the country could only have drawn upon the
whole population a bitter oppression, and we would not behold to-day the
prosperity of these nine ecclesiastical provinces of Canada, with their
twenty-four dioceses, these numerous parishes which vie with each other
in the advancement of souls, these innumerable religious houses which
everywhere are spreading education or charity. The Act of Quebec in 1774
delivered our fathers from the unjust fetters fastened on their freedom
by the oath required under the Supremacy Act; but it is to the prudence
of Mgr. Plessis in particular that Catholics owe the religious liberty
which they now enjoy.

To-day, when passions are calmed, when we possess a full and complete
liberty of conscience, to-day when the different religious denominations
live side by side in mutual respect and tolerance of each other's
convictions, let us give thanks to the spiritual guides who by their
wisdom and moderation, but also by their energetic resistance when it
was necessary, knew how to preserve for us our language and our
religion. Let us always respect the worthy prelates who, like those who
direct us to-day, edify us by their tact, their knowledge and their
virtues.




CHAPTER II

THE EARLY YEARS OF FRANÇOIS DE LAVAL


Certain great men pass through the world like meteors; their brilliance,
lightning-like at their first appearance, continues to cast a dazzling
gleam across the centuries: such were Alexander the Great, Mozart,
Shakespeare and Napoleon. Others, on the contrary, do not instantly
command the admiration of the masses; it is necessary, in order that
their transcendent merit should appear, either that the veil which
covered their actions should be gradually lifted, or that, some fine
day, and often after their death, the results of their work should shine
forth suddenly to the eyes of men and prove their genius: such were
Socrates, Themistocles, Jacquard, Copernicus, and Christopher Columbus.

The illustrious ecclesiastic who has given his name to our
French-Canadian university, respected as he was by his contemporaries,
has been esteemed at his proper value only by posterity. The reason is
easy to understand: a colony still in its infancy is subject to many
fluctuations before all the wheels of government move smoothly, and Mgr.
de Laval, obliged to face ever renewed conflicts of authority, had
necessarily either to abandon what he considered it his duty to
support, or create malcontents. If sometimes he carried persistence to
the verge of obstinacy, he must be judged in relation to the period in
which he lived: governors like Frontenac were only too anxious to
imitate their absolute master, whose guiding maxim was, "I am the
state!" Moreover, where are the men of true worth who have not found
upon their path the poisoned fruits of hatred? The so-called praise that
is sometimes applied to a man, when we say of him, "he has not a single
enemy," seems to us, on the contrary, a certificate of insignificance
and obscurity. The figure of this great servant of God is one of those
which shed the most glory on the history of Canada; the age of Louis
XIV, so marvellous in the number of great men which it gave to France,
lavished them also upon her daughter of the new continent--Brébeuf and
Lalemant, de Maisonneuve, Dollard, Laval, Talon, de la Salle, Frontenac,
d'Iberville, de Maricourt, de Sainte-Hélène, and many others.

"Noble as a Montmorency" says a well-known adage. The founder of that
illustrious line, Bouchard, Lord of Montmorency, figures as early as 950
A.D. among the great vassals of the kingdom of France. The
heads of this house bore formerly the titles of First Christian Barons
and of First Barons of France; it became allied to several royal houses,
and gave to the elder daughter of the Church several cardinals, six
constables, twelve marshals, four admirals, and a great number of
distinguished generals and statesmen. Sprung from this family, whose
origin is lost in the night of time, François de Laval-Montmorency was
born at Montigny-sur-Avre, in the department of Eure-et-Loir, on April
30th, 1623. This charming village, which still exists, was part of the
important diocese of Chartres. Through his father, Hugues de Laval,
Seigneur of Montigny, Montbeaudry, Alaincourt and Revercourt, the future
Bishop of Quebec traced his descent from Count Guy de Laval, younger son
of the constable Mathieu de Montmorency, and through his mother,
Michelle de Péricard, he belonged to a family of hereditary officers of
the Crown, which was well-known in Normandy, and gave to the Church a
goodly number of prelates.

Like St. Louis, one of the protectors of his ancestors, the young
François was indebted to his mother for lessons and examples of piety
and of charity which he never forgot. Virtue, moreover, was as natural
to the Lavals as bravery on the field of battle, and whether it were in
the retinue of Clovis, when the First Barons received the regenerating
water of baptism, or on the immortal plain of Bouvines; whether it were
by the side of Blanche of Castile, attacked by the rebellious nobles, or
in the terrible holocaust of Crécy; whether it were in the _fight of the
giants_ at Marignan, or after Pavia during the captivity of the
_roi-gentilhomme_; everywhere where country and religion appealed to
their defenders one was sure of hearing shouted in the foremost ranks
the motto of the Montmorencys: _"Dieu ayde au premier baron chrétien!"_

Young Laval received at the baptismal font the name of the heroic
missionary to the Indies, François-Xavier. To this saint and to the
founder of the Franciscans, François d'Assise, he devoted throughout his
life an ardent worship. Of his youth we hardly know anything except the
misfortunes which happened to his family. He was only fourteen years old
when, in 1636, he suffered the loss of his father, and one of his near
kinsmen, Henri de Montmorency, grand marshal of France, and governor of
Languedoc, beheaded by the order of Richelieu. The bravery displayed by
this valiant warrior in battle unfortunately did not redeem the fault
which he had committed in rebelling against the established power,
against his lawful master, Louis XIII, and in neglecting thus the
traditions handed down to him by his family through more than seven
centuries of glory.

Some historians reproach Richelieu with cruelty, but in that troublous
age when, hardly free from the wars of religion, men rushed carelessly
on into the rebellions of the duc d'Orléans and the duc de Soissons,
into the conspiracies of Chalais, of Cinq-Mars and de Thou, soon
followed by the war of La Fronde, it was not by an indulgence synonymous
with weakness that it was possible to strengthen the royal power. Who
knows if it was not this energy of the great cardinal which inspired the
young François, at an age when sentiment is so deeply impressed upon the
soul, with those ideas of firmness which distinguished him later on?

The future Bishop of Quebec was then a scholar in the college of La
Flèche, directed by the Jesuits, for his pious parents held nothing
dearer than the education of their children in the fear of God and love
of the good. They had had six children; the two first had perished in
the flower of their youth on fields of battle; François, who was now the
eldest, inherited the name and patrimony of Montigny, which he gave up
later on to his brother Jean-Louis, which explains why he was called for
some time Abbé de Montigny, and resumed later the generic name of the
family of Laval; the fifth son, Henri de Laval, joined the Benedictine
monks and became prior of La Croix-Saint-Leuffroy. Finally the only
sister of Mgr. Laval, Anne Charlotte, became Mother Superior of the
religious community of the Daughters of the Holy Sacrament.

François edified the comrades of his early youth by his ardent piety,
and his tender respect for the house of God; his masters, too, clever as
they were in the art of guiding young men and of distinguishing those
who were to shine later on, were not slow in recognizing his splendid
qualities, the clear-sightedness and breadth of his intelligence, and
his wonderful memory. As a reward for his good conduct he was admitted
to the privileged ranks of those who comprised the Congregation of the
Holy Virgin. We know what good these admirable societies, founded by the
sons of Loyola, have accomplished and still accomplish daily in Catholic
schools the world over. Societies which vie with each other in piety and
encouragement of virtue, they inspire young people with the love of
prayer, the habits of regularity and of holy practices.

The congregation of the college of La Flèche had then the good fortune
of being directed by Father Bagot, one of those superior priests always
so numerous in the Company of Jesus. At one time confessor to King Louis
XIII, Father Bagot was a profound philosopher and an eminent theologian.
It was under his clever direction that the mind of François de Laval was
formed, and we shall witness later the germination of the seed which the
learned Jesuit sowed in the soul of his beloved scholar.

At this period great families devoted to God from early youth the
younger members who showed inclination for the religious life. François
was only nine years old when he received the tonsure, and fifteen when
he was appointed canon of the cathedral of Evreux. Without the revenues
which he drew from his prebend, he would not have been able to continue
his literary studies; the death of his father, in fact, had left his
family in a rather precarious condition of fortune. He was to remain to
the end of his career the pupil of his preferred masters, for it was
under them that, having at the age of nineteen left the institution
where he had brilliantly completed his classical education, he studied
philosophy and theology at the Collège de Clermont at Paris.

He was plunged in these noble studies, when two terrible blows fell upon
him; he learned of the successive deaths of his two eldest brothers, who
had fallen gloriously, one at Freiburg, the other at Nördlingen. He
became thus the head of the family, and as if the temptations which this
title offered him were not sufficient, bringing him as it did, together
with a great name a brilliant future, his mother came, supported by the
Bishop of Evreux, his cousin, to beg him to abandon the ecclesiastical
career and to marry, in order to maintain the honour of his house. Many
others would have succumbed, but what were temporal advantages to a man
who had long aspired to the glory of going to preach the Divine Word in
far-off missions? He remained inflexible; all that his mother could
obtain from him was his consent to devote to her for some time his clear
judgment and intellect in setting in order the affairs of his family. A
few months sufficed for success in this task. In order to place an
impassable abyss between himself and the world, he made a full and
complete renunciation in favour of his brother Jean-Louis of his rights
of primogeniture and all his titles to the seigniory of Montigny and
Montbeaudry. The world is ever prone to admire a chivalrous action, and
to look askance at deeds which appear to savour of fanaticism. To Laval
this renunciation of worldly wealth and honour appeared in the simple
light of duty. His Master's words were inspiration enough: "Wist ye not
that I must be about my Father's business?"

Returning to the Collège de Clermont, he now thought of nothing but of
preparing to receive worthily the holy orders. It was on September 23rd,
1647, at Paris, that he saw dawn for him the beautiful day of the first
mass, whose memory perfumes the whole life of the priest. We may guess
with what fervour he must have ascended the steps of the holy altar; if
up to that moment he had merely loved his God, he must on that day have
dedicated to Jesus all the powers of his being, all the tenderness of
his soul, and his every heart-beat.

Mgr. de Péricard, Bishop of Evreux, was not present at the ordination of
his cousin; death had taken him away, but before expiring, besides
expressing his regret to the new priest for having tried at the time,
thinking to further the aims of God, to dissuade him from the
ecclesiastical life, he gave him a last proof of his affection by
appointing him archdeacon of his cathedral. The duties of the
archdeaconry of Evreux, comprising, as it did, nearly one hundred and
sixty parishes, were particularly heavy, yet the young priest fulfilled
them for seven years, and M. de la Colombière explains to us how he
acquitted himself of them: "The regularity of his visits, the fervour of
his enthusiasm, the improvement and the good order which he established
in the parishes, the relief of the poor, his interest in all sorts of
charity, none of which escaped his notice: all this showed well that
without being a bishop he had the ability and merit of one, and that
there was no service which the Church might not expect from so great a
subject."

But our future Bishop of New France aspired to more glorious fields. One
of those zealous apostles who were evangelizing India at this period,
Father Alexander of Rhodes, asked from the sovereign pontiff the
appointment for Asia of three French bishops, and submitted to the Holy
See the names of MM. Pallu, Picquet and Laval. There was no question of
hesitation. All three set out immediately for Rome. They remained there
fifteen months; the opposition of the Portuguese court caused the
failure of this plan, and François de Laval returned to France. He had
resigned the office of archdeacon the year before, 1653, in favour of a
man of tried virtue, who had been, nevertheless, a prey to calumny and
persecution, the Abbé Henri-Marie Boudon; thus freed from all
responsibility, Laval could satisfy his desire of preparing himself by
prayer for the designs which God might have for him.

In his desire of attaining the greatest possible perfection, he betook
himself to Caen, to the religious retreat of M. de Bernières. St.
Vincent de Paul, who had trained M. Olier, was desirous also that his
pupil, before going to find a field for his apostolic zeal among the
people of Auvergne, should prepare himself by earnest meditation in
retirement at St. Lazare. "Silence and introspection seemed to St.
Vincent," says M. de Lanjuère, the author of the life of M. Olier, "the
first conditions of success, preceding any serious enterprise. He had
not learned this from Pythagoras or the Greek philosophers, who were,
indeed, so careful to prescribe for their disciples a long period of
meditation before initiation into their systems, nor even from the
experience of all superior men, who, in order to ripen a great plan or
to evolve a great thought, have always felt the need of isolation in the
nobler acceptance of the word; but he had this maxim from the very
example of the Saviour, who, before the temptation and before the
transfiguration, withdrew from the world in order to contemplate, and
who prayed in Gethsemane before His death on the cross, and who often
led His disciples into solitude to rest, and to listen to His most
precious communications."

In this little town of Caen, in a house called the Hermitage, lived Jean
de Bernières of Louvigny, together with some of his friends. They had
gathered together for the purpose of aiding each other in mutual
sanctification; they practised prayer, and lived in the exercise of the
highest piety and charity. François de Laval passed three years in this
Hermitage, and his wisdom was already so highly appreciated, that during
the period of his stay he was entrusted with two important missions,
whose successful issue attracted attention to him and led naturally to
his appointment to the bishopric of Canada.

As early as 1647 the king foresaw the coming creation of a bishopric in
New France, for he constituted the Upper Council "of the Governor of
Quebec, the Governor of Montreal and the Superior of the Jesuits, _until
there should be a bishop_." A few years later, in 1656, the Company of
Montreal obtained from M. Olier, the pious founder of the Seminary of
St. Sulpice, the services of four of his priests for the colony, under
the direction of one of them, M. de Queylus, Abbé de Loc-Dieu, whose
brilliant qualities, as well as the noble use which he made of his great
fortune, marked him out naturally as the probable choice of his
associates for the episcopacy. But the Jesuits, in possession of all the
missions of New France, had their word to say, especially since the
mitre had been offered by the queen regent, Anne of Austria, to one of
their number, Father Lejeune, who had not, however, been able to accept,
their rules forbidding it. They had then proposed to the court of France
and the court of Rome the name of François de Laval; but believing that
the colony was not ready for the erection of a see, they expressed the
opinion that the sending of an apostolic vicar with the functions and
powers of a bishop _in partibus_ would suffice. Moreover, if the person
sent should not succeed, he could at any time be recalled, which could
not be done in the case of a bishop. Alexander VII had given his consent
to this new plan, and Mgr. de Laval was consecrated by the nuncio of the
Pope at Paris, on Sunday, December 8th, 1658, in the church of St.
Germain-des-Prés. After having taken, with the assent of the sovereign
pontiff, the oath of fidelity to the king, the new Bishop of Petræa said
farewell to his pious mother (who died in that same year) and embarked
at La Rochelle in the month of April, 1659. The only property he
retained was an income of a thousand francs assured to him by the
Queen-Mother; but he was setting out to conquer treasures very different
from those coveted by the Spanish adventurers who sailed to Mexico and
Peru. He arrived on June 16th at Quebec, with letters from the king
which enjoined upon all the recognition of Mgr. de Laval of Petræa as
being authorized to exercise episcopal functions in the colony without
prejudice to the rights of the Archbishop of Rouen.

Unfortunately, men's minds were not very certain then as to the title
and qualities of an apostolic vicar. They asked themselves if he were
not a simple delegate whose authority did not conflict with the
jurisdiction of the two grand vicars of the Jesuits and the Sulpicians.
The communities, at first divided on this point, submitted on the
receipt of new letters from the king, which commanded the recognition of
the sole authority of the Bishop of Petræa. The two grand vicars obeyed,
and M. de Queylus came to Quebec, where he preached the sermon on St.
Augustine's Day (August 28th), and satisfied the claim to authority of
the apostolic vicar.

But a new complication arose: the _St. André_, which had arrived on
September 7th, brought to the Abbé de Queylus a new appointment as grand
vicar from the Archbishop of Rouen, which contained his protests at
court against the apostolic vicar, and letters from the king which
seemed to confirm them. Doubt as to the authenticity of the powers of
Mgr. de Laval might thus, at least, seem permissible; no act of the Abbé
de Queylus, however, indicates that it was openly manifested, and the
very next month the abbé returned to France.

We may understand, however, that Mgr. de Laval, in the midst of such
difficulties, felt the need of early asserting his authority. He
promulgated an order enjoining upon all the secular ecclesiastics of the
country the disavowal of all foreign jurisdictions and the recognition
of his alone, and commanded them to sign this regulation in evidence of
their submission. All signed it, including the devoted priests of St.
Sulpice at Montreal.

Two years later, nevertheless, the Abbé de Queylus returned with bulls
from the Congregation of the Daterie at Rome. These bulls placed him in
possession of the parish of Montreal. In spite of the formal forbiddance
of the Bishop of Petræa, he undertook, strong in what he judged to be
his rights, to betake himself to Montreal. The prelate on his side
believed that it was his duty to take severe steps, and he suspended the
Abbé de Queylus. On instructions which were given him by the king,
Governor d'Avaugour transmitted to the Abbé de Queylus an order to
return to France. The court of Rome finally settled the question by
giving the entire jurisdiction of Canada to Mgr. de Laval. The affair
thus ended, the Abbé de Queylus returned to the colony in 1668. The
population of Ville-Marie received with deep joy this benefactor, to
whose generosity it owed so much, and on his side the worthy Bishop of
Petræa proved that if he had believed it his duty to defend his own
authority when menaced, he had too noble a heart to preserve a petty
rancour. He appointed the worthy Abbé de Queylus his grand vicar at
Montreal.

When for the first time Mgr. de Laval set foot on the soil of America,
the people, assembled to pay respect to their first pastor, were struck
by his address, which was both affable and majestic, by his manners, as
easy as they were distinguished, but especially by that charm which
emanates from every one whose heart has remained ever pure. A lofty brow
indicated an intellect above the ordinary; the clean-cut long nose was
the inheritance of the Montmorencys; his eye was keen and bright; his
eyebrows strongly arched; his thin lips and prominent chin showed a
tenacious will; his hair was scanty; finally, according to the custom of
that period, a moustache and chin beard added to the strength and energy
of his features. From the moment of his arrival the prelate produced the
best impression. "I cannot," said Governor d'Argenson, "I cannot highly
enough esteem the zeal and piety of Mgr. of Petræa. He is a true man of
prayer, and I make no doubt that his labours will bear goodly fruits in
this country." Boucher, governor of Three Rivers, wrote thus: "We have a
bishop whose zeal and virtue are beyond anything that I can say."




CHAPTER III

THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL


The pious bishop who is the subject of this study was not long in
proving that his virtues were not too highly esteemed. An ancient
vessel, the _St. André_, brought from France two hundred and six
persons, among whom were Mlle. Mance, the foundress of the Montreal
hospital, Sister Bourgeoys, and two Sulpicians, MM. Vignal and Lemaître.
Now this ship had long served as a sailors' hospital, and it had been
sent back to sea without the necessary quarantine. Hardly had its
passengers lost sight of the coasts of France when the plague broke out
among them, and with such intensity that all were more or less attacked
by it; Mlle. Mance, in particular, was almost immediately reduced to the
point of death. Always very delicate, and exhausted by a preceding
voyage, she did not seem destined to resist this latest attack.
Moreover, all aid was lacking, even the rations of fresh water ran
short, and from a fear of contagion, which will be readily understood,
but which was none the less disastrous, the captain at first forbade the
Sisters of Charity who were on board to minister to the sick. This
precaution cost seven or eight of these unfortunate people their lives.
At least M. Vignal and M. Lemaître, though both suffering themselves,
were able to offer to the dying the consolations of their holy office.
M. Lemaître, more vigorous than his colleague, and possessed of an
admirable energy and devotion, was not satisfied merely with encouraging
and ministering to the unfortunate in their last moments, but even
watched over their remains at the risk of his own life; he buried them
piously, wound them in their shrouds, and said over them the final
prayers as they were lowered into the sea. Two Huguenots, touched by his
devotion, died in the Roman Catholic faith. The Sisters were finally
permitted to exercise their charitable office. Although ill, they as
well as Sister Bourgeoys, displayed a heroic energy, and raised the
morale of all the unfortunate passengers.

To this sickness were added other sufferings incident to such a voyage,
and frightful storms did not cease to attack the ship until its entry
into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Several times they believed themselves on
the point of foundering, and the two priests gave absolution to all. The
tempest carried these unhappy people so far from their route that they
did not arrive at Quebec until September 7th, exhausted by disease,
famine and trials of all sorts. Father Dequen, of the Society of Jesus,
showed in this matter an example of the most admirable charity. He
brought to the sick refreshments and every manner of aid, and lavished
upon all the offices of his holy ministry. As a result of his
self-devotion, he was attacked by the scourge and died in the exercise
of charity. Several more, after being conveyed to the hospital,
succumbed to the disease, and the whole country was infected. Mgr. of
Petræa was admirable in his devotion; he hardly left the hospital at
all, and constituted himself the nurse of all these unfortunates, making
their beds and giving them the most attentive care. "He is continually
at the hospital," wrote Mother Mary of the Incarnation, "in order to
help the sick and to make their beds. We do what we can to prevent him
and to shield his health, but no eloquence can dissuade him from these
acts of self-abasement."

In the spring of the year 1662, Mgr. de Laval rented for his own use an
old house situated on the site of the present parochial residence at
Quebec, and it was there that, with the three other priests who then
composed his episcopal court, he edified all the colonists by the
simplicity of a cenobitic life. He had been at first the guest of the
Jesuit Fathers, was later sheltered by the Sisters of the Hôtel-Dieu,
and subsequently lodged with the Ursulines. At this period it was indeed
incumbent upon him to adapt himself to circumstances; nor did these
modest conditions displease the former pupil of M. de Bernières, since,
as Latour bears witness, "he always complained that people did too much
for him; he showed a distaste for all that was too daintily prepared,
and affected, on the contrary, a sort of avidity for coarser fare."
Mother Mary of the Incarnation wrote: "He lives like a holy man and an
apostle; his life is so exemplary that he commands the admiration of the
country. He gives everything away and lives like a pauper, and one may
well say that he has the very spirit of poverty. He practises this
poverty in his house, in his manner of living, and in the matter of
furniture and servants; for he has but one gardener, whom he lends to
poor people when they have need of him, and a valet who formerly served
M. de Bernières."

But if the reverend prelate was modest and simple in his personal
tastes, he became inflexible when he thought it his duty to maintain the
rights of the Church. And he watched over these rights with the more
circumspection since he was the first bishop installed in the colony,
and was unwilling to allow abuses to be planted there, which later it
would be very difficult, not to say impossible, to uproot. Hence the
continual friction between him and the governor-general, d'Argenson, on
questions of precedence and etiquette. Some of these disputes would seem
to us childish to-day if even such a writer as Parkman did not put us on
our guard against a premature judgment.[1] "The disputes in question,"
writes Parkman, "though of a nature to provoke a smile on irreverent
lips, were by no means so puerile as they appear. It is difficult in a
modern democratic society to conceive the substantial importance of the
signs and symbols of dignity and authority, at a time and among a people
where they were adjusted with the most scrupulous precision, and
accepted by all classes as exponents of relative degrees in the social
and political scale. Whether the bishop or the governor should sit in
the higher seat at table thus became a political question, for it
defined to the popular understanding the position of Church and State in
their relations to government."

In his zeal for making his episcopal authority respected, could not the
prelate, however, have made some concessions to the temporal power? It
is allowable to think so, when his panegyrist, the Abbé Gosselin,
acknowledges it in these terms: "Did he sometimes show too much ardour
in the settlement of a question or in the assertion of his rights? It is
possible. As the Abbé Ferland rightly observes, 'no virtue is perfect
upon earth.' But he was too pious and too disinterested for us to
suspect for a moment the purity of his intentions." In certain passages
in his journal Father Lalemant seems to be of the same opinion. All men
are fallible; even the greatest saints have erred. In this connection
the remark of St. Bernardin of Siena presents itself naturally to the
religious mind: "Each time," says he, "that God grants to a creature a
marked and particular favour, and when divine grace summons him to a
special task and to some sublime position, it is a rule of Providence
to furnish that creature with all the means necessary to fulfil the
mission which is entrusted to him, and to bring it to a happy
conclusion. Providence prepares his birth, directs his education,
produces the environment in which he is to live; even his faults
Providence will use in the accomplishment of its purposes."

Difficulties of another sort fixed between the spiritual and the
temporal chiefs of the colony a still deeper gulf; they arose from the
trade in brandy with the savages. It had been formerly forbidden by the
Sovereign Council, and this measure, urged by the clergy and the
missionaries, put a stop to crimes and disorders. However, for the
purpose of gain, certain men infringed this wise prohibition, and Mgr.
de Laval, aware of the extensive harm caused by the fatal passion of the
Indians for intoxicating liquors, hurled excommunication against all who
should carry on the traffic in brandy with the savages. "It would be
very difficult," writes M. de Latour, "to realize to what an excess
these barbarians are carried by drunkenness. There is no species of
madness, of crime or inhumanity to which they do not descend. The
savage, for a glass of brandy, will give even his clothes, his cabin,
his wife, his children; a squaw when made drunk--and this is often done
purposely--will abandon herself to the first comer. They will tear each
other to pieces. If one enters a cabin whose inmates have just drunk
brandy, one will behold with astonishment and horror the father cutting
the throat of his son, the son threatening his father; the husband and
wife, the best of friends, inflicting murderous blows upon each other,
biting each other, tearing out each other's eyes, noses and ears; they
are no longer recognizable, they are madmen; there is perhaps in the
world no more vivid picture of hell. There are often some among them who
seek drunkenness in order to avenge themselves upon their enemies, and
commit with impunity all sorts of crimes under the pretext of this fine
excuse, which passes with them for a complete justification, that at
these times they are not free and not in their senses." Drunken savages
are brutes, it is true, but were not the whites who fostered this fatal
passion of intoxication more guilty still than the wretches whom they
ignominiously urged on to vice? Let us see what the same writer says of
these corrupters. "If it is difficult," says he, "to explain the
excesses of the savage, it is also difficult to understand the extent of
the greed, the hypocrisy and the rascality of those who supply them with
these drinks. The facility for making immense profits which is afforded
them by the ignorance and the passions of these people, and the
certainty of impunity, are things which they cannot resist; the
attraction of gain acts upon them as drunkenness does upon their
victims. How many crimes arise from the same source? There is no mother
who does not fear for her daughter, no husband who does not dread for
his wife, a libertine armed with a bottle of brandy; they rob and
pillage these wretches, who, stupefied by intoxication when they are not
maddened by it, can neither refuse nor defend themselves. There is no
barrier which is not forced, no weakness which is not exploited, in
these remote regions where, without either witnesses or masters, only
the voice of brutal passion is listened to, every crime of which is
inspired by a glass of brandy. The French are worse in this respect than
the savages."

Governor d'Avaugour supported energetically the measures taken by Mgr.
de Laval; unfortunately a regrettable incident destroyed the harmony
between their two authorities. Inspired by his good heart, the superior
of the Jesuits, Father Lalemant, interceded with the governor in favour
of a woman imprisoned for having infringed the prohibition of the sale
of brandy to the Indians. "If she is not to be punished," brusquely
replied d'Avaugour, "no one shall be punished henceforth!" And, as he
made it a point of honour not to withdraw this unfortunate utterance,
the traders profited by it. From that time license was no longer
bridled; the savages got drunk, the traders were enriched, and the
colony was in jeopardy. Sure of being supported by the governor, the
merchants listened to neither bishop nor missionaries. Grieved at seeing
his prayers as powerless as his commands, Mgr. de Laval decided to
carry his complaint to the foot of the throne, and he set sail for
France in the autumn of 1662. "Statesmen who place the freedom of
commerce above morality of action," says Jacques de Beaudoncourt, "still
consider that the bishop was wrong, and see in this matter a fine
opportunity to inveigh against the encroachments of the clergy; but
whoever has at heart the cause of human dignity will not hesitate to
take the side of the missionaries who sought to preserve the savages
from the vices which have brought about their ruin and their
disappearance. The Montagnais race, which is still the most important in
Canada, has been preserved by Catholicism from the vices and the misery
which brought about so rapidly the extirpation of the savages."

Mgr. de Laval succeeded beyond his hopes; cordially received by King
Louis XIV, he obtained the recall of Governor d'Avaugour. But this
purpose was not the only one which he had made the goal of his ambition;
he had in view another, much more important for the welfare of the
colony. Fourteen years before, the Iroquois had exterminated the Hurons,
and since this period the colonists had not enjoyed a single hour of
calm; the devotion of Dollard and of his sixteen heroic comrades had
narrowly saved them from a horrible danger. The worthy prelate obtained
from the king a sufficiently large assignment of troops to deliver the
colony at last from its most dangerous enemies. "We expect next year,"
he wrote to the sovereign pontiff, "twelve hundred soldiers, with whom,
by God's help, we shall try to overcome the fierce Iroquois. The Marquis
de Tracy will come to Canada in order to see for himself the measures
which are necessary to make of New France a strong and prosperous
colony."

M. Dubois d'Avaugour was recalled, and yet he rendered before his
departure a distinguished service to the colony. "The St. Lawrence," he
wrote in a memorial to the monarch, "is the key to a country which may
become the greatest state in the world. There should be sent to this
colony three thousand soldiers, to be discharged after three years of
service; they could make Quebec an impregnable fortress, subdue the
Iroquois, build redoubtable forts on the banks of the Hudson, where the
Dutch have only a wretched wooden hut, and in short, open for New France
a road to the sea by this river." It was mainly this report which
induced the sovereign to take back Canada from the hands of the Company
of the Cent-Associés, who were incapable of colonizing it, and to
reintegrate it in the royal domain.

Must we think with M. de la Colombière,[2] with M. de Latour and with
Cardinal Taschereau, that the Sovereign Council was the work of Mgr. de
Laval? We have some justification in believing it when we remember that
the king arrived at this important decision while the energetic Laval
was present at his court. However it may be, on April 24th, 1663, the
Company of New France abandoned the colony to the royal government,
which immediately created in Canada three courts of justice and above
them the Sovereign Council as a court of appeal.

The Bishop of Petræa sailed in 1663 for North America with the new
governor, M. de Mézy, who owed to him his appointment. His other
fellow-passengers were M. Gaudais-Dupont, who came to take possession of
the country in the name of the king, two priests, MM. Maizerets and
Hugues Pommier, Father Rafeix, of the Society of Jesus, and three
ecclesiastics. The passage was stormy and lasted four months. To-day,
when we leave Havre and disembark a week later at New York, after having
enjoyed all the refinements of luxury and comfort invented by an
advanced but materialistic civilization, we can with difficulty imagine
the discomforts, hardships and privations of four long months on a
stormy sea. Scurvy, that fatal consequence of famine and exhaustion,
soon broke out among the passengers, and many died of it. The bishop,
himself stricken by the disease, did not cease, nevertheless, to lavish
his care upon the unfortunates who were attacked by the infection; he
even attended them at the hospital after they had landed.

The country was still at this time under the stress of the emotion
caused by the terrible earthquake of 1663. Father Lalemant has left us a
striking description of this cataclysm, marked by the naïve exaggeration
of the period: "It was February 5th, 1663, about half-past five in the
evening, when a great roar was heard at the same time throughout the
extent of Canada. This noise, which gave the impression that fire had
broken out in all the houses, made every one rush out of doors in order
to flee from such a sudden conflagration. But instead of seeing smoke
and flame, the people were much surprised to behold walls tottering, and
all the stones moving as if they had become detached; the roofs seemed
to bend downward on one side, then to lean over on the other; the bells
rang of their own accord; joists, rafters and boards cracked, the earth
quivered and made the stakes of the palisades dance in a manner which
would appear incredible if we had not seen it in various places.

"Then every one rushes outside, animals take to flight, children cry
through the streets, men and women, seized with terror, know not where
to take refuge, thinking at every moment that they must be either
overwhelmed in the ruins of the houses or buried in some abyss about to
open under their feet; some, falling to their knees in the snow, cry for
mercy; others pass the rest of the night in prayer, because the
earthquake still continues with a certain undulation, almost like that
of ships at sea, and such that some feel from these shocks the same
sickness that they endure upon the water.

"The disorder was much greater in the forest. It seemed that there was a
battle between the trees, which were hurled together, and not only their
branches but even their trunks seemed to leave their places to leap upon
each other with a noise and a confusion which made our savages say that
the whole forest was drunk.

"There seemed to be the same combat between the mountains, of which some
were uprooted and hurled upon the others, leaving great chasms in the
places whence they came, and now burying the trees, with which they were
covered, deep in the earth up to their tops, now thrusting them in, with
branches downward, taking the place of the roots, so that they left only
a forest of upturned trunks.

"While this general destruction was going on on land, sheets of ice five
or six feet thick were broken and shattered to pieces, and split in many
places, whence arose thick vapour or streams of mud and sand which
ascended high into the air; our springs either flowed no longer or ran
with sulphurous waters; the rivers were either lost from sight or became
polluted, the waters of some becoming yellow, those of others red, and
the great St. Lawrence appeared quite livid up to the vicinity of
Tadousac, a most astonishing prodigy, and one capable of surprising
those who know the extent of this great river below the Island of
Orleans, and what matter must be necessary to whiten it.

"We behold new lakes where there never were any; certain mountains
engulfed are no longer seen; several rapids have been smoothed out; not
a few rivers no longer appear; the earth is cleft in many places, and
has opened abysses which seem to have no bottom. In short, there has
been produced such a confusion of woods upturned and buried, that we see
now stretches of country of more than a thousand acres wholly denuded,
and as if they were freshly ploughed, where a little before there had
been but forests.

"Moreover, three circumstances made this earthquake most remarkable. The
first is the time of its duration, since it lasted into the month of
August, that is to say, more than six months. It is true that the shocks
were not always so rude; in certain places, for example, towards the
mountains at the back of us, the noise and the commotion were long
continued; at others, as in the direction of Tadousac, there was a
quaking as a rule two or three times a day, accompanied by a great
straining, and we noticed that in the higher places the disturbance was
less than in the flat districts.

"The second circumstance concerns the extent of this earthquake, which
we believe to have been universal throughout New France; for we learn
that it was felt from Ile Percé and Gaspé, which are at the mouth of our
river, to beyond Montreal, as likewise in New England, in Acadia and
other very remote places; so that, knowing that the earthquake occurred
throughout an extent of two hundred leagues in length by one hundred in
breadth, we have twenty thousand square leagues of land which felt the
earthquake on the same day and at the same moment.

"The third circumstance concerns God's particular protection of our
homes, for we see near us great abysses and a prodigious extent of
country wholly ruined, without our having lost a child or even a hair of
our heads. We see ourselves surrounded by confusion and ruins, and yet
we have had only a few chimneys demolished, while the mountains around
us have been overturned."

From the point of view of conversions and returns to God the results
were marvellous. "One can scarcely believe," says Mother Mary of the
Incarnation, "the great number of conversions that God has brought
about, both among infidels who have embraced the faith, and on the part
of Christians who have abandoned their evil life. At the same time as
God has shaken the mountains and the marble rocks of these regions, it
would seem that He has taken pleasure in shaking consciences. Days of
carnival have been changed into days of penitence and sadness; public
prayers, processions and pilgrimages have been continual; fasts on bread
and water very frequent; the general confessions more sincere than they
would have been in the extremity of sickness. A single ecclesiastic,
who directs the parish of Château-Richer, has assured us that he has
procured more than eight hundred general confessions, and I leave you to
think what the reverend Fathers must have accomplished who were day and
night in the confessional. I do not think that in the whole country
there is a single inhabitant who has not made a general confession.
There have been inveterate sinners, who, to set their consciences at
rest, have repeated their confession more than three times. We have seen
admirable reconciliations, enemies falling on their knees before each
other to ask each other's forgiveness, in so much sorrow that it was
easy to see that these changes were the results of grace and of the
mercy of God rather than of His justice."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _The Old Régime in Canada_, p. 110.

[2] Joseph Séré de la Colombière, vicar-general and archdeacon of
Quebec, pronounced Mgr. de Laval's funeral oration.




CHAPTER IV

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SEMINARY


No sooner had he returned, than the Bishop of Petræa devoted all the
strength of his intellect to the execution of a plan which he had long
meditated, namely, the foundation of a seminary. In order to explain
what he understood by this word we cannot do better than to quote his
own ordinance relating to this matter: "There shall be educated and
trained such young clerics as may appear fit for the service of God, and
they shall be taught for this purpose the proper manner of administering
the sacraments, the methods of apostolic catechism and preaching, moral
theology, the ceremonies of the Church, the Gregorian chant, and other
things belonging to the duties of a good ecclesiastic; and besides, in
order that there may be formed in the said seminary and among its clergy
a chapter composed of ecclesiastics belonging thereto and chosen from
among us and the bishops of the said country, our successors, when the
king shall have seen fit to found the seminary, or from those whom the
said seminary may be able of itself to furnish to this institution
through the blessing of God. We desire it to be a perpetual school of
virtue, and a place of training whence we may derive pious and capable
recruits, in order to send them on all occasions, and whenever there may
be need, into the parishes and other places in the said country, in
order to exercise therein priestly and other duties to which they may
have been destined, and to withdraw them from the same parishes and
duties when it may be judged fitting, reserving to ourselves always, and
to the bishops, our successors in the said country, as well as to the
said seminary, by our orders and those of the said lords bishops, the
power of recalling all the ecclesiastics who may have gone forth as
delegates into the parishes and other places, whenever it may be deemed
necessary, without their having title or right of particular attachment
to a parish, it being our desire, on the contrary, that they should be
rightfully removable, and subject to dismissal and displacement at the
will of the bishops and of the said seminary, by the orders of the same,
in accordance with the sacred practice of the early ages of the Church,
which is followed and preserved still at the present day in many
dioceses of this kingdom."

Although this foregoing period is somewhat lengthy and a little obscure,
so weighty with meaning is it, we have been anxious to quote it, first,
because it is an official document, and because it came from the very
pen of him whose life we are studying; and, secondly, because it shows
that at this period serious reading, such as Cicero, Quintilian, and the
Fathers of the Church, formed the mental pabulum of the people. In our
days the beauty of a sentence is less sought after than its clearness
and conciseness.

It may be well to add here the Abbé Gosselin's explanation of this
_mandement_: "Three principal works are due to this document as the
glorious inheritance of the seminary of Quebec. In the first place we
have the natural work of any seminary, the training of ecclesiastics and
the preparation of the clergy for priestly virtues. In the next place we
have the creation of the chapter, which the Bishop of Petræa always
considered important in a well organized diocese; it was his desire to
find the elements of this chapter in his seminary, when the king should
have provided for its endowment, or when the seminary itself could bear
the expense. Finally, there is that which in the mind of Mgr. de Laval
was the supreme work of the seminary, its vital task: the seminary was
to be not only a perpetual school of virtue, but also a place of supply
on which he might draw for the persons needed in the administration of
his diocese, and to which he might send them back when he should think
best. All livings are connected with the seminary, but they are all
transferable. The prelate here puts clearly and categorically the
question of the transfer of livings. In his measures there is neither
hesitation nor circumlocution. He does not seek to deceive the sovereign
to whom he is about to submit his regulation. For him, in the present
condition of New France, there can be no question of fixed livings; the
priests must be by right removable, and subject to recall at the will of
the bishop; and, as is fitting in a prelate worthy of the primitive
Church, he always lays stress in his commands on the _holy practice of
the early centuries_. The question was clearly put. It was as clearly
understood by the sovereign, who approved some days later of the
regulation of Mgr. de Laval."

It was in the month of April, 1663, that the worthy prelate had obtained
the royal approval of the establishment of his seminary; it was on
October 10th of the same year that he had it registered by the Sovereign
Council.

A great difficulty arose: the missionaries, besides the help that they
had obtained from the Company of the Cent-Associés, derived their
resources from Europe; but how was the new secular clergy to be
supported, totally lacking as it was in endowment and revenue? Mgr. de
Laval resolved to employ the means adopted long ago by Charlemagne to
assure the maintenance of the Frankish clergy: that of tithes or dues
paid by the husbandman from his harvest. Accordingly he obtained from
the king an ordinance according to which tithes, fixed at the amount of
the thirteenth part of the harvests, should be collected from the
colonists by the seminary; the latter was to use them for the
maintenance of the priests, and for divine service in the established
parishes. The burden was, perhaps, somewhat heavy. Mgr. de Laval, who,
inspired by the spirit of poverty, had renounced his patrimony and lived
solely upon a pension of a thousand francs which the queen paid him from
her private exchequer, felt that he had a certain right to impose his
disinterestedness upon others, but the colonists, sure of the support of
the governor, M. de Mézy, complained.

The good understanding between the governor-general and the bishop had
been maintained up to the end of January, 1664. Full of respect for the
character and the virtue of his friend, M. de Mézy had energetically
supported the ordinances of the Sovereign Council against the brandy
traffic; he had likewise favoured the registration of the law of tithes,
but the opposition which he met in the matter of an increase in his
salary impelled him to arbitrary action. Of his own authority he
displaced three councillors, and out of petty rancour allowed strong
liquors to be sold to the savages. The open struggle between the bishop
and himself produced the most unfavourable impression in the colony. The
king decided that the matter must be brought to a head. M. de Courcelles
was appointed governor, and, jointly with a viceroy, the Marquis de
Tracy, and with the Intendant Talon, was entrusted with the
investigation of the administration of M. de Mézy. They arrived a few
months after the death of de Mézy, whom this untimely end saved perhaps
from a well-deserved condemnation. He had become reconciled in his
dying hour to his old and venerable friend, and the judges confined
themselves to the erasure of the documents which recalled his
administration.

The worthy Bishop of Petræa had not lost for a moment the confidence of
the sovereign, as is proved by many letters which he received from the
king and his prime minister, Colbert. "I send you by command of His
Majesty," writes Colbert, "the sum of six thousand francs, to be
disposed of as you may deem best to supply your needs and those of your
Church. We cannot ascribe too great a value to a virtue like yours,
which is ever equally maintained, which charitably extends its help
wherever it is necessary, which makes you indefatigable in the functions
of your episcopacy, notwithstanding the feebleness of your health and
the frequent indispositions by which you are attacked, and which thus
makes you share with the least of your ecclesiastics the task of
administering the sacraments in places most remote from the principal
settlements. I shall add nothing to this statement, which is entirely
sincere, for fear of wounding your natural modesty, etc...." The prince
himself is no less flattering: "My Lord Bishop of Petræa," writes Louis
the Great, "I expected no less of your zeal for the exaltation of the
faith, and of your affection for the furtherance of my service than the
conduct observed by you in your important and holy mission. Its main
reward is reserved by Heaven, which alone can recompense you in
proportion to your merit, but you may rest assured that such rewards as
depend on me will not be wanting at the fitting time. I subscribe,
moreover, to my Lord Colbert's communications to you in my name."

Peace and harmony were re-established, and with them the hope of seeing
finally disappear the constant menace of Iroquois forays. The
magnificent regiment of Carignan, composed of six hundred men, reassured
the colonists while it daunted their savage enemies. Thus three of the
Five Nations hastened to sue for peace, and they obtained it. In order
to protect the frontiers of the colony, M. de Tracy caused three forts
to be erected on the Richelieu River, one at Sorel, another at Chambly,
a third still more remote, that of Ste. Thérèse; then at the head of six
hundred soldiers, six hundred militia and a hundred Indians, he marched
towards the hamlets of the Mohawks. The result of this expedition was,
unhappily, as fruitless as that of the later campaigns undertaken
against the Indians by MM. de Denonville and de Frontenac. After a
difficult march they come into touch with the savages; but these all
flee into the woods, and they find only their huts stocked with immense
supplies of corn for the winter, and a great number of pigs. At least,
if they cannot reach the barbarians themselves, they can inflict upon
them a terrible punishment; they set fire to the cabins and the corn,
the pigs are slaughtered, and thus a large number of their wild enemies
die of hunger during the winter. The viceroy was wise enough to accept
the surrender of many Indians, and the peace which he concluded afforded
the colony eighteen years of tranquillity.

The question of the apportionment of the tithes was settled in the
following year, 1667. The viceroy, acting with MM. de Courcelles and
Talon, decided that the tithe should be reduced to a twenty-sixth, by
reason of the poverty of the inhabitants, and that newly-cleared lands
should pay nothing for the first five years. Mgr. de Laval, ever ready
to accept just and sensible measures, agreed to this decision. The
revenues thus obtained were, none the less, insufficient, since the king
subsequently gave eight or nine thousand francs to complete the
endowment of the priests, whose annual salary was fixed at five hundred
and seventy-four francs. In 1707 the sum granted by the French court was
reduced to four thousand francs. If we remember that the French farmers
contributed the thirteenth part of their harvest, that is to say, double
the quantity of the Canadian tithe, for the support of their pastors,
shall we deem excessive this modest tax raised from the colonists for
men who devoted to them their time, their health, even their hours of
rest, in order to procure for their parishioners the aid of religion? Is
it not regrettable that too many among the colonists, who were yet such
good Christians in the observance of religious practices, should have
opposed an obstinate resistance to so righteous a demand? Can it be
that, by a special dispensation of Heaven, the priests and vicars of
Canada are not liable to the same material needs as ordinary mortals,
and are they not obliged to pay in good current coin for their food,
their medicines and their clothes?

The first seminary, built of stone,[3] rose in 1661 on the site of the
present vicarage of the cathedral of Quebec; it cost eight thousand five
hundred francs, two thousand of which were given by Mgr. de Laval. The
first priest of Quebec and first superior of the seminary, M. Henri de
Bernières, was able to occupy it in the autumn of the following year,
and the Bishop of Petræa abode there from the time of his return from
France on September 15th, 1663, until the burning of this house on
November 15th, 1701. The first directors of the seminary were, besides
M. de Bernières, MM. de Lauson-Charny, son of the former
governor-general, Jean Dudouyt, Thomas Morel, Ange de Maizerets and
Hugues Pommier. Except the first, who was a Burgundian, they were all
born in the two provinces of Brittany and Normandy, the cradles of the
majority of our ancestors.

The founder of the seminary had wished the livings to be transferable;
later the government decided to the contrary, and the edict of 1679
decreed that the tithes should be payable only to the permanent
priests; nevertheless the majority of them remained of their own free
will attached to the seminary. They had learned there to practise a
complete abnegation, and to give to the faithful the example of a united
and fervent clerical family. "Our goods were held in common with those
of the bishop," wrote M. de Maizerets, "I have never seen any
distinction made among us between poor and rich, or the birth and rank
of any one questioned, since we all consider each other as brothers."

The pious bishop himself set an example of disinterestedness; all that
he had, namely an income of two thousand five hundred francs, which the
Jesuits paid him as the tithes of the grain harvested upon their
property, and a revenue of a thousand francs which he had from his
friends in France, went into the seminary. MM. de Bernières, de
Maizerets and Dudouyt vied in the imitation of their model, and they
likewise abandoned to the holy house their goods and their pensions. The
prelate confined himself, like the others, from humility even more than
from economy on behalf of the community, to the greatest simplicity in
dress as well as in his environment. Aiming at the highest degree of
possible perfection, he was satisfied with the coarsest fare, and
incessantly added voluntary privations to the sacrifices demanded of him
by his difficult duties. Does not this apostolic poverty recall the
seminary established by the pious founder of St. Sulpice, who wrote:
"Each had at dinner a bowl of soup and a small portion of butcher's
meat, without dessert, and in the evening likewise a little roast
mutton"?

Mortification diminished in no wise the activity of the prelate;
learning that the Seminary of Foreign Missions at Paris, that nursery of
apostles, had just been definitely established (1663), he considered it
his duty to establish his own more firmly by affiliating it with that of
the French capital. "I have learned with joy," wrote he, "of the
establishment of your Seminary of Foreign Missions, and that the gales
and tempests by which it has been tossed since the beginning have but
served to render it firmer and more unassailable. I cannot sufficiently
praise your zeal, which, unable to confine itself to the limits and
frontiers of France, seeks to spread throughout the world, and to pass
beyond the seas into the most remote regions; considering which, I have
thought I could not compass a greater good for our young Church, nor one
more to the glory of God and the welfare of the peoples whom God has
entrusted to our guidance, than by contributing to the establishment of
one of your branches in Quebec, the place of our residence, where you
will be like the light set upon the candlestick, to illumine all these
regions by your holy doctrine and the example of your virtue. Since you
are the torch of foreign countries, it is only reasonable that there
should be no quarter of the globe uninfluenced by your charity and
zeal. I hope that our Church will be one of the first to possess this
good fortune, the more since it has already a part of what you hold most
dear. Come then, and be welcome; we shall receive you with joy. You will
find a lodging prepared and a fund sufficient to set up a small
establishment, which I hope will continue to grow...." The act of union
was signed in 1665, and was renewed ten years later with the royal
assent.

Thanks to the generosity of Mgr. de Laval and of the first directors of
the seminary, building and acquisition of land was begun. There was
erected in 1668 a large wooden dwelling, which was in some sort an
extension of the episcopal and parochial residence. It was destroyed in
1701, with the vicarage, in the conflagration which overwhelmed the
whole seminary. Subsequently, there was purchased a site of sixteen
acres adjoining the parochial church, upon which was erected the house
of Madame Couillard. This house, in which lodged in 1668 the first
pupils of the smaller seminary, was replaced in 1678 by a stone edifice,
large enough to shelter all the pupils of both the seminaries. The
seigniory of Beaupré was also acquired, which with remarkable foresight
the bishop exchanged for the Ile Jésus. "It was prudent," remarks the
Abbé Gosselin, "not to have all the property in the same place; when the
seasons are bad in one part of the country they may be prosperous
elsewhere; and having thus sources of revenue in different places, one
is more likely never to find them entirely lacking."

The smaller seminary dates only from the year 1668. Up to this time the
large seminary alone existed; of the five ecclesiastics who were its
inmates in 1663, Louis Joliet abandoned the priestly career. It was he
who, impelled by his adventurous instincts, sought out, together with
Father Marquette, the mouth of the Mississippi.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] The house was first the presbytery.




CHAPTER V

MGR. DE LAVAL AND THE SAVAGES


Now, what were the results accomplished by the efforts of the
missionaries at this period of our history? When in their latest hour
they saw about them, as was very frequently the case, only the wild
children of the desert uttering cries of ferocious joy, had they at
least the consolation of discerning faithful disciples of Christ
concealed among their executioners? Alas! we must admit that North
America saw no renewal of the days when St. Peter converted on one
occasion, at his first preaching, three thousand persons, and when St.
Paul brought to Jesus by His word thousands of Gentiles. Were the
missionaries of the New World, then, less zealous, less disinterested,
less eloquent than the apostles of the early days of the Church? Let us
listen to Mgr. Bourgard: "A few only among them, like the Brazilian
apostle, Father Anthony Vieyra, died a natural death and found a grave
in earth consecrated by the Church. Many, like Father Marquette, who
reconnoitred the whole course of the Mississippi, succumbed to the
burden of fatigue in the midst of the desert, and were buried under the
turf by their sorrowful comrades. He had with him several Frenchmen,
Fathers Badin, Deseille and Petit; the two latter left their venerable
remains among the wastes. Others met death at the bedside of the
plague-stricken, and were martyrs to their charity, like Fathers Turgis
and Dablon. An incalculable number died in the desert, alone, deprived
of all aid, unknown to the whole world, and their bodies became the
sustenance of birds of prey. Several obtained the glorious crown of
martyrdom; such are the venerable Fathers Jogues, Corpo, Souël,
Chabanel, Ribourde, Brébeuf, Lalemant, etc. Now they fell under the
blows of raging Indians; now they were traitorously assassinated; again,
they were impaled." In what, then, must we seek for the cause of the
futility of these efforts? All those who know the savages will
understand it; it is in the fickle character of these children of the
woods, a character more unstable and volatile than that of infants. God
alone knows what restless anxiety the conversions which they succeeded
in bringing about caused to the missionaries and the pious Bishop of
Petræa. Yet every day Mgr. de Laval ardently prayed, not only for the
flock confided to his care but also for the souls which he had come from
so far to seek to save from heathenism. If one of these devout men of
God had succeeded at the price of a thousand dangers, of a thousand
attempts, in proving to an Indian the insanity, the folly of his belief
in the juggleries of a sorcerer, he must watch with jealous care lest
his convert should lapse from grace either through the sarcasms of the
other redskins, or through the attractions of some cannibal festival, or
by the temptation to satisfy an ancient grudge, or through the fear of
losing a coveted influence, or even through the apprehension of the
vengeance of the heathen. Did he think himself justified in expecting to
see his efforts crowned with success? Suddenly he would learn that the
poor neophyte had been led astray by the sight of a bottle of brandy,
and that he had to begin again from the beginning.

No greater success was attained in many efforts which were exerted to
give a European stamp to the character of the aborigines, than in divers
attempts to train in civilized habits young Indians brought up in the
seminaries. And we know that if success in this direction had been
possible it would certainly have been obtained by educators like the
Jesuit Fathers. "With the French admitted to the small seminary," says
the Abbé Ferland, "six young Indians were received; on the advice of the
king they were all to be brought up together. This union, which was
thought likely to prove useful to all, was not helpful to the savages,
and became harmful to the young Frenchmen. After a few trials it was
understood that it was impossible to adapt to the regular habits
necessary for success in a course of study these young scholars who had
been reared in complete freedom. Comradeship with Algonquin and Huron
children, who were incapable of limiting themselves to the observance
of a college rule, tended to give more force and persistence to the
independent ideas which were natural in the young French-Canadians, who
received from their fathers the love of liberty and the taste for an
adventurous life."

But we must not infer, therefore, that the missionaries found no
consolation in their troublous task. If sometimes the savage blood
revealed itself in the neophytes in sudden insurrections, we must admit
that the majority of the converts devoted themselves to the practice of
virtues with an energy which often rose to heroism, and that already
there began to appear among them that holy fraternity which the gospel
everywhere brings to birth. The memoirs of the Jesuits furnish numerous
evidences of this. We shall cite only the following: "A band of Hurons
had come down to the Mission of St. Joseph. The Christians, suffering a
great dearth of provisions, asked each other, 'Can we feed all those
people?' As they said this, behold, a number of the Indians,
disembarking from their little boats, go straight to the chapel, fall
upon their knees and say their prayers. An Algonquin who had gone to
salute the Holy Sacrament, having perceived them, came to apprise his
captain that these Hurons were praying to God. 'Is it true?' said he.
'Come! come! we must no longer debate whether we shall give them food or
not; they are our brothers, since they believe as well as we.'"

The conversion which caused the most joy to Mgr. de Laval was that of
Garakontié, the noted chief of the Iroquois confederation. Accordingly
he wished to baptize him himself in the cathedral of Quebec, and the
governor, M. de Courcelles, consented to serve as godfather to the new
follower of Christ. Up to this time the missions to the Five Nations had
been ephemeral; by the first one Father Jogues had only been able to
fertilize with his blood this barbarous soil; the second, established at
Gannentaha, escaped the general massacre in 1658 only by a genuine
miracle. This mission was commanded by Captain Dupuis, and comprised
fifty-five Frenchmen. Five Jesuit Fathers were of the number, among them
Fathers Chaumonot and Dablon. Everything up to that time had gone
wonderfully well in the new establishment; the missionaries knew the
Iroquois language so well, and so well applied the rules of savage
eloquence, that they impressed all the surrounding tribes; accordingly
they were full of trust and dreamed of a rapid extension of the Catholic
faith in these territories. An Iroquois chief dispelled their illusion
by revealing to them the plans of their enemies; they were already
watched, and preparations were on foot to cut off their retreat. In this
peril the colonists took counsel, and hastily constructed in the
granaries of their quarters a few boats, some canoes and a large barge,
destined to transport the provisions and the fugitives. They had to
hasten, because the attack against their establishment might take place
at any moment, and they must profit by the breaking up of the ice, which
was impending. But how could they transport this little flotilla to the
river which flowed into Lake Ontario twenty miles away without giving
the alarm and being massacred at the first step? They adopted a singular
stratagem derived from the customs of these people, and one in which the
fugitives succeeded perfectly. "A young Frenchman adopted by an Indian,"
relates Jacques de Beaudoncourt, "pretended to have a dream by which he
was warned to make a festival, 'to eat everything,' if he did not wish
to die presently. 'You are my son,' replied the Iroquois chief, 'I do
not want you to die; prepare the feast and we shall eat everything.' No
one was absent; some of the French who were invited made music to charm
the guests. They ate so much, according to the rules of Indian civility,
that they said to their host, 'Take pity on us, and let us go and rest.'
'You want me to die, then?' 'Oh, no!' And they betook themselves to
eating again as best they could. During this time the other Frenchmen
were carrying to the river the boats and provisions. When all was ready
the young man said: 'I take pity on you, stop eating, I shall not die. I
am going to have music played to lull you to sleep.' And sleep was not
long in coming, and the French, slipping hastily away from the banquet
hall, rejoined their comrades. They had left the dogs and the fowls
behind, in order the better to deceive the savages; a heavy snow,
falling at the moment of their departure, had concealed all traces of
their passage, and the banqueters imagined that a powerful Manitou had
carried away the fugitives, who would not fail to come back and avenge
themselves. After thirteen days of toilsome navigation, the French
arrived in Montreal, having lost only three men from drowning during the
passage. It had been thought that they were all massacred, for the plans
of the Iroquois had become known in the colony; this escape brought the
greatest honour to Captain Dupuis, who had successfully carried it out."

M. d'Argenson, then governor, did not approve of the retreat of the
captain; this advanced bulwark protected the whole colony, and he
thought that the French should have held out to the last man. This
selfish opinion was disavowed by the great majority; the real courage of
a leader does not consist in having all his comrades massacred to no
purpose, but in saving by his calm intrepidity the largest possible
number of soldiers for his country.

The Iroquois were tricked but not disarmed. Beside themselves with rage
at the thought that so many victims about to be sacrificed to their
hatred had escaped their blows, and desiring to end once for all the
feud with their enemies, the Onondagas, they persuaded the other nations
to join them in a rush upon Quebec. They succeeded easily, and twelve
hundred savage warriors assembled at Cleft Rock, on the outskirts of
Montreal, and exposed the colony to the most terrible danger which it
had yet experienced.

This was indeed a great peril; the dwellings above Quebec were without
defence, and separated so far from each other that they stretched out
nearly two leagues. But providentially the plan of these terrible foes
was made known to the inhabitants of the town through an Iroquois
prisoner. Immediately the most feverish activity was exerted in
preparations for defence; the country houses and those of the Lower Town
were abandoned, and the inhabitants took refuge in the palace, in the
fort, with the Ursulines, or with the Jesuits; redoubts were raised,
loop-holes bored and patrols established. At Ville-Marie no fewer
precautions were taken; the governor surrounded a mill which he had
erected in 1658, by a palisade, a ditch, and four bastions well
entrenched. It stood on a height of the St. Louis Hill, and, called at
first the Mill on the Hill, it became later the citadel of Montreal.
Anxiety still prevailed everywhere, but God, who knows how to raise up,
in the very moment of despair, the instruments which He uses in His
infinite wisdom to protect the countries dear to His heart, that same
God who gave to France the heroic Joan of Arc, produced for Canada an
unexpected defender. Dollard and sixteen brave Montrealers were to offer
themselves as victims to save the colony. Their devotion, which
surpasses all that history shows of splendid daring, proves the
exaltation of the souls of those early colonists.

One morning in the month of July, 1660, Dollard, accompanied by sixteen
valiant comrades, presented himself at the altar of the church in
Montreal; these Christian heroes came to ask the God of the strong to
bless the resolve which they had taken to go and sacrifice themselves
for their brothers. Immediately after mass, tearing themselves from the
embraces of their relatives, they set out, and after a long and toilsome
march arrived at the foot of the Long Rapid, on the left bank of the
Ottawa; the exact point where they stopped is probably Greece's Point,
five or six miles above Carillon, for they knew that the Iroquois
returning from the hunt must pass this place. They installed themselves
within a wretched palisade, where they were joined almost at once by two
Indian chiefs who, having challenged each other's courage, sought an
occasion to surpass one another in valour. They were Anahotaha, at the
head of forty Hurons, and Métiomègue, accompanied by four Algonquins.
They had not long to wait; two canoes bore the Iroquois crews within
musket shot; those who escaped the terrible volley which received them
and killed the majority of them, hastened to warn the band of three
hundred other Iroquois from whom they had become detached. The Indians,
relying on an easy victory, hastened up, but they hurled themselves in
vain upon the French, who, sheltered by their weak palisade, crowned
its stakes with the heads of their enemies as these were beaten down.
Exasperated by this unexpected check, the Iroquois broke up the canoes
of their adversaries, and, with the help of these fragments, which they
set on fire, attempted to burn the little fortress; but a well sustained
fire prevented the rashest from approaching. Their pride yielding to
their thirst for vengeance, these three hundred men found themselves too
few before such intrepid enemies, and they sent for aid to a band of
five hundred of their people, who were camped on the Richelieu Islands.
These hastened to the attack, and eight hundred men rushed upon a band
of heroes strengthened by the sentiment of duty, the love of country and
faith in a happy future. Futile efforts! The bullets made terrible havoc
in their ranks, and they recoiled again, carrying with them only the
assurance that their numbers had not paralyzed the courage of the
French.

But the aspect of things was about to change, owing to the cowardice of
the Hurons. Water failed the besieged tortured by thirst; they made
sorties from time to time to procure some, and could bring back in their
small and insufficient vessels only a few drops, obtained at the
greatest peril. The Iroquois, aware of this fact, profited by it in
order to offer life and pardon to the Indians who would go over to their
side. No more was necessary to persuade the Hurons, and suddenly thirty
of them followed La Mouche, the nephew of the Huron chief, and leaped
over the palisades. The brave Anahotaha fired a pistol shot at his
nephew, but missed him. The Algonquins remained faithful, and died
bravely at their post. The Iroquois learned through these deserters the
real number of those who were resisting them so boldly; they then took
an oath to die to the last man rather than renounce victory, rather than
cast thus an everlasting opprobrium on their nation. The bravest made a
sort of shield with fagots tied together, and, placing themselves in
front of their comrades, hurled themselves upon the palisades,
attempting to tear them up. The supreme moment of the struggle has come;
Dollard is aware of it. While his brothers in arms make frightful gaps
in the ranks of the savages by well-directed shots, he loads with grape
shot a musket which is to explode as it falls, and hurls it with all his
might. Unhappily, the branch of a tree stays the passage of the terrible
engine of destruction, which falls back upon the French and makes a
bloody gap among them. "Surrender!" cries La Mouche to Anahotaha. "I
have given my word to the French, I shall die with them," replies the
bold chief. Already some stakes were torn up, and the Iroquois were
about to rush like an avalanche through this breach, when a new Horatius
Cocles, as brave as the Roman, made his body a shield for his brothers,
and soon the axe which he held in his hand dripped with blood. He fell,
and was at once replaced. The French succumbed one by one; they were
seen brandishing their weapons up to the moment of their last breath,
and, riddled with wounds, they resisted to the last sigh. Drunk with
vengeance, the wild conquerors turned over the bodies to find some still
palpitating, that they might bind them to a stake of torture; three were
in their mortal agony, but they died before being cast on the pyre. A
single one was saved for the stake; he heroically resisted the
refinements of the most barbarous cruelty; he showed no weakness, and
did not cease to pray for his executioners. Everything in this glorious
deed of arms must compel the admiration of the most remote posterity.

The wretched Hurons suffered the fate which they had deserved; they were
burned in the different villages. Five escaped, and it was by their
reports that men learned the details of an exploit which saved the
colony. The Iroquois, in fact, considering what a handful of brave men
had accomplished, took it for granted that a frontal attack on such men
could only result in failure; they changed their tactics, and had
recourse anew to their warfare of surprises and ambuscades, with the
purpose of gradually destroying the little colony.

The dangers which might be risked by attacking so fierce a nation were,
as may be seen, by no means imaginary. Many would have retreated, and
awaited a favourable occasion to try and plant for the third time the
cross in the Iroquois village. The sons of Loyola did not hesitate;
encouraged by Mgr. de Laval, they retraced their steps to the Five
Nations. This time Heaven condescended to reward in a large measure
their persistent efforts, and the harvest was abundant. In a short time
the number of churches among these people had increased to ten.

The famous chief, Garakontié, whose conversion to Christianity caused so
much joy to the pious Bishop of Petræa and to all the Christians of
Canada, was endowed with a rare intelligence, and all who approached him
recognized in him a mind as keen as it was profound. Not only did he
keep faithfully the promises which he had made on receiving baptism, but
the gratitude which he continued to feel towards the bishop and the
missionaries made him remain until his death the devoted friend of the
French. "He is an incomparable man," wrote Father Millet one day. "He is
the soul of all the good that is done here; he supports the faith by his
influence; he maintains peace by his authority; he declares himself so
clearly for France that we may justly call him the protector of the
Crown in this country." Feeling life escaping, he wished to give what
the savages call their "farewell feast," a touching custom, especially
when Christianity comes to sanctify it. His last words were for the
venerable prelate, to whom he had vowed a deep attachment and respect.
"The guests having retired," wrote Father Lamberville, "he called me to
him. 'So we must part at last,' said he to me; 'I am willing, since I
hope to go to Heaven.' He then begged me to tell my beads with him,
which I did, together with several Christians, and then he called me and
said to me: 'I am dying.' Then he gave up the ghost very peacefully."

The labour demanded at this period by pastoral visits in a diocese so
extended may readily be imagined. Besides the towns of Quebec, Montreal
and Three Rivers, in which was centralized the general activity, there
were then several Christian villages, those of Lorette, Ste. Foy,
Sillery, the village of La Montagne at Montreal, of the Sault St. Louis,
and of the Prairie de la Madeleine. Far from avoiding these trips, Mgr.
de Laval took pleasure in visiting all the cabins of the savages, one
after another, spreading the good Word, consoling the afflicted, and
himself administering the sacraments of the Church to those who wished
to receive them.

Father Dablon gives us in these terms the narrative of the visit of the
bishop to the Prairie de la Madeleine in 1676. "This man," says he,
speaking of the prelate, "this man, great by birth and still greater by
his virtues, which have been quite recently the admiration of all
France, and which on his last voyage to Europe justly acquired for him
the esteem and the approval of the king; this great man, making the
rounds of his diocese, was conveyed in a little bark canoe by two
peasants, exposed to all the inclemencies of the climate, without other
retinue than a single ecclesiastic, and without carrying anything but a
wooden cross and the ornaments absolutely necessary to a _bishop of
gold_, according to the expression of authors in speaking of the first
prelates of Christianity."

     [The expedition of Dollard is related in detail by Dollier de
     Casson, and by Mother Mary of the Incarnation in her letters. The
     Abbé de Belmont gives a further account of the episode in his
     history. The _Jesuit Relations_ place the scene of the affair at
     the Chaudière Falls. The sceptically-minded are referred to
     Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. I., p. 261, where a less
     romantic view of the affair is taken.]--Editors' Note on the
     Dollard Episode.




CHAPTER VI

SETTLEMENT OF THE COLONY


To the great joy of Mgr. de Laval the colony was about to develop
suddenly, thanks to the establishment in the fertile plains of New
France of the time-expired soldiers of the regiment of Carignan. The
importance of the peopling of his diocese had always been capital in the
eyes of the bishop, and we have seen him at work obtaining from the
court new consignments of colonists. Accordingly, in the year 1663,
three hundred persons had embarked at La Rochelle for Canada.
Unfortunately, the majority of these passengers were quite young people,
clerks or students, in quest of adventure, who had never worked with
their hands. The consequences of this deplorable emigration were
disastrous; more than sixty of these poor children died during the
voyage. The king was startled at such negligence, and the three hundred
colonists who embarked the following year, in small detachments, arrived
in excellent condition. Moreover, they had made the voyage without
expense, but had in return hired to work for three years with the
farmers, for an annual wage which was to be fixed by the authorities.
"It will seem to you perhaps strange," wrote M. de Villeray, to the
minister Colbert, "to see that we make workmen coming to us from France
undergo a sort of apprenticeship, by distribution among the inhabitants;
yet there is nothing more necessary, first, because the men brought to
us are not accustomed to the tilling of the soil; secondly, a man who is
not accustomed to work, unless he is urged, has difficulty in adapting
himself to it; thirdly, the tasks of this country are very different
from those of France, and experience shows us that a man who has
wintered three years in the country, and who then hires out at service,
receives double the wages of one just arriving from the Old Country.
These are reasons of our own which possibly would not be admitted in
France by those who do not understand them."

The Sovereign Council recommended, moreover, that there should be sent
only men from the north of France, "because," it asserted, "the Normans,
Percherons, Picards, and people from the neighbourhood of Paris are
docile, laborious, industrious, and have much more religion. Now, it is
important in the establishment of a country to sow good seed." While we
accept in the proper spirit this eulogy of our ancestors, who came
mostly from these provinces, how inevitably it suggests a comparison
with the spirit of scepticism and irreverence which now infects,
transitorily, let us hope, these regions of Northern France.

Never before had the harbour of Quebec seen so much animation as in the
year 1665. The solicitor-general, Bourdon, had set foot on the banks of
the St. Lawrence in early spring; he escorted a number of girls chosen
by order of the queen. Towards the middle of August two ships arrived
bearing four companies of the regiment of Carignan, and the following
month three other vessels brought, together with eight other companies,
Governor de Courcelles and Commissioner Talon. Finally, on October 2nd,
one hundred and thirty robust colonists and eighty-two maidens,
carefully chosen, came to settle in the colony.

If we remember that there were only at this time seventy houses in
Quebec, we may say without exaggeration that the number of persons who
came from France in this year, 1665, exceeded that of the whole white
population already resident in Canada. But it was desirable to keep this
population in its entirety, and Commissioner Talon, well seconded by
Mgr. de Laval, tenaciously pursued this purpose. The soldiers of
Carignan, all brave, and pious too, for the most part, were highly
desirable colonists. "What we seek most," wrote Mother Mary of the
Incarnation, "is the glory of God and the welfare of souls. That is what
we are working for, as well as to assure the prevalence of devotion in
the army, giving the men to understand that we are waging here a holy
war. There are as many as five hundred of them who have taken the
scapulary of the Holy Virgin, and many others who recite the chaplet of
the Holy Family every day."

Talon met with a rather strong opposition to his immigration plans in
the person of the great Colbert, who was afraid of seeing the Mother
Country depopulated in favour of her new daughter Canada. His
perseverance finally won the day, and more than four hundred soldiers
settled in the colony. Each common soldier received a hundred francs,
each sergeant a hundred and fifty francs. Besides, forty thousand francs
were used in raising in France the additional number of fifty girls and
a hundred and fifty men, which, increased by two hundred and thirty-five
colonists, sent by the company in 1667, fulfilled the desires of the
Bishop of Petræa.

The country would soon have been self-supporting if similar energy had
been continuously employed in its development. It is a miracle that a
handful of emigrants, cast almost without resources upon the northern
shore of America, should have been able to maintain themselves so long,
in spite of continual alarms, in spite of the deprivation of all
comfort, and in spite of the rigour of the climate. With wonderful
courage and patience they conquered a vast territory, peopled it,
cultivated its soil, and defended it by prodigies of valour against the
forays of the Indians.

The colony, happily, was to keep its bishop, the worthy Governor de
Courcelles, and the best administrator it ever had, the Commissioner
Talon. But it was to lose a lofty intellect: the Marquis de Tracy, his
mission ended to the satisfaction of all, set sail again for France.
From the moment of his arrival in Canada the latter had inspired the
greatest confidence. "These three gentlemen," say the annals of the
hospital, speaking of the viceroy, of M. de Courcelles and M. Talon,
"were endowed with all desirable qualities. They added to an attractive
exterior much wit, gentleness and prudence, and were admirably adapted
to instil a high idea of the royal majesty and power; they sought all
means proper for moulding the country and laboured at this task with
great application. This colony, under their wise leadership, expanded
wonderfully, and according to all appearances gave hope of becoming most
flourishing." Mgr. de Laval held the Marquis de Tracy in high esteem.
"He is a man powerful in word and deed," he wrote to Pope Alexander VII,
"a practising Christian, and the right arm of religion." The viceroy did
not fear, indeed, to show that one may be at once an excellent Christian
and a brave officer, whether he accompanied the Bishop of Petræa on the
pilgrimage to good Ste. Anne, or whether he honoured himself in the
religious processions by carrying a corner of the dais with the
governor, the intendant and the agent of the West India Company. He was
seen also at the laying of the foundation stone of the church of the
Jesuits, at the transfer of the relics of the holy martyrs Flavian and
Felicitas, at the consecration of the cathedral of Quebec and at that of
the chief altar of the church of the Ursulines, in fact, everywhere
where he might set before the faithful the good example of piety and of
the respect due to religion.

The eighteen years of peace with the Iroquois, obtained by the
expedition of the Marquis de Tracy, allowed the intendant to encourage
the development of the St. Maurice mines, to send the traveller Nicolas
Perrot to visit all the tribes of the north and west, in order to
establish or cement with them relations of trade or friendship, and to
entrust Father Marquette and M. Joliet with the mission of exploring the
course of the Mississippi. The two travellers carried their exploration
as far as the junction of this river with the Arkansas, but their
provisions failing them, they had to retrace their steps.

This state of peace came near being disturbed by the gross cupidity of
some wretched soldiers. In the spring of 1669 three soldiers of the
garrison of Ville-Marie, intoxicated and assassinated an Iroquois chief
who was bringing back from his hunting some magnificent furs. M. de
Courcelles betook himself at once to Montreal, but, during the process
of this trial, it was learned that several months before three other
Frenchmen had killed six Mohegan Indians with the same purpose of
plunder. The excitement aroused by these two murders was such that a
general uprising of the savage nations was feared; already they had
banded together for vengeance, and only the energy of the governor saved
the colony from the horrors of another war. In the presence of all the
Indians then quartered at Ville-Marie, he had the three assassins of the
Iroquois chief brought before him, and caused them to be shot. He
pledged himself at the same time to do like justice to the murderers of
the Mohegans, as soon as they should be discovered. He caused, moreover,
to be restored to the widow of the chief all the furs which had been
stolen from him, and indemnified the two tribes, and thus by his
firmness induced the restless nations to remain at peace. His vigilance
did not stop at this. The Iroquois and the Ottawas being on the point of
recommencing their feud, he warned them that he would not allow them to
disturb the general order and tranquillity. He commanded them to send to
him delegates to present the question of their mutual grievances.
Receiving an arrogant reply from the Iroquois, who thought their country
inaccessible to the French, he himself set out from Montreal on June
2nd, 1671, with fifty-six soldiers, in a specially constructed boat and
thirteen bark canoes. He reached the entrance to Lake Ontario, and so
daunted the Iroquois by his audacity that the Ottawas sued for peace.
Profiting by the alarm with which he had just inspired them, M. de
Courcelles gave orders to the principal chiefs to go and await him at
Cataraqui, there to treat with him on an important matter. They obeyed,
and the governor declared to them his plan of constructing at this very
place a fort where they might more easily arrange their exchanges. Not
suspecting that the French had any other purpose than that of protecting
themselves against inroads, they approved this plan; and so Fort
Cataraqui, to-day the city of Kingston, was erected by Count de
Frontenac, and called after this governor, who was to succeed M. de
Courcelles.

Their transitory apprehensions did not interrupt the construction of the
two churches of Quebec and Montreal, for they were built almost at the
same time; the first was dedicated on July 11th, 1666, the second, begun
in 1672, was finished only in 1678. The church of the old city of
Champlain was of stone, in the form of a Roman cross; its length was one
hundred feet, its width thirty-eight. It contained, besides the
principal altar, a chapel dedicated to St. Joseph, another to Ste. Anne,
and the chapel of the Holy Scapulary. Thrice enlarged, it gave place in
1755 to the present cathedral, for which the foundations of the older
church were used. When the prelate arrived in 1659, the holy offices
were already celebrated there, but the bishop hastened to end the work
which it still required. "There is here," he wrote to the Common Father
of the faithful, "a cathedral made of stone; it is large and splendid.
The divine service is celebrated in it according to the ceremony of
bishops; our priests, our seminarists, as well as ten or twelve
choir-boys, are regularly present there. On great festivals, the mass,
vespers and evensong are sung to music, with orchestral accompaniment,
and our organs mingle their harmonious voices with those of the
chanters. There are in the sacristy some very fine ornaments, eight
silver chandeliers, and all the chalices, pyxes, vases and censers are
either gilt or pure silver."

The Sulpicians as well as the Jesuits have always professed a peculiar
devotion to the Virgin Mary. It was the pious founder of St. Sulpice, M.
Olier, who suggested to the Company of Notre-Dame the idea of
consecrating to Mary the establishment of the Island of Montreal in
order that she might defend it as her property, and increase it as her
domain. They gladly yielded to this desire, and even adopted as the seal
of the company the figure of Our Lady; in addition they confirmed the
name of Ville-Marie, so happily given to this chosen soil.

It was the Jesuits who placed the church of Quebec under the patronage
of the Immaculate Conception, and gave it as second patron St. Louis,
King of France. This double choice could not but be agreeable to the
pious Bishop of Petræa. Learning, moreover, that the members of the
Society of Jesus renewed each year in Canada their vow to fast on the
eve of the festival of the Immaculate Conception, and to add to this
mortification several pious practices, with the view of obtaining from
Heaven the conversion of the savages, he approved this devotion, and
ordered that in future it should likewise be observed in his seminary.
He sanctioned other works of piety inspired or established by the Jesuit
Fathers; the _novena_, which has remained so popular with the
French-Canadians, at St. François-Xavier, the Brotherhoods of the Holy
Rosary and of the Scapulary of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. He encouraged,
above all, devotion to the Holy Family, and prescribed wise regulations
for this worship. The Pope deigned to enrich by numerous indulgences the
brotherhoods to which it gave birth, and in recent years Leo XIII
instituted throughout the Church the celebration of the Festival of the
Holy Family. "The worship of the Holy Family," the illustrious pontiff
proclaims in a recent bull, "was established in America, in the region
of Canada, where it became most flourishing, thanks chiefly to the
solicitude and activity of the venerable servant of God, François de
Montmorency Laval, first Bishop of Quebec, and of God's worthy
handmaiden, Marguerite Bourgeoys." According to Cardinal Taschereau, it
was Father Pijard who established the first Brotherhood of the Holy
Family in 1650 in the Island of Montreal, but the real promoter of this
cult was another Father of the Company of Jesus, Father Chaumonot, whom
Mgr. de Laval brought specially to Quebec to set at the head of the
brotherhood which he had decided to found.

It was the custom, in these periods of fervent faith, to place
buildings, cities and even countries under the ægis of a great saint,
and Louis XIII had done himself the honour of dedicating France to the
Virgin Mary. People did not then blush to practise and profess their
beliefs, nor to proclaim them aloud. On the proposal of the Récollets in
a general assembly, St. Joseph was chosen as the first patron saint of
Canada; later, St. François-Xavier was adopted as the second special
protector of the colony.

Montreal, which in the early days of its existence maintained with its
rival of Cape Diamond a strife of emulation in the path of good as well
as in that of progress, could no longer do without a religious edifice
worthy of its already considerable importance. Mgr. de Laval was at this
time on a round of pastoral visits, for, in spite of the fatigue
attaching to such a journey, at a time when there was not yet even a
carriage-road between the two towns, and when, braving contrary winds,
storms and the snares of the Iroquois, one had to ascend the St.
Lawrence in a bark canoe, the worthy prelate made at least eight visits
to Montreal during the period of his administration. In a general
assembly of May 12th, 1669, presided over by him, it was decided to
establish the church on ground which had belonged to Jean de
Saint-Père, but since this site had not the elevation on which the
Sulpicians desired to see the new temple erected, the work was suspended
for two years more. The ecclesiastics of the seminary offered on this
very height (for M. Dollier had given to the main street the name of
Notre-Dame, which was that of the future church) some lots bought by
them from Nicolas Godé and from Mme. Jacques Lemoyne, and situated
behind their house; they offered besides in the name of M. de
Bretonvilliers the sum of a thousand _livres tournois_ for three years,
to begin the work. These offers were accepted in an assembly of all the
inhabitants, on June 10th, 1672; François Bailly, master mason, directed
the building, and on the thirtieth of the same month, before the deeply
moved and pious population, there were laid, immediately after high
mass, the first five stones. There had been chosen the name of the
Purification, because this day was the anniversary of that on which MM.
Olier and de la Dauversière had caught the first glimpses of their
vocation to work at the establishment of Ville-Marie, and because this
festival had always remained in high honour among the Montrealers. The
foundation was laid by M. de Courcelles, governor-general; the second
stone had been reserved for M. Talon, but, as he could not accept the
invitation, his place was taken by M. Philippe de Carion, representative
of M. de la Motte Saint-Paul. The remaining stones were laid by M.
Perrot, governor of the island, by M. Dollier de Casson, representing M.
de Bretonvilliers, and by Mlle. Mance, foundress of the Montreal
hospital. The sight of this ceremony was one of the last joys of this
good woman; she died on June 18th of the following year.

Meanwhile, all desired to contribute to the continuation of the work;
some offered money, others materials, still others their labour. In
their ardour the priests of the seminary had the old fort, which was
falling into ruins, demolished in order to use the wood and stone for
the new building. As lords of the island, they seemed to have the
incontestable right to dispose of an edifice which was their private
property. But M. de Bretonvilliers, to whom they referred the matter,
took them to task for their haste, and according to his instructions the
work of demolition was stopped, not to be resumed until ten years later.
The colonists had an ardent desire to see their church finished, but
they were poor, and, though a collection had brought in, in 1676, the
sum of two thousand seven hundred francs, the work dragged along for two
years more, and was finished only in 1678. "The church had," says M.
Morin, "the form of a Roman cross, with the lower sides ending in a
circular apse; its portal, built of hewn stone, was composed of two
designs, one Tuscan, the other Doric; the latter was surmounted by a
triangular pediment. This beautiful entrance, erected in 1722, according
to the plans of Chaussegros de Léry, royal engineer, was flanked on the
right side by a square tower crowned by a campanile, from the summit of
which rose a beautiful cross with _fleur-de-lis_ twenty-four feet high.
This church was built in the axis of Notre-Dame Street, and a portion of
it on the Place d'Armes; it measured, in the clear, one hundred and
forty feet long, and ninety-six feet wide, and the tower one hundred and
forty-four feet high. It was razed in 1830, and the tower demolished in
1843."

Montreal continued to progress, and therefore to build. The Sulpicians,
finding themselves cramped in their old abode, began in 1684 the
construction of a new seigniorial and chapter house, of one hundred and
seventy-eight feet frontage by eighty-four feet deep. These vast
buildings, whose main façade faces on Notre-Dame Street, in front of the
Place d'Armes, still exist. They deserve the attention of the tourist,
if only by reason of their antiquity, and on account of the old clock
which surmounts them, for though it is the most ancient of all in North
America, this clock still marks the hours with average exactness. Behind
these old walls extends a magnificent garden.

The spectacle presented by Ville-Marie at this time was most edifying.
This great village was the school of martyrdom, and all aspired thereto,
from the most humble artisan and the meanest soldier to the brigadier,
the commandant, the governor, the priests and the nuns, and they found
in this aspiration, this faith and this hope, a strength and happiness
known only to the chosen. From the bosom of this city had sprung the
seventeen heroes who gave to the world, at the foot of the Long Sault, a
magnificent example of what the spirit of Christian sacrifice can do; to
a population which gave of its own free will its time and its labour to
the building of a temple for the Lord, God had assigned a leader, who
took upon his shoulders a heavy wooden cross, and bore it for the
distance of a league up the steep flanks of Mount Royal, to plant it
solemnly upon the summit; within the walls of the seminary lived men
like M. Souart, physician of hearts and bodies, or like MM. Lemaître and
Vignal, who were destined to martyrdom; in the halls of the hospital
Mlle. Mance vied with Sisters de Brésoles, Maillet and de Macé, in
attending to the most repugnant infirmities or healing the most tedious
maladies; last but not least, Sister Bourgeoys and her pious comrades,
Sisters Aimée Chatel, Catherine Crolo, and Marie Raisin, who formed the
nucleus of the Congregation, devoted themselves with unremitting zeal to
the arduous task of instruction.

Another favour was about to be vouchsafed to Canada in the birth of
Mlle. Leber. M. de Maisonneuve and Mlle. Mance were her godparents, and
the latter gave her her baptismal name. Jeanne Leber reproduced all the
virtues of her godmother, and gave to Canada an example worthy of the
primitive Church, and such as finds small favour in the practical world
of to-day. She lived a recluse for twenty years with the Sisters of the
Congregation, and practised, till death relieved her, mortifications
most terrifying to the physical nature.

At Quebec, the barometer of piety, if I may be excused so bold a
metaphor, held at the same level as that of Montreal, and he would be
greatly deceived who, having read only the history of the early years of
the latter city, should despair of finding in the centre of edification
founded by Champlain, men worthy to rank with Queylus and Lemaître, with
Souart and Vignal, with Closse and Maisonneuve, and women who might vie
with Marguerite Bourgeoys, with Jeanne Mance or with Jeanne Leber. To
the piety of the Sulpicians of the colony planted at the foot of Mount
Royal corresponded the fervour both of the priests who lived under the
same roof as Mgr. de Laval, and of the sons of Loyola, who awaited in
their house at Quebec their chance of martyrdom; the edifying examples
given by the military chiefs of Montreal were equalled by those set by
governors like de Mézy and de Courcelles; finally the virtues bordering
on perfection of women like Mlle. Leber and the foundresses of the
hospital and the Congregation found their equivalents in those of the
pious Bishop of Petræa, of Mme. de la Peltrie and those of Mothers Mary
of the Incarnation and Andrée Duplessis de Sainte-Hélène.

The Church will one day, perhaps, set upon her altars Mother Mary of
the Incarnation, the first superior of the Ursulines at Quebec. The
Theresa of New France, as she has been called, was endowed with a calm
courage, an incredible patience, and a superior intellect, especially in
spiritual matters; we find the proof of this in her letters and
meditations which her son published in France. "At the head," says the
Abbé Ferland, "of a community of weak women, devoid of resources, she
managed to inspire her companions with the strength of soul and the
trust in God which animated herself. In spite of the unteachableness and
the fickleness of the Algonquin maidens, the troublesome curiosity of
their parents, the thousand trials of a new and poor establishment,
Mother Incarnation preserved an evenness of temper which inspired her
comrades in toil with courage. Did some sudden misfortune appear, she
arose with all the greatness of a Christian of the primitive Church to
meet it with steadfastness. If her son spoke to her of the ill-treatment
to which she was exposed on the part of the Iroquois, at a time when the
affairs of the French seemed desperate, she replied calmly: 'Have no
anxiety for me. I do not speak as to martyrdom, for your affection for
me would incline you to desire it for me, but I mean as to other
outrages. I see no reason for apprehension; all that I hear does not
dismay me.' When she was cast out upon the snow, together with her
sisters, in the middle of a winter's night, by reason of a
conflagration which devoured her convent, her first act was to prevail
upon her companions to kneel with her to thank God for having preserved
their lives, though He despoiled them of all that they possessed in the
world. Her strong and noble soul seemed to rise naturally above the
misfortunes which assailed the growing colony. Trusting fully to God
through the most violent storms, she continued to busy herself calmly
with her work, as if nothing in the world had been able to move her. At
a moment when many feared that the French would be forced to leave the
country, Mother of the Incarnation, in spite of her advanced age, began
to study the language of the Hurons in order to make herself useful to
the young girls of this tribe. Ever tranquil, she did not allow herself
to be carried away by enthusiasm or stayed by fear. 'We imagine
sometimes,' she wrote to her former superior at Tours, 'that a certain
passing inclination is a vocation; no, events show the contrary. In our
momentary enthusiasms we think more of ourselves than of the object we
face, and so we see that when this enthusiasm is once past, our
tendencies and inclinations remain on the ordinary plane of life.' Built
on such a foundation, her piety was solid, sincere and truly
enlightened. In perusing her writings, we are astonished at finding in
them a clearness of thought, a correctness of style, and a firmness of
judgment which give us a lofty idea of this really superior woman.
Clever in handling the brush as well as the pen, capable of directing
the work of building as well as domestic labour, she combined, according
to the opinion of her contemporaries, all the qualities of the strong
woman of whom the Holy Scriptures give us so fine a portrai