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The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

F >> Francis Parkman >> The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century




On the anniversary of the Dauphin's birth there was a dramatic
performance, in which an unbeliever, speaking Algonquin for the profit of
the Indians present, was hunted into Hell by fiends. [ Vimont, Relation,
1640, 6. ] Religious processions were frequent. In one of them, the
Governor in a court dress and a baptized Indian in beaver-skins were
joint supporters of the canopy which covered the Host. [ Le Jeune,
Relation, 1638, 6. ] In another, six Indians led the van, arrayed each
in a velvet coat of scarlet and gold sent them by the King. Then came
other Indian converts, two and two; then the foundress of the Ursuline
convent, with Indian children in French gowns; then all the Indian girls
and women, dressed after their own way; then the priests; then the
Governor; and finally the whole French population, male and female,
except the artillery-men at the fort, who saluted with their cannon the
cross and banner borne at the head of the procession. When all was over,
the Governor and the Jesuits rewarded the Indians with a feast.
[ Le Jeune, Relation, 1639, 3. ]

Now let the stranger enter the church of Notre-Dame de La Recouvrance,
after vespers. It is full, to the very porch: officers in slouched hats
and plumes, musketeers, pikemen, mechanics, and laborers. Here is
Montmagny himself; Repentigny and Poterie, gentlemen of good birth;
damsels of nurture ill fitted to the Canadian woods; and, mingled with
these, the motionless Indians, wrapped to the throat in embroidered
moose-hides. Le Jeune, not in priestly vestments, but in the common
black dress of his Order, is before the altar; and on either side is a
row of small red-skinned children listening with exemplary decorum, while,
with a cheerful, smiling face, he teaches them to kneel, clasp their
hands, and sign the cross. All the principal members of this zealous
community are present, at once amused and edified at the grave deportment,
and the prompt, shrill replies of the infant catechumens; while their
parents in the crowd grin delight at the gifts of beads and trinkets with
which Le Jeune rewards his most proficient pupils. [ Le Jeune, Relation,
1637, 122 (Cramoisy). ]

We have seen the methods of conversion practised among the Hurons.
They were much the same at Quebec. The principal appeal was to fear.
[ Ibid., 1636, 119, and 1637, 32 (Cramoisy). "La crainte est l'auan
couriere de la foy dans ces esprits barbares." ] "You do good to your
friends," said Le Jeune to an Algonquin chief, "and you burn your
enemies. God does the same." And he painted Hell to the startled
neophyte as a place where, when he was hungry, he would get nothing to
eat but frogs and snakes, and, when thirsty, nothing to drink but flames.
[ Le Jeune, Relation, 1637, 80-82 (Cramoisy). "Avoir faim et ne manger
que des serpens et des crapaux, avoir soif et ne boire que des flammes." ]
Pictures were found invaluable. "These holy representations," pursues
the Father Superior, "are half the instruction that can be given to the
Indians. I wanted some pictures of Hell and souls in perdition, and a
few were sent us on paper; but they are too confused. The devils and the
men are so mixed up, that one can make out nothing without particular
attention. If three, four, or five devils were painted tormenting a soul
with different punishments,--one applying fire, another serpents, another
tearing him with pincers, and another holding him fast with a chain,--
this would have a good effect, especially if everything were made
distinct, and misery, rage, and desperation appeared plainly in his face."

[ "Les heretiques sont grandement blasmables, de condamner et de briser
les images qui ont de si bons effets. Ces sainctes figures sont la
moitié de l'instruction qu'on peut donner aux Sauuages. I'auois desiré
quelques portraits de l'enfer et de l'âme damnée; on nous en a enuoyé
quelques vns en papier, mais cela est trop confus. Les diables sont
tellement meslez auec les hommes, qu'on n'y peut rien recognoistre,
qu'auec vne particuliere attention. Qui depeindroit trois ou quatre ou
cinq demons, tourmentans vne âme de diuers supplices, l'vn luy appliquant
des feux, l'autre des serpens, l'autre la tenaillant, l'autre la tenant
liée auec des chaisnes, cela auroit vn bon effet, notamment si tout
estoit bien distingué, et que la rage et la tristesse parussent bien en
la face de cette âme desesperée"--Relation, 1637, 32 (Cramoisy). ]

The preparation of the convert for baptism was often very slight.
A dying Algonquin, who, though meagre as a skeleton, had thrown himself,
with a last effort of expiring ferocity, on an Iroquois prisoner, and
torn off his ear with his teeth, was baptized almost immediately. [ 1 ]
In the case of converts in health there was far more preparation; yet
these often apostatized. The various objects of instruction may all be
included in one comprehensive word, submission,--an abdication of will
and judgment in favor of the spiritual director, who was the interpreter
and vicegerent of God. The director's function consisted in the
enforcement of dogmas by which he had himself been subdued, in which he
believed profoundly, and to which he often clung with an absorbing
enthusiasm. The Jesuits, an Order thoroughly and vehemently reactive,
had revived in Europe the mediæval type of Christianity, with all its
attendant superstitions. Of these the Canadian missions bear abundant
marks. Yet, on the whole, the labors of the missionaries tended greatly
to the benefit of the Indians. Reclaimed, as the Jesuits tried to
reclaim them, from their wandering life, settled in habits of peaceful
industry, and reduced to a passive and childlike obedience, they would
have gained more than enough to compensate them for the loss of their
ferocious and miserable independence. At least, they would have escaped
annihilation. The Society of Jesus aspired to the mastery of all New
France; but the methods of its ambition were consistent with a Christian
benevolence. Had this been otherwise, it would have employed other
instruments. It would not have chosen a Jogues or a Garnier. The
Society had men for every work, and it used them wisely. It utilized the
apostolic virtues of its Canadian missionaries, fanned their enthusiasm,
and decorated itself with their martyr crowns. With joy and gratulation,
it saw them rival in another hemisphere the noble memory of its saint and
hero, Francis Xavier. [ Enemies of the Jesuits, while denouncing them in
unmeasured terms, speak in strong eulogy of many of the Canadian
missionaries. See, for example, Steinmetz, History of the Jesuits,
II. 415. ]

[ 1 "Ce seroit vne estrange cruauté de voir descendre vne âme toute
viuante dans les enfers, par le refus d'vn bien que Iesus Christ luy a
acquis au prix de son sang."--Relation, 1637, 66 (Cramoisy).

"Considerez d'autre coté la grande appréhension que nous avions sujet de
redouter la guérison; pour autant que bien souvent étant guéris il ne
leur reste du St. Baptême que le caractère."--Lettres de Garnier, MSS.

It was not very easy to make an Indian comprehend the nature of baptism.
An Iroquois at Montreal, hearing a missionary speaking of the water which
cleansed the soul from sin, said that he was well acquainted with it,
as the Dutch had once given him so much that they were forced to tie him,
hand and foot, to prevent him from doing mischief.--Faillon II. 43. ]

I have spoken of the colonists as living in a state of temporal and
spiritual vassalage. To this there was one exception,--a small class of
men whose home was the forest, and their companions savages. They
followed the Indians in their roamings, lived with them, grew familiar
with their language, allied themselves with their women, and often became
oracles in the camp and leaders on the war-path. Champlain's bold
interpreter, Étienne Brulé, whose adventures I have recounted elsewhere,
[ "Pioneers of France," 377. ] may be taken as a type of this class.
Of the rest, the most conspicuous were Jean Nicollet, Jacques Hertel,
François Marguerie, and Nicolas Marsolet. [ 1 ] Doubtless, when they
returned from their rovings, they often had pressing need of penance and
absolution; yet, for the most part, they were good Catholics, and some of
them were zealous for the missions. Nicollet and others were at times
settled as interpreters at Three Rivers and Quebec. Several of them were
men of great intelligence and an invincible courage. From hatred of
restraint, and love of a wild and adventurous independence, they
encountered privations and dangers scarcely less than those to which the
Jesuit exposed himself from motives widely different,--he from religious
zeal, charity, and the hope of Paradise; they simply because they liked
it. Some of the best families of Canada claim descent from this vigorous
and hardy stock.

[ 1 See Ferland, Notes sur les Registres de N. D. de Québec, 30.

Nicollet, especially, was a remarkable man. As early as 1639, he
ascended the Green Bay of Lake Michigan, and crossed to the waters of the
Mississippi. This was first shown by the researches of Mr. Shea.
See his Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, XX. ]




CHAPTER XIV.

1636-1652.

DEVOTEES AND NUNS.


THE HURON SEMINARY.--MADAME DE LA PELTRIE.--HER PIOUS SCHEMES.--
HER SHAM MARRIAGE.--SHE VISITS THE URSULINES OF TOURS.--
MARIE DE SAINT BERNARD.--MARIE DE L'INCARNATION.--HER ENTHUSIASM.--
HER MYSTICAL MARRIAGE.--HER DEJECTION.--HER MENTAL CONFLICTS.--
HER VISION.--MADE SUPERIOR OF THE URSULINES.--THE HÔTEL-DIEU.--
THE VOYAGE TO CANADA.--SILLERY.--LABORS AND SUFFERINGS OF THE NUNS.--
CHARACTER OF MARIE DE L'INCARNATION.--OF MADAME DE LA PELTRIE.


Quebec, as we have seen, had a seminary, a hospital, and a convent,
before it had a population. It will be well to observe the origin of
these institutions.

The Jesuits from the first had cherished the plan of a seminary for Huron
boys at Quebec. The Governor and the Company favored the design; since
not only would it be an efficient means of spreading the Faith and
attaching the tribe to the French interest, but the children would be
pledges for the good behavior of the parents, and hostages for the safety
of missionaries and traders in the Indian towns. [ "M. de Montmagny
cognoit bien l'importance de ce Seminaire pour la gloire de Nostre
Seigneur, et pour le commerce de ces Messieurs"--Relation, 1637, 209
(Cramoisy). ] In the summer of 1636, Father Daniel, descending from the
Huron country, worn, emaciated, his cassock patched and tattered, and his
shirt in rags, brought with him a boy, to whom two others were soon
added; and through the influence of the interpreter, Nicollet, the number
was afterwards increased by several more. One of them ran away, two ate
themselves to death, a fourth was carried home by his father, while three
of those remaining stole a canoe, loaded it with all they could lay their
hands upon, and escaped in triumph with their plunder. [ Le Jeune,
Relation, 1637, 55-59. Ibid., Relation, 1638, 23. ]

The beginning was not hopeful; but the Jesuits persevered, and at length
established their seminary on a firm basis. The Marquis de Gamache had
given the Society six thousand crowns for founding a college at Quebec.
In 1637, a year before the building of Harvard College, the Jesuits began
a wooden structure in the rear of the fort; and here, within one
inclosure, was the Huron seminary and the college for French boys.

Meanwhile the female children of both races were without instructors; but
a remedy was at hand. At Alençon, in 1603, was born Marie Madeleine de
Chauvigny, a scion of the _haute noblesse_ of Normandy. Seventeen years
later she was a young lady, abundantly wilful and superabundantly
enthusiastic,--one who, in other circumstances, might perhaps have made a
romantic elopement and a _mésalliance_. [ 1 ] But her impressible and
ardent nature was absorbed in other objects. Religion and its ministers
possessed her wholly, and all her enthusiasm was spent on works of
charity and devotion. Her father, passionately fond of her, resisted her
inclination for the cloister, and sought to wean her back to the world;
but she escaped from the chateau to a neighboring convent, where she
resolved to remain. Her father followed, carried her home, and engaged
her in a round of fêtes and hunting parties, in the midst of which she
found herself surprised into a betrothal to M. de la Peltrie, a young
gentleman of rank and character. The marriage proved a happy one,
and Madame de la Peltrie, with an excellent grace, bore her part in the
world she had wished to renounce. After a union of five years, her
husband died, and she was left a widow and childless at the age of
twenty-two. She returned to the religious ardors of her girlhood,
again gave all her thoughts to devotion and charity, and again resolved
to be a nun. She had heard of Canada; and when Le Jeune's first
Relations appeared, she read them with avidity. "Alas!" wrote the Father,
"is there no charitable and virtuous lady who will come to this country
to gather up the blood of Christ, by teaching His word to the little
Indian girls?" His appeal found a prompt and vehement response from the
breast of Madame de la Peltrie. Thenceforth she thought of nothing but
Canada. In the midst of her zeal, a fever seized her. The physicians
despaired; but, at the height of the disease, the patient made a vow to
St. Joseph, that, should God restore her to health, she would build a
house in honor of Him in Canada, and give her life and her wealth to the
instruction of Indian girls. On the following morning, say her
biographers, the fever had left her.

[ 1 There is a portrait of her, taken at a later period, of which a
photograph is before me. She has a semi-religious dress, hands clasped
in prayer, large dark eyes, a smiling and mischievous mouth, and a face
somewhat pretty and very coquettish. An engraving from the portrait is
prefixed to the "Notice Biographique de Madame de la Peltrie" in Les
Ursulines de Québec, I. 348. ]

Meanwhile her relatives, or those of her husband, had confirmed her pious
purposes by attempting to thwart them. They pronounced her a romantic
visionary, incompetent to the charge of her property. Her father, too,
whose fondness for her increased with his advancing age, entreated her to
remain with him while he lived, and to defer the execution of her plans
till he should be laid in his grave. From entreaties he passed to
commands, and at length threatened to disinherit her, if she persisted.
The virtue of obedience, for which she is extolled by her clerical
biographers, however abundantly exhibited in respect to those who held
charge of her conscience, was singularly wanting towards the parent who,
in the way of Nature, had the best claim to its exercise; and Madame de
la Peltrie was more than ever resolved to go to Canada. Her father,
on his part, was urgent that she should marry again. On this she took
counsel of a Jesuit, [ 1 ] who, "having seriously reflected before God,"
suggested a device, which to the heretical mind is a little startling,
but which commended itself to Madame de la Peltrie as fitted at once to
soothe the troubled spirit of her father, and to save her from the sin
involved in the abandonment of her pious designs.

[ 1 "Partagée ainsi entre l'amour filial et la religion, en proie aux
plus poignantes angoisses, elle s'adressa à un religieux de la Compagnie
de Jésus, dont elle connaissait la prudence consommée, et le supplia de
l'éclairer de ses lumières. Ce religieux, après y avoir sérieusement
réfléchi devant Dieu, lui répondit qu'il croyait avoir trouvé un moyen de
tout concilier."--Casgrain, Vie de Marie de l'Incarnation, 243. ]

Among her acquaintance was M. de Bernières, a gentleman of high rank,
great wealth, and zealous devotion. She wrote to him, explained the
situation, and requested him to feign a marriage with her. His sense of
honor recoiled: moreover, in the fulness of his zeal, he had made a vow
of chastity, and an apparent breach of it would cause scandal. He
consulted his spiritual director and a few intimate friends. All agreed
that the glory of God was concerned, and that it behooved him to accept
the somewhat singular overtures of the young widow, [ 1 ] and request her
hand from her father. M. de Chauvigny, who greatly esteemed Bernières,
was delighted; and his delight was raised to transport at the dutiful and
modest acquiescence of his daughter. [ 2 ] A betrothal took place; all
was harmony, and for a time no more was said of disinheriting Madame de
la Peltrie, or putting her in wardship.

[ 1 "Enfin après avoir longtemps imploré les lumières du ciel, il remit
toute l'affaire entre les mains de son directeur et de quelques amis
intimes. Tous, d'un commun accord, lui déclarèrent que la gloire de Dieu
y était interessée, et qu'il devait accepter."--Ibid., 244. ]

[ 2 "The prudent young widow answered him with much respect and modesty,
that, as she knew M. de Bernières to be a favorite with him, she also
preferred him to all others."

The above is from a letter of Marie de l'Incarnation, translated by
Mother St. Thomas, of the Ursuline convent of Quebec, in her Life of
Madame de la Peltrie, 41. Compare Les Ursulines de Québec, 10, and the
"Notice Biographique" in the same volume. ]

Bernières's scruples returned. Divided between honor and conscience,
he postponed the marriage, until at length M. de Chauvigny conceived
misgivings, and again began to speak of disinheriting his daughter,
unless the engagement was fulfilled. [ 1 ] Bernières yielded, and went
with Madame de la Peltrie to consult "the most eminent divines." [ 2 ]
A sham marriage took place, and she and her accomplice appeared in public
as man and wife. Her relatives, however, had already renewed their
attempts to deprive her of the control of her property. A suit, of what
nature does not appear, had been decided against her at Caen, and she had
appealed to the Parliament of Normandy. Her lawyers were in despair; but,
as her biographer justly observes, "the saints have resources which
others have not." A vow to St. Joseph secured his intercession and
gained her case. Another thought now filled her with agitation. Her
plans were laid, and the time of action drew near. How could she endure
the distress of her father, when he learned that she had deluded him with
a false marriage, and that she and all that was hers were bound for the
wilderness of Canada? Happily for him, he fell ill, and died in
ignorance of the deceit that had been practised upon him. [ 3 ]

[ 1 "Our virtuous widow did not lose courage. As she had given her
confidence to M. de Bernières, she informed him of all that passed,
while she flattered her father each day, telling him that this nobleman
was too honorable to fail in keeping his word."--St. Thomas, Life of
Madame de la Peltrie, 42. ]

[ 2 "He" (Bernières) "went to stay at the house of a mutual friend,
where they had frequent opportunities of seeing each other, and
consulting the most eminent divines on the means of effecting this
pretended marriage."--Ibid., 43. ]

[ 3 It will be of interest to observe the view taken of this pretended
marriage by Madame de la Peltrie's Catholic biographers. Charlevoix
tells the story without comment, but with apparent approval. Sainte-Foi,
in his Premières Ursulines de France, says, that, as God had taken her
under His guidance, we should not venture to criticize her. Casgrain,
in his Vie de Marie de l'Incarnation, remarks:--

"Une telle conduite peut encore aujourd'hui paraître étrange à bien des
personnes; mais outre que l'avenir fit bien voir que c'était une
inspiration du ciel, nous pouvons répondre, avec un savant et pieux
auteur, que nous ne devons point juger ceux que Dieu se charge lui-même
de conduire."--p. 247.

Mother St. Thomas highly approves the proceeding, and says:--

"Thus ended the pretended engagement of this virtuous lady and gentleman,
which caused, at the time, so much inquiry and excitement among the
nobility in France, and which, after a lapse of two hundred years,
cannot fail exciting feelings of admiration in the heart of every
virtuous woman!"

Surprising as it may appear, the book from which the above is taken was
written a few years since, in so-called English, for the instruction of
the pupils in the Ursuline Convent at Quebec. ]

Whatever may be thought of the quality of Madame de la Peltrie's devotion,
there can be no reasonable doubt of its sincerity or its ardor; and yet
one can hardly fail to see in her the signs of that restless longing for
_éclat_, which, with some women, is a ruling passion. When, in company
with Bernières, she passed from Alençon to Tours, and from Tours to Paris,
an object of attention to nuns, priests, and prelates,--when the Queen
herself summoned her to an interview,--it may be that the profound
contentment of soul ascribed to her had its origin in sources not
exclusively of the spirit. At Tours, she repaired to the Ursuline
convent. The Superior and all the nuns met her at the entrance of the
cloister, and, separating into two rows as she appeared, sang the _Veni
Creator_, while the bell of the monastery sounded its loudest peal.
Then they led her in triumph to their church, sang _Te Deum_, and, while
the honored guest knelt before the altar, all the sisterhood knelt around
her in a semicircle. Their hearts beat high within them. That day they
were to know who of their number were chosen for the new convent of
Quebec, of which Madame de la Peltrie was to be the foundress; and when
their devotions were over, they flung themselves at her feet, each
begging with tears that the lot might fall on her. Aloof from this
throng of enthusiastic suppliants stood a young nun, Marie de St. Bernard,
too timid and too modest to ask the boon for which her fervent heart was
longing. It was granted without asking. This delicate girl was chosen,
and chosen wisely. [ Casgrain, Vie de Marie de l'Incarnation, 271-273.
There is a long account of Marie de St. Bernard, by Ragueneau, in the
Relation of 1652. Here it is said that she showed an unaccountable
indifference as to whether she went to Canada or not, which, however,
was followed by an ardent desire to go. ]

There was another nun who stood apart, silent and motionless,--a stately
figure, with features strongly marked and perhaps somewhat masculine;
[ 1 ] but, if so, they belied her, for Marie de l'Incarnation was a woman
to the core. For her there was no need of entreaties; for she knew that
the Jesuits had made her their choice, as Superior of the new convent.
She was born, forty years before, at Tours, of a good _bourgeois_ family.
As she grew up towards maturity, her qualities soon declared themselves.
She had uncommon talents and strong religious susceptibilities, joined to
a vivid imagination,--an alliance not always desirable under a form of
faith where both are excited by stimulants so many and so powerful.
Like Madame de la Peltrie, she married, at the desire of her parents,
in her eighteenth year. The marriage was not happy. Her biographers say
that there was no fault on either side. Apparently, it was a severe case
of "incompatibility." She sought her consolation in the churches; and,
kneeling in dim chapels, held communings with Christ and the angels.
At the end of two years her husband died, leaving her with an infant son.
She gave him to the charge of her sister, abandoned herself to solitude
and meditation, and became a mystic of the intense and passional school.
Yet a strong maternal instinct battled painfully in her breast with a
sense of religious vocation. Dreams, visions, interior voices, ecstasies,
revulsions, periods of rapture and periods of deep dejection, made up the
agitated tissue of her life. She fasted, wore hair-cloth, scourged
herself, washed dishes among the servants, and did their most menial
work. She heard, in a trance, a miraculous voice. It was that of Christ,
promising to become her spouse. Months and years passed, full of
troubled hopes and fears, when again the voice sounded in her ear,
with assurance that the promise was fulfilled, and that she was indeed
his bride. Now ensued phenomena which are not infrequent among Roman
Catholic female devotees, when unmarried, or married unhappily, and which
have their source in the necessities of a woman's nature. To her excited
thought, her divine spouse became a living presence; and her language to
him, as recorded by herself, is that of the most intense passion.
She went to prayer, agitated and tremulous, as if to a meeting with an
earthly lover. "O my Love!" she exclaimed, "when shall I embrace you?
Have you no pity on me in the torments that I suffer? Alas! alas! my
Love, my Beauty, my Life! instead of healing my pain, you take pleasure
in it. Come, let me embrace you, and die in your sacred arms!" And
again she writes: "Then, as I was spent with fatigue, I was forced to say,
'My divine Love, since you wish me to live, I pray you let me rest a
little, that I may the better serve you'; and I promised him that
afterward I would suffer myself to consume in his chaste and divine
embraces." [ 2 ]

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