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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




"Monsieur," exclaimed Olier, "I know your design, and I go to commend it
to God at the holy altar."

And he went at once to say mass in the chapel. Dauversière received the
communion at his hands; and then they walked for three hours in the park,
discussing their plans. They were of one mind, in respect both to
objects and means; and when they parted, Olier gave Dauversière a hundred
louis, saying, "This is to begin the work of God."

They proposed to found at Montreal three religious communities,--three
being the mystic number,--one of secular priests to direct the colonists
and convert the Indians, one of nuns to nurse the sick, and one of nuns
to teach the Faith to the children, white and red. To borrow their own
phrases, they would plant the banner of Christ in an abode of desolation
and a haunt of demons; and to this end a band of priests and women were
to invade the wilderness, and take post between the fangs of the
Iroquois. But first they must make a colony, and to do so must raise
money. Olier had pious and wealthy penitents; Dauversière had a friend,
the Baron de Fancamp, devout as himself and far richer. Anxious for his
soul, and satisfied that the enterprise was an inspiration of God,
he was eager to bear part in it. Olier soon found three others; and the
six together formed the germ of the Society of Notre-Dame de Montreal.
Among them they raised the sum of seventy-five thousand livres,
equivalent to about as many dollars at the present day.

[ Dollier de Casson, Histoire de Montreal, MS.; also Belmont, Histoire du
Canada, 2. Juchereau doubles the sum. Faillon agrees with Dollier.

On all that relates to the early annals of Montreal a flood of new light
has been thrown by the Abbé Faillon. As a priest of St. Sulpice, he had
ready access to the archives of the Seminaries of Montreal and Paris,
and to numerous other ecclesiastical depositories, which would have been
closed hopelessly against a layman and a heretic. It is impossible to
commend too highly the zeal, diligence, exactness, and extent of his
conscientious researches. His credulity is enormous, and he is
completely in sympathy with the supernaturalists of whom he writes: in
other words, he identifies himself with his theme, and is indeed a
fragment of the seventeenth century, still extant in the nineteenth.
He is minute to prolixity, and abounds in extracts and citations from the
ancient manuscripts which his labors have unearthed. In short, the Abbé
is a prodigy of patience and industry; and if he taxes the patience of
his readers, he also rewards it abundantly. Such of his original
authorities as have proved accessible are before me, including a
considerable number of manuscripts. Among these, that of Dollier de
Casson, Histoire de Montreal, as cited above, is the most important.
The copy in my possession was made from the original in the Mazarin
Library. ]

Now to look for a moment at their plan. Their eulogists say, and with
perfect truth, that, from a worldly point of view, it was mere folly.
The partners mutually bound themselves to seek no return for the money
expended. Their profit was to be reaped in the skies: and, indeed,
there was none to be reaped on earth. The feeble settlement at Quebec
was at this time in danger of utter ruin; for the Iroquois, enraged at
the attacks made on them by Champlain, had begun a fearful course of
retaliation, and the very existence of the colony trembled in the
balance. But if Quebec was exposed to their ferocious inroads, Montreal
was incomparably more so. A settlement here would be a perilous
outpost,--a hand thrust into the jaws of the tiger. It would provoke
attack, and lie almost in the path of the war-parties. The associates
could gain nothing by the fur-trade; for they would not be allowed to
share in it. On the other hand, danger apart, the place was an excellent
one for a mission; for here met two great rivers: the St. Lawrence,
with its countless tributaries, flowed in from the west, while the Ottawa
descended from the north; and Montreal, embraced by their uniting waters,
was the key to a vast inland navigation. Thither the Indians would
naturally resort; and thence the missionaries could make their way into
the heart of a boundless heathendom. None of the ordinary motives of
colonization had part in this design. It owed its conception and its
birth to religious zeal alone.

The island of Montreal belonged to Lauson, former president of the great
company of the Hundred Associates; and, as we have seen, his son had a
monopoly of fishing in the St. Lawrence. Dauversière and Fancamp,
after much diplomacy, succeeded in persuading the elder Lauson to
transfer his title to them; and, as there was a defect in it, they also
obtained a grant of the island from the Hundred Associates, its original
owners, who, however, reserved to themselves its western extremity as a
site for a fort and storehouses. [ 1 ] At the same time, the younger
Lauson granted them a right of fishery within two leagues of the shores
of the island, for which they were to make a yearly acknowledgment of ten
pounds of fish. A confirmation of these grants was obtained from the
King. Dauversière and his companions were now _seigneurs_ of Montreal.
They were empowered to appoint a governor, and to establish courts,
from which there was to be an appeal to the Supreme Court of Quebec,
supposing such to exist. They were excluded from the fur-trade, and
forbidden to build castles or forts other than such as were necessary for
defence against the Indians.

[ Donation et Transport de la Concession de l'Isle de Montreal par
M. Jean de Lauzon aux Sieurs Chevrier de Fouancant (Fancamp) et le Royer
de la Doversière, MS.

Concession d'une Partie de l'Isle de Montreal accordée par la Compagnie
de la Nouvelle France aux Sieurs Chevrier et le Royer, MS.

Lettres de Ratification, MS.

Acte qui prouve que les Sieurs Chevrier de Fancamps et Royer de la
Dauversière n'ont stipulé qu'au nom de la Compagnie de Montreal, MS.

From copies of other documents before me, it appears that in 1659 the
reserved portion of the island was also ceded to the Company of Montreal.

See also Edits, Ordonnances Royaux, etc., I. 20-26 (Quebec, 1854). ]

Their title assured, they matured their plan. First they would send out
forty men to take possession of Montreal, intrench themselves, and raise
crops. Then they would build a house for the priests, and two convents
for the nuns. Meanwhile, Olier was toiling at Vaugirard, on the
outskirts of Paris, to inaugurate the seminary of priests, and
Dauversière at La Flèche, to form the community of hospital nuns.
How the school nuns were provided for we shall see hereafter. The colony,
it will be observed, was for the convents, not the convents for the
colony.

The Associates needed a soldier-governor to take charge of their forty
men; and, directed as they supposed by Providence, they found one wholly
to their mind. This was Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, a devout
and valiant gentleman, who in long service among the heretics of Holland
had kept his faith intact, and had held himself resolutely aloof from the
license that surrounded him. He loved his profession of arms, and wished
to consecrate his sword to the Church. Past all comparison, he is the
manliest figure that appears in this group of zealots. The piety of the
design, the miracles that inspired it, the adventure and the peril,
all combined to charm him; and he eagerly embraced the enterprise.
His father opposed his purpose; but he met him with a text of St. Mark,
"There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father
for my sake, but he shall receive an hundred-fold." On this the elder
Maisonneuve, deceived by his own worldliness, imagined that the plan
covered some hidden speculation, from which enormous profits were
expected, and therefore withdrew his opposition. [ Faillon, La Colonie
Française, I. 409. ]

Their scheme was ripening fast, when both Olier and Dauversière were
assailed by one of those revulsions of spirit, to which saints of the
ecstatic school are naturally liable. Dauversière, in particular,
was a prey to the extremity of dejection, uncertainty, and misgiving.
What had he, a family man, to do with ventures beyond sea? Was it not
his first duty to support his wife and children? Could he not fulfil all
his obligations as a Christian by reclaiming the wicked and relieving the
poor at La Flèche? Plainly, he had doubts that his vocation was genuine.
If we could raise the curtain of his domestic life, perhaps we should
find him beset by wife and daughters, tearful and wrathful, inveighing
against his folly, and imploring him to provide a support for them before
squandering his money to plant a convent of nuns in a wilderness.
How long his fit of dejection lasted does not appear; but at length [ 1 ]
he set himself again to his appointed work. Olier, too, emerging from
the clouds and darkness, found faith once more, and again placed himself
at the head of the great enterprise. [ 2 ]

[ 1 Faillon, Vie de Mlle Mance, Introduction, xxxv. ]

[ 2 Faillon (Vie de M. Olier) devotes twenty-one pages to the history of
his fit of nervous depression. ]

There was imperative need of more money; and Dauversière, under judicious
guidance, was active in obtaining it. This miserable victim of illusions
had a squat, uncourtly figure, and was no proficient in the graces either
of manners or of speech: hence his success in commending his objects to
persons of rank and wealth is set down as one of the many miracles which
attended the birth of Montreal. But zeal and earnestness are in
themselves a power; and the ground had been well marked out and ploughed
for him in advance. That attractive, though intricate, subject of study,
the female mind, has always engaged the attention of priests, more
especially in countries where, as in France, women exert a strong social
and political influence. The art of kindling the flames of zeal, and the
more difficult art of directing and controlling them, have been themes of
reflection the most diligent and profound. Accordingly we find that a
large proportion of the money raised for this enterprise was contributed
by devout ladies. Many of them became members of the Association of
Montreal, which was eventually increased to about forty-five persons,
chosen for their devotion and their wealth.

Olier and his associates had resolved, though not from any collapse of
zeal, to postpone the establishment of the seminary and the college until
after a settlement should be formed. The hospital, however, might,
they thought, be begun at once; for blood and blows would be the assured
portion of the first settlers. At least, a discreet woman ought to
embark with the first colonists as their nurse and housekeeper. Scarcely
was the need recognized when it was supplied.

Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance was born of an honorable family of Nogent-le-
Roi, and in 1640 was thirty-four years of age. These Canadian heroines
began their religious experiences early. Of Marie de l'Incarnation we
read, that at the age of seven Christ appeared to her in a vision;
[ Casgrain, Vie de Marie de l'Incarnation, 78. ] and the biographer of
Mademoiselle Mance assures us, with admiring gravity, that, at the same
tender age, she bound herself to God by a vow of perpetual chastity.
[ Faillon, Vie de Mlle Mance, I. 3. ] This singular infant in due time
became a woman, of a delicate constitution, and manners graceful, yet
dignified. Though an earnest devotee, she felt no vocation for the
cloister; yet, while still "in the world," she led the life of a nun.
The Jesuit Relations, and the example of Madame de la Peltrie, of whom
she had heard, inoculated her with the Canadian enthusiasm, then so
prevalent; and, under the pretence of visiting relatives, she made a
journey to Paris, to take counsel of certain priests. Of one thing she
was assured: the Divine will called her to Canada, but to what end she
neither knew nor asked to know; for she abandoned herself as an atom to
be borne to unknown destinies on the breath of God. At Paris, Father
St. Jure, a Jesuit, assured her that her vocation to Canada was, past
doubt, a call from Heaven; while Father Rapin, a Récollet, spread abroad
the fame of her virtues, and introduced her to many ladies of rank,
wealth, and zeal. Then, well supplied with money for any pious work to
which she might be summoned, she journeyed to Rochelle, whence ships were
to sail for New France. Thus far she had been kept in ignorance of the
plan with regard to Montreal; but now Father La Place, a Jesuit, revealed
it to her. On the day after her arrival at Rochelle, as she entered the
Church of the Jesuits, she met Dauversière coming out. "Then," says her
biographer, "these two persons, who had never seen nor heard of each
other, were enlightened supernaturally, whereby their most hidden
thoughts were mutually made known, as had happened already with M. Olier
and this same M. de la Dauversière." [ Faillon, Vie de Mlle Mance, I. 18.
Here again the Abbé Ferland, with his usual good sense, tacitly rejects
the supernaturalism. ] A long conversation ensued between them; and the
delights of this interview were never effaced from the mind of
Mademoiselle Mance. "She used to speak of it like a seraph," writes one
of her nuns, "and far better than many a learned doctor could have done."
[ La Sœur Morin, Annales des Hospitalières de Villemarie, MS., cited by
Faillon. ]

She had found her destiny. The ocean, the wilderness, the solitude,
the Iroquois,--nothing daunted her. She would go to Montreal with
Maisonneuve and his forty men. Yet, when the vessel was about to sail,
a new and sharp misgiving seized her. How could she, a woman, not yet
bereft of youth or charms, live alone in the forest, among a troop of
soldiers? Her scruples were relieved by two of the men, who, at the last
moment, refused to embark without their wives,--and by a young woman, who,
impelled by enthusiasm, escaped from her friends, and took passage,
in spite of them, in one of the vessels.

All was ready; the ships set sail; but Olier, Dauversière, and Fancamp
remained at home, as did also the other Associates, with the exception of
Maisonneuve and Mademoiselle Mance. In the following February, an
impressive scene took place in the Church of Notre Dame, at Paris.
The Associates, at this time numbering about forty-five, [ Dollier de
Casson, A.D. 1641-42, MS. Vimont says thirty-five. ] with Olier at their
head, assembled before the altar of the Virgin, and, by a solemn
ceremonial, consecrated Montreal to the Holy Family. Henceforth it was
to be called Villemarie de Montreal, [ Vimont Relation, 1642, 37.
Compare Le Clerc, Établissement de la Foy, II. 49. ]--a sacred town,
reared to the honor and under the patronage of Christ, St. Joseph,
and the Virgin, to be typified by three persons on earth, founders
respectively of the three destined communities,--Olier, Dauversière,
and a maiden of Troyes, Marguerite Bourgeoys: the seminary to be
consecrated to Christ, the Hôtel-Dieu to St. Joseph, and the college to
the Virgin.

But we are anticipating a little; for it was several years as yet before
Marguerite Bourgeoys took an active part in the work of Montreal.
She was the daughter of a respectable tradesman, and was now twenty-two
years of age. Her portrait has come down to us; and her face is a mirror
of frankness, loyalty, and womanly tenderness. Her qualities were those
of good sense, conscientiousness, and a warm heart. She had known no
miracles, ecstasies, or trances; and though afterwards, when her
religious susceptibilities had reached a fuller development, a few such
are recorded of her, yet even the Abbé Faillon, with the best intentions,
can credit her with but a meagre allowance of these celestial favors.
Though in the midst of visionaries, she distrusted the supernatural,
and avowed her belief, that, in His government of the world, God does not
often set aside its ordinary laws. Her religion was of the affections,
and was manifested in an absorbing devotion to duty. She had felt no
vocation to the cloister, but had taken the vow of chastity, and was
attached, as an externe, to the Sisters of the Congregation of Troyes,
who were fevered with eagerness to go to Canada. Marguerite, however,
was content to wait until there was a prospect that she could do good by
going; and it was not till the year 1653, that renouncing an inheritance,
and giving all she had to the poor, she embarked for the savage scene of
her labors. To this day, in crowded school-rooms of Montreal and Quebec,
fit monuments of her unobtrusive virtue, her successors instruct the
children of the poor, and embalm the pleasant memory of Marguerite
Bourgeoys. In the martial figure of Maisonneuve, and the fair form of
this gentle nun, we find the true heroes of Montreal. [ For Marguerite
Bourgeoys, see her life by Faillon. ]

Maisonneuve, with his forty men and four women, reached Quebec too late
to ascend to Montreal that season. They encountered distrust, jealousy,
and opposition. The agents of the Company of the Hundred Associates
looked on them askance; and the Governor of Quebec, Montmagny, saw a
rival governor in Maisonneuve. Every means was used to persuade the
adventurers to abandon their project, and settle at Quebec. Montmagny
called a council of the principal persons of his colony, who gave it as
their opinion that the new-comers had better exchange Montreal for the
Island of Orleans, where they would be in a position to give and receive
succor; while, by persisting in their first design, they would expose
themselves to destruction, and be of use to nobody. [ Juchereau, 32;
Faillon, Colonie Française, I. 423. ] Maisonneuve, who was present,
expressed his surprise that they should assume to direct his affairs.
"I have not come here," he said, "to deliberate, but to act. It is my
duty and my honor to found a colony at Montreal; and I would go, if every
tree were an Iroquois!" [ La Tour, Mémoire de Laval, Liv. VIII; Belmont,
Histoire du Canada, 3. ]

At Quebec there was little ability and no inclination to shelter the new
colonists for the winter; and they would have fared ill, but for the
generosity of M. Puiseaux, who lived not far distant, at a place called
St. Michel. This devout and most hospitable person made room for them
all in his rough, but capacious dwelling. Their neighbors were the
hospital nuns, then living at the mission of Sillery, in a substantial,
but comfortless house of stone; where, amidst destitution, sickness,
and irrepressible disgust at the filth of the savages whom they had in
charge, they were laboring day and night with devoted assiduity. Among
the minor ills which beset them were the eccentricities of one of their
lay sisters, crazed with religious enthusiasm, who had the care of their
poultry and domestic animals, of which she was accustomed to inquire,
one by one, if they loved God; when, not receiving an immediate answer in
the affirmative, she would instantly put them to death, telling them that
their impiety deserved no better fate. [ Juchereau, 45. A great
mortification to these excellent nuns was the impossibility of keeping
their white dresses clean among their Indian patients, so that they were
forced to dye them with butternut juice. They were the _Hospitalières_
who had come over in 1639. ]

At St. Michel, Maisonneuve employed his men in building boats to ascend
to Montreal, and in various other labors for the behoof of the future
colony. Thus the winter wore away; but, as celestial minds are not
exempt from ire, Montmagny and Maisonneuve fell into a quarrel. The
twenty-fifth of January was Maisonneuve's _fête_ day; and, as he was
greatly beloved by his followers, they resolved to celebrate the
occasion. Accordingly, an hour and a half before daylight, they made a
general discharge of their muskets and cannon. The sound reached Quebec,
two or three miles distant, startling the Governor from his morning
slumbers; and his indignation was redoubled when he heard it again at
night: for Maisonneuve, pleased at the attachment of his men, had feasted
them and warmed their hearts with a distribution of wine. Montmagny,
jealous of his authority, resented these demonstrations as an infraction
of it, affirming that they had no right to fire their pieces without his
consent; and, arresting the principal offender, one Jean Gory, he put him
in irons. On being released, a few days after, his companions welcomed
him with great rejoicing, and Maisonneuve gave them all a feast. He
himself came in during the festivity, drank the health of the company,
shook hands with the late prisoner, placed him at the head of the table,
and addressed him as follows:--

"Jean Gory, you have been put in irons for me: you had the pain, and I
the affront. For that, I add ten crowns to your wages." Then, turning
to the others: "My boys," he said, "though Jean Gory has been misused,
you must not lose heart for that, but drink, all of you, to the health of
the man in irons. When we are once at Montreal, we shall be our own
masters, and can fire our cannon when we please." [ Documents Divers,
MSS., now or lately in possession of G. B. Faribault, Esq.; Ferland,
Notes sur les Registres de N. D. de Québec, 25; Faillon, La Colonie
Française, I. 433. ]

Montmagny was wroth when this was reported to him; and, on the ground
that what had passed was "contrary to the service of the King and the
authority of the Governor," he summoned Gory and six others before him,
and put them separately under oath. Their evidence failed to establish a
case against their commander; but thenceforth there was great coldness
between the powers of Quebec and Montreal.

Early in May, Maisonneuve and his followers embarked. They had gained an
unexpected recruit during the winter, in the person of Madame de la
Peltrie. The piety, the novelty, and the romance of their enterprise,
all had their charms for the fair enthusiast; and an irresistible
impulse--imputed by a slandering historian to the levity of her sex
[ La Tour, Mémoire de Laval, Liv. VIII. ]--urged her to share their
fortunes. Her zeal was more admired by the Montrealists whom she joined
than by the Ursulines whom she abandoned. She carried off all the
furniture she had lent them, and left them in the utmost destitution.
[ Charlevoix, Vie de Marie de l'Incarnation, 279; Casgrain, Vie de Marie
de l'Incarnation, 333. ] Nor did she remain quiet after reaching Montreal,
but was presently seized with a longing to visit the Hurons, and preach
the Faith in person to those benighted heathen. It needed all the
eloquence of a Jesuit, lately returned from that most arduous mission,
to convince her that the attempt would be as useless as rash.
[ St. Thomas, Life of Madame de la Peltrie, 98. ]

It was the eighth of May when Maisonneuve and his followers embarked at
St. Michel; and as the boats, deep-laden with men, arms, and stores,
moved slowly on their way, the forest, with leaves just opening in the
warmth of spring, lay on their right hand and on their left, in a
flattering semblance of tranquillity and peace. But behind woody islets,
in tangled thickets and damp ravines, and in the shade and stillness of
the columned woods, lurked everywhere a danger and a terror.

What shall we say of these adventurers of Montreal,--of these who
bestowed their wealth, and, far more, of these who sacrificed their peace
and risked their lives, on an enterprise at once so romantic and so
devout? Surrounded as they were with illusions, false lights, and false
shadows,--breathing an atmosphere of miracle,--compassed about with
angels and devils,--urged with stimulants most powerful, though
unreal,--their minds drugged, as it were, to preternatural excitement,--
it is very difficult to judge of them. High merit, without doubt,
there was in some of their number; but one may beg to be spared the
attempt to measure or define it. To estimate a virtue involved in
conditions so anomalous demands, perhaps, a judgment more than human.

The Roman Church, sunk in disease and corruption when the Reformation
began, was roused by that fierce trumpet-blast to purge and brace herself
anew. Unable to advance, she drew back to the fresher and comparatively
purer life of the past; and the fervors of mediæval Christianity were
renewed in the sixteenth century. In many of its aspects, this
enterprise of Montreal belonged to the time of the first Crusades.
The spirit of Godfrey de Bouillon lived again in Chomedey de Maisonneuve;
and in Marguerite Bourgeoys was realized that fair ideal of Christian
womanhood, a flower of Earth expanding in the rays of Heaven, which
soothed with gentle influence the wildness of a barbarous age.

On the seventeenth of May, 1642, Maisonneuve's little flotilla--a pinnace,
a flat-bottomed craft moved by sails, and two row-boats [ Dollier de
Casson, A.D. 1641-42, MS. ]--approached Montreal; and all on board raised
in unison a hymn of praise. Montmagny was with them, to deliver the
island, in behalf of the Company of the Hundred Associates, to
Maisonneuve, representative of the Associates of Montreal. [ Le Clerc,
II. 50, 51. ] And here, too, was Father Vimont, Superior of the
missions; for the Jesuits had been prudently invited to accept the
spiritual charge of the young colony. On the following day, they glided
along the green and solitary shores now thronged with the life of a busy
city, and landed on the spot which Champlain, thirty-one years before,
had chosen as the fit site of a settlement. [ "Pioneers of France," 333.
It was the Place Royale of Champlain. ] It was a tongue or triangle of
land, formed by the junction of a rivulet with the St. Lawrence, and
known afterwards as Point Callière. The rivulet was bordered by a meadow,
and beyond rose the forest with its vanguard of scattered trees. Early
spring flowers were blooming in the young grass, and birds of varied
plumage flitted among the boughs. [ Dollier de Casson, A.D. 1641-42, MS. ]

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