A. Leblond de Brumath - The Makers of Canada: Bishop Laval

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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 FRANCOIS 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 Recollets 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
Stadacone; 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 Recollets, 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-Associes
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 Brebeuf, 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.

Francois de Laval-Montmorency, who was called in his youth the Abbe 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 Petraea _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 Abbe 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 Abbe 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. Lemaitre 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 Petraea, 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 Mezy, 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
Gallinee were planting the cross on the shores of Lake Erie; Father
Claude Allouez was preaching the gospel beyond Lake Superior; Fathers
Dablon, Marquette, and Druilletes 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 Verendrye 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 Petraea, 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-Riviere, and Mgr. de Pontbriant, who died the very year in which
General de Levis 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 role 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 FRANCOIS 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--Brebeuf and
Lalemant, de Maisonneuve, Dollard, Laval, Talon, de la Salle, Frontenac,
d'Iberville, de Maricourt, de Sainte-Helene, 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, Francois 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 Pericard, 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
Francois 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 Crecy; 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 chretien!"_

Young Laval received at the baptismal font the name of the heroic
missionary to the Indies, Francois-Xavier. To this saint and to the
founder of the Franciscans, Francois 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.

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