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

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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'Orleans 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 Francois, 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
Fleche, 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; Francois, 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 Abbe 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.

Francois 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 Fleche 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 Francois 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. Francois
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 College 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 Noerdlingen. 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 College 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 Pericard, 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 Colombiere 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 Francois 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 Abbe 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 Bernieres. 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 Lanjuere, 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 Bernieres 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. Francois 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, Abbe 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 Francois 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-Pres. After having taken, with the assent of the sovereign
pontiff, the oath of fidelity to the king, the new Bishop of Petraea 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 Petraea 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 Petraea. 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. Andre_, which had arrived on
September 7th, brought to the Abbe 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 Abbe
de Queylus, however, indicates that it was openly manifested, and the
very next month the abbe 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 Abbe 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 Petraea, 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
Abbe de Queylus. On instructions which were given him by the king,
Governor d'Avaugour transmitted to the Abbe 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 Abbe 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
Petraea 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 Abbe 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 Petraea. 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. Andre_, 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 Lemaitre.
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. Lemaitre, though both suffering themselves,
were able to offer to the dying the consolations of their holy office.
M. Lemaitre, 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
Petraea 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 Hotel-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 Bernieres, 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 Bernieres."

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 Abbe 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 Abbe 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."

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