RESIGNATION OF MGR. DE LAVAL
The long and conscientious pastoral visit which he had just ended had
proved to the indefatigable prelate that it would be extremely difficult
to establish his parishes solidly. Instead of grouping themselves
together, which would have given them the advantages of union both
against the attacks of savages and for the circumstances of life in
which man has need of the aid of his fellows, the colonists had built
their dwellings at random, according to the inspiration of the moment,
and sometimes at long distances from each other; thus there existed, as
late as 1678, only twenty-five fixed livings, and it promised to be very
difficult to found new ones. To give a pastor the direction of
parishioners established within an enormous radius of his parish house,
was to condemn his ministry in advance to inefficacy. To prove it, the
Abbé Gosselin cites a striking example. Of the two missionaries who
shared the southern shore, the one, M. Morel, ministered to the country
between Berthier and Rivière du Loup; the other, M. Volant de
Saint-Claude, from Berthier to Rivière du Chêne, and each of them had
only about sixty families scattered here and there. And how was one to
expect that these poor farmers could maintain their pastor and build a
church? Almost everywhere the chapels were of wood or clapboards, and
thatched; not more than eight or nine centres of population could boast
of possessing a stone church; many hamlets still lacked a chapel and
imitated the Lower Town of Quebec, whose inhabitants attended service in
a private house. As to priests' houses, they were a luxury that few
villages could afford: the priest had to content himself with being
sheltered by a respectable colonist.
During the few weeks when illness confined him to his bed, Laval had
leisure to reflect on the difficulties of his task. He understood that
his age and the infirmities which the Lord laid upon him would no longer
permit him to bring to so arduous a work the necessary energy. "His
humility," says Sister Juchereau, "persuaded him that another in his
place would do more good than he, although he really did a great deal,
because he sought only the glory of God and the welfare of his flock."
In consequence, he decided to go and carry in person his resignation to
the king. But before embarking for France, with his accustomed prudence
he set his affairs in order. He had one plan, especially, at heart, that
of establishing according to the rules of the Church the chapter which
had already existed _de facto_ for a long while. Canons are necessary to
a bishopric; their duties are not merely decorative, for they assist the
bishop in his episcopal office, form his natural council, replace him
on certain occasions, govern the diocese from the death of its head
until the deceased is replaced, and finally officiate in turn before the
altars of the cathedral in order that prayer shall incessantly ascend
from the diocese towards the Most High. The only obstacle to this
creation until now had been the lack of resources, for the canonical
union with the abbeys of Maubec and Lestrées was not yet an accomplished
fact. Mgr. de Laval resolved to appeal to the unselfishness of the
priests of the seminary, and he succeeded: they consented to fulfil
without extra salary the duties of canons.
By an ordinance of November 6th, 1684, the Bishop of Quebec established
a chapter composed of twelve canons and four chaplains. The former,
among whom were five priests born in the colony, were M. Henri de
Bernières, priest of Quebec, who remained dean until his death in 1700;
MM. Louis Ange de Maizerets, archdeacon, Charles Glandelet, theologist,
Dudouyt, grand cantor, and Jean Gauthier de Brulon, confessor. The
ceremony of installation took place with the greatest pomp, amid the
boom of artillery and the joyful sound of bells and music; governor,
intendant, councillors, officers and soldiers, inhabitants of the city
and the environments, everybody wished to be present. It remained to
give a constitution to the new chapter. Mgr. de Laval had already busied
himself with this for several months, and corresponded on this subject
with M. Chéron, a clever lawyer of Paris. Accordingly, the constitution
which he submitted for the infant chapter on the very morrow of the
ceremony was admired unreservedly and adopted without discussion.
Twenty-four hours afterwards he set sail accompanied by the good wishes
of his priests, who, with anxious heart and tears in their eyes,
followed him with straining gaze until the vessel disappeared below the
horizon. Before his departure, he had, like a father who in his last
hour divides his goods among his children, given his seminary a new
proof of his attachment: he left it a sum of eight thousand francs for
the building of the chapel.
It would seem that sad presentiments assailed him at this moment, for he
said in the deed of gift: "I declare that my last will is to be buried
in this chapel; and if our Lord disposes of my life during this voyage I
desire that my body be brought here for burial. I also desire this
chapel to be open to the public." Fortunately, he was mistaken, it was
not the intention of the Lord to remove him so soon from the affections
of his people. For twenty years more the revered prelate was to spread
about him good works and good examples, and Providence reserved for him
the happiness of dying in the midst of his flock.
His generosity did not confine itself to this grant. He could not leave
his diocese, which he was not sure of seeing again, without giving a
token of remembrance to that school of St. Joachim, which he had
founded and which he loved so well; he gave the seminary eight thousand
francs for the support of the priest entrusted with the direction of the
school at the same time as with the ministry of the parish, and another
sum of four thousand francs to build the village church.
A young Canadian priest, M. Guyon, son of a farmer of the Beaupré shore,
had the good fortune of accompanying the bishop on the voyage. It would
have been very imprudent to leave the venerable prelate alone, worn out
as he was by troublesome fits of vertigo whenever he indulged too long
in work; besides, he was attacked by a disease of the heart, whose
onslaughts sometimes incapacitated him.
It would be misjudging the foresight of Mgr. de Laval to think that
before embarking for the mother country he had not sought out a priest
worthy to replace him. He appealed to two men whose judgment and
circumspection he esteemed, M. Dudouyt and Father Le Valois of the
Society of Jesus. He asked them to recommend a true servant of God,
virtuous and zealous above all. Father Le Valois indicated the Abbé Jean
Baptiste de la Croix de Saint-Vallier, the king's almoner, whose zeal
for the welfare of souls, whose charity, great piety, modesty and method
made him the admiration of all. The influence which his position and the
powerful relations of his family must gain for the Church in Canada
were an additional argument in his favour; the superior of St. Sulpice,
M. Tronson, who was also consulted, praised highly the talents and the
qualities of the young priest. "My Lord has shown great virtue in his
resignation," writes M. Dudouyt. "I know no occasion on which he has
shown so strongly his love for his Church; for he has done everything
that could be desired to procure a person capable of preserving and
perfecting the good work which he has begun here." If the Abbé de
Saint-Vallier had not been a man after God's own heart, he would not
have accepted a duty so honourable but so difficult. He was not unaware
of the difficulties which he would have to surmount, for Mgr. de Laval
explained them to him himself with the greatest frankness; and, what was
a still greater sacrifice, the king's almoner was to leave the most
brilliant court in the world for a very remote country, still in process
of organization. Nevertheless he accepted, and Laval had the
satisfaction of knowing that he was committing his charge into the hands
of a worthy successor.
It was now only a question of obtaining the consent of the king before
petitioning the sovereign pontiff for the canonical establishment of the
new episcopal authority. It was not without difficulty that it was
obtained, for the prince could not decide to accept the resignation of a
prelate who seemed to him indispensable to the interests of New France.
He finally understood that the decision of Mgr. de Laval was
irrevocable; as a mark of confidence and esteem he allowed him to choose
his successor.
At this period the misunderstanding created between the common father of
the faithful and his most Christian Majesty by the claims of the latter
in the matter of the right of _régale_[9] kept the Church in a false
position, to the grief of all good Catholics. Pope Innocent XI waited
with persistent and calm firmness until Louis XIV should become again
the elder son of the Church; until then France could not exist for him,
and more than thirty episcopal sees remained without occupants in the
country of Saint Louis and of Joan of Arc. It was not, then, to be hoped
that the appointment by the king of the Abbé de Saint-Vallier as second
bishop of Quebec could be immediately sanctioned by the sovereign
pontiff. It was decided that Mgr. de Laval, to whom the king granted an
annuity for life of two thousand francs from the revenues of the
bishopric of Aire, should remain titular bishop until the consecration
of his successor, and that M. de Saint-Vallier, appointed provisionally
grand vicar of the prelate, should set out immediately for New France,
where he would assume the government of the diocese. The Abbé de
Saint-Vallier had not yet departed before he gave evidence of his
munificence, and proved to the faithful of his future bishopric that he
would be to them as generous a father as he whom he was about to
replace. By deed of May 10th, 1685, he presented to the Seminary of
Quebec a sum of forty-two thousand francs, to be used for the
maintenance of missionaries; he bequeathed to it at the same time all
the furniture, books, etc., which he should possess at his death.
Laval's purpose was to remain for the present in France, where he would
busy himself actively for the interests of Canada, but his fixed resolve
was to go and end his days on that soil of New France which he loved so
well. It was in 1688, only a few months after the official appointment
of Saint-Vallier to the bishopric of Quebec, and his consecration on
January 25th of the same year, that Laval returned to Canada.
M. de Saint-Vallier embarked at La Rochelle in the beginning of June,
1685, on the royal vessel which was carrying to Canada the new
governor-general, M. de Denonville. The king having permitted him to
take with him a score of persons, he made a most judicious choice: nine
ecclesiastics, several school-masters and a few good workmen destined
for the labours of the seminary, accompanied him. The voyage was long
and very fatiguing. The passengers were, however, less tried than those
of two other ships which followed them, on one of which more than five
hundred soldiers had been crowded together. As might have been
expected, sickness was not long in breaking out among them; more than
one hundred and fifty of these unfortunates died, and their bodies were
cast into the sea.
Immediately after his arrival the grand vicar visited all the religious
establishments of the town, and he observed everywhere so much harmony
and good spirit that he could not pass it over in silence. Speaking with
admiration of the seminary, he said: "Every one in it devoted himself to
spiritual meditation, with such blessed results that from the youngest
cleric to the highest ecclesiastics in holy orders each one brought of
his own accord all his personal possessions to be used in common. It
seemed to me then that I saw revived in the Church of Canada something
of that spirit of unworldliness which constituted one of the principal
beauties of the budding Church of Jerusalem in the time of the
apostles." The examples of brotherly unity and self-effacement which he
admired so much in others he also set himself: he placed in the library
of the seminary a magnificent collection of books which he had brought
with him, and deposited in the coffers of the house several thousand
francs in money, his personal property. Braving the rigours of the
season, he set out in the winter of 1685 and visited the shore of
Beaupré, the Island of Orleans, and then the north shore as far as
Montreal. In the spring he took another direction, and inspected all
the missions of Gaspesia and Acadia. He was so well satisfied with the
condition of his diocese that he wrote to Mgr. de Laval: "All that I
regret is that there is no more good for me to do in this Church."
In the spring of this same year, 1686, a valiant little troop was making
a more warlike pastoral visit. To seventy robust Canadians, commanded by
d'Iberville, de Sainte-Hélène and de Maricourt, all sons of Charles Le
Moyne, the governor had added thirty good soldiers under the orders of
MM. de Troyes, Duchesnil and Catalogne, to take part in an expedition
for the capture of Hudson Bay from the English. Setting out on
snowshoes, dragging their provisions and equipment on toboggans, then
advancing, sometimes on foot, sometimes in bark canoes, they penetrated
by the Ottawa River and Temiskaming and Abitibi Lakes as far as James
Bay. They did not brave so many dangers and trials without being
resolved to conquer or die; accordingly, in spite of its twelve cannon,
Fort Monsipi was quickly carried. The two forts, Rupert and Ste. Anne,
suffered the same fate, and the only one that remained to the English,
that named Fort Nelson, was preserved to them solely because its remote
situation saved it. The head of the expedition, M. de Troyes, on his
return to Quebec, rendered an account of his successes to M. de
Denonville and to a new commissioner, M. de Champigny, who had just
replaced M. de Meulles.
The bishop's infirmities left him scarcely any respite. "My health," he
wrote to his successor, "is exceedingly good considering the bad use I
make of it. It seems, however, that the wound which I had in my foot
during five or six months at Quebec has been for the last three weeks
threatening to re-open. The holy will of God be done!" And he added, in
his firm resolution to pass his last days in Canada: "In any case, I
feel that I have sufficient strength and health to return this year to
the only place which now can give me peace and rest. _In pace in idipsum
dormiam et requiescam._ Meanwhile, as we must have no other aim than the
good pleasure of our Lord, whatever desire He gives me for this rest and
peace, He grants me at the same time the favour of making Him a
sacrifice of it in submitting myself to the opinion that you have
expressed, that I should stay this year in France, to be present at your
return next autumn." The bad state of his health did not prevent him
from devoting his every moment to Canadian interests. He went into the
most infinitesimal details of the administration of his diocese, so
great was his solicitude for his work. "We must hasten this year, if
possible," he wrote, "to labour at the re-establishment of the church of
Ste. Anne du Petit-Cap, to which the whole country has such an
attachment. We must work also to push forward the clearing of the lands
of St. Joachim, in order that we may have the proper rotation crops on
each farm, and that the farms may suffice for the needs of the
seminary." In another letter he concerns himself with the sum of three
thousand francs granted by the king each year for the marriage portion
of a certain number of poor young girls marrying in Canada. "We should,"
says he, "distribute these moneys in parcels, fifty francs, or ten
crowns, to the numerous poor families scattered along the shores, in
which there is a large number of children." He practises this wise
economy constantly when it is a question, not of his personal property,
but of the funds of his seminary. He finds that his successor, whom the
ten years which he had passed at court as king's almoner could not have
trained in parsimony, allows himself to be carried away, by his zeal and
his desire to do good, to a somewhat excessive expense. With what tact
and delicacy he indulges in a discreet reproach! "_Magna est fides
tua_," he writes to him, "and much greater than mine. We see that all
our priests have responded to it with the same confidence and entire
submission with which they have believed it their duty to meet your
sentiments, in which they have my approval. My particular admiration has
been aroused by seeing in all your letters and in all the impulses of
your heart so great a reliance on the lovable Providence of God that not
only has it permitted you not to have the least doubt that it would
abundantly provide the wherewithal for the support of all the works
which it has suggested to you, but that upon this basis, which is the
firm truth, you have had the courage to proceed to the execution of
them. It is true that my heart has long yearned for what you have
accomplished; but I have never had sufficient confidence or reliance to
undertake it. I always awaited the means _quæ pater posuit in suâ
potestate_. I hope that, since the Most Holy Family of our Lord has
suggested all these works to you, they will give you means and ways to
maintain what is so much to the glory of God and the welfare of souls.
But, according to all appearances, great difficulties will be found,
which will only serve to increase this confidence and trust in God." And
he ends with this prudent advice: "Whatever confidence God desires us to
have in His providence, it is certain that He demands from us the
observance of rules of prudence, not human and political, but Christian
and just."
He concerns himself even with the servants, and it is singular to note
that his mind, so apt to undertake and execute vast plans, possesses
none the less an astonishing sagacity and accuracy of observation in
petty details. One Valet, entrusted with the purveyance, had obtained
permission to wear the cassock. "Unless he be much changed in his
humour," writes Mgr. de Laval, "it would be well to send him back to
France; and I may even opine that, whatever change might appear in him,
he would be unfitted to administer a living, the basis of his character
being very rustic, gross, and displeasing, and unsuitable for
ecclesiastical functions, in which one is constantly obliged to converse
and deal with one's neighbours, both children and adults. Having given
him the cassock and having admitted him to the refectory, I hardly see
any other means of getting rid of him than to send him back to France."
In his correspondence with Saint-Vallier, Laval gives an account of the
various steps which he was taking at court to maintain the integrity of
the diocese of Quebec. This was, for a short time, at stake. The
Récollets, who had followed La Salle in his expeditions, were trying
with some chance of success to have the valley of the Mississippi and
Louisiana made an apostolic vicariate independent of Canada. Laval
finally gained his cause; the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Quebec
over all the countries of North America which belonged to France was
maintained, and later the Seminary of Quebec sent missionaries to
Louisiana and to the Mississippi.
But the most important questions, which formed the principal subject
both of his preoccupations and of his letters, are that of the
establishment of the Récollets in the Upper Town of Quebec, that of a
plan for a permanent mission at Baie St. Paul, and above all, that of
the tithes and the support of the priests. This last question brought
about between him and Mgr. de Saint-Vallier a most complete conflict of
views. Yet the differences of opinion between the two servants of God
never prevented them from esteeming each other highly. The following
letter does as much honour to him who wrote it as to him to whom such
homage is rendered: "The noble house of Laval from which he sprang,"
writes Mgr. de Saint-Vallier, "the right of primogeniture which he
renounced on entering upon the ecclesiastical career; the exemplary life
which he led in France before there was any thought of raising him to
the episcopacy; the assiduity with which he governed so long the Church
in Canada; the constancy and firmness which he showed in surmounting all
the obstacles which opposed on divers occasions the rectitude of his
intentions and the welfare of his dear flock; the care which he took of
the French colony and his efforts for the conversion of the savages; the
expeditions which he undertook several times in the interests of both;
the zeal which impelled him to return to France to seek a successor; his
disinterestedness and the humility which he manifested in offering and
in giving so willingly his frank resignation; finally, all the great
virtues which I see him practise every day in the seminary where I
sojourn with him, would well deserve here a most hearty eulogy, but his
modesty imposes silence upon me, and the veneration in which he is held
wherever he is known is praise more worthy than I could give him...."
Mgr. de Saint-Vallier left Quebec for France on November 18th, 1686,
only a few days after a fire which consumed the Convent of the
Ursulines; the poor nuns, who had not been able to snatch anything from
the flames, had to accept, until the re-construction of their convent,
the generous shelter offered them by the hospitable ladies of the
Hôtel-Dieu. Mgr. de Saint-Vallier did not disembark at the port of La
Rochelle until forty-five days after his departure, for this voyage was
one continuous storm.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] A right, belonging formerly to the kings of France, of enjoying the
revenues of vacant bishoprics.