THE JESUITS IN CANADA.
The Reformation had made so large progress in France that at the
beginning of the seventeenth century the Protestants were able
to regard themselves as forming one-half of the nation. They had
accomplished this progress in the face of terrible difficulties. The
false maxim prevailed in France, as in other countries, that as there
was but one king and one government, there should be but one faith.
Vast efforts were made to regain this lost uniformity. The vain pursuit
cost France thirty-five years of civil war, and two million French
lives. At its close half her towns were in ashes; her industries
had perished; her fields were desolated. The law gave no protection
to Protestants: a Catholic noble riding with his followers past a
Protestant meeting-place occasionally paused to slaughter the little
congregation, and then resumed his journey, not doubting that he had
done to God and to the State an acceptable service. The Protestants
undertook their own armed defence; made laws for themselves; maintained
in so far as it was possible a government distinct from that of their
persecutors. There were two nations of not extremely unequal strength
living on the soil of France, with fierce mutual hatred raging in
their hearts, and finding expression in incessant war, assassination,
massacre. [Sidenote: 1598 A.D.] At length these horrors were allayed
by the Edict of Nantes, which conceded full liberty of conscience.
The Pope cursed this hateful concession; but the strong arm of Henry
IV. maintained it. For a time the ferocity of religious strife was
mitigated, and the adherents of the new faith enjoyed unwonted calm.
The sword was no longer a weapon of theological war; the deep and
irrepressible antagonism of the old and the new beliefs found
now its inadequate expression by pen and by speech. The interest
which prevailed regarding disputed ecclesiastical questions became
exceptionally strong. Theological dogmas filled an influential place
in the politics of the time. The Protestant Synod adopted in its
Confession of Faith an article which charged the Pope with being
Antichrist. His Holiness manifested “a grand irritation;” the King
declared that this article threatened to destroy the peace of the
kingdom. For four years a fierce contest raged, till another Synod
withdrew the offending article by express order of the King, after
having with unanimous voice declared that the charge was true.
Philippe de Mornay, one of the King’s most trusted advisers, and a
devoted adherent of Protestantism, had written a treatise against
the Real Presence, supporting his argument by five or six thousand
quotations, which he had laboriously gathered from the writings of the
early Fathers. One of the bishops impugned his accuracy, and Mornay
challenged him to a public discussion. The meeting-place was the grand
hall of the palace of Fontainebleau. The combatants debated in presence
of the King, before a brilliant audience of great officers of State, of
lords and ladies who formed the royal court, of all great dignitaries
of the kingdom. So effectively, for the time, had the Reformation and
its consequences dispelled the religious apathy of France.
It had, indeed, left unaffected the manners of a large portion of
French society. The great lords retained professional assassins among
their followers. It was as easy then to get the address of a stabber
or a poisoner as it is now to get that of a hotel. In the highest
places licentiousness was unconcealed and unrebuked. Crime associated
itself with superstition, and the courtiers made wax figures of their
enemies, which they transfixed with pins, hoping thus to destroy those
whom the figures represented. The religious zeal which burned in every
heart and retained its vigour amidst this enormous wickedness was
nowhere stronger than among the members of the Society of Jesus. It
moulded into very dissimilar forms, and guided into widely different
lines of action, those sworn servants of the Church. For the most
part it revealed itself in nothing higher than a readiness to serve
the purposes of the Church, however unworthy, by any conduct, however
criminal. But among the Jesuits too there were men of pure and noble
nature, whose religious zeal found its sole gratification in toil
and danger and self-sacrifice to promote the glory of God and save
perishing heathen souls.
Champlain had never ceased to press upon the spiritual chiefs of
France the claims of those savages for whose welfare he himself cared
so deeply. For many years he spoke almost in vain, and his toilsome
and frustrated career had nearly reached its close before the Jesuits
entered in good earnest upon the work of Indian conversion. [Sidenote:
1632 A.D.] Six priests and two lay-brothers, sworn to have no will but
that of their superiors, laid the foundation of the great enterprise.
Under the shadow of the rock on which Quebec stands arose a one-story
building of planks and mud, thatched with grass, and affording but poor
shelter from rain and wind. This was the residence of Our Lady of the
Angels--the cradle of the influence which was to change the savage red
men of Canada into followers of the Cross. The Father Superior of the
Mission was Paul le Jeune, a man devoted in every fibre of mind and
heart to the work on which he had come. He utterly scorned difficulty
and pain. He had received the order to depart for Canada “with
inexpressible joy at the prospect of a living or dying martyrdom.”
Among his companions was Jean de Brébœuf, a man noble in birth and
aspect, of strong intellect and will, of zeal which knew no limit, and
recognized no obstacle in the path of duty.
The winter was unusually severe. The snow-drift stood higher than the
roof of the humble Residence; the fathers, sitting by their log-fire,
heard the forest trees crack with loud report under the power of
intense frost. Le Jeune’s earliest care was to gain some knowledge of
the savage tongue spoken by the tribes around him. He was commended,
for the prosecution of that design, to a withered old squaw, who
regaled him with smoked eels while they conversed. After a time, he
obtained the services of an interpreter, a young Indian known as
Pierre, who could speak both languages. Pierre had been converted and
baptized; but the power of good influences within him was not abiding,
and his frequent backslidings grieved the Father Superior. A band
of savages invited Le Jeune to accompany them on a winter hunting
expedition; and he did so, moved by the hope that he might gain their
hearts as well as acquire their language. Among the supplies which
his friends persuaded him to carry, was a small keg of wine. Scarcely
had the expedition set out when the apostate Pierre found opportunity
to tap the keg, and appeared in the camp hopelessly and furiously
intoxicated. The sufferings of the good father from hunger and from
cold were excessive.[13] His success in instructing the savages was
not considerable. He endured much from Pierre’s brother, who followed
the occupation of sorcerer. This deceptive person, being employed to
assist Le Jeune in preparing addresses, constantly palmed off upon him
very foul words, which provoked the noisy mirth of the assembled wigwam
and grievously diminished the efficacy of his teaching. The missionary
regained his home at Quebec after five months of painful wandering.
He had accomplished little; but he had learned to believe that his
labour was wasted among these scanty wandering tribes, and that it
was necessary to find access to one of the larger and more stable
communities into which the Indians were divided.
Far in the west, beside a great lake of which the Jesuits had vaguely
heard, dwelt the Hurons, a powerful nation with many kindred tribes
over which they exercised influence. The Jesuits resolved to found a
mission among the Hurons. Once in every year a fleet of canoes came
down the great river, bearing six or seven hundred Huron warriors,
who visited Quebec to dispose of their furs, to gamble and to steal.
[Sidenote: 1634 A.D.] Brébœuf and two companions took passage with
the returning fleet, and set out for the dreary scene of their new
apostolate. The way was very long--scarcely less than a thousand miles;
it occupied thirty toilsome days. The priests journeyed separately,
and were able to hold no conversation with one another or with their
Indian companions. They were barefooted, as the use of shoes would
have endangered the frail bark canoe. Their food was a little Indian
corn crushed between two stones and mixed with water. At each of
the numerous rapids or falls which stopped their way, the voyagers
shouldered the canoe and the baggage and marched painfully through the
forest till they had passed the obstacle. The Indians were often spent
with fatigue, and Brébœuf feared that his strong frame would sink under
the excessive toil.
The Hurons received with hospitable welcome the black-robed strangers.
The priests were able to repay the kindness with services of high
value. They taught more effective methods of fortifying the town in
which they lived. They promised the help of a few French musketeers
against an impending attack by the Iroquois. They cured diseases; they
bound up wounds. They gave simple instruction to the young, and gained
the hearts of their pupils by gifts of beads and raisins. The elders
of the people came to have the faith explained to them: they readily
owned that it was a good faith for the French, but they could not be
persuaded that it was suitable for the red man. The fathers laboured
in hope, and the savages learned to love them. Their gentleness, their
courage, their disinterestedness, won respect and confidence, and they
had many invitations from chiefs of distant villages to come and live
with them. It was feared that the savages regarded them merely as
sorcerers of unusual power; and they were constantly applied to for
spells, now to give victory in battle, now to destroy grasshoppers.
They were held answerable for the weather; they had the credit or the
blame of what good or evil fortune befell the tribe. They laboured
in deep earnestness; for to them heaven and hell were very real, and
very near. The unseen world lay close around them, mingling at every
point with the affairs of earth. They were visited by angels; they were
withstood by manifest troops of demons. St. Joseph, their patron, held
occasional communication with them; even the Virgin herself did not
disdain to visit and cheer her servants. Once, as Brébœuf walked cast
down in spirit by threatened war, he saw in the sky, slowly advancing
towards the Huron territory, a huge cross, which told him of coming and
inevitable doom.
Some of their methods of conversion were exceedingly rude. A letter
from Father Garnier has been preserved in which pictures are ordered
from France for the spiritual improvement of the Indians. Many
representations of souls in perdition are required, with appropriate
accompaniment of flames and triumphant demons tearing them with
pincers. One picture of saved souls would suffice, and “a picture of
Christ without beard.”[14] They were consumed by a zeal for the baptism
of little children. At the outset the Indians welcomed this ceremonial,
believing that it was a charm to avert sickness and death. But when
epidemics wasted them they charged the calamity against the mysterious
operations of the fathers, and refused now to permit baptism. The
fathers recognized the hand of Satan in this prohibition, and refused
to submit to it. They baptized by stealth. A priest visited the hut
where a sick child lay--the mother watching lest he should perform the
fatal rite. He would give the child a little sugared water. Slyly and
unseen he dips his finger in the water, touches the poor wasted face,
mutters the sacramental words, and soon “the little savage is changed
into a little angel.”
The missionaries were subjected to hardship such as the human frame
could not long endure. They were men accustomed to the comforts and
refinements of civilized life; they had tasted the charms of French
society in its highest forms. Their associations now were with men
sunk till humanity could fall no lower. They followed the tribes in
their long winter wanderings in quest of food. They were in perils,
often from hunger, from cold, from sudden attack of enemies, from the
superstitious fears of those whom they sought to save. They slept on
the frozen ground, or, still worse, in a crowded tent, half suffocated
by smoke, deafened by noise, sickened by filth. Self-sacrifice more
absolute the world has never seen. A love of perishing heathen souls
was the impulse which animated them; a deep and solemn enthusiasm
upheld them under trials as great as humanity has ever endured.
That they were themselves the victims of erring religious belief is
most certain; but none the less do their sublime faith, their noble
devotedness, and patience and gentleness claim our admiration and our
love.
[Sidenote: 1640 A.D.] The Huron Mission had now been established for
five years. During those painful years the missionaries had laboured
with burning zeal and absolute forgetfulness of self; but they had not
achieved any considerable success. The children whom they baptized
either died or they grew up in heathenism. There were some adult
converts, one or two of whom were of high promise; but the majority
were eminently disappointing. Once the infant church suffered a
grievous rent by the withdrawal of converts who feared a heaven in
which, as they were informed, tobacco would be denied to them. The
manners of the nation had experienced no amelioration. No limitation
in the number of wives had been conceded to the earnest remonstrances
of the missionaries. Captive enemies were still tortured and eaten by
the assembled nation. In time, the patient, self-denying labour of the
fathers might have won those discouraging savages to the Cross; but
a fatal interruption was at hand. A powerful and relentless enemy,
bent on extermination, was about to sweep over the Huron territory,
involving the savages and their teachers in one common ruin.
Thirty-two years had passed since those ill-judged expeditions in
which Champlain had given help to the Hurons against the Iroquois. The
unforgiving savages had never forgotten the wrong. A new generation
inherited the feud, and was at length prepared to exact the fitting
vengeance. The Iroquois had trading relations with the Dutchmen of
Albany on the Hudson, who had supplied them with fire-arms. About
one-half of their warriors were now armed with muskets, and were able
to use them. [Sidenote: 1642 A.D.] They overran the country of the
Hurons; they infested the neighbourhood of the French settlements.
Boundless forests stretched all around; on the great river forest trees
on both sides dipped their branches in the stream. When Frenchmen
travelled in the woods for a little distance from their homes, they
were set upon by the lurking savages and often slain; when they
sailed on the river, hostile canoes shot out from ambush. No man now
could safely hunt or fish or till his ground. The Iroquois attacked
in overwhelming force the towns of their Huron enemies; forced the
inadequate defences; burned the palisades and wooden huts; slaughtered
with indescribable tortures the wretched inhabitants. In one of
these towns they found Brébœuf and one of his companions. They bound
the ill-fated missionaries to stakes; they hung around their necks
collars of red-hot iron; they poured boiling water on their heads;
they cut stripes of flesh from their quivering limbs and ate them in
their sight. To the last Brébœuf cheered with hopes of heaven the
native converts who shared his agony. And thus was gained the crown of
martyrdom for which, in the fervour of their enthusiasm, these good men
had long yearned.
In a few years the Huron nation was extinct; famine and small-pox
swept off those whom the Iroquois spared. The Huron Mission was closed
by the extirpation of the race for whom it was founded. Many of the
missionaries perished; some returned to France. Their labour seemed
to have been in vain; their years of toil and suffering had left
no trace. It was their design to change the savages of Canada into
good Catholics, industrious farmers, loyal subjects of France. If
they had been successful, Canada would have attracted a more copious
immigration, and a New France might have been solidly established on
the American continent. The feudal system would have cumbered the
earth for generations longer; Catholicism, the irreconcilable enemy to
freedom of thought and to human progress, would have overspread and
blighted the valley of the St. Lawrence. For once the fierce Iroquois
were the allies and vindicators of liberty. Their cruel arms gave a new
course to Canadian history. They frustrated plans whose success would
have wedded Northern America to despotism in Church and in State. They
prepared a way for the conquest of New France by the English, and thus
helped, influentially, to establish free institutions over those vast
regions which lie to the northward of the Great Lakes.