1688-1698
SOCIAL, CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS PROGRESS
THE PICKET ENCLOSURE--FORTIFICATIONS STRENGTHENED--GARRISON
JEALOUSIES--PRESEANCE--THE "CONGREGATION" BURNT DOWN--A POOR
LAW BOARD--TO QUEBEC ON FOOT--THE CHURCH OF THE "CONGREGATION"
ON FIRE--THE ENCLOSING OF A RECLUSE--THE JESUIT RESIDENCE--THE
RECOLLECTS--THE "PRIE DIEU" INCIDENT--MGR. DE ST. VALLIER'S
BENEFACTIONS--THE FRERES CHARON--FIRST GENERAL HOSPITAL--TECHNICAL
EDUCATION--THE SEMINARY BEING BUILT--SULPICIAN ADMINISTRATION--THE
MARKET PLACE. NOTE: THE GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY.
The last chapter has treated of Montreal as the base of many military
operations under Frontenac and Callières and has followed the history
of some of its celebrated citizens. We must now survey the town at
closer range. As said, the inhabitants were virtually confined to the
picket enclosure, constructed by de Callières in 1687, yet the king
did not approve of enclosing Montreal with fortifications, thinking
that this expense would be better employed by strengthening the forts
in the West. (Vide mémoire du Roi à M. de Denonville et à Champigny,
Mars 5, 1688.) It is not till May 8, 1694, that the minister wrote to
de Callières saying he might repair the palisades.[151] In the garrison
petty jealousies and struggles for precedence were being maintained.
By an ordinance of Intendant Champigny of June 10, 1688, confirming
a previous one, it was decided that the officers of justice should
hold _préséance_ over the church wardens, both without and within the
church, such as the first places in receiving the _pain bénit_ and
the offertories on Sundays, the receiving of tapers on Candle-Mass
day and palms on Palm Sunday. The time was one of unsettlement and
of terrorized conditions, yet the religious communities were growing
stronger. In 1683 the home of the congregation founded by Marguerite
Bourgeoys had been burned down. Writing to the minister, Denonville
says: "They have lost everything. It would be necessary for them to
build, but they have not a penny to begin with." Yet they started
again, for, says Sister Juchereau in her "Histoire de Quebec:" "They
were so full of confidence in God, they began to build with only
forty _sous_ in their possession." Sister Morin, the historian of
the Hôtel-Dieu says: "After their second house, a stone one, had
been destroyed by fire, the Congregation nuns built a convent on the
site they still occupy; their house touches our enclosure, making us
neighbours; the house is large and spacious, and one of the best built
in town."
Monseigneur de St. Vallier, having seen the nuns some time after the
fire, remarks: "How they subsisted, since the accident befell them
three or four years ago, is truly a marvel. Their entire house was
burned in one night; they saved neither their furniture nor their
wardrobes, happy enough in this that they were themselves rescued; even
then two of their number perished in the flames. The courage of the
survivors bore them up in their extreme poverty." Again he wrote to
the minister of marine in this same year of a group of grown-up girls
to the number of twenty, called the Daughters of Providence, who were
trained and prepared for work by Sister Bourgeoys. He recommended that
a gratuity should be given them to undertake some manufacture.
In 1688 their mission of free and popular education was extended by
Marguerite Bourgeoys' trained workers to Quebec, at the invitation of
St. Vallier, who had bought a house with a yard and garden on November
13, 1686, as the initial step of a foundation and in 1688 the free
schools were opened for the smaller girls.
Those concerned with the history of the birth of philanthropic agencies
in city life will find of interest a decree of the Supreme Council
of Thursday, April 18, 1688, ordering a "Bureau des Pauvres," a Poor
Law Board, to be established in the towns of Quebec, Montreal and
Three Rivers, and other parishes dependent on them, and also in the
country parishes. The object was to discriminate between the honest
poor and the lazy shirkers and the ne'er-do-wells of the period. The
lengthy decree gives elaborate instructions for this purpose and
would delight modern charity organizers. It insists that work should
be carried on by the poor applying for relief. The directors should
be the curé; an executive director of the poor, to do the research
work by investigating into the real state and cause of the poverty
and to find work and to supervise the hiring of the poor and fixing
the remuneration; a third was to be the treasurer, who should keep
account of all the revenues coming from church collections, or public
canvasses for money or gifts in kind; a fourth should be the secretary,
who should keep the records and lists of those applying to the bureau
for assistance. These directors were to be on an equal footing, the
secretary to count their votes and the decisions to be signed by all
the directors present, two to form a _quorum_.
There does not seem to be any grant from the government for the support
of this voluntary charity organization society established by order
of the council, Christian charity and alms giving being, seemingly,
considered to suffice in providing its funds. The directors could,
according to circumstances, chastise the poor by imprisonment in the
dungeon on a bread and water diet, or by retrenchment on their victuals
for a time, according to the enlightenment of the said directors, to
whom the council, under the good pleasure of His Majesty, gives the
power for the case required. Prohibitions were also issued to all
the poor and necessitous against begging under any pretext whatever,
on pain of such punishment as should be adjudged by the council.
The directors were to put themselves in touch with the procurator
general or his substitutes in each jurisdiction. Thus the volunteer
and official sides of civic philanthropy were brought together--an
admirable combination to be more widely imitated these days.
In order to start the new bureau, the council chose directors from out
of its own members, appointing as the first _directeur des pauvres_ the
procurator general of the king, François Madaleine Ruette d'Auteuil;
for the post of treasurer Paul Dupuy, his substitute on the _prévôté_;
and for secretary the clerk of the Supreme Council, Jean Baptiste
Peuvret de Mesnu.
Though admirably mapped out the organization of the Bureaux des Pauvres
in Quebec, Three Rivers and Montreal, ordered by the Sovereign Council
in 1688, appears to have grown weak shortly. Ten years later, in
1698, as the zeal of the citizens needed new inspiration, the order
was renewed and the Rev. Father Leblanc, a Jesuit, was charged by the
bishop of the diocese of Quebec, Mgr. de St. Valier, to preach in the
towns the reorganization of the bureaux. He came for this object to
Montreal on June 1, 1698. In consequence of his sermon two days later
a meeting of the most notable citizens met in one of the halls of the
seminary to form a bureau composed of priests and lay people. Its
business was to place poor children as apprentices to learn a trade,
to put the sick poor into hospitals or to place them with relations in
easier circumstances, to distribute wheat, bread, boots and merchandise
to the poor. The voluntary contributions necessitated a house-to-house
canvass, which was started in June by Madame de Maricour, the
Mademoiselles de Repentigny, and followed in December by Madame
Jucherau de St. Denis and Madame d'Argenteuil. The ladies kept to the
town and immediate suburbs while the men collected in the outlying
districts.
In 1689 St. Vallier called Sister Bourgeoys to Quebec to execute a
project, by him, of the establishment of a home where the poor could
be usefully employed in work. It was early spring; the shifting ice on
the river would not allow a vehicle on the St. Lawrence; there were
no roads to Quebec for carriages, and the aged woman, now sixty-nine
years of age, traveled the whole distance of 180 miles, thither, on
foot through the slushy snow of the woods and across melting ice-bound
streams. Arriving at Quebec, she found that the bishop had changed his
mind and he asked her to undertake a "General Hospital," instead of the
more humble House of Providence originally contemplated. This hospital
her companions directed till it was transferred to the Hospitalières de
St. Joseph in 1692.
In 1693 the "Congregation" started to build a church in their own
grounds with the help of Jeanne LeBer, who offered to share the
expenses, and of her brother, Pierre LeBer, who promised to furnish
all the stone required. It was finished in February, 1695. "During the
night of the 24th of February," says one of the latest historians of
the congregation,[152] "a lurid flame leaped up in the steeple of the
Hôtel-Dieu church. Fiercely it blazed, until the pealing of alarm bells
roused the townspeople and brought them, half dressed, into the ruddily
illuminated streets. As the tumult of a terrified crowd filled the air,
and the red signal of destruction spread over the sky, a panic seized
on many hearts. Each man looked on the white face of his neighbour,
ghastly in the fire's glare, and there read the same question, 'Will
the town be saved?' Then it was that Dollier de Casson, followed by
the priests from the Seminary, came to the place of danger, bearing
the Blessed Sacrament. A passionate prayer went up, 'Lord, save us,
have mercy on us.' The wind veered suddenly, and carried the roaring
flame away from the town. At that manifestation of Divine clemency, a
mighty shout of thanksgiving rent the air. But the maddened element
had to find some fuel. A moment later, the hospital itself was a mass
of flames and smoke. Père Denys, a Récollet, went fearlessly into the
burning church, took out the Blessed Sacrament and carried it, at
first, to the house of a certain merchant named Arnaud." At dawn of
day it found its home in the new church. Later in the day the homeless
Hôtel-Dieu Sisters were brought to the house of the congregation by
Dollier de Casson, and there they lived and worshipped side by side
with the Daughters of Marguerite Bourgeoys, thus carrying on the
friendship begun between Jeanne Mance and Marguerite, the two founders.
A solemn spiritual alliance was drawn up by the two communities, "to
love one another," and years have not severed this friendship.
This new church, the original Notre Dame de Pitié, witnessed, on
August 5th of 1695, a curious and reverent ceremony--the enclosing
of a recluse in a little room behind the altar. This was none other
than Jeanne LeBer, the daughter of the rich trader, Jacques LeBer, of
Montreal, who was a brother of Jean LeBer du Chesne, wounded mortally
at Prairie la Madeleine. She was now in her thirty-third year, being
born on January 4, 1662. After her school days at Quebec were ended in
1677, she led an austere life--practically that of an enclosed nun, in
her own home--scarcely seeing anyone, not even her parents--and this
with her parents' permission. This craving for solitude is hard to
understand for moderns, and we tell the story to give an indication of
the intense religious faith of those days. _Autre temps, autres moeurs._
In 1693 Jeanne LeBer promised to build the church, as said, if she
were to be received as a sister of the congregation and allowed a cell
behind the altar. "She wished the church to be as near as possible a
reproduction of the holy house of Nazareth, oblong in shape, with the
altar placed in the most conspicuous part, between the doors opening
right and left. Her apartment, behind the altar, was to be about ten or
twelve feet in depth, consisting of three stories. The first was to be
a vestry; the second and third reserved for her use."
[Illustration: MADAME LEBER]
"On the evening of August 5th, solemn vespers were chanted in the
parish church, after which a procession was formed, headed by the
clergy. It wended its way to M. LeBer's house, where Jeanne was
absorbed in prayer. She wore a woolen gown of light grey, confined to
the waist by a black belt. Quitting forever the home of her childhood,
breaking asunder the last and closest ties that bound her to earth,
she followed the clergy accompanied by her father and several other
relatives. It was a striking scene. Along the crowded street they
passed: the recluse, clad in penitential garb, with downcast eyes,
quiet bearing and firm step; and the white-haired man, bowed down by
age and sorrow, who seemed, like Abraham and Jeptha, to be leading
the victim to sacrifice. Scarce had the procession reached the church
before Jacques LeBer, no longer master of his anguish, turned back and
went to hide his grief in the now deserted home.[153]
"Dollier de Casson blessed the cell, and as she knelt before him,
exhorted Jeanne LeBer to persevere therein like Magdalen in the Grotto.
He then led her to the threshold and she calmly passed into her new
abode, closing and fastening the door while the choir chanted the
litany of the Blessed Virgin. The following morning, Feast of the
Transfiguration, Dollier de Casson celebrated mass for the first time
in the Congregation Church. Among the faithful knelt M. LeBer, strong
in his heroic resignation."[154] She lived in that cell for nineteen
years, until her death in October, 1714.
Between 1692 and 1694 another block of buildings, consisting of a
residence and flanked by a public church and a private chapel, was
being erected by the Jesuits, now returning. Its site is today covered
by a portion of the city hall and the Court of Justice of Notre Dame
Street, facing Jacques Cartier Square. These buildings of the Jesuits
were destroyed by fire in 1803.[155]
We have to take notice of a new community that is now arising. It
is that of the Recollects, so long absent from the neighbourhood of
Montreal. The letters patent of the king confirming their permission
to continue their establishments at Quebec, Montreal, Plaisance
(Newfoundland) and the Isle of St. Peter, and to extend them to other
places with the consent of the governor, were issued from Versailles
in March, 1692. By 1694 they had their church built, and this, with
their monastery and farm, occupied the large space now covered by Notre
Dame Street from St. Peter to McGill streets and extending south. The
street called Recollect today marks their home, and between this and
the corner of McGill and Notre Dame streets was the western gate of the
city, known as that of the "Recollects."
[Illustration: CHURCH OF THE RECOLLETS]
A ridiculous event occurred in this church in 1694, which is recorded
as the "_prie dieu_ incident," and which caused a certain amount of
taking of sides and dissension and scandal at Montreal and Quebec,
and was the subject of dispatches to France; it illustrates how very
human men were at this time. M. De Callières, the governor of Montreal,
was present with all the _élite_ of Montreal, at the ceremony of
the initiation of two Recollect novices into the order and he was
kneeling at a _prie dieu_, or kneeling desk, in the middle of the
church, "near the altar," in the place of honour. Mgr. de St. Vallier,
who was present, notified him--"in a low voice," says the Intendant
Champigny, who was present--that such a position was reserved for the
governor general and too honourable for a local governor and requested
him to relinguish it, otherwise he would leave the church and take no
further part in the ceremony. "It is my right," said the obstinate de
Callières, who retook the _prie dieu_, and the prelate withdrew so as
not to create a public scandal. Before the entrance of de Callières
the bishop had already noticed the position of the _prie dieu_ and
ordered the Récollets to remove it, but, although they obeyed, two of
de Callières' officers and a soldier replaced it, and it was allowed to
remain. Next day the bishop wrote to the superior to have the obnoxious
_prie dieu_ removed, as with his own, until the governor general came.
The superior "reluctantly" obeyed, but de Callières had his taken
back. On the refusal of the superior to have it again removed, the
bishop interdicted the church on May 13, 1694, forbidding the use of
the church for any ceremonies or the administration of the Sacraments,
"until His Majesty's intentions were learned." This was followed on
July 6th, by a further monition and was later followed by two others
full of more serious charges against de Callières and the superior of
the Recollects.[156]
The orders were obeyed for two months by the Recollects and then,
influenced by the government party, with whom they were popular, and
refusing to obey any longer, they opened their church again with
public ceremonies more solemn than before, urging that the form of
interdict was null. The disagreement went before the Sovereign Council
at Quebec, whiceclared that the bishop had gone beyond his powers,
and that with regard to the further charges against de Callières, he
had acted without collecting sufficient information. It decided to
refer the decision to His Majesty. On the 13th of June, 1695, the
case was called to the notice of the privy council to be settled. At
the same meeting the several other subsequent interdicts, for use of
the Sacraments, issued by the bishop were discussed, as well as the
Tartuffe interdict, which was against Mareuil, a half-pay officer, who
La Motte-Cardillac--himself no lover of the clergy--owns was not an
exemplary character, indeed he had been two years before accused of
using language capable of making heaven blush. This man was reported to
be cast to play the part of Tartuffe in Molière's play, in Frontenac's
private theatricals at Quebec--it being thought that this was meant to
be a scurrilous skit on the clergy and in revenge on the bishop for
the Montreal affair. Mareuil and his friends insulted the bishop and
Mareuil was ordered to prison. The council, however, decided that the
bishop had not gone beyond his legitimate sphere in his mandate against
the "Tartuffe" performance. Many clerics and laymen asked for Mgr. de
St. Vallier's recall. Even Laval in his retirement expressed himself
strongly on his successor, who had gone to France to defend himself
against his enemies, and did not return for three years. After that he
lived in peace with de Callières and de Frontenac.
The above calm description of the scene is that following the Intendant
Champigny's account to the minister on October 27, 1694, and "le
mémoire pour M. l'Evêque de Québec concernant l'interdit prononcé
contre les Récollets de Ville Marie, 1694." La Motte-Cardillac's
bantering account, which is splenetic and bitter, must be read with
caution, as he never shows any mercy to the clerics, whom he whips with
fine scorn for what we should call their "Puritanism." Witness has oft
quoted attack on their condemnation of plays.
Parkman, commenting on these troubles of the austere and overzealous
bishop, says: "An adjustment was effected: order, if not harmony, was
restored; and the usual distribution of advice, exhortation, reproof
and menace was made to the parties in the strife. Frontenac was
commended for defending the royal prerogative, censured for violence
and admonished to avoid future quarrels.... Callières was mildly
advised not to take part in the disputes of the bishop and the
Recollects. Thus was conjured down one of the most bitter, as well as
the most needless, trivial and untimely of the quarrels that enliven
the annals of New France," ("Frontenac," p. 333.) Parkman tries to make
out a case, that "Tartuffe" was never meant to be acted and that it was
an elaborate joke on the part of Frontenac to frighten and annoy the
bishop. He does not succeed.
The unfortunate Mgr. de St. Vallier deserves not to be forgotten
at Montreal. He was most liberal with his private fortune, having
expended over 600,000 _livres_, of which 20,000 went to the Seminary
of Montreal. This side of his character has not been sufficiently
recognized. We have seen his interest in the establishment of the
Montreal schools; we have now to record his approval of the first
general hospital at Montreal, initiated by the Frères Charron or the
Hospitaliers of St. Joseph de la Croix. In 1692, on August 31, he wrote
to Frontenac and Champigny informing them of his intention to allow the
establishment of a hospital at Montreal following the authorization
and letters patent which he had already received from His Majesty. Its
object was to cope with the increased needs of the poor and sick of
the growing town. "In 1692," says Ferland, t. I-II, p. 267, "the Sieur
François Charron offered his fortune, which was considerable, for the
foundation of a general hospital.... Several persons, animated with the
same spirit, joined him, consecrated their wealth to the good work and
devoted themselves to the services of the poor.... On the request of
the Bishop of Quebec, the Governor and the Intendant, the King approved
in 1694 of this institution, which received the name of the 'Frères
Hospitaliers de St. Joseph de la Croix.'"[157]
Montreal is noted for its citizen charities. This may be reckoned one
of its first. In 1699 (May 30th) this hospital had letters patent to
establish manual instruction in trades and in arts. Later, in 1699, in
their collective letter of October 20th, addressed to the minister,
Callières and Champigny speak in high terms of this establishment. "A
house which will be very useful to the colony is that of the hospital
brothers established at Montreal. It has not yet cost the King or
country anything. However, it has done much good work. It has a hall
filled with the poor. They have commenced to draw here some persons
of distinction, of reduced and necessitous circumstances. They have
private rooms which are well looked after.... His Majesty is prayed to
accord them the exemption of duty on three tuns of _eau de vie_ and six
tuns of wine.... If His Majesty would have the goodness to add 1,000
_livres_ to aid them more easily to establish the _manufactures_ which
they have commenced, this will procure a great advantage to them and
the colony, because they will attract a number of poor young people to
receive employment." (Arch, Col. Canada Corresp. Gen., Vol. 17, fol.
3-17.)
This may be considered the first attempt at technical education
in Montreal and the origin of the "écoles des arts et métiers."
Unfortunately this establishment fell upon evil days in later days
and it was replaced by the Grey Sisters, who were founded by Madame
de Youville in 1748, to administer the General Hospital as shall be
told in its place. The site for the hospital was granted by Dollier de
Casson near Windmill Point, on the spot where the lately demolished
Grey Nuns' building stood. Its nine _arpents_ (acres) thus covered the
property adjoining the lower part of the present St. Peter Street, east
and west.
A glance around the town in the latter years of Frontenac's rule will
see the Sulpician Seigneurs consolidating their work, ministering to
the parishes on the island, providing chaplains to the Hôtel-Dieu and
the Congregation of Notre-Dame and instructing the Indians of the
mountain settlement and making good Frenchmen of their dark charges,
of whom there were 222 dwelling in their thirty-two _cabanes_.[158]
Meanwhile their seminary was being built, its foundations being laid
in 1685; it was not, however, completed till 1712. It was doing for
education in a smaller degree what the seminary was accomplishing at
Quebec.
[Illustration: GROUND PLAN OF THE SEMINARY OF MONTREAL]
[Illustration: SEMINARY OF MONTREAL
Residence seigneuriale and curiate of the Gentleman of the Seminary.
The erection of this residence dates from 1684. The principal side
of the building faces partly on Notre Dame Street and Place d'Armes
Square. It is ornamented by a clock (supposed to be the oldest in North
America), which is regulated by a chronometer and kept perfect time.
The building measures 178 feet front by 84 in depth.]
In the meantime the Sulpicians administered the island as its
seigneurs, though their duties as judges were gradually being
undertaken by the king's officers. By order of the king, March 15,
1693, "Royal Justice" was established; a "juge royal" was appointed
in the person of Jean Baptiste Migeon de Branssat, the nominee of
the seminary, and chosen as a mark of respect to the seigneurs. Four
_procureurs postulants_ with minor officers were also appointed by
the king to administer justice but there was still reserved to the
seigneurs within their enclosures of the seminary and the St. Gabriel
Farm the privileges of _haute, moyenne et basse_ justice. Nine years
later this decree was explained by an order of July, 1714, as not
meant to take away _basse_ justice from the ecclesiastics in the Isle
of Montreal; in addition it explained that in future they shall have
the same privilege in the newly established Côte St. Sulpice, the
Iles Courcelles and their other dependencies. This was to allow the
ecclesiastical seigneurs to create inferior judges for the recovery of
debts, _cens_ and _rentes_, fines, _lods_ and _ventes_, and all the
other rights and duties of feudal seigneurs, apart from the rights
relinquished as above noted.
The market place was busy and prosperous. Owing to the great number of
skins, the king, by a declaration of May 21, 1696, determined to limit
the number of permissions to trade with the Indians and gave order to
have delinquents condemned to the galleys. The number of beaver skins
now being taken to France exceeded the demand and to avoid too large a
quantity of inferior skins being sent, he gave orders that skins should
not be sold outside of the public market. About this time, there was
a general recall of officers, soldiers and _coureurs de bois_, and a
great desire to concentrate the people in the chief settlements and to
encourage the Indians to bring their peltries to Montreal.
The market place no doubt saw some strange sights. About 1695, in the
official record sent home to France, "Relation of the most remarkable
things," in that year, we are told that Frontenac once invited a band
of Ottawas who came to trade at Montreal to roast an Iroquois "newly
caught by the soldiers," but as they had hamstrung him to prevent his
escape he bled to death before the torture began. Next spring Callières
abandoned four Iroquois to be burned by the soldiers, _habitants_ and
Indian allies, in reprisal for the similar fate that befell two of the
Sault Indians at Michillimackinac. (Callières to the minister, October
20, 1696.) This now seems cruel, but at the time it appeared necessary
to thus impress the Iroquois with "the fear of the Lord." It was done
all over the country and thought righteous. La Motte-Cardillac, writing
on August 5, 1695, says: "If any more prisoners are brought me, I
promise you that their fate will be no sweeter."
NOTE
THE GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY
The early superiors of the seminary before the canonical erection of
the parish were: M. Gabriel de Thubières de Lévis de Queylus, July 29,
1657, to October 22, 1661; M. Gabriel Souart, October 22, 1661, to
autumn, 1668; M. Gabriel de Queylus, autumn, 1668, to autumn, 1671; M.
François Dollier de Casson, autumn, 1671, to autumn, 1674; M. Gabriel
Souart, autumn, 1674, to autumn, 1676; M. François Lefebre, autumn,
1676, to autumn, 1678.
Missionary curés: M. Gabriel Souart, September 3, 1657, to November 11,
1666; M. Giles Pérot, November 23, 1666, to October 30, 1678.
First titular curé as superior of the seminary (after the canonical
erection of the parish, on October 28, 1678): M. François Dollier de
Casson, October 30, 1678, to September 27, 1701.
Curés d'office (actual parish priests): M. Giles Pérot, October 30,
1678, to July 17, 1680; M. Pierre Rémy, July 17, 1680, to November 4,
1680; M. Jean Frémont, November 9, 1680, to October 5, 1682; M. Etienne
Guyotte, October 10, 1692, to October 5, 1693; M. Jean Frémont, October
9, 1693, to June 17, 1694; M. Michel Caille, June 17, 1694, to October
29, 1696; M. René de Breslay, November 3, 1696, to September 27, 1701.
Second titular curé as superior of the seminary: François Vachon de
Belmont, September 28, 1701, to May 22, 1732.
Curés d'office: M. de Breslay (continued), September 28, 1701, to
November 19, 1703; M. Yves Priat, November 20, 1703, to April 26, 1717;
M. Jentien Rangeard, June 2, 1717, to July 9, 1721; M. Benoit Baret,
July 22, 1721, to October 22, 1721; M. Yves Priat, October 28, 1721, to
August 8, 1725; M. Jn. Gab. Marie Le Pape du Lescöat, August 12, 1725,
to February 11, 1730; M. Antoine Deat, February 20, 1730, to May 22,
1732.
Third titular curé as superior of the seminary: M. Louis Normant, May
25, 1732, to June 18, 1759.
Curé d'office: M. Antoine Deat (continued). May 25, 1732, to June, 1759.
Fourth titular curé as superior of the seminary: M. Etienne
Montgolfier, June 21, 1759, to August 27, 1791.
Curé d'office: M. Antoine Deat (continued), June 21, 1759, to September
3, 1760.
FOOTNOTES:
[151] This tardiness in city planning and city improvement seems to be
one of the heritages of the Montreal of today.
[152] Marguerite Mary Drummond--1906--"The Venerable Marguerite
Bourgeoys."
[153] Madame LeBer had died on November 8, 1682.
[154] "The Venerable Marguerite Bourgeoys," by Marguerite Mary
Drummond, 1906.
[155] Superiors of the Jesuits of Montreal from 1692-1789; François
Vaillant, Jacques Lamberville, Claude Chauchetière, Pierre Cholenec,
François Vaillant, Pierre LaGrenée, Louis d'Avaugour, Jacques d'Heu, J.
B. Saint Pé, René Hoquet. Father J. B. Well, the last Montreal Jesuit,
died in 1791.
[156] This angered de Callières so much that he had a "writing
injurious to Mgr. l'Evêque" affixed to the church door, says the
"mémoire pour l'Evêque," and had it published with the roll of the drum.
[157] The ordonnance of April 15, 1694, reveals the broad character
of this "General" Hospital. Its charter authorized it to look after
"poor children, orphans, cripples, aged men, the sick and needy of
the same sex, to be lodged and boarded and assisted by them and their
successors, in their needs; to occupy them in works suitable to
them; to teach trades to the said children and to give them the best
education that is possible, and all for the great glory of God and for
the good and utility of the colony."
[158] Etat présent de l'église by Bishop St. Vallier.