France and England in North America, Part V: Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIVParkman, Francis
History
France and England in North America, Part V: Count Frontenac, New France, Louis XIV
Parkman, Francis
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Frontenac, Louis de Buade, comte de, 1620-1698
These proceedings consumed the spring, the summer, and a part of the
autumn. Meanwhile, an access of zeal appeared to seize the bishop; and
he launched interdictions to the right and left. Even Champigny was
startled when he refused the sacraments to all but four or five of the
military officers for alleged tampering with the pay of their soldiers,
a matter wholly within the province of the temporal authorities. [18]
During a recess of the council, he set out on a pastoral tour, and,
arriving at Three Rivers, excommunicated an officer named Desjordis for
a reputed intrigue with the wife of another officer. He next repaired to
Sorel, and, being there on a Sunday, was told that two officers had
neglected to go to mass. He wrote to Frontenac, complaining of the
offence. Frontenac sent for the culprits, and rebuked them; but
retracted his words when they proved by several witnesses that they had
been duly present at the rite. [19] The bishop then went up to Montreal,
and discord went with him.
[18] Champigny au Ministre, 24 Oct., 1694. Trouble on this matter had
begun some time before. Mémoire du Roy pour Frontenac et Champigny,
1694; Le Ministre à l'Évêque, 8 Mai, 1694.
[19] La Motte-Cadillac à------, 28 Sept., 1694; Champigny au Ministre,
27 Oct., 1694.
Except Frontenac alone, Callières, the local governor, was the man in
all Canada to whom the country owed most; but, like his chief, he was a
friend of the Récollets, and this did not commend him to the bishop. The
friars were about to receive two novices into their order, and they
invited the bishop to officiate at the ceremony. Callières was also
present, kneeling at a prie-dieu, or prayer-desk, near the middle of the
church. Saint-Vallier, having just said mass, was seating himself in his
arm-chair, close to the altar, when he saw Callières at the prie-dieu,
with the position of which he had already found fault as being too
honorable for a subordinate governor. He now rose, approached the object
of his disapproval, and said, "Monsieur, you are taking a place which
belongs only to Monsieur de Frontenac." Callières replied that the place
was that which properly belonged to him. The bishop rejoined that, if he
did not leave it, he himself would leave the church. "You can do as you
please," said Callières; and the prelate withdrew abruptly through the
sacristy, refusing any farther part in the ceremony. [20] When the
services were over, he ordered the friars to remove the obnoxious
prie-dieu. They obeyed; but an officer of Callières replaced it, and,
unwilling to offend him, they allowed it to remain. On this, the bishop
laid their church under an interdict; that is, he closed it against the
celebration of all the rites of religion. [21] He then issued a pastoral
mandate, in which he charged Father Joseph Denys, their superior, with
offences which he "dared not name for fear of making the paper blush."
[22] His tongue was less bashful than his pen; and he gave out publicly
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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