In passing from these general statements regarding country and inhabitants, it is hard to say whether a place of greater prominence should be given to the government or to the Church. One should be careful not to represent the French Canadians of the 17th century as slaves—a tendency too current among English writers at the present day. The feudalism of New France was feudalism in its most miti gated form and the habitant winning a home for himself by courageous toil seems anything but a serf by instinct. Nevertheless French Canada was overshadowed by two institutions which visibly embodied authority as authority was not visibly_embodied in New England or New York. Whether or not paternalism was the bane of Canada is an open question to be answered by the historical student in accordance with his own scheme of philosophy. The broad fact is that the Crown and the Clergy divided between them an extremely large part of the world in which the habitant lived. From 1632 to 1663 the. affairs of Canada were controlled, under the Crown, by the Company of the Hun dred Associates. Had this corporation been better managed, or rather had it been actuated by a larger spirit, it might have gained for itself a distinguished reputation and eventually handed over to the King a flourishing possession; but looking only to the greatest immediate return it wasted a fine opportunity and does not merit comparison with either the East India Company (see EAST INDIA COMPANIES) or the. Hudson's Bay Company (q.v.). After 1663 executive power in Canada was deputed by the King to the governor and the intendant, with whom were associated the bishop and a board of coun cillors varying in number from 5 to 12. The who was always a noble, held the highest office in the colony though he did not possess so much real power as the intend ant. He commanded the forces, was the chan nel of diplomatic intercourse with the English and the Indians, occupied the central place in colonial society and was authorized to follow his ownjudgment regarding matters of emer gency. With finance, however, he had little or nothing to do, and from the whole field of civil administration he was excluded by the presence at his side of the intendant. This offithal be longed ordinarily to the middle class' and had been trained to law or business. The Crown seems to have acted on the maxim 'Divide and Rule?' Both governor and intendant were re quired to send home detailed reports which always included a large amount of criticism and gossip. The intendant passed judgment on the acts of the governor and. the governor was not slow to express his opinion concerning the administration of the intendant. Neither ceived untrammeled authority, for an autocratic King like Louis XIV insisted upon reserving the use of his prerogative. The government of New France was less rigid and cumbrous than that of the Spanish possessions under Philip II, but the principle of absolutism carried out at such a distance from the court could not fail to impair the efficiency of administration.
The position of the Church in New France cannot be properly described unless a reference is made to the dominating influence which con trolled Europe during the age of colonization. Seventeen years before Cartier's first voyage to the Saint Lawrence (1534) Luther had de nounced the sale of indulgences at Wittenberg. In the interval between Cartier's first voyage and his last (1541) the °Institutes* of Calvin (see CALVIN, JOHN) was becoming the founda tion of a Church and the Company of Jesus (see jEsurrs) was arising to stem the tide of heresy. Despite the wars of religion and the national exhaustion which they produced, re ligion was still the reigning issue in France when Champlain sailed westward to continue the work of Cartier. This may be seen chiefly in two ways: from the missionary zeal of the religious orders and from the anxiety of French Catholics that New France be kept untainted by Huguenot misbelief. With De Monts and Poutrincourt, Calvinism made its appearance at Port Royal and a little later it maintained itself for a while at Quebec under the protection of William and Emery de Caen, who did not carry out their promise to exclude heretics from the colony. But during the sway of Richelieu, the Huguenot cause perishes even more completely in Canada than in France, and a way is left clear for the unchecked ascendency of Rome. No one can read the religious literature of New France without recognizing the sincerity' of motive which brought Jesuits, Recollets, Sul picians, Ursulines to Quebec and Montreal. The savage races of America had excited the imagination of all Europe, and in France the desire was particularly strong to rescue these heathen from the doom of the unbaptized. The greatest nobles in the realm subscribed funds for the mission and acted as sponsors at the baptism of Micmac or Algonquin converts. First in importance among the religious orders of New France come the Jesuits, whose mis sionary tradition had been established more than half a century earlier by Saint Francis Xavier. Entering Acadia and Canada with a
record of brilliant success to give them con fidence, they prosecuted their labors among all the nations from the Iroquois to the Illinois and from the Ottawas to the Natchez. Their most heroic deeds of self-sacrifice are bound up with their mission to the Hurons (ending in 1649, when the power of the Hurons was destroyed by the Iroquois) and with their sion to the Iroquois covering the third quarter of the 17th century. It was always the' aim.
of the Jesuits to turn the Indians from the nomadic life to the arts of civilization. In this attempt they were but partially successful. Al though certain tribes of the Algonquin family yielded themselves willingly to the guidance of the missionaries, the total number of converts was far smaller in New France than in Para guay. During the first generation after the restoration of Canada to France the Jesuits published in Paris an annual account of the labors undertaken by members of their order among the American Indians. These 'Rela tions) (see JESUIT RELATIONS AND ALL/ED Docu mmtrrs, THE) are the best single source of information about the habits of the aborigines and also rank high in the list of our authorities for the history of Canada. Next to the Jesuits in order of prominence stand 'the Sulpicians, whose efforts centred chiefly in Montreal and the neighbriring district. The founding of Ville Marie de Montreal exemplifies in its purest form the mood of devotion that prompted Frenchmen to leave the civilization of Europe for a life of privation among the barbarous heathen of Canada. Here the colonizing im pulse proceeded solely from a desire to spread the faith. With Olier and Dauversiere, who founded 'the Society of Notre-Dame de Mon treal, there was no thought of gaining wealth through the fur trade. The charter of the So ciety 'expressly states that its members detach themselves from all regard to temporal interest and take for their one purpose the conversion of the natives. From 1642 to the dose of the century Montreal was an outpost of civiliza tion and Christianity, exposed to frightful dangers, as the exploit of Dollard (1660) and the Lachine Massacre (1689) testify, but de fended by men 'who cared more for religion than for life. In the relations of the Church with the habitants friction seldom arose. There is reason to believe that the Jesuits incurred some unpopularity because they did not favor the appointments of cures in the outlying dis tricts, but for the most part the attitude of the peasants toward the clergy was one of complete deference. Until 1665, when the Carignan Regi ment came to Canada, the social order presented many features of a theocracy. Religion was supported by the state and derived a stronger Support still from the energy of the religious. The prevalent mood was pietistic and publk opinion sanctioned the ecclesiastical punish ments which were called forth even by minor offenses against morals. Apart from Church festivals the routine of daily life at Quebec or Montreal made little provision for relaxation or entertainment. Taverns were under the ban, dancing parties were unknown and the general demeanor of sobriety would have met favor in the eyes of a New England Puritan. The coming of the Carignan Regiment broke in this religious Arcadia and proved an entering wedge for frivolity, but in the early days the temper of New France was deeply religious, if riot ascetic. One other aspect of ecclesiastical affairs deserves emphatic notice. While the clergy had to do with a docile population and were animated by pure enthusiasm in their work among the Indians, the religious life of the Colony was not free from friction. The Ricol lets, and after them the Sulpicians, felt their interests were threatened by the enmity of the Jesuits. The Jesuits in turn prevented the Abbe de Queylus, an able Sulpician, from being made bishop of Quebec, casting their in fluence in favor of Laval (see LAVAL-MONT MORENCY, FRANCIS XAVIER DE), who became the first titular bishop in New France. Laval, once appointed, quarreled with successive governors on different grounds — with Argenson (1661) on the question of precedence, and with Avau gour (1662) on the question of selling brandy to the Indians. The difficulty over precedence brought in the whole issue of Church and state; the quarrel over the brandy question was less lofty but more practical. The position of the Church was that brandy should not be sold to the savages under any circumstances. The general, though not the invariable, position of the government was that if the French did not sell brandy to the Indians the latter would buy rum from the Dutch and English. The Church as a whole and the habitants as a Arhole lived on excellent terms; but there was much fric tion between the religious orders, the coureurs de boil were a thorn in the side of the clergy, and a governor of secular tastes, like Frontenac, might keep up a running feud with the hierarchy foryears.