M. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN CANADA will be -treated in this article under three headings : 1. The Church under the French, from the discovery of Canada until the conquest by England (1534-1763) ; 2. The Church under the rule of Great Britain, from 1763 until the present day; 3. Present condi tion.
1. Before 1763.— Catholicism was planted in Canada by France, through whose sailors, Aui bert de Dieppe (1508), Verazzano (1522), and especially Jacques Cartier (1534), it was dis covered about the beginning of the 16th cen tury. Cartier penetrated the estuary of the Saint Lawrence (10 Aug. 1535), and took possession of the country in the name of King Francis L While endowing his fatherland with new countries, he proposed also to disseminate therein the Catholic faith, as related in the ac count of his travels inserted in the (Histoire de la Nouvelle France) by Marc Lescarbot (Paris 1609).
From Cartier to Champlain (1542-1608) a few attempts at colonial settlement in Acadia were succeeded by the foundation of Port Royal (now Annapolis, N. S.). There appeared the first missionaries, Jesuits and secular priests. Champlain visited Canada in 1603, and in 1608 founded the town of Quebec and settled there. In 1615 he invited Recollet Fathers from France, who became the first apostles to the Indians, and inaugurated those missions in the interior of Canada so famous during the 17th century, and in which the Jesuits (1625) and the Sulpicians (1657) soon took such a glorious part.
Two distinct and savage races, the quins and the Huron-Iroquois, inhabited the countries just opening up to missionary zeal. To the Algonquin race belonged the Abenakis, the Montagnais, the Attikamegues or Poissons Blanes, the Otawawas, and several other tribes scattered from Hudson' Bay to the western prairies. From the Huron-Iroquois source sprang two great branches: the Yendats or Hurons established between Lakes Huron, Erie, Saint Claire and Simcoe, and the Iroquois who dwelt south of Lake Ontario, and were divided into five nations: Mohawks, Onondagas, Sen ekas, Oneidas and Caiyoquos. It would appear that the total population of these tribes was not above 100,000 individuals.
The Recollets were the first to devote them selves to evangelization among the Indians.
Father d'Olbeau instructed the Montagnais; Father Le Caron penetrated deeply into the land of the Hurcins to carry them the true faith, while several fathers remained at Quebec preaching among the colonists and the sur rounding savages. During 10 years they multi plied their travels, their preachings, opened schools for Indian children, called to their as sistance new recruits, and among them Father Viel, perished in the Ottawa River, victim of the perfidy of a Huron. Consult Sagard, F., (Histoire du Canada' (Paris 1686) ; Beaubien, Ch., 'Histoire du Sault-au-Recollet) (Montreal 1897). Unable to fill the wants of the missions alone, the Recollets called upon the Jesuits (1625), and on their invitation Fathers Brebeuf and Lalemant with other missionaries came to Canada. Their efforts for the conversion of the savages were not attended with the success hoped for, owing to the opposition of the Com pany of Merchants, to whom the French King had conceded the monopoly of traffic in these regions, on the condition of founding a colony. Louis XIII and Richelieu replaced them (1627) by the Company of New France who engaged to lead "the people inhabiting Canada to the knowledge of God, and to instruct them in the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion.) There was no time to see the effects of these good intentions, for less than two years later (1629), Quebec and the colony fell into the power of David who fought on the side of England. The missionaries and their helpers were obliged to return to France.
When Canada was returned to France by the Treaty of Saint German-en-Laye (1632), the Jesuits at the request of Cardinal de Riche lieu again took up their missions. Father Lejeune organized religious service at Quebec and opened the college of that town (1635), then he plunged into the interior in search of the wandering tribes of Montagnais. Others established a mission at Miscou, and from there branched forth into the peninsula of Gaspe, into Acadia and Cape Breton. Trois Riviires and Tadousac on the banks of the Saint Lawrence became centres of evangelization. Consult 'Les Jesuites et La Nouvelle France au XVIIe slide,' par le Pere de la Rochemontaix, S. J. (Paris 1895).