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CERTAIN great men pass through the world like
meteors; their brilliance, lightning-like at their first appearance,
continues to cast a dazzling gleam across the centuries: such were
Alexander the Great, Mozart, Shakespeare and Napoleon. Others, on
the contrary, do not instantly command the admiration of the masses;
it is necessary, in order that their transcendent merit should
appear, either that the veil which covered their actions should be
gradually lifted, or that, some fine day, and often after their
death, the results of their work should shine forth suddenly to the
eyes of men and prove their genius: such were Socrates,
Themistocles, Jacquard, Copernicus, and Christopher Columbus.
The illustrious ecclesiastic who has given his
name to our French-Canadian university, respected as he was by his
contemporaries, has been esteemed at his proper value only by
posterity. The reason is easy to understand: a colony still in its
infancy is subject to many fluctuations before all the wheels of
government move smoothly, and Mgr. de Laval, obliged to face ever
renewed conflicts
of
authority, had necessarily either to abandon what
he considered it his duty to support, or create
malcontents. If sometimes he carried persistence to the verge of
obstinacy, he must be judged in relation to the period in which he
lived: governors like Frontenac were only too anxious to imitate
their absolute master, whose guiding maxim was, "lam the state 1"
Moreover, where are the men of true worth who have not found upon
their path the poisoned fruits of hatred ? The so-called praise that
is sometimes applied to a man, when we say of him, " he has not a
single enemy," seems to us, on the contrary, a certificate of
insignificance and obscurity. The figure of this great servant of
God is one of those which shed the most glory on the history of
Canada; the age of Louis XIV, so marvellous in the number of great
men which it gave to France, lavished them also upon her daughter of
the new continent—Brdbeuf and Lalemant, de Maisonneuve, Dollard,
Laval, Talon, de la Salle, Frontenac, d'berville, de Maricourt, de
Sainte-Helene, and many others.
"Noble as a Montmorency " says a well-known
adage. The founder of that illustrious line, Bouchard, Lord of
Montmorency, figures as early as 950
a.d. among the great vassals of the
kingdom of France. The heads of this house bore formerly the titles
of First Christian Barons and of First Barons of France; it became
allied to several royal houses, and gave to the elder daughter of
the Church several cardinals, six constables, twelve marshals, four
admirals, and a great number of distinguished generals and
statesmen. Sprung from this family, whose origin is lost in the
night of time, Francis de Laval-Montmorency was born at
Montigny-sur-Avre, in the department of Eure-et-Loir, on April 30th,
X623. This charming village, which still exists, was part of the
important diocese of Chartres. Through his father, Hugues de Laval,
Seigneur of Montigny, Montbeaudry, Alaincourt and Rever-court, the
future Bishop of Quebec traced his descent from Count Guy de Laval,
younger son of the constable Mathieu de Montmorency, and through his
mother, Michelle de Pericard, he belonged to a family of hereditary
officers of the Crown, which was well-known in Normandy, and gave to
the Church a goodly number of prelates.
Like St. Louis, one of the protectors of his
ancestors, the young Francis was indebted to his mother for lessons
and examples of piety and of charity which he never forgot Virtue,
moreover, was as natural to the Lavals as bravery on the field of
battle, and whether it were in the retinue of Clovis, when the First
Barons received the regenerating water of baptism, or on the
immortal plain of Bouvines; whether it were by the side of Blanche
of Castile, attacked by the rebellious nobles, or in the terrible
holocaust of Cr£cy; whether it were in the
fight of the giants at Marignan, or after
Pavia during the captivity of the
roi-gentilhomme;
everywhere where country and religion appealed to their defenders
one was sure of hearing shouted in the foremost ranks the motto of
the Montmorencys:
"Dieu ayde au 'premier baron chretien ! "
Young Laval received at the baptismal font the
name of the heroic missionary to the Indies, Fran-^ois-Xavier. To
this saint and to the founder of the Franciscans, Francois d'Assise,
he devoted throughout his life an ardent worship. Of his youth we
hardly know anything except the misfortunes which happened to his
family. He was only fourteen years old when, in 1636, he suffered
the loss of his father, and one of his near kinsmen, Henri de
Montmorency, grand marshal of France, and governor of Languedoc,
beheaded by the order of Richelieu. The bravery displayed by this
valiant warrior in battle unfortunately did not redeem the fault
which he had committed in rebelling against the established power,
against his lawful master, Louis XIII, and in neglecting thus the
traditions handed down to him by his family through more than seven
centuries of glory.
Some historians reproach Richelieu with cruelty,
but in that troublous age when, hardly free from the wars of
religion, men rushed carelessly on into the rebellions of the due
d'Orldans and the due de Soissons, into the conspiracies of Chalais,
of Cinq-Mars and de Thou, soon followed by the war of La Fronde, it
was not by an indulgence synonymous with weakness that it was
possible to strengthen the royal power. Who knows if it was not this
energy of the great cardinal which inspired the young Francois, at
an age when sentiment is so deeply impressed upon the soul, with
those ideas of firmness which distinguished him later on?
The future Bishop of Quebec was then a scholar
in the college of La Fl&che, directed by the Jesuits, for his pious
parents held nothing dearer than the education of their children in
the fear of God and love of the good. They had had six children; the
two first had perished in the flower of their youth on fields of
battle; Francois, who was now the eldest, inherited the name and
patrimony of Montigny, which he gave up later on to his brother
Jean-Louis, which explains why he was called for some time Abbe de
Montigny, and resumed later the generic name of the family of Laval;
the fifth son, Henri de Laval, joined the Benedictine monks and
became prior of La Croix-Saint-Leuf-froy. Finally the only sister of
Mgr. Laval, Anne Charlotte, became Mother Superior of the religious
community of the Daughters of the Holy Sacrament.
Francis edified the comrades of his early youth
by his ardent piety, and his tender respect for the house of God;
his masters, too, clever as they were in the art of guiding young
men and of distinguishing those who were to shine later on, were not
slow in recognizing his splendid qualities, the clear-sightedness
and breadth of his intelligence, and his wonderful memory. As a
reward for his good conduct he was admitted to the privileged ranks
of those who comprised the Congregation of the Holy Virgin. We know
what good these admirable societies, founded by the sons of Loyola,
have accomplished and still accomplish daily in Catholic schools the
world over. Societies which vie with each other in piety and
encouragement of virtue, they inspire young people with the love of
prayer, the habits of regularity and of holy practices.
The congregation of the college of La Fleche had
then the good fortune of being directed by Father Bagot, one of
those superior priests always so numerous in the Company of Jesus.
At one time confessor to King Louis XIII, Father Bagot was a
profound philosopher and an eminent theologian. It was under his
clever direction that the mind of Francis de Laval was formed, and
we shall witness later the germination of the seed which the learned
Jesuit sowed in the soul of his beloved scholar.
At this period great families devoted to God
from early youth the younger members who showed inclination for the
religious life. Francis was only nine years old when he received the
tonsure, and fifteen when he was appointed canon of the cathedral of
Evreux. Without the revenues which he drew from his prebend, he
would not have been able to continue his literary studies ; the
death of his father, in fact, had left his family in a rather
precarious condition of fortune. He was to remain to the end of his
career the pupil of his preferred masters, for it was under them
that, having at the age of nineteen left the institution where he
had brilliantly completed his classical education, he studied
philosophy and theology at the College de Clermont at Paris.
He was plunged in these noble studies, when two
terrible blows fell upon him ; he learned of the successive deaths
of his two eldest brothers, who had fallen gloriously, one at
Freiburg, the other at Nordlingen. He became thus the head of the
family, and as if the temptations which this title offered him were
not sufficient, bringing him as it did, together with a great name a
brilliant future, his mother came, supported by the Bishop of
Evreux, his cousin, to beg him to abandon the ecclesiastical career
and to marry, in order to maintain the honour of his house. Many
others would have succumbed, but what were temporal advantages to a
man who had long aspired to the glory of going to preach the Divine
Word in far-off missions? He remained inflexible; all that his
mother could obtain from him was his consent to devote to her for
some time his clear judgment and intellect in setting in order the
affairs of his family. A few months sufficed for success in this
task. In order to place an impassable abyss between himself and the
world, he made a full and complete renunciation in favour of his
brother Jean-Louis of his rights of
primogeniture and all his titles to the seigniory of Montigny and
Montbeaudry. The world is ever prone to admire a chivalrous action,
and to look askance at deeds which appear to savour of fanaticism.
To Laval this renunciation of wordly wealth and honour appeared in
the simple light of duty. His Master's words were inspiration
enough: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"
Returning to the College de Clermont, he now
thought of nothing but of preparing to receive worthily the holy
orders. It was on September 23rd, 1647, at Paris, that he saw dawn
for him the beautiful day of the first mass, whose memory perfumes
the whole life of the priest. We may guess with what fervour he must
have ascended the steps of the holy altar; if up to that moment he
had merely loved his God, he must on that day have dedicated to
Jesus all the powers of his being, all the tenderness of his soul,
and his every heart-beat.
Mgr. de Pericard, Bishop of Evreux, was not
present at the ordination of his cousin; death had taken him away,
but before expiring, besides expressing his regret to the new priest
for having tried at the time, thinking to further the aims of God,
to dissuade him from the ecclesiastical life, he gave him a last
proof of his affection by appointing him archdeacon of his
cathedral. The duties of the archdeaconry of Evreux, comprising, as
it did, nearly one hundred and sixty parishes, were particularly
heavy, yet the young priest fulfilled them for seven years, and M.
de la Colombi&re explains to us how he acquitted himself of them: "
The regularity of his visits, the fervour of his enthusiasm, the
improvement and the good order which he established in the parishes,
the relief of the poor, his interest in all sorts of charity, none
of which escaped his notice : all this showed well that without
being a bishop he had the ability and merit of one, and that there
was no service which the Church might not expect from so great a
subject."
But our future Bishop of New France aspired to
more glorious fields. One of those zealous apostles who were
evangelizing India at this period, Father Alexander of Rhodes, asked
from the sovereign pontiff the appointment for Asia of three French
bishops, and submitted to the Holy See the names of MM. Pallu,
Picquet and Laval. There was no question of hesitation. All three
set out immediately for Rome. They remained there fifteen months;
the opposition of the Portuguese court caused the failure of this
plan, and Francis de Laval returned to France. He had resigned the
office of archdeacon the year before, 1653, in favour of a man of
tried virtue, who had been, nevertheless, a prey to calumny and
persecution, the Abbe Henri-Marie Boudon; thus freed from all
responsibility, Laval could satisfy his desire of preparing himself
by prayer for the designs which God might have for him.
In his desire of attaining the greatest possible
perfection, he betook himself to Caen, to the religious retreat of
M. de Berni&res. St. Vincent de Paul, who had trained M. Olier, was
desirous also that his pupil, before going to find a field for his
apostolic zeal among the people of Auvergne, should prepare himself
by earnest meditation in retirement at St. Lazare. "Silence and
introspection seemed to St. Vincent," says M. de Lanju&re, the
author of the life of M. Olier, "the first conditions of success,
preceding any serious enterprise. He had not learned this from
Pythagoras or the Greek philosophers, who were, indeed, so careful
to prescribe for their disciples a long period of meditation before
initiation into their systems, nor even from the experience of all
superior men, who, in order to ripen a great plan or to evolve a
great thought, have always felt the need of isolation in the nobler
acceptance of the word ; but he had this maxim from the very example
of the Saviour, who, before the temptation and before the
transfiguration, withdrew from the world in order to contemplate,
and who prayed in Gethsemane before His death on the cross, and who
often led His disciples into solitude to rest, and to listen to His
most precious communications."
In this little town of Caen, in a house called
the Hermitage, lived Jean de Bernieres of Louvigny, together with
some of his friends. They had gathered together for the purpose of
aiding each other in mutual
sanctification; they practised prayer, and lived in the exercise of
the highest piety and charity. Francois de Laval passed three years
in this Hermitage, and his wisdom was already so highly appreciated,
that during the period of his stay he was entrusted with two
important missions, whose successful issue attracted attention to
him and led naturally to his appointment to the bishopric of Canada.
As early as 1647 the king foresaw the coming
creation of a bishopric in New France, for he constituted the Upper
Council "of the Governor of Quebec, the Governor of Montreal and the
Superior of the Jesuits,
until there should be a bishop." A few
years later, in 1656, the Company of Montreal obtained from M. Olier,
the pious founder of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, the services of
four of his priests for the colony, under the direction of one of
them, M. de Queylus, Abbe de Loc-Dieu, whose brilliant qualities, as
well as the noble use which he made of his great fortune, marked him
out naturally as the probable choice of his associates for the
episcopacy. But the Jesuits, in possession of all the missions of
New France, had their word to say, especially since the mitre had
been offered by the queen regent, Anne, of Austria, to one of their
number, Father Lejeune, who had not, however, been able to accept,
their rules forbidding it. They had then proposed to the court of
France and the court of Rome the name of Francis de Laval;
but believing that the colony was not ready for
the erection of a see, they expressed the opinion that the sending
of an apostolic vicar with the functions and powers of a bishop
in partibus would suffice. Moreover, if
the person sent should not succeed, he could at any time be
recalled, which could not be done in the case of a bishop. Alexander
VII had given his consent to this new plan, and Mgr. de Laval was
consecrated by the nuncio of the Pope at Paris, on Sunday, December
8th, 1658, in the church of St. Germain-des-Pres.
After having taken, with the assent of the sovereign pontiff, the
oath of fidelity to the king, the new Bishop of Petrasa said
farewell to his pious mother (who died in that same year) and
embarked at La Rochelle in the month of April,
1659. The only property he retained was
an income of a thousand francs assured to him by the Queen-Mother;
but he was setting out to conquer treasures very different from
those coveted by the Spanish adventurers who sailed to Mexico and
Peru. He arrived on June 16th
at Quebec, with letters from the king which enjoined upon all the
recognition of Mgr. de Laval of Petrsea as being authorized to
exercise episcopal functions in the colony without prejudice to the
rights of the Archbishop of Rouen.
Unfortunately, men's minds were not very certain
then as to the title and qualities of an apostolic vicar. They asked
themselves if he were not a simple delegate whose authority did not
conflict with the jurisdiction of the two
grand vicars of the Jesuits and the Sulpicians. The communities, at
first divided on this point, submitted on the receipt of new letters
from the king, which commanded the recognition of the sole authority
of the Bishop of Petrsea. The two grand vicars obeyed, and M. de
Queylus came to Quebec, where he preached the sermon on St.
Augustine's Day (August 28th), and satisfied the claim to authority
of the apostolic vicar.
But a new complication arose: the
St. Andrd,
which had arrived on September 7th,
brought to the Abbd de Queylus a new appointment as grand vicar from
the Archbishop of Rouen, which contained his protests at court
against the apostolic vicar, and letters from the king which seemed
to confirm them. Doubt as to the authenticity of the powers of Mgr.
de Laval might thus, at least, seem permissible ; no act of the Abbe
de Queylus, however, indicates that it was openly manifested, and
the very next month the abb£ returned to France.
We may understand, however, that Mgr. de Laval,
in the midst of such difficulties, felt the need of early asserting
his authority. He promulgated an order enjoining upon all the
secular ecclesiastics of the country the disavowal of all foreign
jurisdictions and the recognition of his alone, and commanded them
to sign this regulation in evidence of their submission. All signed
it, including the devoted priests of St. Sulpice at Montreal.
Two years later, nevertheless, the Abbe de
Queylus returned with bulls from the Congregation of the Daterie at
Rome. These bulls placed him in possession of the parish of
Montreal. In spite of the formal forbiddance of the Bishop of
Petraea, he undertook, strong in what he judged to be his rights, to
betake himself to Montreal. The prelate on his side believed that it
was his duty to take severe steps, and he suspended the Abb£ de
Queylus. On instructions which were given him by the king, Governor
dAvaugour transmitted to the Abbd de Queylus an order to return to
France. The court of Rome finally settled the question by giving the
entire jurisdiction of Canada to Mgr. de Laval. The affair thus
ended, the Abbe de Queylus returned to the colony in 1668. The
population of Ville-Marie received with deep joy this benefactor, to
whose generosity it owed so much, and on his side the worthy Bishop
of Petraea proved that if he had believed it his duty to defend his
own authority when menaced; he had too noble a heart to preserve a
petty rancour. He appointed the worthy Abbe de Queylus his grand
vicar at Montreal.
When for the first time Mgr. de Laval set foot
on the soil of America, the people, assembled to pay respect to
their first pastor, were struck by his address, which was both
affable and majestic, by his manners, as easy as they were
distinguished, but especially by that
charm which emanates from every one whose heart has remained ever
pure. A lofty brow indicated an intellect above the ordinary; the
clean-cut long nose was the inheritance of the Montmorencys; his eye
was keen and bright; his eyebrows strongly arched ; his thin lips
and prominent chin showed a tenacious will; his hair was scanty;
finally, according to the custom of that period, a moustache and
chin beard added to the strength and energy of his features. From
the moment of his arrival the prelate produced the best impression.
"I cannot," said Governor d'Argenson, "I cannot highly enough esteem
the zeal and piety of Mgr. of Petrasa. He is a true man of prayer,
and I make no doubt that his labours will bear goodly fruits in this
country." Boucher, governor of Three Rivers, wrote thus: "We have a
bishop whose zeal and virtue are beyond anything that I can say." |
