XXIV. RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS
I
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
EARLY CHAPELS AND CHURCHES--THE FIRST PARISH CHURCH--OTHER CHURCHES STANDING AT THE FALL OF MONTREAL--NOTRE DAME DE VICTOIRE--NOTRE DAME DE PITIE--THE “RECOLLET”--THE PRESENT NOTRE DAME CHURCH--ERECTION AND OPENING--THE “OLD AND NEW”--THE TOWERS AND BELLS--THE ECCLESIASTICAL DIOCESE OF QUEBEC--THE BISHOPS OF MONTREAL--THE DIVISION OF THE CITY INTO PARISHES--THE CHURCHES AND “RELIGIOUS”--ENGLISH-SPEAKING CATHOLICS--ST. PATRICK’S, IRISH NATIONAL CHURCH, ETC. NOTE: THE “RELIGIOUS” COMMUNITIES OF MEN AND WOMEN.
The history of the Catholic Church in Montreal is largely that of its churches and its religious orders or congregations.
Its history commences with the date of the first mass on the common on September 8, 1642, in the open air, the day of the arrival of M. de Maisonneuve and the first colonists, though mass had already been said on the island as far back as 1615 in Champlain’s presence at the Rivière des Prairies, by the first Recollect fathers, Joseph le Caron and Denis Jamay.
From 1642 to 1657 the Jesuit missionaries served the small group of colonists, at which dates these were succeeded by the priests of the congregation of St. Sulpice, founded in Paris by M. Jean Jacques Olier, at Vaugirard in January, 1649, a main purpose of which was to supply priests for the mission founded at Montreal by the Compagnie de Notre Dame de Montréal.
The first chapel “of the fort” was one of bark, which was succeeded shortly by a frame building which served adequately till 1656. In this year a new chapel building in wood was adjoined to the Hotel Dieu at the corner of St. Paul and St. Joseph (St. Sulpice) and served as the church of St. Joseph for the hospital and the citizens till 1678 on the completion of the first parish church of Notre Dame, begun in 1672.
This church was regarded as a wondrous monument in its time, and as it was standing at the time of the fall of Montreal, and was not entirely demolished till 1843, its history forms part of that of Montreal under British rule, serving to connect the two regimes.
It stood on the top of St. Sulpice Street, then St. Joseph, and its front was placed on the axis of Notre Dame Street and Place d’Armes, in front of the site of the modern Notre Dame church. It was raised by subscriptions assisted by the Gentlemen of the Seminary.
The original church begun in 1672 was gradually enlarged. From 1720 to 1724 there were discussions among the Marguilliers or church wardens on the building of an imposing bell tower capable of holding four bells, as well as on the construction of a portail as an imposing entrance facade to the church. In 1722 discussions arose as to whether it should be placed southeast or northwest of the church. The new tower on the northwest was built about 1725. This served as a belfry for various bells cast in Montreal till that named Thomas Marguerite came from London in 1773, being one of the old ones recast, and was blessed on July 4th by M. Montgolfier, superior of the seminary. It received its name after Thomas Dufy Desaulniers and Marguerite, probably the name of Madame Le Moyne, the other godparent. The belfry proper was erected in 1777, the iron cross surmounting it in 1778, the copper gilt cock bought in London being placed in 1782.
Before relating the history of the Notre Dame church of today it will be proper to account for the other churches of Montreal erected before the capitulation in 1760, and bridging over the two periods of rule.
The Church of Notre Dame de Bonsecours was not standing on the arrival of the British. The first church of this name was built in wood by Marguerite Bourgeoys, the first stone being laid in 1657 by the famous Jesuit missionary among the Onondagas, Father Simon Le Moyne, the building being finished in 1659. The second building, also erected by Marguerite Bourgeoys, was the first stone church in Montreal. It was given to the Fabrique in 1678. It was reduced to ashes in the fire of 1754 and the third church was built between 1771 and 1773. In 1847-48 the church was decorated and on October 6, 1840, there was held a procession of the boats on the river and there took place, with Bishop Bourget presiding, the solemn translation of the new statue of Our Lady of Bonsecours specially destined for voyagers and sailors and placed on the exterior to dominate the port. It had been known as the Sailors’ Chapel, being on the quay. It was remodeled in 1889, according to critics, at the expense of many of its Breton-like attractive features. On the apse of the chapel is a colossal statue of the Blessed Virgin with outstretched arms to protect the sea-going vessels and sailors. On the roof is another chapel, a facsimile of the Holy House of Loretto. The church itself possesses a miraculous statue of Our Lady. The sanctuary is all marble, there are handsome stained glass windows and many historic pictures and votive offerings.
Until recently there stood off Notre Dame Street at the northwest entrance to the garden of the “Congregation” the quaint and picturesque church of Notre Dame de Pitié. Its original predecessor was commenced in 1693 and finished in 1695, principally through the benefactions of the recluse, Jeanne LeBer, daughter of the famous merchant, Jacques LeBer, who dwelt for twenty years (from 1694 to her death in 1714) in a little cell behind the altar. After the cession it was burnt down on April 11, 1768, and was rebuilt many years afterwards, the first mass being said in 1786. In 1856 this church of the “Congregation” (60 feet ×30) was demolished to make room for the Notre Dame de Pitié (108 feet ×46). This was built to receive a wooden, miraculous statue of Notre Dame de Pitié, which originally was placed in the Church of St. Didier in Avignon, France, in the fourteenth century. In 1789 this church was demolished during the French revolution and the statue came into the possession of a Madame Paladére, who gave it to the clergy. In 1852 it came into the hands of the Rev. M. Fabris, who, at the request of the Abbé Faillon, the historian, gave it to the Congregation at Montreal. It reached Montreal on July 1, 1855, and, pending the completion of the Church of Notre Dame de Pitié, was kept in the convent hard by, its solemn transference to the church, by Bishop Bourget, taking place on August 15, 1860. In 1912 it was demolished to make room for the projected extension of St. Lawrence Main Street to the wharves, at which time the adjoining historic convent of the Congregation nuns also suffered the same fate.
In 1718 there was built near the church of Notre Dame de Pitié, and on the grounds of the Congregation, the chapel of Notre Dame de la Victoire. This was erected by the ladies of a pious sodality entitled Les Demoiselles de la Congregation Externe, in accordance with a vow made by them in 1711 on the occasion of the safety of Canada by the destruction of the fleet of Sir Hovenden Walker. It was burnt down on April 11, 1768, at the same time as the Mother House but rebuilt the same year. It was finally demolished in 1900. Other chapels connecting the old with the new Montreal were the Convent Chapel of the Charron Brothers, which became that of the Grey Nuns Hospital, and the Convent Chapel of the Hotel Dieu, on St. Paul Street. Their history is coincident with that of the buildings described elsewhere.
Two other churches built in the French régime were still standing at the capitulation during the early British period, the Jesuits’ church, which was commenced in 1692 and finished in 1694, being rebuilt and enlarged in 1742. After the capitulation of Montreal and the subsequent suppression of the Society of Jesuits, it became through the favour of the government the church of the Anglicans till 1803, when it was burnt down in the great fire of that year. The other church bridging over the two periods was that of the Recollects, which was built and finished between 1693 and 1700. There was also the Recollect Chapel, for towards 1709 there took place the blessing of M. de Belmont and the placing of the first stone of the Recollect Chapel by M. le Baron de Longueuil, major governor of Montreal. In the early days of the British rule the Recollects lent their church or chapel to the Anglicans and Presbyterians for service;
Their original grounds extended on the north from Notre Dame west to Lemoine Street on the south, and from McGill Street on the west to St. Peter Street on the east.
The “Récollet” began to fall on evil times, for before 1818 the Recollect property had passed into the hands of the Hon. Charles William Grant; the church, the house and part of the convent was purchased by the Fabrique of Notre Dame on August 28, 1818, from him. Collections were then taken up for its repairs, which were undertaken next year, according to the plan of M. Delorme in order to fit it for divine service. In 1822 the Rev. John Richard (or Richards) Jackson was permitted to occupy the lower part of the house by putting a schoolmaster there for the children of the Irish immigrants then beginning to arrive. About 1830 it became the recognized chapel for the Irish immigrants and at this time it became considerably improved by the gift of the portail of the old Notre Dame. On March 9, 1867, the church on the corner of Récollet and Notre Dame streets with its land was sold to Messrs. Lewis, Kay & Company for the sum of $85,000, or $4.00 a foot, and was demolished. The successors of the Recollects, the Franciscans, O.F.M. (Order of Friars Minor) returned to the city and established themselves on Dorchester Street West about 1900.
NOTRE DAME PARISH CHURCH
We may now trace the history of the present Notre Dame parish church. By 1757 the parish church begun in 1672 being already too small, it was determined to buy land to build one 300 feet in length, and by 1823 land was bought for this purpose and the church commenced this year. This included the land on Place d’Armes on which there was the public library in Montreal. This eventually was not built on for the war ending in the cession took place. The Place d’Armes property bought, according to the description made in 1824 by Roy Portelance, Toussaint Peltier, père, and Charles Coté, père, was “L’Emplacement, situé sur la place d’armes contenait 180 pds de front sur 94 pds de profondeur, tenant pardevant a la place d’armes derrière à la ruelle des fortifications, d’un coté au Sieur Dillon et de l’autre coté au Docteur Leodel; sur lequel etaint construits une maison en pierre à deux etages converte en ferblanc de 60 pds de front sur 62 pds de profondeur, et autres bâtiments en bois.”
The Place d’Armes commenced in the middle of Great St. James Street and occupied the position now filled by the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Trust Building. It was thought then--in 1757--proper to build here and to transfer the Place d’Armes to some other position, the ground in front of the Jesuit residence being thought suitable. Subscriptions began in 1823 for the new church by a minute of the church warden on July 20th. The building committee appointed was M. le Curé; Le Saulnier, president; M.M. Louis Guy, J.P. Leprohon, F.A. Larocque, N.B. Doucet, T. Bouthillier and A. Laframboise, to whom later were added M. Olivier Berthelet in place of M. Doucet, and the following new church wardens, viz., M.M.C.S. Delorme, Pierre Pomminville, Pascal Comte, Jules Quesnel, Joseph Chevalier and Pascal Persillier-LaChapelle. Messrs. Francis Desrivieres and P. de Rocheblave (Marguilliers) were named treasurers in February, 1824.
The land bought for the new church included the houses and grounds of Messrs. Gerrard, Starnes, the estate, Perrault and Fisher, situated on St. Joseph Street (St. Sulpice), and also that proposed to be ceded to the Fabrique by the Gentlemen of the Seminary. The value of the land was estimated at £24,000. On October 5th the blessing of the cross marking the site was conducted by Mgr. B.C. Panet, coadjutor bishop of Quebec. In September, 1824, the first stone was blessed by M. Roux, superior of the seminary. The following minute tells of the blessing of the new church. “1829, June 7. Pentecost Day, at seven o’clock in the morning. The new parish church has been blessed according to the usage and custom of Holy Church under the invocation of the Holy Name of Mary by Messire Jean Henry Auguste Roux, superior of the seminary, curé of the parish and vicar general of the diocese, in presence of the undersigned priests and of several church wardens and other parishioners:
“Roux, Vic. Gen., Malard, ptre., Sattin, ptre., Sauvage, ptre., Richard, ptre., F. ant. LaRocque, T. Bouthillier, P. de Rocheblave, P. Jos. Lacroix, Joseph Masson, O. Berthelet, Alexis Laframboise, Jules Quesnel, F. Souligny, Pierre Baudry, N.B. Doucet.”
The first mass said in the new parish church was by the Rev. Mr. Richards-Jackson, an English convert who died at Montreal of typhus on July 21, 1849, beloved by the Irish population. The celebration of the formal opening took place on July 15th when High Mass was sung by Mgr. J.J. Lartigue, bishop of Telmesse, and the first sermon delivered by M.J.V. Quiblier. A distinguished congregation was present, including the administrator of the province of Lower Canada, Sir James Kempt, his suite and the representatives of the different corporations of the city.
Meanwhile the old church of 1672 stood in front of the new one but not for long. The bodies of the dead were reverently removed to the vaults under the new church. On June 6, 1830, it was resolved by the Fabrique to give the Irish of the city, for the enlargement of the Récollet Church in which they now worshiped, the cut stone of the portail in front of the old church, together with other church objects from within. Then the church was demolished in August, 1830, but the belfry tower stood till 1843, a curious old-time relic blocking the passage on Notre Dame Street. The four bells were taken down on August 23d and the old tower pulled down on August 24th, about 4:30 P.M. Two of the bells, one of them the Charlotte, cast in Canada in 1774 and weighing, without the hammer, 2,167 pounds, were given later to St. Patrick’s Church. The architect of the new parish church died on January 30th, of the same year. He was a Mr. James O’Donnell, a native of Wexford, in Ireland. At his request his remains were buried in the new church.
The towers of the new church were not constructed till later. That on the Epistle side (west) called the Tower of Perseverence, was constructed in 1841 and blessed by the Bishop of Nancy, in November of the same year. That on the Gospel side (east), the Tower of Temperance, was not finished till 1842. Each tower is 227 feet high. The ten bells in the Tower of Temperance arrived at Montreal on May 24, 1843, and were blessed on June 29th by Bishop Bourget. They were cast in London by Mears & Company and were sounded for the first time on June 19th, at midday, from their position in the eastern tower. The history of the bells is as follows:
Name. Pounds. Donor.
1. Maria Victoria 6,041 The Seminary. 2. Edwardus-Albertus-Ludovicus 3,633 Albert Turniss and Edward Dowling. 3. Joannes Genovefa 2,730 John Donegani and wife. 4. Olivarius-Amelia 2,114 O. Berthelet and wife. 5. Julius-Josepha 1,631 Hon. Jules Quesnel. 6. Hubertus Justinin 1,463 Hubert Paré and wife. 7. Ludovicus 1,290 Louis, Ant. Parent, priest. 8. Joannes-Maria 1,093 Jean Bruneau. 9. Tancredes Genovefa 924 T. Bouthillier and wife. 10. Augustinus 897 Auguste Perrault.
The first Gros Bourdon, cast in February, 1843, weighing 16,352 pounds and the largest bell on the continent, arrived from Mears & Company, London, in October, 1843, the gift of merchants, artisans and farmers. It was broken in the month of May, 1845, and was sent to England to be recast. The second Gros Bourdon weighed 24,780 pounds. It arrived in 1847 an was solemnly blessed under the name of Jean Baptiste on June 18, 1848. The ascent commenced at 3:30 P.M., June 21st, and about 7:30 P.M. it was installed in its present position in the western tower.
The organ of the parish church, constructed in 1857 by Mr. S. Warren, was inaugurated in its unfinished condition on June 24, 1858.
The church may be described as follows: “There are two immense arcades (60 feet high) with three niches containing the statues of the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and St. John the Baptist, patrons of the City and of the Lower Province. A flight of stairs or an elevator leads to the summit whence a splendid view may be obtained over the City and the St. Lawrence. The interior (including the sanctuary) is 255 feet long by 134 feet wide and 80 feet high. Two galleries extend 25 feet over the lower side aisles. The architect was instructed to plan a building with a seating capacity of 10,000 persons. The idea was to enable the congregation to follow the sacred functions and to hear the preacher without too much of an exertion. Notre Dame complies with this twofold condition. Beauty had to be sacrificed to practical use, and still the wealth of materials, the profusion of paintings and decorations throughout, the numerous statues and especially its imposing and well proportioned dimensions leave a deep and lasting impression on the visitor. There are nine chapels and altars in the body of the church. At the right: The chapels of the Holy Face; Our Lady of Perpetual Help with a copy of the Byzantine Virgin which is venerated in Rome; Saint Amable, St. Joseph’s, and, at the foot of the aisle, the Blessed Virgin’s chapel, with a painting by Del Sarto. On the tabernacle door is a fine painting of ‘The Virgin and Child’ by Fra Angelico. The cross and candlesticks on this altar were manufactured at Paris and are of most exquisite workmanship. On the outer wall of the sanctuary is a good copy of Mignard’s: ‘Saint Ignatius writing the constitutions of his Order.’ The altar of the Sacred Heart is on the other side of the sanctuary. To the right of this altar, which, by the way, is an artistic gem, may be seen a noteworthy old painting: ‘The Presentation in the Temple.’ Down the aisle, other altars may be seen; St. Ann’s (Painting by Carnevalli), the Souls in Purgatory and St. Roch’s. The pulpit is almost on a level with the gallery. On its sounding board are several fine statues and below the statues of two of the Prophets, the work of P. Herbert, one of America’s most renowned sculptors. The sanctuary is raised five steps above the nave and separated by the chancel-rail. The latter is of most precious wood and so are the chancel-seats and the monumental reredos. On the first pillar to the right just outside the chancel, under a gilt dome, is a white marble statue of the Madonna. It is the work of a Bavarian artist and displays remarkable skill. Pius IX, who prized it highly, presented it to the Rector of Notre Dame, Abbe Rousselot. At the other extremity of the railing is a second dome surmounting a bronze facsimile of the statue of St. Peter, in St. Peter’s, Rome. The high altar is ornamented with numerous sculptures of rare design and workmanship. ‘The Last Supper,’ in bas-relief, is most artistic, and so are the ‘Choirs of Angels’ at each side of the tabernacle. The sanctuary is illuminated on festal days with myriads of electric lights which produce a dazzling effect. The organ is one of the most powerful in America. It was manufactured by Casavant Bros., St. Hyacinthe.
“Behind the sanctuary is a richly adorned chapel of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Its paintings are inestimable in value and the work of Canadian artists. Over the main door is a copy of Raphael’s: ‘Discussion on the Blessed Eucharist,’ by Larose. From left to right: ‘Paradise Lost,’ ‘The Sybil of Tibur,’ ‘The Annunciation,’ by Larose; ‘The Visitation,’ by Gill; ‘The Adoration of the Magi,’ by Saint Charles; ‘The Virgin of the Apocalypse,’ ‘The Transfiguration’ (above the high altar), ‘Christ the Consoler,’ by Franchere; ‘Dollard and his Sixteen Companions,’ ‘The First Mass in Montreal,’ by Saint Charles; ‘The Rock of Horeb,’ by Franchère; ‘The Wedding of Cana,’ by Beau; and ‘The Multiplication of the Loaves,’ by Franchère. The parochial sodalities meet in this chapel, but more especially so, the male and female members of the Association of Perpetual Adoration. In the treasury may be seen gorgeous costly church-ornaments and vestments, precious reliquaries, chalices, ciboriums of gold and silver, the embroidery work of Jeanne LeBer, a massive monstrance and the artistically arranged hangings or draperies of the grand dais which is used once a year for the solemn procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of the City.”
THE ECCLESIASTICAL DIOCESE
Montreal was ecclesiastically in the jurisdiction of the diocese of Quebec till 1836. At the fall of Montreal there was no bishop, the occupant of the see, Henri Marie Dubreuil de Pontbriand, having died on June 1, 1760. His successors in the see of Quebec were:
Jean Olivier Briand, named January 21, 1766, consecrated March 16, 1766, resigned June 29, 1784, died November 25, 1784; Louis-Philippe Mariauchau d’Esglis, consecrated July 12, 1772, bishop of Quebec November 29, 1774, died June 4, 1788; Jean François Hubert, consecrated November 29, 1786, bishop of Quebec June 12, 1788, resigned September 1, 1797, died October, 1797; Pierre Denaut, born at Montreal July 20, 1743, consecrated June 29, 1789, bishop of Quebec, September 1, 1797, died January 17, 1806; Joseph Octave Plessis, born at Montreal, March 3, 1763, consecrated January 25, 1801, bishop of Quebec, January 17, 1806, archbishop in 1819, died December 4, 1825; Bernard Claude Panet, bishop-archbishop of Quebec December 4, 1825, died February 14, 1833; Joseph Signay, consecrated May 20, 1827, bishop of Quebec February 14, 1833, archbishop Metropolitan July 13, 1844, died October 3, 1850.
The first bishop of Montreal was Mgr. Jean Jacques Lartigue, who was born in Montreal on June 20, 1777, was elected titular bishop of Telmesse on February 1, 1820, and consecrated on January 21, 1821. He was elected bishop of the new diocese of Montreal on May 13, 1836, and enthroned on September 8th following. He died in the Hotel Dieu on April 30, 1849, before, therefore, the incorporation of the diocese on May 30, 1849. His successor to the see was Mgr. Ignace Bourget, born at Pointe Lévis on October 30, 1799. He was elected titular of Telmesse and coadjutor of Montreal “cum futura successione” on March 10, 1837, and was consecrated on July 25th following. He became bishop of Montreal on April 19, 1840, and resigned on May 11, 1876, but was named titular archbishop of Marianopolis in the month of July. He died at Sault au Récollet June 8, 1885. His coadjutor bishop had been Mgr. J.C. Prince from 1845 and Mgr. Joseph Larocque from 1852. His Grace, Mgr. Edouard Charles Fabre, born at Montreal on February 28, 1827, succeeded him as bishop of Montreal on May 11, 1876, and took possession of the seat on September 19th following. He had been previously elected titular bishop of Gratianopolis and coadjutor “cum futura successione” of Montreal on April 1, 1873, being consecrated in the Church of the Gésu on May 1st following. In 1886, on June 8th, Mgr. Fabre became elected the first archbishop of Montreal, receiving the pallium on July 27th of the same year. His death occurred on December 30, 1896. The present occupant of the see is His Grace, Mgr. Paul Bruchesi, who was born at Montreal on October 29, 1855, was elected Archbishop on June 25, 1897, and consecrated in the Cathedral church on August 8th of the same year. Two years later, on August 8th, he received the pallium.
There are two auxiliary bishops: Mgr. Francois Theophile Zotique Racicot, born at Sault au Récollet on October 13, 1845, and elected bishop of Poglia and coadjutor of Montreal on January 14, 1905, and consecrated on the following May 3d; and Mgr. George Gauthier, born at Montreal on October 9, 1871, named titular bishop of Philippolis and auxiliary of Mgr. Bruchesi on June 28, 1912, being consecrated on August 24th of the same year.
Until 1866 Notre Dame was the only parish church. From that date other parishes began to be canonically erected as such. The parish churches of Montreal in the year 1913 were as follows, with the dates of foundation, but not of canonical erection. Those various and numerous semi-public chapels, oratories, or churches, attached to the religious congregations not recognized as parish churches, are not included:
Notre Dame (first church, begun 1672, canonically erected 1678), second, formally opened, 1829; Saint Jacques (first church, 1822-1825), (second, 1857), (third, 1860), constituted the second parish church in 1866; Saint Enfant Jesus, founded in 1849, erected canonically in 1867; Sacré Coeur de Jesus, 1874, 835 Ontario Street, East: Très Saint Nom de Jésus de Maisonneuve, 1888; Très Saint Rédempteur, 1913, Hochelaga; Immaculée Conception, 1884; Nativité de la B.V.M. d’Hochelaga, 1875; Notre Dame de Carmel, 1905, Italian; Notre Dame du Bon Conseil, 1881, 724 Craig Street, East; Notre Dame Della Difesa, 1910, Italian; Notre Dame de Grâce, 1867; Notre Dame des Neiges, 1901; Notre Dame de Perpétuel Secours, 1906; Notre Dame de Saint Rosaire de Villeray, 1898; Notre Dame de Sept. Douleurs de Verdun, 1899; Notre Dame de Victoire, 1907; Saint Agnes, 1903 (E.)[1]; Saint Alphonse d’Youville, 1910; Saint Ann, 1854 (E.); Saint Anselme, 1909; Saint Anthony’s, 1884 (E.); Saint Arsène, April 11, 1908; Sainte Brigide, 1867; Sainte Catherine d’Alexandre, 1912; Sainte Cécile, 1911; Sainte Charles, 1883; Sainte Claire de Tétreauville, 1906; Sainte Clément, 1898; Sainte Clotilde, 1909; Sainte Cunégonde, 1874; Saint Denis, 1899; Saint Dominic, December 23, 1912; Saint Edouard, 1896; Sainte Elizabeth du Portugal, 1894; Sainte Etienne, 1912; Sainte Eusèbe de Verceil, 1897; Saint François d’Assise, Longue Pointe, 1770: Saint Francois du Pari Lasalle, 1912; Saint Gabriel’s, 1875 (E.); Saint Georges, June 27, 1908; Saint Hélène, 1902; Saint Henri, 1868; Saint Jacques, 1866; Saint Jean Baptiste, 1874; Saint Jean Baptiste de la Salle, 1913; Saint Jean Berchmans, April 24, 1908; Saint Jean de la Croix, 1900; Saint Joseph, 1862; Saint Joseph de Bordeaux, 1895, erected canonically, 1912; Saint Léon, Westmount, 1901 (E. and F.); Saint Louis de France, 1888; Saint Aloysius, March 24, 1908 (E.); Sainte Madeleine d’Outremont, July 22, 1908; Saint Marc, April 19, 1903; Saint Michael, May, 1902 (E.); Saint Nicholas d’Ahuntsic; Saint Pascal Baylon, Cote des Neiges, 1910; Saint Patrick’s, 1847 (E.); Saint Paul, 1874; Sainte Philomene de Rosemont, 1905; Saint Pierre Apôtre, 1900; Saint Pierre aux Liens, 1897; Saint Stanislaus de Kostka; Saint Thomas Aquinas, June 18, 1908 (E.); Saint Viateur d’Outremont, 1902; Saint Victor de la Terrace Vinet, 1912; Saint Vincent de Paul, 1867; Saint Willibrod, June 6, 1913 (E.); Saint Zotique, 1909.
In addition there are missions to Chinese (numbering 200), Lithuanians (1,000), Poles (1,500), Ruthenians (5,000), Syrians (3 rites), Pure Syrians, Syro-Maronites and Syro-Melchites (1,000).
It would require a volume to give the history of all these parishes or of their many beautiful churches, but we may choose the following for historical reasons, viz.: the present Cathedral of St. James, the seat of the Archbishop of Montreal; the Church of St. James, the second parish and the site of the first Cathedral; the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes, as a type of several of the non-parish chapels in the city; the Gésu and St. Peter’s, as an example of public churches conducted by religious priests; and, as the English-speaking Catholic community is an entity of its own, St. Patrick’s church and others will be treated as affording an opportunity of reviewing the religious history of the Irish in the city.
ST. JAMES CATHEDRAL
The Cathedral, one of the largest temples on the continent, is admirably situated on Dominion Square, and its location adds to the majestic loftiness of its monumental cupola. It is one third the size and an adapted replica of St. Peter’s, Rome. When Mgr. Lartigue became Bishop of Telmesse (1821) with jurisdiction over the Church in Montreal, his residence was at the Seminary of St. Sulpice, and Notre Dame was to all intents and purposes the cathedral church of Montreal. He realized the disadvantages of the situation and took up his quarters at the Hôtel Dieu. Its modest chapel became the temporary Cathedral. In 1825, the people petitioned the Bishop to sanction the erection of a Cathedral and a residence in keeping with his exalted dignity. Their request was granted and a site chosen at the corner of St. Catherine and St. Denis streets, where St. James church stands today. The new Cathedral was dedicated by Bishop Lartigue, in 1825. His house was a very plain building. An episcopal residence soon replaced it, and was considered one of the finest structures in Montreal. Unfortunately, in 1852, the fire which consumed a great part of the City reduced the Cathedral and the residence to ashes. Mgr. Bourget, his successor, lived at St. Joseph’s Home, and the humble chapel of the Providence Asylum became the fourth Cathedral. The present site was then chosen. A modest brick chapel was erected by the side of the episcopal residence which for over forty years has been the home of the Bishops of Montreal and of their assistants in the administration of diocesan affairs.
July 25th, 1857, a cross was planted to mark the site of the future Cathedral. Mgr. Bourget, conceived the bold idea of erecting a duplicate of St. Peter’s Rome, to symbolize the union of the Church in Canada with the See of Peter, and he instructed Victor Bourgeault, the architect, to prepare his plans accordingly. The cornerstone was solemnly laid August 28, 1870. In 1878, the walls were raised to the height of thirty feet. The columns to support the dome were built as high as forty feet, and the other columns of the nave were elevated to the same height. The front of the portico was completed as far as the spandrel of the first arch, but the outer dome was left unfinished. In 1885, Archbishop Fabre, his successor, resumed operations which had been suspended for seven years. In 1894, the Cathedral was opened for worship. In 1886, the dome was finished, a noble adornment and a salient feature in the architecture of Montreal. The cross, of gilded iron, is eighteen feet in length, weighing sixteen hundred pounds, and was placed in position during August of the same year. Over the portico are thirteen bronze statues, donations of various parishes of the Diocese. They are the statues of St. James, St. Joseph, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Vincent of Paul, St. John, St. Paul, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Patrick, St. Charles Borromeo, St. John the Baptist, St. Hyacinth and St. Ignatius. The interior is very imposing, with its rich white and gold decorations. The graceful lines of its arches, the symmetry of its pillars and the simplicity of its appointments inspire a sense of due reverence and devotion. Under the dome there is a faithful reproduction of Bernini’s baldachino. It was made at Rome by Victor Vincent and donated to the Cathedral by the Seminary of St. Sulpice. It cost about twelve thousand dollars. The main altar is under the baldachino. Like the chancel-rail it is of marble and onyx. At the Gospel side set against one of the pillars supporting the dome is the archiepiscopal throne finely sculptured and inlaid with ivory. Several interesting paintings recalling historical facts and events connected with the foundation and establishment of Montreal adorn the arcades of the transepts and the lower walls. With one exception they are from the brush of G. Delfosse, a gifted artist of Montreal, and under each is an inscription explaining the different subjects. “The First Mass in Montreal” was painted by Laurent, a French painter, and was presented to Archbishop Bruchesi by the Government of the French Republic. The most interesting chapel is the “Papal Zouaves.” There is an exquisite painting over the altar of “Our Saviour revealing to Blessed Margaret Mary the treasures of His Sacred Heart.” The names of the 507 Knights, who took part in the nineteenth century crusade, are inscribed in letters of gold on four large marble tablets. In the chapel are the Regiment’s military colors; a painting of St. Gregory the Great, a gift of Pope Pius IX, to the Union Allet; a silver statuette, a gift of General Charette; a copy of “St. John the Baptist,” the original of which hangs in the Zouaves headquarters at Rome; a silver vessel used as a sanctuary lamp, a facsimile of the votive offering which the Zouaves made to the Shrine of Notre Dame de Bonsecours.
At the north entrance is a fine bronze statue to the memory of Bishop Bourget. Adjoining the vestry and communicating with it is “The Bishop’s Palace,” a palace in name only. In the near future this huge brick building will be replaced by an edifice worthy the Diocese.
ST. JAMES
(St. Catherine and St. Denis Streets.)
In 1822-25 the first church of St. James (St. Jacques le Majeur) was built by Mgr. Lartigue, who became the first bishop of Montreal on January 21, 1821. He was a sulpician and lived until 1849. This church served as the Cathedral until 1852 when it was destroyed by the terrible fire which consumed a great portion of the City. Bishop Bourget, his successor, definitely left the neighbourhood of St. James and took up his quarters on Mount St. Joseph. In 1855, the Priests of the Seminary were placed in charge of the parish. The church was scarcely built in 1857 when it was destroyed by another fire. As the walls were uninjured the damage was easily repaired, and, in 1860, the new church was opened to the public. It is Gothic in style and the interior consists of three naves. It has the form of an irregular cross. The pulpit is a handsome design with its statues and turrets. In the transept are four paintings, the work of E. Cabane, a French artist: “Our Lady of the Rosary,” “The Education of the Virgin,” “The Death of St. Joseph,” and “The Holy Family.” The steeple is the bequest of the city and contains a very fine chime of bells. The entrance on St. Catherine Street is a splendid piece of architectural work and looks spacious in its framework of trees and terraces.
When the parishes were created in 1866 to supplement the Parish of Notre Dame, mother to the sole parish church, St. James became the second parish church.
OUR LADY OF LOURDES
(St. Catherine Street)
Close by the Church of St. James is the chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin of Massabielle. It is a charming specimen of Canadian religious art. It was built under the supervision of the late Father Lenoir, with the generous cooperation of the Seminary of St. Sulpice and the Catholics of the City. The style of architecture is Byzantine and in art it is of the Renaissance order. The gallery is divided by an exquisitely beautiful rose-window. A nicely gilt statue of the Blessed Virgin has been placed on the dome and the crown of stars on its head is brilliantly lighted up at night by means of an ingenious electrical device. The alternate layers of white marble and grey stone give the front an attractive look. The central dome, thirty-five feet in diameter and 120 feet in height, looks down upon the nave and transept. There are two chapels in the church. One is in the basement and is a good reproduction of the Grotto of Lourdes, with an altar where Mass may be celebrated. The upper chapel is very richly decorated. Mr. N. Bourassa, the artist, has embodied in a series of beautiful tableaux the arguments of Catholic belief in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Among the subjects treated, there is a fine scroll above the high altar, at the first arch, representing “The Annunciation;” there are also two tableaux in the arcades at each side of the altar: “The Crowning of the Virgin,” and “The Assumption;” the large compositions of the transept: “The Adoration of the Magi” and “The Visit of St. Elizabeth;” finally, “The Proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception,” which takes up the whole interior of the dome.
Mass is celebrated and a sermon preached in this chapel every Sunday of the academic year for the benefit of the students of Laval University.
This chapel is the meeting place of four sodalities of men, women, and young men and young women.
RELIGIOUS CHURCHES
THE GESU
The Gésu is the successor in order of time of the church built in 1692 on the site of the present courthouse and city hall. This was burned in 1803. The Jesuits had left the colony after the capitulation and their property was held by the government, but in 1842 they were invited to return by Mgr. Bourget and in consequence there arrived soon the Fathers Pierre Chazelle, Felix Martin, Remi Tellier, Paul Luiset, Joseph Hanipaux and Dominique Duranquet. Several undertook the charge of the curé of La Prairie and others were employed at the bishop’s house. In 1843 a novitiate for future members was opened on July 31st in a little house adjoining the church at La Prairie and on September 9th it was transferred for five years to a house loaned by Lieut.-Col. C.S. Rodier, who became mayor in 1858.
In 1845 a public meeting invited the Jesuits to build a residence and college in the city and in 1846 the present lands on Bleury Street were sold at a very liberal price by Mr. John Donegani. But owing to the typhus epidemic intervening in 1847-48 the building was delayed. In the meantime the Fathers worked in the fever sheds for the suffering Irish with six fathers who came from New York and afterwards founded with the Seminary the first residence of St. Patricks, then situated at Nos. 57-59 St. Alexander Street. In 1850 the first stone of their college of Ste. Marie was laid and on July 31, 1851, the college, with its public chapel attached, was blessed. In 1851 their noviceship was transferred hither and on August 5, 1853, it was again transplanted to its present position at Sault au Recollet, outside the city.
In 1863, on October 22, M. Olivier Berthelet made a gift of an arpent and a half (for which he had paid $20,000) for a church to be built after the model of the Gésu in Rome. The work was commenced in the following year.
The Gésu, as it became to be called, is one of the finest specimens of its kind. It is 194 feet long, 96 feet wide, the transept 144 feet, and the nave 95 feet high. The style of architecture, Renaissance and Florentine, is fascinating and gives the church an aspect of elegance and comfort. It is not unlike the Gesu at Rome in its appointments. Its collection of fine paintings and tableaux deserves a special mention. They imitate or complete the plastic work of the sacred edifice. They are, for the most part, copies of masterpieces of the modern German School and are the work of Mr. Miller. Among its many rich chapels, one in particular attracts the attention of the visitor, on account of an old statue it possesses. It is under the gallery to the right of the main altar and is known as the Chapel of Our Lady of Liesse. A reliquary over the tabernacle contains the ashes of the statue of Our Lady of Liesse, which was burned during the French Revolution. Two large tableaux which are on either side of the sanctuary represent St. Aloysius and St. Stanislaus Kostka in the attitude of receiving Holy Communion, the former from the hands of St. Charles Borromeo and the latter from an Angel. There are two smaller paintings over the altars of the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph: “The Holy Family” and “The Flight into Egypt.” These remarkable paintings are from the studio of Cagliardi Bros., Rome.
ST. PETER’S
Montreal is the headquarters of several religious orders of men. Besides the Jesuits there are numerous others who are devoted either to the ministry or education, or to both. One of the first communities to be invited were the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, an order founded at Aix in Provence on January 25, 1816, by Mgr. de Mazenod, bishop of Marseilles. In 1841 four Oblates reached Montreal, Fathers Honorat (Superior), Telmont, Baudrand and Lagier. Their settlement was first at St. Hilaire de Rouville, then at Longueuil. In 1848 a provisory chapel in wood was built in the Faubourg de Quebec (Quebec Suburbs). In 1851 the first stone of the new church of St. Peter, on the same spot, on Visitation Street, was laid. From this first home there went forth the first missionaries of the modern Canadian Northwest. To this order the Rev. Albert Lacombe, the northwest missionary, became early attached.
St. Peter’s has three naves of equal height. The sanctuary is lighted by large arched, stained-glass windows, which produce a magnificent effect. The white marble altar is surmounted by a turreted reredos and is shown to advantage by numberless electric bulbs most ingeniously adapted. St. Peter’s is one of the best proportioned churches of the City. The stained-glass windows of the sanctuary and side aisles are most attractive. They are from the factory of Champigneulle of Bar-le-Duc, France. The Sacred Heart altar is a rare work of art with its handsome candlesticks and its tabernacle door of gilded bronze.
ENGLISH CATHOLIC CHURCHES
ST. PATRICK’S
Especial notice should be given to the origin of the English-speaking Catholics of the city. Although before 1800 a few Irish immigrants sought a home in the city, the history proper of the Irish population of Montreal starts in 1817, when a Sulpician, the Rev. Father Richards-Jackson, commonly known as Rev. M. Richards, discovered a little band of worshipers from the Emerald Isle, driven thence by poverty and privation, gathering at Bonsecours church. A directory of 1819 only reveals about thirty presumably Irish names.[2] In 1820 the number was still so small that a visitor to Bonsecours Church stated that “he could have covered with a good-sized parlour carpet all the Irish Catholics worshipping there on Sundays.” Yet the number of Irish orphans were so great that by 1823 the “Salle des Petites Irlandaises” was opened in the Grey Nuns’ hospital and supported by the Gentlemen of the Seminary. Soon the complement of forty was reached. But by 1831, with the increase of immigration, the old “Récollet” church on Notre Dame Street, being considerably enlarged, was reopened for the use of the Irish Catholics of the center and western portions of the city, those of the eastern section still remaining attached to Notre Dame de Bonsecours. The Rev. Patrick Phelan, afterwards bishop, was the first Irish pastor. The Irish soldiers of the garrison met principally at the new Notre Dame church opened in 1829. Soon the “Récollet” became inadequate. On Sundays it was so overcrowded with devout Irish that the overflow knelt in the rain or the sunshine on Notre Dame Street or Dollard Lane. This was to be remedied by the steps taken on May 20, 1843, to purchase land for a church to be named St. Patrick’s, the present area of St. Patrick’s Church and the St. Bridget’s Home being secured by the Fabrique of Notre Dame from the Rocheblave family for £5,000. On the 26th of September the cornerstones were blessed by Bishop Bourget. They were seven in number and were laid by the following: First, by Bishop Bourget; second, by the mayor; third, by the speaker of the assembly; fourth, by the chief justice; fifth, by the president of the Irish Temperance Association; sixth, by the president of St. Patrick’s Society; seventh, by the president of the Hibernian Benevolent Society.
On the 17th of March, St. Patrick’s Day, 1847, the church of St. Patrick’s was dedicated. The first patron of St. Patrick’s was the Rev. J.J. Connolly, who had succeeded Father Phelan at the “Recollet” when the latter had been consecrated coadjutor bishop of Kingston in 1843.
Father Connolly nobly served the typhus-stricken emigrants in 1847 for a period of six weeks or more, consigning to the silent grave more than fifty adult persons a day. At this time Father Richards and Father Morgan died martyrs of charity. In this ministration, therefore, the Seminary called in the services of five Jesuit Fathers who laboured at St. Patricks for some years till the Seminary was able to provide its own members. The Rev. J.J. Connolly left St. Patricks in 1860 for Boston, where he died three years later, on the 16th of September, 1863, at the age of forty-seven years. He was succeeded by Father Dowd, who had been transferred with Rev. Father O’Brien, McCullough and others for service here from Ireland about 1848 at the request of M. Quiblier, superior of the Seminary.
In 1887, on the occasion of Father Dowd’s celebration of his fiftieth year of priesthood, the occasion was taken by every section of the community to testify its appreciation of his work as the pastor of St. Patrick’s and as a good citizen.
He commenced the St. Patrick’s Orphan Asylum, opened in November, 1851. In 1863 he established St. Bridget’s Home for the Old and Infirm and the Night Refuge for the Destitute, and in 1866-7 erected the building on Lagauchetière Street for a home and refuge. In 1872 he established the St. Patrick’s School for Girls on St. Alexander Street. In 1877 he organized the great Irish Canadian pilgrimage to Rome.
The position of St. Patrick’s as a national church for the Irish was jeopardized in 1866, when the dismemberment of the ancient parish of Notre Dame was proclaimed. St. Patrick’s would have become in the new division a general district, one for use by French-Canadians, but on the representations of Father Dowd to the Holy See, the national privileges were confirmed to the church. Each succeeding pastor of St. Patrick’s has done much to the beautifying of this church, one of the purest specimens of the Gothic style in Canada. Its outside dimensions are: Length, 233 feet; width, 105 feet; inside height from floor to ceiling, 85 feet. The steeple is 228 feet high. The work of renovation of the interior of St. Patrick’s was carried out in 1893 under the late Father Quinlivan, S.S. pastor. Under the present pastor, the Rev. Gerald McShane, S.S., the parish has seen great improvements, notably those at the Eucharistic Congress of 1910 when the grounds adjoining the church and partially occupied hitherto by St. Bridget’s Orphanage were tastefully laid out as a semi-public garden. At this same time there took place the development of the chimes of St. Patrick’s. The following reproduction of the inscriptions on the memorial tables placed in the church tells its story:
AS A PERPETUAL MEMORIAL OF THE XXI INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS, AT MONTREAL, SEPT 7-11, A.D. 1910, AND IN LASTING REMEMBRANCE OF THE SOLEMN CONGRESS MASS AND THE PRESENCE OF THE CARDINAL LEGATE IN SAINT PATRICK’S CHURCH, SEPT. 10, WAS ERECTED A CHIME OF BELLS, BLESSED WITH IMPOSING LITURGICAL RITES, MAY 15, 1910, BY THE MOST REVEREND PAUL BRUCHESI, ARCHBISHOP OF MONTREAL.
“Ring out, sweet chime, from Gothic tower! “A people’s faith thy belfry knells; “At Matins, Lauds, and Vesper Hour, “Peal forth our joy, sweet Congress Bells.”
TO COMMEMORATE THE RESTORATION AND SOLEMN DEDICATION OF THE HISTORIC BELL, CHARLOTTE, CAST IN WHITECHAPEL FOUNDRY, LONDON, ENGLAND, A.D. 1774; FIRST PLACED IN NOTRE DAME, AND PRESENTED TO ST. PATRICK’S, A.D. 1840.
CHARLOTTE INJURED, WAS RE-CAST AT WHITECHAPEL, BLESSED WITH THE HOLY NAME BELL IN THIS CHURCH, DEC. 13, 1908, AND RESTORED TO THE TOWER.
“VOX POPULI, VOX DEI.”
THE HISTORIC BELL “Charlotte,” Restored by the Parishioners. Note E. 2,250 lbs.
FATHER QUINLIVAN’S BELL “John, Martin, Thomas.” From Mr. Martin Egan, in memory of his beloved Wife. C. sharp. 812 lbs.
THE POPE’S BELL “Pius, Edward, Vincent.” Mr. C.F. Smith, donor. F. sharp. 1,615 lbs.
THE ARCHBISHOPS BELL “Paul, Gerald, James.” Gift of Mrs. M.A. McCrory, in memory of her Daughter, May. G. sharp. 1244 lbs.
THE HOLY NAME BELL Blessed be His Holy Name. From “The Holy Name Society.” Note A. 1100 lbs.
FATHER DOWD’S BELL “Patrick, Andrew, Cornelius.” Gift of Mrs. M.P. Ryan. Note B. 951 lbs.
THE SEMINARY BELL “Charles, George, Frederick.” Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Ryan. D. sharp. 705 lbs.
THE CONGRESS BELL “Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament.” Mr. J.T. Davis, donor. Note E. 674 lbs.
THE CHOIR BELL “Cecilia, Margaret, Mary.” Presented by the Choir. F. sharp. 582 lbs.
THE CHILDREN’S BELL “Aloysius, Francis, De La Salle.” Presented by the Children. G. sharp. 516 lbs.
In further commemoration of the Eucharistic Congress the Congress hall was added in 1914 and the blessing and laying of the foundation stone took place on Sunday, October 18th, of this year.
The interior of the church is most imposing with its beautiful Gothic arches and the wealth of its appointments and decorations. The walls are finished in imitation Venetian mosaic, after the style of St. Mary’s, Venice; the sanctuary pillars are imitations of Numidian marble, while those of the nave are delicately colored like Sienna marble; the coloring of the high altar resembles the tints of old ivory. The Celtic Cross predominates in the decorations of the arches and walls. There are some fine paintings in the sanctuary and on the side walls. “The Annunciation” and the “Death of St. Joseph” are very fine. Under St. Joseph’s altar is a life-sized figure of the Apostle of Ireland, attired in the pontifical vestments of the sixth century. The paintings of the Way of the Cross are works of art. The stained-glass windows are admirable. A series of painted panels ornaments the upper part of the wainscoting. The oak confessionals and pews are pretty in design. The harmonious combination is pleasing to the eye and gives the interior a picturesqueness of original conception.
ST. ANN’S
St. Ann’s Parish, the fifth in point of age and the second Irish parish of Montreal, was founded by the Sulpician Fathers. In early days, mass was celebrated in a brick house which is still standing and used as a tenement on the corner of Ottawa and Murray streets. The present church was commenced in 1851, the blessing and laying of the foundation stone being on August 3d and the opening on December 8, 1854. The Redemptorist Fathers took charge in 1884. The church which was found too small for the congregation was lengthened thirty-two feet and a tower added to the extension. In the tower is a fine chime of bells. Besides parochial work, the Fathers give missions throughout Canada and the United States. The origin of the name of St. Ann’s dates back to 1698, when Pierre Le Ber, brother of the recluse, built a chapel at Point St. Charles to St. Anne. The first mass was said on November 12, 1698.
The ruins of the chapel were still to be seen in 1823.
The subsequent English-speaking Catholic churches that followed St. Patrick’s were founded in the following order:
1854, St. Ann’s, 32 Basin Street, served by the Redemptorist Fathers since 1884; 1875, St. Gabriel’s; 1884, St. Anthony’s; 1889, St. Mary (Our Lady of Good Counsel); 1902, St. Michael’s; 1903, St. Agnes’; 1908, St. Aloysius’; 1908, St. Thomas Aquinas’; 1912, St. Dominic’s; 1913, St. Willibrod’s.
NOTE
RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
Besides the Diocesan clergy composed of “Secular” priests, an essential feature of Catholicism in Montreal is the number of “Religious” orders or “Congregations” of men and women, Montreal being in many cases, especially of women organizations, the scene of the foundation and mother-house of numerous branch establishments in various parts of the American continent.
The following lists will, therefore, be of value. The names are those only of houses in Montreal or immediately close at hand:
COMMUNITIES OF MEN
Sulpician Fathers (1657): Notre Dame, St. James Church, Grand Seminary, Seminary of Philosophy, Petit Séminaire, St. Jean l’Evangeliste’s School (Montreal), Lac des Deux Montagnes.
Oblate Fathers: (1848) St. Peter’s Church (Novitiate at Lachine).
Jesuit Fathers (1642 and 1842): Immaculate Conception, N.D. du Mont Carmel Church, Immaculate Conception, The Gésu, Ste. Mary and Loyola College (Montreal, Caughnawaga, Sault-au-Recollet).
Redemptorist Fathers (Belgian Province), took charge of St. Ann’s in 1884: House and Novitiate, St. Ann’s, St. Alphonse de Ligouri, d’Youville, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Churches (Montreal).
Clerics of St. Viateur (Outremont, Montreal): Academy St. John the Baptist, Scholasticate Sacristy of Church (Montreal), Chapel, Parochial School (Bordeaux), Provincial House, Juvenate, Church, Parochial School (Outremont), Catholic Institute for Deaf Mutes, Parochial School, Patronage of St. Francis de Sales, Patronage of St. George, St. Jean de la Croix (Montreal, Boucherville, St. Eustache, St. Lambert’s, St. Remi, Sault-au-Recollet, Terrebonne).
Congregation of The Holy Cross, founded from Notre Dame, Indiana, U.S. A., came to Montreal in 1897: Scholasticate and Notre Dame des Neiges College, Hochelaga Parish, St. Joseph’s Commercial College (Hochelaga, Pointe Claire, St. Genevieve, St. Laurent).
Company of Mary (Montreal).
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, originally at Rome, called to Montreal in 1890: (Montreal, Terrebonne.)
Franciscan Fathers (1692 and 1890): St. Joseph’s Convent, Parc Lasalle residence, Church on Dorchester Street West.
Dominican Fathers (new quarters at St. Hyacinthe, P.Q.): Notre Dame de Grace.
Fathers of St. Vincent de Paul (Tournai, Belgium): St. Georgés.
Brothers of the Christian Schools, came to Montreal in 1837: Motherhouse and School, Maisonneuve, Pensionnat Mt. St. Louis, Archbishop’s Academy, Ste. Ann’s School, St. Bridget’s School, St. Gabriel’s School, St. James’ School, St. Joseph’s School, St. Laurent’s School, St. Patrick’s School, St. Henri des Tanneries, St. Leon (Westmount), Salaberry and Sacred Heart Schools (Lachine, Longueuil, St. Cunégonde, St. Jerome), St. Paul’s College (Varennes, Viauville, Oka).
Brothers of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, called to Montreal in 1865: (Montreal, Longue Pointe).
Brothers of the Sacred Heart: St. Eusèbe, Notre Dame de Grace (Verdun, Pointe-aux-Trembles).
Marist Brothers, from Iberville, P.Q.: St. Peter’s School, St. Michael’s School, St. Vincent de Paul.
Brothers of the Christian Instruction, La Prairie, P.Q.: St. Edward’s College, St. Elizabeth du Portugal School, St. Mary’s, St. Gregory’s, St. Stanislaus Schools (Chambly, La Trappe, Napierville, St. Scholastique, St. Anne de Bellevue, Vercheres), Coté St. Paul, St. John College.
Brothers of St. Gabriel: College and Patronage St. Vincent de Paul and School, St. Hélène, St. Claire de Tetreaultville Schools, St. Arsène’s School and Orphanage (La Assomption, St. Martin, Ste. Rose, St. Therese).
Brothers of the Presentation: (1910) High School, Durocher Street, for boys; St. Gabriel’s, school for boys.
COMMUNITIES OF WOMEN
Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame, founded by Marguerite Bourgeoys: Mother House, School of Higher Education for women, affiliated with Laval University, Villa-Maria, Pensionnats, Mt. St. Mary and St. Catherine’s Pensionnats, Visitation School, Ste. Ann’s School, St. Agnes’ School, St. Denis’ School, St. Anthony’s School, St. Hélène’s School, St. Joseph’s School, St. Stanislaus School, Notre Dame des Anges School, Notre Dame du Perpetuel Secours School, Notre Dame de Bonsecours School, Bourgeoys’ School, St. Leo’s School, St. Urbain’s School, Notre Dame du Bon Conseil School, St. Laurent’s School, St. Anthony’s School, St. Eusèbe School, St. Patrick’s School, St. Louis’ School, Jeanne Le Ber School, St. Alphonsus’ School, St. Claire de Tetreauville School, St. Vincent de Paul’s School, Our Lady of the Seven Dolors (Verdun), St. Ann’s Schools.
Hospital Nuns of St. Joseph, founded for Montreal by M. de la Dauversière and erected as a community in 1659. Hôtel Dieu first administrated by Jeanne Mance (1642).
Grey Nuns Hospital Général, founded in Montreal by Madame d’Youville in 1747: St. Patrick’s Asylum, St. Joseph’s Hospice, St. Bridget’s Home, Nazareth Asylum, Bethlehem Asylum, Notre Dame Hospital, Patronage d’Youville, Catholic Orphanage, St. Paul’s Hospital, St. Cunégonde Asylum, Hospice St. Antoine.
Religious of the Sacred Heart came to Montreal in 1842: St. Alexandra Street 1860, Secondary Education (School).
Sisters of Charity of Providence, founded in Montreal by Madame Gamelin: Mother House, Gamelin Asylum, Providence Asylum. Institution for Deaf Mutes, St. Alexis Orphan Asylum, St. Vincent de Paul Asylum, Hospital des Incurables, Providence Ste. Geneviève, Hospice Auclair, Hospice Bourget, Holy Child Jesus.
Sisters of the Most Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, founded at Longueuil in 1844 by Eulalie Durocher (Sister Marie Rose): Mother House, Pensionnat, Academy Marie-Rose, Academy of the Most Holy Names, Hochelaga Parish School, St. Clement School (Viauville).
Sisters of Notre Dame of Charity of the Good Shepherd, came to Montreal in 1841: Provincial Monastery, Ste. Marie Asylum, St. Louis de Gonzaga Academy.
Sisters of the Holy Cross and of the Seven Dolours, came in 1847: Mother House, Novitiate, Academy and School, St. Laurent School, St. Bridget’s School, St. Gabriel’s School, St. Denis’ School. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (Villeray): St. Edouard’s School, St. Paschal’s School, St. Ignatius and St. Basil’s Academies.
Sisters of Miséricorde, founded in Montreal by Madame Jetté in 1845: Mother House, Hospital and Foundling Asylum, Maternity Hospital.
Sisters of Ste. Anne, founded at Vaudreuil, 1850, by Esther Sureau dit Blondin: St. Arsène School, Ste. Cunégonde School, St. George School, St. Henry School, St. Jean de la Croix School, St. Michael School, Ste. Elizabeth of Portugal School, Holy Child Jesus School, St. Pierre aux Liens School, Three other Academies.
Sisters of the Precious Blood (Contemplative order), founded at St. Hyacinthe in 1861, came to Montreal district in 1874: Notre Dame de Grâce.
Carmelite Sisters: (Contemplative) established at Hochelaga in 1875.
Daughters of Wisdom: (Founded at La Vendèe), came to Montreal in 1910.
Little Sisters of the Poor (care of poor), came to Montreal in 1887.
Little Daughters of St. Joseph, founded in Montreal in 1857 by the Rev. M. Antoine Mercier.
Little Sisters of the Holy Family, founded at Sherbrooke: Notre Dame des Neiges (1877), Notre Dame College, St. Peter’s Church, St. John the Evangelist School, Archevêché de Montréal.
Soeurs de L’Espérance (Nursery Sisters), came to Montreal in 1901: Rue Sherbrooke.
Sisters of Immaculate Conception, erected in 1904 as an order by Mgr. Bruchesi: Montreal (Outremont).
Sociéte de Marie Réparatrue, came to Montreal in 1911.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] These marked E have English-speaking congregations. The rest have French.
[2] The names, however, of the students at the College de Montreal show many unmistakable Irish names. See the note in the chapter dealing with the history of Laval University.
XXV. OTHER RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS
ANGLICANISM--EARLY BEGINNINGS--FIRST “CHRIST CHURCH”--THE BISHOPS OF MONTREAL--HISTORY OF EARLY ANGLICAN CHURCHES.
PRESBYTERIANISM--ST. GABRIEL’S STREET CHURCH--ITS OFFSHOOTS--THE FREE KIRK MOVEMENT--THE CHURCH OF TODAY.
METHODISM--FIRST CHAPEL ON ST. SULPICE, 1809--THE DEVELOPMENT OF METHODIST CHURCHES.
THE BAPTISTS--FIRST CHAPEL OF ST. HELEN STREET--FURTHER GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT--PRESENT CHURCHES.
CONGREGATIONALISM--CANADA EDUCATION AND HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY--FIRST CHURCH ON ST. MAURICE STREET--CHURCHES OF TODAY.
UNITARIANISM--FIRST SERMON IN CANADA, 1832--ST. JOSEPH STREET CHAPEL--THE CHURCHES OF THE MESSIAH.
HEBREWS--SHEARITH ISRAEL--SHAAC HASHOMOYIM AND OTHER CONGREGATIONS.
SALVATION ARMY--ITS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT.
OTHER DENOMINATIONS.
A RELIGIOUS CENSUS OF MONTREAL FOR 1911.
ANGLICANISM
Some notes written about 1790 on the “state of religion” (Canadian Archives, Series Q, Volume XLX, page 343) help us to see the beginnings of the Anglican church in Montreal. This document appears to be issued by the “Society for Propagating the Gospel” on England. After the peace of 1762 it was thought advisable by the English government to send some French Protestant clergymen who could minister to French Protestants, whose number were greatly exaggerated. Accordingly, while M. de Montmolten was sent to Quebec and M. Veyssiere to Three Rivers, M. De Lisle came to Montreal. There was, of course, no church as the account proceeds to say:
“The minister at Montreal (who is also chaplain for the garrison) when he does officiate it is in the chapel of the Recollects Convent on Sunday mornings only and on Christmas day and Good Friday.” Again, “there is not a single Protestant church in the whole province. The greater part of the inhabitants of Montreal are Presbyterians of the church of Scotland. These being weary of attending a minister (M. de Lisle) whom they did not understand and for other reasons, have established a Presbyterian minister and subscribed liberally to his support. His name is Bethune and he was late chaplain of the Eighty-fourth Regiment, and while Mr. Stuart assisted Mr. de Lisle (which he did for a short time) he used constantly to attend the service of our church.”
Even on the arrival of the first Protestant bishop for the country, Doctor Mountain, who was made Bishop of Quebec about 1793, there were but nine Protestant clergymen in Canada. In the first years the duty was performed by the military and naval chaplains. In 1766 the Rev. D.C. De Lisle, a Swiss Protestant, was appointed rector of Montreal; hitherto, as said, he had acted as chaplain for the regiment. A minister was appointed for Three Rivers in 1768 and one for Sorel in 1783. In 1784 the Loyalists, establishing themselves in the north of the St. Lawrence and founding the Modern Ontario, chaplains were appointed for New Oswegatchie (Prescott), New Johnstone (Cornwall), and Kingston (Cataraqui).
The first Episcopal visitation of an Anglican prelate took place in Canada in 1787, Dr. Inglis, the first bishop of Nova Scotia, and then the only bishop in Canada, being appointed on August 12, 1787. He arrived at Quebec on June 11th. After a fortnight’s visitation he ascended the river, visiting Three Rivers, Sorel and Montreal. At Montreal he found that a part of the Récollect Church was kindly loaned at certain hours for the Protestant services. The city Protestants urged the Bishop to obtain permission from the government for the Jesuits church, now in its hands, the order being suppressed and the church falling into disrepair. The Governor, Lord Dorchester, agreed to place the building in good repair, but the interior of the pews were to be fitted up by the congregation. He proposed that the church be called Christ Church. We may call this the establishment of the Church of England in Montreal.
Christ Church was opened for service on December 20, 1789, when the sermon was preached by Mr. De Lisle. Mr. De Lisle died in 1794, being succeeded by the Rev. James Tunstall, who was followed in 1801 by the Reverend Dr. Mountain, brother of the Rev. Jacob Mountain, who had been appointed in 1793 to the new Anglican see of Quebec. In June, 1803, the church was destroyed by fire. A building committee was appointed, consisting of Doctor Mountain, the Hon. James McGill, George Ogden and the Messrs. Ross, Gray, Frobisher and Sewell. The site of the old French prison (about where No. 23 Notre Dame Street, West, now stands) was granted by the government. The cornerstone was laid in 1805. Meanwhile the Scotch Presbyterian Church of St. Gabriel’s, which had been erected since 1792, was loaned for services. On the 9th of October, 1814, after much delay, the new Christ Church was opened and dedicated. Doctor Mountain died in 1816 and the Rev. John Leeds succeeded. On his resignation in 1818 the Rev. John Bethune was presented by the king as rector under letters patent, which created a rectory and defined the limits of the parish. Thus Christ Church became the Anglican Mother Church of the city.
In 1850 Montreal was made a diocesan see and the Rev. Francis Fulford was appointed by letters patent the first bishop, and Christ Church was named his cathedral. These two seats of letters patent were the beginning of a long dispute as to the limitations of authority within the cathedral. Bishop Fulford was enthroned in Christ Church on September 15th of that year. In 1853 Doctor Bethune became the first dean of Montreal. In 1856, on the night of December 10th, the first cathedral was totally destroyed by fire; the tablets to the memory of the Hon. John Richardson, now in the east transept of the present edifice, and the copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, now hung on the south wall, being among the few objects saved. A new building committee, of which the Hon. George Moffatt and Chief Justice McCord were leading members, then set to work. The present site of the cathedral was chosen, in spite of those who thought it was too far from the city, and in 1859, on November 27th, the beautiful Gothic cathedral, one of the most handsome of its kind on the continent, was opened for worship. In the interval, Gosford Street church was appropriated for worship under the name of St. John’s Chapel. In 1867 the Cathedral was consecrated by the Metropolitan Bishop Fulford. The rectory house was completed in 1877. In 1901 the cathedral act was promoted defining the rights of the rector, the bishop, the archbishop and the primate within the cathedral, and the duties of the cathedral chapter. The following is a list of the rectors of Christ Church and Christ Church Cathedral: 1789, Rev. D.C. De Lisle; 1791, Rev. James Tunstall; 1801, Rev. Dr. Mountain; 1815, Rev. John Leeds; 1818, Rev. John Bethune, afterwards dean; 1872, Rev. Maurice Baldwin, afterwards dean of Montreal and subsequently bishop of Huron; 1884, Rev. J.G. Norton, subsequently archdeacon of Montreal; vicars in charge of the parish, 1902, Rev. F.J. Steen; 1903, Rev. Herbert Symonds.
The Anglican Bishopric of Montreal has its origin as follows:
In 1787 His Majesty, George III, had created Nova Scotia into an Episcopal see, the bishop of the diocese being also granted jurisdiction, spiritual and ecclesiastical, over the province of Quebec as it then existed. In 1793 the bishopric of Quebec was created and curtailed the jurisdiction of Nova Scotia. The first bishop was the Rev. Dr. Jacob Mountain who was succeeded on his death, in 1826, by Bishop Stewart, a younger son of the Earl of Galloway, and when he died, in 1837, Dr. George Jehoshaphat Mountain took charge of the extensive diocese. Dr. G.J. Mountain had been appointed to assist the bishop of Quebec under the title of Bishop of Montreal, but he had no separate jurisdiction nor was any see erected at Montreal. This was divided in 1839 by the creation of a diocese of Toronto, in 1845 by that of Fredericton and by that of Montreal in 1850. The bishops of the diocese of Montreal from this date are: Francis Fulford, September 15, 1850, to September 9, 1868; Ashton Oxenden, August 31, 1869, to May 7, 1878; William Bennett Bond, January 25, 1879, to October 9, 1906; James Carmichael, November 4, 1906, to September 21, 1908; John Farthing, consecrated January 6, 1909.
Of the earliest Anglican churches of the city, the Gosford Street Church, now no longer existent, served as a temporary place of worship for the Christ Church Cathedral congregation between 1856 and 1859 after the fire on Notre Dame Street and saw many vicissitudes. It was purchased by Trinity Church Congregation in 1860 and used for worship till 1865. It then afterwards became the Dominion Theatre. Here Miss Emma Lajeunes of Chambly, afterwards famous as Madame Albani, made a debut as a plain piano player, for as yet she had not discovered the powers of her beautiful voice. In 1871 it was changed to “Debars Opera.” The Cercle Jacques Cartier, a dramatic organization of French-Canadian amateurs, who were the pioneers of the French theatre in America, presented a number of plays there. In 1889, the building passed into the hands of Mgr. Bourget, who placed the property at the disposition of the Union Allet, an organization of Canadian Zouaves, who had fought for the temporal power of Pius IX. It then became a vinegar factory, and when demolished was a carriage depot, and the site has now become, in 1914, that of the City Hall Annex.
The original Trinity Church was built in 1840 on St. Paul Street, immediately opposite the center of Bonsecours Market, at the personal expense of Major William Plenderleath Christie, a son of General Christie of the “Royal Americans,” subsequently designated the Sixtieth Rifles. It was built on a lot 75 feet 6 inches, more or less, in front, by 174 feet, more or less, in depth. This church and its successor are proud of the military associations surrounding it. The edifice is described as an elegant structure, built in the Gothic style, 75 feet long by 44 wide. The first incumbent of the church was the Rev. Mark Willoughby. In 1860 the congregation of Trinity purchased the Gosford Street Church, lately used by the Congregation of Christ Church, under the title of St. John’s Chapel, and worshipped there for five years. The old building on St. Paul Street was torn down and the lot sold. In 1864 the Trinity Church congregation secured the present site of the church at the northwest corner of Viger Square and St. Denis Street. The corner stone was laid on Thursday, June 23, 1864, by the Lord Bishop Metropolitan, Bishop Fulford. It was opened for public worship September 17, 1865. It was consecrated on January 13, 1908, by Bishop Farthing, being his first official act.
The predecessor of St. George’s Church was opened as a proprietary chapel on St. Joseph Street on June 30, 1843, with St. George’s Society present in force. The present St. George’s Church was built in 1870 at the corner of the streets then named St. François de Sales and St. Janvier (now facing Dominion Square). It was opened on October 9th of the same year.
St. Stephen’s Church on Dalhousie Street, Griffintown, was consumed by the great fire of 1850. St. Luke’s Church, at the corner of Champlain Street and Dorchester Street, East, was opened in 1854 and enlarged in 1864. The church of St. James, the Apostle, had its foundation stone laid on July 4, 1853. Its congregation was formed partly of that originally belonging to St. Stephen’s church. St. John, the Evangelist, on Ontario and St. Urbain streets, was built in 1860 and opened in 1861. St. Thomas Church, corner of Sherbrooke, East, and Delorme Avenue, succeeded the former church of the same name on Notre Dame and was conducted by a clergyman of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, but opened for the regular Anglican clergy in 1866. St. Mary’s Church (Hochelaga) dates from 1828, when a stone church was erected on Marlborough Street on a lot presented by a farmer to the Rev. John Bethune, then rector of Christ Church. Shortly after 1851 the church was closed, but was reopened in 1861. In 1889 it was torn down and in 1891 the present church on the corner of Préfontaine and Rouville streets was built. In the meantime the congregation worshipped in a building at 321 Notre Dame Street.
Other Anglican churches are: St. Stephen’s Church, Weredale Park; St. Edward’s Church, corner of St. Paul and the Haymarket; St. Martin’s Church, corner of St. Urbain and Prince Arthur streets; St. Jude’s Church, corner of Coursol and Vinet streets; All Saints Church, corner of St. Denis and Marie Anne streets, East; St. Simon’s Church, corner of Courcelles Street and Notre Dame Street. West: Eglise du Rédempteur, corner Sherbrooke and Cartier streets; Grace Church, 715 Wellington Street; Church of the Advent, corner of Wood Avenue and Western Avenue, Westmount; Church of the Redeemer; St. Clement’s Belcher Memorial Church, Gordon Avenue and Wellington Street, Verdun; the Bishop Carmichael Memorial Church, corner of St. Zotique and Chateaubriand streets; Church of the Good Shepherd, corner of Claremont and Sherbrooke Street; St. Cyprian’s Church, corner Pie IX Avenue and Adam Street, Maisonneauve; St. Augustine’s Church, corner of Dandereau Street and Fourth Avenue, Westmount; St. Margaret’s Church, Longue Pointe Ward.
The Anglican Missions are as follows: St. Thomas Mission, held in Delorme schoolroom; St. Cuthbert’s Mission, corner of Beaumont and King Edward Boulevard; St. Hilda’s Mission, Marquette Street; St. Aidan’s Mission, Hamilton Avenue.
PRESBYTERIANS
Presbyterianism, according to the Rev. Dr. Robert Campbell, in his history of St. Gabriel’s Street Church, started in Montreal in a room in St. Lawrence Suburbs on March 12, 1786, when the meeting for the organization of the first Presbyterian congregation took place. Most of those present were Scotch soldiers of the old Seventy-Eighth, or Fraser Highlanders, who had fought the campaign leading to the conquest of Canada at the capitulation of Montreal in 1760. After the peace of 1763 a large proportion of the Highlanders elected to stay in the country, many settling round Montreal and its district. When the North West Company was organized these men were of the same metal as that adventurous Gaelic band, and of the men now gathered, some “as youths had been actually engaged in the fight at Culloden in 1745, while several were the children or the descendants of those brave men who had stood on the side of ‘Prince Charlie’ on that fated field.” The organizer was the Rev. John Bethune, an ex-chaplain of the Eighty-Fourth Regiment who, however, left Montreal in 1787. His son, the Rev. John Bethune, an Anglican, became afterwards famous as the first principal of McGill University, from 1835 to 1852.
From May, 1787, till 1790 there exists no records of services held according to Presbyterian forms. They seem as said to have followed those of the “Rector of the Parish of Montreal and Chaplain of the Garrison,” the Rev. David Chatbrand De Lisle, a Swiss who spoke English indifferently. The first regular Presbyterian minister was the Rev. John Young, from Schenectady, who was a stormy petrel, but he did good work for eleven years at Montreal. It was he who organized the erection of St. Gabriel’s Street Church, the first regular Protestant Church in Old Canada, prior to 1867, for that chapel erected at Berthier six years earlier by James Cuthbert, seigneur of Berthier, a Scotch Presbyterian, is claimed to have been only in the nature of a private domestic chapel attached to his seigneurial manor. In the interval between 1786 and 1792, occasional services were held in the government property known as the old Jesuit Church, which was also being shared by the Anglicans prior to the erection of the first Christ Church.
The land was bought on St. Gabriel Street on April 2, 1792. Until the church was built the Récollet Fathers allowed the use of their church to the “Society of Presbyterians,” also for occasional services. The fathers refused any remuneration, but were induced to accept a present of two hogsheads of Spanish wine, containing sixty-odd gallons, each, and a box of candles, amounting in all to £14-2-4. The “Scotch Church,” “the Protestant Presbyterian Church” or “the Presbyterian Church of Montreal,” as it was variously called at the time, was built in 1792, Messrs. Telfer and McIntosh executing the mason work and Mr. Joseph Perrault the carpentry work.
The Rev. Mr. Young’s committee were elected on May 8, 1791, to arrange the “temporals” of the congregation, and were mostly good Scotch traders, viz.: Messrs. Richard Dobie, Alex. Henry, Adam Scott, William Stewart, Alex. Fisher, John Lilly, William Hunter, Duncan Fisher, William England, Alex. Hannah, Peter McFarlane, George Kay, John Robb, Thomas Baker, John Empey, John Russell. Of these nine were to be sufficient to form a quorum.
The list of subscribers to the church building fund reveals the names of most of the principal merchants at this time, as well as those of the “Gentlemen of the North West,” so that St. Gabriel’s was a weighty congregation. But although Protestants, the worshippers were not all Scotch or Presbyterians. Doctor Campbell points out John Gregory, Joseph Frobisher, Benaiah Gibb, Thomas Baker, John Molson, James Woolrich, J.A. Gray, Thomas Busby, R. Brooks and John Gray, as Englishmen; Sir John Johnson, Andrew Todd, Thomas Sullivan, Isaac Todd and John Neagles, Irishmen; John J. Deihl and Andrew Winclefoss, Germans; J.H. Germain and François Deslard, Frenchmen; Hannah Empey and Peter Pangman, New England Loyalists, the others being Scots either by birth or descent, some Highlanders, others Lowlanders.
A portion separated from the Mother Church and formed a congregation for themselves on St. Peter Street in 1804, building a church in 1807 opposite to St. Sacrament Street. This was continued by St. Andrew’s (Beaver Hall Hill) Church, opened in 1851. It was then thought to be a long way from the city. It was burnt down in 1869, but was shortly afterwards restored to the original plan.
The next off-shoot from St. Gabriel’s was the predecessor of the present church of St. Paul, erected in 1834 in St. Helen Street, at the corner of Récollet Street, which in 1867 was sold and taken down, and a new church built on the corner of Dorchester Street and St. Geneviève Street. During the interval the congregation worshipped in the Belmont Street Normal School below.
The above scissions had been merely local and physical. But the greatest crisis in the history of the old church of St. Gabriel was caused by the great constitutional Free Church controversy, being agitatedly carried on in the parent church of Scotland and necessarily duplicated in the loyal colonial presbytery of Montreal. So that from 1830 bitter and personal rancours cleft the community.
The crisis was brought about by the Rev. Henry Esson, of St. Gabriel’s Street Church, who seceded about 1844 from the Synod of Canada in connection with the church of Scotland. The members who desired to remain with St. Gabriel’s still clave to the old ways and claimed the Church property, but did not gain possession of it till 1864, but those who followed the Rev. Henry Esson, being the majority--claimed and occupied the temporals on the ground that St. Gabriel’s had never been held in connection with the Established Church of Scotland. But this contention finally failed, for in 1864 St. Gabriel’s reverted to the Church of Scotland on the decision of Government. At this time of the scission of 1843-4 the “Free Church Committee,” which had been formed in the city from different Presbyterian churches, consisted of John Redpath, chairman: James R. Orr, David and Archibald Ferguson, A. McGown, James Morrison, William Hutchison, Alexander Fraser, Donald Fraser, Evander McIvor, William Bethune and William McIntosh. The object was to form a church in connection with the Free Church of Scotland.
Writing in 1893, Mr. John Sterling, an adherent of the Free Kirk movement, speaks of the memorable conflict in the Established Church of Scotland, or the non-intrusion question and its relation to the movement in Montreal which resulted in the Coté Street Free Church.
This conflict lasted for about ten years, and culminated in the disruption of the church, on the 18th day of May, 1843, when 474 of its ministers and missionaries, for conscience sake, severed their connection with it, and constituted themselves into a body called the “Free Church of Scotland,” giving up their churches, their manses, their livings, and risking every worldly prospect, going forth with their wives and families, not knowing what might befall them, but with a clear conscience, trusting in God for the future, whatever it might be--one of the noblest sacrifices for principle that the world has ever seen.
During all the time of the conflict, many of the members of the Presbyterian churches of this city, in connection with the Established Church of Scotland, strongly sympathized with the non-intrusion movement, and on the disruption taking place, considered it their duty to manifest their sympathy with the Free Church principles. At that time (1843-44) there were five Presbyterian Churches in this city, viz.: St. Gabriel’s Street Church, St. Andrew’s Church, St. Paul’s Church, Lagauchetiere Street Church, and the American Presbyterian Church, the first three of which were in connection with the Established Church of Scotland. The first concerted movement in this direction took place on the 10th day of January, 1844, when twelve ardent and good men, who might well be called the twelve apostles of the Free Church in Canada, met together and called themselves the Free Church Committee, others joining them afterwards, their object being to extend and propagate Free Church principles. The ultimate result of the work of this committee was that in May, 1845, a new Presbyterian congregation was formed in Montreal, which worshipped for a time in a wooden building on Lagauchetiere Street, near the head of Cote Street, which had been hastily and cheaply erected, being only intended to accommodate the congregation temporarily, until the projected new church to be built on Cote Street should be ready for occupation.
At this time (1845) this locality was most respectable and quite uptown, and the new church which was proposed to be erected there, turned out to be the largest and finest Presbyterian church building of its day in the city. It was opened for public worship on Sabbath, the 16th day of May, 1848, and the name chosen for it was the “Free Church, Coté Street.”
The population of the city had increased threefold, and the character of the locality by 1877 had entirely changed. The Protestant part of the population had mostly removed westwards to an inconvenient distance from the church, and the remnant were gradually moving away in the same direction, and the consequent dropping off of families and members, who were joining churches much more convenient to their dwellings, made the absolute necessity of the removing the church building westwards, quite apparent.
Consequently it was then decided to build uptown and the Crescent Street Presbyterian Church was commenced early in the fall of 1876, the corner-stone being laid on May 5, 1877, and the church being opened for service on March 10, 1878.
Beside the Coté Street secession from St. Gabriel’s which is now continued by the Crescent Street Church, the Knox Church organization is now to be described: The free church movement in Canada ended in a secession, not a disruption. Accordingly after the dispute relating to the temporals of St. Gabriel’s Street Church the seceding body in 1864 agreed to retire and formed the session of Knox church. This held its last meeting in St. Gabriel’s Street Church on July 31, 1865, and the last meeting of the Knox congregation for worship there was on October 31, 1865. The Knox Church at the corner of Mansfield and Dorchester Street was opened for divine service December 3, 1865. According to the Reverend Doctor Campbell this church represents de facto, but not de jure, the original congregation established in 1786.
The St. Gabriel’s Street Church was sold to the Government in 1886 and the congregation migrated to the New St. Gabriel’s Church on St. Catherine Street opposite the present St. James Methodist Church. This was demolished in 1909. St. Gabriel’s legitimate successor is the First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Prince Arthur and Mance streets.
Intervening between the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Free Kirk Secession, there remains to be chronicled the settlement of the American Presbyterian church in Montreal which arose originally through the secession from St. Gabriel’s Street Church in 1803, and later through a succession from Mr. Easton’s church on St. Peter Street which by a change of name in 1824 became the first St. Andrew’s Church.
The American Presbyterian Church was the result of the minority of Mr. Easton’s church on St. Peter Street becoming offended at the resolution of the majority to procure a minister of the Established Church of Scotland, withdrawing from what henceforth became St. Andrew’s Church, so that a new congregation was formed on December 15, 1822. This organized the first church at the corner of St. James Street and Victoria Square, which was opened on December 1, 1826. It was called “American” because it was recognized by the Presbytery of New York, as under its care on March 23, 1823; otherwise it was Canadian in the composition of its membership. The second church, that of today, on Dorchester Street, was opened on June 24, 1866.
It is not necessary to pursue further the story of the various off-shoots of the Presbyterian churches. Suffice it to say that in June, 1875, in Montreal the Presbyterian church of Canada, in connection with the Church of Scotland, the Canada Presbyterian Church of the Lower provinces, the Presbyterian Church of the Maritime provinces, in connection with the Church of Scotland, united and became the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The St. Andrew’s Church remained, however, in connection with the Church of Scotland.
The Presbyterian churches in the city today are: St. Andrew’s Church (Church of Scotland), Beaver Hall Hill; St. Paul’s Church, corner of Dorchester West and St. Monique Street; the American Presbyterian Church, corner of Dorchester and Drummond streets; Knox Church, Dorchester Street, West, corner of Mansfield Street; St. John’s Church (French Presbyterian), St. Catherine and Cadieux streets; St. Mathew’s Church, corner of Bourgeoys and Wellington streets; Calvin Presbyterian Church, 946 Notre Dame West; First Presbyterian Church, corner of Prince Arthur and St. Lawrence Boulevard; Erskine Church, Sherbrooke Street, West, corner of Ontario Avenue; Crescent Street Presbyterian Church, corner of Dorchester Street, West and Crescent Street; Stanley Street Church, 96 Stanley Street, near Windsor Hotel; St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, William and Dalhousie streets; Taylor Church, Papineau Avenue and Logan Street; St. Giles Presbyterian Church, St. Denis, corner of St. Joseph Boulevard; Victoria Church, corner of Conway and Menai streets; Westminster Presbyterian Church, Atwater Avenue, Westmount; Montreal West Presbyterian Church; Melville Presbyterian Church, Elgin Avenue, Westmount Park; St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Stanton Street and Coté St. Antoine Road; Maisonneuve Presbyterian Church, corner of Letourneux Avenue and Adam Street, Maisonneuve; Salem Welsh Presbyterian Church, Alexandra Rooms, 314 St. Catherine, West; Fairmount Presbyterian Church, corner of Masson and Papineau streets; McVicar Memorial Church, St. Viateur Avenue, West, corner of Hutchinson Street; Verdun Presbyterian Church, 47 Ross Street, Verdun.
Presbyterian missions are: Nazareth Street Mission, corner of Wellington and Nazareth streets; St. Paul’s Mission, 184 St. Charles Street.
THE METHODISTS
The first chapel of the Wesleyan Methodists, opened in 1809, was situated on St. Joseph Street, afterwards called St. Sulpice. In 1821 the Congregation moved to the corner of St. François Xavier and St. James streets, when the old chapel became the first public newsroom of Montreal. In 1845 the Great St. James Street Methodist Church was erected with an entrance on St. James Street and two on Fortification Lane. This church was burnt down. In the meantime a Methodist church had been erected in Griffintown, called the Ottawa Street Church, on Wellington Street, close to where Duke Street now stands. This was also burnt down and it was replaced in 1846 by the church on the corner of St. Ann and Ottawa streets. In 1845 another church was opened on Lagauchetière Street, at the corner of Durham Street. In 1857, in August, the new Connexion Methodist Salem Chapel on Panet Street was opened, followed on September 26, 1858, by Ebenezer Chapel, on Dupré Street. In 1864, there was a movement, for expansion among the Wesleyan Methodist body, which had for its result the Sherbrooke Street Church, corner of St. Charles Borromee and Sherbrooke Street, West, of which the foundation stone was laid on July 5, 1864, and the opening occurred on May 21, 1865. The foundation stone of the Dorchester Street Church, corner of Windsor Street and the Point St. Charles Church on Wellington Street, were laid on Saturday, October 1, 1864. The Centenary Methodist Church was built in 1865 at the corner of Wellington Street and was rebuilt in 1891 at the corner of Charron and Wellington streets.
The other Methodist churches in the city are, St. James Methodist Church (St. Catherine Street, corner of St. Alexander Street); Mountain Street Methodist Church (corner of Mountain and Torrance Street); Douglas Methodist Church (corner of Chomedy and St. Catherine Street, West); Dominion Square Methodist Church (Dorchester Street, corner of Windsor); West End Methodist Church (corner of Canning and Coursel Street); East End Methodist Church (corner Cartier and DeMartigny streets); Fairmount Avenue Methodist Church (corner of Hutchison Street and Fairmount Avenue, West); Marlborough Street Methodist Church; Mount Royal Avenue Methodist Church; Ebenezer Methodist Church (corner of St. Antoine and Convent streets); Westmount Methodist Church (corner of Lansdowne Avenue and Western Avenue); Verdun Methodist Church (86 Gordon Avenue, Verdun); Huntley Street Methodist Church (Huntley Street near St. Zotique Street); First French Methodist Church (services held in the lecture room of St. James Methodist Church); and Eglise Méthodiste Française (De Lisle Street).
In giving the above list of churches it has not been thought necessary to pursue the later history of their separate cessions, or off-shoots from the parent churches. It is sufficient to note that on August 29, 1883, at Belleville, Ontario, the Methodist Church of Canada, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada, the Protestant Methodist Church in Canada and the Bible Christian church of Canada, united and became the Methodist Church of Canada.
BAPTIST CHURCHES
As early as 1820,[1] a number of Baptists in the city met in the parlour of the residence of Mr. Ebenezer Muir “for the worship of God and mutual edification” each Lord’s day for ten consecutive years. In 1830, they invited the Rev. John Gilmour of Aberdeen, Scotland, to come to Canada and lead the little flock into larger fields.
On the 12th day of September of the same year, two days after landing, Mr. Gilmour, missionary of God, preached his first sermon to his new charge in this new land in what was then known as the Bruce Schoolroom on McGill Street.
This little band opened their new chapel, situated on St. Helen Street and completed at the cost of £935-0-1 of which £572-10-9 were paid before its opening, leaving a debt of £362-9-4 due to two of their own members, John Fry and Ebenezer Muir, in equal parts of £181-4-8 each. On the 13th day of November, 1831, the First Baptist Church was regularly organized in this building with twenty-five constituent members. A marble tablet placed on the wall of Gault Bros’ wholesale establishment on St. Helen Street bears the following inscription:--
Here Stood The First Baptist Chapel of Montreal, 1831. The Rev. John Gilmour, Pastor. Abandoned, 1860.
Immediately underneath this tablet there is another which illustrates the spirit of Christian enterprise and helpfulness that characterized this mother church in her early days, as follows:
This Tablet Commemorates the Organization on this Site of the First Young Men’s Christian Association on the American Continent. November, 1851, Erected on the Occasion of the Jubilee Celebration, June 8, 1901.
It may not be very widely known that the first Young Men’s Christian Association on this continent was organized by a member of the First Baptist Church, Mr. T.J. Claxton, in the First Baptist Church and especially for the young men who were members of this church and their Christian associates in the city.
The period from Mr. Gilmour’s resignation in 1835 to the building of the Beaver Hall Hill Chapel, was one of trial and testing but finally of establishment and triumph. The following are the names of the pastors who served the church during this time, with the dates on which they took charge:--Rev. Newton Bosworth, September 29, 1835; Rev. John Hatch Waldon, September 19, 1837; Rev. Beniah Hoe, September 18, 1839; Rev. John Girdwood, June 21, 1841; Rev. Thomas Spalding, April 19, 1851; Rev. Phaucellus Church, January 5, 1853; Rev. James Lillie, D.D., November 29, 1853; Rev. J.N. Williams, April 20, 1856; Rev. John Goadby, D.D., May 1, 1859--nine pastors in twenty-six years, or an average of a little less than three years each, indicating an unsettled period in the history of the church, yet one that laid solid foundation for future work.
With the advent of Doctor Goadby, May 1, 1859, the church entered upon a second stage or epoch in her history which we can properly designate the growing and multiplying period.
The church, under the leadership of Doctor Goadby, with a membership of 160, decided to build a house of worship in a more residential and convenient location than St. Helen Street was. With this end in view a site was secured at the corner of Beaver Hall Hill and Lagauchetiere Street on which a beautiful and up-to-date church home, with excellent equipment for Sunday-school work and other departments of Christian activity, was erected at the cost of $25,000. This was opened in January, 1862, and sold in 1878 to the Reformed Episcopal Church. On the twenty-seventh day of March, 1863, the Rev. John Alexander accepted the pastorate of this church. During his incumbency the church entered upon a period of uninterrupted prosperity; constant accessions were made to its membership.
In 1864 a mission was started in the East end of the city in the lecture room of the German Lutheran Church on St. Dominique Street, with a Sunday-school of twenty-eight scholars and eight teachers. Shortly after the starting of this school a Thursday evening prayer meeting and a Sunday evening service were commenced. These, after the lapse of some time, outgrew their accommodation and in 1868 Mr. T.J. Claxton and other members of the church erected a commodious building on the corner of St. Catherine and St. Justin streets, afterwards known as Russell Hall, for the accommodation of this mission. This building was called Russell Hall in honor of Major General Russell of the British Army, a loyal Baptist, who at the time resided in this city and who in every possible way supported the work of this mission.
Russell Hall Sunday-school, under the leadership of Mr. T.J. Claxton, was for some years, from the numerical standpoint at least, one of the most successful in connection with the Baptist denomination, the enrollment reaching 600 and the average attendance 500. On September 3, 1869, through the advice of a large council called for the purpose, this mission was organized into a regular Baptist church of which Rev. Robert Cade, ordained by the same council, was chosen pastor.
In 1875 building on St. Catherine Street, at present occupied by the First Baptist Church, was erected as the house of worship for the St. Catherine Street Church, at the cost of about $60,000, in which they continued to worship in their separate capacity for three years. During the period between 1869 and 1878 the following were the pastors:--Rev. Robert Cade, 1869-70; Rev. J. Denovan, afterwards Doctor Denovan, 1870-77; Rev. J.L. Campbell, now Doctor Campbell of the First Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1877-78; during his pastorate the union between the St. Catherine Street and First Churches was consummated.
Going back now to the point, in 1864, at which we diverged from the history of the First Baptist Church, in tracing the story of Russell Hall Mission and St. Catherine Street Church, we find that after the lapse of about two years, in 1866, another mission was started at Point St. Charles which shortly afterwards was organized into an independent church that gave great promise of usefulness in that interesting community, with Rev. Thomas Gale as its pastor. Mr. T.J. Claxton of the First Church erected a building for the accommodation of the Point St. Charles interest. We find, however, that this church disbanded, the cause for which, owing to lack of information, we are unable to state nor are we able to say what disposition was made of the building nor with what church did the remnant of the membership unite.
In the year 1875 eighty-five members withdrew from the First Church in order to organize the Olivet Baptist Church. In after years many other members withdrew and united with this church. While the First Church and its affiliated institutions suffered greatly by this movement yet the after history of both the First and Olivet Churches clearly shows that no single Baptist church could, in the City of Montreal, be as strong and influential as the two have been and are now.
In 1878 the First Baptist Church worshipping in the house of Beaver Hall Hill and the St. Catherine Street Church worshipping in the building on the corner of St. Catherine and City Councillor streets united, this united body to be known as the First Baptist Church, making the house on St. Catherine Street, in which they now worship, their church home. The house on Beaver Hall Hill was at that time sold to the Reformed Episcopal church for the sum of $25,000. The Rev. J.L. Campbell, pastor of the St. Catherine Street Church, retiring, the Rev. A.H. Munroe, pastor of the First Church continued to shepherd the united flock.
During this interesting section of the growing and multiplying period of the church’s history, lying between the erection of the Beaver Hall Hill house of worship and the union of the First and St. Catherine Street Churches, the following were the pastors of the First Church:--Rev. John Goadby, D.D., May 1, 1859; Rev. John Alexander, March 27, 1863; Rev. William Cheetham, 1870; Rev. A.H. Munroe, 1876.
Between the years 1881 and 1886 two missions were started by individual members of the church, one at Cote St. Louis and the other at St. Louis de Mile End, both of which continued for some time and gave promise of considerable success. Owing, however, to the lack of helpers, the former was by the discouraged workers handed over to Canon Evans of the Anglican Church who had a mission in that neighborhood, and so has become the nucleus of that which is now All Saints’ Church; and the latter was closed because the workers united with the band that withdrew to organize Grace Baptist Church.
In the year 1888 the Gain Street Church was started as another mission and Sunday-school in the East End of the city to which in 1897 a number of members were dismissed to organize it into an independent church.
In 1890, during the months of March and April, thirty-four members of the First Baptist Church were dismissed in order to organize with the St. Louis de Mile End workers, the Grace Baptist Church, now known as the Westmount Baptist Church. In 1902 the First Church assumed charge of the North Baptist Mission on St. Urbain Street and Duluth Avenue. About this time another mission was started on Berri Street, not under the auspices of this church, but successfully carried on by one of its deacons--Mr. John Ede, who had associated with him a number of the members of this church and other workers.
More recently the North Mission property was sold to the Protestant school commissioners. On the completion of the Temple Baptist Church (corner of Park and Laurier avenues) the Berri Street Mission lapsed and its workers returned to the First Baptist Church or to the Temple Church, the Rev. Mr. Ede afterwards being called to the Tabernacle Church. The latest church added is the Verdun Baptist Church on Rockland Avenue. Mention must be made of the French Baptist Church L’Oratoire at 14 Mance Street, above Sherbrooke Street.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
Organized Canadian Congregationalism began in Montreal in 1829 when the Canada Education and Home Missionary Society was founded in Montreal with Mr. Henry Wilkes, then a young man in business, as its first secretary. This society was designed to support pioneer Presbyterian, Baptist or Congregational ministers. There had been, however, previous sporadic and unorganized attempts at church establishment in upper Canada. One such was that founded in 1817 by a Congregational minister, the Rev. Joseph Silcox, bearing the extraordinary title of “The Congregational Presbyterian Prince of Peace Society.” Mr. Wilkes went to Scotland shortly after the formation of the Montreal society and while a church student in Glasgow induced some ministers, among them the Rev. Richard Miles, to come to Canada. The Rev. Richard Miles came to Montreal in 1831, while Rev. Adam Lillie went to Brantford in 1833. The visit of the Reverend Doctors Reed and Matheson, delegates from England to the American churches in 1834, who also made a trip through Canada, led the foreign missionary society to send out some missionaries here, and in 1836, under Mr. Wilkes’ leadership, the Colonial Missonary Society, still the foster mother of Canadian Congregationalism, was organized in Montreal. The Rev. Mr. Wilkes became the agent in Montreal and the Rev. Mr. Roaf in Toronto.
The first Congregational Church was opened for service on St. Maurice Street on the second Sabbath of February, 1833. This was sold and in 1846 Zion Church was erected. The third church dates to 1868 and was erected at the corner of Amherst and Craig streets. Other churches of a later date are Calvary Church (302 Guy Street), Emanuel Church (Drummond Street, near Sherbrooke Street, West), Zion Congregational Church, Point St. Charles (185 Congregation Street), Bethlehem Congregational Church, corner of Western Avenue and Clark Avenue.
UNITARIAN
The history of the Unitarian movement in Montreal dates from the year 1832, when on the 29th of July the Rev. David Hughes of England preached in the Union School Room at the corner of St. Sacrament and St. Nicholas streets the first Unitarian sermon ever delivered, it is believed, anywhere in Canada. This was the year in which Montreal was devastated by the Asiatic cholera, 1,900 persons dying in four months, out of a population of little more than thirty thousand. Mr. Hughes was one of these victims of the plague, but the work which he had inaugurated survived him. A small band of Unitarian believers secured a place to hold services in a building which was known on account of its location as St. Joseph Street Chapel. Here the Rev. Mr. Angier, an American minister, took charge of the services, and a Sunday School was inaugurated by Mr. Benjamin Workman. A movement was begun by the infant society to acquire land, and erect a church, but the times were unpropitious. A return of the cholera in 1834, together with the subsequent depression of business and the political disturbances which culminated in the Riel Rebellion of 1837, caused so much discouragement that interest flagged, and for a while even the regular services were discontinued. Occasional meetings were, however, held until, in 1841, the movement was definitely renewed under the inspiration chiefly of a few devoted women, prominent among whom were Mrs. Cushing and Mrs. Hedge, whose conviction that the time had come for a new and more vigorous Unitarian propaganda was shared by a group of men whose names have been synonymous with good citizenship and philanthropy in Montreal during more than one generation. Mr. John Frothingham, Mr. Benjamin Workman, Mr. Luther Holton, Mr. William Molson, and Doctor Cushing, were actively interested in the formation of the second Unitarian congregation of Montreal, and their efforts were stimulated by the eloquent preaching of an English minister, the Rev. Mr. Giles, who for several months conducted services in a small building situated at the corner of Fortification Lane and Haymarket Square. Subsequently an invitation was extended by this small company of worshippers to the Rev. John Cordner, of Belfast, Ireland, to become their first settled pastor. Mr. Cordner, who preached his first sermon in Montreal in November, 1843, had been ordained by the Remonstrant Synod of Ulster, and his congregation remained for several years in official relation with the Irish Synod. In 1858 this alliance was dissolved, and the Montreal Church united in fellowship with its nearest neighbor, the American Unitarian Association, having headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. During its early years of struggle financial aid, as well as friendly interest and the service of visiting ministers, had been given by this Association to the Montreal congregation, and it was with their assistance that, in 1844, a piece of land was purchased and a church building erected on Beaver Hall Hill on a site once occupied by the old Frobisher mansion, historically connected with the early development of the fur-trade in Canada, and with the pioneer days of the North West Company. In the following year the Unitarian congregation received legal status by Act of Parliament, and its ministers were authorized to keep record of civil acts required of all settled pastors under the laws of the Province. By 1857 the congregation had outgrown its first building, and a new place of worship was erected which, with its simple dignified architecture, and beautiful spire, remained for fifty years a well-known landmark of the city, under the name at this time adopted, the Church of the Messiah.
In 1869 this building was seriously damaged by fire, and during the time when it was undergoing repairs its congregation worshiped in the hall of the St. Patrick’s Association in response to the generous invitation of the Rev. Father Dowd.
Towards the end of his long pastorate of thirty-six years Doctor Cordner was assisted, first by the Rev. Edward Hayward for a period of one year, and afterwards, by the Rev. J.B. Green, during three years. In 1879 when Doctor Cordner’s advancing years made it desirable for him to retire from the active duties of the ministry he was succeeded by the Rev. William S. Barnes, of Boston.
Like his predecessor Mr. Barnes enjoyed a long pastorate, serving his congregation faithfully for thirty years. Of each of these ministers it may truly be said that he gained a unique place in the affection of his congregation, combined with one of honor and respect from the community at large. Each was distinguished by a life of constant devotion to the service of his ideals, and the duties of his pastorate, by unusual intellectual gifts, and by great pulpit eloquence. The University of McGill recognized the ability and public services of both ministers by awarding to them the degree of LL. D. The story of the growth and unification of the Church of the Messiah is largely the story of the devoted lives of the two ministers who occupied its pulpit for a combined period of nearly seventy years.
In 1905 the congregation decided that, owing to the movement of the population uptown, and away from the old-time centers, the situation of its place of worship had become inconveniently remote, and the property was therefore sold, and a new church building erected at the corner of Sherbrooke West and Simpson streets. The new building, considered to be architecturally one of the most successful erections of the city, owes much of its harmony of design and execution to the artistic taste and culture of Dr. Barnes, who felt its erection to be the culmination of his life-work.
HEBREW SYNAGOGUES
Jewish settlers arrived in Canada towards the close of the period of French rule. Among the officers and soldiers who fought in the armies of Amherst and Wolfe were a number of men of the Hebrew race who did their modest share towards assisting in the conquest of the country and making it a part of the British Empire. When they became sufficiently numerous to establish their first Jewish congregation in Montreal, Canada, in 1768, they followed the ritual of the Spanish and Portuguese or Sephardic Jews. This congregation took the name of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, “Shearith Israel,” and the Congregation has continued ever since in existence, being one of the most ancient of the Jewish congregations in America. It at present worships on Stanley Street above St. Catherine. The first place of worship was in a room or hall on St. James Street, but in 1777 there was built the first regular synagogue building on a lot of land belonging to David David, son of Lazarus David, the first Jewish settler in this city. The building was described as a low walled edifice of stone with a red roof and high white-washed wall enclosing it. It stood on Notre Dame Street at the junction of St. James Street adjoining the present Court House and had an entrance on either side. Shortly after the erection of this synagogue the Congregation bought its first lot of land for a cemetery on St. Janvier Street near what is now known as Dominion Square.
The first synagogue built near the Court House had to be abandoned on account of the land on which it was built reverting to the David family after the death of David David, and after worshipping temporarily at the south-west corner of St. Helen and Recollet streets, the second synagogue building of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation was erected on Chenneville Street in 1835 and completed in 1838. It was a small but dignified stone building with a Doric portico and quasi-Egyptian interior. The work was mainly carried out under the direction of Moses J. Hays, a son of Andrew Hays, one of the earliest Jewish colonists, and he was at that time a trustee of the Congregation.
When the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue was founded its first rabbi was the Rev. Jacob Raphael Cohen, who came to Montreal in 1778, and held office for a number of years. He was succeeded by M. Levy, and after him came Isaac Valentine. Rev. David Piza was appointed minister of the Congregation in 1840 and held office for six years, when he returned to London and became one of the ministers of the Sephardic congregation there.
In 1846 the Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., of London, England, was elected rabbi and arrived in Canada early in the following year. Dr. Abraham de Sola belonged to a family that had long been prominent in the annals of the Jewish people in Spain and afterwards in Holland and in England. His mother was of the equally distinguished Meldola family. For over thirty-five years he remained the spiritual chief of the Sephardic Jews in this country. He died in 1882 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Rev. Meldola de Sola.
In 1890 the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Congregation removed to a new synagogue building which they had erected on Stanley Street above St. Catherine. The corner stone had been laid three years previously. Its architectural features are interesting as being a conscientious attempt to carry out a pseudo Judeo-Egyptian style with considerable success. Its design was due to Mr. Clarence I. de Sola, one of the sons of Dr. Abraham de Sola, who directed its erection and who had much to do with the carrying out of the undertaking.
In the same year the Spanish and Portuguese Jews obtained a new act of incorporation from the Provincial Parliament, its earlier act of incorporation proving now inadequate to the needs of the growing body.
Up to the year 1846 the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation, “Shearith Israel” had remained the only Jewish Congregation in Montreal, but during that year a number of recently arrived German and Polish Jews established a second synagogue, and in consequence of this a joint act of Parliament had been secured for the two congregations. The second congregation, however, existed only for a very short time, as its members were very few in number so that they disbanded and joined the original Spanish and Portuguese Congregation. In 1857-58, however, a number of new arrivals of Jews from Poland, availing themselves of the act of incorporation that had been obtained by their predecessors, organized in 1858, what is now known as the Congregation of German and Polish Jews, “Shaar Hashamoyim.” They gathered regularly for worship about 1860 and erected their first synagogue on St. Constant Street, now known as Cadieux Street. Among the founders of the congregation were A. Hoffmann, M.A. Olandorff, Edward Hymes and Lewis Anthony and were shortly afterwards joined by David Moss, Edward Moss, Lawrence Moss and Solomon Silvermann. The members of the Moss family were long among the most prominent of the leaders in this synagogue and were active here in Jewish communal affairs for two generations. Among those of the younger generation of this family were Samuel D. Moss, Hyman D. Moss and John Moss, who all in turn held office in “Shaar Hashamoyim.” Among others who occupied the office of president of this congregation were Lyon Silverman, Moses Vineberg and D.A. Ansell. In 1887 the congregation built a new synagogue in McGill College Avenue. During recent years it has grown immensely in membership. This has been notably the case under the administration of its late president, Mr. Lazarus Cohen, as well as during the administration of his son, Mr. Lyon Cohen, both of whom have been very active and capable workers in the Jewish community of to-day. So well, indeed, have these men and their associates managed the affairs of the Congregation that they have already acquired land near Atwater Avenue and St. Luke Street to put up a much larger synagogue to meet the demands of its ever-growing membership. The first regular rabbi of Congregation “Shaar Hashamoyim” was the Rev. Mr. Foss and among his successors were the Rev. I.M. Cohen, Rev. E.M. Myers, Rev. L. Friedlander, Rev. Isador Myers and the Rev. B. Kaplan. The present incumbent of the office is the Rev. Dr. Hermann Abramowitz.
Up to the year 1881 the Jewish population of Montreal was not large, and the membership of the two congregations which then existed was, in consequence, limited; but the terrible outbreak of persecution of Jews in Russia in 1881 and the recurrence of these outbreaks periodically in the following decades resulted in immense numbers of Jews immigrating from Russia to Canada and other countries. As a result the Jewish population of Montreal increased by tens of thousands in a very short time, and it is estimated that to-day there are in this city alone fully 60,000 Jews. One of the results was the formation of a large number of new Jewish congregations and the erection of quite a number of commodious synagogues. Among these are the Congregation of “B’Nai Jacob,” which erected a new building on the site of the old one in Cadieux Street. Among its founders were L. Aaronson and L. Lazarus. The Roumanian Jews formed the Congregation “Beth David,” and purchased the Chenneville Street building from its former occupants after they had altered it considerably. Shortly afterwards the Congregation “Chevra Kadisha” was formed, and they erected their present handsome building on St. Urbain Street, while the Austrian Jews erected a large synagogue on Milton Street. The building of new synagogues has continued apace, and the formation of new congregations of Hebrews is a common occurrence.
All the congregations referred to above follow the customs of traditional or orthodox Judaism, but in 1882 a small number of gentlemen who favored the principles of American Reform Judaism met in the old Lindsay Building on St. Catherine Street to form a “Reform” congregation, and thus was founded what is now known as Congregation Temple Emanuel. They held their first services in the autumn of 1882 and obtained an act of incorporation in March, 1883. Among the founders of this congregation were B.A. Boas, B. Kortosk, Leopold Isaacs, L. Abrahams, E. Lichtenhein, S. Fishel, and A. Goldstein. They were soon afterwards joined by Samuel Davis, who for a number of years held office as president and who was a popular member of the reform community. They first rented a building but afterwards erected a temple on Stanley Street, in the rear of the Windsor Hotel. On September 17, 1911, they dedicated their new temple building on Sherbrooke Street, West, near Westmount. This Congregation is up to the present the only one following the Reform ritual in Canada, and although they form but a small minority of the total community, they have adhered to their views in a typical manner. Their present president is Mr. Maxwell Goldstein, K.C. Their first minister was the Rev. Samuel Marks, who was followed among others by the Rev. H. Veld, and Rev. Isaac Landman. Their present rabbi is the Rev. Nathan Gordon.
THE SALVATION ARMY
The religious work of the Salvation Army began in Montreal on the 13th of November, 1884, with the following as the first corps of officers: Commissioner T.B. Combs, territorial commander, in charge of the work throughout Canada; Staff Commander Madden, divisional commander; Captain and Mrs. “Happy Bill” Cooper, corps officers; assisted by Lieutenant Eva Lewis. It met initial difficulties, principally in the injunction that forbade the holding of meetings unless they kept moving, which was circumvented by moving around in a circle at the same spot, a necessity which was finally allowed to drop.
The first corps held its meetings for the first two years in Webber’s Hall, which stood on the site of the present Canadian Northern Steamship Company’s building on Dollard Lane and St. James Street. Next the Mechanic’s Hall, on St. James and St. Peter streets was used as a meeting place for six months. The next location was the basement of Leggett’s boot and shoe factory at the corner of Craig and Victoria streets, where the present Greenshield’s building stands, until the St. Alexander Street building was erected.
This was the citadel and training home for officers and the main corps of the army. The fine structure on University Street, the divisional headquarters, was erected in 1903, and the building on St. Alexander Street was altered entirely to become the present “Metropole” for social relief work. The University Street building, in addition to serving as the divisional headquarters of the Army also houses the finance and immigration departments and is the home of Corps No. 1, and includes the Young Women’s Lodge.
Following the opening of the work by Corps No. 1, Corps No. 2 was organized in Point St. Charles on March 15, 1885.
Corps No. 3, the French Corps, opened its work on the 9th of December, 1887, in a little store on St. Lawrence Main and St. Viateur streets. French-speaking officers, brought over from Paris, organized the work and still continue in charge of its affairs. This little home was at first the scene of much turmoil, many serious fights occurring in which chairs and other weapons were freely used, but out of this grew, with the passing of the years, the present strong, harmonious body.
On the 30th of June, 1890, Corps No. 4 was formed in the East End, and on April 5, 1905, Corps No. 5 on St. Alexander Street, which is the Men’s Social Corps. Corps No. 6, the most recent to be organized, began its work on June 25, 1914, in Verdun.
It is difficult to account fully for the origin of other religious bodies in the city. The German Lutherans established their church in 1858 on St. Dominique Street, immediately in the rear of St. Lawrence market. It is now occupied by the “Temple of Labour.” The Swedenborgians were established on Dorchester Street, corner of Hanover, in 1862. The Assembly of Christians, at the corner of St. George Street and Fortification Lane, about the same period. The French Evangelical Church, on Craig Street, was established in 1864. Lovell’s directory of today gives the location of the following churches: Christian Science--First Church of Christ Scientist--41 and 43 Closse Street, Western Square: New Jerusalem Church, corner of Dorchester West and Hanover Street; Lutheran Churches--St. John’s Church (German Lutheran), corner of Mance and Prince Arthur Street; Church of the Redeemer (Evangelical Lutheran), 365 Mountain Street; Catholic Apostolic Church, 314 St. Catherine Street, West; Church of Christ (Disciples), 109 Fairmount, corner of Mance Street; Seventh Day Adventist Church, corner of Villeneuve, West, and Hutchison streets; Montreal Chinese Mission (Protestant), 336 Lagauchitiere Street, West; Undenominational Mission (City), 294-296 Cadieux Street; Desrivières Street Mission; Italian Methodist Mission, corner of Dorchester Street, West, and St. Urbain. The following charts will provide the curious student the religious origins of our population as revealed by the census of 1911.
RELIGIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL, 1911.
|Total |Population | |Adventists | | |Anglicans | | | |Baptists | | | | |Brethren | | | | | |Christians | | | | | | |Congregationalists Districts | | | | | | | |Disciples and | | | | | | | | |Friends Sub-districts | | | | | | | | | |Greek | | | | | | | | | | Church | | | | | | | | | | |Jews MONTREAL-STE. ANNE | 21,676| --| 2,385| 174|--|--| 67| --| --| 122| 841 Centre ward | 458| --| 7| -- |--|--| --| --| --| 22| -- Ste. Anne ward | 20,992| --| 2,334| 173|--|--| 67| --| --| 100| 833 West ward | 226| --| 44| 1|--|--| --| --| --| -- | 8 | | | | | | | | | | | MONTREAL-ST. ANTOINE | 48,638| 6|10,653| 840|18| 9|453| 10| 4| 111| 1,247 St. Joseph ward | 17,879| --| 2,241| 340|--| 1| 40| --| 1| 61| 483 St. Georges ward | 13,844| 1| 4,373| 241|18| 8|186| 2| 3| 45| 419 St. Andrews ward | 16,915| 5| 4,039| 259|--|--|227| 8| --| 5| 345 | | | | | | | | | | | MONTREAL-ST. JACQUES | 44,057| 1| 429| 45| 2| 3| 15| --| --| 188| 547 East ward | 3,561| --| 17| -- |--|--| 1| --| --| 118| 1 Lafontaine ward | 25,026| --| 348| 37|--| 3| 11| --| --| 13| 409 St. James ward | 15,470| 1| 64| 8| 2|--| 3| --| --| 57| 137 | | | | | | | | | | | MONTREAL-ST. LAURENT | 55,860| 2| 4,109| 280|23|14|205| 2| 4| 411|19,193 St. Laurent ward | 25,039| 2| 3,342| 197|12| 1|170| 2| 4| 165| 7,712 St. Louis ward | 30,821| --| 767| 83|11|13| 35| --| --| 246|11,481 | | | | | | | | | | | MONTREAL-STE. MARIE | 54,910| --| 1,651| 113|--|11| 12| --| --| 42| 326 Papineau ward | 39,079| --| 1,409| 67|--|--| 12| --| --| 39| 292 Ste. Marie ward | 15,831| --| 242| 46|--|11| --| --| --| 3| 34 | | | | | | | | | | | HOCHELAGA | 75,049| 3| 9,302| 954|48|--|698| 3| 1| 44| 580 Ste. Cunégonde ward | 11,174| 3| 658| 44| 1|--| 31| --| --| 9| 102 St. Gabriel ward | 18,961| --| 2,855| 278| 8|--|323| --| --| 11| 54 St. Henri ward | 30,335| --| 1,560| 113| 4|--| 19| 3| --| 15| 50 Westmount | 14,579| --| 4,229| 519|35|--|325| --| 1| 9| 374 | | | | | | | | | | | JACQUES-CARTIER | 65,023| 4| 8,905| 511|63| 8|201| 2| --| 236| 541 Côte St. Paul | 3,421| --| 732| 16| 4|--| 10| --| --| -- | 6 Notre-Dame des | | | | | | | | | | | Neiges | 912| --| 46| -- |--| 4| --| --| --| -- | 8 Présentation de la | | | | | | | | | | | Ste. Vierge | 221| --| -- | 3|--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- Saints-Anges de | | | | | | | | | | | Lachine | 828| --| 106| 18|--|--| --| --| --| -- | 13 Ste. Anne du Bout de| | | | | | | | | | | l’Ile | 813| --| 98| 1|--|--| --| --| --| -- | 8 Ste. Geneviève | 1,075| --| -- | -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- St. Joachim de la | | | | | | | | | | | Pointe Claire | 805| --| 91| 4 |--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- St. Laurent | 2,228| --| 258| 10 | 7|--| --| --| --| -- | 9 St. Raphaël de l’Ile| | | | | | | | | | | Bizard | 586| --| 1| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- Summerlea | 161| --| 33| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | 3 Beaconsfield | 375| --| 70| -- |--|--| 2| --| --| -- | 2 Dorval | 1,006| --| 184| 6 |--|--| 12| --| --| -- | 11 Lachine | 10,699| --| 1,600| 43 |--| 4| 4| 2| --| 57 | 322 Montréal | 703| 1| 205| 6 |--|--| 14| --| --| -- | -- Notre-Dame de Grâce | 5,217| --| 978| 64 |--|--| 17| --| --| 80 | 2 Outremont | 4,820| --| 917| 129 |21|--| 57| --| --| -- | 41 Pointe Claire | 793| --| 116| 2 |--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- Ste. Anne de | | | | | | | | | | | Bellevue | 1,416| --| 76| 9 |--|--| 7| --| --| -- | 9 St. Laurent | 1,860| --| 24| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- Verdun | 11,629| --| 2,309| 154|15|--| 67| --| --| 8 | 67 Ville Emard | 6,179| --| 418| 24|--|--| --| --| --| 1 | -- Youville | 2,394| 3| 134| 6|16|--| 5| --| --| 2 | 2 Cartierville | 905| --| 1| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | 10 Côte des Neiges | 2,444| --| 254| 3|--|--| 6| --| --| -- | 23 Côte St. Luc | 303| --| 22| -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- Ste. Geneviève | 612| --| -- | -- |--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- St Pierre aux Liens | 2,201| --| 192| 12|--|--| --| --| --| 88 | 5 Senneville | 418| --| 40| 1|--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- | | | | | | | | | | | MAISONNEUVE |170,978| 33|11,642|1,176|52|21|309| 5| 1| 272| 5,227 De Lorimier ward | 10,453| --| 745| 232|--| 6| 2| --| --| 1| 3 Duvernay ward | 13,445| 1| 188| 4|--| 4| 5| --| --| 12| 37 Hochelaga ward | 20,986| --| 1,236| 133|--|--| 7| --| --| -- | 42 Laurier ward | 37,000| 17| 4,608| 379|48| 6|190| 5| 1| 23| 1,204 Maisonneuve | 18,684| 2| 970| 51|--| 5| 2| --| --| 45| 8 Rosemont ward | 1,319| --| 58| 51|--|--| --| --| --| -- | -- St. Denis ward | 40,364| 13| 2,284| 187| 4|--| 69| --| --| 31| 1,015 St. Jean Baptiste | | | | | | | | | | | ward | 21,116| --| 1,121| 123|--|--| 26| --| --| 30| 2,918 Ste. Marie ward | 7,611| --| 432| 16|--|--| 8| --| --| | --
RELIGIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL, 1911.
|Lutherans | |Mennonites | | |Methodists | | | |Mormons | | | | |Presbyterians | | | | | |Roman Catholics Districts | | | | | | |Salvation Army and | | | | | | | |Protestants Sub-districts | | | | | | | | |Pagans | | | | | | | | | |Various Sects | | | | | | | | | | |Unspecified --------------------+---+---+-----+--+-----+-------+---+---+--+---+---- MONTREAL-STE. ANNE |101| 8| 526|--|1,719| 14,835| 28|799|11| 33| 27 Centre ward | --| --| 3|--| 17| 409| --| --|--| --| -- Ste. Anne ward | 99| 8| 507|--|1,675| 14,318| 24|798| 5| 33| 18 West ward | 2| --| 16|--| 27| 108| 4| 1| 6| --| 9 | | | | | | | | | | | MONTREAL-ST. ANTOINE|294| --|2,305|--|7,117| 24,774| 46|399| 8|255| 89 St. Joseph ward | 76| --| 467|--|1,030| 13,029| 6| 37|--| 53| 14 St. Georges ward |110| --| 825|--|2,732| 4,489| 30| 78| 8|202| 74 St. Andrews ward |108| --|1,013|--|3,355| 7,256| 10|284|--| --| 1 | | | |--| | | | | | | MONTREAL-ST. JACQUES| 39| 1| 108|--| 349| 41,832| --|315| 9| 63|111 East ward | --| --| 11|--| 41| 3,311| --| |--| 13| 48 Lafontaine ward | 26| --| 84|--| 252| 23,601| --|165|--| 23| 54 St. James ward | 13| 1| 13|--| 56| 14,920| --|150| 9| 27| 9 | | | | | | | | | | | MONTREAL-ST. LAURENT|178| 1|1,412|--|2,772| 25,831| 30|754| 6|426|207 St. Laurent ward |149| --|1,149|--|2,166| 9,272| 25|202| 6|334|129 St. Louis ward | 29| 1| 263|--| 606| 16,559| 5|552|--| 92| 78 | | | | | | | | | | | MONTREAL-STE. MARIE | 33| --| 366|--|1,130| 50,082| 46|995|--| 39| 64 Papineau ward | 23| --| 238|--| 796| 35,454| 30|644|--| 28| 47 Ste. Marie ward | 10| --| 128|--| 334| 14,628| 16|351|--| 11| 17 | | | | | | | | | | | HOCHELAGA |226| --|3,598|--|7,677| 50,745|112|637| 5|375| 41 Ste. Cunégonde | 23| --| 230|--| 424| 9,498| 8| 88|--| 52| 3 St. Gabriel ward | 68| --|1,206|--|2,104| 11,815| 94| 71|--| 61| 13 St. Henri ward | 12| --| 535|--| 723| 26,828| 8|417| 4| 34| 10 Westmount |123| --|1,627|--|4,426| 2,604| 2| 61| 1|228| 15 | | | | | | | | | | | JACQUES-CARTIER |127| --|2,441|--|5,073| 46,085| 41|592| 3|173| 17 Côte St. Paul | 31| --| 235|--| 30| 2,331| --| 26|--| --| -- Notre-Dame des | | | | | | | | | | | Neiges | 1| --| 9|--| 22| 822| --| --|--| --| -- | | | | | | | | | | | Présentation de | | | | | | | | | | | la Ste. Vièrge| --| --| --|--| 1| 217| --| --|--| --| -- Saints-Anges de | | | | | | | | | | | Lachine | 5| --| 22|--| 108| 556| --| --|--| --| -- Ste. Anne du | | | | | | | | | | | Bout de l’Ile | --| --| 3|--| 76| 587| --| 40|--| --| -- Ste. Geneviève | --| --| --|--| --| 1,063| --| 12|--| --| -- St. Joachim de la | | | | | | | | | | | Pointe Claire | --| --| 8|--| 38| 662| --| 2|--| --| -- St. Laurent | --| --| 35|--| 224| 1,670| 8| 6|--| --| 1 St. Raphaël de | | | | | | | | | | | l’Ile Bizard | --| --| --|--| --| 585| --| --|--| --| -- Summerlea | --| --| 9|--| 39| 77| --| --|--| --| -- Beaconsfield | 2| --| 36|--| 20| 225| 3| 10|--| 5| -- Dorval | 1| --| 18|--| 179| 585| --| 8|--| --| 1 Lachine | 9| --| 373|--| 673| 7,288| --|287|--| 33| 4 Montréal | 3| --| 119|--| 272| 74| --| --|--| 9| -- Notre-Dame de | | | | | | | | | | | Grâce | 3| --| 254|--| 432| 3,344| 1| 16|--| 26| -- Outremont | 11| --| 389|--| 768| 2,425| --| 16| 3| 39| 4 Pointe Claire | 3| --| 6|--| 70| 580| --| 15|--| 1| -- Ste. Anne de | | | | | | | | | | | Bellevue | --| --| 43|--| 73| 1,188| --| 7|--| 4| -- St. Laurent | --| --| 1|--| 19| 1,812| --| 1|--| 3| -- Verdun | 40| --| 723|--|1,530| 6,631| 27| 26|--| 29| 3 Ville Emard | 6| --| 86|--| 77| 5,526| --| 37|--| --| 4 Youville | 5| --| 1|--| 117| 2,102| 1| --|--| --| -- Cartierville | --| --| 4|--| 20| 838| --| 32|--| --| -- Côte des Neiges | 6| --| 41|--| 122| 1,971| 1| --|--| 17| -- Côte St. Luc | --| --| --|--| --| 245| --| 36|--| --| -- Ste. Geneviève | --| --| --|--| --| 612| --| --|--| --| -- St. Pierre aux | | | | | | | | | | | Liens | 1| --| 26|--| 156| 1,720| --| --|--| 1| -- Senneville | --| --| --|--| 7| 349| --| 15|--| 6| -- | | | | | | | | | | | MAISONNEUVE |289| 1|3,550|--|7,300|139,708| 53|767| 2|486| 84 De Lorimier ward | 10| --| 346|--| 654| 8,289| 6|116| 2| 39| 2 Duvernay ward | 1| --| 36|--| 94| 13,003| --| 40|--| 15| 5 Hochelaga ward | 40| 1| 268|--| 445| 18,604| --| 35|--| 47| 1 Laurier ward |121| --|1,546|--|3,073| 25,447| 20|102|--|179| 31 Maisonneuve | 24| --| 288|--| 861| 16,277| 3| 77|--| 61| 10 Rosemont ward | 2| --| 52|--| 152| 988| --| --|--| 16| -- St. Denis ward | 63| --| 522|--|1,266| 34,627| 12|227|--| 40| 4 St. Jean Baptiste | | | | | | | | | | | ward | 21| --| 335|--| 587| 15,749| 11|104|--| 60| 31 Ste. Marie ward | 7| --| 157|--| 168| 6,724| 1| 66|--| 29| --
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The sketch by the Rev. J.A. Gordon written in 1906 has been used.
Chapter XXVI
1760-1841
SCHOOL SYSTEM OF MONTREAL BEFORE THE CESSION
NEW MOVEMENT FOR BOYS--THE COLLEGE DE MONTREAL--THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH EDUCATION--THE FIRST ENGLISH SCHOOLMASTERS BEFORE 1790--A REPORT OF 1790 FOR THE SCHOOLS OF CANADA--THE DESIRE TO REAR UP A SYSTEM OF PUBLIC EDUCATION--THE JESUITS’ ESTATES--THE “CASE” AGAINST AMHERST’S CLAIM TO THE JESUITS’ ESTATES AND FOR THEIR DIVERGENCE TO PUBLIC EDUCATION--NEW ENGLISH MOVEMENT FOR A GENERAL SYSTEM OF EDUCATION--THE ACT OF 1801--THE ROYAL INSTITUTION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING--NEVER A POPULAR SUCCESS--ITS REFORM IN 1818--A COUNTERPOISE--THE FABRIQUE ACT OF 1824--REVIEW OF SCHOOLS UNDER THE ROYAL INSTITUTION--SUBSIDIZED SCHOOLS--REVIEW OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS--LAY SCHOOLS--LORD DURHAM’S REPORT ON EDUCATION. NOTE: THE JESUITS’ ESTATES.
Under the English Rule the system of primary education carried on by the Sulpicians for boys and Marguerite Bourgeoys’ congregation for girls was continued as before the session. That for boys began when the Sulpician Souart, the first schoolmaster of Montreal, commenced his school teaching about 1669, after he had finished the first term as superior of the seminary.
The earliest new movement for boys after the English possession was made as follows:
In 1773 the stables and poultry house of the old Château de Vaudreuil became a school for little boys for elementary education, and from this date the château became known as the Collège de St. Raphael, the successor of the Pétit Seminaire established in 1767 by M. Curatteau in his presbytery at Longue Pointe.
In 1776 the Collège de St. Raphael was formerly inaugurated for the purpose of higher education, but it continued its elementary classes or petites écoles.
On October 11, 1790, in answer to a request of Lord Dorchester of the sixth of the same month, a catalogue of the professors of the College of Montreal for 1790 was sent with some remarks on the college and on the schools. The latter are as follows: “The schools which the ecclesiastics of the Seminary of Montreal keep are nearly as old as the establishment of the town. They teach only reading and writing in Latin and in French. The Seminary undertakes all the expense, furnishes the wood and the books, pays the masters’ board and lodges them. These schools are divided into ‘grandes’ and ‘petites.’ The petites écoles are for children who are only beginning to learn to read. The grandes écoles are for those who commence already to know how to read and who are learning to write. The parents who are able, pay five shillings a year for each scholar. The poor pay nothing at all.”
The first English schoolmaster in Montreal would seem to be a John Pullman, who came from New York in 1773 by the recommendation of the Rev. Dr. Ogilvie to try to establish a school in Montreal in consequence of an application to him from gentlemen of that city. He worked under a committee. This above information is told in the memorial of 1779, in which he applied for a license of Protestant schoolmaster similar to the position that Tanswell then possessed in Quebec. His recommendation was signed by the leading men of Montreal. But his scholars dwindling through competition, doubtless, his poverty forced him to apply, in 1782, for any small employment as a clerk and for a subscription to a work he had prepared, the short title of which was “Cash Clerks’ Assistant.” Finlay Fisher opened a school about 1778 which he said was well attended and flourishing. The Rev. Mr. John Stuart opened an academy for youth in Montreal in 1781. Mr. Stuart was born in the province of Virginia in 1736 or 1740, was ordained in England, returning in 1770 to Philadelphia, whence he went as a missionary to the Mohawk valley. On the outbreak of the American revolution he had been made a prisoner for his loyalty. He seems to have escaped and made his way to Montreal. He prepared his advertisement and sent it to Governor Haldimand, who offered to give him every encouragement and appropriated to the undertaking part of the bounty allowed by government, adding “Your advertisement will be published tomorrow, but I directed the words ‘principally intended for the children of Protestants’ to be left out as it is a distinction which could not fail to create jealousies at all times improper but more particularly so at present.” His Excellency desired that all classes should be received. Mr. Stuart in complying said that he had already admitted any persons that offered, Protestants, Catholics, Jews, etc.
It was difficult to get schoolmasters in the early days. Mr. Stuart’s assistant was a Mr. Christie. He was incapable of teaching even the lowest branches of arithmetic and language. Mr. Stuart on November 27, 1782, reported in all simplicity to Haldimand: “I could have dispensed with his ignorance of the English language and faulty accent, but when I found him unacquainted with the rules of common arithmetic and often obliged to apply to me (in presence of the pupils) for the solution of the most simple question, I could no longer doubt of his inefficiency.” A new assistant was engaged and shortly afterward Christie left the province. Finlay Fisher in 1783 in his memorial applied for Christie’s salary, £25 a year, to be added to his own; he did not receive it, however, till May 1, 1786, when it came due for the first time for the preceding six months. Mr. Stuart’s last salary at Montreal was for the six months between November 1, 1785, to April 30, 1786. He then went to Kingston on which his gaze had been fixed for some time. He became the first Anglican clergyman there. In 1789 he established a classical school there, the first school of the kind in Upper Canada.
An early report issued in England before 1790 by the “Society for the Propagation,” speaking of the early struggles, mentions that “there is not a single Protestant church in the whole province. * * * There are two schools, to each of which a salary of £100 a year is allotted by the government, the one at Quebec and the other at Montreal. The schoolmaster’s name at Quebec is Tanswell. The Rev. Mr. Stuart had the school at Montreal for a short time (after his flight from Fort Hunter, where he was a missionary) until, about two years ago, the government thought proper to take half his salary away and divide it between a Mr. Fisher and Mr. Christie, both Presbyterians. * * * But besides the division of the salary there is neither a schoolhouse nor land appropriated nor trustees appointed, nor any regularities made respecting the application of the £100 salary. The inhabitants are opulent and generous and only want a proper person to place and establish a seminary. In that case the income cannot fail of being considerable. The prices for tuition have been for Latin, half a guinea, for English and arithmetic, $2 per month. There is not an English school in the place.”
In 1790, however, a memorandum was made of the ecclesiastical and educational aspects of the country which gives us an insight into the growing life of the English colony in Canada and Montreal, occasioned, no doubt, by the influx of the United Empire Loyalists migrating into the country:
PROTESTANT CLERGY
Episcopal or English Church
Salaries. M. de Lisle, Montreal £ 200 Tunstall 100 De Montmolten, Quebec 200 Toosey 200 Veyssiere, Three Rivers 200 Doty, William Henry 100 Stuart, Kingston 100 Bryan, Cornwall 50 Langhorn, near Kingston (missionary from ye society for propagating ye gospel with £50 and from government £100) 150
Church of Scotland
Messrs. Henry and Spark, Quebec; Bethune near Oswegatchie 50 ------ £1,350
PROTESTANT SCHOOLS
Quebec
Scholars. Teachers. Salary. 25 Tanswell £100 18 Fraser 32 Keith 53 Jones 11 Sargeant 41 Burrows ---- 180
Montreal
42 Fisher £ 50 48 Nelson 39 Bowen 17 Gunn ---- 146
Three Rivers 11 Brown 15 Morris ---- 26
William Henry 17 Biset
Gaspe Hobson £ 25
No returns yet made up of ye Protestant schools in ye counties of Gaspe, Lunenberg, Mechlenburg, Naysau and Hesse.
* * * * *
Although, therefore, the educational outlook was not very great[1] in 1790, yet already there was foreseen the necessity of an established system of public education in connection with the government. For this funds were badly needed.
In pursuing the history of the educational movement in which Montreal shares, notice must be now taken of the Jesuit estates, for upon the funds accruing from these, an early movement started to rear the means of an educational system in Canada. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1774 in Canada these estates had been promised to Lord Amherst as a recognition of his services. This met with consistent opposition, and a contra-movement arose to secure the estates as a means of rearing up a public educational system. A petition of November 19, 1787, was signed at Quebec by 195 inhabitants transmitting a “case” in which it was claimed that “as Canadians and citizens they had a right therein by title, and law, the College of Quebec having been founded for their education. It is their patrimony which they have cleared and cultivated. Even as subjects they have a right to public education which exists in every government.” The “case” insists that the Jesuits were only the rectors, professors and managers: that the Hundred Associates and others had founded the colleges for educational purposes. The petitioners demand that the troops then using the college as a barracks should be dislodged and pray the government “to restore the antient professors of the college or to name others and regulate the recompense due to their talents and attentions.” It is but just to note that the Jesuits never ceded their claims to the complete possession of their estates, nor recognized a mere trusteeship.
A similar petition to that of 1787 was addressed by the inhabitants of Montreal in 1793, and again in 1800, praying that on reversion of the Jesuit estates the revenue should be diverted to the education of youth. Three Rivers similarly protested against the policy of the Amherst grant. At the first legislative assembly a recommendation was made for the divergence of the Jesuit funds to popular education. Thus Amherst’s patent was not signed. The death of Perè Casot, the last surviving Jesuit of the old régime, occurring in 1801, the governor claimed the estates for the crown, which hitherto had been administered by the Society. A majority in the house preferred that they should be devoted to educational purposes and demanded the titles. But it was not till 1831 that they were finally ceded, with the exception of the Jesuit College at Quebec which became converted into a barracks. Meanwhile the Anglican bishop of the diocese and other English leaders, especially the merchants, deploring the lack of educational facilities, agitated for a general school system, one of the arguments being the usefulness this would have of encouraging the English language through the province. At this time three classes of schools were in contemplation: parish schools (elementary), grammar schools and superior seminaries or universities, schools on the line of Westminster, Winchester and Eton. With regard to a university the committee of the executive council thought it premature to formulate any plan, but recommended that an appropriation should be made to cover any plan that might be adopted.
The future of education was reported on in answer to the following questions: “The establishing of schools and seminaries for the education of youth from those funds now unemployed as well in England as in this province and particularly a respectable college in this city with able professors and erecting free schools at convenient distances throughout this extensive province for the purpose of opening and enlarging the human mind, conciliating the affections of all His Majesty’s subjects and having a tendency to render this a happy and flourishing province.” Observation: “There remains for us to advert to a subject which we consider as the surest and best means of obtaining a cheerful and dutiful obedience to the laws and government from subjects in general, and that is by establishing throughout the province at proper distances public schools for the education of youth. We hardly know of a single school in any country part of the district for teaching boys and it is to the zeal of the few sisters of the congregation that we are indebted for all the little which is taught to girls throughout the country. The captains of militia who are frequently called upon to enforce law and order are so illiterate that not one in three can write or even read. The consequence is confusion and disorder and frequent suits and complaints between them and the militiamen.” They then suggest that for funds the estates of the Jesuits, which they understood likely to revert to the crown, could be conveniently applied for the purpose; that also, owing to the separation of the American states, there might be some unappropriated funds in England which could be applied for. The report reverts to the former petition of 1785 for a house of assembly, suggesting this as the only way to promote the welfare of the province as a British colony. In 1793, therefore, a further recommendation was made to the legislative assembly which presented an address to the governor urging upon the crown the propriety of devoting the Jesuit estates for educational purposes. No answer having been given, another on the same subject was presented to the governor in 1800.
In reply to this the governor, in a speech to the legislature, intimated the intention of the government “to set apart a portion of the crown domain instead for the establishment of a competent number of free schools for the instruction of their children in the first rudiments of useful learning and in the English tongue; and also as occasion may require for foundations of a more enlarged and comprehensive nature.” In 1801, therefore, an act entitled “an act for the establishment of free schools and the advancement of learning in the province” was passed by the provincial legislature to give effect to these promises. It provided also for “the establishment of a Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning.” To this corporation was entrusted the entire management of all schools and institutions of royal foundation in the province as well as the administration of all estates and property appropriated to these schools.
This act remained practically a dead letter, since no grants were ever made. What rendered the scheme a failure was the additional reason of its unpopularity with the majority. Of the eighteen trustees of the Royal Institution, four only were Roman Catholics; and of the fourteen Protestants, three were prominent officials in Upper Canada. The teachers, too, were principally from Britain, unacquainted with the French language and generally ignorant of the habits of the people.
In 1818 in order to give practical effect to the act of 1801 all the government schools then receiving government aid were placed under the Royal Institution. The question of representative trusteeship was made more simple and more equitable, but the Protestant Lord Bishop of Quebec was named principal. This again kept the Catholics from participating, the movement being still looked upon as Protestant and Anglicizing. So that Lord Dalhousie wrote from Quebec on the 10th of June, 1821, to Lord Bathurst, asking that His Majesty would sanction the establishment of a Catholic institution precisely similar to that of the Protestants for the government of their schools. “The Catholic religion in this province,” he said, “is certainly the most sure defense yet against our neighbours and every fair encouragement should be given to it in promoting education and learning. One great objection complained of is the being subjected to the superintendence of the Royal Institution, of which the Protestant bishop is president. That objection is natural in a country where the Catholic religion prevails as to numbers and is guarded by ministers always watchful and perhaps jealous of the Protestant church.”
The Royal Institution was never popular because of its want of sympathy with the people whom it wished to benefit. It cannot be said to have been a success, owing to the peculiar denominational constitution of its charter and the apathy in its own council. Still it pointed the way to a general scheme of public education which afterwards bore fruit. Its greatest success is in the present day McGill University, whose official title is still the “Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning.”
Various attempts were made by the legislature to introduce a more popular system of management in the schools. In 1824, on the elaborate report of a special committee of the province which represented that in many parishes not more than five or six of the inhabitants could write; that generally not above one-fourth of the entire population could read and that not above one-tenth of the entire population could write, a counterpoise measure to the royal institution was passed for the Catholics entitled the “Fabrique act” by which the Fabriques or corporations of the parish churches consisting of the curé and church wardens as school commissioners, could hold and acquire property, etc., to found and carry on elementary schools, one for every one hundred families. One of the great reasons for the failure of educational legislation down to 1836 was the want of permanency about it all. Another was the jobbery of politicians in a time of seething turmoil. Arthur Buller, commissioner, appointed by Lord Durham in 1838, reports clearly on this. “In short, the moment that they found that their educational provisions could be turned to political account, from that moment those provisions were formed with a view to promote party rather than education. This was their essential fault. This, it was, that pervaded and contaminated the whole system and paralyzed all good that was otherwise in it.” There were about one thousand, six hundred schools in Canada and these had to be closed.
It is now in place to review the state of education in Montreal under the Royal Institution. When finally funds were forthcoming they were supplied by an annual vote of the provincial parliament of £2,000, but under an authority from Lord Bathurst, dated January 24, 1817, a grant was made from the revenues of the Jesuit estate confined to the grammar schools of Quebec and Montreal. The latter received £200 a year with £52 a year for the rent of the schoolhouse. By the rules of the foundation twenty free scholars were to be admitted. At this date there were fifteen all told who paid for their education as day scholars. The terms for instruction in the higher education were £10 a year and £8 for the lower.
There were also two elementary schools at Montreal which received appropriations from the government, viz., the British and Canadian schools (£300) and the National free school (£200). With regard to the schools under the institution a memorandum of Sir John Kempt states that “by a return made in the year 1818 the number of schools in this province was stated to be thirty-seven attended by only 1,048 scholars and maintained at an expense to the public of £1,883 10 strg.”
In 1829 he also states the number of schools up to July 1st as seventy-eight and the number of scholars 3,772. Up to this date Catholics had no connection with the institution. In Lord Aylmer’s report of 1832 the schools under the royal institution of which the names are given as well as those of the teachers and their salaries, number seventy. The schools of Montreal given among the list of “society or private” institutions receiving occasional aid from public funds are given thus:
Place. Establishment. Name of Professor or Teacher. Salary.
City of Montreal Grammar School A. Skakel £200 City of Montreal National School W. Greene 65 Miss Meredith 45 City of Montreal British and Canadian School Male Teacher 90 Female Teacher 60 City of Montreal St. Jacques School (French) M. Archambault 28-15 (English) Mr. Ryden 28-15 (Female) I. Lauzon 15-5 (Evening) M. Ducharme 12-10 City of Montreal Recollect School Masters--Two 63 Mistresses--Two 27 City of Montreal Infants’ School Two Teachers 54 City of Montreal Experimental School J. Lancaster 90
There were in addition many private Catholic and Protestant schools. We may note the origins of some of the most important public schools. The Royal Grammar school was founded in Montreal in 1816, with Mr. Alexander Skakel, M.A., who came out from England as head master. A writer in the Montreal Daily Herald of Saturday, March 15, 1913, writes:
“This may be said to have been the first ambitious attempt to put Protestant education in Montreal on a substantial and efficient footing. Mr. Skakel came out under, as he was wont to say, the pleasing illusion that the new world would offer him prospects denied him in the old. He was disillusionized, for the colony was not only young and raw, but the political and social conditions of the time were anything but congenial, while the emoluments were slender, and the life, generally, wholly different to that to which he had been accustomed. However, Mr. Skakel--whose portrait hangs in the High School--did not complain, but went straight on, developing the school which met, first of all, in the old Belmont Park building, and afterwards in the Fraser building at the corner of Dorchester Street and Union Avenue.”
Mr. Skakel was succeeded by the Rev. John Leeds and the Rev. George Simpson. The Royal grammar school was merged with the high school shortly after the organization of the latter in 1845. The Lancaster School took its name from Messrs. Lancaster and Bell, who came out from England, having been instrumental in establishing popular schools there, and they interested themselves in the formation of the British Canadian school. The early days of education were those of sacrifice for the teachers, ill paid, with inadequate teaching facilities, both in materials and buildings, overwork, and for the treasury which had to depend on voluntary gifts and collecting cards. Things are better now, but one wonders whether the teaching profession will ever come to its own.
The National School was founded in 1816 under the auspices of the Montreal district committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. In 1839 the number of boys was 36 French and 120 English, and of girls 20 French and 84 English.
The British and Canadian School Society, which was opened in a building belonging formerly to the Montreal Hospital, was instituted on the 21st of September, 1822, to maintain on an extensive scale a school to promote the education of the labouring classes, and secondly, as a model school to train up teachers under Mr. Lancaster and a committee of gentlemen for future schools to follow the British system. It was meant to be undenominational. Its early success enabled it to build by funds from voluntary sources and from the provincial government a more commodious schoolhouse on Lagauchetière Street, the foundation being laid on the 17th of October, 1826. It was designed to school 414 boys and 232 girls. In 1826 the number of attendance was:
Boys Girls Roman Catholics 97 38 Episcopal Church 27 9 Presbyterian 42 21 Methodists 30 11 ---- ---- 196 79 Total, 275.
This school lapsed in 1837, the year of the rebellion, which proved so fatal to education. There were 1,600 schools in the province, teaching 40,000 children, and these had to be closed. The Brothers of the Christian Schools made their entry into Montreal in 1837. Their important work, of which humble seeds were now laid, developed greatly under the Union, its story being therefore left to a later chapter.
A summary of the schools of 1839 is presented by Bosworth in “Hochelaga Depicta.” Besides the “New College” or “pétit seminaire,” there were “several respectable academies in the city, as the Royal Grammar School in Little St. James Street, conducted by A. Skakel, Esq.; the Rev. Dr. Black’s, adjoining St. Paul Church; Rev. J. Ramsay’s, Main Street, St. Lawrence suburbs; Messrs. Howden & Taggart’s, Craig Street; Mr. Workman’s, in Hospital Street; and Mr. Bruce’s, in McGill Street. There are also young ladies’ schools of high reputation, as Miss Easton’s, in Bonaventure Street; Miss Felton’s, in St. Gabriel Street; and Mrs. Fitzgerald’s, in Notre Dame Street. The total number of schools it would be impossible to assign. A few years since two gentlemen of the city made personal inquiry throughout the place with a view to determining the point. They found fifty-nine of different classes, but it is probable not only that some were overlooked, but that the number is greater now than it was then. There was also much private tuition in the families of the more wealthy inhabitants.”
The writer probably includes in the fifty-nine or more among the unnamed schools those of the Catholics, which were under the auspices of the Sulpicians, the teaching orders of the Congregational Nuns and the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and those conducted by lay people. A review of the schools for Catholics up to the Union may be now presented.
The early movement under the Sulpicians up to 1790 has already been stated. About 1796, as the city was beginning to expand, M. Roux, the superior of the seminary, opened a new school for children in the St. Lawrence district under the control of a layman. Later he established other schools at Bonsecours, St. Lawrence, St. Antoine, St. Mary (or the Faubourg de Quebec), and St. Joseph, all these schools with the exception of the seminary receiving children of both sexes. M. Quiblier, succeeding M. Roux, determined to erect separate schools or boys and girls, the latter to be under the direction of the Congregation Nuns. These, therefore, opened successively a great number of classes, three at the Faubourg, St. Lawrence; six at that of Quebec (St. Mary’s), two of which were for the Irish; three classes at St. Antoine, and three at St. Joseph, and two classes at the Recollects for the Irish.
The Seminary provided the schools, their furniture and upkeep, and undertook to convey the nuns to and fro morning and evening. About fifteen hundred children were instructed and educated gratuitously in these schools. In addition the Congregation maintained in its own motherhouse, the pensionat, composed of six classes; the “great school,” with its three classes; and the “small school,” with two.[2] What he had done for the education of the girls M. Quiblier would do for the boys, and it is due to him that he succeeded in bringing the Brothers of the Christian Schools to Montreal in 1837. A tribute paid by the Hon. Jacques Viger to M. Quiblier and the Sulpicians may be quoted from a Précis Historique which he composed. “Sur les petites écoles de la paroisse de Montréal pour les garçons.” “Should the time come,” he says, “when the Gentlemen of the Seminary might have no other right to public recognition than that of having constantly exercised their generous zeal for education undying blessings should be their desert; and if M. Quiblier had no other title of glory beyond that of having surpassed his predecessors in that respect that title would be fine enough. * * * Such are, among the other good works of the house of St. Sulpice, those which it has never ceased to lavish on the progress of education in a town of which it can, with good cause, be called the foundress and the mother.”
Mr. Huguet-Latour, in his “Annuaire de Ville Marie,” notes some of the schools of this period as follows. It is interesting as showing the part then being played by the laity:
“On May 1, 1813, a school was founded for young girls by Mrs. Richard O’Keefe.
“About 1819 a school was founded by a Mr. Ryan in the house of the ‘Recollets.’
“In 1825 a school for boys was established by Mgr. Lartigue, on October 1st, on the ground floor of his Episcopal residence at St. James Church, and another for girls, on January 3, 1827, under the direction of his secretary, afterwards Bishop Bourget, in a house hired for the purpose. In 1828 the sewing classes began in this school under the direction of the ‘Association Bienveillante des Dames de St. Jacques.’ These lasted till 1853. In 1831 these ladies, while still maintaining the supervision, hired a mistress to teach the school. On October 1st of the same year, Mgr. Lartigue opened a school for English boys, in the basement of the Sacristy of his cathedral.
“In 1830 a third class for boys was added. The first schoolhouse of St. James (75 by 40 feet, with three stories) was built in 1831 on land given by Mgr. Lartigue in 1831. Thither the various classes connected with St. James were transferred in 1831 and 1832. This school suffered, with the Cathedral, destruction in the great fire of July 8, 1852. The school, which commenced in 1825 with sixty children, had reached 400.
“On July 7, 1834, a school was founded at No. 31 Beaudry Street by Mr. Joseph Bourgoin.”
As a summary of the general outlook on Canadian education in the Province of Quebec[3] at the time of the rebellion we may use Lord Durham’s own summing up in his famous report in preparation for the Union. “The bulk of the population is composed of the hard-working yeomanry of the country district commonly called habitants. * * * It is impossible to exaggerate the want of education among them; no means of instruction have been provided for them and they are almost universally destitute of the qualifications even of reading and writing. * * * The common assertion that all classes of Canadians are equally ignorant is perfectly erroneous; for I know of no people among whom a larger provision exists for the higher kinds of elementary education or among whom such education is really extended to a larger proportion of the population. The piety and benevolence of the early possessors of the country founded in the seminaries that exist in the different parts of the province, institutions of which the funds have long been directed to the promotion of education. Seminaries and colleges have been by these bodies established in the cities and in other central points. The education given in these establishments greatly resembles the kind given in the English public schools, though it is more varied. It is entirely in the hands of the Catholic clergy. The number of pupils in this establishment was estimated altogether at 1,000 and they turn out as far as I could ascertain between two and three hundred young men thus educted.”
Thus at the time of the rebellion of 1837, at least in the towns such as Montreal, the outlook on education was not so depressing as it is generally painted.
NOTE
The long drawn out question of the Jesuits’ estates was settled in 1888. Its history may now be recapituated. After the suppresssion of the society in 1773, the government waited until the death, in 1801, of Father Casot, the last Canadian Jesuit to claim them. Amherst had been promised them, but the public sentiment was against this, and they were demanded for the cause of public education. The Jesuits meanwhile always maintained that there was an implicit contract on the part of the government to restore them. Up to 1888 the yearly revenues accruing had become very great. In 1800 these reached the sum of $7,800; in 1812 that of more than $9,000; in 1822, $6,000; in 1831, $15,000; in 1840, $27,000; in 1852, $45,000; during the other years more or less considerable sums. The total is about $960,000. If there is added to that the use of the lands of Champ de Mars, the courthouse and the city hall, and the land of the college at Quebec, it will be seen that the amount reached nearly two million dollars’ revenue. The value of the estates themselves resulting from the donations made by the kings of France and rich individuals was about four to five millions. Evidently all this could not all be returned. It became a question of indemnity. In 1874 the Jesuits demanded such. Father Braun composed a memorial to Rome on the point, and Father Chazaux, then superior, addressed a request to the government in the name of the Holy See which had consented to the demand for the indemnity.
There was delay until May 12, 1887, when the Quebec government incorporated the Society of Jesus, and on July 12, 1888, passed the Jesuit estates bill, partially compensating the Society of Jesus for their loss. On March 3d of the following year the Commons sustained the act respecting the Jesuit estates by a vote of 188 to 13. On June 11th the Equal Rights party formed up to protest. On June 19th the Presbyterian Assembly denounced the act of incorporation of the Jesuits and the Jesuits estate act, and the Anglican Synod did the same this month. In July a general meeting in Queen’s Hall in Montreal also protested.
A petition was at this time presented to the Governor-General, Lord Stanley, requesting the disallowance of the act of March 3, 1888, and in answer, on August 2d, he replied that the adverse advice of his ministers, which he deemed sound, bound him to uphold it.
On November 5, 1889, the Hon. Honoré Mercier, the premier of the province of Quebec, paid to the Jesuits the sum of $400,000, of which $60,000 was turned over at once to the Protestant Board of School Commissioners for the province. The balance did not go solely to the Jesuits, for Rome decided that of this the claims for a share made by other Catholic-teaching bodies should be maintained, so that eventually the Society of Jesus received barely one-third of the indemnity. It is now clearly recognized that an elemental act of justice was at last completed.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Haldimand’s remarks, Chapter X, Part 1.
[2] “Mémoires particuliers pour servir a l’histoire de l’eglise de L’Amerique du Nord,” Tome 2 (vie de la Sœur Bourgeoys).
[3] The census of 1911 revealed the interesting fact, that in view of some popular impressions erroneously entertained the greatest proportion of children attending school for over six months in the year was noted in Quebec. It was 76.47 per cent., and compares with 74.43 per cent. in Ontario, which comes next in order. In the Maritime Provinces the ratio was under 70 per cent.