The Jesuit martyrs of North America : Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf, Gabriel Lalemont, Noel Chabanel, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, René Goupil, John Lalande

Front matter

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PRINCETON. N. J.

PURCHASED BY THE MRs. ROBERT LENOX KENNEDY CHURCH HISTORY FUND.

Preface

NEITHER myth nor legend is needed by our country for the heroic story with which every people loves to immortalize its origins. Our earliest history is one of heroes who achieved their wonders, not by physical prowess merely, but by moral grandeur. Their most wonderful achievement is the incomparable devotion with which they, all men of exquisite culture and refinement, labored among human beings who had fallen from man’s high estate into the depths of barbarism and depravity. In common with all heroes, they were animated by the noblest passions; but they excelled in love, the greatest of all. They excelled also in the objects of their love, entirely devoid as it was of selfishness, and centred purely on the highest things, on God and on human souls. They are the heroes of the invisible, the spiritual, the supernatural; and these, by word and work, they bring vividly before our weaker vision.

The story of the Martyrs has been repeated so often and by such skilful narrators that it has become a household tale in this country. and in Canada. It cannot be told too often. Hitherto it has appeared in books or chapters about one or other of the principals, or as part only of a general history to which it is subordinated. In this book

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PREFACE it is for the first time woven together into one complete narrative. In doing this I have availed of the writings of Martin, de Rochemonteix, and Gilmary Shea; of Jones, Campbell, and Devine, with whom I have been closely associated; of Parkman, Bancroft, my friend Dr. John Finley, and especially of the noble publication of the Jesuit Relations by Thwaites and his scholarly editorial staff.

I am indebted to the publishers of “The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents” for their cordial permission to use their translation of the Relations in the many quotations I have thought well to make from that collection. No one can tell the story of a Brébeuf or of a Jogues better than themselves. I am indebted also to Mr. C. F. Wemyss Brown and Miss Catherine M. Neale for their kindness in assisting me with the revision of both manuscript and proof, and to Frank P. Seaman for his valuable map of the Jesuit Missions in New France.

THE AUTHOR.

June oiyag2s.

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CHAPTER ONE A Half-Century of Names and Deeds Immortal

A. D. 1600-1650 PAGE The first half of the Seventeenth Century—Rulers and Leaders—Genius in literature—Birthtime of modern science —Philosophy, Painting, Sculpture, Music, Education— Schools of the Jesuits—Religion—Great Saints—Influence in Civil life—Missionary spirit, Organization—Missions of the Jesuits—A Society baptized in blood—Genius of sanctity TESS STEM ent MEAS yf 1 EMS BI EOL 1

CHAPTER TWO Martyrs in Formation A. D. 1617-1630

Jesuit Martyrs of North America—The Priests, Jogues, Brébeuf, Daniel, Garnier, Lalemant, Chabanel—Their devoted companions, Goupil and Lalande, laymen—The Society of Jesus, spirit and training—Life in the novitiate —The Spiritual Exercises—Reformation not an ideal, but a means to the following of Christ—The Exercises and the phobias, athletes of Christ—After the novitiate, studies, philosophy, teaching, theology, priesthood................. 11

CHAPTER THREE The Missions of New France A. D. 1608-1614

Exploration of Canada—Religious motive of Cartier and of the French—Voyages, 1534-1543—Colonization suspended for sixty years—Henry IV, expedition of 1603—Dissensions over religion—Champlain, ideals as colonizer—Lescarbot ; Abbé Fléché—Baptizing uninstructed Indians—Opposition to Jesuits as missionaries for Acadia—Madame de Guercheville—Fathers Biard and Massé—Obstacles to their embarking for New France—de Guercheville comes to their aid— Friction with Biencourt—The new colony at Saint-Sauveur —Argall, abductor of Pocahontas, pirates Acadia—lIlltreatment of missionaries—Return to France—Why mis- Riis POLPEM GOOCMEY TATIUTOS Lhe ee ck loa ee alaiie sre a ea eneareerd 26

CHAPTER FOUR Missionaries—Layman, Friar and Jesuit A. D. 1615-1625

Champlain—The Franciscans in New France—A first horror —Colonists few—Algonquins, Montaignais—No aid from exploiters of trade—Friars call for Jesuits—Bréheuf,

_ Massé and Charles Lalemant in Canada, 1625—Winter hunt

CONTENTS

CHAPTER FIVE The Missionary’s Fortune

Huron Country, route from Quebec—Journey under difficulties—Hurons, government, beliefs, morals, sorcery—A missionary’s perplexities—English invasion of Canada— French colony depopulated—Missionaries return to France ee TEVCUL \SIZOS (a. VOWoitl | DIOOK C44 ea ao vie ice ule se mh bias

CHAPTER SIX Missions and Civilization

Failure of Huguenot invasion of New France—Colonization in earnest—Its chief promoter, a Huguenot become Jesuit —Le Jeune’s trumpet-call to France—Missions a national reawakening, not a conversion of heathen only—The form of his message, “The Jesuit Relations’—Value as documents of North American history—Incentive to missionaries—Factor in the missions of. New France, in the foundation of Canada and of anew people...............

Chapter Seven

An Apostle and His Mission A. D. 1634-1636 Brébeuf greets the Hurons at Quebec—They visit his chapel, feast and return to Huronia without him—A year of min-:

istry and patience—Return to Ihonatiria in 1634—IIl-treatment on the way—Huron cabins unlike the Louvre— Assembly and catechism—Zeal unrewarded—Caution in admitting converts—Children the hope of the Mission—The SeMiitiag wm Or ChHeHt AlN COUEDEE Wy Gicle sce's akleieis een obs al We wila malar

CHAPTER NINE Arrival of Jogues and Garnier

A. D. 1636-1640 Recruits—Voyage overseas—A martyr and a Mother—Brébeuf again isolated—Four auxiliaries—Arrival of Jogues— Illness in tribe and Mission—A missionary’s daily routine— An Indian’s cabin—Mission at Ossossané—Vacation and UIT VEINEL TC SCHIGOL Ste Wier eet iade cole ati ieeal eA CHUL al Sa win RIN ane we tlta ae

CHAPTER TEN Brébeuf’s Ideal Realized

A. D. 1639 Hostility to missionaries—Imported prejudices—Dream and transport—Baptism of first adult in health—Council decides on death of missionaries—A marvellous document—

A new Mission—An Indian census—Conversions begin.... 120

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER ELEVEN More Missions and New Fields A. D. 1639-1642

‘A change of policy—A mission centre and more stations— The missions and greater New France—Motive of the missionaries—Not after trade or land—Personnel of the head-quarters—Individual characteristics—Obedience—Jesuit auxiliaries—Exploring new fields—Tobacco Indians, Garnier’s report—Jogues and the Ojibways—The Neuters— Brébeuf at Quebec—Failure and hope of the Mission...... 132

CHAPTER TWELVE An Era of Martyrdom

Distress in Huronia—Jogues leads relief expedition—Captured by Mohawks—Two weeks trail in torture—Gruesome village spectacle—A year in slavery—A Martyr’s Confessions —Goupil, first victim—Death for the Sign of the Cross— PIV ANUN eS) ALE PEATE IAN) Sel (iret ie glare a tun io WAM Ny 152

CHAPTER THIRTEEN An Apostle in Slavery

The Dutch intervene—A slave on the Mohawk—The winter’s hunt—A snow-bound oratory—Life in the balance—His friends among the Dutch—Final decision to seek freedom— Reformed Minister and Jesuit—Reception at New Amsterdam—Return to France—Return to Canada—Back to the DRA Se LIGAEN ed iain ewes ata ie Wy Weighed ee aM Maru ac 175

CHAPTER FOURTEEN A Supreme Holocaust

Hurons becoming Christian—Example of devotion—Iroquois implacable—Daniel their victim, Martyr of Charity—Acts of the Martyrs—Brébeuf and Lalemant—An orgy of cruel- Ve MRC eat hela vb POC AR Aa NS r6 URC UE IN A 8

CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Last of the Victims

The Hurons exterminated—Garnier at his post—A true Shepherd—His dying effort—A sublime burial-scene—Chabanel Peete a ede EtG VOW ACCEDTEK cio fsccn Ved es eio in eee Rhee kau uide 209

CHAPTER SIXTEEN Fruits of Martyrdom

An exterminated people—The Missions not a failure—Virtues of the Missionaries—Their memory in veneration—Influence after death—Monuments in their honor—Protestant devotion —General Clark and Auriesville, site of Jogues’s death— ere one iuemory Of the Cnureis. 6 oe i cea as 222 ead vias lace ball ise ee a ctoletalengie shale: Siecaters 235 OME CPC AEE ED Cis ciara atel die aU ed Wik Stel cna die pls a deaiole Gimie g 239 MN nag Rea a Aria nO ee ants Lest wide ea Sataca aaa bathe ats 241

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

THE JESUIT MARTYRS OF NORTH AMERICA

CHAPTER ONE | A Half-Century of Names and Deeds Immortal ANNO DOMINI 1600-1650

The first half of the Seventeenth Century—Rulers and Leaders —Genius in literature—Birthtime of modern science—Philosophy, Painting, Sculpture, Music, Education—Schools of the Jesuits— Religion—Great Saints—Influence in civil life—Missionary spirit, Organization—Missions of the Jesuits—A Society baptized in blood—Genius of sanctity imperishable.

URING the first half of the seventeenth century men were born and things done that were destined to have a lasting influence. Ferdinand II of Germany, in his successful struggle for the Counter-Reformation and the restitution of church properties to their rightful owners, had to sustain the burden of the Thirty Years’ War for more than half its duration. Maximilian, Duke and Elector of Bavaria, was ably supporting him, and consolidating in Bavaria the religious spirit for which it is noted to this day. By maintaining peace in France for twenty years, and promoting agricultural, industrial and commercial prosperity, Henry IV prepared the way for Louis XIII, during whose reign, favored as he was with ministers like Colbert and Richelieu, genius was at its best in France. It was the day of such brilliant leaders as Tilly, Wallenstein, Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, to whom military science and strategy even in our time is much indebted.

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In England, Shakespeare was writing “Hamlet” ; rare Ben Jonson, “Every Man in His Humor’ ; Fletcher, ‘““The Faithful Shepherdess”; Massinger, “A New Way to Pay Old Debts’; blind old Milton, his “Paradise Lost’’; Lord Bacon, his ““Novum Organum”. In Spain, Calderon was creating his “El Principe Constante”; Alarcon, “La Verdad Sospechosa’’; Lope de Vega, his ‘Comedies of the Cloak and Sword”; De Castro, ‘‘Las Mocedades del Cid’; and the immortal Cervantes, the immortal “Don Quijote de La Mancha’. In France, Corneille was producing “Le Cid’; Moliére had begun his stage career; and Richelieu, in 1635, was founding the Academy, which has since been the inspiration of literary work all the world over, as well as in its own country. Among its first members were Boileau, Bossuet, La Fontaine and Racine.

In Italy Baldi was making idyllic poetry and admirable monographs; Davanzati was translating Tacitus; Tassoni parodied the heroic poets in his comic epic; Chiabrera adapted Greek and Latin metres to Italian verse; Testi wrote patriotic poems; and the versatile Salvator Rosa indulged in satire. In Germany, Arndt was writing widely-read books of Protestant theology; the mystic shoemaker Bohme was producing his profound though confused notions; Ayrer and Heinrich, Duke of Brunswick were writing plays; Opitz was bringing forth his masterly treatise on German poetry;

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Logau, his epigrams; Fleming, lyrics; Dach’s poetry lent lustre to the Konigsberg Circle; Gryphius was the chief dramatist of the period; the Jesuit von Spee was intrepidly defending the victims of the witchcraft tribunals; Angelus Silesius was giving noble expression to mysticism in poetry ; the Jesuit Balde sang in both German and Latin; von Grimmelshausen, author of the prose classic of the century, ‘“‘Simplicissimus’”’, was born in 1625.

It was the birthtime of the science we are cultivating to-day, the age of Galileo and his telescope, Torricelli and his barometer, Napier and his logarithms, Huygens’ astronomical discoveries, Mersenne and his laws of vibration, Gassendi the Bacon of France, Gilbert and magnets, Harvey and the circulation of the blood, Bacon and the process of induction, Kircher the versatile Jesuit, with his hieroglyphs, adding-machine, speaking-tube and Aeolian harp, Malpighi and his physiology, Roberval the mathematician, Kepler and planets, Gascoigne and his micrometer, Van Helmont and gases, Buonaventura Cavalieri and the geometric method of indivisibles, Sydenham and epidemic diseases, von Guericke and the air-pump.

Spinoza, Descartes, Pascal and Locke were born at the time; their philosophies still influence profoundly the thought and conduct of multitudes. Grotius was gleaning from the neo-Scholastics and mediaeval jurisprudence principles of an interna-

ee tional law which, if honored in our day, would facilitate the establishment of a world’s court.

Painters like Velasquez, Murillo, Rembrandt, Rubens, Grimaldi, Lorrain, Reni, Domenichino, Dolci, Sassoferrato, Salvator Rosa, Maratta, Zurbaran were creating their immortal masterpieces. In sculpture, Montanez was enriching the cathedral of Seville; Bernini was at work upon his “Apollo and Daphne”; Maderna was elaborating the death-like pose of his St. Cecilia; Algardi was founding the School of Bologna. In music, the Masters of the Golden Age included Sweelinck, the talented brothers Anerio, da Vittoria, the Englishmen Byrd, Wilbye, Morley, and Gibbons, the Germans Hassler and Aichinger. The first oratorio was produced by Emilio Cavalieri; the first opera, by Peri; Monteverde was the pioneer of modern harmony. Schutz elaborated polyphonic principles in Church music; and Frescobaldi composed for the organ.

Education, particularly in France, was in honor, nowhere more than in the colleges at Clermont, La Fléche and Rouen, which will be frequently mentioned in these pages. So much in favor were the Jesuit colleges in France that from twenty in number before A. D. 1600 they increased to seventy in these fifty years, an average of one a year. In spite of the opposition of the Paris University and the Parliament of Paris, and of false accusations of political enemies, they became the popular schools of the time, their average attendance approximating one thousand. For two centuries they educated men who became leaders in every sphere of life, Corneille, Moliere, Descartes, Mersenne, Bossuet, Francis de Sales, Richelieu, Montesquieu, Buffon, Malesherbes. These schools were in close touch with the culture not of France only, but of the learned world of the time. Nationalism had not yet put up barriers to the companionship of scholars of different countries; there was one language in which scholars could converse : travel was leisurely and as often for observation and the exchange of ideas as for trade or pleasure; members of a missionary order were constantly in contact with those who had seen other lands and known other peoples. It is surprising how quickly, without railroad or radio, news got abroad and mental work became common. There was a newspaper in Frankfort in 1615, in Antwerp in 1016, and in, Eneland: in 1022. .')Corneille’s “Le Cid” appeared in France in 1636; it was produced in England in 1637; that tragedy influenced the European stage for two centuries. Drama was a notable element in the Jesuit system of education, and a point of contact between them and the official and lettered world. It was not unusual for the court and nobility to attend their college plays, and for cities like Munich and Paris to solemnize these productions. Jesuit professors wrote these plays and directed their performance

Bisa and other similar public exhibitions. One of the few facts recorded of Jogues as professor in the college at Rouen is the reading of a Latin poem on a legend from Evagrius to the student body, numbering nineteen hundred, at the beginning of the scholastic year 1632. |

Arts and science were the main courses in these colleges. In many places, as at Bordeaux, Cahors, Bruges, Reims, Caen and Poitiers, they were affiliated to the universities of these cities, in some cases constituting the university Faculty of Arts. Clermont and Pont-a-Mousson had the complete university courses of the period, theology, philosophy, embracing natural philosophy or science, the humanities, languages, history and literature. We are not surprised, therefore, to find men trained in these colleges, who afterward became missionaries, versed in sacred science, familiar as Jogues and Brébeuf with Holy Writ, but making their own observations astronomical and meteorological, charting maps, noting what was peculiar in forestry, vegetation and animal life, recording the racial characteristics of the Indians—one of them, Lafitau, is the founder of modern ethnology’—studying their languages not only as missionaries, but as philologists, and planning as true political economists, like Le Jeune, the civilization that flourishes in Canada to-day. The Ontario Government in 1920 published Potier’s seven books on the Huron

2 language and grammar.

In those days, at least in countries which had resisted the innovations of Luther, Calvin and Henry VIII, religion was not yet excluded from ordinary life. France had resisted Lutheranism, and Calvinism had not succeeded in winning over many of its people. French Protestants, generally known as Huguenots, were active in trade, and especially in politics, until in 1628 Richelieu put an end to their political pretensions, and to their dealings with her ancient enemy, England, with a view to making Protestantism a dominant factor in the national life. Great saints were common. Like de Sales, Vincent de Paul and Bellarmine, they took prominent part in civil, social and scientific affairs. De Sales wrote books on spiritual subjects which to-day are read for style as much as for content. De Paul organized public charities in a manner and on a scale which no one had before attempted. Bellarmine was the exponent of genuine democracy, especially as we know it in America, and he was the friend who favored consideration for Galileo. Writers like Baronius, Petavius, Bossuet, Lessius, de Paz were bequeathing a heritage in history, positive theology, apologetics, and mysticism which has not yet been exhausted. Paul V had succeeded in making the enactments of the Council of Trent the established discipline of the Church.

So active was the missionary spirit at the time that Gregory XV found it necessary to constitute ia a

THEO JESUIT MARL YRS a permanent congregation for the propagation of the Faith, the Propaganda. Paul had solemnized the beatification of many, like Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Philip Neri, Teresa, Louis Bertrand, Thomas of Villanova, Isidore, and the canonization of Charles Borromeo, Frances of Rome. Gregory had canonized Ignatius, Francis, Philip, Teresa and Isidore, and beatified among others Albertus Magnus and Peter of Alcantara. It fell to the lot of Urban VIII to issue the bulls for the canonization of Ignatius and Xavier. He canonized Elizabeth of Portugal and Andrew Corsini. Indeed, so common was it to have petitions to beatify and canonize distinguished servants of God, that he found it necessary to regulate the canonical processes for this purpose. It was an era of holiness, and it was an era of missions likewise. Urban was zealous in promoting both. Saints Peter Fourier and Cousin Germaine, Francis Regis and John Berchmans were actually living. The Church in France needed no reforming agency from without. Vincent de Paul, Olier, Condren, Eudes, Bourdoise were re-creating the clergy and the missionary spirit. The Oratorians under Berulle, the Vincentians and Capuchins were evangelizing rich and poor, lettered and unlettered. De Sales had brought the cloister close to the world with his Visitandines; de Paul had organized his Daughters of Charity, whom we honor to-day as Sisters of Charity; Eudes his Good Shepherd; and

Fee the Ursulines had three hundred and twenty houses for the instruction of young girls, sharing with Notre Dame the education of girlhood in France. To the schools of the Jesuits, Condren was looking for recruits to the Duke de Ventadour’s Battalion of the Holy Sacrament, the lay auxiliaries of this true Catholic renascence and the generous supporters of every good movement, especially of the Missions Etrangeres, which were to develop in 1658 as a result of all this earnestness and devotion.

Never before nor since was exploration so active. To mention only what was happening in our own world, a de Monts was occupying Port Royal in Acadia in 1604. The English were in Virginia in 1607. Hudson was in New York Bay in 1609. The Dutch were on Manhattan in 1614. By 1634 settlements were made in Massachusetts, New. Hampshire, Maine, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware.

Missionary orders had their men in every part of the globe. The Jesuits alone were in China, India, Japan, Cochin-China, Mingrelia (Transcaucasia), Ceylon, Aethiopia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Tibet, Paphlagonia, Persia, Armenia, Angola, Abyssinia, Paraguay, Mexico, Peru, Quito, Maryland and Quebec. From every quarter, word was being received of sacrifices as well as of conquests for the Faith. It was enough to warm the blood of any young religious to hear that, in 1614 alone, one

Bo hundred thousand were made Christians in Paraguay, and then to learn that a Claver had died in his heroism in Cartagena; that, one after another, a Chimura, Ribera, Spinola, de Angelis, Andrada, Carvalho had won the martyr’s crown; that without leaving Europe a Melchior and Stephen had been put to death in Poland; that across the Channel in England a Bennet, Bradley, Turner, Jenison, Holland, Corbie, Morse, Owen, Oldcorne and Garnet were being racked, drawn, hanged and quartered,’ in’ a (vain attemptto’ force them yrs betray their brethren as well as to deny their Faith.

Truly \the | Society: ‘of’ Jesus, to vhich tae, belonged, had been baptized in blood. Within sixty years after its foundation, eighty-one of its members had died for religion. Before it was a half-century older, one hundred and_ seven more had sealed their testimony with their lives. Martyrdom was as much a prospect for its members as any other, and the self-sacrifice that would lead up to it was part of the training in its schools, as much as excellence in arts or science. If men born and things done in those days were destined by virtue of genius in art or science to endure in fame or influence, much more were those who excelled in the genius of sanctity, to phrase the suggestion of Aubrey De Vere’®, elected by God to do things which will never fade from memory, and to be immortal themselves in happiness and influence.

CHAPTER’ TWO Martyrs in Formation A. D. 1617-1630 Jesuit Martyrs of North America—The priests, Jogues, Brébeuf, Daniel, Garnier, Lalemant, Chabanel—Their devoted companions, Goupil and Lalande, laymen—The Society of Jesus, spirit and training—Life in the novitiate—The Spiritual Exercises—Reformation not an ideal, but a means to the following of Christ—The Exercises and the phobias, athletes of Christ—After the novitiate, studies, philosophy, teaching, theology, priesthood.

MONG the men of the distinguished half-century outlined in the preceding chapter, whose life-work has hada lasting influence, and whose fame, exalted as it has been up to this, has now become sacred and imperishable, are the eight missionaries who are known as the Jesuit Martyrs

of North America.

The singular distinction of being the first in this part of the New World to be so honored belongs to Isaac Jogues, John de Brébeuf, Noel Chabanel, Anthony Daniel, Charles Garnier, Gabriel Lalemant, priests, and their companions, René Goupil and John Lalande, laymen. They were all born in« France. They left that country when equipped for their life’s work to dwell and labor in the vast and unattractive wilderness known as Canada or New France, three of them, Jogues, Goupil and Lalande, penetrating into territory now part of the State of New York and dying there for the Faith.

The sole object of these intrepid missionaries was ee tol the conversion of the savages who occupied these countries, principally the Hurons, Petuns, Neuters, Algonquins and Iroquois. Never did mortal men work so persistently, nor with such optimism amid every form of privation, obstacle, hardship, danger and reason for discouragement. Only for testimony which inspires conviction, what they endured would be incredible. Like giants they stand out even among their own heroic associates. Their savage tormenters ate the hearts and drank the blood of Lalemant and Brébeuf, hoping to partake of their courage and endurance.

_ With the exception of Brébeuf who was~born ‘March 25, 1593, these martyrs were born and died in the first half of the seventeenth century. He was the only one to exceed fifty years of age, dying in 1049. In that brief space they accomplished the work of long years. The preparation for their arduous careers was the same for all. Of the earliest years of some of them little is known prior to their entrance into the Society of Jesus. After that their manner of life is known minutely, in their various habitations and occupations, up to the time when those who were to become priests received Holy Orders. Fortunately, the schools in which they studied and taught, “the best schools in the world,” Bancroft says,* are still so celebrated that one may, without surmise, appreciate the seriousness of their formation and the quality of the labor they were appointed to perform.

Jogues, the first of these priests to die a martyr, was born in Orleans, January 10, 1607. According to Canon Hubert, genealogist of Orleans, he was the child of his father’s second marriage. The father, who had occupied every prominent official position in his native city, died soon after, leaving the boy’s education to the mother, Francoise de Saint-Mesmin. His name Isaac was apparently a favorite one in his family, one of his uncles being so named and two nephews also. Canon Hubert records his name as Jacques, or James, but his townsman and biographer, Forest, whom all follow, names him Isaac, from the baptismal record of the Church of St. Hilary, and the name has been consecrated by usage.” Holweck lists forty-eight saints of that name, so that it is not a singularity in Jogues’ case.° The name fitted him perfectly, predestined as he was to sacrifice. Finishing his college course at seventeen, be became a Jesuit novice at Rouen, leaving there in 1625 to study philosophy three years at the royal college of La Fléche, which Descartes, who studied there, considered one of the most celebrated schools in Europe.’ After three years more given to teaching he prepared for Holy Orders by the study of theology. Ordained early in 1636, he celebrated his | first Mass on February 1oth, at Orleans, to the great delight of his family. He departed for Canada on April 2nd, in company with the Governor of New France, Charles Huault de bused

THE WESULY (MAR DRS

Montmagny, appointed to succeed Champlain who had died the year before.

The first-born of the group, Brébeuf, appears on the scene only at his entrance into the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen, already twenty-four years of age. He was Norman, born at Condé-sur-Vire, near Lisieux, home of the Little Flower, and not far from Bayeux, famous for its tapestry. There had been Crusaders in his family, and two centuries before a Brébeuf had fought with William the Conqueror at Hastings. Thence, no doubt, came ‘English descendants of the family, the Arundels, with their own three illustrious. martyrs, Philip Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, his father, and William Howard, Viscount Stafford.* This may account for the memorial window in memory of Brébeuf in the Anglican Church of St. Martin at Brighton.” He had studied the humanities and philosophy and moral theology also, each for two years, when he entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1617. His health was poor, and he could not make the usual studies of the young Jesuit, nor could he teach for any length of time. Obliged to rest in the Jesuit residence, opened a few years before at Pontoise, he studied theology sufficiently to qualify for ordination in the unusually short time, for one of his Order, of six years. He celebrated his first Mass on the feast of the Annunciation, his natal feast day, which was transferred that year to April 4th. No one would have predicted that two years

Le a later, in 1625, this invalid consumptive would make his first voyage to Canada, and, when driven out by the English in 1629, return there in 1033 to become the giant Apostle of the Hurons. ©

Next to Brébeuf in order of years was Daniel, also Norman, from the seaport of Dieppe, born May 27, 1601. He had finished his rhetoric and philosophy, and was studying law when he decided to become a Jesuit, following Brébeuf in the Rouen novitiate in 1621. After the customary two years he began a four years’ term of teaching in the college in that city, leaving there to study theology at Clermont College, Paris. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1631, he taught humanities again in the College at Eu, and then, with Brébeuf, he assisted the rector there until he sailed for the Mission of New France, arriving at Cape Breton in 1632, preceding Brébeuf who was to come back to the mission the year following.

Four years younger than Daniel, Garnier was a Parisian, born on May 25, 1605. He was educated at Clermont, then one of the most notable colleges in France. His parents were rich, but the money they allowed him went for the relief of prison inmates. At nineteen he became a Jesuit, following the usual training courses still at Clermont, then teaching at Eu from 1629 to 1632. Ordained priest three years later, he was assigned to the Canada Mission, but out of consideration for his father who, though a staunch benefactor of the

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Jesuits, had reluctantly consented to Charles becoming one of them, his departure was delayed a year. He sailed at length with Jogues in April, 1636.

Paris was the birthplace of Gabriel Lalemant, the last of the Martyrs to reach New France. He was born October 10, 1610. Two of his uncles were distinguished Canadian missionaries, Charles and Jerome. After making his vows as a Jesuit, in Paris, in 1632, he added a fourth vow to devote his life to the Indians. He had to wait fourteen _years to fulfil that vow. Meanwhile, he was reviewing his classical studies, reading philosophy, teaching the classics and mastering theology. As priest, owing to weak health he was chaplain for a year at the college of La Fléche. Then he taught philosophy at Moulins for a year and superintended the studies at Bourges from 1644 to 1646, when he embarked for Canada.

Youngest of all these missionaries was Chabanel, born February 2, 1613, in southern France near Mende, soon after the Huguenots had devastated that region. A Jesuit at the age of seventeen, he followed the usual courses of philosophy and theology, teaching between them for an interval of five years. In 1643 he embarked for Canada arriving there on August 15th, after a three months’ voyage.

Goupil and Lalande, lay assistants of the missionaries, both died as companions of Jogues. They were called donnés, that is, given, or dedicated to their work, oblates as we would style them now, a factor in the success of the priests which we can scarcely appreciate. Goupil was born at Angers, the same year as Jogues. Lalande’s birthplace was Dieppe: only that is known of him, and where and how he died so nobly. Goupil tried hard to be a Jesuit and he actually entered the novitiate, but his health forced him to resign. He then studied surgery and found his way to Canada, where he offered his services to the missionaries, matching the most heroic of them by his fidelity, fortitude in suffering and martyrdom.

The Society of Jesus, of which the six priests were members, was then nearing the completion of the first century of its existence. Founded in 1540 . by Ignatius Loyola, who had planned to restrict its membership to sixty, in 1615 it numbered 13,112, distributed over thirty-two provinces, with over five hundred and fifty houses, and three hundred and seventy-two of these attached to as many colleges. It was governed from that year until 1645 by Mutius Vitelleschi. Before his death the membership had increased by three thousand, and the number of houses had doubled, the colleges alone exceeding five hundred and twenty-five. It was a time of development in the character and quality of work as well as of membership. Under the previous General, Claudius Acquaviva, the entire body had been so closely organized and its various activities so well regulated, that it could adapt itself to the lets brated needs of the time, in missionary as well as in civilized countries, and assume new tasks without impairing the spirit which animated it. To preserve and strengthen this spirit was always a prime consideration with its members as well as with those who were appointed to govern it. To this alone must be ascribed whatever the Society as a whole or its individual members have accomplished.