American Society of Church History

The European Indian: Jesuit Civilization Planning in New France

Author(s): James P. Ronda
Source: Church History, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Sep., 1972), pp. 385-395
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History

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 TheEuropeanIndian:Jesuit Civilization
Planning in New France
JAMES P. RONDA
Europeans who came to America from the sixteenth century on, came not
to discover a new world but to re-create their own versions of Europe. Whether
Spanish conquistador or Virginia planter, each hoped to make America and
native Americans into the shape of idealized Europes and Europeans. Of all
those who made such plans, it was the Society of Jesus that had sufficient au-
thority and manpower to put its visions into practice. Jesuits who came to New
France in the 1630s brought not only Christianity but a whole complex of Eu-
ropean social and political values. To examine Jesuit "civilization planning" in
New France is to see in microcosm a significant part of early European-Indian
relations.
There can be little doubt concerning the outlines of Jesuit planning for Indian
life in New France. Possessed with medieval Christian concepts of social order
and holy harmony, Jesuits hoped to create Indian converts who were both Chris-
tian in belief and European in social patters. The familiar institutions of church,
village, school and morality were to be tools for massive social change. Guidance
was to be provided by the Jesuit vision of the Good Society. The basic elements of
that vision and the means to effect it were expressed in Father Paul Le Jeune's
Relation for 1634. In a section entitled "On the Means of Converting the Savages,"
the Jesuit missionary described orderly and peaceful Indian communities founded
on true religion and European ways. Le Jeune declared that if a few pious
French families settled in the colony, their good example would soon lead In-
dians to copy European habits. The Jesuit maintained that once Indians were
Europeanized they "could be more easily won and instructed."' As this vision,
with its transplanted institutions, came into contact with Indian culture, the
ground was laid for profound conflict. The Society of Jesus envisioned New
France and native Americans as far more than simple testing places for Chris-
tianity. Indians in New France were, in the Jesuit mind, raw material for a
purified European society in America.
Jesuit attempts to mold this Indian raw material were inevitably conditioned
by conceptions of Indian personality, intellectual ability and society. Those con-
ceptions, based on sometimes scanty evidence and personal beliefs, were often con-
tradictory. From the beginning there were missionaries who insisted that native
Americans were simply wandering animals, while others saw great potential in
Indian intellect. The former conception developed first, finding fullest expres-
sion in the writings of Father Pierre Biard. Working in Acadia during the first
part of the seventeenth century, Biard found Indians to be "ignorant, lawless
and rude." Clearly displaying European notions of order and society, the priest
declared that Indians in Acadia were wanderers who had neither homes nor
close personal relationships. Biard evidently entertained serious doubts that such
1. Ruben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Belations and Allied Documents Travels and Ex-
plorations of the Jestit Missionaries in New France 1610-1791. 73 Vols. (Cleveland,
Ohio, 1898-1901), 6 (1634), p. 147. Hereafter cited as JR.
Mr. Ronda is assistant professor of early American history in Youngstown State
University, Ohio.
385

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386 CHURCH HISTORY

people could ever become genuine converts.2 This conception of the native
American gained strength with the publication of the Relatio Rerum Gestarum of
1613 and 1614. The Jesuit author of the Relatio reported that Indians lacked
political institutions, religious ideas and social order. "On the whole," the Relatio
declared, "the race consists of men who are hardly above the beasts."3 The posi-
tion held by Father Biard and others was essentially defeatist in a missionary
perspective. It argued that little or nothing could be done to Christianize and
Europeanize Indians whose mental and social characteristics were those of animals.
Father Biard's arguments, and their implications for the Jesuit mission
civilisatrice, were unacceptable to zealous missionaries such as Fathers Paul Le
Jeune and Charles Lalemant. Soon after their arrival in New France, these men
began to develop a second conception of the Indian. In yearly Relations during
the 1630s, Le June and other Jesuits stressed positive aspects of Indian intellect
and personality. Hurons were reported to be men of reason who could con-
verse intelligently with Europeans on many subjects.4 Responding to charges
that Indians were no more than beasts, Le Jeune wrote: "I do not claim here to
put our savages on a level with the Chinese, Japanese, and other nations per-
fectly civilized: but only to put them above the condition of beasts."5 Le Jeune
and Lalemant went beyond mere statements concerning relative Indian mentality.
They argued on one occasion that education, not intelligence, separated the In-
dian from the European.6 Environmentalism lay at the heart of such statements.
Indians could become European Christians. All that was necessary were changes
in Indian life and society. These arguments, blending cultural arrogance and
genuine awareness of Indian intellect, provided Jesuits with both a justification
for mission work and a racial theory for Europeanization.
When the Society of Jesus entered New France in 1632, it was faced with
the greatest missionary challenge in the history of the organization. Unlike their
brethren in New Spain, Jesuits in New France could not fall back on work done
by other Orders. The Jesuits bore the sole responsibility for the Christian mis-
sion in New France until 1657. Even after the 1650s the Society maintained its
position as the pioneer Christianizing and "civilization planning" force in the
French colony. As a result of this mission monopoly and the sheer size of the
task, Jesuits were compelled to develop evangelizing techniques suited to new con-
ditions. Of this vast challenge, long-time Superior of the Society in New France
Le June wrote: "To make a Christian out of a barbarian is not the work of a
day. The seed that is sown one year in the earth does not bear fruit so soon."7
Jesuits in New France realized that the initial contacts with Indians would
be crucial for the success of the mission. Aware that much of Indian life was
ceremonial and involved festivals and present-giving, Jesuits used these customs
to gain entrance to native villages. Writing of the Algonquin mission in the
early 1640s, a Jesuit reported that "we strove to win the affections of the chief
personages by means of feasts and presents."8 An important problem involving
conflicting values and meanings arose concerning the interpretation of Jesuit
2. JR., 1, (1610-1613), p. 173.
3. Belatio Rerum Gestarum, JR, 2 (1612-1614), p. 201.
4. JR., 10 (1636), p. 213.
5. JR., 10 (1636), p. 211.
6. JR., 19 (1640), p. 39.
7. JR., 23 (1642-1643), p. 207.
8. JR., 23 (1642-1643), p. 223.

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EUROPEAN INDIAN 387

gifts to Indians. For the native American, gifts were personal and diplomatic
symbols which could "wipe away the tears of sorrow" or "clear the dead from
the battle ground." The Jesuits insisted that the presents they gave were not for
that purpose. Rather, the gifts were to symbolize the Jesuit hope that as all
were happy on earth, so all would experience eternal bliss in heaven. "This kind
of present," wrote a missionary, "astonished them at first, as not being accord-
ing to their usages, but we gave them to understand that only the hope that we
had of seeing them become Christians led us to desire their friendship."9
In the eyes of the Jesuits the purpose of the presents was to gain some mea-
sure of confidence from village leaders. These leaders, whom the Jesuits invari-
ably called Captains, were then used to call the rest of the villagers together for
religious instruction. After the group assembled, the Jesuits knelt and chanted
the Pater Noster in the Huron language. Father Daniel, a Jesuit scholar, had
translated much of the ordinary liturgy into Huron, thus providing a valuable
tool for the mission. After chanting the prayers, the priests moved among the
children instructing them in Christian fundamentals. When Indian youths ans-
wered questions correctly, they were rewarded with small glass beads. The
Jesuits noted that parents were very pleased with the beads, seeing them as a
sign of prestige and power.'0 This approach to evangelization was developed for
work among the Hurons and Montagnais early in the 1630s and remained in
use well into the 1790s.
These techniques represented a continuation of those used by Jesuits in other
mission areas.11 However, soon after the task in New France began, it became
evident that such methods were encountering stiff Indian resistance. Faced with
a slowing of mission activities, Jesuits turned to other means to gain converts.
The use of fear-fear of death and hell-has often been part of the Christian
mission, and now that powerful weapon surfaced in the Jesuit mission. Jesuits
began to speak to Indians about everlasting suffering in fire if they rejected the
faith. This image had special meaning for Hurons and Algonquins since this
was the treatment they were commonly subjected to at the hands of their con-
stant enemy, the Iroquois. Father Le June discussed the kinds of terror tech-
niques used, and his remarks reveal much of the psychological brutality inherent
in the mission effort.
After explaining the message of salvation contained in some religious pic-
tures to one Huron, Le Jeune requested the Indian to tell others in the group
about heaven and hell. "Here is a picture," said the Huron, "of those who
would not believe; see how they are bound in irons, how they are in the flames,
how mad with pain they are; those others who go to heaven, are the ones who
have believed and obeyed Him who made all things." Le Jeune insisted that such
illustrations were "half the instructions that one is able to give the savages" and
urged that future pictures sent to the mission field clearly depict the suffering of
sinners. The Jesuit made no effort to hide his willingness to use terror for con-
9. JR., 23 (1642-1643), pp. 211-213.
10. JR., 8 (1634-1636), pp. 143-147.
11. Beyond the obvious similarities in Jesuit mission techniques between New France and
New Spain, there appears to be some evidence of continuity of approach stemming from
efforts in the Philippines and China. For this evidence, see H. de la Costa, The Jesuits
in the Philippines, 1581-1768 (Cambridge, 1961), Chapter 7; George H. Dunne, Genera-
tion of Giants, The Story of the Jesuits in China in the Last Decades of the Ming Dynas-
ty (London, 1962); Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China
(London, 1929), pp. 185-198.

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388 CHiuCH HISTORY

version, arguing that "fear is the forerunner of faith in these barbarous minds."12
By rote memory and fear, Jesuits were able to gain some converts. However,
both the depth of Christian belief and the price extracted in human anguish re-
mained unknown.
In discussing the impact of Christianity upon Indian religions, historians
have suggested that some native Americans blended Christianity with indigenous
beliefs while others maintained the core of personal doctrine and "put on" the
externals of Christianity.13 These models, drawn from Spanish experience in
Mexico, do not quite fit the realties of New France. In the French colony re-
ligious culture contact was marked by a highly complex interaction of Chris-
tianity and native religion.
The clash of Christian and Indian religious principles takes on far more
meaning when Jesuit attitudes toward native religion are explored. Early in the
mission's history several missionaries noted a lack of both priestly hierarchy and
regular worship. European preconceptions of institutional religion led Jesuits to
assume that Indians had no religious beliefs. "We concluded," wrote one priest,
"that their conversion would be all the easier; because-as upon a bare tablet,
from which there was nothing to erase-we might without opposition impress on
them ideas of a true God." Yet, daily experience in the field soon made Jesuits
aware of the errors in their appraisal of Indian religion. Missionaries discovered
an Indian religious universe populated by many spirits and gods and interpreted
by native priests and prophets. Jesuits were forced to admit that religion was a
powerful element in Indian life. While still insisting that native religion was es-
sentially evil superstition, Jesuits were compelled to come to grips with both
Indian religion and religious leaders as potent centers of resistance to Jesuit
plans.l4
Confronted with the continued persistance of Indian religious patterns,
Jesuits sensed that some kind of religious accommodation was a necessity. With-
out such compromises it was feared that the mission might grind to a halt. In
New Spain, Jesuits permitted and sometimes encouraged festivals containing
Christian and non-Christian elements. In New France the Jesuits chose a similar
set of tactics. Jesuits were often eager to have their converts express Christian
dogma by means of Indian language and thought structure. Given current knowl-
edge of the culture contact situation, the results of those expressions point to a
predictable blending of Indian and European ideas. One Algonquin was called
upon to explain the relationship between grace and sin. "Grace" he declared, "is
like a beautiful robe of beaver fur, with which God our Father clothes the souls
of his good children."15 It is important to note that the speaker selected a beaver
robe as the basis of his discussion. Much of Huron and Algonquin religion centered
on the beaver. The animal was a sign of prosperity and health. In his explana-
tion, the Indian speaker had merged the Christian concept of grace with the In-
12. JR., 11 (1636-1637), pp. 87-89.
13. A. G. Bailey, The Conflict of European and Eastern Algonlcian Cultures, 1504-1700. 2nd.
ed. (Toronto, 1969), 141; R. C. Padden, The Humming Bird and The Hawk: Conquest
and Sovereignty in the Valley of Mexico, 1503-1541 (Columbus,Ohio, 1967), Chapter 13;
Edward H. Spicer, Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United
States on the Indians of the Southwest, 153S-1960 (Tucson, 1962), 326.
14. JR., 13 (1642-1643), pp. 151-153.
15. JR., 23 (1642-1643), pp. 113-115. For a comparative perspective in New Spain, see Rob-
ert Ricard, The Spiritual Conquestof Mexico: An Essay on the Apostolate and the Evan-
gelizing Methods of the Mendicant Orders in New Spain, 1523-1572 (Berkeley, 1933-
1966).

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EUROPEAN INDIAN 389

dian view of the life-giving beaver. What emerged was a partial synthesis of
native and Christianelements.
A study of the Jesuit mission in New France and its effects on native
Americans must also examine the theological conflict between Christian and
native religious leaders. While Europeansnever permittedany honest and ex-
tended dialogueto develop,there is some evidencethat intellectualconfrontations
between differing religious systems did take place. In New France those con-
frontationsusually involved a conflict between the Jesuit priest and an Indian
shaman. At root, the debate was one of religion and personalpower. The very
existence of the Christianmissionary within the Indian communityconstituted
a genuinethreat to both the authorityof the native priest and the continuationof
traditionalsociety.
Although violence did occur in the Christianizingefforts along the French
frontier, the evangelizationprocess also promoted at least partial understand-
ing.16 For some reason, Jesuits in New France seemed far more open to theo-
logical discussionthan were their brethrenin New Spain. While Jesuits in the
French colony never attemptedto gain an interior view of native religion, they
were willing to argue points of theology with native priests. Typical of those
theologicalencounterswas one held between Father Le Jeune and a Montagnais
priest in 1633. The Jesuit and his Indian counterpartexplored such topics as
the origin of the universe,the nature of evil and the compositionof human and
animal souls. While neither theologian convinced the other of anything, there
had been an exchange of ideas without violence. The Indian concludedthat Le
Jeune was an "ignoramus",and the Jesuit retortedthat Indian eyes were full of
the dust of superstition.7
Theologicaldiscussionsoften becameplatformsfor Indian criticismof Chris-
tianity, the Jesuit mission and Europeans in general. Indian priests correctly
sensed that Christianitywas the prime carrier of Europeanvalues and that the
Jesuit mission was concernedwith far more than religious conversion. The fol-
lowing portion of a speech by a Huron religious leader contains a strong in-
dictmentof Jesuit "civilizationplanning"and its results for native Americans.
You tell us that God is full of goodness; and then, when we give ourselves
up to him, he massacresus. The Iroquois,our mortal enemies,do not believe
in God, they do not love the prayers,they are more wicked than demons,-and
yet they prosper; and since we have forsakenthe usages of our ancestors,they
kill us, they massacreus, they burn us,-they exterminateus root and branch.
What profit can there come to us from lendingan ear to the gospel, since death
and the faith nearly always march in company. Before these innovationsap-
pearedin these regions, we lived as long as the Iroquois; but, since some have
acceptedprayer, one sees no more white heads,-we die at half age.18
Such powerful attacks on Christianityand its effects on traditionalways of life
were repeatedconstantlyby native priests throughoutNew France. Their potent
argumentsfrequentlythwartedJesuit efforts. In many villages the result of the
conflictwas a religiousstalematein which native Americanswere forced to accept
the outward forms of Christianitywhile still maintainingloyalty to traditional
16. JR., 66 (1702-1712), p. 235. In the Illinois country during 1712, Father Gabriel Marest
was attacked by a "charlatan" who narrowly missed his skull with a hatchet. JR., 66
(1702-1712), p. 235.
17. JR., 6 (1633-1634), pp. 157-227; Peter M. Dunne, Blacb Robes in Lower Californi
(Berkeley, 1952), 16; Spicer, Cycles of Conquest, 324-331.
18. JB., 25 (1642-1644), pp. 35-37.

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390 CHURCH HISTORY

religious practices.'9
To suggest that Jesuit-Indian relations operated on only the religious level
is to miss the full impact of the culture contact situation. Jesuits brought to New
France not only religion but a set of plans to create Christian communities. The
drive to build a purified Europe in America can be best examined by investigat-
ing Jesuit attempts to build settled Indian communities.
Order, structure and authority were dominant themes in the social institutions
which Europeans brought to the new world. Grounded in medieval concepts of
class and status, the social theories of early modern Europe revealed a passion
for rationality and order. Shakespeare summed up this cultural value when, in
Troilus and Cressida, he had Ulysses say: "Observe degree, priority and place,/
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,/ Office and custom, in all line of
order. Take but degree away, untune that string,/ and hark, what discord fol-
lows." Concerned with the "discord" of nomadic life, missionaries urged the
creation of settled Indian communities. While many Indians, such as the Hurons
and Iroquois did have village settlements, the Montagnais and other tribes were
nomads. For the Jesuits the wandering life of some native Americans could not
be permitted in the new planned communities. Civil order demanded a regulated
life style. The restructuring of Indian life would be one more way to extend the
Christian mission. The consequences of this attempt to impose European social
patterns on Indians proved to have vast implications for the future of both In-
dians and Europeans.

Jesuits in New France maintained that Indian life had to be radically altered
and permanent Indian towns created. Early in the history of the mission, Father
Le Jeune wrote that missionaries might "work a great deal and advance very
little, if we do not make these Barbarians stationary."20 Jesuits in the French
colony presented a variety of arguments favoring a settlement program, pointing
to ease of Indian conversion, the administration of sacraments and the control
of morality.21
Unaware of the dangers posed by resettlement to native Americans, Jesuits
throughout the 1630s and 1640s offered many proposals designed to aid in the
creation of stable Indian communities. In 1639 the Order succeeded in convinc-
ing the Gentlemen of the Company of New France to promote resettlement. "In
order to induce the savages to settle," the company granted sedentary Indians
the same credit privileges offered to French habitants. In addition, the company
promised free cleared land to any Indian woman who would marry and settle
on the land.22 As most of the Jesuits in New France were French nationals, they
felt a deep sense of loyalty to the colony as an extension of the nation. Mixing
religion and nationalism, they maintained that a strong colony was vital for the
support of a successful mission. Jesuits offered several suggestions concerning
the maintenance of Quebec as part of the effort to remake Indian life. One mis-
sionary urged increased immigration of French colonists saying: "If I could see
here a number of towns or villages, gathering enough of the fruits of the earth
for their needs, our wandering savages would soon range themselves under our
19. JR., 7 (1634-1635), pp. 129-135.
20. JR., 6 (1633-1634), p. 149.
21. JR., 25 (1642-1644), p. 113.
22. JR., 16 (1639), p. 33.

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EUROPEAN INDIAN 391

protection; and, being rendered sedentary by our example, they could easily be
instructed in the faith."28
The argument that there was a close relationship between the growth of
Quebec and the hope for mission settlements remained in Jesuit thinking through-
out the period. Illustrating so clearly the link between the state and the religious
society, one Jesuit declared that "the French colony is the chief means and the
only foundation for the conversion of these tribes: there is no better or more
efficacious way of procuring their salvation than by succoring this settlement."24
Immigration never equaled the hopes of the Jesuits during the life of French
Canada. When this became evident, a number of missionaries proposed and
actually did "farm out" Indians to French colonists in hopes that such action
might force social change on an individual basis. The terms under which In-
dians were to work for or with the habitants are unclear. However, as one 1636
case indicated, the method proved unsatisfactory. An unnamed Indian had an
argument with a colonist about land and left when the Jesuit refused to support
his claim.25
In spite of constant Jesuit action, relatively few Indians accepted the sedentary
life. Most tribal units were decimated by war and disease before accepting re-
settlement. However, some moderately successful settlements did exist for brief
periods. Most important of these was St. Joseph, later called Sillery. Sillery
was founded in 1637 as part of an effort to reorganize the Montagnais Indians.
Twenty Indians clustered around the mission fort and engaged in crude agri-
culture. In 1640 a hospital administered by the Ursulines was added.26 By 1642
Sillery was composed of about 35 or 40 Indian families. These families had con-
sented to remain at the post throughout the year. One Jesuit called Sillery "the
seed of Christianity amid this barbarism."27 But the seed had evidently been
planted in unreceptive ground. Jesuits could offer little proof to support their
claim that larger tribes, such as the Hurons, were imitating the Montagnais.
Rather, the Montagnais were now viewed by both Hurons and Iroquois as out-
casts.
The first step in the Jesuit mission civilisatrice was to create orderly village
life. An educational program, the next logical move in Europeanizing Indians,
was clearly seen by both missionaries and government officials. Jean Baptiste
Colbert, writing to the Intendent of New France, declared that "little effort has
been made to detach them [Indians] from their savage customs and to oblige
them to adopt ours, especially to teach them our language."28 While Colbert's
judgment about the lack of effort made to settle and Europeanize Indians was
incorrect, he did see that education was a central theme in Jesuit "civilization
planning."
The educational activities of the Jesuits in the French colony can be divided
into two areas. Purely religious and doctrinal education was to be supplemented
with secular learning. Jesuits did most of the elementary teaching in the field
while engaged in missionary labors. A priest working among the Iroquois at the
23. JB., 8 (1634-1636), p. 15.
24. JR., 23 (1642-1643), p. 271.
25. JR., 9 (1639), p. 19.
26. R. G. Thwaites, "Introduction," JR., 1 (1610-1613), pp. 18-19.
27. JR., 23 (1642-1643), p. 303.
28. Colbert to Talon, 5 April 1667, as quoted in Jean Delanglez, Frontenao and the Jesuits
(Chicago, 1939), 41.

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392 CHIuICHHISTORY
end of the seventeenthcenturyvoiced typicalsentimentswhen he declaredthat "in
order to establishChristianityon a solid basis among these peoples, it is neces-
sary to makeuse of readingand writing,whichare two things whereinthe savages
are utterly ignorant."29In teachingthe rudimentsof readingand writing, simple
methods were employed. Childrenwere instructedand then told to teach their
parents. The ideal was to have Indians learn French, but there is little record
of Jesuits teaching that language.30For many frontierpriests the added burden
of non-religiouseducation was too demanding. Most let their teaching duties
slide, evidentlyfeeling that the salvationof the Indian soul was more important
than the seculareducationof the Indianmind.31
It was plain, even early in the developmentof the Jesuit mission in New
France, that educationbased on short teaching sessions in the field would meet
neitherthe demandsof officialFrench policy nor the requirementsof the broader
Jesuit program. The governmentpolicy, enunciatedby Louis XIV, called for an
"attemptto bring up the little savage childrenafter the French manner of life,
in order to civilize them, little by little."32 Both official Frenchificationand
Jesuit civilizationplanningrequiredpermanenteducationalinstitutionswith large
student populationsand well trained teachers. Father Le Jeune was aware of
the need when he came to Quebec in the 1630s. An Indian lay seminarywas
one of three goals that the Jesuit set for himself when he became Superior of
the Order in New France. In 1634 Le Jeune wrote of his plans to the Provincial
in Paris. At that time Le Jeune believed the major obstacle to the seminary
would be lack of financialaid. He had discussed the matter with Father Bre-
beuf, who had promisedto send some Huron boys as students. While Le Jeune
supportedthe creationof a seminaryin New France, the Superioractuallyhoped
that some Indian childrenmight be sent to France for a period of educationand
then return to serve as a cadre for mass education. This plan was opposed by
Samuel de Champlainand Father CharlesLalemantas being too expensive and
insufficientto meet the larger need.38
In the Relation for 1637 Le Jeune gave a progress report on the Huron
seminary. Since his last commentson the project in 1634, the Superiorhad in-
structed priests to locate suitable Indians for the school. This proved to be a
more difficult task than the Jesuit expected. "When it came to separatingthe
childrenfrom their mothers,"reportedLe Jeune, "the extraordinarytenderness
which the savage women have for their children stopped all proceedingsand
nearly smotheredthe project." Le Jeune, now deeply committedto the effort,
marshalledcivil and ecclesiasticalforces in an attempt to convince the Hurons
of the value of a seminary. After a long and complex conference five young men
were given to the Jesuits as students. The new pupils, under the direction of
Father Antoine Daniel, were given French clothing and Europeaninstruction.84
Le Jeune, his enthusiasmnow temperedby Indian resistance,wrote bitterly that
"all these barbarianshave the law of wild asses,--they are born, live, and die in
a libertywithout restraint."85
29. JR., 53 (1669-1670), p. 205.
30. JR., 23 (1642-1643), p. 103.
31. JR., 53 (1669-1670), p. 207.
32. JR., 52 (1667-1669), p. 47.
33. JR., 6 (1633-1634), pp. 83-89.
34. JR., 12 (1637), pp. 3945.
35. JR., 12 (1637), p. 61.

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EUROPEAN INDIAN 393

Things did not go well for the Huron seminaryat Three Rivers. During
the 1640s death and disease thinned the ranks of the students. Resistance to
Christianityand the desire to preserve traditionalculture led most Indian par-
ents to reject Europeaneducationfor their children.The final blow to the seminary
came in 1644 when an Iroquois raiding party attackedThree Rivers and killed
the seminariansand their teachers.86The destructionof the Huron school marked
the end of concertedJesuit efforts at institutionalIndian education. In the 1670s
the Society refused to resume the institutionalapproach. This refusal brought
the Order into conflict with governmentpolicy, but even this friction did not
signal any renewed activity.87 Disillusionedby the events of the 1640s, Jesuits
turnedaway from seculareducationand towardthe "religious"task of conversion.
If it was the purposeof Jesuit Indian planningto create a purified copy of
the old world in New France, then the impositionof Europeanmorality was an
importantconsideration. In the eyes of the Jesuits, New France was to be a
"holy Europe"-one free of sin and vice. Driven by the moral puritanismof
the Counter-Reformation, Jesuit efforts to preserve America and native Amer-
icans in a sacred society manifestedthemselvesin many ways. Shocked by what
appearedto be mass immorality,missionariesattemptedto mold Indian personal
relations, marriage institutions and sexual mores to European patterns. How-
ever, the introductionof European morals as a means of social control and
social change can be most clearly seen in Jesuit responses to the problem of
alcoholin Indianlife.88
In New France the Jesuits stood as the major barrierbetween the Indian
and the brandy trader. The Society was aware of the problems caused by
alcohol and, early in the 1630s, began to discuss the situation in the Relations.
Jesuit writers pointed to a numberof civil and religious problemseither created
or increasedby the consumptionof brandy. Indian mortalityrates suddenlyin-
creased as did the incidents of violence between Indians and whites.89 For the
Jesuit missionary,the ideal Indian was docile and ready for conversion. Alcohol
appearedto release the pent up frustrationsand aggressionscreated by French
conquest and made conversion almost impossible. Jesuits were probably not
aware of the psychologicalovertones in Indian drinking, but they did describe
its results with great clarity. Watching a group of Indians drinking brandy, a
Jesuit wrote that they are listened to with attention,that "they are great orators,
that they are valiant and formidable,that they are looked up to as chiefs."40Still
caught up in the vision of New France as a purifiedEurope, the Jesuits branded
the alcoholtrade as "that pernicioustraffic which ruins everything."41
By the mid-seventeenthcentury the brandy trade and its effects on both
36. JR., 26 (1642-1644), p. 19.
37. This conflict is discussed in Delanglez, Frontenao and the Jesuits, 35 ff.
38. Few racial stereotypes are more persistent than that of the "Drunken Indian". Jesuits
adequately described the external effects of alcohol upon Indians and Indian society but
failed to examine the specific reasons for the corrosive effects of alcoholism on tradition-
al culture. Constant Jesuit concern for the problem actually helped lend weight to the
stereotype. Jesuits and other Europeans did not sense that Indian culture, in terms of
past experience and socialization, was not prepared to cope with the sudden invasion of
alcohol and its social results. These ideas are partially developed in Craig Mac Andrew
and Robert B. Edgerton, Drunken Comportment: A poital Explanation (Chicago, 1969),
136-164.
89. JR., 6 (1633-1634), p. 251.
40. JR., 11 (1636-1637), pp. 195-197.
41. JR., 28 (1645-1646), p. 31.

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394 CHURCH HISTORY
Indians and whites had become a major issue in the French colony. Early in
1659 Bishop FranqoisLaval called for a series of conferenceson the matter to
be held in Quebec. After six months of intermittentdiscussions it was finally
decided to use the threat of excommunicationagainst anyone caught selling or
giving inordinateamounts of alcohol to Indians. Laval, supportingthe Jesuit
call for direct action against the brandy traders, obtained a promise from the
civil Governorto enforcethe trade ban.42
The results of this flurry of activity were disappointing. The threat of
excommunicationand civil sanctions were hardly potent weapons to change the
activities of brandy traders. Jesuits also found that the brandy trade had in-
fluencewithin governmentalcircles. In January,1662, a Jesuit noted that "there
was much talk respectingthe permissionto sell liquor to the savages, that was
given by Monsieur the Governor; we used every effort, except excommunica-
tion, to oppose it."48 A year later the situation had further deteriorated. The
Society was successful in again obtaining a promise of excommunicationfor
brandy traders. But, as one Father observed, "little improvement resulted
therefrom."44
It would be a serious error to argue that such disappointmentsspelled the
end of Jesuit efforts to use Europeanmoralityas a buffer against the effects of
alcohol on Indian life. During the eighteenthcentury two Jesuit frontier mis-
sionarieswrote detailed reports on the brandytrade and its impacton both the
Christianmission and Indian society. Father Etienne de Carheil, working in
the upper peninsulaof present-dayMichigan, wrote a bitter indictmentof the
alcohol trade as carried on by French troops at the Mackinacgarrison. The
Jesuit advocatedcompleteinterdictionof the trade. If this was not done quickly,
Carheildeclaredthat the mission should be handed over to the traders for con-
version into "tavernsand sodoms."45
The final and perhaps most complete explication of the entire issue came
from Father Joseph Lafitau. In a report to the Council of France written in
1716, Lafitauofferedseveral reasonswhy "the trade in brandyand other similar
liquors is entirely opposed to the well-beingof the colony and the state." The
Jesuit observedthat the consumptionof brandyproducedincreasedIndian-white
violence,enabledFrench tradersto defraudIndians and made settled community
life impossible.4
After considerabledeliberationthe Council of France finally agreed that
some action had to be taken. They had receivedletters on the subject from im-
portantcolonialauthoritiessuch as Vaudreuil,Begon and Ramezay,all of whom
agreed with Lafitau. The Councilmoved to containthe traffic in towns but was
forced to admit that little could be done on the frontier. In all, this was an ad-
mission that the proportionsof the trade had gone well beyond the willingness
and capabilityof both the Jesuits and the civil governmentto control.47
While Jesuit plans and goals are fairly evident, it is far more difficult to
measuretheir impacton native Americansin New France. The Christianization
process may have producedgenuine converts, but there is an equal amount of
42. Delanglez, Frontenao and the Jesuits, 72-73.
43. JR., 47 (1661-1663), p. 275.
44. JR., 47 (1661-1663), p. 297.
45. JR., 65 (1696-1702), pp. 191-195.
46. JR., 67 (1716-1727), pp. 39-45.
47. JR., 67 (1716-1727), p. 47.

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EUROPEAN INDIAN 395

evidence to demonstrate the persistence of Indian religious patterns.48 Inherent

in the mission effort was an attack upon native religious leaders. Such attacks
had profoundly disturbing effects on Indian society. Maintained by bonds of
personal prestige and deference, traditional ways began to disintegrate when pro-
minent men were publicly challenged and disgraced. The fragmentation of Indian
culture was furthered by the resettlement policy. While reasonable to the Jesuit
mind, the policy was nearly disastrous for the Hurons and Montagnais.49 Indians
who agreed to settle in permanent villages were made easy tragets for both their
own enemies and unscrupulous Europeans. Education as an instrument of social
planning also proved to be a weak reed. Hampered by notions of Indian cultural
inferiority, Jesuits tried unsuccessfully to remold Indian minds to European pat-
terns. Indian resistance and the lack of financial aid doomed these efforts. Finally,
in spite of Jesuit efforts to control the brandy trade, alcohol, not the gospel, be-
came a major determinant in Indian social change. In the end even Paul Le
Jeune, zealous missionary for the faith, was forced to admit that disease, war
and famine were the unhappy partners of the Christian mission.50 His appraisal
strangely mirrored the words of an unknown Huron who declared that "death
and the faith nearly always march in company."'5
48. Bailey, Conflict, 135-141; JR., 50 (1664-1667), p. 287; JR., 65 (1702-1712), p. 181. For
similar patterns in the Southwest, see Spicer, Cycles of Conquest, 502-516.
49. Bruce G. Trigger, The Huron Farmers of the North (New York, 1969), 1-2.
50. JB., 25 (1642-1644), pp. 105-107.
51. JR., 25 (1642-1644), p. 37.

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