François Laval

French-born colonial Canadian bishop

• Born: April 30, 1623
• Birthplace: Montigny-sur-Avre, near Chartres, France
• Died: May 6, 1708
• Place of death: Quebec City, New France (now in Canada)

As the first bishop of Quebec, Laval worked with the governors of New France to convert the Native Americans to Christianity and to establish the parish structure of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. Laval’s work also preserved French influence in Canada, even after the English conquest in 1763.

Early Life

François Laval (frahn-swah lah-vahl) was born François-Xavier de Laval-Montmorency, at Montigny-sur-Avre, in the department of Eure-et-Loir in the diocese of Chartres, on April 30, 1623. His father was a descendant of the cadet branch of an important family of the French upper nobility noted especially for its military service to the Crown. As the third son, François was expected to find his life’s work in the Church. Consequently, at age nine, he was tonsured as a cleric and sent by his family to La Fleche, a Jesuit college in Paris, where he was educated in the humanities by the devout Jesuit Father Bogot. Bogot, one of the two most influential persons in Laval’s life, taught him the militant Jesuit virtues of discipline, asceticism, and persistence.

At age fifteen, Laval was appointed a canon of the Cathedral of Évreux. This post enabled him to continue his studies at the College of Clermont in Paris even after his father died. The deaths of his two older brothers threatened to change Laval’s life even more, because his family expected him to marry and perform his duty as head of the family. Whether from ambition for more power than a minor noble could command or from religious devotion, Laval chose to renounce his patrimony in favor of a younger brother and take holy orders—saying his first Mass in Paris on September 23, 1647.

From 1647 to 1653, Laval served at Évreux. He then resigned his position to go to Rome, expecting to be sent by the pope as a bishop to Asia. When Portuguese opposition prevented this, Laval returned to Caen in France, where Jean de Bernières de Louvigny, with a group of disciples, prayed and lived in piety and charity in a mystical community called the Hermitage. These men practiced a sort of transcendental devotion resulting in visions and revelations. Zealous advocates of the Jesuits, they believed that God had chosen them to monitor the orthodoxy of the clergy.

These two men and institutions—Bogot and the Jesuits, and Bernières and the Hermitage mystics—formed the character of Laval. His zeal and devotion, his austere and ascetic religious practice, and his willingness to endure and even seek out deprivation were characteristic of the mystics of Caen. The hard, cold, combative side of his nature was built into the Jesuit educational system. Austerity and the habit of authority are apparent in Laval’s portrait. The large, aristocratic nose, well-formed forehead, and strongly arched brow frame his small bright eyes and thin compressed lips to convey a haughty self-confidence. It is not so easy to see in his portrait the affable manner and charm also noted by his contemporaries.

In seventeenth century France, bishops were nominated by the king and approved by the pope. Laval’s character and breeding made him a perfect Jesuit candidate when King Louis XIV of France asked them to suggest nominees to be the first bishop to New France. Clergy going to Canada had traditionally been chosen and approved by the archbishop of Rouen. Laval broke that pattern. The pope accepted the royal nomination, but in the interests of papal supremacy he made Laval vicar apostolic for Canada. Thus, the bishop would be subject to no authority other than the pope’s and could be recalled only by the pope. Consecrated as the bishop of Petraea with the official title of vicar apostolic, Laval embarked for Quebec in April, 1659, arriving in June as the first bishop in New France.

Life’s Work

Laval, age thirty-six, reached Canada during its transition from a mission and trading station to a colony. New France was populated mainly by Algonquians, Hurons, and Iroquois. In 1659, the Iroquois remained the only persistent native enemies of the French. The French settlers did not exceed twenty-five hundred, including priests, nuns, traders, farmers, and merchants. Shortly after Laval arrived, Louis XIV began sending approximately three hundred settlers per year, mostly peasants but also marriageable young women. Soldiers sent to Quebec and Montreal from France were often given land grants in Canada to encourage them to remain as settlers after their term of service was completed. When Laval arrived in Canada, the creation of institutions and communities was more important than exploration and martyrdom.

The civilizing of Canada was Laval’s life’s work. During his early years in Quebec, he fought two major battles in the interests of Christianizing and unifying New France. The first of these was his struggle with other clergy and missionaries to establish himself as the head of the church and to create an orderly ecclesiastical hierarchy. The second struggle was a common one of the time—the contest between the powers of the Church and those of the state.

Almost immediately after Laval arrived in the New World, Sulpician priests in Montreal and the archbishop of Rouen in France challenged the new bishop’s claims to authority over them. Difficulties in communication between Canada and Rome, as well as the seventeenth century contest between the king of France and the pope over control of the French clergy, complicated Laval’s efforts to establish his preeminence. Nevertheless, by 1661 the archbishop of Rouen had been transferred to Paris and the Sulpician priests had accepted the authority of the vicar apostolic. A later attempt in 1670 to limit the power of the clergy by sending Franciscan missionaries—the Recollects—to challenge Laval’s support from the Jesuits had little impact.

In the early conflicts between Laval and political leaders in New France, Laval proved his diplomatic ability. Before 1663, one governor resigned and another was recalled by the king in the dispute over selling brandy to the Canadian Indians. The official trading company policy tolerated the sale of brandy to the Indians because brandy was the most desired exchange for beaver furs. If French traders did not offer alcohol, so the company reasoned, English and Spanish interlopers would. Rejecting such rationalizations, Laval proscribed the brandy trade and excommunicated offenders, forcing one governor to impose the death penalty for that crime. When a subsequent governor refused to prosecute offenders, however, alcohol was again sold freely, and violence among Indians and against Europeans increased.

Unable to control traders and hostile Indians, the Company of New France resigned its claims to Canada, and royal officials created new political institutions to govern the colony. The first Sovereign Council in Quebec was chosen jointly by Laval and Governor Augustin de Saffray, chevalier de Mézy, newly appointed in 1563 on Laval’s recommendation. This council was pro-Laval, favoring strong control of the liquor trade and the preeminence of the clergy in decision making. The governor could not tolerate such disregard for his authority and, although Mézy had been chosen by Laval because of ties with Bernières and the Hermitage mystics, conflict erupted between the governor and the bishop. No governor, with a tenure of only three years, could successfully challenge the power of a noble papal appointee holding office for life, one who was also supported by the Jesuits.

Having successfully faced the challenges of other clergy and, at least temporarily, of the royal officials, Laval turned his attention to transforming rustic Canada into a civilized colony. He began by founding schools. A seminary established in 1663 to educate priests and to care for old and sick clergy was the first. From this seminary issued a supply of priests to serve among the Canadian Indians and French wherever they were needed by the growing and shifting population. This school also enhanced Laval’s power by creating a clergy at his command. The second stage of this educational system was a lesser seminary opened in 1668 to educate boys, including some Indian pupils, for the upper seminary; a boarding school at Saint Joachim trained boys in agriculture and the trades. Young women in Montreal, including some Huron and Algonquian women, were educated by the Congregation of Notre Dame; young women in Quebec, by the Ursulines, who were connected with the Hermitage mystics. These religious and educational institutions established New France as a viable community separate from its European roots.

By 1674, New France was secure and civilized enough, with sufficient French settlers, to warrant the appointment of Laval as the first permanent bishop of Quebec. The pope and Louis XIV clashed over the method of appointment, but they eventually compromised: The king would nominate the candidate; the pope would rule him. To avoid disruption of Roman Catholic worship in the event that Canada was conquered by another power, the bishop of Quebec would be directly subordinate to the pope.

Laval’s staunchest opponent was Governor Louis de Buade, count of Palluau and Frontenac, who arrived in Quebec in 1672. This powerful leader promoted the economic development of the colony by supporting the sale of masts to shipbuilders in France, trade with the West Indies and American colonists when feasible, and the strengthening of French control of the fur trade. Forts were built in the interior, and the exploration of the Mississippi Valley and points west resumed. During this period of colonial competition with England and Spain in the New World and increasingly serious European military conflicts that spilled over into colonies, Frontenac’s military abilities made him an indispensable representative for Louis XIV.

Governor Frontenac was a match for the new bishop of Quebec. The rivalry between these two men was carried on through a struggle to control the appointment of the members of the Sovereign Council and by appeals to the king and his ministers. The issues that they disputed were the sale of brandy to the Indians and the creation of a fixed parish system with permanent parish priests, who would not be controlled by the bishop. By 1679, both issues had been settled by compromise. Although the sale of alcohol to Native Americans was tolerated in the interests of trade and in order to treat the Indians the same as the French, the king forbade traders to carry alcohol to the interior for sale. Further, the king required fixed appointments of priests to clearly defined parishes. Although Laval did not control the movement of priests, the seminary allocated royal funds for the priests, and Laval was responsible for defining the parishes.

Finally, in 1684, Bishop Laval created a cathedral chapter at Quebec with twelve canons, five born in the colony, and four chaplains. This made his episcopal seat the equal of a European bishopric. Having accomplished this goal, Laval returned to France to resign as bishop and select a successor.

Laval chose to spend his last years, from 1688 to 1708, in a small room of his seminary in Quebec, in prayer and poverty. Although Laval’s strong will often led to clashes with the new bishop, he continued to serve his former parishioners as they endured Indian attacks, the 1690 bombardment by the English fleet, fires, and epidemics. Occasionally, when the new bishop was abroad, Laval served as his substitute. The venerable cleric died of diabetic gangrene on May 6, 1708, and was buried in the Cathedral of Quebec.

Significance

In many ways, Laval played a major role in defining the North American character as humanitarian and tolerant. Although his first duty as bishop was to the French settlers in the colony, he challenged all abuses of the Indians by traders, whether the abuse was acquiring furs by fraud or subterfuge or the selling of alcohol. The schools Laval founded were open to French settlers and Indians alike.

To Laval, French Canada owes much, including the strength of French influence in Canada. His success in creating a strong centralized Roman Catholic church at Quebec with jurisdiction throughout North America ensured that French culture would survive even after the English conquest in 1763. Laval University in Quebec not only bears the bishop’s name but also is a direct descendant of the lesser seminary founded in 1668 by Laval. Laval not only labored fiercely to mold a civilized colony in the New World but also left an indelible mark on his adopted land.

Bibliography

Cather, Willa. Shadows on the Rock. New York: Random House, 1931. A novel of Quebec during the last days of Frontenac. Although Laval is not the central character, he is portrayed by Cather as the Old Man beloved by his parishioners.

Delanglez, Jean, S.J. Frontenac and the Jesuits. Chicago: Institute of Jesuit History, 1939. Depicts Frontenac as a powerful but poor governor because he was unable to reconcile religious and official power groups to achieve the monarchy’s goals.

Eccles, William John. Canada Under Louis XIV, 1663-1701. London: Oxford University Press, 1964. Although this book covers the period of Laval’s tenure in France, it focuses primarily on political issues. Laval appears as a strong supporter of royal views.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Frontenac the Courtier Governor. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1959. Reprint. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. This picture of Frontenac belies Parkman’s mythical strongman (see below). Frontenac is seen as less important than the competing claims of nationalism, mercantilism, and religion.

Leblond de Brumath, Adrien. Bishop Laval. Toronto: Morang, 1910. A typical hagiographical biography largely based on the collection of documents sent to Rome to promote Laval’s beatification. In an outdated and uninteresting style, Laval is presented as the moral conscience of New France.

Moogk, Peter N. Le Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada, a Cultural History. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2000. Moogk traces the roots of the current conflict between English- and French-speaking Canadians to the political and social developments that occurred in New France in the seventeenth century.

Parkman, Francis. France and England in North America. Edited by David Levin. Vol. 2. New York: Viking Press, 1983. In 1856, Parkman published his seven-part history of North America. Part 5, Count Frontenac and New France Under Louis XIV, is included in the second volume of this revised edition published in 1983. Parkman examined the role Laval played in Canada’s exploration, trade, war, and missionary activity, emphasizing the political nature of Laval’s achievements. The well-written book provides a balance to other, primarily religious accounts.

Rudin, Ronald. Founding Fathers: The Celebration of Champlain and Laval in the Streets of Quebec, 1878-1908. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. From 1878 to 1908, Quebec City celebrated its founding at four commemorative events. Although Rudin’s book focuses on the staging of these celebrations, and it describes Quebecers’ perceptions of the historical significance of Champlain and Laval.