CHAPTER III. - RT. REV. THE CHURCH IN LOUISIANA 1763-1793.—THE BISHOP OF SAN- WHEN France ceded to England Canada and the Northwest territory, she felt that she could not long hold Louisiana, and accordingly by a secret treaty conveyed that province to Spain. Announcing the cession to Governor d'Abadie, Louis XV. wrote: "In consequence of the friendship and affection of his Catholic Majesty I trust that he will give orders to his Governor and all other officers employed in his service, in said colony and city of New-Orleans, to continue in their functions the ecclesiastics and religious houses in charge of the parishes and missions, as well as in the enjoyment of the rights, privileges, and exemptions granted to them by their original titles.” The Capuchin Fathers accordingly continued their usual functions awaiting the arrival of the Spanish authorities. The Catholic monarch seemed, however, in no haste to take possession of a province thus thrust upon him; it was not till the 5th of March, 1766, that Don Antonio de Ulloa arrived at New Orleans with eighty soldiers and three Capuchin Fathers. No transfer of the province was made, however, nor did Ulloa take possession or proclaim his commis sion as governor. The flags of Spain and France were both seen in different parts. Ulloa, however, was gradually introducing Spanish rule through Aubry, the French governor, and excited such hostility that in October, 1768, he was driven from Louisiana by a decree of the Superior Council.' It was not till the 18th of the following August, that Governor Aubry delivered up the province to Alexander O'Reilly, who had landed at New Orleans with a force of three thousand men. Lafrenière and other members of the Superior Council, and some who had taken part in the expulsion of Ulloa, were arrested and tried by court-martial. On the 25th of October, 1769, Lafrenière, Noyan, Caresse, and Milhet were shot in the yard of the barracks; six others were sent in irons to Havana. Such was the end of Lafrenière, the instigator and main actor in the impious work of levelling churches at the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits." Of the clergy during these days of trouble we hear little, although the Capuchin Father in charge of the parish of the Cote des Allemands is accused of having been active in exciting the people against the Spaniards.' While Aubry was still acting as governor an attempt was 1 Decree of the Superior Council. "Louisiana Historical Collections," v., p. 164. 2 "Louisiana Historical Collections," v., p. 144. "Memoire des Habitans et Negocians de la Louisianne sur l'Événement du 29 Octobre, 1768." New Orleans, Denis Brand, 1768, p. 2. Brand was the first Louisiana printer, authorized by the French Government in 1764. All copies of the Memoire that could be found were seized and burnt by O'Reilly. Brand was put on trial as the printer, but escaped by proving that he acted under the orders of the Commissaire Ordonnateur. My copy is evidently that used on his trial, having the testimony endorsed that saved his life. Gayarré, "Histoire," iii., pp. 21-2. 3 Gayarré, "Histoire de la Louisiane," New Orleans, 1846, ii., pp. 164, made to build a parish church, and a hospital and orphan asylum were opened.' In 1766 the Superior Council, which assumed supreme power, civil and ecclesiastical, expelled from the province Father Hilaire de Génévaux and made a corrupt and ignorant friar, Dagobert, Superior." It was during this chaotic state of affairs that Louisiana received several bands of Acadians, who escaping from the English colonies had reached St. Domingo, but found that island fatal to their health and ill-adapted for settlement." While scattered through the British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard, they had except in Pennsylvania and Maryland been deprived of priests; but the Bishops of Quebec were not indifferent to their welfare. They appointed laymen in each band of the exiles with whom they could communicate, to whom they gave authority to dispense with publication of banns, and to receive the mutual consent of marriage, so that these Catholics would not be compelled to go before Protestant magistrates. Private baptism was also given by those thus selected.* After taking possession, O'Reilly reorganized the province on the Spanish model, and gave the form of oath to be taken by all officials. It began in a form which will seem strange to many, but which shows that the doctrine defined by Pope Pius IX. in our days was officially recognized in the Spanish 2 1 Champigny, "Memoir," "La. Hist. Coll.," v., pp. 180-1. Gayarré, "History of Louisiana, Spanish Domination," New York, 1854, p. 50. This talented author cloaks under a style of banter the infamous life and terrible neglect of duty in Father Dagobert. 3 The first detachment, 93 in all, arrived in February, 1765. (Gayarré, ii., p. 127.) By May, when 48 families arrived, these immigrants numbered 463. (Ib., p. 128.) 4 Dispensations were also given in certain cases. See Note of Edmond Mallet, "U. S. Cath. Hist. Mag.," i., pp. 112-13. dominions. F. CYRIL DE BARCELONA, V.G. "I, appointed 543 swear before God, on the holy Cross and the Evangelists, to maintain and defend the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady the Virgin Mary."' An abridgment of the Spanish laws was prepared and issued in French, but Spanish was made the official language for all public acts. In 1772 the Right Rev. James Joseph de Echeverria, Bishop of Santiago de Cuba, sent the Capuchin Fray Cyril de Barcelona to New Orleans with four Spanish Fathers of the same order, Francisco, Angel de Revillagodos, Louis de Quintanilla, and Aleman. They arrived in the capital of Louisiana on the 19th of July, and were well received by the Spanish authorities. Fathers Aleman and Angel were at once stationed in parishes that required pastors.* Father Cyril was a religious faithful to his rule and to his priestly duties. The French Fathers of his order who had remained in Louisiana, after the cession of the province, still held the parish church of New Orleans, Father Dagobert claiming to be Superior and parish priest; but these Capuchins, who had long thrown off all allegiance to bishop or su perior, led lives that were a public scandal. As a natural consequence religious duties were everywhere neglected. Few men approached the sacraments even at Easter; debauchery prevailed; the baptism of children was long deferred, and performed with little regard to the ritual; negroes were not instructed, and did not receive the sacraments even when dying. Sermons to adults and instructions for the young were equally unknown. 1 Yet Father Dagobert had the effrontery to write to the Gayarré, "History of Louisiana, Spanish Domination," New York, 1854, p. 7. 2 Father Cyrillo de Barcelona to Bishop Echeverria, August 5, 1772. Bishop, making great profession of piety and zeal; asking to be appointed Vicar-General.' Father Cyril set to work to remedy abuses as well as he could, till some one arrived with authority to banish the unworthy priests. He took steps to have Catechisms and Rituals printed with French and Spanish text." He soon found, however, that any change for the better or any reformation was almost impossible. The people had been industriously filled with prejudices against the Spanish clergy, and espoused the cause of the unworthy and shameless Dagobert and his associates to such an extent, that even the Spanish Governor, Unzaga, wrote to the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba to remonstrate against any effort to remedy the condition of affairs. He was more anxious to maintain Spanish supremacy than Christian morality. It was not till this visit of Father Cyril of Barcelona that any provision was made for the religious needs of the Catholics on the Upper Mississippi, their salvation having been of little concern to the wretched representatives of the church at New Orleans, who seem to have abandoned nearly all the missions outside of that city. In 1772 Father Valentine, a Capuchin, was stationed at St. Louis, where there was a little wooden chapel, blessed in 1770 by the zealous Canadian priest Pierre Gibault, who attended the Catholics of that place from his home in Illinois. The records of the church show Father Valentine ministering in St. Louis from 1772 to 1775. During his administration Le blessed a bell in 1774 for use in the chapel, and he took steps in the same year to secure the erection of a more suitable edifice for the worship of Almighty God. 1 Father Cyrillo de Barcelona to Bishop Echeverria, September 15, 1772; Father Dagobert to same, September 22, 1772. 2 Same to same, November 14, 1772. |