THE JESUITS IN MICHIGAN.

BY JOHN E. DAY.*

The purpose of this paper is not to add-if that were possible-anything to what history has handed down to us about the Jesuits, but to ask and answer as briefly as we can three questions: Who were the Jesuits? What was their purpose in the north-west? What did they accomplish?

from a martial to a religious career.

At the commencement of the sixteenth century there was in Spain a man whose name was Ignatius Loyola, or more precisely, Ignatius of Loyola, the latter being the name of his estate, a person of considerable distinction in wealth and social position. Educated as a soldier, he fought in the battle of Pompeluna, was severely wounded and taken prisoner by the French and suffered a long and tedious confinement in hospital and in prison. While thus confined, his thoughts were turned The idea of a truly religious life then prevailing among the priesthood of the Catholic church was an idea of exclusion from the world. They held that, in order to lead a pure life, one must withdraw from society and retire to some cloister, back in the mountains, and so conquer the world by evading contact with it. Thus a life of self-abnegation, meditation, and penance was the highest type of the religion of that time. Loyola thought differently. An active Christianity was the only kind that appealed to his active mind. He would achieve purity of life by meeting evil in all its forms and vanquishing it in open combat. When released from prison, though crippled and deformed, his intellectual and spiritual strength seemed to increase as his physical power relaxed, and the reform of the church became the ruling spirit of his life. Friends and sympathizers gathered about him, and the movement assumed a tangible form in the order of "the Society of Jesus," shortened to Jesus-ites and finally to Jesuits. But this order could not thrive without the papal blessing. In 1545 Loyola appealed to the Pope for his sanction, which was withheld through fear that the new order might oppose the old church; but on the representation that the Jesuits would occupy themselves mostly in the new world, among the savages of America, Pope Paul granted the request and bestowed the papal blessing. At this time the world was filled with the spirit of adventure and discovery.

The Scandinavian, the German, the Spanish, the French, and the English were deeply engaged in the work of planting and nurturing colonies in newly discovered America. England and Germany along the Atlantic coast, France to the northwest, and Spain to the south, and thus it happened that many a wild dream of conquest and empire found a partial fulfillment, or utter failure in the forests and plains of the new world. The Spaniards, in search of this Eldorado, followed the Atlantic coast to the south, seeking a climate like that of their own land, found their way across the equator, across the tropics to the south temperate zone, and made Paraguay the center of their diocese and gathered their converts there.

Meanwhile the new order had spread into France, and as she had vast possessions in America, and was active in the work of exploration and colonization, the French Jesuits sought to establish branches of the new order in the northwest. Samuel de

John E. Day is a native of, and has always lived in, Michigan, having been born in Macomb county, January 11, 1838. Having decidedly literary tastes, he early began to write, both in poetry and prose, for the public. Since 1857 he has been almost a constant contributor to the current literature of the times. both of a local and more extended nature. He has always been deeply interested in pioneer and historical matters, and has contributed several valuable papers to the State society, as well as that of his native county. He was prime mover in the organization of the Macomb County Pioneer and Historical Society, and is its present secretary.

Champlain, founder of Quebec, following in the footsteps of Cartier, who 50 years before had made an unsuccessful effort to establish a permanent settlement in Canada, entered the mouth of the Saint Lawrence river and followed its course to the Ottawa, thence to the country of the Hurons, in 1615, noting their ignorance and degradation, was induced to bring with him a number of the Jesuit fathers, some of whom assisted him in his warfare against the Indians. While thus engaged with the Hurons against the Iroquois, he was wounded and was forced to spend a winter in the lodges of the Hurons. In this way he became familiar with their needs and learned their language. From this time till the day of his death he was engrossed with their spiritual welfare, and it was the ambition of his life to bring some of these savages to a knowledge of the religion of the Jesuits. A mission was established at St. Joseph, in the country of the Hurons, including 15 ecclesiastics, houses were built, fields were planted, a college was begun, when death brought all his plans to a sudden end. Champlain, like Loyola, began as a soldier but ended a missionary.

After the death of Champlain, Joseph Chaumonot spent many years among the Hurons with equal zeal and labor. It was he who gave to them their name, Huron. Before this they were "Yandots" from whom the Wyandots sprang. These "Yandots" had a way of face decoration, and of arranging the hair, so as to make them appear exceedingly frightful; and the French exclaimed, "Quelles Hures," and they caught the name Hurons. Chaumonot composed a grammar of the Huron language, and, according to Charlevoix, did many other things for the benefit of the tribe. Peter Chardon also spent many years among the Indians of and about Michigan, and, becoming familiar with the languages of nearly all the tribes, made an unsuccessful effort to unify them and mould them into one common language. Father Charlevoix was the literary man of the time. He seems to have been an animated diary of passing events. While working with a zeal equal to any of the rest, he kept a record of all things worthy of note. He passed through the straits and down Lake Michigan in 1720, thence to the Mississippi and down to New Orleans, establishing various missions on the way.

The first mission established in what is now Michigan was on one of the Madeline islands in Lake Superior at La Pointe. In 1665 Father Allouez, a Jesuit living near Quebec, learned that there was in the "Big Sea" a group of islands where all the tribes met on neutral ground and on familiar terms, to spend the summer in fishing and hunting, and he at once concluded that this would be a favorable place for him to plant a mission, for his subjects being in a peaceful mood, would be more disposed to receive the gospel of peace than when hearing the war-whoop, or in sight of the war paint. With the help of friendly Indians a mission house was erected and the mission received the name "La Pointe Saint Esprit," the mission of the Holy Ghost. These islands of Madeline were a sort of summer resort to all the tribes except the Iroquois, and were of course more frequented in summer but never wholly deserted. Allouez labored here many years, the only white man in a circle of hundreds of miles. At last two others, Father Nicholas and Father Dablon, joined him. Father Marquette was here in 1669 and from here started on the search of the Mississippi river. Father Mesnard was here about the same time, and Father Henepin in 1680. Then for a century the place was deserted and the buildings in the meantime destroyed. In 1781 Father Portier made some attempt to renew the mission, with but meagre success. In 1835 Father Baraga revived the mission, and it is now maintained by the fathers of the Franciscan order. The early Jesuits entered the territory of the northwest by way of the St. Lawrence river, to the Ottawa, thence to Lake Superior, avoiding the falls, and thence to the lower lakes. Attention had been called before this to the prospect that some where on this highway of waters, an extensive trading post would be built, and that at such a point would be

the most favorable place to establish a mission. With this thought in mind, Father Marquette, in 1664, visited Michilimackinac and planted the Jesuit cross. The mission house, the fort, and palisade, and the outside fringe of French cabins and Indian huts soon became evident. Just here let me say that two of these fathers last mentioned deserve a more extended notice first, because we as pioneers of Michigan have a greater interest in them, and also because of the virtues which adorned their characters-Marquette and Baraga. The Indian tradition of the former describes him as a very beautiful man, mild in manner yet full of zeal, and a face lighted up with spirituality. The same tradition states that he died at the mission of Saint Ignace, which he had established, in the midst of his Indian converts, worn out with privation and exposure, but with a smile of triumph on his face. Two hundred years later, in 1876, a Jesuit missionary learned the facts of his death at this mission, and after a great deal of search, an elaborately made box of birch wood was exhumed in a fair state of preservation and in it were found the bones of a human body, supposed to be that of Father Marquette. These bones were divided, and Marquette College, of Milwaukee, has a portion and a Jesuit college in St. Louis has the other portion, each held as sacred relics.

Baraga was an Austrian, who left the city of Vienna immediately after his ordination and came to America for the purpose of laboring among the Indians. His first work was at Arbre Croche, now Harbor Springs, where he labored with great zeal amidst untold hardships, and succeeding in baptizing 461. From here he went to a mission near the present city of Grand Rapids, where he remained a year and a half, baptizing 170. From here he went to La Pointe. His life here may be summed up thus-hardships and privations without number, often times fish and poor bread his only food, giving almost everything to the poor and improvident Indian, teaching, traveling, visiting the sick, making books in the Indian language― he thus gained the title of “Apostle to the Chippewa and Ottawa tribes." In 1845 he left La Pointe and went to L'Anse, engaging in similar work even after he was raised, in 1853, to episcopal honors. At this place he made a dictionary of the Chippewa language, which marked him foremost among Indian scholars. He died at L'Anse in 1868, mourned by all who knew him.

Three other missions were established about 1664, Green Bay, Sault St. Marie, and St. Joseph, and in 1701 Cadillac visited the Strait of Detroit and founded that mission which was the beginning of that city.

Now, if we hold these men up to view, we are reminded of the famous three-sided shield, in which one could see just that face that was apparent in his mind while looking. Is it self-denial and devotion? There are abundant proofs of it. Is it courage and endurance? They are equally evident. Faith and religious zeal? We shall not look in vain. Even the martyr's glory is theirs in many instances. Jogues was stabbed by professed friends while on his rounds of missionary work, Chaumonot went out in the wilderness to minister to the sick and dying, and his cloak and his breviary were all that ever returned. But we can see also bigotry, priestcraft, deception, and ignorance. We can see the worship of a form and a symbol, and the neglect of the vital substance of true religion. We of to-day smile at the thought that the finger of a priest dipped in water and touched to the head of an unconscious subject would check the influence of Satan and start the soul of such a subject on the true path to glory; yet such was their faith in the priestly office, and such their practice. But what was the underlying purpose of it all? First, exploration for the purpose of colonization. France had large possessions in the north; Spain practically owned the south; and England from the east was encroaching on both. Now, if Jesuit influence could be used to prejudice the Indians against the English there would be great gain. Furthermore, every new colony planted in the north strengthened the power of France. Second, the spread of the

dominion of the Pope. To this all their teaching tended. Like the roads to Rome, all tended to this center; and it was this that at last, in spite of their zeal, devotion, and courage, wrought their downfall. The heart of their teaching and practice was the absolute and unquestioned supremacy of the spiritual over the secular authority. The Pope's word was to be final and without appeal. The fruit of this teaching was seen at Acadia. The Jesuits taught the people that, although the French power was overthrown and the British had won in the strife for supremacy, yet their allegiance was to the Pope, and to him only-that allegiance to England meant disloyalty to Rome and the loss of their souls. The people promised to be strictly non-combatant, but England would not be satisfied with this, and her treatment of the Acadians made some of the darkest pages in her history. The result of the Jesuit teaching would be the subversion of all governments and the establishment of a universal hierarchy, and the nations began to feel alarm.

James I. excluded them from his dominions as early as 1604, Venice 1606, Portugal 1759, France 1764, Spain 1767, and Pope Clement XIV. 1773. Yet notwithstanding these repeated edicts of excommunication, they prospered in the old countries and in America. You might as well try to stop the growth and spread of Canada thistles by pasting a proclamation against them on a fence corner in the field. A third purpose was the conversion of the Indian. There is no doubt but some such men as Champlain and Marquette and Charlevoix planned and wrought with this object in view, and their zeal and sacrifice deserved a greater measure of success. But with most, the Indian was used only as a tool to aid the Pope against the Protestant. Did these Jesuits seek to establish a papal empire in America? Perhaps, and why not? England was pushing her civilization from the Atlantic far into the wilderness. France and Spain, while with one hand they strove to hold England in check, they were with the other opening the south and the west, that their soldiers and their citizens might enter. If the See at Rome offered the best of all governments-as they taught—why should they not spread its influence abroad? There is evidence, though it must be confessed not entirely conclusive that Loyola cherished the plan of some day erecting a government at Paraguay, that should embrace all the Indians and the Spanish and French in America, sufficiently strong to overcome the Protestant element and drive out the English from the country. To this end an effort was made to mould into one dialect the languages of the various tribes, and make it the language of the new empire. Charlevoix wrote a history of Paraguay in which the plan is outlined. What was the result of the Jesuit efforts? The first result to the religious world was the grand awakening. It was the rosy gleam of morning, which broke upon the darkness of the middle ages-the sign that a better day was at hand. Parkman has said: "It was an evil day for Protestantism when a French artillery man fired the shot that struck down Ignatius Loyola" for that shot turned a soldier into a reformer. It would have been a far greater calamity had the plans of Loyola been allowed to succeed. That shot awoke the echoes of a world-wide reformation; for it was not alone in the Catholic church the awakening was felt. Loyola was born in 1491; Martin Luther was eight years older.

The first Jesuit society was formed in 1534. Ten years before this Luther had stood before the Diet at Worms and declared his thesis that set in motion the wheels of the great reformation. Luther died 1546, Loyola ten years later. Note how the two lives and their current events ran side by side. Another result was the opening of the wilderness to the advance of a better civilization. In this they were pioneers. In this their endurance served our State and the great northwest a wonderful purpose. Penetrating to places almost inaccessible, they established forts and trading posts, which in turn gave place to the farm, the village, or the city. In this they are entitled to our gratitude. Again, the Jesuit leaders