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A HISTORY

OF THE

SCOTCH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,

ST. GABRIEL STREET, MONTREAL.

CHAPTER I.

MONTREAL CRADLED IN RELIGION-CARTIER, CHAMPLAIN AND MAISONNEUVE RELIGIOUS MEN-THE EARLY JESUIT FATHERS-THE HUGUENOTS IN CANADA-COMPANY OF HUNDRED ASSOCIATES-THE ST. SULPICIANS.

Dans leurs excursions, touchant presque les pôles,
Nos pères, à travers fleuves, monts et marais,
Avec leurs vieux fusils gelés sur leurs épaules,
Passaient, semant partout le germe du progrès.

Sur le flanc des rochers, ou du fond des forêts
Leur baguette faisait surgir des métropoles....

C'est

par eux, Montréal, que tu nous apparais,
Désormais le front ceint d'un bandeau de coupoles.

Salut, pages où l'art a, d'un savant pinceau,
Sa, presque pas à pas, retracer le berceau

D'un grand centre aujourd'hui peuplé de fortes races!

Est que chacun, devant ce passé disparu,

Se dire, en contemplant le chemin parcouru,

Nos aïeux étaient grands: sachons suivre leurs traces!

Sonnet by Louis Fréchette in "Le vieux Montréal," published by H. Beaugrand, Esq., in 1884.

Montreal may be said to have been cradled in religion. When Maisonneuve first visited the portion of the island in which the city stands, we are told, he made his

way through the thick woods that grew then around the base and along the sides of the mountain, until he reached the summit, and there, in the presence of the friendly Indians, erected a cross, and by this symbolic act, formally took possession of the district in the name of Jesus Christ. Earlier still, Jacques Cartier had, in his own sailor fashion, striven to sow the seeds of Christian truth among the savages. His commission from Francis I. set forth the objects of his enterprise to be Discovery, Settlement, and the Conversion of the Indians, "men without knowledge of God or use of reason." The first Indian chief he met in the woods at Hochelaga was induced to kiss the cross which Cartier carried; and of the same revered symbol he made frequent use in his dealings with the natives. And we read in the recently published collection of manuscripts relating to New France, that on 3rd May, 1536,—the same day that Cartier set sail for St. Malo with Donnacona and other Indian captives—he set up, with great ceremony, a cross thirty-five feet high, on which was fastened the royal escutcheon bearing, in Roman letters, these words:—"Franciscus Primus Dei Gratia Francorum Rex Regnat." He thus claimed Canada for France and Christ.

For more than a hundred years afterwards, little or nothing was done to redeem the pledge thus given by the gallant French navigator. Meantime, changes of vast moment were coming about in Europe, and extraordinary activity began to prevail in both civil and ecclesiastical affairs. Religion revived in the Church of Rome, after the Protestant secessions took place in the sixteenth century; and under the impulse which it received from the devotion and zeal of Francois Xavier and the other early Jesuit missionaries, and especially from the Council of Trent, it sought to lengthen its cords and strengthen its stakes, by seeking to establish itself among the heathen

nations to which it could gain access. Religions considerations were a large factor in the motives of those who resolved to build a town at the foot of Mount Royal. Previous attempts to establish a French settlement on this spot had failed, although Champlain and others had recognized how advantageous the situation was from both a commercial and a military point of view. The ardent desire of the Jesuit missionaries to convert the heathen succeeded, where the pursuit of gain on the part of traders and the motive furnished by the perception of soldiers of the importance of the place from strategic considerations, failed. After all is said, facts show that men may be more profoundly moved by religious enthusiasm than by any other force that can be brought to bear upon them.

It was on the 18th of May, 1642, that Christian civilization gained its first substantial footing on the island of Montreal. At the time when Charles I. was engaged in the political struggle with the Commons of England, a few months before the arbitrament of the sword was called in to decide the constitutional questions at issue, Paul de Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, as representing the Fifty Associates to whom the King of France granted the island for the purposes of colonization, laid the foundations of Montreal. The event is thus graphically described by Parkman :—

"Maisonneuve sprang ashore and fell on his knees. His followers imitated his example; and all joined their voices in enthusiastic songs of thanksgiving. Tents, baggage, arms and stores, were landed. An altar was raised on a pleasant spot near the land; and Mademoiselle Mance, with Madame de la Peltrie, aided by her servant Charlotte Barre, decorated it with a taste which was the admiration of the beholders. Now all the company gathered before the shrine. Here stood Vimont in the rich vestments of his office. Here were the two ladies

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