USA > Louisiana > History of Louisiana, the Spanish domination > Part 7
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is the detestable negligence of these men, that I think they are the disciples either of Luther or Calvin ! The consecrated oil is never renewed, either because they think that it is incorruptible, or because, like the heretics, they do not believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist after the utterance of the consecrating words ; and the proof of it is, that, on our remonstrating with them on this state of things, one of them answered with the greatest serenity that he had kept two years a large consecrated wafer, and had not thought necessary to change it. Nor is less the irreverence with which they behave when they exhibit the Host to the people ; for without singing, or burning any incense, they take it out of its small tabernacle, and expose it in the most indecent manner ; or, at Vespers, they sing the Salve Regina, and also on the first Sundays of every month. The Host being exposed, they sing the Miserere, de Profundis, and requiem, &c .- which practices are contrary to the rules of the breviary and to the decretals.
"This father Dagobert is a great hand at giving with the sacrament the benediction to the people, whenever it is desired by them. Thus, in a little more than a month, he gave it eight times. He is no less fond of making processions, for which he has no authority, and for which there is no necessity ; and, what is still more singular, when thus going out in procession, he abandons the Host without leaving any priest to watch over it. Once I saw him go out with the Viaticum without order- ing the bells to be rung, and with as little ceremony as if he was bent only on taking a walk. I say that I have seen him carry the Viaticum but once, although many are the deaths that have occurred since I am here. You must also be made to know, most excellent Sir, that the Viaticum is not administered to the blacks, to the mulattoes, nor to the culprits who are sentenced to death ;
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and, having asked father Dagobert for the cause of it, I was answered that it was to establish a distinction be- tween the blacks and whites. Did you ever hear a more cruel answer ? . Moreover, having inquired if he shrove them, he told me that he did, but that they never took the sacrament of the Eucharist. Was there ever such ignorance in any priest ? Who will account to God for this neglect and for the sins of these poor people, who are not taught to participate in the blessed sacrament of communion at the hour of their death ? Nor is less the indecency with which, in sight of the exposed Host, these priests demean themselves in the choir, where they are seen stuffing their noses with tobacco, crossing one leg on the top of the other, staring round in every direction, scandalizing the people, and moving the very angels to wrath.
" With regard to the sacrament of penitence, as God alone can know how it is administered, we must leave it to Him to express His judgment upon it, when the day shall come. I shall only say that these priests do not know nor ever have known, nor ever will know any- thing of morals and religion, for since our coming to this colony, we have never known them to remain in their convent beyond the time required to eat and sleep ; and with regard to father Dagobert, here is in a few words how he lives : he rises at six in the morning, says or does not say mass (such mass as he says !) preparing himself in this way for the duties of the day. He then goes to church, hardly makes the proper genuflection, claps on his bonnet, says his mass which does not last a quarter of an hour, without any of the prescribed ceremonies, uncovers his head, makes another genuflection as for grace, and taking his three-cornered hat, which is a very superfluous and unworthy appendage for a capuchin, he · goes (without thinking of saying any Ave Maria, except
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it be for goodly dollars, and in abundance) to a some- what suspicious house, where he plays until the dinner hour. When that meal is over, he resumes the occupa- tion in which he was engaged, and continues in it until supper time, so that it is very doubtful whether he com- plies with divine worship. With regard to extreme unction, I have not been able to ascertain how this sacrament is administered, and I do not know whether it is administered at all, but I believe that they carry it in their purse .*
" With regard to the holy sacrament of marriage, it is in its administration that the greatest abuses are com- mitted. In the first place, we have good grounds to suppose that they observe none of the ceremonies of their ritual, which is the Romish, and I have already remarked that, with the exception of the poor and the blacks, none marry in church, but that our Superior goes about, either in the town or out of it, marrying people in their own houses, where he says mass and re- mains with them to participate in all the festivities of the occasion. Since my coming here there have been many marriages, but the parties have every time been granted a dispensation for the required publications, for no other purpose than that of getting money, which is his god. I know that all this is to be paid for and well too, because I am informed that thirty dollars have to be given for a mass with a Libera me Domine, and one hundred and fifty for a solemn service for the dead. I am not aware of what is paid for the other sacraments. We have never seen these priests celebrate the marriage ceremony for any black couple, except it be for a negro who resided in the house of a Spaniard, and even this was done with a good deal of repugnance on the part
* Por que creo que lo traen á la faltriquera.
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of father Dagobert, who objected that this was not cus- tomary, and that this negro, like all those of his class, was living, to the knowledge of his masters, in a state of concubinage ; finally, in order to get the assent of father Dagobert, it was necessary to resort to the author- ity of the Governor."
Father Cirilo next complains that no care is taken to teach and propagate the Christian doctrine. He enume- rates other abuses and ecclesiastical malfeasances, and recommends the introduction of certain reforms and practices. He then winds up saying: " On reading all this, your Grace must be greatly astonished that the Governor has recommended this Father Dagobert to be continued one year in office as vicar-general of this province, and still more-that I should have joined in that recommendation, although I must confess that the Governor had told me that this priest was excessively ignorant, but I could not persuade myself that it was to such an extent. It now appears certain to me that his ignorance is such, that he is incapable of being trusted with the spiritual government of this colony, and there- fore I say (and I am supported in my opinion by my companions, by the most respectable people in this pro- vince, and by the colonel, whose understanding is of the highest order) that not only ought father Dagobert to be deprived of his charge, but that he ought also to be expelled from the colony, to be punished according to his deserts, and sentenced to a proper penance for his personal faults and the enormous sins which he has caused some of his flock to commit, and for which there are the gravest reasons to believe that those who have died are now in hell.
" Your Grace, knowing so well the good nature and the pacific dispositions of the Governor, will easily con- ceive how it is that he is desirous of giving satisfaction
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to these friars, not because he is not fully aware of their misdeeds, not because he does not see that there is no punishment which they have not deserved, and that it would be proper to drive them out of the land, as him- self has expressed it to me, but because, when these capu- chins knew that the Spaniards were coming up the river, they stirred up the town and persuaded the Governor that, if they were sent away, all the people would also depart ; whereupon that officer quieted their fears by telling them that the Spaniards were not coming to turn them out of the country. But your Grace must not be- lieve in the general emigration with which we are threat- ened. It would be confined to a few of father Dagobert's relations, who would starve, if they were not supported by him. This father Dagobert has promised the Gover- nor that he would do all that your Grace would pre- scribe, and, satisfied with this pledge, the Governor is willing that the friar should remain vicar-general for one year, and that I should then take his place. Perhaps it would be good policy that he who has done so much harm should be the person to repair it. But how can it be expected from one who is not only evil minded, but who is also strongly suspected of some error of faith ? With regard to all the promises which he has given to the Governor, I know that he has not kept one; the Governor, however, with his usual good nature, contents himself with saying that the father will in due time re- deem his pledges. But should he do so, he would have better reasons to complain of his being deprived of the dignity of vicar-general, and should he remain in office, it would be extremely difficult to reconcile to such a dis- appointment those who imagine that they will soon see him dismissed, not only all the Spaniards, who would rejoice at such an event, but also a good many of the French, who already perceive the difference which exists
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between us and those priests. The motive of all the delays to which the Governor resorts is-that he hopes to receive, at every moment, permission to retire from the colony, and he thinks that if he were once out of the way, we and the French capuchins would be forced to come to some understanding. But may it please God that this Governor do not depart before we take posses- sion of the church here, if we are ever destined to do so, because with some other governor (and God only knows what his turn of mind may be !) we should perhaps be obliged to appeal to the court-which we might, without fear of trouble, undertake to do with this governor. The language which I speak is as plain as it is well foun- ded, because, on my mentioning to the Governor what I had written, and on my telling him that I reproached myself with having consented to father Dagobert's being continued in the office of vicar-general for another year, that my conscience upbraided me for having acted with such levity, and that we both should have to account to God for the sins which we had permitted, he approved me in everything, and expressed the opinion (which is mine also) that this father Dagobert being once removed, the evil would be cut by the root ; and this said Gover- nor has also confessed to me that he would petition the court for the removal of this friar !
"Under such circumstances, I would advise your Grace either to send here an impartial person to look into the state of the church, or to intrust me with all the necessary powers to go through the work of reform; for, when once in possession of the Lord's vineyard, I shall not lose sight of my obligation to labor therein as I ought, and I shall act accordingly, and in conformity with the sentiment of St. Martin and St. Paul who said : " that they feared no created thing, nor death, nor any et cætera." With the information which I have laid before
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your Grace, it is in your Grace's power to judge of the extent of the work to be done. What is certain is that I cannot believe that father Dagobert is to remain vicar-general. .
" I feel much compunction at having been obliged to make your Grace acquainted with the faults of these bad men, which I would have kept from your know- ledge, if my motive in disclosing them had not been the glorification of God. I can safely affirm that father Dagobert will not perform any of the things which he has promised to do, nor will remedy any of the existing evils. Thus, on my having inquired why he did not recommend to the public the observance of such holy- days as were celebrated in Spain, he answered me, in the presence of many witnesses, that it was because he did not choose to do so, that no one had the right to give him orders, and that nothing should be done in the colony except according to his will. From this you may judge whether we could feel justified in entertaining any hope of operating the slightest salutary reform. I have not failed to throw out a good many insinuations to these priests, but their uniform answer is: that they are not Spaniards, and that, besides our mere assertion, they have no other proof that your Grace is the bishop of this diocese. It must be confessed that they have some grounds for this excuse, because the Governor has thought proper to keep in his possession the letter in which your Grace invested me with all the powers which you had given to father Angel. I have since had no further sight of this letter, and it is certain that the Governor has not communicated its contents to these Friars, because things are as they were before, and the perversity of these men is such, that they are not satis- fied with being wicked themselves, but that they also wish us to follow their example, and to abstain from
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fasting and observing the holydays. As an excuse for their doings, they say that they are not Spaniards. I entreat you, whenever you have any orders to give which you wish to be executed, to send them directly to me- I can assure your Grace that they spare no efforts to make me like one of them, and to induce me to wear a shirt and stockings, and to become as lax in my morals and habits as they are. They think that, if they could seduce me, they would have no trouble with my com- panions. But having voluntarily assumed the heavy burden of a Capuchin's life, and, by leaving my country, having thrown myself into purgatory although still in this world, I will tax myself to the utmost to be true to the position in which I have placed myself, and to dis- card the world and its allurements, in order not to lose the merits of all my sacrifices by following the example of these priests (which God forbid !). On the contrary, I hope that He may give me the power to reform them, to make them conscious of the wickedness of their life, and to induce them to purify themselves by prayer- prayer !- which is the soul of the priesthood .*
" It is said that these priests have secreted all the silver plate and money which they possess. This is very bad, but of very little importance to us who know that, with the help of the king and of God, we shall never be wanting in any thing, and shall have bread enough to live. I hope that your Grace will soon afford some consolation to the Spaniards, and that you will not oblige us to remain subjected to an unworthy Superior. In thus hoping, I rely on God, who, in every thing, has so far guided your Grace in such a way as to make all your acts redound to His greater glory, &c., &c. I hope that He will fill your breast with His grace, so as to
* Que es la alma de los sacerdotes.
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enable you to help and direct us in weeding His vine- yard here, which requires more labor than if it was to be planted for the first time," &c., &c.
On the 14th of September (1772), father Dagobert wrote to the Bishop to thank his Grace for having ap- pointed him his vicar-general, a dignity which had been already conferred upon him by the Bishop of Quebec, when Louisiana formed a part of that diocese. Father Dagobert gives to the Spanish bishop an account of his ecclesiastical administration, enumerates the reforms which it requires, and, with great humility, expresses his anxious wish to be guided by the superior wisdom of his apostolic chief, whose orders he declares himself ready to execute to the very letter. Father Dagobert's communication to the Bishop is written with great pro- priety, with dignified subordination and Christian meek- ness, and is not such a document as could be expected from the individual described by father Cirilo.
On the 26th of the same month, Governor Unzaga wrote to the bishop a despatch in which he denounced the conspiracy which had been formed by some unquiet spirits against the poor French capuchins, whom they wished to be censured justè vel injuste. "It has resulted from this persecution," said he, "that father Dagobert, who does not know what it is to complain, spoke of retiring to France with his companions. At first I could not understand what was the cause of this resolution, as I attributed it to his fear of the discipline which your Grace might establish. But, when I was informed of the true state of things, I sent for him and told him to remain quiet, and that your Grace would give him satis- faction. He showed himself contented with this assur- ance ; and promised that, whatever your orders might be, they would be scrupulously and blindly obeyed, and, in the meantime, he begged me to afford him some relief
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by preventing father Hilaire de Genoveaux from abusing him, as he was in the habit of doing every day. Thus matters stand, and I have left them, on account of their ecclesiastical nature, to the judgment of your Grace, in order that your Grace may settle them with that pru- dence of which so many proofs have already been given. Of this quality father Cirilo does not possess one par- ticle."
The whole letter of the Governor seems to be written in exculpation of father Dagobert, and of the other French capuchins. "I heartily approve," said he to the bishop, " some of the instructions which you have given, and which are such as to secure the rights and interests of the king, and the object of which is to retain his sub- jects under his rule by conforming as much as possible with their genius, their character, and manners. This is what I call acting in accordance with the spirit of the apostolic mission ; this is voluntarily making one's self the servant of all in order to gain many, and working for the service of God by assuming the garb of the Jew among the Jews, of the pagan among the pagans, and by sharing even in the infirmities of the sick. On the whole, I refer myself to what I have previously communicated to your Grace, and from which your Grace will no doubt infer that many of the synodical regulations cannot be applied to this province without injury to the interests of the king, the number of whose vassals might be dimi- nished considerably, if those regulations were attempted to be carried into execution, and your Grace will easily understand that it is not always that the laws made for one region can be safely adapted to another." This document is certainly a fair specimen. of the Spanish governor's prudence and liberality.
On the 14th of November (1772) father Cirilo, whose indignation had, it seems, gathered more intensity from
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its own broodings, wrote two letters to the Bishop, and brought with additional vehemence fresh accusations. against the friars, whom he represented as the most abandoned of all human beings. Those letters, in some of their parts, are very much in the style of certain pas- sages in Juvenal and Suetonius which are hardly com- patible with the chastity of modern languages. The oft repeated burden of all of father Cirilo's communications was his professed willingness, in all humility, and for the greater glory of God, with the Bishop's consent, and on his being invested with full powers, to undertake the ungracious and painful task of reforming all the abuses which he described, and reprobated with such indefati- gable zeal.
The quarrel of these priests was far from being settled in 1773, and on the 10th of July, Governor Unzaga wrote as follows to the Bishop : "I cannot understand what grounds father Cirilo can have to rest his complaints upon ; and, had not your Grace informed me that he complains, I could not have believed it possible ; for he and father Dagobert appear now to agree very well and to move in concert in everything they do. With regard to father Dagobert's alleged infraction of your orders, it is true that he has not as yet executed them all, in all their parts, particularly in relation to your command to expel from the convent the black women and no longer to dispense with the required publications for the cele- bration of marriages. But I never doubted his willing- ness soon to obey your Grace in these matters, and there- fore I felt no hesitation in giving him time for summoning to his aid the necessary fortitude to throw out of doors a set of people whom he has raised and kept about him from the cradle, and I well understand the weakness which causes his delays. If you should take into con- sideration the difficulty which there is in eradicating
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practices, usages and customs, and if you knew the indi- vidual, you would see clearly that the omission on his part to which your attention has been called, has not been the result of obstinacy but of simplicity. After all, the black women are now kept on the plantation of the fathers during the day, and the dispensations as to mar- riages are no longer granted.
"In one of your letters, you communicate to me the complaints of the fathers as to the deportment of father Hilaire de Génoveaux. In one of my previous despatches, I made you acquainted with the character of this friar, and with the cause of his expulsion from the colony when under the French domination. I have also mentioned his talents to your Grace with the commendation they deserve, and I have stated that he was entitled to justice at our hands. On his solicitations, the king permitted him to come here in order that he might proceed, in con- cert with the authorities, to an examination of his case and of the violence which he said was used towards him by the Superior Council of the late French colony, which not only expelled him without cause from the province, but also deprived him of the ecclesiastical dignity with which he was clothed. I therefore took cognizance of this affair, gathered all the documents relating thereto, and referred the case to the king, who is the only com- petent authority to decide on its merits. I did not neg- lect at the same time to acquaint your Grace with all its circumstances. The royal decision has not yet been received, and I shall wait for it. For this reason, and because I consider as slanderous the denunciations sub- mitted to your Grace against this friar, I have abstained from interfering with him. It is true that, at first, he joined the Spanish friars against father Dagobert. But, for the present, he keeps aloof from both parties and remains quiet in his chamber, where he devotes himself
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entirely to study, in the silence of solitude. I repeat that he is a good man, and that his talents make him very useful to the church, although his pride disqualifies him for the position of a chief or superior. Finally, you will think as you please on the subject, but with regard to myself, I know how difficult it is to come to a correct appreciation of the true merits of men of that sacred calling, when they choose to quarrel among themselves.
"In your last communication, you said that you were informed that each of the French capuchins had received one thousand dollars for his share of the perquisites col- lected during the year for the funeral rites and ceremo- nies only, and that father Dagobert made light of the bull of the Santa Cruzada. Both assertions are false. The first will provoke a smile, and the second, a sorrow- ful indignation. How is it possible not to laugh at the impudence of the first assertion, when it is known that there is not in New Orleans and its environs a population of two thousand souls of all professions and conditions ; and the greater portion of those people are so poor that, when they die, they are buried with no other charges or expenses than four reales paid to the man who goes to the graveyard to give them sepulture. The origin of the extraordinary information sent to your Grace proceeds no doubt from the fact that this capital has suffered greatly from the small pox, and that there have been a great many deaths ; but many of the dead were black and white children, whose parents were too poor to pay any funeral charges.
" All that I could learn concerning the alleged con- tempt of father Dagobert for the bull of the Santa Cruzada* is that, in conversation, he said that it was
* The primitive object of the Bull of the Santa Cruzada was to grant indul gences to all Spaniards that would engage personally in waging war against the infidels, or contribute to it by alms. The price of this Bull was fixed at 21 quar-
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