The Catholic Clergy in the North Atlantic Area, 1763- 1830: Patterns of Deviancy

Almanack, Guarulhos, n. 26, ed00719, 2020 http://doi.org/10.1590/2236-463326ed00719 THE CATHOLIC CLERGY IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC AREA, 1763- 1830: PATTERNS OF DEVIANCY Luca Codignola1;2 Abstract In a very transnational fashion, priestly misbehavior is a constant feature in the primary sources dealing with the United States and British North America, including Québec, between 1763 and 1846. Rather than a catalogue of occurrences, this article briefly surveys the three main elements of such misbehavior, namely, illicit sex, immoderate drinking, and excessive avariciousness. It then suggests an interpretative grid where behavioral norms were interpreted differently whenever they were challenged by local conditions, leading to accusations of misbehavior whether these accusations reflected actual wrongdoings or not. Ethnic rivalries, different institutional traditions, conflicting political choices, and Protestant compe- tition are the most likely candidates to populate such a large framework. Keywords Priestly misbehavior – United States – British North America – Canada. 1 University of Notre Dame. South Bend – Indiana – United States of America. 2 Luca Codignola, FRSC, has written on history of the Catholic church in the North Atlantic area in the early modern era and on the history of early European expansion. Among his latest books are Le Saint-Siège, le Canada et le Québec (2011), Little Do We Know: History and Historians of the North Atlantic, 1492-2010 (2011), and Blurred Nationalities Across the North Atlantic: Traders, Priests, and Their Kin Travelling Between North America and the Italian Peninsula, 1763-1846 (2019). Senior Fellow, Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University of Notre Dame, United States, and Adjunct Professor Saint Mary’s University, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. 1 Dossier Almanack, Guarulhos, n. 26, ed00719, 2020 http://doi.org/10.1590/2236-463326ed00719 O CLERO CATÓLICO NA REGIÃO DO ATLÂNTICO NORTE, 1763- 1830: PADRÕES DE DESVIO Resumo De um modo bem transnacional se apresenta o mau comportamento sacerdotal, que é uma característica constante nas principais fontes que lidam com Estados Unidos e a América do Norte britânica, incluindo Québec, entre 1763 e 1846. Em vez de um catálogo de ocorrências, este artigo examina brevemen- te os três principais elementos que constituem esse mau comportamento, a saber, sexo ilícito, consumo excessivo de álcool e avareza excessiva. Em seguida, sugere uma grade interpretati- va em que as normas comportamentais eram interpretadas de maneira diferente sempre que eram desafiadas pelas condições locais, levando a acusações de mau comportamento, indepen- dentemente de essas acusações refletirem ou não erros reais. Rivalidades étnicas, diferentes tradições institucionais, opções políticas conflitantes e a competição protestante são os candi- datos mais prováveis a preencher as lacunas de uma estrutura mais ampla. Palavras-chave Mau comportamento sacerdotal – Estados Unidos – América do Norte Britânica – Canada. 2 Dossier Luca Codignola Almanack, Guarulhos, n. 26, ed00719 2020 The catholic clergy in the North Atlantic area, 1763-1830: http://doi.org/10.1590/2236-463326ed00719 paterns of deviancy nyone approaching the history of the early Catholic Chur- ch in North America within the larger context of the North AAtlantic world in late eighteenth and early nineteenth cen- tury is confronted, first of all, by a well-established, traditional historiography, whose essence is mainly contributionist. How has my country – region, state, province, city, parish, order, community, etc. – contributed to the development of the Catholic Church and to the attainment of its final aim, i.e., the salvation of the individual soul? Or how has that bishop – priest, nun, order, parish – contributed to the fulfillment of my nation’s destiny? In early North America, the establishment and development of the Catholic Church involved on the one side the keeping of the faith among nominal Catholics, mainly of European origin, through a frustrating yet constant attempt to withdraw them from their state of sin. On the other side, this same process required the conversion of heretics and pagans, i.e., the Pro- testants, the native peoples, and the African slaves. Mostly written by members of the Catholic Church, whether erudite priests or lay amateur historians, these narratives tend to portray the author’s special case within a more general context in which ups and downs (or rises and falls) are invariably interpreted in an ultimately optimis- tic fashion, given that universal salvation must be the final outcome. Traditional biographical studies fall into this historiographical trend as they represent the contribution – social, spiritual, or both – of a particular individual within the context of his or her life and times3. Undeniably, belonging to this traditional and contributionist historiography does not per se determine the scholarly value of any book. This historiography is dispersed among innumerable philo- pietistic writings. Let us not forget, for example, the excellent writings of American historians such as Jean Delanglez (1896-1949) on Louisiana and Annabelle M. Melville (1910-91) on the Early Republic, or those of the Canadian historians Lucien Campeau (1914-2003) on the Jesuits of New France and Lucien Lemieux on Lower Canada. The 3 The author wishes to thank the two anonymous referees for their very useful suggestions. 3 Dossier Luca Codignola Almanack, Guarulhos, n. 26, ed00719 2020 The catholic clergy in the North Atlantic area, 1763-1830: http://doi.org/10.1590/2236-463326ed00719 paterns of deviancy chronicles of George W. Paré (1886-1963) for Detroit or Roger Bau- dier (1893-1960) for Louisiana and the evidence they painstakingly collected provide yet another example, as they still are the stepping stone for new, more historiographically focused studies. At the same time we should not underestimate the intellectual influence brought onto the historiography of the Catholic Church in North America by the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) and Québec’s Quiet Revolu- tion (1960-6), together with the concurrent rise of the historiography “from the bottom up”4. These developments are well represented in the large-canvas works of American historians Jay P. Dolan and Ja- mes J. Hennesey (1926-2001), or of Canadian historians Serge Gag- non, Terrence Murphy, and Roberto Perin. Theirs is a “look from the outside” that has erased any justification for hagiography and ama- teurism in Catholic historiography and has made scholarly criticism its first and foremost necessary requirement. Within this framework, a relatively recent and felicitous development in Catholic historiography has been a new interest in women religious, a neglected category until lately except for mostly adulatory treatments either of some women of special significance or of congre- gational histories, usually written by a member of the same congre- gation. For the period covered by this chapter, this new development is well represented by Emily J. Clark’s writings on the Louisiana Ur- sulines and by Catherine O’Donnell’s and Kathleen Sprows Cummin- gs’s works on Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (1774-1821)5. A more contradictory outcome has derived from a renewed interest in the native peoples and the African slaves. For a long time relegated to the 4 In the Province of Québec, the Quiet Revolution (Révolution tranquille) was a period of political reform which in the end favored a rapid secularization of society. 5 CLARK, Emily J. Masterless mistresses: the New Orleans Ursulines and the development of a new world society, 1727-1834. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2007; CLARK, Emily J.; LAVEN, Mary (ed.). Women and religion in the Atlantic Age, 1550-1900. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013; SPROWS CUMMINGS, Kathleen. A saint of our own: how the quest for a holy hero helped Catholics become American. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2019; O’DONNELL, Catherine. Elizabeth Seton: American saint. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018. 4 Dossier Luca Codignola Almanack, Guarulhos, n. 26, ed00719 2020 The catholic clergy in the North Atlantic area, 1763-1830: http://doi.org/10.1590/2236-463326ed00719 paterns of deviancy role of targets of frontier missionary activity, these communities and their members are now reinterpreted as agents of their own histories and lives6. Still, this shift in interest in the “missionized” and the new analysis sophistication has somehow stifled a parallel development with regard to the missionaries. Churchmen have become stilted fi- gures within a representation of the Catholic Church as a monolithic body, mainly viewed in negative terms, whose internal mechanisms have now become unworthy of scholarly investigation. For example, a concerned reviewer of a recent article of mine, in which I dealt with the differing ways in which priests and European bureaucrats used the institute of the Tridentine marriage, recommended outright re- jection, in that my piece was described as “dated, old-fashioned, even offensive” because “native perceptions [were] not treated … on their own merits” and the piece lacked “a more robust and sympathetic consideration of native perspectives”7. Curiously enough, the recent enthusiasm for Atlantic and global history have as yet failed to make a significant dent in Catholic historiography, at least for the period here examined and except for the inclusion of Rome and the Holy See in the overall picture. Develop- ments are usually described within national or local framework – the American church, the church in the Maritimes or in the West, etc. – or in that of bilateral relations with the country of European origin, especially France, Ireland, or Scotland. These narratives imply the developments they describe were unique to, or least prevalent in, the author’s selected context. Although local variations and pragma- tic solutions must be taken into due account, I have tried elsewhere to show the interconnections which were present in the early North 6 LITTLE, Ann M. The many captivities of Esther Wheelwright.

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