Presence and Marginalisation of French-Speaking Protestants in Quebec
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INTRODUCTION PRESENCE AND MARGINALISATION OF FRENCH-SPEAKING PROTESTANTS IN QUEBEC Jason Zuidema Introduction: Marginalisation The French-speaking Protestant in Quebec is often viewed as a rather curious person. On the theological level Franco-Protestants have much in common with their Protestant cousins in the rest of North America. Indeed, many of the confessions that are found in English Canada and the United States can also be found in Quebec. Yet, on many other lev- els, especially the level of the practical living of this faith, Franco-Protestants have had a significantly different experience. Although the links with the rest of North American Protestant reli- gious culture have been important for several centuries, the history of French-speaking Protestantism in Quebec is very often distinct. This volume is dedicated to that distinct history. Viewed globally, the most noteworthy feature of the experience of French-speaking Protestants not shared by the majority of English Protestants in North America is that of a significant marginalisation.1 This marginalisation is seen in their continuing to hold to Protestant con victions despite the overwhelming attachment of French speakers in Quebec to Roman Catholicism. Further, it is seen in their use of the French language as Protestants despite the overwhelming attachment of Protestants to the English language in the surrounding Provinces 1 This theme has been explored by Jean Simard, ‘Canadiens français quoique prot- estants,’ Les Cahiers des dix 54 (2000), 171–88; Marie-Claude Rocher, ‘Double traîtrise ou double appartenance?: le patrimoine des protestants francophones au Québec,’ Ethnologies 25.2 (2003), 215–33; Richard Lougheed, ‘La marginalisation des franco- protestants,’ in Le patrimoine des minorités religieuses du Québec: richesse et vulnéra- bilité, ed. Marie-Claude Rocher and Marc Pelchat (Quebec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2006), 25–36; and Jason Zuidema, ‘Marginalisation et ‘raison d’être’ du Chrétien réformé Francophone du Québec,’ Revue Farel 2 (2007), 1–19. 2 jason zuidema and States. Finally, it is seen more recently in Franco-Protestants’ political and moral views which have been often significantly at odds with the attitudes of their fellow French-speaking citizens throughout their history. Protestant, not Catholic The story of French Protestants in Quebec begins at the birth of New France.2 It was in 1534 that the French Crown sent the explorer Jacques Cartier to find a western passage to Asia. What he found, rather, was a vast land rich with natural resources and populated by Native Canadians—especially in the villages of Stadacona (near the future Quebec City) and Hochelaga (near the future Montreal). He soon returned to Europe telling of the rich treasures. His major treasure was gold and diamonds—which turned out to be worthless pyrite and quartz crystal.3 His other treasure was two Native Canadian boys whom he took from chief Donnacona of the village Stadacona.4 Thankfully, he returned them to their father on his second expedition a year later. Cartier was the first of many French explorers to the New World. Besides Quebec, the presence of the French Crown extended to places such as Louisiana, Carolina, and Florida. These other settlements, indeed all French settlements in North America, would eventually be either taken or woven into the English and, later, American expansion.5 These other settlements are interesting in French Protestant history, but our attention here is focused on Quebec. Among the pioneers of all French colonies, the Huguenots were prominent. Some of the colonies south of the border were entirely Protestant—a fact which helped them more easily meld into English Protestant society. The settlements in Quebec were more particularly 2 See John A Dickinson and Brian Young, A Short History of Quebec, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1993); Jacques Lacoursière, Une Histoire du Québec (Sillery, Quebec: Septentrion, 2002). 3 Lacoursière, Une Histoire, 22. 4 Terry Crowley, ‘The French Regime to 1760,’ in A Concise History of Christianity in Canada, ed. Terrence Murphy and Roberto Perin (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996), 2; Marcel Trudel, Initiation à la Nouvelle-France: histoire et institutions (Montreal: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Ltd, 1968), 18; Jacques Lacoursière, Histoire populaire du Québec, Vol. 1 (Sillery, Quebec: Septentrion, 1995), 22. 5 Jon Butler, The Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World Society (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983), 41ff..